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IADIS
INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE

25 - 28 February
Barcelona, SPAIN e - society
2009

PROCEEDINGS

Volume II

Edited by:
Piet Kommers
Pedro Isaías

international association for development of the information society

IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

e-Society 2009

i
ii
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
e-Society 2009

Volume II

BARCELONA, SPAIN

FEBRUARY 25-28, 2009

Organised by
IADIS
International Association for Development of the Information Society

iii
 Copyright 2009
IADIS Press
All rights reserved
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the
material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other way, and
storage in data banks. Permission for use must always be obtained from IADIS Press.
Please contact secretariat@iadis.org.

Edited by Piet Kommers and Pedro Isaías

Associate Editors: Luís Rodrigues, and Patrícia Barbosa

ISBN: 978-972-8924-78-2

iv
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD xi

PROGRAM COMMITTEE xiii

KEYNOTE LECTURE xvii

SPECIAL TALK xviii

CONFERENCE TUTORIAL xix

SHORT PAPERS

INFORMATION SOCIETY: THE PROBLEM OF LAW IN TERMS OF THE 3

‘LEGAL COMPLEXITY’ NOTION
Noemí L. Olivera and Araceli N. Proto
MOBILE CITIZEN-FRIENDLY SERVICES – TWO CASE STUDIES IN RURAL 8
AREAS
Karl W. Sandberg and Hakan P. Sundberg
E-GOVERNMENT: BIG BROTHER OR ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY? 13
James D. Boys and Hind Zantout
RULEMAKING, DEMOCRACY, AND DIGITIZATION IN ADMINISTRATIVE 18
AGENCIES
John M. de Figueiredo
TAX ADMINISTRATION IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY: CHALLENGES, 23
ADVANCES AND EXPECTATIONS
Amery Moisés Nadir Júnior and Hugo Cesar Hoeschl
HARMONISATION OF SERVICE REPOSITORIES FROM DIFFERENT PUBLIC 27
AUTHORITIES―THE AMT@DIREKT APPROACH
Veit Jahns, Volker Schmitz and Frank-Dieter Dorloff
VIRTUAL REGIONAL PLATFORM FOR THE SUSTAINABLE STRATEGY 33
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
Mihaela Muresan
ALZHERAPY: AN ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION 38
José Miguel Castillo and Enrique García

v
FACTOR ANALYSIS ON THE USER ACCEPTANCE OF HEALTH CARE 43
SERVICES USING PHR
Soonhwa An
CAMERAS IN YOUR LIVING ROOM, THE NEXT STEP IN E-HOMECARE? 48
Griet Verhenneman
MANAGING ASTHMA WITH MOBILE PHONES: A FEASIBILITY STUDY 53
Bree E. Holtz and Pamela Whitten
A PATIENT CENTRIC EHEALTH SOLUTION FOR A DEVELOPING COUNTRY 57
K.R.P. Chapman and S.M.K.D. Arunatileka
ANALYZING WEB ARTEFACTS BY APPLYING COMPLEX THINKING 63
Laurence Noël and Ghislaine Azémard
YASI: A PARAMETRIC MODEL TO GENERATE AUTONOMOUS AND 68
INTEGRATED SOCIAL NETWORKS
Vala Ali Rohani
COGNITIVE IMMERSION 73
Elena Parra and Raquel Navarro-Prieto
THE DESIGN OF THE TUNTOOL, A SOFTWARE TOOL FOR THE TUNING 76
METHODOLOGY
Philippos Pouyioutas
INCREASING TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING STUDENT INNOVATION 80
ABILITY AND APTITUDE THROUGH COLLABORATIVE CROSS-DISCIPLINE
INNOVATION BOOTCAMPS
Geoffrey A. Wright
USING VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIROMENTS AND ON-LINE METHODS FOR 85
TRAINING HOSPITAL PERSONNEL
Félix Buendía García and Juan Vicente Izquierdo
COMPLEMENTARY COGNITION: IMPROVING STEM STUDENT 90
MATHEMATICAL SELF-EFFICIACY AND UNDERSTANDING BY TEACHING
PROGRAMMING
Geoffrey A. Wright
A FRAMEWORK FOR THE EVALUATION OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 95
PLATFORMS
Mariona Estrada, Raquel Navarro-Prieto and Martí Quixal
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTIMEDIA RESOURCE NETWORK IN 100
SOUTHERN PATAGONIA FOR THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY
Jesús Salinas, Bárbara de Benito, Adolfina Pérez, Eugenia Márquez, Mª Elena Bain,
Samanta Ramos
AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS OF THE BLENDED LEARNING TEACHING 106
STYLE
Carmen de Pablos Heredero and Mónica de Pablos Heredero

vi
USING WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES TO BUILD LEARNING COMMUNITIES 111
Clive Buckley, Angela Hastings and Richard Mottershead
CLASS SUPPORT SYSTEM TO DEVELOP DISCERNING EYES FOR 115
INFORMATION
Kousuke Mikoshi, Yuki Watanabe, Akinori Nishihara
THE SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR THE PROJECT BASED LEARNING 120
Makio Fukuda, Michinori Yamashita, Toshiyuki Ueyama, Atsushi Tsubokura, Minae
Nishimoto
MULTIMEDIA E-LEARNING CONTENT FOR NON-BROADBAND USERS 125
DEVELOPED BY WEBELS SYSTEM
Zheng He, Jingxia Yue and Haruki Ueno
SEMANTIC LEARNING RESOURCES INTEGRATION USING 130
ONTOLOGY-BASED WEB SERVICES METADATA
Ngamnij Arch-int
COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT AND ASSESSMENT 135
Kamelia Stefanova, Valentin Kissimov , Dorina Kabakchieva and Roumen Nikolov
MOBILE PHONE-BASED ONTOLOGICAL MODELING FOR SOCIAL NETWORK 141
Kyunghee Lee and Minkoo Kim
A DEPENDABLE SOFTWARE SERVICE FOR GREEN MANUFACTURING 145
USING SOA
Sita Ramakrishnan, Andy Goh and Subramania Ramakrishnan
WHAT KIND OF MOUSE-BASED INTERACTION IS BEST FOR YOUR 151
E-BUSINESS WEBSITES?
Hong-In Cheng, Kyong-Hee Lee, Sinah Jo, Hye Young Chang, Bom Pool Baek and
Hyunhee Jung
HOW TO LAYOUT BROADCASTING SCREEN; EYE TRACKING EXPERIMENT 155
OF SCREEN VECTOR POWER
Mahnwoo Kwon, Jiyoun Lee and Yunjung Lee
LOCAL ePOLITICS REPUTATION CASE STUDY 161
Jean-Marc Seigneur
GOVERNMENT INFORMATICS AND CHINA EARTHQUAKE RESCUE: 167
A CASE STUDY IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Zelin Li and Xiongwei Song
TOWARDS A SECURE, SCALABLE, COMPATIBLE AND OPEN IPTV SOLUTION 172
Enrique de la Hoz, Antonio García, Bernardo Alarcos and Daniel Hernanz
SIE-HEALTH, E-HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM 176
Loxo Lueiro-Astray, César Parguiñas-Portas, Rubén Romero-González, Cástor Sánchez-
Chao, Juan Carlos González-Moreno
CONTEXT AWARE INTELLIGENT SERVICE BASED ON FOLKSONOMIES 181
Joonhee Kwon and Sungrim Kim

vii
USING A MOBILE TERMINAL TO HELP VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE 185
Sangman Moh, Jian Shen and Ilyong Chung
ANALYSIS OF THE SECURITY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ID MANAGEMENT 189
SYSTEM
Yeonjung Kang, Haeryong Park, Kilsoo Chun and Junghwan Song
SECURITY ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION SYSTEM 195
Diego Abbo and Lily Sun
PKI ARCHITECTURE FOR EMERGENCY AND RESCUE MANET 201
Enrique de la Hoz, Juan Carlos Otero, Bernardo Alarcos , Iván Marsá-Maestre, M.A.
López-Carmona
FEATURE REDUCTION FOR DOCUMENT CLUSTERING WITH NZIPF METHOD 205
José Luis Castillo Sequera, José R. Fernández del Castillo and León González Sotos
A GROUP BASED FUZZY TOPSIS APPROACH TO SELECTING A KNOWLEDGE 210
MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
S. Farid Mousavi and Amir Sanayei
USER EXPERIENCE OF ONLINE SOCIAL-NETWORK SERVICES: COMPARING 215
OLD AND YOUNG ADULTS USING LADDERING ANALYSIS
Jung Min Kang, Sunjae Kim, Daniel Kim, Inseong Lee and Jinwoo Kim
INFOCAMPUS. UNIVERSITY SOCIAL NETWORK FOR ENTERTAINMENT, 219
CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY
Francisco Ortiz, Raul Fraile and Juan Galiana
UNOBTRUSIVE ESTIMATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL STATES BASED ON 223
HUMAN MOVEMENT OBSERVATION
Javier P. Egüez Guevara and Hiroyuki Umemuro
MOBILE GIS FRAMEWORK & SWE STANDARDS IN EMERGENCY UTILITY 227
MANAGEMENT
H. Tahami, A. Mansourian, M.Farahani, M. Mesgary and M. Farnaghi

REFLECTION PAPERS

LOOKING FOR BIOINFORMATICS INFORMATION IN E-LEARNING 233

ENVIRONMENT: PERSPECTIVE ON LIBRARIAN’S ROLE IN MANAGEMENT
OF INFORMATION WITH WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGY
Shri Ram and N Laxman Rao
REPUTATION-BASED TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORK SELECTION 237
Jean-Marc Seigneur and Xavier Titi
A STUDY OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COMMERCIAL AND NOT FOR 241
PROFIT SECTOR CRM SYSTEMS
Peter Flory and Sergio de Cesare

viii
AN INTEGRATED REPOSITORY OF ELECTRIC MEDICAL RECORD AND 245
MEDICAL IMAGE FOR STATE WIDE INTER-HEALTH SYSTEM REFERRALS
Mitsuhiro Takasaki ,Tadahide Totoki, Nobumitu Okita, Touichiro Majima,
Yuuiti Miyamoto, Hiromi Akizuki and Takahiro Nagao
CONSTRUCTIVIST TEACHING 2009: VIRTUAL WORLDS, PROMISING 249
TECHNOLOGIES, INSPIRING EXAMPLES
Maureen Brown Yoder
WHO ARE YOU ON THE INTERNET? DIGITAL IDENTITY: AN EXHIBITION 253
CONCERNING THE TECNOSOCIAL USES OF THE NET
Margalida Castells and Bel Llodrà
TOWARDS DESIGNING AFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGY TO PROMOTE 257
PRODUCTIVE LOVE
Ramon Solves Pujol and Hiroyuki Umemuro
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AND SERVICES SCIENCES INNOVATION 261
Alan Jones and Simon Scotchbrook
E-PAYMENTS AND E-LEGISLATION IN NAMIBIA 265
Anicia Peters
"PE'ER PROJECT": FREE OPENING OF ACADEMIC E-BOOKS, AUDIO-BOOKS 269
AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES AT THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF ISRAEL:
LESSONS FROM THE FIRST YEAR
Edna Tal-Elhasid, Yoav Yair and Hagit Meishar-Tal
THE LAW IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY 272
Noemí L. Olivera and Araceli N. Proto
DIGITAL RECORDKEEPING IN SUPPORT OF SOCIAL INCLUSION IN AN 276
SOCIETY
Anne Gilliland and Kelvin White

POSTERS

HUMAN-AWARE APPROACHES FOR WEBSITE CONTENT MANAGEMENT 283

SYSTEMS
Pavel Vasev
PREFERENCE AND PURCHASE DECISION FOR THE JEWELRY PRODUCTS ON 285
E-BUSINESS
Kyong-Hee Lee, Min-Jeung Cho, HyunHee Jung, Jin-Young Son, Yae-Nae Huh and
Hong-In Cheng
RESEARCH ON RESEARCHER EVALUATION SYSTEM WITH COOPERATIVE 288
VIRTUAL CURRENCY
Akira Ide

ix
DIGITAL DIVIDE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: LIBYA AS A CASE STUDY 291
Khamis Faraj Alarabi
EVALUATION OF ONLINE THERAPY AS TRAINING PROGRAM PSYCHOLOGY 294
Georgina Cárdenas López, Lorena A. Flores Plata, Anabel de la Rosa Gómez and
Ximena Duran Baca
A PARADIGM FOR RHETORICAL STRUCTURE THEORY (RST) BASED 297
RELATIONS TO ACCOMMODATE MULTIMEDIA OBJECTS
Muhammad Shoaib and S.Khaldoon

DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM

HOLISTIC APPROACH TO THE CONSUMPTION MOTIVATIONS ON THE WEB: 303

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF THEIR COMPOSITION AND ONLINE
BEHAVIOURAL CONSEQUENCES
Katarzyna Skowronek-Duarte, Inma Rodríguez-Ardura and Francisco J. Martínez-López
ENGINEERS’ WORK AS INFORMATIZED WORK - TRAJECTORIES IN 308
AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERING
Mascha Will-Zocholl
E-GOVERNMENT IN KUWAIT: A MODELING FRAMEWORK 313
Rachid Meziani
ACTION RESEARCH. LEARNING NETWORKS AND EDUCATIONAL ONLINE 318
RESOURCES WITH CULTURAL HERITAGE CONTENT
Janine Sprünker

AUTHOR INDEX

x
 FOREWORD

These proceedings contain the papers and posters of the IADIS International Conference e-
Society 2009, which was organised by the International Association for Development of
the Information Society, in Barcelona, Spain, February 25 – 28, 2009.
The IADIS e-Society 2009 conference aims to address the main issues of concern within
the Information Society. This conference covers both the technical as well as the non-
technical aspects of the Information Society. Broad areas of interest are eSociety and
Digital Divide, eBusiness / eCommerce, eLearning, New Media and E-Society, Digital
Services in ESociety, eGovernment /eGovernance, eHealth, Information Systems, and
Information Management.
The following eighty-three topics have been object of paper and poster submissions:
• eSociety and Digital Divide - Connectivity may imply social coherence and
integration. The opposite may result as well, when systematic measures are taken to
exclude certain individuals or certain groups. Papers are welcomed on the next
keywords: Social Integration, Social Bookmarking, Social Software, E-Democracy,
Social Integration;
• eBusiness / eCommerce area: Business Ontologies and Models, Digital Goods and
Services, eBusiness Models, eCommerce Application Fields, eCommerce Economics,
eCommerce Services, Electronic Service Delivery, eMarketing, Languages for
Describing Goods and Services, Online Auctions and Technologies, Virtual
Organisations and Teleworking;
• eLearning area: Collaborative Learning, Curriculum Content Design & Development,
Delivery Systems and Environments, Educational Systems Design, E-Citizenship and
Inclusion, eLearning Organisational Issues, Evaluation and Assessment, Political and
Social Aspects, Virtual Learning Environments and Issues, Web-based Learning
Communities;
• New Media and E-Society area: Digitization, heterogeneity and convergence,
Interactivity and virtuality, Citizenship, regulation and heterarchy, Innovation, identity
and the global village syndrome, Internet Cultures and new interpretations of “Space”,
Polity and the Digitally Suppressed
• Digital Services in ESociety area: Service Broadcasting, Political Reporting,
Development of Digital Services, Freedom of Expression, E-Journalism, Open Access
• eGovernment /eGovernance area: Accessibility, Democracy and the Citizen, Digital
Economies, Digital Regions, eAdministration, eGovernment Management,
eProcurement, Global Trends, National and International Economies, Social Inclusion
• eHealth area: Data Security Issues; eHealth Policy and Practice; eHealthcare
Strategies and Provision; Legal Issues; Medical Research Ethics; Patient Privacy and
Confidentiality.

xi
• Information Systems: Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Intelligent Agents,
Intelligent Systems, IS Security Issues, Mobile Applications, Multimedia Applications,
Payment Systems, Protocols and Standards, Software Requirements and IS
Architectures, Storage Issues, Strategies and Tendencies, System Architectures,
Telework Technologies, Ubiquitous Computing, Virtual Reality, Wireless
Communications.
• Information Management area: Computer-Mediated Communication, Content
Development, Cyber law and Intellectual Property, Data Mining, ePublishing and
Digital Libraries, Human Computer Interaction, Information Search and Retrieval,
Knowledge Management, Policy Issues, Privacy Issues, Social and Organizational
Aspects, Virtual Communities, XML and Other Extensible Languages

The IADIS e-Society 2009 Conference had 276 submissions from more than 43 countries.
Each submission has been anonymously reviewed by an average of three independent
reviewers, to ensure the final high standard of the accepted submissions. Out of the papers
submitted, 56 received blind referee ratings that signified acceptability for publication as
full papers (acceptance rate below 21%), while some others were published as short
papers, reflection papers, posters and doctoral consortium. The best papers will be selected
for publishing as extended versions in the IADIS International Journal on WWW/Internet
(ISSN: 1645-7641).

The conference, besides the presentation of full papers, short papers, reflection papers,
posters and doctoral consortium, also include a keynote presentation. Special thanks go to
Professor Jeremy Millard, Danish Technological Institute, Denmark for his keynote
presentation.

In addition, e-Society 2009 features a Tutorial by Professor Paul Nieuwenhuysen, Vrije

Universiteit Brussel, Belgium and a special talk by Carlo Maria Arpaia, senior official,
Bank of Italy, Liaison with Treasury Department.

As we all know, a conference requires the effort of many individuals. We would like to
thank all members of the Program Committee (139 top researchers in their fields) for their
hard work in reviewing and selecting the papers that appear in this book. We would also
like to thank all the authors who have submitted their papers to this conference.
Last but not least, we hope that everybody has a good time in Barcelona, and we invite all
participants for next year’s edition of the IADIS International Conference e-Society 2010.

Pedro Isaías, Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University), Portugal

Conference Chair

Piet Kommers, University of Twente, The Netherlands

Conference Program Chair

Barcelona, Spain, February 2009

xii
 PROGRAM COMMITTEE

CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS

Pedro Isaías, Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University), Portugal

PROGRAM CHAIR
Piet Kommers, University of Twente, The Netherlands

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Adam Grzech, Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland

Adam P. Vrechopoulos, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece
Adam Wojciechowski, Poznan University of Technology, Poland
Agapito Ledezma, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
Alejandro Fernandez, LIFIA - Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina
Alfredo Milanim, University of Perugia, Italy
Alfredo Pina, Public University of Navarra, Spain
Alice Goodwin-Davey, UNISA, South Africa
Alicia Diaz, LIFIA - Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina
Andreas Tolk, Old Dominion University, USA
Andrew Ravenscroft, London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
Ann M. Shortridge, University of Oklahoma, USA
Anthony Pellegrino, Florida State University, USA
Antonio Cuevas, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Atilla Elci, Eastern Mediterranean University, Turkey
Barbara Crump, Massey University, New Zealand
Bardo Fraunholz, Deakin University, Australia
Ben Daniel, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Boong-Yeol Ryoo, Texas A&M University, USA
Brian Donnellan, NUI, Galway, Ireland
Bridget Cooper, Leeds Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
Britta Schinzel, University of Freiburg, Germany
Carlo Simon, Provadis School of International Management and Technology AG,
Germany
Carlos Abalde, University of A Coruña, Spain

xiii
 Carmine Gravino, University of Salerno, Italy
Cesar Alberto Collazos, University of Cauca, Colombia
Charles Owen, Michigan State University, USA
Christian Russ, University Klagenfurt, Austria
Christine Bruff, The University of Newcastle, Australia
Dan Dumitru Burdescu, University of Craiova, Romania
Darina Dicheva, Winston-Salem State University, USA
David Cabrero Souto, University of A Coruña, Spain
David Edwards, Lougborough University, United Kingdom
Demetrios Sampson, University of Piraeus, Greece
Deniz Deryakulu, Ankara University, Turkey
Dominik Lamp, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Dunwei Wen, Athabasca University, Canada
Efthymios Alepis, University of Piraeus, Greece
Elpida Tzafestas, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Eltahir Kabbar, ADWC-HCT, United Arab Emirates
Elvira Popescu, University of Craiova, Romania
Enrique Bonsón, Universidad de Huelva, Spain
Erik Rolland, University of California, Riverside, USA
Euclides Keramopoulos, Technological Educational Institute Thessalonikis, Greece
Eugenia Kovatcheva, University of Sofia, Bulgaria
Eva Lindh Waterworth, Umeå University, Sweden
Fani Zlatarova, Elizabethtown College, USA
Fausto Fasano, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy
Federica Vatta, University of Trieste, Italy
Filomena Ferrucci, University of Salerno, Italy
Frank Wang, Cranfield University, United Kingdom
Fredrik Karlsson, Orebro University, Sweden
Frina Albertyn, Eastern Institute of Technology, New Zealand
Geoff Skinner, The University of Newcastle, Australia
George Tsihrintzis, University of Piraeus, Greece
Georgeta Chirlesan, University of Pitesti, Romania,
Georgios Doukidis, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece
Gérôme Canals, LORIA, France
Gerry McCullough, The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, New Zealand
Giuseppe Lugano, Corporate R&D TeliaSonera, Finland
Giuseppe Scanniello, University of Salerno, Italy
Gustavo Rossi, LIFIA - Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina
Hai Jin, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
Hans-Dieter Zimmermann, University of Applied Sciences - HTW Chur, Switzerland
Harris Wang, Athabasca University, Canada
Harry Bouwman, Delft Technical University, The Netherlands
Hentie Wilson, University of South Africa, South Africa

xiv
 Heredina Fernandez, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain
Hiroyuki Mitsuhara, The University of Tokushima, Japan
Inga Hunter, Massey University, New Zealand
J. K. Vijayakumar, American University of Antigua, West Indies
Jacques Steyn, Monash University, South Africa
Jan Lojda, Karel Englis College, Czech Republic
Jan Meyer, Monash University, South Africa
Javier Paris, University of A Coruña, Spain
Javier Sarsa, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Jesús Salinas, Universidad de las Islas Baleares, Spain
Jiying Zhao, Ottawa University, Canada
Jose Ignacio Moreno, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
Judit Jassó, University of Perugia, Italy
Julia Watkins, University of North Florida, USA
Junping Sun, Nova Southeastern University, USA
Kalinka Kaloyanova, University of Sofia, Bulgaria
Kar Tin Lee, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Katerina Kabassi, University of Piraeus, Greece
Katerina Pramatari, Athens University of Economics & Business, Greece
Keri Logan, Massey University, New Zealand
Kok-Leong Ong, Deakin University, Australia
Lars Knipping, Berlin University of Technology, Germany
Laura M. Castro, University of A Coruña, Spain
Leonie Steyn, UNISA, South Africa
Luca Paolino, Università di Salerno, Italy
Lynne Baillie, Telecommunications Research Center Vienna, Austria
Mahmoud F. Abaza, Athabasca University, Canada
Marco Temperini, Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy
Matjaz Gams, Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Matthew Mitchell, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Meltem Baturay, Gazi University, Turkey
Michael E. Auer, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria
Michele Risi, University of Salerno, Italy
Miguel A. Gomez Laso, Public University of Navarre, Spain
Miguel Prado Lima, Prodei.Net, Argentina
Mike Cushman, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Mike Joy, University of Warwick, UK
Oscar Lin, Athabasca University, Canada
Paolo Maresca, University "Federico II", Italy
Paul Brna, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Pavel Azalov, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Petra Poulová, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Philippos Pouyioutas, University of Nicosia, Cyprus

xv
 Piotr Gawrysiak, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Rajavelu Loganathan, Abu Dhabi Women's College, United Arab Emirates
Rajendra Kumar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Ray Webster, Murdoch University, Australia
Reza Barkhi, Virginia Tech, USA
Rod McCall, Department Fraunhofer FIT, Sankt Augustin, Germany
Roland Kaschek, Massey University, New Zealand
Roy Rada, University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA
Ryo Takaoka, Yamaguchi University, Japan
Sabina Jeschke, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Sabine Graf, National Central University, Taiwan
Sara de Freitas, Serious Games Institute at the University of Coventry, UK
Shanghua Sun, University of London, UK
Shinobu Hasegawa, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan
Sofia Stamou, University of Patras, Greece
Stephan Lukosch, TU Delft, The Netherlands
Stephane Bressan, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Stewart Waters, University of Central Florida, USA
Sven Grottke, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Tasos Ptohos, University of Westminster, UK
Thomas Hess, University of Munich, Germany
Tomasz Müldner, Acadia University, Canada
Tuncer Ören, University of Ottawa, Canada
Ugo Erra, University of Basilicata, Italy
Vasiliki Spiliotopoulou, ASPAITE Patras, Greece
Victor Cavaller, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Victor Villagra, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
Vijayan Sugumaran, Oakland University, USA
Vincent Ng, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Vincenzo Deufemia, Universita' degli Studi di Salerno, Italy
Vinesh Chandra, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Vladimir Fomichov, Russian State Technological University, Russia
Vladimir Shekhovtsov, Kharkov Polytechnical Institute, Ukraine
Wenyuan Li, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
William Russell, University of Central Florida, USA
Wojciech Cellary, The Poznan University of Economics, Poland
Yasemin Gülbahar, Baskent University, Turkey
Yavuz Akpinar, Boðaziçi University, Turkey
Yongjian Fu, Cleveland State University, USA

xvi
 KEYNOTE LECTURE

CURRENT TRENDS AND FUTURE DRIVERS IN

EGOVERNANCE – A VISION FOR 2020
by Dr. Jeremy Millard, Danish Technological Institute, Denmark

Abstract
This presentation traces both the longer and shorter term developments in European governance
and technology to provide a context for articulating a detailed vision of eGovernance in 2020. It
shows how this vision is not automatic but depends upon important institutional and mindset
changes which may not happen, even though there is strong evidence that some already are and that
wider conditions (including the current economic turmoil) can be conducive to bringing them
about. The paper offers some practical approaches to achieve the vision, but also outlines the
dangers even if the vision is realised, particularly new types of digital divide and challenges to the
overall mandate and role of government and the public sector.

xvii
 SPECIAL TALK

NET ECONOMIES AND PUBLIC FINANCE STATISTICS:

THE SIOPE EXPERIENCE
by Carlo Maria Arpaia
senior official
Bank of Italy - Liaison with Treasury Department, Italy

Abstract
Monitoring of public finance aggregates and ratios has become more and more important within the
EU in compliance with Maastricht Treaty parameters; the need for timely data about public
spending trends is particularly pressing in Italy, where a high public debt ratio exists alongside non-
uniform accounting standards across public entities and the Government's intention to introduce
fiscal federalism.

In order to address this issue, the Italian Ministry for the Economy and Finance (MEF) and the
Bank of Italy decided to create the General Government Transactions Information System
(SIOPE). After 3 years of intensive work with different types of public entities, their banks,
software houses and other stakeholders, SIOPE now receives on a daily basis electronic data
covering 90 per cent of S-13 public entities cash-flows, enabling MEF and the Italian National
Institute of Statistics (Istat) to speed up the processing of public finance data. Even if SIOPE still
has ample scope to improve data quality and develop new outputs, it is a clear example of what
successful outcomes are possible with inter-institutional cooperation and an intensive use of
network technologies.

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the main advantages of SIOPE's working method and the main
problems to be addressed, in order to provide other countries (especially emerging economies) with
guidelines on creating this kind of information system. Keywords: General government, State and
local budget expenditure, technological change.

xviii
 CONFERENCE TUTORIAL

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL IN A WORLD OF SCATTERED

INFORMATION SOURCES
by Paul Nieuwenhuysen
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Abstract
Information sources are scattered throughout the Internet and WWW; this hinders finding and
using information. Therefore, methods and techniques to cope with this reality have been
developed at the level of system creators. Two techniques are mainly used: on the one hand
aggregating smaller sources in a bigger searchable database and on the other hand federated
searching through several existing database in one simultaneous action. Concrete applications that
can be exploited by end-users are presented. For the two approaches we outline limitations,
concerns, advantages and disadvantages.

