ALBERT

Notizen: The next generation Web Intelligence (WI) aims at enabling users to go beyond the existing online information search and knowledge queries functionalities and to gain, from the Web, practical wisdom for problem solving. To support such a Wisdom Web, we envision that a grid-like computing infrastructure with intelligent service agencies is needed, where these agencies can interact, self-organize, learn, and evolve their course of actions, identities, and interrelationships for new knowledge creation, as well as scientific and social evolution. In this paper, we first provide an overview of recent development in WI and Semantic/Knowledge Grid. Then, the fundamental capabilities of the Wisdom Web as well as the conceptual architecture of an intelligent Grid for supporting it are described. Technical challenges for realizing Grid Intelligence are highlighted and the recent advancements in related research areas are reviewed.

Notizen: A semantic link peer-to-peer (P2P) network specifies and manages semantic relationships between peers' data schemas and can be used as the semantic layer of a scalable Knowledge Grid. The proposed approach consists of an automatic semantic link discovery method, a tool for building and maintaining P2P semantic link networks (P2PSLNs), a semantic-based peer similarity measurement for efficient query routing, and the schema mapping algorithms for query reformulation and heterogeneous data integration. The proposed approach has three important aspects. First, it uses semantic links to enrich the relationships between peers' data schemas. Second, it considers not only nodes but also the XML structure in measuring the similarity between schemas to efficiently and accurately forward queries to relevant peers. Third, it copes with semantic and structural heterogeneity and data inconsistency so that peers can exchange and translate heterogeneous information within a uniform view.

Notizen: Abstract: An optimal online learning algorithm of a wavelet neural network is proposed. The algorithm provides not only the tuning of synaptic weights in real time, but also the tuning of dilation and translation factors of daughter wavelets. The algorithm has both tracking and smoothing properties, so the wavelet networks trained with this algorithm can be efficiently used for prediction, filtering, compression and classification of various non-stationary noisy signals.

Notizen: Abstract: Owing to rapidly changing customer needs and much shorter product life cycles, for developing a successful product it is imperative to employ more efficient and flexible approaches for product conceptualization. To meet this demand, a Web-enabled product definition and customization system (PDCS) is proposed, from a design-knowledge-handling viewpoint, in this paper. It comprises two phases, namely product definition based on the laddering technique and a novel design knowledge hierarchy, and product customization based on an integrated methodology of conjoint analysis and Kohonen association techniques. Basically, this system is a method of conducting design decision-making via customer involvement, i.e. a strategy for transforming customer preference into a specific product concept. A case study on wood golf club design is used to illustrate and validate the proposed Web-enabled PDCS.

Notizen: Abstract: This paper describes the development and tuning methods for a novel self-organizing fuzzy proportional integral derivative (PID) controller. Before applying fuzzy logic, the PID gains are tuned using a conventional tuning method. At supervisory level, fuzzy logic readjusts the PID gains online. In the first tuning method, fuzzy logic at the supervisory level readjusts the three PID gains during the system operation. In the second tuning method, fuzzy logic only readjusts the proportional PID gain, and the corresponding integral and derivative gains are readjusted using the Ziegler–Nichols tuning method while the system is in operation. For the compositional rule of inferences in the fuzzy PID and the self-organizing fuzzy PID schemes two new approaches are introduced: the min implication function with the mean of maxima defuzzification method, and the max-product implication function with the centre of gravity defuzzification method. The fuzzy PID controller, the self-organizing fuzzy PID controller and the PID controller are all applied to a non-linear revolute-joint robot arm for step input and path tracking experiments using computer simulation. For the step input and path tracking experiments, the novel self-organizing fuzzy PID controller produces a better output response than the fuzzy PID controller; and in turn both controllers exhibit better process output than the PID controller.

Notizen: Abstract: Customer retention is a critical issue for the survival of any business in today's competitive marketplace. In this paper, we propose a dynamic procedure utilizing self-organizing maps and a Markov process for detecting and preventing customer defection that uses data of past and current customer behavior. The basic concept originates from empirical observations that identified that a customer has a tendency to change behavior (i.e. trim-out usage volumes) before eventual withdrawal and defection. Our explanatory model predicts when potential defectors are likely to withdraw. Two strategies are suggested to respond to the question of where to lead potential defectors for the next stage, based on anticipating when the potential defector will leave. Our model predicts potential defectors with little deterioration of prediction accuracy compared with that of the multilayer perceptron neural network and decision trees. Moreover, it performs reasonably well in a controlled experiment using an online game.

Notizen: Abstract: Logistics service providers are professionals who serve clients such as manufacturers, raw material suppliers, distributors, retailers and shippers within the supply chain. Traditionally, the formulation of logistics strategies to execute various logistics services has been based solely on experience. In this paper, an intelligent case-based logistics strategy system (CLSS) is designed to help logistics service providers to develop strategies under various customers' demands. The proposed system, which is suitable for use in warehouse operations in the Hong Kong/Pearl River Delta region, enhances the effectiveness of logistics strategies formulations by integrating case-based reasoning technology seamlessly with various data management software such as a data warehouse, on-line analytical processing and a multidimensional database management system. Through applying CLSS in Eastern Worldwide Company, the resource utilization is maximized while work efficiency is greatly enhanced. As a result, the overall logistics operations are smoothened significantly.

Notizen: Abstract: Understanding and adapting to changes in customer behavior is an important aspect for survival in a continuously changing environment. This paper develops a methodology based on decision tree analysis to detect the change in classified customer segments automatically between two data sets collected over time. We first define three types of changes as the emerging pattern, the unexpected change and the added/perished rule. Then, similarity and difference measures are developed for rule matching to detect all types of change. Finally, the degree of change is developed to evaluate the amount of change. Our suggested methodology based on decision tree analysis in the change detection problem can be used in more structured situations in which the manager has a specific research question and it also detects the change of classification criteria in a dynamically changing environment. A Korean Internet shopping mall case is evaluated to represent the performance of our suggested methodology, and practical business implications for this methodology are also provided. We believe that the change detection problem and the suggested methodology will become increasingly important as more data mining applications are implemented.

Notizen: Abstract: Decision tree induction has been widely studied and applied. In safety applications, such as determining whether a chemical process is safe or whether a person has a medical condition, the cost of misclassification in one of the classes is significantly higher than in the other class. Several authors have tackled this problem by developing cost-sensitive decision tree learning algorithms or have suggested ways of changing the distribution of training examples to bias the decision tree learning process so as to take account of costs. A prerequisite for applying such algorithms is the availability of costs of misclassification. Although this may be possible for some applications, obtaining reasonable estimates of costs of misclassification is not easy in the area of safety.This paper presents a new algorithm for applications where the cost of misclassifications cannot be quantified, although the cost of misclassification in one class is known to be significantly higher than in another class. The algorithm utilizes linear discriminant analysis to identify oblique relationships between continuous attributes and then carries out an appropriate modification to ensure that the resulting tree errs on the side of safety. The algorithm is evaluated with respect to one of the best known cost-sensitive algorithms (ICET), a well-known oblique decision tree algorithm (OC1) and an algorithm that utilizes robust linear programming.

Notizen: Abstract: Although sorting techniques (e.g. card sorts) are widely used in knowledge acquisition and requirements acquisition, they have received little formal attention compared to related techniques such as repertory grids and laddering. This paper briefly describes the main sorting techniques, and then provides a detailed tutorial on one variety (repeated single-criterion sorts), using a worked example. Guidelines for choice and sequencing of techniques are given, both in relation to varieties of sorting technique and in relation to other techniques. It is concluded that the sorting techniques are a valuable part of the elicitor's methodological toolkit.

Notizen: Abstract: Among the knowledge elicitation techniques card sorting is notable for its simplicity of use, its focus on subjects' terminology (rather than that of external experts) and its ability to elicit semi-tacit knowledge. Card sorting involves categorizing a set of pictures, objects or labelled cards into distinct groups using a single criterion. This paper focuses on the challenges associated with analyzing the data that result from card sorts, especially when large data sets are generated. Traditional semantic analysis methods that require direct researcher interpretation of elicited linguistic terms are distinguished from methods that are purely syntactic, and hence can be automated. Each paper within this special issue is summarized and its contribution to card sorting in general, and data analysis in particular, is highlighted. The set of novel computational techniques presented in several of the papers in this issue is examined. The paper concludes by noting that even large-scale data sets can be meaningfully analysed by combining well-known interpretative methods with the new computational approaches presented within this special issue.

Notizen: Abstract: Web page design guidelines produce a pressure towards uniformity; excessive uniformity lays a Web page designer open to accusations of plagiarism. In the past, assessment of similarity between visual products such as Web pages has involved an uncomfortably high degree of subjectivity. This paper describes a method for measuring perceived similarity of visual products which avoids previous problems with subjectivity, and which makes it possible to pool results from respondents without the need for intermediate coding. This method is based on co-occurrence matrices derived from card sorts. It can also be applied to other areas of software development, such as systems analysis and market research.

Notizen: Abstract: Picture sorts were used to investigate perceptions of women's office clothes, with a sample of ten male and ten female subjects who normally worked in an office environment. The pictures on the cards were taken from catalogues, and showed women's outfits which might be worn in an office. The subjects sorted the cards repeatedly and generated criteria and categories of their own choice. Some of the criteria and categories had not been previously reported in the clothing research literature. Over half of the male subjects, but none of the female subjects, used ‘married/unmarried woman’ as a sorting criterion, although only one of the images sorted showed a wedding ring. A significantly higher proportion of male than of female subjects used dichotomous categorization (i.e. sorting the cards into two piles for one or more of the criteria). The reasons for this are obscure, but do not appear to be a simple outcome of males not knowing much about female clothing. Previous research into clothing has tended to involve researcher-centred approaches such as semiotics; the results from this study suggest that there would be advantages in wider use of subject-centred approaches such as card sorts, both in this domain and elsewhere. It was concluded that card sorts were a useful method and should be more widely used.

Notizen: Abstract: Card sorts are a knowledge elicitation technique in which participants are given a collection of items and are asked to partition them into groups based on their own criteria. Information about the participant's knowledge structure is inferred from the groups formed and the names used to describe the groups through various methods ranging from simple quantitative statistical measures (e.g. co-occurrence frequencies) to complex qualitative methods (e.g. content analysis on the group names). This paper introduces a new technique for analyzing card sort data that uses quantitative measures to discover rich qualitative results. This method is based upon a distance metric between sorts that allows one to measure the similarity of groupings and then look for clusters of closely related sorts across individuals. By using software for computing these clusters, it is possible to identify common concepts across individuals, despite the use of different terminology.