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INFORMATION SOCIETY: THE PROBLEM OF LAW IN

TERMS OF THE ‘LEGAL COMPLEXITY’ NOTION

Noemí L. Olivera
Grupo de Estudio de la Complejidad en la Sociedad de la Información –GECSI-,
Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales, Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Edificio de la Reforma, calle 48 entre 6 y 7, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina (CP 1900)

Araceli N. Proto
Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
Laboratorio de Sistemas Complejos, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Av. Paseo Colon 850 4P 1063 Buenos Aires, Argentina

ABSTRACT
The paper describes the tension between the tools of the Law of Modernity –based on state legality- and those that are
emerging in the present times –as answers to the demands of the technological development in the field of
communications-. The problem is analyzed and explained introducing the notion of ‘legal complexity’, looking for a
legal system suitable to solve the legal problems within the Information Society.

KEYWORDS
Legal System; Law; Complexity; Information Society; Legal Policies

1. INTRODUCTION
Our present project is devoted to the study of the social and legal aspects of the Information Society –IS-. We
consider the Information Society a complex system and therefore, use complex systems tools [Ross; Ward] to
analyze and go ahead in the understanding of the mechanisms that govern it, from the socioeconomic point of
view.
In the legal area, the study is aimed to contribute to the definition of the most adequate legal policies that
are required to achieve the “people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society” the
World Summit on the Information Society proclaims [WSIS-03/GENEVA/DOC/4-E].
This paper intends to show that it is not by means of introducing new institutes in the existing legal
system that the demands that Information and Communication Technologies –ICT- pose on law shall be
satisfied.

2. LAW IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

To begin with, some definitions are indispensable. The relationship between the legal disciplines and
languages is really troublesome. Whereas both ‘law’ and ‘right’, for instance, are called ‘derecho’ in Spanish,
in most Romance Languages there are two words to explain two different meanings of the English word Law.
Law means ‘rule’ (ley –spanish-, loi –french-, legge –italian-), but it also means ‘legal system’ (derecho –
spanish-, droit –french-, diritto –italian-). This fact, that would be irrelevant in a communication confined to
the legal system of Modernity -which reduces the idea of law as ‘legal system’ to law as ‘rule’ [Grossi;
Galgano, 2008]-, becomes certainly important in the frame of this work. Therefore, and in order to prevent
misunderstandings, in this paper, and from now on, ‘law’ as a general rule shall be written in lowercase
letters and ‘LAW’ meaning a legal system, fully in capital letters.

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Whereas the importance of the law lies in its character of ‘general rule’ –this is, applicable to everybody-,
the fact that it is strictly related to national legal orders shows its inadequacy to the problem at hand.
However, despite the ideas of those that find in the law almost the unique source, there are different sources
of LAW, ready to be reckoned with legitimacy in the Information Society.

2.1 The Information Society

Beyond the concept of Information Society posed when "... the OECD acknowledged that the economy of
tomorrow will be, to a great extent, ‘information economy’ and the society will become ‘information society’
which means that information will account for a significant part of added value of most goods and services
performed and information intensive actions will become distinctive of the households and the citizens"
[OECD], and leaving aside, for the time being, the discussion about whether it is or should be named
‘Information Society’ or ‘Knowledge Society’, the fact remains that today this concept involves relevant
social issues, most of them unexpected in those early days. One of those relevant issues is LAW, and it has
received scarce attention.
There is the 25th Goal –Legislative framework- of the eLAC 2007 -Plan of Action for the Information
Society in Latin America and the Caribbean-to prove the assert. With forecasted deadline on November
2005, in 2007 there was a diagnosis of ‘no advance’ regarding this goal [ECLAC LC/W151]. Afterwards, in
February 2008, the ‘San Salvador Commitment’ [ECLAC LC/R.2144], that gave birth to eLAC 2010,
includes the topic in the Measure 78. In simple words, no longer ‘legislative framework’, the new goal is
‘regulatory framework’. Not a single word about LAW.

2.2 Law and Society

The relationship between LAW and society can be and has been described in many different ways, according
to the theoretical position of the author. Beyond the theoretical discussions, there lays reality, and it shows
that decisions on legal policies are not neutral in terms of social impact. According to the circumstances, such
decisions could lead to social exclusion or bankruptcy. The advance towards an integrated Information
Society depends of an adequate legal frame that ensures an egalitarian and fruitful society, avoiding, in so
doing, the threat of a two-speed society, which is the cause of the Digital Divide.
The attempts to analyze and rule the relationship between computers and LAW gave birth to the branch of
law that is called either Cyberlaw [Rosenoer] or Computer Law [Standler] in English and Derecho
Informático [Barrio] in Spanish.
An inventory of the institutes that, in the frame of such new branch of law, have been or are being
analyzed and/or regulated in most legal systems shows that they include electronic invoice, e-signature, e-
document, e-copy; the tools that those who are already ‘in’ the Information Society use. This shows that
these topics are mainly a problem for people that are, not only ‘in’, but impelling the technological
development of the Information Society, the same as regarding the debate about Intellectual Property in the
net. As far as the LAW is concerned, the issue seems to be restricted to the introduction of new institutes in
the legal system. Barely few analyze how the existing legal system interferes with the institutes or
instruments that are being developed in the context of the Information Society.

3. THE ‘LEGAL COMPLEXITY’ NOTION

The legal system –LAW- is composed by many instruments, institutes or institutions (I) interacting among
themselves. It is clear that instruments, institutes or institutions, augment their number according with the
appearance of new ICT and the contemporary need to regulate them. Then, the LAW in the Information
Society is progressively composed by more and more I, generally defined at different technological states –
since the principle of technological neutrality [Alfa-Redi] is loudly declared [Van der Haar] but hardly
respected [Observatorio]-, and for this reason different I are not always working in a synchronized way.

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3.1 Some Non-legal Considerations

Each instrument/institute/institution is embedded in a more general assemblage of institutes that regulate a
‘particular social activity’ or social ‘subsystem’. Each of these institutes can be considered an ‘agent’ inside a
‘subsystem’ that is interacting with other institutes or agents of other subsystems. All these subsystems
compose the legal frame of a given State. Let us call it the ‘system’.
There are many conflictive situations that involve different legal subsystems (public law, private law,
human rights). Moreover, most of them can only achieve a satisfactory solution when a final decision is taken
by a third party, for example, an arbiter or a judge. This means that the different subsystems are not
interacting in a simple way.
From the physics point of view, when a set of subsystems interacting among themselves, lead to
confused, unsolved (basically chaotic) scenarios, it is said that such interactions are nonlinear; therefore, we
are facing a ‘complex system’. For this reason, at the beginning of the 90s, it was formulated the notion of
‘business complexity’ [Kauffman]. It is time now, given the scenario described above, to talk about the ‘legal
complexity’.

3.2 Agents’ Behavior

Coming back to this section’s first statement, the interactions among the I might be performed either in a
cooperative (lucky) way or colliding and interfering (non-cooperative behavior). This is likely to be the case
when new I, aimed to fulfill the demands of the Information Society, are introduced to ‘patch’ some
situations. So, the new-I (NI) and the old-I (OI) interact like in a Lotka-Volterra type model [see Maurer-
Huberman], leading the whole legal system under consideration to unstable (in the nonlinear dynamics sense)
behavior.
A detailed physico-mathematical analysis of cooperation/competition (non-cooperation) relationships
among OI and NI and the prospection of the future scenarios of the legal system –LAW- according with their
initial states is out of the scope of this work. However, we would say that there are general rules in the
Lotka-Volterra type models as it was shown in Caiafa and Proto [2006] and Caram, Caiafa, Proto and
Ausloos [2008] that predict hung, unstable or, even worst, chaotic scenarios, when non cooperation among
agents/institutions (I) is present.
Looking around, the mathematical modelization confirms the common sense forecasting, in the sense
that when a given problem involves many actors, it is not possible to solve anything unless the majority agree
(cooperate) in doing so. If different groups of actors –lawmakers in our case- are looking at the whole
problem from the partial side of their partial benefits, the equitable (stable) solution shall never arise. Of
course each particular problem has a particular solution, but the previous statement can be obviously
accepted.
3.2.1 A Case as an Example
In Argentina, for instance, in the interest of the tax administration and the mayor corporations, the electronic
invoice has been regulated. So, since the first regulation in 2002, there is a widening system – up to 2008 the
General Administration of Public Incomes –AFIP- has passed seven General Resolutions (RG AFIP Nº
1361/2002; 1956/2005, 2177/2006, 2224; 2265 y 2289/2007 y 2485/2008)-. In general terms, these rules
state that the firms included in the system ‘must’ digitally issue and store the original receipts that back their
operations. They also state that the Tax Administration reckons such digital documents as piece of evidence.
Neither has the Civil nor the Commercial Code been reformed, nor have any rules regarding archiving
been passed. This means that, beyond the fact that in the Code s’ system the idea of ‘document’ is straightly
related to ‘paper support’, the following Commercial Code’s rules are in force:
- 474: No vendor can refuse to the deliver the buyer an invoice detailing the effects bought and their
price, completely paid or not.
- 33: All those that profess commerce are submitted, because of that, to fulfill the formal requirements of
the Commercial Law –includes the accounts and the books (2º) and business correspondence (3º)-.
- 43 and 44: The entries in the books must be supported by backing documents.
- 53: The books must be bound and foliated, and they should have a signed statement of their purpose and
number of pages.

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- 54: States the rules to keep handwritten record of the transactions in the books.
- 55 / 66: State the probationary value of the books in different situations.
- 67: All traders must keep their books for 10 years after their closure and the business correspondence for
10 years counting from each date.
Therefore, the legal value of the electronic invoice as documentary proof is restricted to tax disputes. In
case of disputes between, for instance, vendor and buyer, there is no backing ‘document’ to support the
entries of the books, something that weakens the position of the firm that must emit electronic invoices, vis a
vis those that, not being obliged to do so, are able to fulfill the requirements of the Code [Fernández et al].
Colombia has, in the Art.19 of the Commercial Code, rules that are very much alike those of the
Argentinean Code. But whereas Colombian new system for electronic invoices (Dec. 1929/2007) can be
qualified as much better than the Argentinean, the Law 527 de 1999 provides rules to fulfill formal legal
requirements to data messages.
To sum up, while Colombian lawmakers, by means of introducing new I in the existing legal system,
have shaped a legislative framework that seems to allow the interactions among the I to be performed in a
cooperative (lucky) way, the Argentineans have introduced new I that collide and interfere (non-cooperative
behavior) with the existing legal system. This is likely to lead the whole legal system under consideration to
unstable (in the nonlinear dynamics sense) behavior.

4. CONCLUSION
The introduction of the Legal Complexity notion has allowed us to prove that it is not merely by means of
introducing new institutions in the existing legal system that the problems posed by the development of the
ICT and the consequent emergency of the Information Society shall find a satisfactory solution.
Therefore, lawmakers –the most active actors within the legal system- should be thinking with a broad
scope, taking the whole problem of LAW in the Information Society into account. This means to start with a
structural revision of the legal system, in order to construct instruments which, in physical terms, ‘cooperate’.
In social terms, non cooperative, expensive and confuse situations should be avoided.
The times demand some kind of general regulation that fully grants or, at least, sincerely intends to grant,
the rights of all the actual and prospective actors of the Information Society –on both sides of the Digital
Divide-. Being the Law of the Net, we propose to name it Lex Retialis. No doubt, it shall emerge as soon as
we achieve a prospective account of what is possible.

REFERENCES
ALFA-REDI, 2006, Documento de Trabajo 1/2006: Sobre Neutralidad Tecnológica. Available at http://www.alfa-
redi.org/ar-dnt-documento.shtml?x=6080
Barrio F. Sobre la existencia del Derecho Informático, 2008, AR: Revista de Derecho Informático, No. 121, Edita: Alfa-
Redi, http://www.alfa-redi.org/rdi-articulo.shtml?x=10726
Caiafa C F and Proto A N, 2006, Dynamical emergence of contrarians in a 2-D Lotka –Volterra lattice, International
Journal on Modern Physics C, Vol. 17 385-394
Caram L F, Caiafa C F, Proto A N, Ausloos M, 2008, A Multiagent System with Peer-to-Peer Competition, submitted for
publication to European Physics Journal B.
ECLAC, 2008, San Salvador Commitment, Distr. Restricted, LC/R.2144, 19 February 2008, English, Original: Spanish
http://www.eclac.org/socinfo/noticias/noticias/3/32363/2008-2-TICs-San_Salvador _Commitment.pdf
ECLAC, 2007, eLAC 2007. Plan of Action for the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean,
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/latin-america/regional-cooperation/alis/documents/ plan_elac_2007_en.pdf
Fernández M, Mennucci L, Olivera N and Proto A, 2007, Factura Electrónica: entre Documento Comercial y
Herramienta de Gobierno Electrónico”. Proceedings 36 JAIIO, Simposio de Informática y Derecho, Mar del Plata,
Argentina.
Galgano F, 2008, Los caracteres de la juridicidad en la era de la globalización. En: Silva, Jorge Alberto (Coordinador).
Estudios sobre Lex Mercatoria. Una Realidad Internacional, (C)2008 IIJ-UNAM, Instituto de Investigaciones
Jurídicas de la UNAM.

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Grossi P, 2003, Mitología jurídica de la Modernidad (traducción de Manuel Martínez Neira), Editorial Trotta, Madrid.
Kauffman S A, 1993, The Origins of Order. Oxford University Press, New York. pag.709
S. M. Maurer, B. A. Huberman, 2003, Competitive Dynamics of Web Sites, J. Econom. Dynam. Control 27, 2195
Lotka A J, 1925, Elements of physical Biology. Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore.
Maurer S M and Huberman B, 2000, A Competitive Dynamics of Web Sites. Xerox Palo Alto Research Center CA94304
Observatorio de Neutralidad Tecnológica, 2008, Tercer Informe, Autoría legal José María Lancho Rodríguez, Autoría
técnica Julián Coccia, Carlos Alvarez Novoa, Agustín Rodriguez Torres, Available at
http://www.neutralidad.es/informes/Tercer_Informe.pdf
OECD/ICCP, 1998, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, ICCP (Information, Computer and
Communications Policy) Statistical Panel, Working Party on Indicators for the Information Society (WPIIS)
Rosenoer J, 1997, Cyberlaw: the Law of the Internet, Springer-Verlag, New York, Inc.
Ross D., 2005, Economic Theory and Cognitive Science, The MIT Press.
Standler R B, 1999, What is Computer Law? Available: http://www.rbs2.com/cdefn.htm
Volterra V, 1931, Leçons sur la théorie mathématique de la lutte pour la vie. Gauthier-Villars, Paris.
Ward L. M., 2001, Dynamical Cognitive Science. The MIT Press.
Wolkmer A C, Pluralismo jurídico: nuevo marco emancipatorio en América Latina, Available at
http://bibliotecavirtual.clacso.org.ar/ar/libros/derecho/wolk.rtf.

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MOBILE CITIZEN-FRIENDLY SERVICES – TWO CASE

STUDIES IN RURAL AREAS

Karl W. Sandberg
Mid-Sweden University
851 70 Sundsvall, Sweden

Hakan P. Sundberg
Mid-Sweden University
871 88 Harnosand, Sweden

ABSTRACT
Advances in mobile oriented services are taking place and ICT usage becomes an integral part of many people’s lives and
the available services become more varied. We try to introduce a “new” approach incorporating the rural citizen’s
preference to use mobile services supported by ICT. The present study is a part of a trans-European project, eTen, named
CIDRE. The aim of present field study is to test “citizen-friendly mobile services” in context of rural area. Main results
shows that; the citizens assessed the service as being very positive and useful; they liked the fast and competent service;
no citizens would be willing to pay some extra fee to get the service. However, few citizens expected turned up to use the
services. This can be explained by special conditions like e.g. a high Internet penetration, a long tradition of dealing with
public authorities over mail and telephone, and no integration of public services at a local level. A general conclusion is
that mobile citizen’s service seems to be promising when thinking about new applications and services but special
conditions apply in the Swedish context.

KEYWORDS
Mobile services, citizen-friendly, rural area, case study, healthcare.

1. INTRODUCTION
Accessibility is the key issue for bridging the digital divide. Many local authorities try to improve the
services to citizens. This can be achieved by means of providing online services. Basic drivers are the
increasing costs for provision of services in many traditional channels such as telephony, outlets or offices,
and the increasing customer demands on accessibility and service quality (Grönlund, 2001; Aichholzer
&Schmutzer, 2000). In the public perspective, it is also important to empower citizens, companies and
organisations to exercise democratic influence and participate in democratic processes (Sundgren, 2005;
Grönlund, 2001).
While ‘traditional’ eGovernment has helped improve public service delivery to citizens and businesses
there still remains a significant proportion of the population who are not availing of such technologies.
Experiences in different countries with the planned mobile service will contribute to a well-founded concept
for the deployment of mobile citizen services throughout Europe. To investigate how mobile technologies
can help contribute towards overcoming this issue, eTen project “CIDRE” conducted extensive research and
development into the potential impact of mobile technologies on mGovernment services (Mühlbach &
Wagnitz, 2005; Buß, Runde & Sniehotta, 2003).
The ‘m’ in mGovernment is in this case referring to mobile civil servants using mobile equipment, e.g.
laptops and wireless connections, allowing them to meet the citizen at any place outside the office, at public
places, at workplaces or at citizens’ homes. The primary aim of mGovernment (e.g. a local authority in rural
area) is to increase the friendliness of services to citizens and business, but at the same time improve
efficiency and reduce costs. mGovernment may be defined as a strategy and its implementation involving the
utilization of all kinds of wireless and mobile technology, services, applications and devices for improving

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benefits to the parties involved in eGovernment including citizens, businesses and all government units
(Kushchu & Kuscu, 2003; Plum & Roggenkamp, 2003).

2. OBJECTIVES
Within the framework of a European project, empirical data are gained by means of field trials in rural areas
of Sweden. Data concerning acceptance as well as technical and organizational constraints are collected and
analysed. The aim of present field study is to test “citizen-friendly mobile services” in context of rural area;
we have a citizens-based view of challenges and future developments of citizen friendly mobile services. A
case study of public services in two small municipalities in a rural part of Sweden has been accomplished and
is presented:
• In the municipality of Örnsköldsvik, two public agencies cooperated with the municipality
administration in the project. The three separate public organizations came together to make a joint effort to
offer a selection of their public services at different locations such as malls and supermarkets. The objectives
differ a little between the organizations. A general objective to become more ‘citizen-friendly’. In one of the
cases this is mixed with the objective to reach citizens and spread knowledge of a newly designed service.
The municipality of Örnsköldsvik is sparsely populated with 55,000 inhabitants and a population density of
8.2 per square km. The administrative centre counts around 28,000 inhabitants.
• The project also had the opportunity to cooperate with municipality of Ragunda to evaluate an
electronic medical record system in home healthcare. A core electronic medical record system has the
intention of improving the quality of health data collection and, subsequently, patient care at home, to
developing the capacity and capability of the district nursing service, to modernise and meet the challenges
ahead offering choice, and ensuring greater access to services. To improve the home healthcare services to
citizens, district nurses have access to patient journals in electronic way (wireless mobility). The municipality
of Ragunda is even more sparsely populated with a population of around 6,000 inhabitants and a population
density of 2.3 per square km. The administrative centre counts only 1,100 inhabitants.

3. GENERAL APPROACH AND DESIGN OF FIELD STUDIES

The general methodological approach adopted for the field trials is in accordance with the human-centered
design process approach, to understand and specify the context of use, specify the user and the organisational
requirements produce technical solutions, and evaluate the solutions against requirements. The requirements
of the mobile citizen services were specified mainly by considering the experiences from the German
prototype service MoBüD (Mühlbach & Wagnitz, 2005; Buß, Runde & Sniehotta, 2003).
The field trials started in January 2008 and were completed in April 2008. Table 1 present data
concerning the realization of the trials. After citizen had used the services, she/he was asked to fill in the
questionnaire. The questionnaire contains up to 23 items, dealing with the fulfilment of citizens’ requests,
waiting time, attractiveness and pros and cons of the service and future use of it, etc. The questionnaires for
collecting those date were translated and partly adapted versions of the questionnaires used in the German
field trials of mobile citizen services (Mühlbach & Wagnitz, 2005). In addition, the Kunin facial
expression scale was used for measuring overall satisfaction with the mobile service (Kunin, 1955). Besides
the citizen questionnaires, also the civil servants were asked to fill in questionnaires, principally done
immediately after each test event.
Table 1. Overview of test sites and data

Municipality/Site Örnsköldsvik Ragunda

Services Tax, social insurance, municipality District nurses in healthcare
services
Location Outskirt villages (supermarkets, pre- Private homes
schools) and central (library, malls)
Citizens (Customers) All citizens (Social Insurance agency: All citizens requiring
Parents) medical care

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Equipment Laptop computer and mobile printer, GSM/GPRS and UMTS/3G

Period Jan-Feb 2008 Jan-Apr 2008
No. of test events (days) 7 7
Citizens expected/actual 100-200/40-50 50/20-30
Citizen questionnaires 19 20
No. of civil servants 3 8
Civil servant questionnaires 14 7

4. MAIN RESULTS
The results of the data gathering (questionnaires) expected to show that citizens and public servants regard
the service as being useful and highly citizen-friendly. We are going to present the most important results
from the field trials.
The results presented in the following are based on 39 citizen’s questionnaires: In the following, the
results is relate to the assessment of the services offered at the mobile citizen office, its organisation and the
appropriateness of the site:
• The citizens assessed the service as being very positive and useful. They liked the fast and
competent service.
• Almost all citizens reported that their request could be fulfilled successfully at the field trial
locations and in the view of most of them the civil servant was able to serve them well.
• Over 90% of the citizens agreed or strongly agreed that the civil servant was able to serve them
well.
The following results deal with the mobile citizen office and its attractiveness:
• Most citizens agreed that the locations were suitable for such a service.
The following results deal with the willingness to use such a mobile service in the future:
• About two thirds of the citizens would appreciate the offering of mobile citizen services also in the
future.
• No citizens would be willing to pay some extra fee to get the service.
The following part of the questionnaire deals with a comparison between a stationary citizen office and a
mobile citizen office:
• The Citizens generally were very positive and rated the service as being useful.
• However, very few citizens, much fewer than expected, turned up to use the services in
Örnsköldsvik. E.g. at the malls and supermarkets an average of only 2 citizens per hour were served, at the
library and the pre-schools only 0.4 citizens per hour were served. This will be discussed further below.
The results presented in the following are based on 21 civil servants questionnaires:
• The civil servants were in general positive.
• The civil servants could see this as a more ‘friendly’ way to communicate with citizens.
• The civil servants experienced some problems with establishing network connections, especially at
outskirt locations. Also, in the field trials in Örnsköldsvik, due to security policies within the public
authorities, the civil servants were not allowed direct access to all internal systems, thus reducing the access
to certain services.

5. ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Mobile technologies seem to be promising when thinking about new applications and services for public
authorities operating at a local level.
The main conclusions from field studies and questionnaires were that the majority of the citizens are
pleased, the civil servants are pleased, time consumption is acceptable, but here are still technical, security
and quality problems to be solved.
However, clouds gather concerning the frequency of the citizens’ requests of the services. Then why did
so few citizens turn up? Due to the specific demographic and geographic situation in Sweden with sparsely

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populated areas and long distances, special conditions apply that can explain this. The average citizen in
Sweden has no regular contact with the local authorities. There is a tradition of dealing with the authorities,
in the few cases, over the telephone, mail, and recently also the Internet. With the increasing popularity of
Internet there has been a strong focus on eGovernment in the public sector. The current and dominating trend
is the development of electronic services based on self-service. The Internet penetration among citizens is
83%, which is high in an international comparison. When dealing with public organisations, citizens can
identify themselves electronically using “e-legitimation”.
There is also a trend towards centralisation. In many public administrations, simple questions will be
answered by national call centres and most of the cases will be processed at regional units. Citizens’ main
contacts are through contact centres or the Internet. Sweden lacks, with a few exceptions, one-stop-shops for
public services. A major obstacle to one-stop-shops is the stove piped public administrations that struggle to
cooperate both intra-organisationally and inter-organisationally. This has obstructed development of
integrated services across departments within the organisation, and across different public administrations.
The conditions apply to Sweden and help explain the low frequency of citizen requests. Other conditions,
in other countries, of course affect the outcomes differently.
Mobile services have the potential for a significant increase in public sector productivity and job
satisfaction e.g. where remote public sector workers can use mobile technology rather than returning to the
office to access e-mail or file data. But they are also an opportunity for greater application of eGovernment
than PC based technologies. Other than conventional eGovernment applications mGovernment does not
require expensive media and office space. Emphasizing this point, it is most important to assess citizens and
public servants, and not organizational or technical needs when developing mobile citizen services.
To find out about the citizens’ needs it first has to be asked how prepared a user group is to apply certain
technological innovation, followed by the determination of the willingness to do so. This estimation of
possibilities should then be matched with a set of requirements named by the citizen. Even when users are
ready and willing to generally embrace an application for whatever reason, the question if they need a special
application is dependent on their current requirements (Gerstheimer & Lupp, 2001).Citizen’s expectation
toward ICT and the perception of how it will be used and useful changes with growing user experience
showed that this can happen quite quickly, though (Palen, et. al., 2000). User willingness to use new
applications and services is obviously connected to previous experiences with similar functionalities. This
invokes certain perceptions on the utility of new services (Palen et.al. 2000). Within government structures,
several measures can be taken to increase user willingness (Chang, and Kannan 2002); the first should be
training and supporting users.

6. CONCLUSION
The generally positive results of the studies show that mobile citizen services could be considered as an add-
on to other eGovernment services, a supplement rather than a substitute.
The current trend towards eGovernment, self-service and centralisation is dominating. The motive is to
increase internal efficiency by offering more “self-service”, and not to increase citizen-friendliness. But,
contradicting this, there is at the same time a general trend focusing on a good management of customer
relationships (see e.g. Payne and Frow (2005) and Knox et al. (2003)) and in general be ‘available’ and
‘friendly’ to the public. This was also often expressed by public officials in the project and must be taken into
account.
This paper introduces a “new” approach incorporating the rural citizen’s preference to contact with
mobile civil servants.
Mobile citizen services can act e.g. as some kind of help or introduction to lower the access barrier for
people to start using online services. Even if more people use eGovernment services in a “do-it-yourself
mode” directly via the Internet in the future, there will always be circumstances (e.g. moves, unfamiliar
events in life, working in a foreign country, etc.) in which help by a human expert is desirable. For those
cases, mobile citizen services will be useful, even in the long run.
There are structural changes in public administrations that should be considered in the future, in order to
improve mobile public services. Among those is the integration of public administrations that are separated
today, at least on the service level. There should be efforts on making it more tempting and beneficiary for

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public administrations to cooperate in the mobile context. The integration between the various authority
systems and the lack of one-stop offices of citizen services seem to be a problem in some European countries.