Notizen: Abstract: Card sorts can be used to study the way human subjects acquire and organize conceptual knowledge. Analyses of card sorts often involve subjective examination of criteria or category names or using clustering techniques, neither of which lend themselves well to direct statistical analysis. This paper defines NMST, a quantitative measure of knowledge discrimination based on repeated, single-criterion card sorts that is independent of criteria or category names and that is particularly amenable to statistical analysis. The NMST measure is illustrated by applying it to a particular data set collected in a large multinational card sort study of subjects, where the knowledge area comes from a first-year programming course. Applied to this data set, the NMST measure is shown to distinguish, with statistical significance, between a set of subjects with only an introduction to programming and a set of subjects who have completed the equivalent of a bachelor's degree or higher in a computing-related discipline.

Notizen: Abstract: This paper presents a case study of the use of a repeated single-criterion card sort with an unusually large, diverse participant group. The study, whose goal was to elicit novice programmers' knowledge of programming concepts, involved over 20 researchers from four continents and 276 participants drawn from 20 different institutions. In this paper we present the design of the study and the unexpected result that there were few discernible systematic differences in the population. The study was one of the activities of the National Science Foundation funded Bootstrapping Research in Computer Science Education project (2003).

Notizen: Abstract: This paper describes a multi-institutional study that used a repeated single-criterion card sort to investigate graduating computer science students' knowledge of programming concepts. The study seeks to improve computer science instruction by gaining insight into how graduating students retain and assimilate introductory programming knowledge into their broader understanding of the discipline. A total of 291 card sorts was elicited from 65 undergraduate students in their final year of study at eight colleges and universities throughout the USA. To fully exploit the rich qualitative and quantitative aspects of the card sort data, an integrative analysis process was used that combined content analysis with two measures, normalized minimum spanning tree and edit distance, both developed specifically to analyze card sort data.

Notizen: Abstract: Administrative knowledge or office knowledge is the knowledge used in conjunction with the support operations in an organization. Systems managing this knowledge are referred to as extended office systems (EOSs). EOSs will be used to support knowledge exchanges in organizations. The types of knowledge handled by EOSs are illustrated and their characteristics are highlighted. Based on these characteristics, a formalism is proposed, which utilizes structural and descriptive links to achieve an extensible, open-ended representation. A prototype system using the representation and incorporating approximately 200 items of knowledge has been developed and can answer questions about a software engineering company.

Notizen: Abstract: In this study a wavelet-based neural network model, employing the multilayer perceptron, is presented for the detection of electrocardiographic changes in patients with partial epilepsy. Decision making is performed in two stages: feature extraction using the wavelet transform, and multilayer perceptron neural networks (MLPNNs) trained with the backpropagation, delta-bar-delta, extended delta-bar-delta and quick propagation algorithms as classifiers. The classification results, the values of statistical parameters and performance evaluation parameters of the MLPNNs trained with different algorithms are compared. Two types of electrocardiogram beats (normal and partial epilepsy) obtained from the MIT-BIH database were classified with accuracy varying from 90.00% to 97.50% by the MLPNNs trained with different algorithms.

Notizen: Abstract: For the past three decades or so the flexible flow shop (FFS) scheduling problem has attracted many researchers. Numerous research articles have been published on this topic. This study reviews research on the FFS scheduling problem from the past and the present. The solution approaches reviewed range from the optimum to heuristics and to artificial intelligence search techniques. I not only discuss the details from the selected methods and compare them, but also provide insights and suggestions for future research.

Notizen: Abstract: The ship design process is a highly data-oriented, dynamic, iterative and multi-stage algorithm. It utilizes multiple abstraction levels and concurrent engineering techniques. Specialized techniques for knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation and reasoning must be developed to solve these problems for a ship design expert system. Consequently, very few attempts have been made to model the ship design process using an expert system approach. The current work investigates a knowledge representation–reasoning technique for such a purpose. A knowledge-based conceptual design was developed by utilizing a prototype approach and hierarchical decompositioning. An expert system program called ALDES (accommodation layout design expert system) was developed by using the CLIPS expert system shell and an object-oriented user interface. The reasoning and knowledge representation methods of ALDES are explained in the paper. An application of the method is given for the general arrangement design of a containership.

Notizen: Abstract: An intriguing recent development is the vogue for formal documentation of the processes and procedures allegedly followed by an organization. The Author examines the possible drawbacks of such an approach, and discusses possible explanations for its present ubiquity.

Notizen: Abstract: It is estimated that 4.6 billion tons of non-hazardous solid waste materials are produced annually in the USA. The potential reuse for a portion of the materials in the construction of highways and roads suggests that valuable benefits in terms of economic and environmental gains are possible. This paper describes the development of a prototype computer-assisted tool or expert system to help manufacturers assess and analyze their industrial residuals as potential road construction material. This represents an expansion in the application of intelligent systems to domains where a few, hard-to-find technical reports have represented the main source of expertise available to practitioners for years. The system, developed through the use of an object-oriented software shell, Level5 Object, was designed in a user-friendly Windows environment which allows users with little or no computer training to effectively evaluate material residuals.

Notizen: Abstract: We present a new architecture of a diagnostic system composed of an associative memory with feedback connections. This new architecture requires limited computer resources, it is fast, and it can run on small computers. The diagnostic process is described by a deduction system that performs an abductive inference. The abductive inference itself is explained by the verbal category theory. We model both processes by an associative memory that performs the inference with the aid of the feedback connections. The represented knowledge is arranged in groups that define taxonomy. An embedded diagnostic system for the determination of a disorder with applications in modern industrial machines is presented.

Notizen: Abstract: To cope with the requirements of high dimensional accuracy for injection molding components, it is important to optimize the process parameters in order to sustain the high level dimensional quality of the molded parts. In this respect, a study in the domain of process optimization is of paramount importance in terms of determining the optimal set of injection molding parameters. To this end, a methodology to establish an integrated model which consists of both fuzzy logic reasoning and a genetic algorithm is proposed. These two artificial intelligence techniques can complement each other to form an integrated model which capitalizes on the merits and at the same time offsets the pitfalls of the involved technologies. To validate the feasibility of the proposed model, a case study related to injection molding optimization is also covered in this paper.

Notizen: Autonomous agents that learn about their environment can be divided into two broad classes. One class of existing learners, reinforcement learners, typically employ weak learning methods to directly modify an agent's execution knowledge. These systems are robust in dynamic and complex environments but generally do not support planning or the pursuit of multiple goals. In contrast, symbolic theory revision systems learn declarative planning knowledge that allows them to pursue multiple goals in large state spaces, but these approaches are generally only applicable to fully sensed, deterministic environments with no exogenous events. This research investigates the hypothesis that by limiting an agent to procedural access to symbolic planning knowledge, the agent can combine the powerful, knowledge-intensive learning performance of the theory revision systems with the robust performance in complex environments of the reinforcement learners. The system, IMPROV, uses an expressive knowledge representation so that it can learn complex actions that produce conditional or sequential effects over time. By developing learning methods that only require limited procedural access to the agent's knowledge, IMPROV's learning remains tractable as the agent's knowledge is scaled to large problems. IMPROV learns to correct operator precondition and effect knowledge in complex environments that include such properties as noise, multiple agents and time-critical tasks, and demonstrates a general learning method that can be easily strengthened through the addition of many different kinds of knowledge.

Notizen: This paper describes Eureka, a problem-solving architecture that operates under strong constraints on its memory and processes. Most significantly, Eureka does not assume free access to its entire long-term memory. That is, failures in problem solving may arise not only from missing knowledge, but from the (possibly temporary) inability to retrieve appropriate existing knowledge from memory. Additionally, the architecture does not include systematic backtracking to recover from fruitless search paths. These constraints significantly impact Eureka's design. Humans are also subject to such constraints, but are able to overcome them to solve problems effectively. In Eureka's design, we have attempted to minimize the number of additional architectural commitments, while staying faithful to the memory constraints. Even under such minimal commitments, Eureka provides a qualitative account of the primary types of learning reported in the literature on human problem solving. Further commitments to the architecture would refine the details in the model, but the approach we have taken de-emphasizes highly detailed modeling to get at general root causes of the observed regularities. Making minimal additional commitments to Eureka's design strengthens the case that many regularities in human learning and problem solving are entailments of the need to handle imperfect memory.

Notizen: In this paper we propose a distributed knowledge management framework for semantics and knowledge creation, population, and reuse on the grid. Its objective is to evolve the Grid toward the Semantic Grid with the ultimate purpose of facilitating problem solving in e-Science. The framework uses ontology as the conceptual backbone and adopts the service-oriented computing paradigm for information- and knowledge-level computation. We further present a semantics-based approach to problem solving, which exploits the rich semantic information of grid resource descriptions for resource discovery, instantiation, and composition. The framework and approach has been applied to a UK e-Science project—Grid Enabled Engineering Design Search and Optimisation in Engineering (GEODISE). An ontology-enabled problem solving environment (PSE) has been developed in GEODISE to leverage the semantic content of GEODISE resources and the Semantic Grid infrastructure for engineering design. Implementation and initial experimental results are reported.

Notizen: The expressive power of XML Declarative Description (XDD), a unified XML-based representation language for the Knowledge Grid, is enhanced by a well-defined mechanism for modeling arbitrary XML first-order logical constraints (FLCs)—a special kind of constraints comprising XML expressions and logical symbols. The resulting knowledge representation can uniformly express explicit and implicit information, ontologies, axioms as well as integrity, structural and FLCs. It facilitates direct use of ordinary XML elements as its basic language component and semantic units, and formally defines XML clauses for modeling advanced complex statements. It achieves sound, efficient, and flexible computation or inference by means of the Equivalent Transformation (ET) paradigm—a new computational model based on semantic preserving transformations. Basic ET computational rules for reasoning with XDD descriptions with FLCs are also presented. Due to its well-founded mechanism and expressiveness, employment of the proposed representation and computation framework to model a knowledge grid and its services not only enables direct representation of knowledge bases described by such emerging Semantic Web ontology languages as RDF(S) and OWL, but also offers additional descriptive facilities by allowing expression of and reasoning with rules, relationships, and constraints. Moreover, in order to provide machine-interpretable descriptions of knowledge grid services, standard service description languages, e.g., WSDL, UDDI, OWL-S and WSMO are employed and extended with facilities to define additional service relationships, constraints, and composition rules.