REFERENCES
Aichholzer G., and Schmutzer R. 2000. Organizational Challenges to the Development of Electronic Government, In
Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Database and Expert System Applications, pp. 379-383.
Buß, R., Runde, D., and Sniehotta, R. 2003, The Citizen Office in a Box - User Requirements and Usability Issues for
Mobile Citizen Services. Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on Human Factors in Telecommunication.
Chang, A.-M., and Kannan, P. K., 2002, Preparing for Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Government, IBM
Endowment for the Business of Movement, [online], http://www.businessofgovemment.org/pdfs/Chang_report.pdf.
Gerstheimer, O., and Lupp, C., 2001, Zukunftige Kundennutzenpotenziale im Bereich der mobilen Datenkommunikation,
Doppeldiplomarbeit im Studiengang Produktdesign, Schwerpunkt Systemdesign, Universität Kassel.
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/%7Epalen/Papers/cscwPalen.pdf.
Grönlund Å. 2001. Elektronisk förvaltning, elektronisk demokrati – Visioner, verklighet, vidareutveckling,
Studentlitteratur.
Knox S., Maklan S., Payne A., Peppard J. and Ryals L. 2003. Customer Relationship Management – Perspectives from
the marketplace, Butterworth-Heinemann.
Kunin, Th., 1955, The construction of a new type of attitude measure. Personnel Psychology, 8, 65 - 77.
Kushchu, I., and Kuscu, M. H., 2003, From eGovernment to mGovernment: Facing the Inevitable. The 3rd European
Conference on eGovernment, 253-260.
Mühlbach, L., and Wagnitz, R., 2005, The Office of Citizen Services in the Box - Citizen-friendly and Secure
mGovernment Services in Berlin. Paper for the mCities Special Session, EURO mGOV 2005. The First Euro
Conference on Mobile Government.
Palen, L., Saltman, M., and Youngs, E., 2001, Going Wireless: Behaviour & Practice of New Mobile Phone Users,
[online]
Payne A., and Frow P. 2005. A Strategic Framework for Customer Relationship Management. In Journal of Marketing,
Vol. 69 (October 2005), pp. 167-176.
Plum, A., and Roggenkamp, K., 2003, Mobile Government, Dokumentation des Electronic Business. Projektes am
Institute of Electronic Business, Berlin.
Roggenkamp, K., 2004, Development modules for Mobile Government. The 4th European Conference on eGovernment.
Sundgren B. 2005. What is a public information system. In International Journal of Public Information Systems. Vol
2005:1, pp. 81-99.

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 IADIS International Conference e-Society 2009

E-GOVERNMENT: BIG BROTHER OR ATHENIAN

DEMOCRACY?

Dr James D. Boys and Dr Hind Zantout

Richmond, The American International University in London
Queens Road, Richmond, Surrey TW10 6JP
UK

ABSTRACT
Recent years have witnessed a dramatic uptake in initiatives that fall under the umbrella of e-government, due mainly to
rapid advances in the deployment of technology. This paper will present key aspects of e-government and explore the
interaction with politics and government. It will further explore threats posed and opportunities presented by the
underlying technology.

KEYWORDS
E-government, digital democracy.

1. INTRODUCTION
The media is replete with nightmare visions of the future, with images of faceless, heartless bureaucrats
intent on knowing our innermost thoughts and our deepest desires. From Orwell's 1984 to the various works
of Phillip K. Dick, the future appears to be one of a powerful government capable of interfacing with its
citizens to an inappropriate degree. This paper will consider the promise and the peril that is inherent in e-
government. It will explore both e-government concepts and it implications in politics. In so doing, the paper
will bridge the gap that all too often exists between technology and political science to address a growing
dilemma: Does e-government offer a voice to all, or does it merely reinforce traditional capitalist models of
increasing the influence of those already in power? Indeed the struggle in the years ahead may well be
between these competing visions of a Big Brother and an Athenian ideal.

2. E-GOVERNMENT
The term 'e-government' is not clearly defined, though it mainly describes the use of information and
communication technology (ICT) in delivering government information and services. The European
Information Society Thematic Portal sought to define e-government; "... the use of Information &
Communication Technologies to make public administrations more efficient and effective, promoting growth
by cutting red tape. This is something which anyone who has spent hours waiting in line in a government
building can appreciate." (European Commission Information Society a). Whilst this definition does not
include citizen participation, the e-government Action Plan does indeed include e-participation as one of the
pillars of e-government. (European Commission Information Society b). There are some similarities with e-
commerce and in general it is true that where businesses lead, government departments follow. For one, e-
government is built on technology similar to e-commerce. The other similarity is the target that is being
pursued through the application of this technology, namely the improvement of the delivery of the service,
with speed and convenience featuring strongly. The technology, which is based around communications
networks and the Internet, provided two different opportunities. In the first wave, vast amounts of
information were made available to whole populations, so long as they were connected. In the second wave,
bespoke delivery to the needs of the individual customer was introduced.

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The European Commission has its own 'eEurope' initiative, but problems abound, of implementation and
upkeep. The use of the web, however, is only one aspect of the technology and its proliferation, since
government departments have been using computers for several decades to process and store information
about individuals. This was previously characterised by disparate systems, developed and owned by the
respective departments. Technology constraints ensured that this data was kept safe and it was very difficult
for different departments to share data. The typical information system was mainframe based and data
processed on one system was practically impossible to transfer to another system. The storage medium was
the bulky tape and due to the incompatibility of systems there would have been no meaningful scenario
where one department would have to ship such a tape to another department. In this context, the word silo is
often used in a derogatory way to describe such systems. However, the very nature of these systems ensured
that citizens' data was relatively safe, from either negligent or malicious abuse.
In the UK and elsewhere, this picture has changed considerably. The UK for example is classed as a high-
ranking e-government performer, (Accenture 2003, p.84) with e-government being viewed as central to
reforming and modernising all public services. Applying Business Intelligence principles, council workers
are now able to drill down the database to identify individual citizens. Bedfordshire Council has applied the
new technology to effect a marked improved in the education sector: backgrounds of poorly performing
students were checked to identify possible causes, such as housing problems, and act upon this information
(Porter). With the advent of Grid Computing, it is now possible to model the entire UK population, including
a host of information on each individual. Such a model is currently the subject of the MoSeS research project
at the National Centre for e-Social Science, with the stated goal "to generate a complete synthetic
representation of people and households in the UK." (National Centre for e-Social Science). There is the
caveat that data will be anonymised first. However, the prospect of a model that could, for example, analyse
the effect of changes in taxes on voting patterns to a far greater accuracy than is currently possible with focus
groups or polls must be a worrying one.
Government will potentially gain ever more control of its citizens through the co-ordinated control of the
information it holds on them. The Data Protection Act regulates many aspects of handling citizens' data,
however it may not be sufficient to guard against misuses. There is also another issue to consider. As
government databases become more inter-linked, errors that creep in through neglect or malicious
intervention will have far more serious consequences as these errors are duplicated across systems.
The last decade has seen a fundamental change in both hardware and software technology. The huge
reduction in cost of both computing power and storage has meant that ever more information can be stored on
small portable devices and that systems can be integrated more easily, allowing far more information than
ever to be shared. The consistent increase in capability was accompanied by an equally consistent reduction
in cost, and coupled with a breakthrough in usability. These factors have resulted in what is commonly
known as Web 2.0, which describes the use of the web to create and foster social networks. Users today,
from the very young to the very old will find user-friendly and free to use technologies. Whilst access is not
yet universal, and varies significantly form country to country, the overall trend however is towards societies
where access to the web will keep on increasing. And there is evidence that citizens are making use of the
new forum available to them, consolidating political movements and possibly bypassing the traditional
democratic system of representation.
So the picture is mixed, on the one hand, government will be, in theory, able to gather and piece together
ever more information about the individual citizen. At the same time, citizens will be able to disseminate
relevant information to mobilise and organise against government in a very effective way.

3. DIGITAL DEMOCRACY
Long before our present embrace of indirect democracy, there existed the concept of direct democracy. In the
forums of ancient Athens, those deemed acceptable - white free males over 20 years old - would gather to
debate and vote upon the issues of the day. This was democracy at its purest: Debating issues and presenting
the populace with a direct voice in the direction that should be taken. Despite the utopian aspect to this, not
all were in favour. Aristotle feared that it granted undue power to the masses that may be ignorant and instead
favoured a system of polity, with power delegated through representation to capable decision-makers,
resulting in a system that would be of benefit to all.

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As society evolved and populations expanded, the Athenian concept of direct democracy gave way to the
indirect form that is practised today, of electing politicians to speak for their constituents. Until recently that
appeared to be the natural state of things. However, the status quo may be undermined by the emergence of
high-speed Internet connections. Since the general public began to gain access to the World Wide Web its
grip upon their imagination has increased exponentially to a point whereby many people's lives now revolve
around their computer terminals.
There is a perception amongst politicians and governments in many countries that the population has
become more and more "disenchanted with the traditional institutions of representative government, detached
from political parties, and disillusioned with older forms of civic engagement and participation" (Norris et al.
1999). Digital technologies are being regarded as the panacea to many of the problems that underlie this
apparent civic disengagement, and the UK Government, in common with many others across the globe, is
seeking to enhance service delivery and to increase the participation of citizens in society through the use of
digital technologies. The use of information and communication technologies and strategies by democratic
actors (government, elected officials, the media, political organisations, citizens/voters) within political and
governance processes of local communities, nations and the international stage has been termed e-democracy
(Clift 2004). The component sub-systems of e-democracy include e-government, e-voting and e-
participation, i.e. the use of digital technologies to enhance opportunities for consultation and dialogue
between citizens and government.
An increasing percentage of the population having Internet access does not necessarily mean that the
Internet will used for interaction with e-government systems. Whilst the UK has been a strong e-government
performer, the biggest concern for the government is the low number of citizens using online government
services. "Despite nearly two-thirds of Britons having Internet access, fewer than one in three has visited
even one of the 3,000 government and council websites. And only 5% of Internet users say they regularly use
government websites to access public services", is reported in a UK study carried out by Hedra, a major
consulting firm in the UK specialised in government organisations. The report highlights the absence of the
elderly and socially deprived (Tempest 2002: p.10). This picture may have changed since, but participation
is still far from universal.
Interestingly, not all citizens who utilise the Internet for political purposes are supportive of government
policy. The most prominent example is that of the French teacher Etienne Chouard, who at the time when the
EU constitution was put to the vote to French citizens was critical of the constitution. He set up a website
(Chouard) scrutinising the document in detail, though the layout and colour scheme give the impression of an
amateur at work. The extent of Chouard's campaign cannot be established accurately, but with an outcome, in
which the no vote was carried by the smallest of margins, it is difficult to ignore. The Internet is still clearly
in its infancy with teething problems in parts of Europe. For example in Italy, candidates were forced to
overcome the continuing issue of cyber-squatters. Despite this, the Internet was successfully utilised to such
an extent that Silvio Berlusconi campaigned on the three-word slogan: 'Internet, Impresa, Inglese' or 'Internet,
Trade and English.' (Herbert, 2001).
Whether prompted by the French experience with the European Constitution or not, the British
Government set up a website where citizens could launch petitions under the careful watch of government
(E-Petitions). Peter Roberts from Shropshire made use of this forum, setting up a petition against government
plans to fit tracking devices into cars that would enable the collection of road tax based on miles travelled.
This campaign gathered 1,811,424 signatures, and Prime Minister Tony Blair subsequently sent an email to
everyone who signed the petition, promising further consultation. Yet pilot studies went ahead and the 81-
page report was made available (Department for Transport). It is more likely than not now that the full
scheme is going ahead, as contracts are already going out to companies that will develop the required
technology.
So, whilst government initiatives have focused mainly on service delivery in the past, the exploitation of
the technology to increase citizen participation in the decision-making process has only seen humble efforts
in that direction (Homburg). One particular study from Seoul (Rho) provides results that indicate progress
towards much improved citizen participation will be a slowly evolving bottom-up process rather than a
radical top-down imposed approach. The results are from a study of 25 administrative districts in Seoul,
based on breaking down digital deliberative democracy into four stages. Stage one includes information
acquisition where relevant websites are set up and information and relevant documents are made available.
Stage two covers communication and consultation and covers mainly email communication between citizens
and officials. Stage three is citizen participation with facilities for online voting and bulletin boards that

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handle complaints and recommendations. The final stage four is public deliberation with extensive facilities
that can be described as an electronic town hall meeting. The interesting feature is that districts do not
necessarily progress sequentially from stage 1 through to stage 4. The overall outcome of the study shows
that most districts still have yet to achieve full-blown e-democracy at the local government level. But three
districts were identified as having measures in place that can be described as best practice that can develop
into a benchmark for measuring success in achieving digital deliberative democracy.
The Internet is having an effect on politics, but only to the degree that third parties have had in the past. It
would appear that in most democracies, a utopian ideal will be short lived, as the major parties move to
utilise the web for their own ends and in so doing, maintain the status quo. This is not to say that the web will
fail to make an impact. Phil Noble has noted, "the Internet has the potential to make the difference of 5 to 7%
in an election. If you've got one candidate that really uses the Internet well, understands it, makes full
advantage of it, and somebody who doesn't understand it and doesn't use it, I think it has a 5 to 7% swing
potential. In 1998 Jesse Ventura in Minnesota was elected governor and he said he would not have been
elected without the Internet." (Noble, 2001)
As for elections, there is concern over the creeping influence of the Internet and in the UK the web still
plays a relatively minor role in elections. Unlike in the United States, few in the UK have adopted a
multifaceted approach to e-electioneering. If the move to a digital democracy has been slow to initiate, then
the concept of fund raising via the Internet has shown the opposite approach. The viability of Howard Dean's
candidacy in 2004 was predicated entirely on his early Internet fund raising ability. In 2008, Barack Obama's
success has owed much to his web presence. But has the Internet changed politics? Arguably not, for as of
today it still serves merely as an extension of pre-existing mediums, another vehicle by which to raise funds
or to slander an opponent.

4. CONCLUSION
Clearly, the question posed by the title of this paper will have to remain unresolved for the time being. There
is evidence that citizens are making use of the new forum available to them, consolidating political
movements and possibly bypassing the traditional democratic system of representation. Technology has
advanced in great strides since the early 1990s. The use of the Internet has evolved from its modest beginning
of simply being a one-way street, of governmental agencies posting data to be utilised, absorbed or ignored
by the public. It has now become a true conduit of valuable services and information, passing from the
government to the people, and perhaps more importantly, from the people to the government.

REFERENCES
Accenture. (2003) 'e-government leadership;engaging the customer.' [Online], Available at http://www.accenture.
com/xdoc/en/industries/government/gove_capa_egov_leadership.pdf [25 April 2005].
Chouard, E. (n.d.) Le plan C, le seul qui vaille : Concevoir nous-mêmes une Constitution d'origine Citoyenne. [Online],
Available: http://etienne.chouard.free.fr/Europe/ [4 October 2008].
Clift, S. (2004) 'E-Governemnt & Democracy-Representation and citizen engagement in the information age,' [Online],
Avaialble at http://publicus.net/e-government [13 October, 2008].
Department of Transport, 2008. Advanced motorway signalling and traffic management feasibility study. [Online],
Available: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/network/policy/mtorsigntrafmanagement/advancedmotorwaysignal.pdf [4
October 2008].
E-Petitions (2007) [Online], Available: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/traveltax/ [4 October 2008].
European Commission Information Society (n.d. a) Putting Citizens First, [Online], Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/
information_society/tl/soccul/egov/index_en.htm [12 May 2008].
European Commission Information Society (n.d. b) Putting Citizens First, [Online], Available at: http://ec.europa.eu
/information_society/activities/egovernment/index_en.htm [12 May 2008].
Herbert, Douglas, 2001. 'Europe Tests Waters of e-Politics,' in Time, [Online], Available at http://www.time.com
/time/interactive/stories/society/e_politics.html [2 October, 2008].
Homburg, V. (2008) Understanding E-Govenrment. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon, UK.

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National Centre for e-Social Science (n.d.) Modelling and Simulation for e-Social Science (MoSeS) [Online], Available:
http://www.ncess.ac.uk/research/geographic/moses/research/ [4 October 2008].
Noble, Phil, 2000. 'Politics and the Internet' on BBC Forum: Conference Talk: [Online], Available at http://news.
bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/forum/883347.stm [16 July, 2008].
Norris, P. et al. (1999) On Message: Communicating the Campaign. Sage Publication Limited, May 1999.
Porter, I., 2007. 'BI and its effect on performance,' at Conference on Business Intelligence for the public sector
Successfully driving improvement. London, England. [Online], Available: http://www.kablenet.com/ke.nsf/Events
SummaryView/C3ACFAA07FC4AE3A80257302004A5C14?OpenDocument [4 October 2008].
Rho, S. 2007, 'An Evaluation of Digital Deliberative Democracy in Local Government', in Al-Hakim, L. (ed.) Global E-
government: Theory, Application and Benchmarking. IDEA Group Publishing, Hershey USA.
Tempest, M. 2002, "Official Web Sites leave public Cold, Guardian, December 30, 2002, p.10.

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RULEMAKING, DEMOCRACY, AND DIGITIZATION IN

ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES

John M. de Figueiredo
UCLA Anderson School of Management
110 Westwood Plaza #D508
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481

ABSTRACT
E-rulemaking has held out the promise of enhancing political processes through increased citizen participation, deeper
deliberation, and better policy outcomes. This paper examines data over five years at the Federal Communications
Commission on electronic filing of comments by interest groups, firms, and citizens, to see whether the hypothesized
democratization of the rulemaking process has occurred. It argues there has been a noticeable increase in participation.
However, the paper finds less evidence to support the claims of deeper deliberation and better policy outcomes. The
paper concludes suggesting how regulators might beneficially act in the presence of electronic filing and where the
research agenda might next tread.

KEYWORDS
E-rulemaking, administrative law, regulation, telecommunications.

1. INTRODUCTION
Over the past decade, governments have increasingly digitized their activities (Brandon and Carlitz 2002). In
addition to the enormous potential cost savings of paperless transactions (Coglianese 2004), “e-government”
is viewed by many as a way to enhance democracy through citizen voice, citizen choice, and citizen
participation (U.S. GAO 2003). Government officials also hope to enhance the quality of policy-making with
the incorporation of diverse citizen viewpoints in the deliberation process (U.S. OMB 2002).
This paper explores the democracy enhancing objectives of e-rulemaking with macro-level data from the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States. The data allows us to examine the number
and method of comments and replies at this U.S. federal agency over a 13 year period. This paper is intended
to complement the substantial survey work and micro-level data studies that have examined e-rulemaking in
administrative agencies (Stanley et al 2004).

2. THEORY
Democratic institutions are designed to respond to the needs of the citizens. Citizens voice their opinions on
issues, petition legislators and other regulators, and when unhappy with outcomes, can, in some countries,
seek relief in the judicial system. One of the goals of e-rulemaking has been to infuse bureaucratic
institutions and administrative agencies with more democratic input and decision-making processes. The
theory of e-rulemaking enhancing democracy in government bureaucracy works through two main
mechanisms.
First, e-rulemaking increases the level of participatory democracy. This occurs because electronic
rulemaking so lowers the cost of participation for individuals, it allows citizens to enter the administrative
process who would not otherwise. This literature argues that participation increases bureaucratic legitimacy
(Cramton 1972) and government credibility (Beierle 2004), strengthens individual autonomy and rights of
self-governance (Noveck 2004), increases public understanding of rulemaking (Coglianese 2004), and

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enhances the accountability of administrative agencies to other branches of government (Coglianese 2004).
Underlying this is an objective to increase the quantity of comments and general participation levels of
individuals in the rulemaking process (Brandon and Carlitz 2002, de Figueiredo 2006a,b).
Second, e-rulemaking increases deliberation in the rulemaking process, and thus not only promotes
democratic discussion, but also improves policy decisions. The logic is roughly as follows: increased
participation results in better rules through more informed deliberation (Brandon and Carlitz 2002) which in
turn leads to better assessments of impacts and cost-effectiveness of rules (Coglianese 2004); in addition,
deliberation also confers more legitimacy on the rules, accounting for broader scope and consideration of all
viewpoints. This process is said to enhance the deliberative process and thus results in better rulemaking (de
Figueiredo 2006a, b). This paper does not evaluate whether these theoretical goals are desirable; rather it
explores the extent to which the data demonstrates that these objectives are being met.

3. DATA AND ANALYSIS

In order to analyze these questions, we examine data from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
in the United States (U.S.). With its roughly 1,700 employees, the FCC is responsible for the regulation and
oversight of the communications sector in the U.S. Since its creation in 1934, the FCC has seen its
jurisdiction expanded to encompass a number of industries including radio, broadcast and cable television,
wireless communications, land-line communications services, aspects of commercial satellites, parts of the
Internet, and various electronic devices, to name just a few.
The FCC, like many bureaucracies, propagates and enforces rules. The rule-making process has been
codified in the Code for Federal Regulation, the Administrative Procedures Act, and various FCC directives.
When the FCC is considering issuing a new regulation, the procedures mandate that it solicits comments and
input from interested groups, firms, and individuals.
The data presented here were obtained from the FCC Information Reference Center for the purposes of
academic research. The data are macro-oriented, encompassing all of the 500,000+ comments and filings
that the FCC received from 1992 to 2004. The data include more detailed information on the number, kind,
and content of comments filed at the FCC from 1999 to 2004. Given the breadth of the data, it is naturally
limited in its ability to inform researchers about micro-level questions. However, because of its breadth, we
can identify systematic patterns in e-rulemaking, a major initiative undertaken at the FCC starting in 1998.
In particular, these data nicely complement the number of studies that have conducted micro-data analyses of
individual issues (e.g. Schulman 2004).
Figure 1a shows the number of total filings at the FCC since 1992. There is an upward trend in the data
with a substantial increase in 2002 and again in 2004. Note that in 1998, the first year of the electronic filing
system initiative, there was actually a decrease in filings that persisted through 2001.

160,000 3,000
140,000
2,500
120,000
2,000
100,000
80,000 1,500
60,000
1,000
40,000
500
20,000
0 -
1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 Jan-99 May-00 Sep-01 Feb-03 Jun-04

Figure 1a. Total Number of FCC Filings Per Year Figure 1b. Number of Paper Filings Per Month
The FCC created three major methods of filing comments. The first is paper filing. Starting in 1999, the
FCC started keeping monthly records of the number of paper filings that were scanned into the electronic
databases at the agency. This represents, to a large extent, most of the paper comments and replies. Figure
1b shows the data. There has been a steady downward trend in the number of paper filings at the FCC over
the five year period, from 1,750 in early 1999 to fewer than 500 filings per month by June 2004. This figure,

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combined with Figure 1a, shows that even though the number of filings has increased, the number of paper
filings has decreased over the same period, suggesting that electronic filing is making up the difference.
A second method of filing comments at the FCC is through the Electronic Comment Filing System
(ECFS). This is an on-line system where comments can be filed via the Internet and or the FCC website.
Figure 2a shows the filings through these methods. The spike in ECFS comments in 2004 causes the vertical
axis to be a bit difficult to discern (addressed in next section). However, the data show that there has been a
steady increase in the number of ECFS comments filed from 1999 to 2004. The earlier intuition of a move to
electronic filing implied in Figures 1a and 1b is largely confirmed in the data underlying Figures 2a.
A third and final method to contact the FCC is through email. Figure 2b provides monthly data on email
that was sent to the FCC on docketed issues before the Commission. Emails to the Commission increased
after September 11, 2001, and remained high until 2003, after which they trickled in at one to two emails a
day, until February 2004 when the number of emails exploded (addressed in next section).

80,000 16000
70,000 14000
60,000 12000
50,000 10000
40,000 8000
30,000 6000
20,000 4000
10,000 2000

- 0
Jul-98 Dec-99 Apr-01 Sep-02 Jan-04 May-05 Jul-98
-2000 Dec-99 Apr-01 Sep-02 Jan-04 May-05

Figure 2a. Number of ECFS Filings Per Month Figure 2b. Number of Email Filings Per Month

4. DISCUSSION AND EXTENSIONS

We can now return to democratic underpinnings of e-rulemaking. The first democracy-enhancing objective
of e-rulemaking is to increase citizen participation. This seems to have occurred. The increase in the number
of comments at the FCC is largely driven by electronic filing rather than paper filing. While the number of
filings has increased, it is difficult to answer whether these filings are by citizens or by vested interests.
However, we can ferret out some data that would indicate that citizens are largely responsible.
First, recall that email comments peaked in 2004. This spike was an email barrage from citizens in the
United States in response to the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction at the half-time of the Super Bowl game
(de Figueiredo 2006a). These emails seem to be an attempt by citizens to express their opinion on various
docketed proceedings, referencing the Janet Jackson incident (de Figueiredo 2006b). In earlier times, citizens
might have expressed their displeasure with a costly phone call or an even more costly letter. However, email
has made a relatively real-time and costless expression of an opinion to regulatory authorities by individuals
a reality. While the data points to an increase in citizen participation, interviews I have conducted with FCC
administrators confirm this intuition (FCC 2005-2008). These regulators have said that the substantial
increase in commentary tends to come from two sources: individuals and “bulk mail” (the latter of which I
discuss below). Before we had electronic filing, interest groups dominated the comments to the agency; now
we have a process that includes a substantial number of individuals.
The second democracy-enhancing objective is to increase the quality of discourse and administrative
agency policy-making. Although difficult to determine, we can examine the two events that provoked the
most electronic comments—the Janet Jackson Wardrobe Malfunction described before (Figure 2b spike) and
the Media Ownership Rules (Figure 2a spike), a technical proceeding that limited the number of media
outlets one firm could own in a given geographic area. Unlike Jackson, the media ownership rules comments
were mainly robotic or bulk emails (not individuals). There were few substantive comments in either of these
dockets related to the issue, the rules, or the law. It was more of a “vote” of some sorts on the outcome of the
issue (FCC 2005-2008). This massive inflow of commentary did little to enhance the quality of deliberation
or debate on the focal docket.

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Nevertheless, though the quality of deliberation may not rise because of e-rulemaking, it is possible that
we may get superior policy quality because of an expression of preferences by citizens. The more people
who express an opinion, the more the administrative process looks like a democratic process.
But does a vote enhance social welfare on these issues? In a world without electronic filing, it is costly to
file comments. Only people with intense preferences will file. If filing is costless, there is higher
participation, but from relatively uninformed people with weak preferences. If the agency is not careful, it
will misconstrue comments from these individuals as good policy.
Consider an example. The FCC and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are considering whether
to allow cell phone use on flights. Assume that frequent business travelers have strong preferences that cell
phone use should be permitted because they will see substantial benefit. Further assume that the frequent
business travelers make up 10% of the population but 90% of the miles flown. If comment filing costs are
high, these individuals will file comments because the benefits exceed the cost. The infrequent leisure
travelers, who very mildly oppose this position, and who make up 90% of the population and 10% of the
miles flown, will find the cost of filing a comment excessive. In the case where comment filing costs are low,
as they are with electronic filing, these 90% of leisure travelers will file comments.
In this example, if the frequent fliers want cell phone use on the flights and the infrequent fliers do not, a
rule-making that examines only the “quantity of comments” would actually generate the bad outcome from a
social welfare perspective. It would be democratic but not socially welfare enhancing from an economist’s
perspective. Because of this, it is important that regulators consider not only the quantity of comments
advocating a given position, but also the quality of the comments and characteristics of the commentators the
deliberating the issue.
So in one sense, these comments are not helpful because they do not help the regulator justify her
position; they do not add additional comment or arguments to the deliberation; and they do not refute, expand,
or deepen the conversation on the issue at hand. In another sense, though, they might be useful. To the
extent that these comments are genuine, they reflect a vote of the electorate on a given regulatory issue.
However uninformed the electorate might be on the technical issues a regulator confronts, to the extent that
understanding citizen preferences on an issue is useful, and democratic institutions reflect the will of the
people, then these comments, though substantively vacuous, still might provide very useful information to
the regulator on preferences of the electorate.
The final challenge is that many of these comments are not representative or genuine, but are generated
through bulk and auto-emailers. For instance, looking at the volume of comments on the media ownership
rules, one might think that this was the central issue for individual citizens in 2004. In fact, almost all of these
comments were electronically generated and delivered by computers with little or no human touch (FCC
2005-2008). Most were identical copies of earlier emails. The comments provide little information to the
regulator on the preferences of the people and even a smaller contribution to the deliberative process. Solving
this problem is essential to the regulator.