Notizen: The paper addresses the problem of finding a compact representation of the diagnoses within a model-based approach to diagnosis. To this end, we introduce the notion of scenario, a special kind of CNF formula over the component variables, which can be used to encode a large number of diagnoses using the same amount of space needed for encoding just a single diagnosis. We show how the solutions to a diagnostic problem can be computed as sets of scenarios by presenting first an exhaustive algorithm and then an efficient algorithm, which exploits probabilistic information to restrict the result set to preferred scenarios. Finally, we discuss the issue of how to efficiently extract preferred diagnoses from sets of scenarios and characterize a class of system models for which our techniques perform particularly well. Concepts and algorithms introduced in the paper have been tested within the prototype of the diagnostic agent of a space robotic arm; resulting statistics are reported and critically discussed.

Notizen: A great challenge in developing planning systems for practical applications is the difficulty of acquiring the domain information needed to guide such systems. This paper describes a way to learn some of that knowledge. More specifically, the following points are discussed. (1) We introduce a theoretical basis for formally defining algorithms that learn preconditions for Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) methods. (2) We describe Candidate Elimination Method Learner (CaMeL), a supervised, eager, and incremental learning process for preconditions of HTN methods. We state and prove theorems about CaMeL's soundness, completeness, and convergence properties. (3) We present empirical results about CaMeL's convergence under various conditions. Among other things, CaMeL converges the fastest on the preconditions of the HTN methods that are needed the most often. Thus CaMeL's output can be useful even before it has fully converged.

Notizen: This paper addresses the question of allocating computational resources among a set of algorithms to achieve the best performance on scheduling problems. Our primary motivation in addressing this problem is to reduce the expertise needed to apply optimization technology. Therefore, we investigate algorithm control techniques that make decisions based only on observations of the improvement in solution quality achieved by each algorithm. We call our approach “low knowledge” since it does not rely on complex prediction models, either of the problem domain or of algorithm behavior. We show that a low-knowledge approach results in a system that achieves significantly better performance than all of the pure algorithms without requiring additional human expertise. Furthermore the low-knowledge approach achieves performance equivalent to a perfect high-knowledge classification approach.

Notizen: Over the years we have developed the Disciple theory, methodology, and family of tools for building knowledge-based agents. This approach consists of developing an agent shell that can be taught directly by a subject matter expert in a way that resembles how the expert would teach a human apprentice when solving problems in cooperation. This paper presents the most recent version of the Disciple approach and its implementation in the Disciple–RKF (rapid knowledge formation) system. Disciple–RKF is based on mixed-initiative problem solving, where the expert solves the more creative parts of the problem and the agent solves the more routine ones, integrated teaching and learning, where the agent helps the expert to teach it, by asking relevant questions, and the expert helps the agent to learn, by providing examples, hints, and explanations, and multistrategy learning, where the agent integrates multiple learning strategies, such as learning from examples, learning from explanations, and learning by analogy, to learn from the expert how to solve problems. Disciple–RKF has been applied to build learning and reasoning agents for military center of gravity analysis, which are used in several courses at the US Army War College.

Notizen: The paper describes a system that can automatically generate tree adjoining grammars from abstract specifications. Our system is based on the use of tree descriptions to specify a grammar by separately defining pieces of tree structure that encode independent syntactic principles. Various individual specifications are then combined to form the elementary trees of the grammar. The system enables efficient development and maintenance of a grammar, and also allows underlying linguistic constructions (such as wh-movement) to be expressed explicitly. We have carefully designed our system to be as language independent as possible and tested its performance by constructing both English and Chinese grammars, with significant reductions in grammar development time. Provably consistent abstract specifications for different languages also offer unique opportunities for investigating how languages relate to themselves and to each other. For instance, the impact of a linguistic structure such as wh-movement can be traced from its specification to the descriptions that it combines with, to its actual realization in trees. By focusing on syntactic properties at a higher level, our approach allowed a unique comparison of our English and Chinese grammars.

Notizen: This paper describes the Adaptive Constraint Engine (ACE), an ambitious ongoing research project to support constraint programmers, both human and machine. The program begins with substantial knowledge about constraint satisfaction. The program harnesses a cognitively-oriented architecture (FORR) to manage search heuristics and to learn new ones. ACE can transfer what it learns on simple problems to solve more difficult ones, and can readily export its knowledge to ordinary constraint solvers. It currently serves both as a learner and as a test bed for the constraint community.

Notizen: Adaptive automated planning systems that can, over time, improve the quality of plans they produce are a promising prospect. The first part of the article discusses the issues involved in designing quality improving learning for planning systems and reviews recent work on learning to improve plan quality. The second part describes our work on the Performance Improving Planning (PIP) System. The heart of PIP is an analytic technique that compares two planning episodes for solving a planning problem that led to two different quality solutions—a higher-quality solution and a lower quality solution—and identifies the critical differences that were responsible for the resulting differences in the quality of the completed plans. We compare the effectiveness of two different ways of storing and applying the knowledge learned from this analysis—as search-control rules and as rewrite rules. The results show that the search-control rules are more effective in improving plan quality. Further analysis of PIP-search-control—the version of PIP that stores the learned knowledge as search-control rules—shows that it is an effective technique for improving plan quality in a variety of situations.

Notizen: This paper examines the potential and the impact of introducing learning capabilities into autonomous agents that make decisions at run-time about which mechanism to exploit to coordinate their activities. Specifically, our motivating hypothesis is that to deal with dynamic and unpredictable environments it is important to have agents that learn the right situations in which to attempt coordination, and the right coordination method to use in those situations. In particular, the efficacy of learning is evaluated when agents have varying types and amounts of information when those coordinating decisions are taken. This hypothesis is evaluated empirically, in a grid-world scenario in which (a) an agent's predictions about the other agents in the environment are approximately correct and (b) an agent cannot correctly predict the others' behavior. The results presented show when, where and why learning is effective when it comes to making a decision about selecting a coordination mechanism.

Notizen: Currently, the most efficient algorithm for inference with a probabilistic network builds upon a triangulation of a network's graph. In this paper, we show that pre-processing can help in finding good triangulations for probabilistic networks, that is, triangulations with a maximum clique size as small as possible. We provide a set of rules for stepwise reducing a graph, without losing optimality. This reduction allows us to solve the triangulation problem on a smaller graph. From the smaller graph's triangulation, a triangulation of the original graph is obtained by reversing the reduction steps. Our experimental results show that the graphs of some well-known real-life probabilistic networks can be triangulated optimally just by preprocessing; for other networks, huge reductions in their graph's size are obtained.

Notizen: The TAC 2003 supply-chain game presented automated trading agents with a challenging strategic problem. Embedded within a high-dimensional stochastic environment was a pivotal strategic decision about initial procurement of components. Early evidence suggested that the entrant field was headed toward a self-destructive, mutually unprofitable equilibrium. Our agent, Deep Maize, introduced a preemptive strategy designed to neutralize aggressive procurement, perturbing the field to a more profitable equilibrium; it worked. Not only did preemption improve Deep Maize's profitability, it improved profitability for the whole field. Whereas it is perhaps counterintuitive that action designed to prevent others from achieving their goals actually helps them, strategic analysis employing an empirical game-theoretic methodology verifies and provides insight about this outcome.

Notizen: The ability for a given agent to adapt on-line to better interact with another agent is a difficult and important problem. This problem becomes even more difficult when the agent to interact with is a human, because humans learn quickly and behave nondeterministically. In this paper, we present a novel method whereby an agent can incrementally learn to predict the actions of another agent (even a human), and thereby can learn to better interact with that agent. We take a case-based approach, where the behavior of the other agent is learned in the form of state–action pairs. We generalize these cases either through continuous k-nearest neighbor, or a modified bounded minimax search. Through our case studies, our technique is empirically shown to require little storage, learn very quickly, and be fast and robust in practice. It can accurately predict actions several steps into the future. Our case studies include interactive virtual environments involving mixtures of synthetic agents and humans, with cooperative and/or competitive relationships.

Notizen: One of the most promising trends in Domain-Independent AI Planning, nowadays, is state-space heuristic planning. The planners of this category construct general but efficient heuristic functions, which are used as a guide to traverse the state space either in a forward or in a backward direction. Although specific problems may favor one or the other direction, there is no clear evidence why any of them should be generally preferred. This paper presents Hybrid-AcE, a domain-independent planning system that combines search in both directions utilizing a complex criterion that monitors the progress of the search, to switch between them. Hybrid AcE embodies two powerful domain-independent heuristic functions extending one of the AcE planning systems. Moreover, the system is equipped with a fact-ordering technique and two methods for problem simplification that limit the search space and guide the algorithm to the most promising states. The bi-directional system has been tested on a variety of problems adopted from the AIPS planning competitions with quite promising results.

Notizen: E-science is about global collaboration in key areas of science such as cognitive science and brain science, and the next generation of infrastructure such as the Wisdom Web and Knowledge Grids. As a case study, we investigate human multiperception mechanism by cooperatively using various psychological experiments, physiological measurements, and data mining techniques for developing artificial systems which match human ability in specific aspects. In particular, we observe fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and EEG (electroencephalogram) brain activations from the viewpoint of peculiarity oriented mining and propose a way of peculiarity oriented mining for knowledge discovery in multiple human brain data. Based on such experience and needs, we concentrate on the architectural aspect of a brain-informatics portal from the perspective of the Wisdom Web and Knowledge Grids. We describe how to build a data-mining grid on the Wisdom Web for multiaspect human brain data analysis. The proposed methodology attempts to change the perspective of cognitive scientists from a single type of experimental data analysis toward a holistic view at a long-term, global field of vision.

Notizen: In this paper, we propose a feature-based Korean grammar utilizing the learned constraint rules in order to improve parsing efficiency. The proposed grammar consists of feature structures, feature operations, and constraint rules; and it has the following characteristics. First, a feature structure includes several features to express useful linguistic information for Korean parsing. Second, a feature operation generating a new feature structure is restricted to the binary-branching form which can deal with Korean properties such as variable word order and constituent ellipsis. Third, constraint rules improve efficiency by preventing feature operations from generating spurious feature structures. Moreover, these rules are learned from a Korean treebank by a decision tree learning algorithm. The experimental results show that the feature-based Korean grammar can reduce the number of candidates by a third of candidates at most and it runs 1.5 ∼ 2 times faster than a CFG on a statistical parser.

Notizen: Purpose - The main objective of this study is to develop a framework for: identifying the reasons for using e-commerce; understanding the implications of e-commerce in companies; and implementing and applying e-commerce successfully for improved organizational competitiveness and success. Design/methodology/approach - A structured questionnaire was designed, pre-tested, modified, and used to capture data on e-commerce in Hong Kong. Based on the feedback from the pilot-test, the questionnaire was modified and a final questionnaire was developed and mailed to companies in Hong Kong. In the survey, conducted with Hong Kong companies, the perceived benefits and perceived barriers of e-commerce implementation are discussed. Findings - The conceptual model based on the analysis of literature and some reported case experiences is developed using the current issues that have been highlighted as important e-commerce success factors of implementation. The major factors that influence the application and implementation of e-commerce are: perceived usefulness of web; perceived barriers of the internet for e-commerce; usage of the internet; and perceived benefits of the internet for e-commerce. In addition to this, country-specific factors such as culture, technology competency, government policy, educational level, influence the level of application of e-commerce. Practical implications - The framework is the result of the validation of the theoretical model, together with the conclusions of the empirical analysis conducted in Hong Kong. The empirical analysis supported some of the assumptions of the theoretical model, whereas others were not supported. Based on the feedback received from respondents, the model has been revised to reflect these practical considerations. Originality/value - Little research has been done to address the perceived benefits and potential barriers to e-commerce implementation in Hong Kong. This study is a timely and important one in that examines the current status of e-commerce implementation in Hong Kong. A generic framework is presented with the objective of supporting the application and implementation of the internet for e-commerce.

Notizen: Purpose - Although the wireless internet attracts more and more interest from marketers and researchers, there is little empirical evidence of multinational corporations' (MNCs) adoption of push-type mobile advertising in global markets. The aim of this study is to fill this research gap, by conducting an empirical survey of the perceptions of MNCs operating in Europe regarding SMS-based mobile advertising adoption. Design/methodology/approach - The study proposes six basic constructs which are thought to influence MNCs' decision-making process on mobile advertising adoption. On this base, a structured questionnaire is developed. The data are obtained by telephone interviews from 53 senior executives of MNCs' subsidiaries in Spain. Findings - Hierarchical regression analysis reveals that branding strategy, facilitating conditions, and security and costs are the strongest determinants of MNCs' mobile advertising adoption. Furthermore, discriminant analysis indicates that Japanese, American, and European firms are statistically classifiable according to their cultural affiliation in terms of their perceptions of mobile advertising adoption. Japanese firms are the least willing to use mobile advertising, while their American counterparts are the most motivated in this regard. Originality/value - While SMS-based mobile marketing has been receiving an increasing attention from both academics and practitioners, there exists little empirical research on this area. In this vein, this study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, the study proposes a conceptual research model based on six basic constructs, which incorporate both theoretical and practical perspectives. Second, the model is tested by empirical data obtained from top managers of MNCs' subsidiaries operating in a European market. The findings of this study thus offer useful insights based on their "hands-on" experience.

Notizen: Purpose - To describe consumers' heuristic and analytical searches for a pre-purchase information acquisition, and to assess the correspondence of flexibility of information task and the information found with a search. Design/methodology/approach - Propositions based on current research in web use and consumer studies. Tracked records of searches are used for descriptive analysis of transitional patterns in the data. Regression is used for statistical verification of the information provided by searches. Findings - Consumer searches center on chaining events, indicating heavy reliance on hyperlink navigation between web sites. Formal searches are seldom used, although when employed, tend to have a high level of diagnosticity. The emphasis on heuristic behavior is logical, as the way consumer information is currently presented on the internet rewards for this type of behavior. Use of heuristic search increases the likelihood of access to flexibly presented information. Research limitations/implications - Consumers favor heuristic trial-and-error searches even in focused fact-finding search tasks, which are typically considered the domain of analytical seeking. Consumers seem to benefit most from apparently inefficient, reactive and heuristic searches, because these are more likely to provide information in a format that the consumer can adapt. Convenience sample limits generalizability of findings. Originality/value - While there is an increasing body of knowledge concerning internet use for finding information, fewer studies have focused on consumer uses of the web in search. This paper provides new information of online consumers, an increasingly important topic.

Notizen: Purpose - To provide a thorough analysis of the role of the internet in survey research and to discuss the implications of online surveys becoming such a major force in research. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is divided into four major sections: an analysis of the strengths and potential weaknesses of online surveys; a comparison of online surveys with other survey formats; a discussion on the best uses for online surveys and how their potential weaknesses may be moderated; and an overview of the online survey services being offered by the world's largest research firms. Findings - If conducted properly, online surveys have significant advantages over other formats. However, it is imperative that the potential weaknesses of online surveys be mitigated and that online surveys only be used when appropriate. Outsourcing of online survey functions is growing in popularity. Practical implications - The paper provides a very useful source of information and impartial advice for any professional who is considering the use of online surveys. Originality/value - The paper synthesizes the vast literature related to online surveys, presents original material related to survey methodology, and offers a number of recommendations.

Notizen: Purpose - To arouse the public awareness of online gaming-related crimes and other societal influences so that these problems can be solved through education, laws and appropriate technologies. Design/methodology/approach - A total of 613 criminal cases of online gaming crimes that happened in Taiwan during 2002 were gathered and analyzed. They were analyzed for special features then focusing on the tendency for online gaming crime. Related prosecutions, offenders, victims, criminal methods, and so on, were analyzed. Findings - According to our analysis of online gaming characteristics in Taiwan, the majority of online gaming crime is theft (73.7 percent) and fraud (20.2 percent). The crime scene is mainly in internet cafés (54.8 percent). Most crimes are committed within the 12:00 to 14:00 time period (11.9 percent). Identity theft (43.4 percent) and social engineering (43.9 percent) are the major criminal means. The offenders (95.8 percent) and victims (87.8 percent) are mainly male and offenders always proceed alone (88.3 percent). The age of offenders is quite low (63.3 percent in the age range of 15-20), and 8.3 percent of offenders are under 15 years old. The offenders are mostly students (46.7 percent) and the unemployed (24 percent), most of them (81.9 percent) not having criminal records. The type of game giving rise to most of the criminal cases is Lineage Online (93.3 percent). The average value of the online gaming loss is about US$459 and 34.3 percent of criminal loss is between $100 and $300. Research limitations/implications - These criminal cases were retrieved from Taiwan in 2002. Some criminal behavior may have been limited to a certain area or a certain period. Practical implications - Provides a useful source of information and constructive advice for the public who will sense the seriousness and influence of online gaming crimes. Further, this topic may have implications on e-commence, e-services, or web-based activities beyond gaming. Originality/value - Since there is little published research in this area, this paper provides the public with a good and original introduction to a topic of growing importance.

Notizen: Purpose - This work aims to probe how interface designers concerned with human-computer interaction of community networks might use the theoretical constructs of social capital and activity awareness. Design/methodology/approach - A design model for community network interfaces is introduced that reconciles various computer-mediated communication research contributions with support for typical community network scenarios of use. Using this model, an inspection is performed on existing community network implementations (available December 2002) and then the adequacy of the model for informing the design process is examined. Findings - Based on the insight gained through this analysis, a generic prototype and new user evaluation method are introduced that allow survey of user reaction to community network design elements under differing conditions. It is shown how results obtained through this method frame a value-chain understanding of conceptual tradeoffs. Research limitations/implications - To demonstrate the new user evaluation method in an analysis of critical design tradeoffs, the issues of persistent virtual identity implementation and usage motivation are probed. However, the evaluation method must be validated with other issues and tested by researchers that were not part of its creation process. Practical implications - Contributions from this paper include tools (a design model, a generic prototype, and an evaluation method) linking theory with community design artifacts, building on previous work. Evaluators now have indicators for assessing community informatics. Originality/value - Interface designers of community networks and those interested in social capital theory will appreciate the link between practice and theory provided by this approach.

Notizen: Purpose - E-consumers consistently complain that the internet is frustratingly slow. Most existing research on this phenomenon is based on the concept of "download delay", that is, the time required for a web page to fully download to the e-consumer's computer screen. This paper reports on an exploratory study of the phenomenon of waiting for service on the internet with the intention of extending the narrow conceptualisation of the phenomenon of "download delay" to a more user-based perspective of waiting on the internet. Design/methodology/approach - The study is based on a qualitative research methodology. The research methods are seven asynchronous virtual focus groups involving 126 intensive internet users over 17 days and 92 participants who maintained personal diaries of waiting on the internet over a nine-week period. Findings - A new definition of waiting on the internet is proposed based on extensive virtual focus group research. Subsequently, 14 distinct types of internet waiting situations are identified based on the analysis of a total of 1,041 waiting situations as reported by the participants in the study. Practical implications - A number of practical implications for various functional areas of the business are outlined. Conceptual and methodological contributions are also made. Originality/value - The study is the first to present a broader conceptualisation of waiting on the internet from an e-consumer perspective and based on empirical research. All previous research has been based on just one type of online waiting, i.e. waiting for web pages to download to the user's screen. This paper presents 13 "new" types of waiting situations on the internet.

Notizen: Purpose - Using Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, higher education web sites were retrospectively analyzed to study the effects that technological advances in web design have had on accessibility for persons with disabilities. Design/methodology/approach - A convenience sample of higher education web sites was studied for years 1997-2002. The homepage and pages 1-level down were evaluated. Web accessibility barrier (WAB) and complexity scores were calculated. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine trends in the data and Pearson's correlation (r) was computed to evaluate the relationship between accessibility and complexity. Findings - Higher education web sites become progressively inaccessible as complexity increases. Research limitations/implications - The WAB score is a proxy of web accessibility. While the WAB score can give an indication of the accessibility of a web site, it cannot differentiate between barriers posing minimal limitations and those posing absolute inaccessibility. A future study is planned to have users with disabilities examine web sites with differing WAB scores to correlate how well the WAB score is gauging accessibility of web sites from the perspective of the user. Practical implications - Findings from studies such as this can lead to improved guidelines, policies, and overall awareness of web accessibility for persons with disabilities. Originality/value - There are limited studies that have taken a longitudinal look at the accessibility of web sites and explored the reasons for the trend of decreasing accessibility.