5. CONCLUSION
In a democratic society, it is important that citizens are engaged in the machinations of government.
Bureaucracies in government handle inherently complex and technical issues. Encouraging a substantive and
high quality dialogue through an e-rulemaking process would seem to be a laudable goal. Indeed, there are
early indications that e-rulemaking is headed in the right direction. The data at the Federal Communications
Commission can provide us with good macro-level data on the topic. These data demonstrate that since the
advent of electronic comments and replies, there has been a shift to and increase in electronic filings.
Though the quantity of filings has increased, the macro-data suggest the same is not true for the quality.
Regulators are faced with either “bulk” mail or with comments containing little substance or relationship to
the focal issue. This can make the regulator’s policy-making job more difficult as she has to spend time
addressing an increasing number of unhelpful comments. Overall, we need to guard against false information,
superfluous information, and information overload.
This said, there are currently interesting ideas (e.g. Benjamin 2006) and innovative experiments (e.g.
Stanley and Weare 2004) in the pipeline exploring ways to make the e-rulemaking process more deliberative
and informative. The success of these efforts would seem to be extraordinary important to the success of e-

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rulemaking. As we move forward in developing information technology, e-rulemaking and governmental

institutions, we should focus our efforts on enhancing the quality of information and deliberation in the rule-
making process and protecting against the low-information “bulk mail” phenomenon that can dominate the
agency rule-making processes.

REFERENCES
Beierle, Thomas C. (2004). Digital Deliberation: Engaging the Public Through Online Policy Dialogues, in Democracy
Online: The Prospects for Political Renewal Through the Internet, 155 (Peter Shane ed.).
Benjamin, Stuart M. (2006). Evaluating E-Rulemaking: Public Participation and Political Institutions, 55 Duke Law
Journal 893.
Brandon, Barbara H. & Robert D. Carlitz (2002). Online Rulemaking and Other Tools for Strengthening Our Civil
Infrastructure, 54 Admin. L. Rev. 1421, 1478.
Coglianese, Cary (2004). E-Rulemaking: Information Technology and Regulatory Policy, New Directions in Digital
Government Research 13, http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/press/E-Rulemaking_Report.pdf
Cramton, Roger C. (1972). The Why, Where and How of Broadened Public Participation in the Administrative Process,
60 Georgetown. L.J. 525, 525 (1972).
de Figueiredo, John M. (2006a). When Do Interest Groups Use Electronic Rulemaking? ACM dg.o Conference
Proceedings. San Diego, CA. Electronic version.
de Figueiredo, John M. (2006b). E-Rulemaking at the Federal Communications Commission: Bringing Data to Theory,
Duke Law Journal 55(4), 969-994.
FCC 2005-2008. Interviews conducted by the author with officials at the FCC.
Noveck, Beth Simone (2004). The Electronic Revolution in Rulemaking, 53 Emory L.J. 433, 466–94.
Shulman, Stuart (2004). “Whither Deliberation? Mass e-Mail Campaigns and U.S. Regulatory Rule-making,” Paper
Presented at the Institute for Public Administration for Canada, December 13, 2004.
Stanley, Woody J., and Christopher Weare (2004). “The Effects of Internet Use on Political Participation: Evidence from
an Agency Online Discussion Forum,” Administration & Society, Vol. 36, 503-527.
U.S. General Accounting Office (2003), Electronic Rulemaking: Efforts to Facilitate Public Participation Can Be
Improved 1.
U.S. Office of Management and Budget, (2002). The President’s Management Agenda 25.
Stanley, J. Woody, and Christopher Weare (2004). The Effects of Internet Use on Political Participation: Evidence from
an Agency Online Discussion Forum, 36 Administration and Society 503.

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 IADIS International Conference e-Society 2009

TAX ADMINISTRATION IN THE INFORMATION

SOCIETY: CHALLENGES, ADVANCES AND
EXPECTATIONS

Amery Moisés Nadir Júnior, Hugo Cesar Hoeschl

Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia e Gestão do Conhecimento - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil

ABSTRACT
This paper looks at new challenges imposed by the Information Society to the tax administrations over the last years and
processes of change resulting from the use of information and communication technologies, as well as the adoption of
new audit and control procedures. First, the concepts and key features of the Information Society and its consequences on
tax administrations are described. Next, the text deals with the participation of the public sphere in the Information
Society through the Electronic Government and the virtual exclusion issue. Some specific topics expose the participation
of tax administration in the Industrial Society and Information Society context and the modernization process of the
Treasury Department of the State of Santa Catarina, located in southern Brazil. The study also highlights the need for
institutional strengthening of tax administration – and not just investments in structure and technology - as a condition for
the fair tax promotion.

KEYWORDS
Tax administration, electronic government, information society, information and communication technologies.

1. INTRODUCTION
In the recent years of the twentieth century, the term "information society" has been used as a substitute for
the complex concept of "post-industrial society". In the Information Society, or Knowledge Society, with the
development of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) the financial capital has given
place to intellectual capital, based on knowledge. This fact has led technical and organizational changes on a
level never seen in the history of mankind.
According to Matthijs and Kommer (2000), in this new millennium, the tax administrations worldwide
are facing, to a certain way, the same challenges, advances, and expectations, as the ones described below:
• increasing globalization;
• greater opportunities for automation and continuous access to information;
• taxpayers who are becoming more demanding;
• growing demand for better service and guidance to users;
• need to improve the efficiency and training of tax officers;
• demand for transparent management and accountability.
Furthermore, it is important to consider that the Information Society causes daily changes reflected in the
work routine of all organizations and the tax administration should be flexible enough to overcome the
challenges and take advantage on the opportunities. However, organizational flexibility does not imply only
on structural or technological solutions, but the adoption of a systemic view in the work and investment
methods in institutional strengthening of tax administration.
Thus, this paper focuses on the role of tax administrations in the Information Society and description of
the “state of art” of how tax administrations are changed over the last years. Also, it emphasizes the example
of modernization occurred at the Treasury Bureau of the State of Santa Catarina, located in southern Brazil,
as the paper’s authors are public agents linked to this process of change within that tax department, both
contributing and monitoring its implementation. Besides, this paper aims at contribute to the modernization

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of others tax administrations by demonstrating the importance of intensive investments at ICTs and
institutional strengthening, as the adoption of new audit and control procedures and partnership establishment
among tax departments, bookkeeper and social actors, in order to tax administration can act in its fullness.

2. INFORMATION SOCIETY, PUBLIC SERVICE AND E-GOV

The Information Society is based on knowledge and builds highly complex economic and social systems
demanding the use of ICTs. According to Drucker (1997), the most important economic resource of Post-
Industrial Society will be knowledge, which is not anti-capitalist or capitalist, but an instrument of economic
integration through the market. And what is knowledge? In short, it is information interpreted and structured
that has value for organizations because of its use in the actions and decision-making, as well as driving new
ways of work and human interactions. For Nonaka and Takeuchi (1997), what distinguishes the knowledge
of the simple information is that the first is related to action and the specific relational context.
The participation of the public sphere in the Information Society takes place in an active manner through
intensive use of ICTs in several activities it performs. This intervention is conventionally called Electronic
Government or e-Gov. The Electronic Government means not only the existence and massive installation of
computers in public agencies facilities, but the attempt to accomplish, through the use of technology,
transparent, participatory and more direct relations between government institutions and citizens. In this
sense, Hoeschl and Nicolini (2004) clarify that the term "electronic" can not be limited to the internet
context, as it is a concept that transcends the idea of a sphere of government site, including also, for example,
electronic voting, simulators, and intelligent softwares, which do not require the web to their autonomy
axiological.
In the same way, the tax administrations of the Information Society also use the e-Gov to guide, inform,
and supervise, efficiently, the acts performed by taxpayers. In this case, the use of technology is a factor of
equilibrium to design simple and economical processes with sufficient controls to ensure tax compliance and
transparent actions of tax agents. In Brazil, the greatest exponent of e-Gov tools used today by tax audits is
the SPED (Public System of Digital Bookkeeping), which replaces the issuing of accounting books and tax
documents made on paper for electronic documents, whose car chief is the Electronic Tax Invoice, known as
NF-e. Moreover, it is worth mentioning the SINTEGRA (Integrated System of Information on Interstate
Operations with Goods and Services), which facilitates the provision of information from taxpayers to tax
departments of the states and improves the data flow among the tax administrations.
Unfortunately, the Information Society has also caused the emergence of new forces of exclusion that
take place both at the local and global level. In this aspect, Hoeschl and Nicolini (2004) observe that at the
same time in which the Electronic Government has enormous potential for integration, only those who have
more access to education and technology are at an advantage. To overcome the forces of exclusion it is
essential the development of programs such as GESAC - Electronic Government - Customer Service to the
Citizen, created by the Federal Government of Brazil, which aims at make internet access available - and a
number of other services for digital inclusion – to the communities excluded from access and services tied to
the worldwide network of computers, especially those with low Human Development Index (HDI).

3. INFORMATION SOCIETY AND TAX ADMINISTRATION

3.1 Aspects of Tax Administration in the Information Society

The taxes – similar to what happens in Brazil and in most countries of the world – are the main source of
resources for the financing of public services by governments. In fact, considering the high level of
indebtedness and the inflationary risk of funding the governments through the issuance of currency, the only
source of funding of public power based on economic rules socially fair is the tax nature.
Under these circumstances, the tax administrations are in charge of the strategic task of managing and
monitoring the collection of taxes, developing appropriate measures to close the maximum revenue that
effectively joins the public treasure to the potential revenue, thus contributing to raising resources that are

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necessary for the provision of public goods essential to the population, such as security, health, education and
justice.
With the ascendancy of the Information Society, however, the tax administrations were faced with deep
changes involving their organization, cultures and technologies. In the Industrial Society, for example, the
objectives of the tax administrations were based in the repressive audits of previous facts, imposed on
taxpayers in isolation, and guided by evidence of evasion and complaints. The new Information Society, with
all the consequences resulting from technological innovations, requires a new relationship between revenue
agencies and taxpayers, with a deep discussion about the attributes of the taxes management. The
consolidation of this model occurs with the simultaneous action on several fronts identified as the macro-
functions of tax administration: audit, collection and recovery, taxation, contentious, information and, finally,
management and control, which permeate all earlier. To better understand all this process of change, Tables 1
and 2 below, adapted from Sisnando (2005), contain the main features present in the societies in the last
decades of the twentieth century and the first decade of this century and the parallels between the attributes of
the tax administrations of Industrial Society and the Information Society.
Table 1. Aspects of societies in the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century
Attributes End of the 20th century Beginning of the 21st century

Society Industrial Digital/Information

State founding principles Passivity, patrimonialism and paternalism
Questioning regarding taxation and the
correct use of taxes in promoting the
common good
Accounting Written manuscript record of tax and Computerized bookkeeping, electronic
accounting bookkeeping documents and magnetic files
Technology Telex, typewriters and calculating Computers, internet, intranet, networking
machines and digital certification
Table 2. Attributes of tax administrations in the Industrial Society and the Information Society
Attributes Industrial Society Information Society
Mission Combating tax evasion Promote voluntary compliance with tax
obligations
Posture of tax authorities Repressive and reactive Preventive and proactive

Elements for tax audit Documents, tax and accounting books on Electronic information with automated
paper, printed or handwritten, with manual check and data cross-over by the tax
check by tax auditor auditor
Systematic of tax audit Restricted to the taxpayer By economic sector

3.2 Modernization of Tax Administration of the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil

The Treasury Department of the State of Santa Catarina is investing in modernization of auditing and taxes
collection activities. Prepared by its Board of Tax Administration, the project of modernization is
consolidated into six topics: Collection, to combat the tax default in a structured basis; Auditing, for the
sectoring and planning of tax activities; Standardization, for the normalization and automation of procedures;
Legislation, to provide online access to tax legislation; Training, to promote knowledge management; and
Institutional Security, to ensure the security of information.
Within this context of modernization, it is worth highlighting the cultural change involving tax audit,
which historically always acted based on instruments of command and control, that is, with emphasis on
punishment and repression. Today, tax audit in Santa Catarina is structured by sector of economic activity,
with emphasis on guidance and prevention. For this purpose, the GES (Groups of Sectorial Experts) were
created, whose goal is to monitor, obtain cognition, know, guide and audit on a permanent basis the key
sectors of the economy of the State. Moreover, new technologies of information and fiscal intelligence have
been adopted, as the SAT (Tax Administration System), developed in cooperation with the CIASC (Center of
Information Technology and Automation of the State of Santa Catarina), which automatically performs
several administrative routines, simplifying the life of taxpayers and making it less bureaucratic; and the

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GAPEF (Group of Fiscal Analysis and Research), which serves as an intelligence service tax, whose
activities aim at preventing and combating illicit revenue, mainly those related to structured tax frauds.

4. CONCLUSION
The major advances achieved by tax administrations in the Information Society are related to the intensive
use of new technologies that brought considerable progress towards the promotion of fair taxation with more
effective control of collection and effective combating of tax evasion. Also, the ICTs and the employment of
new audit methodologies enabled the voluntary compliance of tax obligations, as well as the establishment of
partnerships among the tax administrations, taxpayers and the representative entities of a number of sectors.
However, it is important to note that, if a tax administration has high-performance technology but weak
institutional performance, it is not possible to make major leaps in the level of compliance with tax
obligations, since the introduction of significant changes in procedures to control tax demands tacit or formal
pacts with taxpayers, that are achieved only if there is investment in institutional strengthening. And how can
the institutional strengthening of tax administration be obtained? First, by the effective combat of the
deleterious political interference and influence usually performed by groups linked to power. Moreover, it is
necessary to create new mechanisms for compensation of work and new criteria for awards and promotion,
appropriate to tax administrations included in the Information Society. It is also necessary to enhance human
resources through training, encouragement of the participation and professionalism.
Finally, all the changes herein presented marked a turning point in tax administration policies.
Nevertheless, the consistency of the levels of compliance positive results achieved in this Information
Society will be subject to a high institutional and technological performance, as well as the development of
tax educational programs with the objective of promoting citizen's participation in the operation and
improvement of the instruments of social control and tax of the Public Power.

REFERENCES
Drucker, P., 1997. Sociedade Pós-Capitalista. Pioneira, São Paulo, Brazil.
Hoeschl, H. and Nicolini, A., 2004. Governo Eletrônico: uma nova forma de governar. Conferência IADIS Ibero-
Americana WWW/Internet. Madri, Spain, pp. 441-444.
Matthijs, A. and Kommer, V., 2000. Manual para las Administraciones Tributarias: Estructura Organizacional y
Gerencia de las Administraciones Tributarias. Koninklijke Vermande, Lelystad, Netherlands.
Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H., 1997. Criação do Conhecimento na Empresa: como as empresas japonesas geram a
dinâmica da inovação. Campus, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Sisnando, Sérgio Ricardo Alves, 2005. Administração tributária setorial: a relação fisco-contribuinte. Available at:
<http://www.auditece.org.br>.

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 IADIS International Conference e-Society 2009

HARMONISATION OF SERVICE REPOSITORIES FROM

DIFFERENT PUBLIC AUTHORITIES―
THE AMT@DIREKT APPROACH

Veit Jahns, Volker Schmitz and Frank-Dieter Dorloff

University of Duisburg-Essen
Essen, Germany

ABSTRACT
In the European Union there are many initiatives to improve the quality of public services especially in the context of the
European service directive. In Germany one of these initiatives is the implementation of a single phone number for
German authorities known as D115. One goal of this project is to provide direct and quick access to information about
the services of all public authorities in Germany. One crucial prerequisite for this is the identification, description and
integration of the knowledge about public services. Another aspect is the implementation of this knowledge into the
repositories of public call centres and its harmonised representation in a customer friendly form. Besides many other
technical aspects like routing of the calls the semantic aspects come into focus. In this paper the Amt@Direkt approach is
proposed. This approach is based on well known and successful established approaches for the description and
classification of products and services, e. g. eCl@ss and UNSPSC. This approach was implemented and tested in five
cities in Germany in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Its results were used to define the requirements for the German
wide solution D115 that will start in Germany as a pilot in early 2009.

KEYWORDS
E-Government, Semantic Interoperability, Service Classification, Service Centre, D115

1. INTRODUCTION
One proved method to test the feasibility and the acceptance of a technical innovation in their organisational
environment is the carrying out of a pilot project (Schwabe and Krcmar 2000, p. 133). Such an innovation is
the description and classification of public services in relation with technologies of the semantic web to
support cross-organizational information providing in public service centres. The need for this innovation
occurred from the starting of the implementation of a single phone number for all German authorities also
known as D115 (Federal Ministry of the Interior and State of Hesse 2007). The goal of the D115 project is to
give citizen and enterprises1 a simple and efficient access to information about all public services in Germany
via one single phone number. As a consequence each service centre has to be able to replace each other
service centre, so the service centre within D115 network will be act as a single service centre from the
customer’s point of view. From this goal arises the crucial need to integrate the knowledge of the service
repositories of all service centres2 involved in the D115 network. Besides different technical, organisational
and political aspects that have to be considered with the integration of the German authorities' service
centres, especially semantic aspects of public-services and its cross-organizational harmonisation come into
focus. Municipalities in Germany offer in general the same public services to their customers. But due to
different laws in the German federal states, due to local and historical reasons and other aspects the
descriptions and classification of these services and so the semantics often differ considerably. Semantic
differences may appear as different naming schemes, different levels of service aggregation or different
organizational responsibilities for service bundles. So a cross- organisational search for special public

1
Citizen and enterprises will be subsumed in the following under the term customer.
2
The term services centres is preferred to the term call centres by the German authorities, because they want to differentiate
themselves from commercial call centres and avoid negative connotations that may be connected with the term call centres.

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service, i. e. searching in all service repositories within the D115 network is very difficult. A simple, but
expressive example of a source of ambiguously and unclear service information is the application of a fine
particle badge for a car. This public service is regulated by the laws of the several German federal states, and
as a consequence three different official names can be found for this badge: “Feinstaubplakette” (fine particle
badge), “Umweltplakette” (environment badge) and “Emissionsplakette” (emission badge). An example for
the use of different levels of aggregation of services is the application and the prolongation of some licence
or official document, which are semantic tight related to each other. In one service centre these services are
covered by only one description, and in another there are two separate descriptions for these services.
Considering these examples as well as the federal structure, multitude and diversity of German authorities,
e. g. there are more than 12,000 municipalities in Germany, an approach to bridge these semantic differences
is urgently needed.

2. RELATED WORK
In the last year many projects and works to improve the semantic interoperability of public service
descriptions were conducted. Thus broad range of approaches can be found. There are approaches with a
small ontology (Xiao et al. 2007) or approaches with comprehensive and high complex ontologies, like the
ontologies in the Governance Enterprise Architecture (e. g. Goudos et al. 2006, Goudos et al. 2007 or Wang
et al. 2007) or the approach by FOKUS for a directory based responsibility finder (Fraunhofer Insitut für
Offene Kommunikationssysteme 2008). All these approaches mainly focus the structural aspects of public
services descriptions, i. e. they specify attributes, characteristics and model constructs recommended to be
used to describe public services. However in the ontology of E-Government resources currently developed by
the CEN/ISSS Workshop eGov-Share a service―a special type of resource in this ontology (CEN 2008, Part
1a, p. 2)―is related to a concept called “subject” (CEN 2008, Part 1a, p. 10). This concept represents terms
of a given taxonomy. The use of taxonomies is an approach to solve the problem of the semantic differences
explained above. Such approaches have been developed and implemented in the field of E-Business in the
last year and used successfully. Examples for such taxonomies3 for products and commercial services are
eCl@ss (eCl@ss e. V. 2009) or UNSPSC (UNSPSC 2009).
In the field of E-Government first works and proposals for taxonomies of public service can be observed.
Mentionable examples are Eurovoc (European Communities 2009) and the Leistungskatalog (“Leika”)
developed currently within the initiative Deutschland Online (Nax 2008). But these taxonomies are only
partly suitable to support of the cross-organisational searching for public service information, because they
are dictionaries rather than systematic classification of public services.
Besides the latter two approaches there is a proposal for a public service taxonomy by Peristeras et al.
(2007, p. 107). But it focuses on pan-european appliance, which mean cross-border public services
(Peristeras 2007, p. 101) and it is based on recurring patterns of interaction between E-Government actors.
The purpose of the taxonomy by Peristeras et al. (2007) is to support the analysis of cross-border public
services, whereas the pilot project described in this paper concentrates on municipal public services, which
are in general non cross-border public services. Therefore in this paper the Amt@Direkt approach is
presented, which is a proposal for the use of a classification systems to support the cross-organisational
information providing in public service centres.

3. OUTLINE OF THE AMT@DIREKT APPROACH

3.1 Assumptions
The declared goal of the German project D115 is to achieve a high service quality of the D115 network by
answering most of the incoming calls case closing (Bundesministerium des Inneren, 2008, p. 37). This means
that high quality of a service centre is not only expressed by a small average waiting time for the caller in the

3
In this paper the term taxonomy will be used synonymously with the term classification systems.

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queue (e. g. Omari and Al-Zubaidy 2008, p. 1805), but also in giving the callers the right and the appropriate
answer to their questions and so to reduce the service time and the achieve a high ratio of all dealt incoming
calls and all incoming calls (He et al. 2007, p. 2). Assuming that the information about the public services
provided by the own municipality is in appropriate quality the challenge is to make this information
accessible to other service centres in the D115 network without diminishing quality despite the existing
semantic differences explained above.
Quality of shared information to enable interoperability in e-government is an important but also a
difficult issue (Klischewski and Scholl 2006). Thus it was decided within the project to use the description of
services provided by the municipalities on their web sites as a base for the shared information. On the on
hand this has several advantages: (1) the descriptions are used by the target group, e. g. the citizens of the
municipality, and therefore are under a constant observation and quality control, (2) the information is
already available free in the internet so no security issues have to be considered, i. e. no access to databases
behind firewalls is needed, and (3) no central, redundant data has to be stored and maintained. On the other
hand a disadvantage is the lack of semantic standardisation, which leads to different naming and aggregation
in the different authorities as explained above. Therefore a taxonomy of public services has to be used.
There are many definitions for the term public service in literature. In this paper a public service is
defined as “capability [to perform an activity] offered by a public authority or on behalf of a public authority”
(CEN 2008, Part 1a, p. 5) to serve a need of a customer.4 Additionally to citizens and enterprises also other
public authorities can request public services, but this case is beyond the scope of the project D115 and will
not be considered in this paper.

3.2 Requirements
Depending on the object the requirements refer to two types of requirements can be distinguished: on the one
hand the requirements on the processes of taxonomy development and maintenance and on the other hand
requirements on the structure and building principles of the taxonomy. The first type of requirements
includes requirements on release processes, versioning and publishing the taxonomy. Although these
requirements play an important role in the development of an taxonomy and have to be considered they will
not be discussed here, because they are mostly independent of the domain the taxonomy deals with and thus
not characteristic for the considered domain of public services.
The second type of requirement includes requirements on how structural elements of the taxonomy
should be defined and named. Given the initial situation and the assumptions explained above the following
general requirements should be met by a taxonomy:
1. Consistent granularity: To allow a detailed specification of classes, all classes of one level have to
be on the same level of abstraction.
2. Consistent view: The classes have to be defined either from one unified point of view on the domain
or each class from the same multiple points of view. This means in the latter case all views have to
be considered defining each class.
3. Consistent naming: To reach a harmonisation the class names have to be formed according to well
defined rules.
4. Completeness: To built a well balanced taxonomy there has to be a clearly designed class building
methodology starting from a defined level. From that starting point the taxonomy has to cover all
objects of the considered domain in the already specified areas. This is essential to build a complete
and sound taxonomy.
5. Compliance: The taxonomy should be structured and formed according to international standards
for taxonomies in the field of E-Business and E-Government, so the resulting taxonomy will be
interoperable with other taxonomies.
Considering the assumptions as well as the characteristics of the domain of public services and the
environment of service centre the general requirements were operationalised in this project as follows:
1. Consistent granularity: To ensure a consistent granularity each level of the taxonomy was designed
with a clearly defined building principle. On the most detailed level, the level of the service classes,

4
One major distinction between commercial services and is that public service are based on a judicial rules like laws, thus
often customers have to use a public service, e. g. to apply for a driving licence to drive a car. So the need by a customer for a public
service is of another nature as the need for an commercial service.

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each service class was build―according to the definition of the term service given above―by
selecting one service object and combining it with the activity is performed on it (see table 1 for
examples). The next higher level is the level of service objects (without assigned activities), level 2
are the service groups and the most general level is the level of service areas. The definition of
service objects was the most time consuming work within the project. Although starting from a
limited number of potential objects (see requirement 3) the process of harmonisation of the classes,
which means especially eliminating different names for the same object in different participating
service centres required a lot of domain know how and empirical studies.
2. Consistent view: To ensure a consistent view all classes of services were defined and named from
the customer’s point of view. This way was chosen, because due to the fact that the questions asked
by the customers of the service centres are expressed in the customer's point of view and mostly not
from the public authorities point of view. See table 1 for an example.
3. Consistent naming: According to the two requirements 1 and 2 the classes of services can be defined
by identifying the objects and the relating activities. See table 1 for an example.
4. Completeness: To meet the requirement of completeness a clear development path was specified in
the pilot project. To use the practical experience of the participating service centres, it was decided
to base the taxonomy in the first step on the 100 most frequently requested services. This limitation
was made, because of the goal to test the feasibility and acceptance of this approach. To get this top
100 list the principles defined in requirement 1 were used on statistical analyses on the most
frequent questions from each participant.
5. Compliance: The underlying data model of the taxonomy follows the requirements of the
international industrial data standard ISO 13584 (ISO 2001). This standard especially defines
objects within the context of classification systems and how to identify and reference these objects.
The principles of the ISO 13584 were adopted to all objects within the Amt@Direkt like classes,
properties, circumstances or service objects and activities.
Table 1. Examples for operationalised taxonomy definition requirements

Requirement Valid service class(es) Invalid service class

Consistent granularity “Apply for Passport” “Passport” (including the
“Change Passport” application, changing and
“Prolongate Passport” prolongation of a passport)
Consistent view “Apply for Passport” “Issue a Passport”
“Apply for a License” “Grant a
Consistent naming “Apply for ...” “Application of …“
“Prolongate ...” “Prolongation of ...”

According to this requirement the activities and objects with regard to the 100 most frequently requested
public services of the five participating municipalities were identified and related to each other in a matrix. If
a meaningful connection between an object and an activity was identified, then a public service class was
defined. An excerpt of the resulting taxonomy can be found in table 2.
Table 2. Examples for defining service classes based on activities and objects
Object/ Driving License Passport Vehicle
Activity
Apply for “Apply for Driving “Apply for Passport” -
License”
Change “Change Driving “Change Passport” -
License”
Deregister - - “Deregister Vehicle”
Prolongate - “Prolongate Passport” -
Register - - “Register Vehicle”
Replace “Replace Driving - -
License”

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3.3 Application
The main motivation of building the taxonomy was enhancing the cross service centre access to information
about public services. To reach this goal the class identifiers of the public service classes were use to enhance
the internet-based descriptions of public services in the different municipalities. Technically this can be done
by using technologies like Microformat (Microformat 2009) or RDFa (W3C 2008). Via these technologies
search engine are enabled to gain structured access to the service class identifier and thus to reference all
information provided by the taxonomy. This additional information like harmonised service names or
keywords can be used during the indexing phase to enhance the searching for the public service descriptions
and by this means bridge the semantic differences between the municipalities. Furthermore based on the so
defined service classes new classes of service bundles can be specified as well; e. g. classes representing a
circumstance in a person’s life like a movement, which necessitates the change of official documents and so
on. Such classes can be formed by abstracting from the relevant public services' (base) classes.

3.4 First Findings

The analysis of the proposed Amt@Direkt approach is still ongoing and will be continued throughout the
first phase of the actual live project D115. Nevertheless there are some findings which are already assured:
• The Amt@Direkt approach is capable to harmonise the different service descriptions and can be
used as basis for statistical analysis.
• The search algorithm based on the Amt@Direkt taxonomy enhanced with harmonised synonyms
was able to reach very good search results; the search of services within the considered scope lead to
the right service description on first place of the hit list in over 95 % of the test cases.
• The mapping of the top service description to the Amt@Direkt taxonomy did not cause very high
efforts and could be accomplished by the participating municipalities easily.
The additional results with focus on the usability and practical relevance of the developed application are
presented in another paper. The summary is that all participants had no problems in integrating the approach
in their IT infrastructure.