Notizen: Purpose - The objective of the paper is to identify the factors that encourage consumers to adopt internet banking services in Thailand and to use the study's findings to develop strategies for banks on how to maximize the rate of adoption. Design/methodology/approach - Quantitative research with a sample size of 600 achieved by sending questionnaires to 15 people in each of 40 large companies in Bangkok. The study is based on the Decomposed Planned Behaviour. Findings - The attitudinal factors that appear to encourage the adoption of internet banking in Thailand most are "Features of the web site" and "Perceived usefulness", while the most significant impediment to adoption is a perceived behavioural control, namely "External environment". The significant moderating factors are gender, educational level, income, internet experience and internet banking experience, but not age. Research limitations/implications - In this study, encouragement factors are those that are able to be controlled by banks, while impediment factors are those that are not able to be controlled. Practical implications - It is essential for banks to facilitate encouragement and restrict impediment factors. In addition to the direct "push" from internet banks (in respect of the encouragement factors), indirect persuasion should be carried out as a "pull" mechanism (in respect of the impediment factors). Originality/value - The study identified a number of specific strategies that Thai banks could follow to maximize the adoption of internet banking.

Notizen: Purpose - The purposes of this study are to examine internet users' perception of potential harm among a list of products available on internet auction sites, to discuss the influence of the third-person effect on internet users' pro-regulatory attitudes, and to investigate the effects of users' characteristics and perceived harm on their attitudes toward regulation of online auction industry. Design/methodology/approach - An online questionnaire survey was designed and employed to collect information about internet users' third-person effect perception, pro-regulatory attitudes toward internet auction sites, and control variables such as demographics, internet usage, and innovative characteristics. A convenience sample of 592 internet users was recruited to take part in this study. Findings - Internet users' perceptual differences are statistically significant between the estimated influence on self, teenagers, and other adults for each product. Perceived harm to self consistently predicts internet users' pro-regulatory attitudes, but not for teenagers and other adults. Perceived harm to self also predicts pro-regulatory attitudes toward these web sites, even after controlling for potential confounding variables. Research limitations/implications - The study is limited by its convenient sampling method and measurement of internet users' actual and intended behavior. Nevertheless, because internet users play a complex role of buyers, sellers, and possible victims on auction sites, it is important to examine perceptions and motivations underlying their support for regulating online auction industry. Originality/value - The integrated approach of mass communication, electronic commerce activities, and public policy-making perspectives ensures that future regulatory proposal of online auction industry will be comprehensive.

Notizen: Purpose - First, to theoretically justify and empirically test the sequence of effects based on the standard learning hierarchy to explain consumers' online buying-related responses. Second, to analyse the moderating role that consumers' internet expertise can play on the formation of both their affective and buying-related responses towards this medium. Design/methodology/approach - This study poses a conceptual model which is tested by means of LISREL. The data used come from a questionnaire applied to American and Spanish internet users. These two countries have been selected taking into account their differences regarding their degree of internet expertise. Findings - The modelling approach appears to be adequate to explain online consumer behaviour. Moreover, different levels of consumers' internet expertise determines, in general, the predominance of the central or the peripheral route within the formation of their affective and behavioural responses to this medium. Research limitations/implications - This study provides a relevant contribution to the field of consumer behaviour on the internet. It presents an extensive literature review; it introduces new concepts and new relations among them; it successfully adapts classic consumer theories, i.e. the CAB paradigm and the Elaboration Likelihood Model - to the electronic market context; and it has a cross-national vision. Practical implications - It shows how any virtual firm which endeavours to understand consumers' shopping behaviour in its web site should consider these general issues in conjunction with the rest of the specific factors and variables related to it. Originality/value - This is one of the first studies which, on the one hand, theoretically integrates in a model the following concepts: beliefs and attitude towards the internet, trust in internet shopping and online shopping, and on the other, demonstrates that the degree of internet expertise plays an essential role in determining how consumers process and form their affective and buying-related responses on the internet.

Notizen: Purpose - To propose a model of a privacy-enhanced catalogue search system (PECSS) in an attempt to address privacy threats to consumers, who search for products and services on the world wide web. Design/methodology/approach - The model extends an agent-based architecture for electronic catalogue mediation by supplementing it with a privacy enhancement mechanism. This mechanism introduces fake queries into the original stream of user queries, in an attempt to reduce the similarity between the actual interests of users ("internal user profile") and the interests as observed by potential eavesdroppers on the web ("external user profile"). A prototype was constructed to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the model. Findings - The evaluation of the model indicates that, by generating five fake queries per each original user query, the user's profile is hidden most effectively from any potential eavesdropper. Future research is needed to identify the optimal glossary of fake queries for various clients. The model also should be tested against various attacks perpetrated against the mixed stream of original and fake queries (i.e. statistical clustering). Research limitations/implications - The model's feasibility was evaluated through a prototype. It was not empirically tested against various statistical methods used by intruders to reveal the original queries. Practical implications - A useful architecture for electronic commerce providers, internet service providers (ISP) and individual clients who are concerned with their privacy and wish to minimize their dependencies on third-party security providers. Originality/value - The contribution of the PECSS model stems from the fact that, as the internet gradually transforms into a non-free service, anonymous browsing cannot be employed any more to protect consumers' privacy, and therefore other approaches should be explored. Moreover, unlike other approaches, our model does not rely on the honesty of any third mediators and proxies that are also exposed to the interests of the client. In addition, the proposed model is scalable as it is installed on the user's computer.

Notizen: Purpose - To use the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework to explore in depth the range of beliefs held by consumers about internet shopping in general and internet grocery shopping in particular. Design/methodology/approach - Seven focus group interviews, four in the United Kingdom and three in Denmark, were conducted among consumers with different degrees of experience with internet grocery shopping. This diversification of respondents was chosen to capture a broad range of the consumer beliefs that predict intentions to buy groceries online or not. The TPB framework was used to construct the interview guide that was followed in all focus groups. Findings - An unexpected result of the explorative study was that the seven groups consisting of more or less experienced internet shoppers differed only little in their pool of beliefs (outcome and control beliefs). Beliefs about internet grocery shopping, positive as well as negative, were remarkably congruent across groups. In the minds of consumers, internet grocery shopping is an advantage compared with conventional grocery shopping in terms of convenience, product range and price. Disadvantages, which could act as mental barriers, are, for instance, the risk of receiving inferior quality groceries and the loss of the recreational aspect of grocery shopping. Research limitations/implications - An important potential limitation of this research is the choice of focus groups as research methodology, which can prevent the elicitation of certain types of beliefs. If important beliefs concern issues of a more sensitive, personal character they are not likely to be mentioned in a focus group. Another limitation is the explorative nature of the research, which makes it impossible to attach weights to the importance of the elicited beliefs in predicting internet shopping behavior. Practical implications - The findings could be used to direct attention to consumer beliefs about internet grocery shopping which have the potential of acting as barriers to this line of e-commerce. Originality/value - To shed some light on the role of consumers in an underperforming and understudied branch of internet retailing. Barriers in the consumers' minds to shop for groceries online are identified using an established theoretical framework.

Notizen: Purpose - The objective of this paper is to investigate the legal and technical reasons why a declaration of will, denoted by a digital signature, can be cancelled and how this cancellation can be technically achieved. Design/methodology/approach - Proposes a technical framework for establishing a signature revocation mechanism based on special data structures, the signature revocation tokens (SRT), and investigates the alternatives for disseminating the signature status information (SSI) to the relying parties. Findings - A relying party has to take into consideration the possible existence of a signature revocation, in order to decide on the validity of a digital signature. A scheme based on a central public repository for the archival and distribution of signature revocation tokens exhibits significant advantages against other alternatives. Originality/value - Identifies various intrinsic problems of the digital signature creation process that raise several questions on whether the signer performs a conscious and wilful act, although he/she is held liable for this action. The law faces the eventual right of the signer to claim a revocation of a previously made declaration of will, especially in cases of an error, fraud or duress.

Notizen: Purpose - To analyze the relationship between corporate image and consumer trust in the context of financial services distribution. Design/methodology/approach - This paper analyzes the causal relationship that exists between corporate image and consumer trust in the financial services distribution through traditional channels, as well as over the internet. This paper also analyzes the moderating effect of relationship duration on the influence of the corporate image on trust. Findings - The results obtained show that in distribution through traditional channels no significant differences exist in the intensity of the effect of the image on trust in terms of the relationship duration. Nevertheless, significant differences in the financial services distribution over the internet have been observed. Practical implications - The significant influence that image exerts on consumer trust shows us that corporate image becomes a key tool for the management of trust in financial services distribution. Originality/value - Despite the importance that researchers have assigned to the variables of corporate image and trust, much of the work so far is in the initial phase of development. Thus, the majority of the works have been approached from a fundamentally theoretical perspective, or else the empirical testing has been carried out in an indirect way, based on factors that form part of the image or are related to it. Because of this, today there is no research that has empirically evaluated the role played by corporate image in the levels of trust of the consumer of financial services.

Notizen: Purpose - To analyze empirically the transaction profitability derived from sporadic and frequent customers in the e-retailing sector of minor home appliances in Brazil. Design/methodology/approach - A company's database was analyzed quantitatively to assess the transaction profitability derived from sporadic and frequent customers purchasing via the firm's digital channel, namely its web site. Besides, qualitative evidence was also collected from interviews with the main professionals involved in marketing and e-commerce in the firm and through analysis of the company's web site and e-mail communications with customers. Findings - The commercial transaction profitability associated with sporadic customers can be higher than that derived from frequent purchasers. Research limitations/implications - The study concentrated on a single company within a specific industry (minor home appliance e-retailing) based in a specific country, namely Brazil. Practical implications - The benefits of web consumer retention would only seem to be advantageous for digital companies that are client-centric, which can interact with these consumers. Furthermore, the mere fact of using transactional practices, low differentiation between products and the emphasis on promotion of price on the web would seem to increase sensitivity to price on the part of the consumers, particularly those who make purchases more frequently. Originality/value - To enable practitioners and academics to grasp fully the real value of frequent and sporadic clients, in order to allow digital companies to develop coherent strategies for them.