4. CONCLUSION
In this paper we proposed an approach for the integration of service repositories of public service centres
using a taxonomy of public services. This approach was implemented in a prototype system and tested within
five service centres of German municipalities participating in the project D115. Some of the findings may
also be integrated in other existing approaches for describing public services, e. g. into the ontology of the
eGov-Share Workshop (CEN 2008, Part 1a).
Hitherto only a small set of public services provided by municipalities was taken into consideration.
Future work steps will be the extension of the classification system up to the complete spectrum of municipal
services as well the services provided by the German federal states and the federal government. Even pan-
european aspects of the integration of service repositories, e. g. based on the taxonomy by Peristeras et al.
(2008) for cross-border services, and aspects of multilingualism are to be planned to be taken into
consideration in the future. Furthermore the approach needs a more comprehensive methodical foundation
and alignment with existing approaches for definition public service taxonomies and ontologies, e. g. the
approach proposed by Klischewski and Ukena (2008).
As a final result this project was a feasibility study for further work in the context of the D115
(Bundesministerium des Inneren and Land Hessen 2008) project and has delivered valuable findings and
ideas, which are contributed to the elaborated concept of the project D115. So this is an example how science
and praxis can benefit from a cooperation within a pilot project.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank the employees of the service centres of the cities of Bonn, Cologne, Dortmund,
Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Mülheim an der Ruhr for their support of and contribution to the pilot project
Amt@Direkt.

REFERENCES
Bundesministerium des Inneren and Land Hessen, 2008, Projekt D115 Einheitliche Behördenrufnummer – Feinkonzept,
Version 1.1. http://www.d115.de/cln_091/nn_1184756/SharedDocs/Publikationen/DE/feinkonzept__langfassung,-
templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/feinkonzept_langfassung.pdf
CEN., 2008, CEN Workshop Agreement of the CEN/ISSS Workshop on Discovery of and Access to eGovernment
Resources (eGov-Share), Version 4. http://www.cen.eu/cenorm/businessdomains/businessdomains/isss/workshops/-
wsegovshare.asp.
European Communities, 2009, Eurovoc, http://europa.eu/eurovoc/.
eCl@ss e. V., 2009, http://www.eclass.de/.
Federal Ministry of the Interior and State of Hesse, 2007, Project D115. Single Non-Emergency Number. http://-
www.d115.de/cln_100/nn_739876/SharedDocs/Publikationen/DE/projectsummery__en,templateId=raw,property=pu
blicationFile.pdf/projectsummery_en.pdf.
Fraunhofer Insitut für Offene Kommunikationssysteme, 2008, Verzeichnisbasierter Zuständigkeitsfinder. http://-
www.fokus.fraunhofer.de/de/elan/projekte/national/laufende_projekte/fg_hochleistungsportale/verz__zustaedingkeits
finder/index.html.
Goudos, S. K. et al., 2006, Mapping Citizen Profiles to Public Administration Services Using Ontology Implementation
of the Governance Enterprise Architecture (GEA) models. Proceedings of the 3rd European Semantic Web
Conference, Budva, Montenegro.
Goudos, S: K. et al., 2007, Public Administration Domain Ontology for a Semantic Web Services E-Government-
Framework. Proceedings of the Int’l Conference on Service Computing, Salt Lake City, UT, pp. 270-277.
He, S. et al., 2007, Study on the Continuous Quality Improvement of Telecommunication Call Centers Based on Data
Mining. Proceedings of the Int’l Conference on Service Systems and Service Management, Chengdu, China, pp. 1-5.
ISO, 2001, ISO 13584-1:2001 Industrial automation systems integration – Parts library – Part 1: Overview and
fundamental principles.
Klischewski, R. and Scholl, H. J., 2006, Information Quality as a Common Ground for Key Players in e-Government
Integration and Interoperability. Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii Int’l Conference on Systems Sciences, Kauai, HI, pp.
72-82.
Klischewski, R. and Ukena, S., 2008, An Activity-based Approach Towards Development and Use of E-government
Services Ontologies. Proc. of the 41st Hawaii Int’l Conference on System Sciences. Waikoloa, HI, pp. 215-225.
Microformat., 2009, http://microformats.org/.
Nax, K., 2008, Der Leistungskatalog. Proceedings des 45. Erfahrungsaustauschs des Kooperationsausschusses ADV
Bund / Länder / Kommunaler Bereich (KoopA ADV). Darmstadt, Germany.
Omari, T. and Al-Zubaidy, H., 2005, Call Center Performace Evaluation. Proceedings of the Canadian Conference
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Saskatoon, SK, pp. 1805-1808.
Peristeras, V. et al., 2007, Cross-Border Public Services: Analysis and Modelling. Proceedings of 40th Hawaii Int’l
Conference on System Sciences, Waikoloa, HI, pp. 101-109.
Schwabe, G. and Krcmar, H., 2000, Piloting Socio-technical Innovations. Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on
Information Systems. Vienna, Austria, pp. 132-139.
UNSPSC, 2009, http://www.unspsc.org/.
W3C, 2008, RDFa Primer. Bridging the Human and Data Webs. http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-rdfa-primer/.
Wang, X. et al., 2007, WSMO-PA: Formal Specification of Public Administration Service Model on Semantic Web
Service Ontology. Proceedings of the 40th Hawaii Int’l Conference on Systems Sciences, Waikoloa, HI, pp. 96-106.
Xiao, Y. et al., 2007, An ontology for e-government knowledge modeling and interoperability. Proceedings of the Int’l
Conference on Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, Shanghai, China, pp. 3605-3608.

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VIRTUAL REGIONAL PLATFORM FOR THE

SUSTAINABLE STRATEGY DESIGN AND
IMPLEMENTATION

Mihaela Muresan
“Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University, Bucharest, Romania

ABSTRACT
The virtual integrated framework aiming at supporting the regional development strategy represents a regional knowledge
management platform for the acquisition of relevant information (regional, national, and international level), their
processing and dissemination. Thus the virtual platform represents a vital and necessary resource in the process of the
design and implementation of the regional development strategy, facilitating the interaction of the main regional actors
and the consensus building. It refers also to the procedures and tools of analysis, in order to develop a specific set of
indicators and benchmarking analysis for the identification of major trends and needs in the regional development. The
regional knowledge platform aims also at integrating both data and specific views and experience of relevant regional
actors, for the best results in designing the regional strategy and supervising its implementation in the benefit of the
regional development and competitiveness. This approach aims at strengthening the regional partnership and the
interaction between citizens, public authorities, academic, research and business environment, in a democratic-centric
view. The regional knowledge management platform integrates multiple dimensions of knowledge management, such as:
techno-centric view, people view, organizational view, and process view. The technical view focuses on technologies,
ideally those that enhance knowledge sharing, and people interaction. The people view focuses on bringing people
together and helping them to exchange knowledge. The organisational view focuses on process re-engineering for the
main actors involved in the design of the regional development strategy. The process view focuses on the management of
the knowledge creation, processing and transmission. This approach intends to bring together valuable and updated data,
procedures for data acquisition and updating, econometric tools, benchmarking standards and the people best practices,
experience and creativity, as a life-event regional repository, used as a tool of knowledge creation in the regional strategy
frame. The development of the virtual platform ensures the possibility of a wider debate on a scientific and realistic base,
offered by a set of detailed and relevant indicators and various analysis and scenarios, as embedded knowledge. The new
web technologies offer support for the efficient communication among main actors, reduce the cost and increase the
participation rate of the citizens and experts in the democratic process of the design of the regional development strategy.
It offers also the possibility of an iterative process for the refinement of the regional objectives and priorities. The
interactive regional platform facilitates the management of the regional intelligence capital and best practices, in the
benefit of the region. It creates also the premises for a better supervision of the implementation of the regional strategy,
and supports the process of finding the best solutions for fulfilling the established goals.

KEYWORDS
E-administration, regional knowledge platform, e-voting

1. INTRODUCTION
The development of the virtual regional platform, as efficient tool for the design and implementation of the
regional sustainable strategy, represents the main objective of an ambitious Romanian research project
financed under the national research scheme. The project aims at setting the regional strategy design process
on a scientific and participative base, and consequently intends to develop a regional knowledge base
integrating the experts’ experience related to the sustainable development, the development trends identified
and the regional actors’ views. This approach supports the decision makers in their efforts to minimize the
gap between the aspirations and the concrete possibilities, and to find the best and feasible development
paths. The virtual platform articulates the scientific and empirical views offering heuristic models, scenarios,

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foresight exercises and various tools for facilitating the formulation and the expression of the regional actors’
opinions.
The regional knowledge platform creates a new framework for the main processes involved in the design
and implementation of the regional sustainable strategy and ensures the online implementation of the specific
services for the knowledge generation and presentation, and e-voting processes.

2. MAIN DIMENSIONS OF THE REGIONAL VIRTUAL PLATFORM

The regional knowledge platform integrates multiple dimensions related to the global approach and the
scientific side of the strategy design process. This platform focuses also on the technical issues for designing
a web based, democratic, and qualitative solution, in order to provide the adequate online tools for the public
participation to the design, implementation and evaluation processes related to the regional strategy.
The global dimension takes into account the connectivity of the region to the national, European, and
world spaces, which involves the international assumed responsibilities (Kyoto protocol, environmental
treaties, renewed Lisbon strategy, Göteborg strategy, European socio-economic cohesion policy – European
Commission, 2007) and the national development frame. The global context and the local actions focus on
the synergy among human, environmental, social, and economic dimensions, as a refined knowledge based
process (Davis, 2005). The European framework aims also to have a balanced and sustainable development
which ensures the competitiveness of the European space on the global market. At the regional level, the
entities responsible for the design of the regional sustainable strategy (the regional development agencies
under the coordination of the Ministry of the Regional Development and Housing) generate a wide
participative process, involving the main regional actors structured in various focus groups, in order to
capture the most valuable experiences and information. The identification of the main regional actors is
crucial for the design of the main information flows and interactions, aiming at increasing the efficiency of
the regional knowledge based processes and the regional development framework. We mention that the
actual process of designing the regional strategy is based on a set of global statistical indicators which could
not reveal all the important real life aspects for a realistic socio-economic analysis.
The organizations and the citizens have the opportunity to participate to the ongoing and ex-post
evaluation process of the quality of the regional projects and their impact to the fullfilment of the main
local/regional development objectives. This aproach increases the transparency of the process of the regional
strategy implementation, which represents a main goal of the European Union (Winter, 2000). In this
perspective, the platform provides the facilities of an e-barometer, as a democratic-centric regional driver,
used for gathering and analyzing the local/regional actors’ satisfaction, in order to improve the local/regional
development strategy and the services delivered by the public local administration related to the design and
implementation of the sustainable regional strategy.
Local public Central public Other local/
administration administration regional actors

Data providers E-Region platform Experts

Statistical data Models, indicators
Regional development
strategy design and
Data sources Scenarios, trends
implementation

Internet

Public virtual E-voting for the Integrated virtual center for

consultation for the regional strategy regional projects
regional strategy consensus implementation
Regional actors: citizens and organizations

Figure 1. Main actors’ interaction with the regional virtual platform

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The holistic approach, implemented by the e-region platform, facilitates the regional development, and
provides an integrated framework, which contributes to a better interaction with the public administration
entities and offering a democratic-centered and qualitative approach, as illustrated in the figure 1. The critical
approach of the current process reveals the lack of accuracy in the deep and integrated analysis of the
indicators which characterize the sustainable development, and consequently the debates in the work groups
have not always a realistic and scientific base. In order to facilitate the process and to aggregate the regional
intellectual capital in a very efficient way, our project has proposed a virtual platform supporting the
development of the regional knowledge base and the participation of the regional actors represented by
specialists (independent experts and researchers in various fields), organizations (public administration,
NGOs, research institutes, academic entities, business entities), citizens and decision makers (representatives
of the public administration). The participative process ensures the accuracy of the analysis and the
consensus building related to the future development of the region, and consequently represents a guaranty
for the further involvement during the implementation process. Simultaneously, the platform provides tools
for the assessment of the regional sustainable strategy implementation.
The proposed virtual framework supports a better regional and national cohesion and the increased
competitiveness based on the intellectual regional capital development and use.

3. GENERIC ARCHITECTURE OF THE REGIONAL PLATFORM

The study emphasizes the idea that the e-region platform could be the main knowledge integrator and
generator at the regional level, having as main functions: the acquisition of relevant knowledge and data, the
mechanism of various analysis and data processing (benchmarking, trends identification, foresight exercises),
the scenarios and simulation presentation, the interactivity with the main regional actors in order to
understand the possible regional evolution and to stimulate the pro-active behavior of the regional actors. The
functionality of the platform relies on the identification of the main data sources and the procedures for the
online data acquisition in a data warehouse, as well as the data processing, analyzing and presenting as a
scientific base for virtual debates and opinion expression, as illustrated in the figure 2.

E-platform for the regional strategy E-platform for the regional projects’
development development and implementation
monitoring Regional strategy
Regional strategy
implementation
development
updating/
Sustainable Online regional Strategy Local/
E-voting Decision making projects’ regional
E-public consultation making regional corrections submission implementation
strategy projects’
Foresight exercise process and monitoring monitoring evaluation
presentation

Figure 2. Main functions of the e-region platform

Other important focus is represented by the selection of new sets of indicators and models for a better
characterization of the human development, in a balanced environmental-social-economic approach. The
identification of the data needs and the appropriate models and statistical tools represents the guaranty of the
scientific approach in the knowledge based process of the design of the regional development strategy. The
proposed sustainable models, the data analysis results and the interpretation of the data will contribute to the
generation of various analysis and scenarios, as embedded knowledge, representing important tools for the
decisional process of designing the objectives and priorities for the regional development on medium- and
long term. The whole process of the development of the regional strategy could be supported by the e-
regional portal, through iterative phases concerning the capture, the refinement and the integration of the
regional partners’ views. The main processes in the design of the regional strategy are: the socio-economic
analysis, based on the statistical data, reference models and previous period of regional programming; the
regional strategic objectives identification as a wide regional e-consultancy process; the regional projects
identification, the regional priorities identification and the approval of the programming documents, which
could be designed as an e-voting process.

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The generic architecture for an e-regional portal uses knowledge oriented paradigms, in order to create a
repository of knowledge based analysis tools as presented in the figure 3. The knowledge base is developed
using the sustainable development reference models, analysis and scenarios tools, benchmarking, foresight
exercises, valuable experiences, laws, procedures and the expertise of various experts. The web based
processes contribute to the wide public debate and the iterative voting, which ensures the premises of the
successive refinement of the strategy and of its authenticity. The use of various questionnaires, virtual focus
group debates, and e-voting techniques will contribute also to a better measurement of the regional actors’
views and satisfaction, related to the regional development strategy design and implementation. According to
the generic architecture of the e-region platform, there will be at least two levels of access, a public access in
order to inform and stimulate the participation of the local/regional actors and a restricted access, open to the
decision makers’ level.
Regional
Committee for
Regional Strategic
Management Intermediate Development Evaluation and
unit body Board Correlation

Internet

E-REGIONAL Extranet intelligent interface

BAROMETER
for the Data acquisition Database Data presentation
regional
regional/
local Filter, integration development Filter, integration
framework
development
framework Meta data

Questionnaires

Data presentation
Regional
actor’s views
and expertise

Internet intelligent interface

Internet
Citizens
Experts
Business entities Regional actors
Other entities
Figure 3. Architecture for the regional/local knowledge platform

Other modules of the platform could offer an efficient support for the regional strategy implementation,
through the selection and development of the regional projects, according to the strategic objectives. The
metadata in this case are represented by various forms to be online filled in or downloaded. The projects
tender procedures could also be online implemented, as well as the negotiations and contracts signature,
which provide the transparency in the process of the implementation of the strategy. The quantitative
assessment of the implementation of the regional strategy could be complemented with the qualitative
approach, represented by the regional actors’ opinion related to the quality of the projects, i.e. the strategy
implementation. The acquired experience during the strategy implementation will contribute to the further
refinement and improvement of the objectives and of the mechanism of the transposing them into practice.

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4. CONCLUSIONS
The main benefits of the e-regional platform related to the design and implementation of the regional strategy
include the integration of the actors’ views, the best use of the regional knowledge related to the sustainable
development, the consensus building, the increase of the transparency in the regional strategy design and
implementation, the qualitative approach of the regional strategy design and implementation in order to
increase the regional competitiveness and sustainability.
The main findings introduced by the research project are represented by the improvement of the scientific
base of the regional strategy design and by the efficient interaction of the regional/local entities with the
management and intermediate units. This innovative approach represents a qualitative change at the
regional/local administration level, involving major process re-engineering decisions. The decisions makers,
represented by the various local/regional or central entities (Regional Development Agencies, Ministry of the
Development, Public Works and Housing, Regional Development Board and Regional Committee for
Strategic Evaluation and Correlation – Antonescu, 2003) will have at their disposal accurate information,
including the feedback obtained from the regional actors, in order to improve the process of the design and
implementation of the sustainable regional strategy.
The acceptance and the implementation of such a platform is part of a wider process of transition to the
digital processes in the public administration area. The platform articulates functions and components such as
the regional knowledge repository and generator, and the virtual barometer used to measure the people’s
satisfaction related to the regional strategy design and implementation. The platform offers also a solution to
the decentralization process, which represents a real challenge for the local administration. This represents an
efficient way to involve citizens and organizations in the regional development, as a knowledge based
process. The design and the implementation of the regional/local strategy becomes an efficient and more
realistic bottom-up process, integrating the best experiences and practices and better responding to the local
needs.

REFERENCES
Book
Antonescu, C., 2003. Regional Development in Romania, Ed., Oscar Print, Bucharest
Davis J., 2005. Knowledge Management, Heidelberg, Verlag Heidelberg
Dieng F., 2005. Knowledge Management - Methodes et Outils pour la Gestion des Connaissances, Paris, Dunod
Gisler M., Spahni D., 2000. e-Government – eine Standortbestimmung, Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern et al
Tatnall, A., 2004. Information Technology in the Knowledge Society, New York, Springer Science
Wimmer M., 2004. Knowledge Management in Electronic Government, Berlin, New York, Springer Science
*** European Commission, 2007. Growing Regions – Growing Europe. Fourth Report on Economic and Social
Cohesion, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities
Journal
Lenk, K., 1999. Electronic Government als Schlüssel zur Innovation der öffentlichen Verwaltung, in: K. Lenk, R.
Traunmüller (ed.), Öffentliche Verwaltung und Informationstechnik - Perspektiven einer radikalen Neugestaltung der
öffentlichen Verwaltung mit Informationstechnik, Schriftenreihe Verwaltungsinformatik 20, R. v. Decker's Verlag,
Heidelberg, 1999, S. 123 – 142
Winter A., 2000, Die österreichische Verwaltung im Internet, in: H. Reinermann (Hrsg.), Regieren und Verwalten im
Informationszeitalter: Unterwegs zur virtuellen Verwaltung, R.v. Decker, Heidelberg, 2000, pp. 170 – 185
Conference paper or contributed volume
Traunmüller R., Wimmer M., 2001. Directions in E-Government: Processes, Portals, Knowledge, in: Proceedings of the
DEXA International Workshop "On the Way to Electronic Government", IEEE Computer Society Press, Los
Alamitos, CA
Wimmer M., Traunmüller R., Lenk, K., 2001. Electronic Business Invading the Public Sector: Considerations on Change
and Design, in: Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-34), Hawaii

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ALZHERAPY: AN ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION

José Miguel Castillo, PhD, Enrique García

European Virtual Engineering, Tech. Center
C/ Ayala, 97 – Bj D 28006 Madrid –Spain-

ABSTRACT
The life expectancy has increased drastically in the last century. This situation implies that new illnesses show up more
frequently after certain ages. Such is the case with the Alzheimer’s disease. From a social point of view the main goal is
not other than getting old people to enjoy a better life quality. To accomplish this, it is necessary to detect the
Alzheimer’s symptoms the earlier the better. The Alzheimer’s disease is a serious and degenerative disorder that occurs
because of the gradual degradation of brain neurons, whose cause is not fully known. The consequences of the illness not
only affect the patient but they also have a great impact of the patient’s family, who play a fundamental role in the
different stages of the illness. For this reason the development of ALZHERAPY gathers the needs of the patients, their
families and health specialists. Integrated systems and adequate tools to try to minimize the total advancement of the
Alzheimer’s disease are the key to success. This project is going to be presented for funding by the Spanish government
and we are open to contact European partners to present ALZHERAPY in ICT or CIP 7FP next calls.

KEYWORDS
The Alzheimer’s, detection, intelligent interface, intellectual stimulation, cognitive training.

1. INTRODUCTION
Improving the lives of those with the Alzheimer’s throughout the advancement of the illness is an objective
to achieve not only for medical researcher but also for technologists [Madden, 1992]. Few years ago, the
technology did not permit to develop cognitive training systems; however, nowadays with the aid of
technology we can develop computer applications more complete and efficient. With that in mind, we are
proposing a system that permits the early detection of the illness, the execution of specific exercises that may
postpone or stop it, as well as the remote control of the patient’s state and illness progression.

2. ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN OF THE SYSTEM

The system integrates the actions and activities of people with the Alzheimer’s disease, their families and the
health professionals.
In order to do that, like you see in figure 1, the system consists of:
- Home computer system. Each patient with the Alzheimer’s disease will have a computer placed in his
home. The computer can execute the most advanced functions that we are developing for the system.
- Alzheimer’s specialists located in a Health Center. This is the center of specialized health care in which
the patient’s progress is classified and watched over.
All patients will be under remote professional supervision of a specialist located in the center of the area.

“The presentation of this paper has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (MEC) under grants
(CSD2007-00022, INGENIO 2010) and (TIN2003-14630-C03-02)”

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Figure 1. System architecture

The functions that our system presents are the following:
- Diagnosis of the illness: Efficiently permits the detection of the Alzheimer’s in the patient and at the
same time can detect the degree of advancement of the illness. All by means of questionnaires, intelligent
processing and automated information.
- Specific exercises: Execution of specific psychotherapy exercises, specifically adapted for the
Alzheimer patients that possess a high degree of demonstrated efficiency for the scientific community.
- Localizing and Anti-fall system: Thanks to GPS (Global Positioning System) technology this system
permits the patient to use the system at any location and the control for localization before possible falls,
whether at home or the health care center. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a technology that can
help assure the control in the administration of the medicines and supplies [Braga, 2002], as well as the
patient’s localization in closed spaces.

3. DIAGNOSIS OF THE ALZHEIMER’S

An early detection of the Alzheimer disease is fundamental for the good subsequent treatment of the illness
[Nestor, 1991]. For this reason to carry out a correct diagnosis we apply a test with easy questions, which are
specific and proven by the scientific community, that permits the Alzheimer’s specialist to know with a high
degree of certainty if the patient is actually suffering from the illness and the state of evolution that he is
found in.
A person who wants to know if he or she is suffering from the Alzheimer’s may do the test in a remote
way. The only thing needed is a computer with access to the Internet. Once the possible patient has connected
with the Health Center, he could take privately the diagnosis test. After finishing the test, the computer would
recommend to visit the Alzheimer’s specialist, just in case.
The methodology that we will use to execute the diagnosis will be accomplished by dividing the
questions into various areas. The differences areas are:
-Orientation: the patient’s capacity to put himself in the right time and place.
-Concentration and calculation: the capacity the patient has to realize calculated numbers and pay
attention.
-Focusness: capacity to observe and focus on acts.
-Memory: the capacity of the patient to memorize acts and events.
-Language and construction: the patient’s capacity to develop, construct and comprehend the language.

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3.1 Automatic Processing of the Information

For the Alzheimer disease’s detection, currently we are using the MMSE (Mini Mental State Examination),
specifically its version reduced to MEC [Folstein, 1995]. The result obtained will be highly reliable,
indicating exactly which degree of the disease the patient has. This result is expressed in a scale from zero to
ten. In this scale a ten indicates that the Alzheimer’s is not present in our patient and zero indicates complete
advancement of the illness.
In order to control the therapy progression, we are proposing (as way to research) the application of other
methods of evaluation and classification.
To be able to carry out a precise calculation and to obtain highly reliable results we are developing some
procedures based on artificial intelligence methods. Among the possible methods of artificial intelligence we
are evaluating the use of neural networks and genetic algorithms.
These procedures allow us to classify in an automatic way the state of the patient’s evolution.

4. SPECIFIC EXERCISES
In the initial phases of the illness it is vital to maintain the mental activity, just as to keep the patient active
physically. Because of this, the patient should try to continue habitual activities like exercising, reading and
writing. So that he can carry out all of these activities, we are developing and integrating several modules that
facilitate this work:
-Module of voice recognition: by means of this module the system is capable of recognizing those orders
that the patients give to the computer orally. This is important for the execution of certain activities like
reading texts.
-Module of character recognition: in this module the system will be capable of recognizing the distinct
characters and forms that the patient writes on a digital tablet.
-Applications based on images: Since the images stimulate the memory and are a great tool to carry out
memory and observation exercises, multimedia technology is present in this module.
-Module of movements capture: thanks to this module the system is capable of recognizing the
movements made by the patient. This is useful when the patient does physical exercise. The system
recognizes the movement of the patient if he does it correctly.
The different exercises proposed in the system are easy but efficient; making sure that the patient can
maintain and develop all of his daily skills that are essential.
Depending on the exercises result, the system calculates the progress of the illness. This causes the
system to have to adapt itself to the needs of each patient. To solve this problem the system is going to
implement the following:
- Intelligent interfaces. ALZHERAPY permits the patient to be guided through the different options of the
application in an easy way.
- Integration of diverse hardware devices that allows the patient to easily interact with the computer.
These devices are the following:
- Carpet Exercises: the patient can do physical exercises when the software application indicates to do
them.
- Digital Tablet: allows the patient to draw with an optical pencil.
- Loudspeaker: device which allows the user to receive audible information from the computer.
- Touch Screen: the use of touch screens to interact with the computer is fundamental for patients with the
Alzheimer’s in order to avoid complicated computer interfaces. ALZHERAPY uses touch screen to be
operated.
Some exercises we have developed and integrated in the system are [Losada, 2003]: Solving operations,
Connecting dots, Which follows?, Photographic memory, and so on.

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“Solving operations” “Connecting the dots”

“Which follows?” “Photographic memory”

Figure 2. Exercises

5. CUSTOMIZED 3D AVATARS
Another special feature of ALZHERAPY consists of the use of customized 3D avatars. An avatar is the
representation of a figure or face that interacts with the computer user. When the patient of the Alzheimer’s is
in an advanced stage of the illness, it is difficult to communicate with him. He is able to recognize only close
relatives, circumstance that is very often a tiring and depressing activity for the patient carer. We are
developing a process in which a computer avatar can be customized simulating the face and voice of the
patient carer, who in most of cases is the close relative. The avatar will guide the patient interaction with the
computer, by attracting his attention and by assisting him to complete his daily cognitive exercises.

Figure 3. 3D Avatar
This feature of ALZHERAPY not only works as a friendly interface to assist the patient interaction with
the computer; but also it is a psychological relief for the patient carer, since he or she is virtually substituted
to distract and entertain the patient when doing his cognitive exercises.

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It is important to care the patient carer too. From a psychological point of view the patient carer will
suffer from stress and depression in a near future. The possibility of relieving him or her from certain
activities, like the patient cognitive training guide together with the remote connection with the Alzheimer’s
specialist are two advantages that presents ALZHERAPY to care the Alzheimer’s patient carer.

6. LOCALIZATION SYSTEM
As we have said before, it is highly recommended that the patient does a healthy and normal activity. This
includes having a daily walk outside home. At certain stages of the illness, despite the fact that having a walk
is beneficial activity, this can imply some risks if the Alzheimer’s patient looses his orientation capacity and
he gets lost. To solve this problem we have included in ALZHERAPY an automatic localization system that
permits to know where the patient is situated out of his house. We use the GPS/GPRS technology packed in a
small device. The locator is programmed to transmit the patient location every minute; this information is
treated and represented in the home computer. From this device, the patient can transmit an emergency signal
or simply talk to the patient carer.

Figure 4. Localization system

7. CONCLUSION
We can conclude that ALZHERAPY presents a great advancement for the patients with the Alzheimer’s. Not
only it assits the patients but it also helps the families and health professionals as well. The system integrates
all the functions from detection and cognitive exercises to remote professional control. The project focuses its
attention on giving the patients with the Alzheimer’s disease a better quality of life. All of this is possible
thanks to an easy and reliable system to detect the illness, to suggest cognitive and physical exercises that
allow the patient to continue to do daily activities, and to control patient state and illness advancement
remotely.
Currently, the project is being developed. The architecture is defined and most of the modules are under
construction. We think that ALZHERAPY can be of the interest of other researches and developers in this
field. So we are looking for partners in the European Community to foster the project.

REFERENCES
Braga, M. et al., 2002 ‘Nutritional Approach in Malnourished Surgical Patients A Prospective Randomized Study’. Archives of
Surgery, - Am Med Assoc
Folstein et al. 1975. ‘The Mini-Mental State Examination’ published by Psychological Assessment Resources
Losada, D. 2003. ‘El baúl de los recuerdos. Manual de estimulación cognitiva para enfermos de Alzheimer’ Madrid. AFAL
Madden, David J., 1992 ‘Cognitive Slowing in Alzheimer's Disease as a Function of Task Type and Response Type’ Journal
article Developmental Neuropsychology, Vol. 8
Nestor, Paul G. et al. 1991. ‘Speed of Information Processing and Attention in Early Alzheimer's Dementia’ Journal article of
Developmental Neuropsychology, Vol. 7.

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FACTOR ANALYSIS ON THE USER ACCEPTANCE OF

HEALTH CARE SERVICES USING PHR

Soonhwa An
Graduate School of Global Information and Telecommunication Studies, Waseda University
1-6-1, Nishiwaseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan

ABSTRACT
Japan is currently the most rapidly aging country in the world, and it is equipped with the most sophisticated ICT
infrastructure. Japan introduced mandatory specific health check-ups and specific health consultations in April 2008, with
the purpose of decreasing medical costs through the prevention of the lifestyle-related diseases. As a result, the Personal
Health Record, which refers to the individual’s self-measurement and maintenance of personal health data, has been
receiving increasing attention. This study examines the factors that affect users’ intention to use the PHR service on an
ongoing basis using the Technology Acceptance Model. Based on the factor analysis results, aspects of the e-Health
service are investigated that can help to propagate the system in the future.

KEYWORDS
Personal Health Record (PHR), e-Health, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Specific Screening Program (Specific
health check check-ups/Specific health consultation).

1. INTRODUCTION
The healthcare sector used to lag behind other sectors with respect to the adoption of information technology
and information systems, but this is gradually changing. The potential for information technology to have an
impact on health care safety, cost, and quality has never been greater. The technology to create, transmit,
store, and manage individuals’ health data is rapidly advancing. Both the acceptance level of new
technologies by healthcare professionals and the usefulness of explanatory models are therefore vital in
explaining the current lack of progress in the adoption of available e-Health.
While we have recognized a number of advantages and demands to employ new mobile IT/IS in health
care e.g., improving the patient care and services quality and increasing the care efficiency, most applications,
in fact, have failed or have not been implemented as predicted. Among these, 30% out of the failure rate is
resulted from non-technical factors. Insufficient user acceptance has long been an obstacle to the successful
adoption of new IT/IS. The characteristics of users and technologies in the context of professional healthcare
also greatly differ from those in customary commercial context1.
More than thirty years have passed since Japan first introduced telemedicine, which is one of the e-Health
services, but it has not yet come into wide use. As specific health check-ups and specific health consultations
became mandatory from April 2008, e-Health services in Japan are once again expected to become
widespread. However, as of now, only limited attempts are being made regarding service implementation,
such as that of Personal Health Record (PHR), without actual suggestions for concrete implementation plans.
Hence, this study attempts to identify critical factors that determine user acceptance, which will
eventually decide the future of e-Health as a new healthcare delivery path. For this purpose, this study sorts
out the influential factors that affect the intention of ongoing use among PHR health care service users.

1
Jen-Her Wu,Shu-Ching Wang,Li-Min Lin, 2005, What drives mobile health care? An empirical evaluation of technology acceptance,
Proceeding of 38th Hawaii international conference on system sciences.

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2. BACKGROUND

2.1 Special Screening Program

Japan initiated a drastic transformation of the medical system, starting from 2008. As a means of reducing
medical costs that are incurred due to lifestyle-related diseases, the government made the implementation of
specific health check-ups/specific health consultations mandatory.
The main purpose of the specific health check-up is to prevent occurrence of lifestyle-related diseases and
their aggravation. Specifically, it focuses on metabolic syndrome and the attempts to accurately select those
who need specific health consultation in order to decrease the number of potential metabolic syndrome cases.
The medical insurer classifies the insurants and their dependent family members over 40 years old according
to the specific health check-ups and their results, and subsequently provides customized healthcare guidance
for each of the classified groups.
Specific health consultations provide active support, incentives, and information suitable for the
necessary healthcare guidance level of each user, which is determined according to the check-up results, e.g.,
the extent of visceral fat accumulation, the number of risk factors, and age.
What deserves attention is that the specific health check-up and specific health consultation results can be
exchanged electronically in a standardized format. In the case of specific health consultations, the use of ICT,
such as email, is also expected help the propagation of home-care, self-care, etc., using PHR.

2.2 Personal Health Record

The PHR is an electronic, lifelong resource of health information needed by individuals to make health
decisions. Individual own and manage the information in the PHR, which comes from healthcare providers
and the individual. The PHR maintained in a secure and private environment, with the individual determining
rights of access2.
Since PHR terminology is not standardized and the PHR service is still in an early stage, it is not easy to
distinguish it clearly from the previous EMR (Electronic Medical Record) and EHR (Electronic Health
Record). Nevertheless, these concepts have distinct meanings, as follows.
EMR is an electronic record of health related information on an individual that can be created, gathered,
managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff within one health care organization.
EHR is an electronic record of health related information on an individual that conforms to nationally
recognized interoperability standards and that can be created, managed, and consulted by authorized
clinicians and staff across more than one health care organization.
In sum, EMRs and EHRs are tools for providers, while PHRs are the means to engage individuals in their
health and well-being.

3. RESEARCH MODEL
New types of e-Health services such as PHR differ from telemedicine or telehealth, whose provision used to
be focused on the professionals’ side in that the new types of e-Health services pursue user-centered service.
Hence, in providing PHR services, user acceptance is the most critical condition determining the successful
promotion of the service.
In previous studies, the technology acceptance model (TAM) has been widely used by information
technology researchers to gain a better understanding of information technology adoption and its use in
organizations. While TAM has been applied and tested in academic and corporate settings, involving students,
business managers, clerical and administrative types as subjects, few studies have evaluated TAM in the
health care environment.

2
AHIMA e-HIM Personal Health Record Work Group, 2005, Defining the Personal Health Record, Journal of AHIMA, Vol.76, No.6,
pp24-25.

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Venkatesh, Morris et al. (2003) reviewed the user acceptance literature and compared eight models and
their extensions3. They proposed and empirically tested a unified model that integrated elements across these
models. Schaper and Pervan (2007) adapted and combined the model further with the generic framework for
technology acceptance by Chau and Hu (2002) for usage in the healthcare sector45. One of the reasons to
choose for UTAUT is that this model is able to explain 70% of technology acceptance behavior with respect
to the routine explanation of 40% of the previous models (Schaper, Pervan, 2007; Venkatesh, Morris et al.,
2003). Considering these points, this study includes service satisfaction in the UTAUT in analyzing the
influential factors for the intention of ongoing use.

Figure 1. Proposed Research Model.

To evaluate the proposed model, modifications were made to the prior questionnaire to better fit the
health care environment. Moreover, questions regarding service satisfaction were obtained by modifying the
results from Yip et al. and were subsequently assessed using a 5-level Likert scale.
The subjects of this study were seventeen users (n=17) of the paid PHR service that started the program
with provider; PHR was initiated by the provider in Tokyo from April 2008.
The PHR service uses an information management device and an ASP type healthcare system. During the
research period from June 2008 to October 2008, the users recorded and managed the following six health
data items using medical measuring devices for household use: blood pressure, pulse, gait, weight, blood
sugar level, and BMI. The measured data can be demonstrated using graphs, so that users can easily
understand the pattern. Moreover, this information can be used by doctors, health trainers, dieticians, etc. in
providing advice and feedback regarding the patients’ lifestyles. The necessary equipment was rented to
users, who paid a rental rate and telecommunications fees were charged. As is shown in Table 1, users were
mainly males in their 20s-50s, and they used the services at home through PCs and FTTH Internet, with the
purpose of health improvement.
SPSS/WIN12.0 was used for the statistical analysis on the collected data and Cronbach's alpha was used
to examine the credibility of the scale used in this study. In order to examine the correlation between each
context and intention to use, as well as the interaction among the constructs, a Pearson's correlation analysis
and multi regression analysis were conducted.

3
V. Venkatesh, Michael G. Morris, 2003, User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View, MIS Quarterly, Vol.27,
No.3, pp 425-478.
4
L. Schaper, G. Pervan, 2007, ICT & OTs: A model of information and communications technology acceptance and utilisation by
occupational therapists, International Journal of Medical Informatics, 76S, pp212-221.
5
P.Y.K Chau, P.J.Hu, 2002, Investigating healthcare professionals’ decisions to accept telemedicine technology: an empirical test of
competing theories, Information & management, Vol.39, pp297-311.

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Table 1. Characteristics of respondents (n=17).

Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 15(88.2%)
Female 2(11.8%)
Age 20-29 2(11.8%)
30-39 10(58.8%)
40-49 5(29.4%)
Health condition Good 11(64.7%)
General 5(29.4%)
N/A 1(5.9%)
Place Medical institution 1(5.9%)
At home 9(52.9%)
Other 7(41.2%)
Frequency of use Every day 3(17.6%)
Several times a week 8(47.1%)
Several times a month 6(35.3%)
Total 17 100.0

4. RESULTS
Figure 2 shows the correlation between each context and intention to use. A positive correlation was
observed for the technological context, implementation context, and service satisfaction, while the individual
context did not show any correlation with the intention to use the service on an ongoing basis. In other words,
this intention increases as technological context, implementation context, and service satisfaction become
positive.
Table 2 presents a regression analysis that examines the impact of each context on the intention to use.
The factor determining intention to use was implementation context. Moreover, according to the regression
analysis investigating the correlation between each context and service satisfaction, which is a new variable
added in this study, the technological context turned out to have a significant impact on service satisfaction.

Note: Significance Levels: **p<0.01, *p<0.05.

Figure 2. Results of Research Model.

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Table 2. Impact on the intention to use.

Construct ß R2
Service Satisfaction -.083 .525
Technological Context .215
Implementation Context .626
Individual Context .124

5. CONCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS

Previous studies regarding user acceptance in the health care field have mainly focused on examining
technology acceptance of the applications inside hospitals, with the purpose of increasing efficiency; hence,
they were conducted from the medical caregivers’ side, i.e., that of doctors and nurses. Moreover, most of the
studies were pilot projects that considered only a part of the services. This study has significant implications
for the future promotion of the e-Health service in that it attempts to analyze the influential factors
determining users’ decision to use the paid PHR health care service on an ongoing basis by adding the factor
of user satisfaction concerning the service in the TAM model. However, the sample size is too small to
generalize the analysis results. Hence, it is necessary to conduct future studies by collecting data from a
larger sample and using diverse e-Health services.
In Japan, where the PHR has not yet been standardized, usage of PHR is confined to the simple
maintenance of vital and exercise/diet information rather than overall medical information, due to several
problems such as health data maintenance. As a result, health care services that use PHR are at an
introductory level and overall understanding and usage of the service are not yet sufficient. This situation is
reflected in the study results, where the implementation context was selected as one of the factors that affect
service acceptance.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my gratitude to CHEALCOMM for helping to conduct the survey analysis, and also
to the survey respondents for their participation.

REFERENCES
AHIMA e-HIM Personal Health Record Work Group, 2005, Defining the Personal Health Record, Journal of AHIMA,
Vol.76, No. 6, pp 24-25.
B. H. Wixom, P. A. Todd, 2005, A Theoretical Integration of User Satisfaction and Technology Acceptance, Information
Systems Research, Vol.16, No.1, pp85-102.
F. H.C. Beenkens, A. C. Costa, J.H.T.H.Andrissen, 2007, The adoption of innovative ICT services in homecare
environments: Developing and testing an extended technology acceptance model, Proceedings of 2007e-challenges.
J. Wu, S. Wang, L. Lin, 2005, What drives mobile health care? An empirical evaluation of technology acceptance,
Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International conference on system sciences.
L. Schaper, G. Pervan, 2007, ICT & OTs: A model of information and communications technology acceptance and
utilisation by occupational therapists, International Journal of Medical Informatics, 76S, pp212-221.
M. P. Yip, A. M Chang, J. Chan, A. E. Mackenzie, 2003, Development of the Telemedicine Satisfaction Questionnaire to
evaluate patient satisfaction with telemedicine: a preliminary study, Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, Vol.9,
No1, pp46-50.
P.Y.K Chau, P.J.Hu, 2002, Investigating healthcare professionals’ decisions to accept telemedicine technology: an
empirical test of competing theories, Information & management, Vol.39, pp297-311.
R. Raitoharju, 2005, When acceptance is not enough- taking TAM model into healthcare, Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii
International conference on system sciences.
V. Venkatesh, Michael G. Morris, 2003, User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View, MIS
Quarterly, Vol.27, No.3, pp 425-478.

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CAMERAS IN YOUR LIVING ROOM, THE NEXT STEP IN

E-HOMECARE?

Griet Verhenneman
Legal Researcher ICT
ICRI – K.U.Leuven – IBBT
Leuven, Belgium

ABSTRACT
Cameras will soon be installed inside patients’ homes for health purposes. Although the positive effect of the use of
cameras on patients in homecare has been demonstrated, it also makes care more privacy intrusive, capturing us on film
in our most personal, most intimate environment. This paper examines the protection of the patient and occasionally
filmed persons by data protection, the right to privacy and the right to personal portrayal in this specific setting.

KEYWORDS
Privacy, health data, portrait rights.

1. INTRODUCTION
Our health- and homecare are more and more confronted with visualization. In hospitals we use high
definition x-rays, 3D scanning and observation cameras. In homecare, it has been announced that the use of
digital imaging, interactive webcams and even camera-nursing will be introduced soon. There are many
benefits brought by this increased visualization. However, it also makes care more privacy intrusive.
Operating cameras in and around homes is often seen as one of the most privacy intrusive practices, since it
capture us on film in our most personal, most intimate environment.
In the Belgian IBBT project TranseCare1, we are currently working on the development of a video
monitoring system which can assist people under care and their health professionals. Two different kinds of
systems can be used: a system which can be switched on in emergency situations, and a system which
monitors continuously. In the project we are only working on the first kind of system, but in both cases,
specific questions arise with regard to privacy and the protection of personal data.
This paper will elaborate on the protection of personal data, the right to respect of privacy, and the right
of personal portrayal, being the main legal mechanisms protecting our privacy when cameras are installed in
our homes.

2. DATA PROTECTION
In Europe, personal data are protected by the Data Protection Directive 95/46EC (hereafter DPD). In
Belgium, the implementation of the directive resulted in an adjustment of the Data Protection Act of
December, 8, 1992 (hereafter DPA). In this paper, I will, however, try to restrict the discussion to the DPD as
much as possible. The first main question to be asked thus is whether the DPD is applicable to the use of
cameras in people’s homes.
To assess this, we first need to examine the interpretation of the essential terms used by the DPD. More
specifically, it has to be verified whether or not personal data are being processed when using a video

1
“Transparent ICT platforms for eCare” is a Belgian project supported by the Flemish Institute for BroadBand Technologies (IBBT).

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monitoring system in a homecare setting. If this is the case, it also needs to be examined whether or not these
personal data are protected as sensitive data.

2.1 Essential terms in the DPD: “Processing” and “Personal Data”

The Data Protection Directive is applicable to the “processing” of “personal data”.
The term “processing”, according to the Directive, means “any operation or set of operations which is
performed on personal data whether or not by automatic means such as collection, recording, organization,
storage, adaptation or alternation, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or
otherwise making available, alignment or combination, blocking, erasure or destruction”. It is clear that the
capturing of images with a camera, whether these images are stored or not, has to be regarded as some kind
of processing.
The DPD defines “personal data” as “any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural
person, the data subject”. This clearly is a very broad definition. Personal data can thus be texts and images
as well as sounds and even radiofrequencies.

2.2 Applicability of the DPD to Images

Both on the European level and, at least in the case of Belgium, on the national level, it is acknowledged that
images are personal data when they relate to one or more identified or identifiable natural persons [3,4,5].
However, when these images are not systematically used to identify natural persons, like in case of
incidentally filming a passer-by when actually observing a building, the situation is less clear.
Some, like the Belgian Privacy Commission, are convinced that images of natural persons cannot be
qualified personal data when made accidentally or incidentally [4,5]. This is because they argue that the
purpose for making the images is decisive. Others, however, do not take the purpose of the processing as a
starting point, but rather evaluate the images on their identifiability. They argue personal data are being
processed every time a person is filmed, accidentally or not, at least when this person can be identified
without unreasonable means or effort. Although no explicit statement on the issue has been made, the Article
29 Working Party tended to agree with the second opinion, but in its latest opinions she seems to be aiming
for a flexible, usable interpretation of the DPD, and therefore now considers the purpose of the processing as
a possible criterion. The Working Party interprets “data relating to a natural person” as “data concerning that
person”. One could thus argue that images of identifiable persons, accidentally made, are not personal data,
since these images are not used to evaluate or influence the filmed person, and therefore does not concern
these persons [3]. Two examples can be given to clarify the differences between both opinions.
The first illustration concerns a camera set up in a park to observe ducks on the pond, but passersby are
also captured on tape. According to the first opinion, the images of the passersby do not have to be
considered as personal data since the purpose of the filming was the observation of the ducks and not of
people walking nearby. According to the second opinion, however, these images are personal data when the
passersby are, or can be, identified without unreasonable means or effort.
The second illustration concerns the monitoring of a barrier in a car park. The barrier is filmed not to
observe the people in the cars, but to make sure cars can easily get in and out. According to the first opinion,
no personal data are being processed even though people are being filmed, since the purpose of the
monitoring is only to ensure smooth traffic flows. According to the second opinion, however, personal data
are being processed simply and solely because the faces of the people in the cars are filmed as well. This, of
course, unless the tape is so unclear that people cannot be identified without unreasonable means or effort. In
other words, the second opinion only takes the purpose of the processing into account at a later stage, when
assessing the lawfulness of the data processing.
When monitoring patients by camera in their living room, the discussion is the same. The first opinion
implies only personal data of the patient are being processed, and not the images of occasionally filmed
persons, such as visitors or nurses. The second opinion on the other hand, implies that not only the images of
the patient will be protected, but also those of these other persons. This is, again, at least when these other
persons are identified or identifiable, which is exactly what the discussion will then be all about.

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Both opinions make valid points, but the final choice is likely not to be purely legal. It will also be
influenced by business strategies. However, the consequences of the choice are extensive, as this decision
implies the choice for protection or hardly any, of accidentally filmed persons.

2.3 Protection of Health Data

The DPD makes a distinction between “normal” personal data and “special categories” of personal data,
including health data.
At the European level the special category of health data is mentioned, but not defined. The European
Council has stated that data can be qualified as health data when there is “a strong and clear link” to the
health of the person [2]. At Belgian level the interpretation is however stronger and health data are defined as
“data concerning health”, which implies that the health (or a health condition) must be directly shown. The
Belgian interpretation is often illustrated with a picture of a man in a wheelchair. In the picture, you can
clearly see the man is handicapped, but when not taken for the sake health of that man, it does not have a
direct connection to the man’s health. However, when the same person would be photographed, at a disability
examination and this picture is added to his health record, the picture will be qualified as health data [3].
When applying this to the use of cameras in a home setting, again a dilemma arises. On the one hand, it
could be argued images made in the home of a patient are not health data because they do not relate directly
to the health of the patient, although information about his or her health can be derived from it. On the other
hand, the camera is placed in the home specifically for health purposes. In other words, the images will only
be viewed for health purposes, and therefore it could also be argued that they are health data. When a camera
only monitors the patient when an alarm is activated, the second interpretation is reinforced.
This reasoning also has to be evaluated with regard to occasionally filmed persons. As indicated above, it
is plausible to say that personal data are being processed when a person is occasionally filmed. However,
considering the images of occasional visitors as possible health data is, at least in my opinion, a step too far.
It is possible that the existence of a health condition can be established from the image, e.g. if someone has a
broken arm, but the image will not refer directly to the health of this person, and there is absolutely no
intention to monitor their health via the camera.

3. PROTECTION OF THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY

As stated above, some argue that occasionally filmed persons are not protected by the DPD [1]. The
protection of personal data is, however, only one part of the protection of the right to privacy, also given that
the right to privacy is interpreted very broadly by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
When assessing an alleged violation of the right to privacy, the ECHR takes into account the kind of
information and the level of intimacy involved. As a consequence, the ECHR, in contrast to the DPD, makes
a distinction between privacy sensitive and non privacy sensitive information. Therefore, not all data are
equally protected. Seeing this distinction the protection of occasionally filmed persons on the basis of right to
privacy might encounter some problems, despite the broad interpretation. The images made do refer to the
personal lives of the filmed persons, but are not so intimate, and probably will not thus be regarded as an
unreasonable infringement.
Furthermore, the ECHR also takes into account the doctrine of reasonable expectations of privacy.
Originating from the US2, this doctrine states that privacy only needs to be protected when there is an actual
expectation thereto, and this expectation is regarded as reasonable by society. However, in Europe this
doctrine is not interpreted in the same way: the ECHR has, up until now, only used this doctrine in cases of
public privacy. With regard to the use of cameras, the ECHR has already decided that a person cannot call
upon his or her right to privacy when filmed by surveillance cameras in a place where one could expect this
to happen [6,7,11]. However, as it is typical for the concept of reasonable expectations, this is subject to
change. The future will thus have to show how this concept will be interpreted when cameras are used inside
homes.

2
Where it was introduced in 1967 by Justice Harlan in the Katz vs. United States Case of the U.S. Supreme Court.

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4. THE RIGHT OF PERSONAL PORTRAYAL

The right of personal portrayal means that every natural person has the right to his or her own images and the
right to keep them. This means that permission must be granted to create any human portrait, and for every
use of one.
The right of personal portrayal is in fact part of the right to a private life, which in turn is part of the right
to privacy. The right of personal portrayal is protected by article 8 of the European Charter on Human Rights,
article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and by many Constitutions such as
Belgium’s (art. 22).

4.1 Scope of the Right to Personal Portrayal

The scope of the right to personal portrayal is fairly broad.
First of all, the right to personal portrayal is both an individual and a family right. On the one hand, the
individual right protects the personal portraits of all natural persons just because they are human beings [9].
On the other hand, familial integrity right protects the fellow humans of the portrayed person. However, an
infringement of this familial right of personal portrayal is often not accepted in the jurisprudence. The cases
in which such an infringement has been accepted were sexually orientated [8].
Secondly, both the image and the portrait of a person are protected. This implies that both the physical
features and the behavior of a person are included. Among examples from the jurisprudence of what is
protected are the special way of clothing, the general conduct of a person, and memories of certain habits.
Examples of what is not protected are the characteristics of a person or his or her voice. The voice of a person
is, however, protected by a different right, namely the personal right to the voice [10].
Thirdly, an image or portrait can be made with all kinds of different technologies. Not only two-
dimensional photos and films, but also three-dimensional sculptures, are protected. Furthermore, it is of no
importance whether the portrait exists in a physical form, or is immaterial (e.g. live stream of a camera).
Apart from these three broadening elements, there is one limitation to the right of personal portrayal,
being, recognizablility. How the term “recognizable” is interpreted depends on the sovereign opinion of the
judge, but it is advisable to take into account the same rules as used in the DPD. Recognizability must always
be regarded from the point of view of others, and not the person in the portrait; however, being recognizable
to friends and / or family is sufficient to invoke the protection [9].

4.2 Protection of the Right to Personal Portrayal

When a person believes that his or her right to personal portrayal has been infringed, he or she can invoke his
or her right against every person who “makes” or “uses” the portrait without consent. This is what is called
the erga omnes effect.
All actions considered as using a portrait can only be rightful after obtaining consent. Naturally, of
course, whatever is not considered to be using a portrait can be done without consent. It has to be stressed
that consent to make a portrait is not the same as consent to use a portrait, nor to reuse a portrait. So, in the
case of the use of cameras inside people’s homes, different consents need to be obtained in order to monitor
the patient, in order to store the images, and in order to transfer the images, e.g., to a health professional. In
addition, a presumed consent will never be accepted in the case of the reuse or reproduction of a portrait.

5. CONCLUSION
When cameras are placed in people’s homes, the images made are protected by three different legal
mechanisms: the protection of personal data, the protection of the right to privacy, and the protection of the
right to personal portrayal.
Images and sounds from a patient made with an observation camera are protected by the Data Protection
Directive specifically and the general right to privacy. There is, however, discussion about the images and
sounds of occasional visitors. Some regard the purpose of the filming as the decisive criterion. Others only

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take the purpose of the processing into account when assessing the lawfulness thereof, and regard every
image of an identified or identifiable person as the processing of personal data. Furthermore the processed
data of the patient are most likely to be qualified as health data, and thus protected under the regime of
sensitive data. Data of occasional visitors are, in contrast, most likely not to be thus qualified. In the same
way patients will be protected under the general right to privacy, but with regard to occasional visitors, this is
not so likely. And last but not least, the images will also be protected by the right to personal portrayal when
the filmed person, patient or not, is recognizable.
Due to these three protection mechanisms, the use of cameras as a next step in eHomecare will have to be
based on the consent of the patient. Whether or not occasional visitors need to be warned about the use of
cameras in the homes they are visiting, though, is still open for discussion.

REFERENCES
Article 8 European Human Rights Declaration.
R (97) 5 on the Protection of Medical data, European Council, February, 13 1997,
www.1.umn.ecu/humananrts/instree/coerecr97-5.html.
Opinion 4/2007 Article 29 Data protection working party, June, 20 2007, www.ec.europa.eu/justice-
home/fsj/privacy/index-en.htm.
Advice nr. 14 of the Belgian Data Protection Commission of June, 7 1995.
Advice nr. 34 of the Belgian Data Protection Commission of December, 13 1999.
Lüdi v Switzerland, EHRM June, 15 1992, http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/
view.asp?item=27&portal=hbkm&action=html&highlight=&sessionid=10078018&skin=hudoc-en.
Halford v United Kingdom, EHRM June, 25 1997, http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/
view.asp?item=1&portal=hbkm&action=html&highlight=&sessionid=10078018&skin=hudoc-en.
Court of Brussels, March, 9 1999, A.R. 97/11313/A.
Dierickx, L., 2005, Portraitrights, Intersentia, Antwerp (in Dutch).
Senaeve, P., 2004, Compendium of persons and familylaw, Acco, Louvain (in Dutch).
Loermans, R., 2004 “Privacycolloquium ‘Reasonable expectations of privacy’”, Privacy & Informatie, nr. 4, 161(in
Dutch).