Notizen: Purpose - The web is now a significant component of the recruitment and job search process. However, very little is known about how companies and job seekers use the web, and the ultimate effectiveness of this process. The specific research questions guiding this study are: how do people search for job-related information on the web? How effective are these searches? And how likely are job seekers to find an appropriate job posting or application? Design/methodology/approach - The data used to examine these questions come from job seekers submitting job-related queries to a major web search engine at three points in time over a five-year period. Findings - Results indicate that individuals seeking job information generally submit only one query with several terms and over 45 percent of job-seeking queries contain a specific location reference. Of the documents retrieved, findings suggest that only 52 percent are relevant and only 40 percent of job-specific searches retrieve job postings. Research limitations/implications - This study provides an important contribution to web research and online recruiting literature. The data come from actual web searches, providing a realistic glimpse into how job seekers are actually using the web. Practical implications - The results of this research can assist organizations in seeking to use the web as part of their recruiting efforts, in designing corporate recruiting web sites, and in developing web systems to support job seeking and recruiting. Originality/value - This research is one of the first studies to investigate job searching on the web using longitudinal real world data.

Notizen: Purpose - To analyse the web acceptance and usage between goal-directed users and experiential users, incorporating intrinsic motives to improve the particular and explanatory TAM (technology acceptance model) value - traditionally related to extrinsic motives. Design/methodology/approach - A survey instrument was used to gather data to test the relationships shown in the research model. Data were collected from a sample of online questionnaires filled out by subscribers located in three discussion-mailing lists - administered by RedIris - about different topics (e.g. experimental sciences, social sciences and humanities). A structural equation modeling (SEM), specifically partial least squares (PLS), is proposed to assess the relationships between the constructs together with the predictive power of the research model. Findings - The empirical development suggests that there is scope for further extension of TAM to adapt to the web-based usage and its profitable consequences. The article may help to further the empirical research and to clarify and examine a web acceptance and usage model. In general, experiential and goal-directed behaviours moderate the key relationships in the model. Experiential and goal-directed users do not weigh extrinsic and intrinsic motives in the same way when on the web. Goal-directed users are more driven by instrumental factors and focused on their decision-making process while experiential users are more motivated by process.. Research limitations/implications - First, constructs of enjoyment and concentration are used to define flow. However, because of the flow definition's conceptual-vagueness, operationalising the flow construct has been questioned in the previous empirical works. Second, the cross-sectional study is also an important limitation. Since the users' perception and intention can change over time, it is important to measure these quantities at several points of time. Third, the sample sizes are relatively small. Fourth, the model needs to be tested with more objective measures to compare possible divergences. Finally, the model clearly does not include all the relevant variables. Practical implications - The results could be used to explain and to improve the experiential and goal-directed users' experience of being and to return to the web. Originality/value - The value of this study is to reveal the moderating influences of browsing-modes on relationship between flow and TAM-beliefs on the web, and, also, how the flow impacts the attitude and intention to use web between experiential and goal-directed users.

Notizen: Purpose - To contribute to the development of a theoretically grounded measure of organizational internet use (OIU) by conceptualizing and operationalizing it as a theoretical construct, and by empirically assessing its reliability and validity Design/methodology/approach - The focal construct OIU was conceptualized as an abstract collective object with three components, forming an index with formative, causal indicators. A multi-method research design - including a cross-sectional drop-and-collect survey among small technology-based firms (STBFs) in Germany and an observational study of web sites - was applied to assess empirically the theoretically developed construct OIU. This was achieved by using the component-based partial least squares (PLS) structural modeling technique using PLS-Graph. Findings - The empirical assessment of the scale, applied to the international business domain, proved to be reliable and valid in the structural model and across assessment methods. Research limitations/implications - The focal construct was assessed among a very specific population. This limits the claims that can be made with regard to applying it in other industries, countries, and firms. Future research should address this by applying OIU in maximally different research contexts. Practical implications - The developed construct has important implications for both managers and researchers. It should help in assessing levels of organizational internet use in a consistent fashion across populations and studies. It can be used for benchmarking purposes - of specific interest to managers - and it can be used to explore antecedents and consequences of organizational internet use - of specific interest to researchers. Originality/value - Internet research is moving from anecdotal and exuberant internet euphoria to internet pessimism to internet realism. Only theoretically grounded, reliable and valid measures can support such a required transition. With this paper we have made an initial contribution for such a development to occur.

Notizen: Purpose - To identify controls that can harness the power and capabilities of instant messengers (IM) while minimizing potential security risks. Design/methodology/approach - A risk analysis method and (CIS)2 model are used. Findings - IM is a great tool for enterprise productivity. However, it has so many risks, but one could identify and control these risks with technical and managerial countermeasures. Research limitations/implications - This paper fails to provide detailed and specific risks of commercial IMs, and the case study provided in this paper focuses on the technical rather than managerial issues. Practical implications - A very helpful case study which provides general risks and controls of recent IMs for the security officers of various organizations. Originality/value - This paper outlined the risks of IM and potential controls for securing public IM in the workplace.

Notizen: Purpose - Provide a secure solution for web services (WS). A new interoperable and distributed access control for WS is presented. Design/methodology/approach - Based on the separation of the access control (AC) and authorization function. Findings - Mechanisms presented allow seamless integration of external authorization entities in the AC system. The Semantic Policy Language (SPL) developed facilitates specification of policies and semantic policy validation. SPL specifications are modular and can be composed without ambiguity. Also addressed was the problem of the association of policies to resources (WS or their operations) in a dynamic, flexible and automated way. Research limitations/implications - The ACProxy component is currently under development. Ongoing work is focused on achieving a richer "use control" for some types of WS. Practical implications - Administrators of WS can specify AC policies and validate them to find syntactic and semantic errors. Components for automated validation of policies at different levels are included. This ensures that the AC policies produce the desired effects, facilitating the creation and maintenance of policies. It also provides mechanisms for the use of interoperable authorizations. Originality/value - A practical system that provides a secure solution to AC for WS. To the best of one's knowledge, no other system provides mechanisms for semantic validation of policies based on external authorization entities. Likewise, the mechanisms for interoperability of external authorization entities are also novel. The system provides content-based access control and a secure, decentralized and dynamic solution for authorization that facilitates the management of complex systems and enhances the overall security of the AC.

Notizen: Purpose - The increasing number of M-internet subscribers and the fast growing revenue proves the great potential of M-internet as well as the enormous business opportunity in Korea. The success in this business is dependent on understanding the concerns of customers and identifying the factors that promote the use of M-internet. Thus, this paper aims to examine the human motivations underlying individual behavioral intention to use M-internet in Korea. Design/methodology/approach - Employs TAM (technology acceptance model) as the base model and develops a more comprehensive version of TAM to better reflect M-internet context. The model employs perceived playfulness, contents quality, system quality, internet experience and perceived price level, in addition to perceived usefulness and ease of use. Investigates the causal relationships among the constructs used in this revised TAM and identifies the direct and indirect causal role of the constructs in developing the intention to use M-internet. Findings - Finds that attitude toward M-internet is the most significant factor in predicting the behavioral intention to use M-internet. Also identifies the positive role of the perceived playfulness and the negative role of perceived price level in developing the attitude as well as the intention. The positive causal relationships of "perceived contents quality - perceived usefulness", "perceived system quality– perceived usefulness" and "internet experience–perceived ease of use" were also witnessed. Practical implications - Considering the explosive growth of the M-internet market, well-established business strategy in M-internet will deliver great success to the mobile operators. Thus, understanding comprehensive causal relationship among the constructs used in this revised TAM would help managers to better implement the strategic ramifications in promoting M-internet. Originality/value - Develops a more comprehensive version of TAM to better reflect M-internet context in Korea, adding five new constructs and identifies the role of the construct in promoting the use of M-internet.

Notizen: Purpose - This study aims to present a new web page recommendation system that can help users to reduce navigational time on the internet. Design/methodology/approach - The proposed design is based on the primacy effect of browsing behavior, that users prefer top ranking items in search results. This approach is intuitive and requires no training data at all. Findings - A user study showed that users are more satisfied with the proposed search methods than with general search engines using hot keywords. Moreover, two performance measures confirmed that the proposed search methods out-perform other metasearch and search engines. Research limitations/implications - The research has limitations and future work is planned along several directions. First, the search methods implemented are primarily based on the keyword match between the contents of web pages and the user query items. Using the semantic web to recommend concepts and items relevant to the user query might be very helpful in finding the exact contents that users want, particularly when the users do not have enough knowledge about the domains in which they are searching. Second, offering a mechanism that groups search results to improve the way search results are segmented and displayed also assists users to locate the contents they need. Finally, more user feedback is needed to fine-tune the search parameters including a and ß to improve the performance. Practical implications - The proposed model can be used to improve the search performance of any search engine. Originality/value - First, compared with the democratic voting procedure used by metasearch engines, search engine vector voting (SVV) enables a specific combination of search parameters, denoted as a and ß, to be applied to a voted search engine, so that users can either narrow or expand their search results to meet their search preferences. Second, unlike page quality analysis, the hyperlink prediction (HLP) determines qualified pages by simply measuring their user behavior function (UBF) values, and thus takes less computing power. Finally, the advantages of HLP over statistical analysis are that it does not need training data, and it can target both multi-site and site-specific analysis.

Notizen: Purpose - This paper aims to show that information and evidence found in the XML-based environment of web services can allow web services providers to gain a sense of the trustworthiness of web services requestors over time. Design/methodology/approach - A literature review on trust in web services environment is provided. Trust management models, and an existing trust specification for web services are discussed. Next, a conceptual framework for web services trust formation is presented. Findings - The paper makes explicit types of information that can be used for trust formation. Web services providers are given the ability to trust requestors autonomously by making use of information that is published through web services standards, defined over and above a web services interface. The approach incorporates elements of social trust as it is concerned with more than cryptographic controls. It has mechanisms that allow a web services provider to manage trust autonomously, enabling different types of trust for different situations. Research limitations/implications - A conceptual framework for trust formation has been defined that identifies a proposal for trust calculation. The paper does not address the implementation of the framework, and calculation of trust over information categories. Practical implications - The paper identifies a practical approach to autonomous web services trust by making use of web services standards such as WS-Policy and WSMetadataExchange. Originality/value - This paper identifies a taxonomy of trust information that can be used to make explicit the requirements for web services trust.

Notizen: Purpose - The primary purpose was to learn about different variables of an integrated strategy associated with choosing to supply through business-to-business (B2B) intermediaries and apply the variables to a series of cases. Design/methodology/approach - A literature review served as a basis to develop an integrated model. A combination of primary and secondary research was conducted to apply the concepts of the model to different internet trading exchanges. Findings - Each trade exchange offers a different set of customers and suppliers vying for business opportunities. There are no common platforms for software and hardware. If a small company is interested in trading through an internet exchange, they want to select based on the variables identified that best meet their needs and integrate with their business strategy. Research limitations/implications - The focus was on industrial products and may not be applicable to consumer products. Practical implications - Suppliers must carefully operate in the future by evaluating each customer and determining which trade exchanges will provide them with the greatest benefit at the lowest cost. The infrastructure investment is an unavoidable cost that cannot be forgone unless the supplier wants to discontinue providing to most of its customers. The supplier needs to look at all aspects identified in the integrated business model and the foundation and facilitation for success lie in the information management of the entire entity. Originality/value - This paper takes the existing body of knowledge and applies it to the development of an integrated e-business model for industrial suppliers used to compare different internet trading exchanges.

Notizen: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for enhancing security policy management in the Grid. Design/methodology/approach - The Grid security policy reconciliation problem is presented. A generic view on the security policy notion is adopted and the security policy ontology notion is introduced and used. Findings - In the course of this work it was found that, in order to enhance security policy management in the Grid, Grid entities should have the ability to negotiate their security policies. It was also found that, in order to achieve security policy negotiation, effective security policy semantics manipulation towards security policy reconciliation is needed. Finally, it was established, through the use of an example, that if appropriate means are used for security policy reconciliation then incompatible security policy representations can be transformed into compatible ones. Research limitations/implications - Research limitations stem from the adoption of a generic view on the security policy notion and the selection of identification and authentication security policies as the focal point of the proposed framework. Research implications include the possibility of examining how existing security policy reconciliation models can be incorporated in this generic framework. The possibility of investigating how such a framework can lead to a security policy knowledge management tool for Grid administrators is also demonstrated. Practical implications - Practical implications of this work include the establishment of a common framework for security information exchange between Grid entities. Originality/value - This paper proposes a framework for enhancing security policy management in the Grid. The proposed framework can be used by researchers as a reference and by security experts in order to reduce ambiguity concerning the interpretation of security policies expressed in different forms, by negotiating Grid entities.

Notizen: Purpose - To carry out a practical experiment into the feasibility of service orientation to achieve a dynamic, late-binding service architecture. Design/methodology/approach - Literature view to provide a foundation in standards and measure anecdotal opinion regarding service orientation. The review informed an architectural design based on real world requirements from a multinational mobile telecommunications organisation moving toward portal-based services. The architectural implementation took place in a lab-based setting and tested with third-party services that were integrated into the architecture dynamically to test the late bound requirements of the infrastructure. The experimental approach also enabled the testing of the opinions formed regarding service orientation. Findings - The main outcome of the study related to the open, standards-based nature purported to be possible with service orientation. The findings on the study highlighted some major problems in interoperability and operational efficiency of service-oriented technologies when applied to a complex architecture framework. Research limitations/implications - Currently this represents the findings of a single study based on a specific set of requirements. In order to generalise, further study is needed and currently ongoing. Practical implications - The study has high implications for people wishing to approach service orientation as a means to integrate both new and legacy systems. The work raises a lot of questions about the supposed ease of integration. Originality/value - The work contributes to a growing body of work examining and evaluating the usefulness of service orientation.

Notizen: Purpose - To show how a combination of hard and soft project and change management methodologies guided successful in-house development of a campus-wide information system. Design/methodology/approach - A case study of the methodologies and management structures that guided the development is presented. Findings - Applying a combination of the dynamic systems development method, rapid prototyping, PRINCE 2, Checkland's soft systems methodologies and change management helped to develop a product that met user needs, offered value for money and was delivered on time. Practical implications - The case study shows that the advantages of formal governance brought by PRINCE 2 can be retained in a softer environment where user needs generate work packages and stage gates. Originality/value - There is widespread evidence that more than half of all IT projects fail and that the softer people issues are essential for success. The paper presents an example of fusing softer approaches with formal governance. It should interest programme and project managers, senior sponsors, software developers and usability specialists.

Notizen: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of a web-based constructivist learning environment, which was developed based on a course given to students in the Faculty of Creative Multimedia (FCM) on student learning. Design/methodology/approach - In this paper, a web-based multimedia-mediated project was developed based on an Internet Applications course where students were taught to use specific web authoring tools to solve a web-related problem. The mode of learning was geared towards a student-centred, constructivist learning perspective where students were active learners, worked in a group environment and constructed knowledge and understanding in their learning process. An online survey was given to the students to assess their reactions towards this learning environment. Findings - The results obtained were positive and satisfactory. In this learning process, students were able to understand the problem, work collaboratively, construct their own solutions, and determine their own learning outcomes. Feedback on the online survey provided further support of the students' positive attitudes towards this learning environment. Research limitations/implications - The implications of this research study are that students found that the web-based learning environment allowed them to be more active participants in their learning process, increasing their critical and creative thinking skills as well as improving their problem-solving skills. They learned "how to learn" and developed several learning skills such as communication, teamwork, collaboration and presentation, as well as achieving ownership of these learning outcomes. The use of multimedia- and web-based tools for their project allowed them to be innovative in their presentations, making the project more fun for them. Practical implications - This research provides educators with an innovative approach to teaching with technology, and students with a more effective learning environment. Originality/value - This paper fulfils Malaysia's MSC initiative to include ICT in the classroom teaching environment and to focus on learner-centred teaching and learning strategies. This constructivist-based learning environment also enabled students to build their problem-solving and collaborative skills as well as their creative and critical thinking abilities in order to meet the rising demands of twenty-first century organisations.

Notizen: Purpose - This paper reports a study conducted longitudinally to investigate group communication media choice and the use of a web-based learning tool, as well as other types of communication media, such as e-mail, telephone, and face-to-face, for communication and collaboration to complete given tasks. Design/methodology/approach - This study was designed following the case study research methodology and design of Yin. Longitudinal observation was made on groups in their naturalistic research setting. Twenty-three groups of four or five students working on five similar tasks were selected as the unit of analysis. Findings - The findings showed that groups' choice-making process of communication media evolved over a period of time. A pattern of group communication emerged, namely face-to-face, virtual, and mixed (the use of both face-to-face and virtual communication). The three group communication categories were significantly different in performance, with the mixed category performing the highest in terms of grade. Research limitations/implications - The limitations of this study are related to the case study methodology and the subjectivity of some interpretations. Practical implications - The findings should assist in the design of both on-campus and distance learning course modules to facilitate learning through group project or assignment. The findings should also assist the design and implementation of the e-learning systems and tools that are acceptable to users. Originality/value - The study provides insight into how such ICT applications can be made useful and effective, and why, when given the freedom to choose, the use of a web-based tool is the least attempted for communication.

Notizen: Purpose - To discuss how Hong Kong university libraries can help young professors and PhD students publish their articles in SCI (Science Citation Index) and SSCI (Social Science Citation Index) journals. Design/methodology/approach - With reference to the opinions of experts on how to publish work successfully, this paper provides practical advice for university libraries in Hong Kong. Findings - After collecting the opinions of experts and browsing the web sites of many university libraries throughout the world, suggests that Hong Kong universities can offer a variety of services in supporting research. The university libraries may build up electronic resources to gather more research information and journals information for helping young professors and PhD students publish their works. Practical implications - To provide very useful and practical advice for Hong Kong university libraries when facing the new challenge in support of research. Originality/value - During recent years, the Hong Kong universities have been facing budget cuts from the government, and have been placed under the pressure of transforming into centers of excellence and establishing themselves among the best in the world. This paper offers practical help to Hong Kong university libraries such as how to play an active and important role in providing a greater support service for young professors and PhD students that will help in the development of their academic careers.

Notizen: Purpose - Seeks to show that the software development process is based on the premise to provide an enhanced e-learning environment by supporting individual learning styles and preferences through the use of emerging adaptive technologies that also enable performance evaluation in the context of meeting agreed learning outcomes. Design/methodology/approach - The design methodology adopts a case study approach that follows the design and implementation of a learner management system. Findings - Web-based intelligent tutoring systems, aimed at compensating for the absence of a real world tutor have to date mostly concentrated on providing assistance in a particular subject domain and not focused on the problem of utilising content represented as learning objects across multi-subject domains. This paper describes the creation of a non-dictatorial tutoring system that has been developed at NTP Information Solutions Ltd. A visualisation tool has bee4n created called "learning navigator" to help learners to visualise the best path through assignable units extracted from a learning repository. Practical implications - The system is currently able to suggest new paths that take into account learning styles through learner performance, learner previous experience and learning objectives. Future work will include extending this criterion to take into account further individual learning preferences. Originality/value - The sharable content objects (SCOs) approach to the software solution extends the internationally recognised SCORM development standards. As a consequence the paper contributes to international e-learning standards development but also extends current knowledge of the role of adaptive technologies in supporting learning styles and preferences.

Notizen: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present a management tool that helps to achieve the objectives of the plan for info-tech systems and communications of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for the 2003-2006 period. Design/methodology/approach - The methodology used in this case is nothing if not practical. The chosen tool involved university members who put it into practice and the results were observed. Findings - Finds that a practical instrument, which appeals to the users' real needs, can overcome their objections to change and their apprehension of technological innovation. Research limitations/implications - As in all individual case studies - and this is no exception - the methodology chosen circumscribes to some extent the research and its results, which therefore cannot be automatically applied generally elsewhere. Practical implications - Users' interests are paramount and preparation of the technology involved must be given the utmost attention over a considerable period of time. Originality/value - University members have here a user-friendly means of effecting e-administration simply and easily.

Notizen: Purpose - To examine whether students have higher retention rates of material when they participate in online quizzes or online alternative student-centered assignments on the material presented in the F2F class. Design/methodology/approach - Reviews the literature; and analyzes data from the implementation of both types of assessment for the online sessions of the course (student-centered and faculty-centered) as correlated with mid-term and final examination scores. Findings - A significant difference was found on both mid-term and final examination scores by participants and non-participants in the assessments. A significant difference was not found in the participation levels in the various assessment types. In addition, a minimal relationship was found between the assessment type and the act of participating in the assessment. The assessment type was not found to have a significant effect, though the participation in the assessment type did have an effect. Research limitations/implications - Only two terms' worth of students, in one course, were examined. The assessments were not analyzed for equivalence in their coverage of the materials. Further research is needed on types of activities and level of participation, types of participation and level of learning, and participation scale grade rather than a yes/no method, are correlated. Practical implications - Provides a very useful source of information, guidance, and support for instructors considering the use of online assessments in their hybrid courses. Originality/value - This paper fulfils an identified need in the usage of alternative assessments and offers practical help to faculty teaching a theatre arts hybrid class.