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 IADIS International Conference e-Society 2009

MANAGING ASTHMA WITH MOBILE PHONES: A

FEASIBILITY STUDY

Bree E. Holtz, MSc, Pamela Whitten, PhD

Michigan State University

ABSTRACT
Asthma is a chronic disease and a growing health problem worldwide. People suffering with asthma miss 11.8 million
days of work and 14 million days of school annually. Asthma is also the third highest cause of hospitalization and many
of the patients are seen at the emergency department. The annual cost of asthma is estimated at $18 billion. While there is
currently no cure for asthma, management of the disease can effectively control it. Mobile phones can serve as a potential
platform to facilitate the management of asthma.
The objective of this study is to employ principles from social cognitive theory to test the feasibility and utilization of
tracking asthma symptoms through a mobile phone application. Methodology The subjects for this research project will
consistent of four to eight individuals who are currently receiving treatment for asthma from a primary care physician in
Ingham county, Michigan. Participants will take their peak flow reading each day and use their short message service
(SMS) function on their phone to send it to a web server. If they do not send it by 11am, they will receive a reminder via
an automated SMS to their phone. If the data shows improvement in subjects’ asthma self-efficacy and satisfaction of
tracking asthma in this manner, a future study with controls will be conducted.

KEYWORDS
Mobile phones, SMS, asthma, social cognitive theory

1. INTRODUCTION
Chronic diseases are long lasting and recurrent conditions, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and
asthma [1]. These diseases cause more than 70% of all deaths in the United States and 90 million people are
currently living with one or more of these diseases [1]. The estimated cost of chronic diseases in the United
States is $1.3 trillion per year and if this trend continues it is estimated that cost will increase to $4.2 trillion
by 2023 [2]. Many of these diseases can be managed effectively in order for people to live normal and
independent lives.
Asthma is a growing problem around the world [3, 4, 5]. However, research from the CDC has found
higher prevalence of the disease among low-income populations, minorities and children living in inner cities
[6]. Children with asthma miss approximately eight days of school per year, accounting for 14 million days
annually [6, 7]. Adults who suffer from asthma miss an estimated 11.8 million days of work because of the
disease [6]. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation [3] estimated that children with asthma spend nearly eight
million days per year restricted to a bed. The disease accounts for 25% of all emergency department visits
and is the third highest cause of hospitalization [8]. The annual estimated cost of asthma is $18 billion [3].
The Michigan Department of Community Health [9] estimated that in 2003 over 700,000 adults and 200,000
children in Michigan suffer from asthma. It is estimated over 4,000 individuals die from asthma in the U.S.
every year [7].
While there is currently no cure for asthma, managing asthma is extremely important in controlling the
disease. Management of the disease includes having patients keep a daily paper and pencil journal to record
their symptoms, attacks, medications and monitor their peak flow readings in a paper-based asthma diary
[8,10, 11, 12]. Successful self-management has demonstrated reductions of asthma symptoms as well as
some of the financial burdens linked to asthma treatments, such as emergency room visits and missed school
or work [13]. However, long term compliance has proven to be a challenge, patients misrepresent their habit
or fill the diary out retrospectively, often times omitting important information. With the increased use of

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mobile phones and the growing prevalence of asthma, monitoring symptoms and receiving feedback through
this device has the potential to be a next step in improving health outcomes of asthma suffers.
This pilot study proposes the following research questions to determine changes in the perceptions self-
efficacy, outcome expectancy, feasibility, usefulness, and utilization of the mobile phone asthma
management application.
RQ1: Will people who manage their asthma using a mobile phone have higher perceptions of positive
self-efficacy?
RQ2: Will people who manage their asthma using a mobile phone have a higher perception of outcome
expectancy?
RQ3: What are the participants’ perceptions of utilizing their mobile phone to record their asthma?
RQ3a: Did the participants perceive the application as useful in monitoring their asthma?
RQ3b: Did the participants perceive the application as effective in monitoring their asthma?
RQ3c: Were the participants satisfied with the application in monitoring their asthma?
The following section discusses the planned methodology, including an overview of subjects and
recruitment, and how data will be analyzed. The final section will discuss the implications of this proposed
research study and how it will contribute to asthma management and the future technology-use knowledge.

2. METHODOLOGY
This research will use five to ten subjects, with a diagnosis of asthma, to participate in a 28-day (per each
individual) innovative asthma management program. Their general practitioner will select the subjects. The
physician will judge the subjects to have mild to moderate asthma (not including exercise induced asthma)
that is well controlled. Subjects will be between the ages of 15 and 55 and reside in Ingham County,
Michigan. IRB approval was obtained and participants and guardians (when necessary) will give informed
consent.
The identified subjects will be asked to participate in this study by the physician and if they are interested,
asked to come to an informational meeting conducted by the researcher. If they consent to be in the study,
they will be given information on study, how to use the mobile phone to send in readings, answer the weekly
questions and will complete a self-efficacy and outcome expectancy pre-test. They will also receive
information and training in accessing a website used for this study that will allow them to view their asthma
trends in a chart form and daily entries.
The subjects will have already received training on how to use a PFM properly from the physician and
have an individual asthma action plan. This asthma action plan is provided by the physician and gives the
patient information on their asthma and what to do if their reading falls in the yellow or red zone. The
software developed for this study will use the patients’ individual yellow zone reading as an indicator that the
individual needs to begin to take action. All subjects will be given a small monetary incentive to participate.
Subjects who have consented will be instructed to begin to send their PEM reading the morning after the
consent and training was given. If at any point a subject does not send in a reading, the server will generate a
reminder text message at 11am. If the reading sent by the subject is in their green range, they will receive a
confirmation from the system to their mobile letting them know. If the reading is in the yellow range they
will receive a confirmation message telling them to follow their asthma action plan and call the doctor if their
symptoms do not improve. They will also receive seven questions developed by the American Lung
Association (2008) regarding their asthma systems. All participants will receive those same seven questions
once a week, on Sunday.

2.1 Data Collection

Subjects’ text messages to the server will be collected for data analysis. If a reading was sent after 11am, a
reminder was sent to the subject and that will also be noted. The answers to the seven weekly questions will
also be counted as an exchange with the server. Self-efficacy and outcome expectations will be measured by
using a validated questionnaire to determine if subjects believed their asthma would improve if they
monitored and recorded their symptoms daily. The National Cooperative Inner City Asthma Study [15]
developed a 22-item measure developed to assess perceptions and health related self-efficacy and outcome

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expectancy. Other studies have tested this scale for internal consistency reliability, which was .70 [16]. The
scale was slightly modified to reflect a self-administered questionnaire regarding the individuals’ own
asthma. Response items are based on a five-point Likert style rating scale. This instrument will be
administered in a pre- and post-test.
At the end of the study period, subjects will be asked to participate in a telephone interview, at which
time they will answer a questionnaire developed for this study and the post-test self-efficacy and outcome
expectancy test. This questionnaire strives to capture the subjects’ perceptions of the technology, usefulness,
and usability of utilizing the mobile phone to record and manage their asthma.

3. RESULTS
Initial descriptive analyses of the results are promising (n=4) in demonstrating the feasibility of utilizing a
mobile phone SMS application to monitor and manage asthma. Subjects stated they agreed that the mobile
phone SMS asthma management application was useful (M=4.56, SD=0.52) and effective (M=4.13,
SD=0.32) in monitoring their asthma. They also reported the application was easy to use (M=4.47,
SD=0.52). The participants also agreed that they were overall satisfied (M=4.13, SD=0.32) with the
application in managing their asthma. The results of the self-efficacy and outcome expectancy survey
suggest that subjects had improved their perceptions of self-efficacy (pretest M= 3.77, SD=0.66; posttest
M=4.18, SD= 0.72). However, perceptions of outcome expectancy remained the same, although these
perceptions were relatively high at the beginning of the study (pretest M=4.25, SD=0.28; posttest M=4.25,
SD=0.13). The subjects also repeatedly mentioned that they felt this application would improve their
communication with their provider, feeling that they would have all of the same information and “be on the
same page.”

4. CONCLUSION
This study seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing a mobile phone to record asthma information and
help people in management of their chronic condition. The initial results are promising that this can be an
effective platform to manage and monitor asthma. Once this pilot study is completed, the next step is a full
study employing controls. Utilizing mobile phone technology could further prove to be an effective in
managing chronic disease because of the ubiquitous nature of the technology. Mobile phones are widely
diffused in the United States. They are also increasingly connected to the Internet providing consumers a
variety of methods monitor their own disease(s) as well as giving them more avenues for communication
with their health care providers.
This type of study could also have implications in management of other chronic diseases improving
health outcomes and quality of life. Even with these improvements in health through use of mobile
technologies, “wider acceptance tends to remain an obstacle because it represents a new and different
dimension in the way health care is thought of, delivered and paid for” [2: p. 16]. This study will add to the
current knowledge by advancing our understanding of how social cognitive theory predicts how patients with
asthma who use their mobile phone for asthma management will have increased self-efficacy and have the
potential to improve health outcomes. This study is significant because the prevalence of asthma is increasing
and this method of management could help control the associated costs of this disease. Many of the findings
of this study could also prove to be extremely important as all chronic diseases are on the rise and can be
effectively managed and costs can be controlled through technologies.

REFERENCES
A. Bynum, D. Hopkins, A., Thomas, N. Copeland, and C. Irwin, “The effect of telepharmacy on metered-dose inhaler
technique among adolescents with asthma in rural Arkansas,” Telemedicine Journal and e-Health (7), (2007), pp.
202-217.
American Lung Association, “Facts about asthma.” Retrieved on November 23, 2007, from

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http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?cc=dvLUK9O0E&b=44352.
American Lung Association, “Asthma Control Test,” Retrieved on March 1, 2008 from
http://www.asthmacontrol.com/hcp.html.
Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, “Asthma Facts and Figures.” Retrieved on September 30, 2007, from
http://www.aafa.org/display.cfm?id=8&sub=42.
CDC, “Chronic Disease.” Retrieved on October, 1, 2007, from http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp
CDC, “Asthma: Children and Adolescents.” Retrieved on October 1, 2007, from
http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/children.html
C. Grus, C. Lopez-Herandez, A. Delamater, A., B. Applegate, B., A. Brito, G. Wurn et al., “Parental Self-Efficacy and
Morbidity in Pediatric Asthma,” Journal of Asthma, 33 (2001), pp. 99-106.
D.M. Herrick, “Convenient Care and Telemedicine” National Center for Policy Analysis, Dallas (2007).
E. Wasilevich, S. Lyon-Callo, M. Cook, and A., Rafferty, “Asthma Prevalence, Severity and Management for Michigan
Adults. Lansing, Mi: Bureau of Epidemiology, Michigan Department of Health (2005).
H. Mitchell, Y. Senturia, P. Gergen, D. Baker, C. Joseph, K. McNiff-Mortimer et al., “Design and Methods of
theNational Cooperative Inner-City Asthma Study,” Pediatric Pulmonology, 24, (1997), pp. 237-252.
R. Jan, J. Wang, M. Huang, S. Tsen, J. Su and L. Liu, “An Internet-based interactive telemonitoring system for
improving childhood asthma outcomes in Taiwan,” Telemedicine Journal and e-Health (13), (2007), pp. 257-268.
S. Guendelman, K. Meade, Y. Chen, and M. Benson, “Asthma Control and Hospitalizations among Inner City
Children: Results of a Randomized Trial,” Telemedicine Journal, (10, S2) (2004), pp.6-14.
S. Guendelman and K. Meade, “An Interactive Monitoring Device Reduced Asthma Symptoms and Functional
Limitations in Inner City Children with Asthma,” Evidence Based Nursing, 5, (2002) pp. 107.
S. Guendelman, K.. Meade, M. Benson, Y. Chen and S. Samuels, “Improving Asthma Outcomes and Self-Management
Behaviors of Inner-City Children,” Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 156, (2002), pp. 114-120.
S. Steel, S. Lock, N. Johnson, Y. Marnea, W. Marquilles and R. Bayford, “A Feasibility Study of Remote
Monitoring of Asthmatic Patients,” Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 8 (2002), pp. 290-296.
K. Zebracki and D. Drotar, “Outcome Expectancy and Self-Efficacy in Adolescent Asthma Self-Management,”
Children’s Health Care, 33 (2004), pp. 133-149.

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 IADIS International Conference e-Society 2009

A PATIENT CENTRIC eHEALTH SOLUTION FOR A

DEVELOPING COUNTRY

K.R.P. Chapman
Consultant Surgeon, Base Hospital Marawila, Sri Lanka

S.M.K.D. Arunatileka
Senior Lecturer,University of Colombo School of Computing,
35, Reid Avenue, Colombo 007, Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT
This paper investigates the issues and challenges faced by patients in Sri Lanka, a developing country, with regard to
inequality of resource distribution and the existing eHealth infrastructure. In order to solve these issues, it introduces a
simple patient centric three phased eHealthcare strategy using an evolutionary approach which builds on the existing
infrastructure. In phase one, the main emphasis is on setting up of an eConsultation Clinic to link the specialist in a
general hospital in a city with a patient in a peripheral setting. This will consist of an eCare Clinic in a peripheral hospital,
a web-based eHealth record system, m-Communication system and an e-Consultation centre with a medical specialist.

KEYWORDS
eClinic, eHealth, Telemedicine, eConsultation, Rural ICT Applications

1. INTRODUCTION
According to the national health policy of the country, the mission of healthcare is to ensure access to
comprehensive, high quality, equitable, cost effective and sustainable health services. The average number of
general practice consultations per year amount to 12.7 million (Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition, 2004).
Although there was no gender difference in out-patient attendance, children younger than 12 years accounted
for 32.1% of consultations and the proportion of elderly at the consultations were significantly higher
(Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition, 2004). As hypertension and diseases of the upper respiratory tract are
among the top ten causes of hospitalization and are more evident in the elderly population the proper follow
up and monitoring of this category of patients can reduce the rate of hospital admissions considerably. This is
one of the areas in which ICT can play a major role with regard to the Sri Lankan population.

2. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH

The broad aim of the health policy of Sri Lanka is to increase the life expectancy and the quality of life of its
citizens. One of the strategic thrusts in healthcare is empowering communities towards more active
participation on maintaining their health, strengthening the stewardship and management functions of the
health system. According to the demographic studies and survey, the proportion of the population below 30
yrs has decreased (http://earthtrends.wri.org). On the other hand, the elderly population has increased. It must
be stated that once such a scheme as telemedicine or telecare is in place, it will benefit all age groups with
less cost to the individual and provide an adjunct to effective communication between healthcare workers and
patients.

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3. GLOBAL eHEALTH APPLICATIONS

Healthcare system is moving from a traditional hospital based system to a more patient centered approach
(http://earthtrends.wri.org). ICT has been used in the health sector in developed countries which demonstrated a
50% reduction in mortality or 25% to 50% increase in productivity within the health care system (Greenberg,
2005). It has also been shown that a critical mass of professional and community users of ICT in health has
not yet been reached in developing countries (Infodev, 2006).
There are many eHealth initiatives in developed countries. A few are stated below.
• Doctors and nurses transferring electronic medical records (using tablet PCs) on to mobile devices
(PDAs) in Spain (ICT for Comfortable and Universal Access to Healthcare, 2005).
• 90% of doctors using EMR in Sweden/Denmark (ICT for Comfortable & Universal Access to
Healthcare, 2005).
• Doctors from Spanish hospitals using satellite videoconferencing system & online consultations for
specialized diagnosis in radiology, cardiology, surgery and dermatology (Monteagudo et al.,2006).
• Using wireless devices for ambulatory, mobile and remote patient monitoring and diagnosis
(Miyazaki, 2005).
Developing and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) where per capita wealth is low have lower levels of
tele-density. However, this has not prevented some countries in introducing ICT for healthcare. A few
examples could be stated:
• India has many telemedicine, tele-education, tele-consultation and tele-follow up initiatives that
have helped their rural population tremendously (Mishra, 2006, McNamara, 2006).
• In South Africa, mobile phones are used to send reminders to patients (Osterwalder, 2004).
• In Uganda, email enabled hand-helds to deliver reference material to health care workers (Egiebor,
2008).
• The Ruwanden AIDS center uses ICT for monitoring the delivery of drugs to patients/clinics
(Donner, 2004).
According to Heeks (2002), properties of the information system can be changed to better match local
realities to make them more receptive to information systems interventions.

4. THE SRI LANKAN SCENARIO

Sri Lanka has three main levels of curative healthcare institutions: primary level in the rural sector, secondary
level in the peripheral or urban sector and tertiary level teaching and large hospitals in the cities. There are 10
tertiary level hospitals, 27 secondary level hospitals and over 285 primary health care institutions. It is also
stated that 35% of the medical specialists in the curative sector are concentrated in the administrative district
of Colombo.
It is said that the LDCs have the poorest information infrastructure. Sri Lanka is fortunate in that the
penetration of fixed line and mobile technology to rural areas is increasing at a rapid pace. According to the
Telecom Regulatory Commission (TRC) statistics, the number of cellular mobile subscribers are placed as
over 9 Million. The mobile phone density (per 100 persons) is over 40 and the total tele-density (fixed and
cellular) is nearly 60 in Sri Lanka (TRC). The rapidly growing population of elderly patients and the rising
healthcare expenditure demands newer initiatives such as eHealth and Telemedicine (Telecommunications
Issues and Health Care, 2007).

5. THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This research consists of qualitative and quantitative aspects. Qualitative aspects are the virtual presence of
the specialist, patient satisfaction, quality of service, comfortable environment for specialist and patient,
knowledge transfer, etc. and quantitative aspects are the reduction in cost and time economy per patient,
increase in the number of patients seen by a specialist, etc. Many research methodologies were considered,

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and action research was selected as the most appropriate methodology for this research due to its
participatory nature (O'Leary, 2004, Kock, 2003).

6. THE PROPOSED SOLUTION & THE PILOT PROJECT

In a developing country, due to the resource restrictions, lack of funds, lack of proper infrastructure and low
level of patient know-how, transfer of technology among the general public is slow. In order to move from
proof-of-concept of a proposed solution, to the large scale implementation in the appropriate setting, the
process has to solve an existing problem while offering huge benefits to the users.
It is also crucial that the process starts in a non-complicated environment which is easy to use by the
patients, doctors and other healthcare workers. Therefore, the best would be to:
• Keep the technology simple and local and Build on existing technology being used by all,
• Involve the users in the design to feel ownership and Use a participatory approach to introduce ICT
• Use a strategy that is relatively resilient in the face of developing-world conditions and
• Strengthen the infrastructure and create a conducive environment for the society (Infodev, 2006).
This project is designed to be implemented in three phases using an evolutionary approach in order to
have a smooth etransformation. The three phases are as follows:
• Phase One: eConsultation Clinic
• Phase Two: eSystems Integration
• Phase Three: Remote Patient Monitoring System
The pilot project for phase one will be carried out at a Base Hospital in Sri Lanka which will be the
specialist e-consultation centre in collaboration with its peripheral hospitals and units which will act as e-care
clinics.

6.1 Phase 1: The eConsultation Clinic

This paper will mainly focus on the phase 1 of the overall project which is the “eConsultation Clinic”. The
main focus here is to link the specialist in a general hospital in a city with a patient in a peripheral setting via
a doctor using easily acquirable relatively inexpensive technology that is currently being used. This simple
concept can be done with a very little extension to the existing technology. The whole scenario for phase 1
will consist of four components which are : an eHealth Clinic in a peripheral hospital, a web-based eHealth
record system, mCommunication system and an eConsultation centre with a specialist in a base hospital or
above.

6.2 Phase 2 & 3 - eSystems Integration and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)
Lack of integration and interoperability across public health systems lead to the duplication of efforts and
frustration among consultants, healthcare workers and patients as they are asked to provide the same
information on multiple forms of varying formats on different instances (Sahay and Aktar, 2008). At this phase,
data integration and linking of laboratories, radiological units, out patient clinics, wards, hospital reception
and MOH clinics will come into existence. Phase 3 will incorporate Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)
where the patient is in the comfort of his own home/ hospital being monitored through wireless extra-
corporeal sensors attached to the body.

7. PHASE ONE: THE eCONSULTATION CLINIC

7.1 The Peripheral eHealth Clinic

A District Hospital, Rural Hospital, MOH (Medical Officer of Health) or Peripheral Unit will form the first
level of an eCare clinic. At this level of care, in a rural setting, a trained doctor competent in using a

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computer, Internet, E-mail, SMS (Short Messaging Service) and data recording experience is an essential
factor. This doctor should have at his disposal, a computer, a printer, a high resolution digital camera, a
webcam, broadband internet connection, headset or audio facility and telephone facility and a healthcare
assistant (nursing officer).

7.2 Web Based eHealth Record System

The peripheral eCare clinic is connected through a web-based patient medical record (herein referred to as an
e-health record). This consists of the patient profile and a detailed checklist for every visit to the e-care clinic.
This could further be subdivided in to medical, surgical, dermatological, orthopedic or gynaecological data.
The patient record checklist will contain data pertaining to the patient’s current complaints, condition of
surgical wounds, general medical status such as blood pressure, pulse rate, respiratory rate, SPO2, peak
respiratory flow rates, temperature, Haematological reports, Urine report, Radiological data, Ultrasound scan
reports etc.

7.3 The mCommunication System

At the diagnosis stage of this research project, a preliminary survey was done and the results show that over
51% of the patients have access to their own personal mobile phone, out of which 50% use SMS tool for
communication. Nearly 80% of patients have access to mobile phones through an immediate family member.
Therefore, the m-communication system can be used for sending important information such as the Clinic
date, Operation date, Medication, Re-admission date, etc. to patients using a mobile phone.

7.4 The eConsultation Center with a Specialist

The Specialist (consultant) is based at the Teaching Hospital, District General Hospital or Base Hospital at an
eConsultancy centre which would also have the basic system requirements as in the rural eCare clinic. In
addition to the specialist’s advice, Medical prescription notes, Diabetic advisory charts, postoperative
mobility regimens, dietary advice etc. are transmitted to the rural eCare clinic via the web based system.
Patient
eClinic with a Doctor Mobile
phone 
Highly 
Specialized 
eCare clinic in a  Centers  
Peripheral  setting 

PC, printer, camera,

PC, printer, digital
webcam, broadband
camera , webcam,
eConsultation  internet connection,
broadband internet
Center in a  headset or audio,
connection, headset General Hospital  telephone, PDA 
or audio, telephone 
eConsultation Centre with a Specialist
Physical Availability Virtual Connectivity
Figure 1. Phase 1: eConsultation Clinic

8. BENEFITS OF THE PROPOSED SOLUTION

Benefits To the Patient : The main beneficiary of this system is the patient as his travel expenditure and
travel time will be reduced tremendously. Unnecessary secondary visits to tertiary centers and specialist
clinics will be reduced. The greater benefit would be for patients on long term follow up at highly specialized
clinics where laboratory results play a major role in chronic health evaluation e.g; patients with chronic renal
failure.

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Benefits For the Peripheral Hospitals : The cost of transfer of patients from peripheral hospitals to
tertiary centers also can be drastically reduced. This will facilitate the availability of ambulances for critical
and emergency transfers between institutions. The availability of patient health records electronically will
help these hospitals to make pro-active decisions on resource allocations and patient care. Specialist hospitals
and tertiary care institutes will have less congestion with regard to inward patients and clinic attendees
For the Specialist (Consultant) : The eSpecialist makes himself available across a distance at many e-
clinics within the shortest possible time frame. This has the added impact of specialized care reaching out to
the periphery. Needless to say that knowledge transfer occurs with benefit to the doctor at the peripheral e-
clinic and a closer professional link is established between the specialist and the peripheral doctor.

9. ARCHITECTURE OF THE PROPOSED SOLUTION

In the patient centric web-based health information system, it was decided to use the FOSS approach (Free
and Open Source Software) due to the low initial cost (as compared to proprietary s/w), the evolutionary
nature (Nadkarni, 2004) proposed and the possibility of enhancing the software to suit local requirement that
would provide inter-operability (Canfield K., 2004). The system will initially have five main sub systems.
They are (i) Patient Management, (ii) Scheduling, (iii) eConsultation, (iv) mRemindering and (v) User
Management.
Some of the features and functionalities are:
• Patient login, eClinic login, Consultant login, Specialised eClinic login
• Patient Registration, Clinical Record System, Clinical Scheduling, eAppointment diary creation
• Medication (allergy and dosage checking), Prescriptions (with electronic signature)
• Integration of laboratory test results in to the MIS and the Decision Support System (DSS)
“Start small and Evolve” will be the overall approach used in the development of this phase.
Issues and Challenges of the Proposed Strategy: Patients may take time to adapt and build confidence
in the system, hence a learning curve for both professionals and patients does exist. Patients may be
concerned of doctors who are not physically present at the consultation and the specialist might not like
assessing a patient who is only virtually present. The traditional “look, feel, listen” concept of clinical
medicine is perceived in a different manner. Security and privacy is essential as confidential patient data is
transferred over a nonproprietary public network.

10. CONCLUSION
This paper explores the benefits, issues and challenges in evolving healthcare methodology with regard to
setting up of a realistic eHealth plan in a developing country. The existing ICT infrastructure in the Sri
Lankan health setup can provide the initial platform to launch eClinics at the peripheral level. A phased
approach is proposed to minimize initial huge expenditure and to optimally build on existing resources. Due
to the increasing demand on healthcare institutions and systems to deliver better quality services for patients,
ICT in Health has evolved to bridge the gap between the urban healthcare specialist and their rural patients.
This phased approach will improve the quality of healthcare by way of enabling healthcare professionals to
make better decisions on their patients.

REFERENCES
Bratan, T. Clarke M., (2006) Optimum Design of Remote Patient Monitoring Systems, Engineering in Medicine and
Biology Society, EMBS '06. 28th International Conference of the IEEE, New York p 6465-6468
Canfield K., (2004), Application Integration for Free Open Source Medical Software: A Case Study, Journal of Free and
Open Source Medical Computing (JFOSMC) February 2, 2004
Celler B.G., Lovell N.H. and Basilakis J., Using information technology to improve the management of chronic disease,
The Healthcare System, Vol 179, Sept 2003

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Davies J, (2006), E-health: accessing the inaccessible

Donner J., (2004), Innovations in Mobile-Based Public Health Information Systems in the Developing World: An
example from Rwanda: Mobile Technologies and Health: Benefits and Risks, Italy
Dzenowagis J., (2007), Global Forum on Telemedicine: Reaching Beyond Borders, ATA & TATRC Joint meeting,
WHO, Las Vegas, September 2007
Egiebor O.,(2008) eHealth and Telemedicine in Nigeria, retrieved on 30/06/2008 from www.jidaw.com/itsolutions/
ehealth_telemedicine_nigeria.html
Greenberg A., (2005), ICTs for Poverty Alleviation, Basic tool and Enabling Sector, ICT for development Secretariat,
SidaICT for Comfortable and Universal Access to Healthcare, (2005), Telecommunications and Sustainable
Development, Telefonica, Rafael Fernandez de Alarcon, Environmental Management Department
Infodev, (2006), Improving Health, Connecting People: The Role of ICTs in the Health Sector of Developing Countries,
A Framework Paper, May 06
Kock N. (2003). "Action Research: Lessons learned from a multi-iteration study of computer-mediated communication in
groups." IEEE Transactions on Professional Communications 46(2): Pp.105 - 109.
McNamara K., (2006) Improving Health, Connecting People: The Role of ICTs in the Health Sector of Developing
Countries
Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition, Annual Health Bulletin of Sri Lanka for 2004-2005, retrieved from
www.health.gov.lk/Annual HealthBulletin.htm on 01/07/08
Mishra, S. R, Current status of E-health in India, Retrieved from openmed.nic.in/1265/01/skm12.pdf on 30/06/2008
Miyazaki M. (2005), Wireless Healthcare–Bluetooth and Beyond, Medical Device Technology, Wireless Devices, p 65-
67
Monteagudo J, Reig, J, Lamas R, IST at the Service of People in a Changing Society, Instituto de Salud Carlos III,
Madrid, Spain
Nadkarni, P.M., Clinical patient record systems architecture: an overview, E-MEDICINE
O'Leary Z. (2004), The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London, UK, SAGE Publications Ltd.
Osterwalder A. ICT in developing countries, A cross-sectoral snapshot, HEC, University of Lausanne
Population, Health, and Human Well-Being-- Sri Lanka, retrieved from http://earthtrends.wri.org on 01/07/08
Remote healthcare monitoring not so distant, Retrieved from http://www.e-care-ist.net/ on 0/07/08
Remote health-care monitoring using Personal Care Connect, (2007), IBM Systems Journal, Information-Based
Medicine Volume 46, Number 1
Research Driving ICT Use in Health Sector May 5, 2008, Grid Today, Scientific Applications
Sahay R., Aktar W., (2008) PPEPR: Plug and Play Electronic Patient Records, SAC’08 March 2008, Fortaleza, Brazil
Telecommunications Issues and Health Care (2007) Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada (FMRAC)
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, retrieved from http://www.trc.gov.lk/ on 10/07/08
Telemedicine, a confluence of communication and information technology is reaching rural India to provide quality
healthcare, (2006), ICT in the Health Sector, Infodev
Vichare D., (2005), E-Health: Accessing the Inaccessible, Cover Story, Modern Medicare

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ANALYZING WEB ARTEFACTS BY APPLYING

COMPLEX THINKING

Laurence Noël, Ghislaine Azémard

Laboratoire Paragraphe
Université Paris 8 – Saint Denis

ABSTRACT
Designing web artefacts is an activity which requires not only to have elements of knowledge in different disciplinary
fields, but which also implies to take into account the evolutive dynamics of the socio-technical network within which
web artefacts are meant to be integrated. In this paper, we analyze how the principles of complex thinking introduced by
Edgar Morin can be used to analyze web artefacts from a cross-disciplinary perspective.