Notizen: Purpose - Investigating the social structure in online courses helps in designing for and facilitating student support and retention. Aims to provide data showing how course design and use of social software technologies provided social and collaborative learning opportunities for online students. Design/methodology/approach - A study of computer-mediated groups that utilized social media technologies and a web-based collaborative model in an online program. Participants were put into groups and observed as they constructed knowledge using both online dialogue (synchronous and asynchronous) and social media technologies as tools to support their learning. Findings - The integration of web-based learning communities and collaborative group assignments into the course design has a positive influence on student retention in online courses. Research limitations/implications - The research was limited to the online student population at Pepperdine University, and did not include data or research from similar online programs at other universities. Future research should include data collected from students outside the USA to find out what role cultural mores, attitudes, and gender play. Practical implications - Provides curriculum design strategies that foster community, utilize social/ participatory media, and support online student learning and retention through effective course design. Originality/value - Current research on distance learning curriculum has focused on the instructor's perspective. It is felt that research from the student's perspective can also yield some valuable insights for online course design.

Notizen: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present an e-learning content adaptation toolkit - ELCAT - that helps to achieve the objectives of the KTP project No. 3509. Design/methodology/approach - The chosen methodology is absolutely practical. The tool was put into motion and results were observed as university and the collaborating company members started using it and getting results out of it. Findings - The methodology and the practical approach developed in the research facilitate e-learning practices and the developed software enables the utilisation of legacy e-learning material on the internet and world wide web. It also helps to break the resistance to change and the fears stemming from new technologies when a useful tool taught with the idea of what users really need is given to users. Research limitations/implications - As usual in all case studies, the results of this research are limited by the methodology, since results have to be reviewed carefully before applying them to other tools or universities. Practical implications - It is absolutely fundamental to take users' needs into account and implementation of technology tools should be properly planned across time. Originality/value - The paper presents an easy-to-use tool that allows university community members to carry out e-administration processes in a very simple and easy manner.

Notizen: Purpose - One of the greatest challenges facing any intelligent tutoring system is being able to adapt its behaviour based on the student's current knowledge level, ability, needs and wishes within a course. This paper aims to present a framework of BDI agents within an agent-based intelligent tutoring system (ABITS). Design/methodology/approach - A conceptual discussion approach is taken. Findings - The agents provide the core reasoning ability. In particular, the paper demonstrates how the system sources and refines a particular set of commonly available data. Also shows how these data are incorporated into the agents' belief set so that they may adapt their behaviour to support individual students. Originality/value - Provides a framework that can improve learning procedures for future users of ABITS.

Notizen: Purpose - Aims to investigate reactions to online delivery, student perceptions of the rates and depth of participation, and levels of engagement with the learning process in a Western Australian University. Design/methodology/approach - The sample for this study comprised 108 students who were enrolled in both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. An interpretative method was adopted using a case study approach, with groups of internal and external students within one education department. This method was more appropriate than a more quantitative approach. Findings - The results indicated that, while the students were technically competent overall, issues associated with equity and access varied between the groups and also between students enrolled in the same units. The sample had also re-conceptualised the notion of "personal" which moved beyond simple physical proximity to enable the students to create their own community of learners. Originality/value - Addresses the challenge for universities and instructional designers on how to increase the level and depth of interactivity in the online environment to further empower students to become independent learners.

Notizen: Purpose - With a philosophical stance in relation to education, this paper aims to discuss different understandings of participation in an information and communication technology (ICT)-supported distance-based teacher education program in Sweden. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on early results from two studies, both of which involved a group of teacher-trainees, with one interview and one questionnaire. Findings - The findings indicate that there is a need to be explicit about the ontological assumptions inherent in the intended use of ICT. The conclusion is that the program in question is built on assumptions of realism and that ICT lays the ground for individual participation and works to tell the students apart. Originality/value - Helps in understanding how ICT, and its use, can have different effects on different groups.

Notizen: Purpose - This report seeks to address the preliminary findings from a large-scale study of the different ways in which the asynchronous discussion forum (ADF) is being used in the online learning environment. Design/methodology/approach - A conceptual approach is taken. Findings - The structural and functional variation of the ADF is depicted within a framework of institutional and instructional models. Epistemological distinctions are made with respect to the role of the instructor, student requirements, and the assessment of student learning. Originality/value - The paper brings to light fundamental aspects of instructional quality and best practices involving the use of the ADF.

Notizen: Purpose - The aim of this work is to implement bootstrapping methods into software tools, based on Java. Design/methodology/approach - This paper presents a category of software e-tools aimed at simulating laboratory works and experiments. Findings - Both students and teaching staff use traditional statistical methods to infer the truth from sample data gathered in laboratory experiments. However, the repeated laboratory experiments mean the consumption of a great deal of substances and reactants. At the same time, there are some ethically motivated reasons to reduce the number of animals used in experimentation. Using a bootstrapping tool and computer power, the experimenter can repeat the original experiment on computer, obtaining pseudo-data as plausible as those obtained from the original experiment. Originality/value - Provides data on implementing bootstrapping methods into software e-tools, simulating laboratory experiments in didactic and research activities.

Notizen: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore both accessibility and usability and examine the inhibitors and methods to evaluate site accessibility. Design techniques which improve end-user access and site interactivity, demonstrated by practical examples, are also studied. Design/methodology/approach - Assesses various web sites for accessibility and usability. Findings - Criteria are determined by which to assess accessibility and usability of web sites. Originality/value - Disability is an important consideration in the development of contemporary web sites. By understanding the needs of all users, not only those with disabilities, organisations may begin the process of advancing both accessibility and usability and integrating these elements into their web development strategies.

Notizen: Purpose - This study was conducted to examine how proficiencies, motivation, and training impact the success of faculty development for web-based instruction (WBI) at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the USA. Design/methodology/approach - Data in this mixed-design exploratory study came from responses to an online questionnaire and follow-up interviews. Seven four-year public HBCUs that offered online curricula and provided faculty development opportunities in various forms such as workshops and seminars were examined. Findings - The results of the study indicated that faculty were proficient in basic technologies, but less proficient in more demanding technologies; provision of incentives such as time off to attend training was motivating for WBI participation; and faculty preferred individualized training and workshops. Research limitations/implications - Successful faculty development is as a complex process that involves several integrated components which should be viewed as an intentional, ongoing, and systemic process. Nonetheless, it plays an important role, particularly if programs are available to help faculty link effective delivery in their own teaching and research areas. Practical implications - Meaningful faculty development should be extendable to all instruction, whether in-class, web-based, or web-enhanced. Faculty development opportunities extending beyond the basic uses of technology and seeking connections between curriculum, pedagogy, technology, and administration to technology success is paramount. Originality/value - Feedback from this study can serve as a resource for decision-making about WBI projects. The results of the study should provide data and information that supports the technological mission of institutions.

Notizen: Purpose - To provide administrators at an Australian university with data on the feasibility of redirecting under-utilised computer laboratories facilities into a distributed high performance computing facility. Design/methodology/approach - The individual log-in records for each computer located in the computer laboratories at the university were investigated. The log-in data were investigated over a 24-hour/seven day a week period between June 2001 and August 2003. The data were analysed in terms of student access to the computer facilities during "normal" business hours, weekend times, and the semester breaks. Findings - The computer laboratories were hugely under-utilised, with less than 10 per cent of all log-ins occurring during off peak times (7 pm-8 am). Similarly, only weekends were likewise under-utilised. This strongly suggests that this spare computer capacity could be used for alternate means during these times. Research limitations/implications - Future research needs to determine whether the needs of the general computer laboratory user who requires a stable and secure system can coexist with the users of a high performance computer facility where different software and differently configured computer systems are required. Practical implications - This research has the potential for universities to utilise more effectively their computer laboratory resources by allocating under-utilised resources into other projects, such as to a high performance computing facility (HPCF). The cost of these re-allocated resources would be a fraction of the cost compared to a scenario in which a separate dedicated HPCF had to be provided. Originality/value - This paper suggests an alternate utilisation of the spare computing laboratory resources available at many universities.

Notizen: Purpose - Aims to outline the issues and debates about a five-week fully online staff development programme piloted in the University of Paisley, Scotland. Design/methodology/approach - A case study was the approach taken. Findings - The programme was designed to introduce lecturers to the theoretical and pedagogical issues surrounding online tutoring, while allowing them to get to grips with the delivery technology. The programme also provided academic staff with the opportunity to explore their attitudes towards using Computer-Mediated Communications (CMC) in their teaching and to reflect on how they could utilise it to enhance their face-to-face teaching activities. Staff found the programme challenging but they also appreciated the opportunity to take part. Some reported feeling much more confident about using the technology. Originality/value - Provides information on a programme designed to introduce face-to-face lecturers to the theoretical and pedagogical issues surrounding online tutoring while allowing them to become familiar with the technology.

Notizen: Purpose - To determine what factors influence faculty's decisions to use technology in their classes, what factors prevent them from use, and whether there are differences among faculty by gender, ethnicity, rank, sub-areas, etc. in using instructional technology. Design/methodology/approach - A survey instrument was used to measure attitudes toward technology among accounting educators. The instrument included three separate sections. The first section was devoted to examining factors that could influence faculty's opinion to use technology for teaching. The second section focused on issues that could possibly discourage faculty from use of technology. For these two sections a five-point Likert scale was developed with possible responses ranging from "not important" to "critically important". The third and final section was designed to provide demographic information for classification purposes and testing of the research questions. Findings - The results demonstrate that while accounting faculty value technology greatly and do use it in teaching, significant differences exist in their views toward it. Several factors were found to influence faculty's attitudes toward integration of technology. Conversely, there are other factors that tend to hamper widespread integration. Research limitations/implications - The research was conducted among US accounting faculty, which perhaps limits its usefulness elsewhere or in other disciplines Practical implications - University-sponsored incentive programs and financial support could encourage faculty to further incorporate technology and its various dimensions in their classes. Furthermore, administrators should make the necessary arrangements for faculty to attend training seminars designed to provide them with technical support. Originality/value - This study provides empirical evidence that is useful to both faculty and administrators in integrating technology in education.