KEYWORDS
complex thinking, web design, convergence

1. INTRODUCTION
Human beings evolve at the same time as they make the artefacts they create evolve and the socio-technical
network to which they belong becomes more and more complex as new connection means appear and as
there are new possibilities of linking the elements of this network together. When creating an artefact, a
designer needs to be able to imagine how different components can potentially become connected to one
another so as to form a coherent entity; he has to make a succession of choices according to parameters
which have interdependency relationships. Not considering some of those parameters means taking the risk
of producing unwanted side-effects and the problem with web interfaces is that it is actually difficult to get a
“whole picture” of the scheme of interactions to consider. Because the dimensions according to which they
can be analyzed require elements of knowledge in distinct disciplines which are delimited in their scope, the
relations which exist between those dimensions tend to be disregarded. If web design is an activity at the
convergence of multiple disciplinary fields, web artefacts also need to be apprehended from a cross-
disciplinary perspective. In this article, we present the concept of “complex thinking” as defined by the
sociologist and philosopher Edgar Morin and we analyze how the principles he presents in his approach can
be used to analyze the multi-dimensional nature of web artefacts and the socio-technical dynamics to which
they participate.

2. WEB ARTEFACTS: A FRAGMENTED VISION

An artefact is an entity which results from a transformation process initiated by an individual or a group of
people. The designer's role is to ensure that the finale form of an artefact expresses correctly the functions
which have been attributed to it and that its components are articulated in such a way that its use facilitates
the realization of a task. During this transformational process, the designer has to make a series of decision
and in order to do so, he needs to have elements of knowledge in distinct disciplines. He needs to be able to
analyze the entity he wants to create according to multiple perspectives: as a technical object which has
material properties, as a medium which can be attributed several functions, as a new creation which modifies
our environment and our usages, etc.
From the macro level to the micro level, from technical aspects to social aspects, web artefacts (that is,
digital resources designed to be published on the web) offer multiple facets of analysis but the problem is that

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those facets are often described within the limits of different disciplinary fields (engineering, social sciences,
communication studies, etc.) and it is thus difficult to have a global vision of the relational scheme according to
which those facets are articulated together. Design thinking should be the glue that enables to assemble them, but
the actual motto within the web design community is to focus on user experience : by putting emphasis on the
target, we have come to neglect the very object to which design activity applies. Taking into account the way end-
users will interact with the artefact is of primary importance, but understanding the potential properties of this
artefact should not be of a minor concern, all the more so as web technologies evolve at a quick pace, which also
means that the functionalities which can be implemented and the forms of representation which can be used at the
interface level also change quickly.
As stated by Hendler et al. (2008), we need to “better understand the complex, cross-disciplinary
dynamics” driving the development of the web, we need an interdisciplinary approach to understanding it,
and the Web Science Research Initiative has been launched to reach this goal.
But bringing different viewpoints together is not an easy task, nor it is to find how the different approaches
can fit with one another. We believe that applying complex thinking may prove to be a useful method to
apprehend the multi-dimensions of web artefacts.

3. COMPLEX THINKING: CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES

Complex thinking has been introduced by the philosopher and sociologist Edgar Morin (1990, 2008). He
considers something to be complex when there are multiple heterogeneous components which interact and
interfere with one another, and when they weave together an emergent whole (from the latin complexus,
“what is entwined together”). Morin suggests to view complex entities as “unitas multiplex”, to consider the
unity in the multiple and the multiple in the unity in order to avoid falling into one of these two traps: the first
trap is to crush differences by focusing only on the whole, the second one is to overshadow unifying
dimensions by focusing only differences. Instead of apprehending things in a dual manner, as being either
one or the other, we have to consider them as regards one another, we have to find the link which enables to
consider both viewpoints.
In order to understand the dynamics of complex entities, we also need to analyze how they are connected
to their environment, and to follow their mutual evolution. The notion of open system, as defined by van
Bertalanffy (1976), is here fundamental. An open system is evolutive: it tends towards homeostasis but it is
characterized by a dynamic state. It evolves as it interacts with its environment which in turns evolves with
the system. The relationships they have condition the evolution of both; they participate to the formation and
the organization of the one and the other.
According to Morin, if we have difficulty in examining those relationships, it is because we have been
taught to apply simplifying thinking. Simplifying thinking is directed by the principles of reductionism and
disjunctions: we tend to fragment reality into separate blocks and to analyze those blocks in an isolated
manner; we make mutilating abstractions which prevent us from apprehending the relational scheme within
which organized entities evolve.
Morin offers to substitute the paradigm of disjunction/reductionism to that of distinction/conjunction and
he introduces three main principles which can help apply complex thinking :
• the hologrammatic principle, which highlights that the parts are to be considered in function of the
whole and the whole in front of its parts. Not only the parts form the whole, but the whole can also
be incorporated in the parts. Each individual, for instance, integrates the culture, the language, the
collective code of the community she/he is a part of.
• the principle of organisational recursion, which goes beyond the principle of feedback as defined in
the cybernetic approach : the process of self-regulation is not here completely pre-determined but it
can be adjusted by a process of self-production, so as to maintain a dynamic state of organisational
balance. It can be represented via a generative spiral in which the products and the effects
themselves produce and causes new products and effects.
• the dialogical principle, according to which what can be opposed can also be linked and two antagonist
or competing notions can be united without them losing their duality : they are both essential for
understanding a same reality for "the opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite
of a profound truth may well be another profound truth." (Niels Bohr)

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4. APPLYING THE PRINCIPLES OF COMPLEX THINKING

Complex thinking is an approach which aims at improving our understanding of multi-dimensional entities. But
are the principles set forth in this approach really relevant when it comes to web artefacts and what can we learn
from putting them into practice ?

4.1 The Dialogical Principle: Application v/s Information Space?

According to Garrett (2007), the “basic duality” according to which web artefacts have been considered, as
either applications or hypertext information spaces, is at the core of misunderstandings among the web
design community and he underlines that in most cases, web artefacts can not be neatly categorized into one
of these two groups. They are hybrid entities, “incorporating qualities from each world.” They are inform-
action spaces (Noël, 2007): if we take for instance a tourism web site, it provides some information about an
area, but it also gives the means to access and manipulate this information, it offers both some content and
some possibilities of interactions.
What the analysis of web artefacts teaches us is not something new, but something we tend to forget.
When we read a newspaper, we tend to view the linguistic signs as the only content to be interpreted and to
consider the paper support mainly as an inscription support. But it is also an interaction support: we don't
expect it to give us the means to easily copy and paste an interesting article, as it is the case on the web, but
we do expect to be able to turn its pages. And we not only interpret the linguistic signs on the paper, we also
interpret the very form of this newspaper and how it can be used.
What distinguishes digital artefacts from other information media is that the possibilities of interaction are not
pre-determined : they can themselves be programmed. And what distinguishes digital artefacts from other tools is
that it is not the very shape of the instrument which has to be designed so as to express the way end-users can use
it: the possibilities of interactions have to be represented at the interface level via explicit signifiers (Saussure,
1965; Norman, 2007). Those signifiers are not just used to refer to a signified, they also have to be thought as
manipulable objects, they are meant to inform end-users about a topic and about the possibilities they have to
interact with the system.

4.2 The Hologrammatic Principle: Being Part of the Web While Incorporating
It
A web resource is an entity accessible on the World Wide Web and identified by a URI (Uniform Resource
Identifier) : it can be a photo, a video, a text, an information system, or even an abstract concept. Like
Russian dolls, web resources can contain other web resources. In fact, web sites and applications are often
constituted of multiple other resources, which can themselves be accessed in an independent manner. They
are as much part of the network as the network is part of them (Fig. 1).
Understanding the hologrammatic nature of web artefacts is essential for web designers. You don't put a
site on the web just like you put a photo album on a shelf. In the case of a photo album, its content is
independent from the content of the other books which also stand on this shelf. But web artefacts are not
hypermedia systems which just happen to be accessible on the web: they are part of it, and the data they
contain can be provided via other online applications or be re-used by other people.
Web sites can then be considered as the meso level of construction between the micro and the macro scale
from which the web can be apprehended. At a micro level, the web is made up of identified media units
which can be integrated into multiple web pages and web sites are the organized entities within which those
pages are articulated. At a macro level, web sites become themselves the components of a larger system and
they can be analyzed according to the properties they have acquired as a medium by being located on a
distributed network. This network changes the way information can be provided or propagated (Weaver et al.
2008; Segaran, 2007), or the way people can interact with one another or perform a task collectively
(Surowiecki, 2005) and web sites have to be designed so as to provide ways of incorporating end-users'
activities.

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Figure 1. The hologrammatic web

4.3 Organizational Recursion and Web Dynamics

The web is a network in constant evolution, not only as regards the content to which it gives access, but also
as regards the forms of connections it gives rise to. Designing a web artefact requires to take into account
two types of dynamics: a social one and a technical one. The technological layer determines the way
information can be represented, formulated and spread. It defines the potential ways according to which the
social membrane can be woven, but end-users are the ones who actually shape the form of the network, as
they establish new links with one another and interact with the resources they find.
Because the web is a convergence point, it changes at an unprecedented speed: the network distribution
amplifies the way technological advances can be passed on and reverberated, but people also tend to adopt
those technologies easily because a particular attention is put on how those technologies should be made
accessible to them. If the web 2.0 has been characterized as the “web of people”, it is because it has also been
characterized by applications which have been designed so as to facilitate the way people can join this social
web. They have been developed with an envisioned “social” construct (Hendler et. Al, 2008): web designers
not only have to think about how an individual can interact with a system, they also have to think about how
groups of people can communicate together or perform a task collectively via an artefact which is itself
connected to a group of applications.

5. CONCLUSION
An interdisciplinary approach is needed in order to understand web artefacts and the impact they have in our
society. If designing web artefacts is an activity at the convergence of multiple fields, analyzing the
properties of these artefacts may also help us make connections between disciplines which have evolved
separately. In this paper, we have started exploring how complex thinking principles could be applied to
analyze web sites and applications. We have seen that they could be considered as inform-action spaces,
which are hologrammatic in nature (they are part of a network but they also integrate part of this network),
and which have limits that are constantly pushed further under the drive of socio-technical dynamics.

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REFERENCES
Alexander, C., 1964. Notes on the synthesis of form. Harvard University Press, Harvard, MA, USA.
Bertalanffy, L.van, 1976. General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications. George Braziller, New-
York, NY, USA.
Garrett, J., 2007. The Elements of User Experience: User-centered Design for the Web. New Riders, New-York, NY,
USA.
Hendler, J. et. al, 2008. Web Science: An interdisciplinary approach to understanding the World Wide Web. In
Communications of the ACM . Vol. 51, No 7, pp 60-69.
Morin, E., 1990. Introduction à la pensée complexe. Seuil, Paris, France.
Morin, E., 2008. La méthode. Seuil, Paris, France.
Morin, E. and Weinmann, H., 2008. La complexité humaine. Flammarion, Paris, France.
Noël, L. and Azémard, G., 2008. From semantic web data to inform-action: a means to an end. In Semantic Web User
Interaction at CHI 2008: Exploring HCI Challenges http://swui.semanticweb.org/SWUI2008CHI/Noel.pdf
Norman, D., 2008. Signifiers, not affordances. Interactions. Vol. 15, No. 6. pp 18-19.
Saussure, F. de, 1965. Course In General Linguistics.Mc Graw-Hill, Colombus, OH, USA.
Segaran, T. , 2007. Programming collective intelligence. O'Reilly, Sebastopol, CA, USA.
Surowiecki, J., 2005. The wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom
Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations . Anchor, New-York, NY, USA.
Weaver, A. and Morrison, B., 2007. Social Networking. Computer. Vol. 41. No 2. pp 97-100.
Weschsler, D. 1971. Concept of collective intelligence. American Psychologist. Vol. 26, No 10, pp 904-907.

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YASI: A PARAMETRIC MODEL TO GENERATE

AUTONOMOUS AND INTEGRATED SOCIAL NETWORKS1

Vala Ali Rohani

Information Technology and Computer Engineering
Shahrood University of Technology

ABSTRACT
Recent years have witnessed the generation of online social networking services, in which millions of its members
publicly articulate mutual "friendship" relations. Joining these networks to build a world wide integrated society has been
a tremendous wish for decades. having some good experiences by creating the Iranian Experts Social Network with more
than 85000 Registered members, We have tried to generate a model to develop a parameterized social network which not
only could be used as an autonomous and private one but also could be used as a tool for creating the national or
international integrated social networks as a big step for gaining world wide village.
This paper introduces this model called YASI and its innovative features for merging the mentioned e-societies vertically
and horizontally to generate a pyramid of linked social networks.

KEYWORDS
E-Society – Social Network – Integration – Parametric Model

1. INTRODUCTION
Using IT Solutions and Web-based applications in daily life of recent decade's citizens causes the generation
of wide range of social networks. MySpace, Orkut, Face book are some samples of these new technology
approaches.
The necessity of a national social network to support information interchange for Iranian experts
motivated us to create the Iranian experts portal2. This project, having good infrastructure and skillful
features, could attract more than 80000 Iranian experts to have their own official profile in it and also make
friends through networks. Think tank with more than 300 daily question and 1200 answer is another valuable
outcome of this project as well.
The useful experiences accomplished by developing, technical maintenance and content management of
IrExpert project, motivated us to develop a parametric model for generating autonomic and integrated social
networks that can be used in various levels of each society. This model is called YASI.
The vertical and horizontal join features considered in YASI model, enables each instances of this model
to make connections with the others. This paper introduces this model, its concepts and features and also the
process model of creating profile in it.

2. GENERAL FEATURES OF YASI AS A SOCIAL NETWORK

A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that
are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, ideas, financial exchange,
friendship, kinship, dislike, conflict or trade. The resulting graph-based structures are often very complex.
YASI as a new approach for generating a network of social networks should have general features include:

1
This work was supported by the research plan of the Shahrood University of Technology
2
www.IrExpert.ir

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• Personal Profile
Each member of YASI social networks will have a personal profile with related control panel to submit
his or her specifications. We will see in the following that each person joining in several social networks can
have several profiles related to each one.
• Sending message
Massage passing system is one of friendly features of each e-community. By this facility, the members of
same social network (also different ones) can send message to each other and be alarmed by notification
emails.
• Personal bill board
Accessing the personal bill board through the profile control panel is one of the most favorite abilities of
each social network. Each member can submit his (or her) daily events that want to be declared by his (or
her) profile.
• Thinking room
This is one of the most useful outcomes of this project. Imagine that you have a e-facility to gather the
idea of various range of social members about a special subject by just some clicks!!! Thinking room can be
used by individuals, organizations, governments and so forth effectively.
• e-Newsletter
As a best practice in IrExpert project, we discovered that customers may not log on to a social network,
but majority of them check their mail box. So, we can encourage them browsing our social network by
sending them a user friendly newsletter.
This newsletter is consisted of daily news that each member could submit in their social networks after
confirming the related administrator. A web based agent can gather daily news, generate pre styled newsletter
and then send it to corresponding receivers straightforwardly.
• Friendship network
Each member can invite others to make friendship relation and develop his or friends network. This
ability motivates members to check their profiles periodically.
• Content management
Definitely as a social network portal, each member of YASI should be able to modify their profile
contents arbitrarily. Each society or community may have its own provision that should be considered. To
preserve this formality, there should be mechanism to validate the contents of profiles to be according to each
related e-society provisions.

3. SPECIAL FEATURES OF YASI AS A SOCIAL NETWORK

In previous section, some general features of YASI model were introduced. It can be seen that, some specific
attributes facilitated the general features that make it different comparing similar social networks.
This section provides some special features of YASI model that is unique as a novel solution. The
solution that can be led to approaching the old wish of social network designers: Having world wide social
network to develop world wide village.

3.1 Autonomy
This is a clear fact that each e-society like to have complete ownership and full permission to manage its own
e-society. Being basically familiar with YASI model may make this misapprehension that it will threaten the
autonomy of private social networks because it claims that can integrate all instances of YASI model as a
national or hence international total model.
But it should be said that YASI model not only guarantee the autonomy of each instance of its own model
but also provide a tree style and hierarchical administration facilities that could manage the permissions ,
interaction and also the contents of whole society perfectly.

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Despite of this fact that the database including all instances of our e-society model will be implemented in
a central or replicated several RDBMSs, it’s considered for each data base instance to be fully encapsulated
and isolated in which all the content of e-society is under supervision of its administrator completely. Even a
novel mechanism is designed to permit each person registering in different e-societies and having different
profiles, personal bill board, friends network , … while having just one identity. This mechanism will be
introduced totally in section 3.3.

3.2 Parametric Design

YASI model claims that it can be used as a common infrastructure for all e-societies by presenting parametric
features. Different e-societies have their own different social structure and related provisions. This model
should be flexible enough to support each e-society different requirements.
Some of its parametric services and structures are as fallows:
• Parametric Organizational Chart
Each instance of YASI model should be able to have its own organizational chart. To cover this demand,
a tree style structure with unlimited number of branch and depth is provided.
For example the e-society of a university will be able to have departments, majors and educational degree
as its organizational chart while a Car manufacturing company may have different official units in their own
organizational chart.
• Run Time Generated Fields
Each member of instances of YASI model should fill related fields of each organizational node. These
fields may not have any pre designed structures and should be generated at run time. Accordingly, YASI
model prepare a solution for generating these run time generated fields for each node of e-society
organizational chart.
• Parametric Profile
Obviously, each one of e-societies which uses YASI model need to have its own profile structure
according to its circumstances.
Parametric profiles of YASI model will provide a different profile structure in color, graphic, template
design and general fields.
• Administration Tree
The information content of each organization should be according to its official framework and
provisions. So each e-society needs to have at least on administrator to validate the content entered by its
members.
YASI model offers a tree style administration structure which supports hierarchical orders to simplify the
observation tasks in huge social networks.

3.3 Single Sign-up Mechanism in YASI

Each YASI member can choose one or more instances of YASI social networks to join. So, there were 3
alternatives to gain this situation:
• Several ID and several profiles (one ID for each profile)
• One ID and One profile
• One ID and several profiles
In the first alternative, member should have different and exclusive IDs and profiles for each instance of
YASI social networks that he/she signs up. so it's hard task to remember different IDs according to different
social networks for long time.
The second one, permits YASI member to have just one ID and one profile throughout the YASI e-
environment. This seems to be good for its easiness because the member does not have to remember several
IDs for each profile. But, it has some problems in conditions that some instances of YASI social networks
like to have their own official profile styles with distinctive policies. For instance some profiles could be
informal and friendly while the others are preferred to be fully formal.

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But the third case is the best one that not only permits each member to have exclusive profile for each
social network who is a member of it, but also solve the problem of memorizing several IDs. This single
sign-up mechanism is described in details by the following sequence diagram:

Jasmine: YASI Member : YASI Core Site SN1: YASI Social Network Instance SN2: YASI Social Network Instance : YASI Central DB

1: Signup(UID,PWD)
2: OK 3: CreateRecord(UID,PWD)

4: Show the list of SNs()

5: SN_Select(SN_ID)

6: SN1_ProfileCreation(Profile Information)

7: ProfileCheck(): Boolean
8: Confirmation(Profile Information)
9: CreateProfile(Profile Information)

10: SN2_ProfileCreation(Profile Information)

11: ProfileCheck(): Boolean

12: Confirmation(Profile Information)

13: CreateProfile(Profile Information)

Figure 1. single sign-up sequence diagram

3.4 Integration of Social Networks

One of the most beneficial of this model is its novel solution for integrating autonomous instances of social
networks to make a mesh of YASI instances capable of organizing an e-society in regional, national or
international scale. Integrating the instances of YASI model can be done easily by interacting the
administrator of each social network electronically, something like inviting some one as a friend in a
common e-community.
Administrator of each instance of YASI social networks (A) sends a massage to the his (or her)
counterpart of another instance of YASI social networks (B) to invite him (or her) being cooperative in portal
level. If B accepts this invitation, these instances will be integrated and enjoyed some common facilities like
common discussion rooms, e-newsletters, friendship networks and ….
Two types of portal level relationships are considered preliminary:
Type A) Super/Subset Relationship
This kind of relationship is used when a big social network decides to create a network of their agents
while each agent has its own social network separately.
Take an example of an international insurance company with more than 5000 distinct agent company as
branches all over the world which the staffs of each branch has a profile in their own social network instance.
It means this enterprise consists of 5000+1 instance of YASI social network that managed separately.
Implementing this type of relationship, the central office can offer subset type of relationship to all 5000
agents and by accepting them, the network of 5000+1 company is built. (Figure2, Type A)
Type B) Cooperative Relationship
In some conditions, two or more social networks prefers to communicate solely with each other without
any hierarchical order. Imagine the universities of a country that could have their own instance o YASI social
network distinctly. It would be a good idea to link them with each other sharing their scientific resources.
Cooperative relation type of YASI model is a proper way to publish these connections. As we can see in
Figure 3 (Type B), there is no hierarchical order in generating mesh of related social networks.

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Super
Social Social Network Social Network
Social Network
Network

Subset Social Network

Subset
Social Network Social Network
Social Network Social Network
Subset
Social Network

Type A: Super/Subset Relation Type B: Cooperative Relation

Figure 2. Integration types of YASI social Networks

4. CONCLUSION
In our study of more than 85,000 expert users of Iranian Experts Social Network, We have got good
experiences in building and managing the contents of social networks which leads to presenting a parametric
model for generating autonomous and yet integrated social networks. This model supports the general
requirement of social networks and also offers some novel features that let it to could be solution for
ascertaining the idea of World Wide Village. We presented YASI single sign-up mechanism in this paper
which comforts its members who like joining different social networks just by a single User Id and Password.
Also the YASI integration feature, facilities its instances to be joined in order to make wider social networks.
Some national social networks have used YASI model which Tehran Polytechnic university Students and
graduated and Iranian IT managers social networks are two successful implementation of this model.
Preliminarily, This model is in Persian language and In future work, we are interested in adding other languages to be
able used an international social network model.

REFERENCES
Adamic, A., O. Buyukkokten, E. Adar. A Social Network Caught in the Web. First Monday, 8(6), 2003.
DPB Co. IrPeople Technical manual. Vol 3. , 2008.
H. Liu and P. Maes. Interestmap: Harvesting social network profiles for recommendations. In Beyond Personalization -
IUI 2005, January 9, San Diego, California, USA, 2005.
Jeffrey Heer and danah boyd. Vizster: Visualizing Online Social Networks , 2007.
University Planning. Carnegie Mellon Factbook 2005. Carnegie Mellon University, February 2005.
Vala Ali Rohani. IrExpert Technical manual. Vol 2. , 2008.

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COGNITIVE IMMERSION

Parra, Elena * and Navarro-Prieto, Raquel *

Barcelona Media- Centre d’Innovació*
Av. Diagonal, 177 Planta 9 08018 BARCELONA *

ABSTRACT
The goal of this paper is to present our research about the cognitive processes involved in 3D immersion and present our
research plans about how this type of environment should be helpful for people with special needs, in particular people
with cerebral paralysis.

KEYWORDS
Presence, immersion, cerebral paralysis, memory, attention.

1. INTRODUCTION
The goal of this paper is to present our research about the cognitive processes involved in 3D immersion and
present our research plans about how this type of environment should be helpful for people with special
needs, in particular people with cerebral paralysis. First, we will briefly describe the literature in several
related areas from which we have started to understand the variables involved in the sense of presence.
Them, we present the focus of our current research and a preliminary study that we did in order to explore the
cognitive processes related to the transition point when a person believe to be immerse in a “real world”.
From our preliminary study we gather information about the variables to measure in our next experiment.
Finally, we will present how the .results of our experiment would be applied in the future to people with
cerebral paralysis.
According to previous research, many aspects of the whole 3D experience are implicated in the sensation
of presence. In order to understand this, we have reviewed and organised research according to several
categories. First, some variables are related to personal characteristics of the viewer (such us previous
knowledge “as much of contexts 3D as of the content” (2), preferences, emotional motivation and mood.
Second, different characteristics of the 3D environment have been investigated (3, 4, 5, 6) in relation to their
impact on the feeling of presence (Viewpoint of the camera, approaches, music)
In addition, the characteristics of the surroundings (External noise.) would be of great relevance for some
dependent variables like memory or attention (7, 8).
After our literature search, and in spite of much effort to organise the knowledge we have about presence
(International Society for Presence Research (ISPR), we have not found a unifying theoretical frame that
would organize the results and would allow us to explain and predict when and why the sensation of presence
occurs.
No existing framework explains the relationship and interactions among the three types of variables
described above.
However, in the 2D context we found that the same types of variables have the same effects on the
sensation of presence (http://scaut.ugr.es/). In our future research, we will work with these variables both in
2D and 3D investigates their effect of on users.

2. FIRST DATA GATHERING WITH END USER

The focus of our research is trying to understand the precise moment of transition between real conscience
(living a real moment) and virtual conscience (the sensation that the virtual context is not virtual but real). In

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order to achieve this goal we need to know which specific changes occur in this moment of transition (this
transition is what we call cognitive immersion).
This research is carried out as part of the project, 2020 3D, funded by the EC, whose goal is to develop
new technologies to support the acquisition, encoding, editing, distribution network, and the presentation of
audiovisual content stereoscopic immersive, to make it possible to provide new forms of cinema. A
significant part of this project is devoted to understanding the psychological and social aspects related to
users perception and reaction to 3D content. Within this project we have collaborated with CREW (a
Belgium-based performance group, it has insisted on making performances at the melting point of live art
and technology http://www.crewonline.org/crew.html) in order to investigate 3D immersive environments,
specifically in a performance where all the sensory levels of information (visual, auditory and touch) was
presented. We interviewed 9 viewers of this performance, to gather evidence about the most important
factors that would explain the feeling of presence - when and how it happens. These factors were explored by
asking viewers specific questions that measured memory, attention, background and immersion.
Examples of questions are:
• Did your sensation change when you saw yourself?
• Which part of the session gave you the strongest feeling of being inside the world of the story?
• Where did you feel the most involved? Which moments do you remember the most?
• Did you ever have a similar experience?
In this study we found that the moment of change in sensory inputs produced high attention, and this
attention correlates with the moments that provoked a strong memory. In addition, these specific sensory
changes where the moments that were reported as a more intense sense presence from the viewers.
In summary, from the results of these interviews we found evidence for the claim that attention and
consequently memory, are very key in the transition between reality (understood as the real surroundings of
the subject) to virtual reality (understood as the realistic interpretation of the information perceived in virtual
surroundings).
Therefore, understand the changes of focus in attention are very important for what we understand as
cognitive immersion.

3. NEXT STEPS
We are preparing an experiment that would allow more detailed study of the cognitive process of attention in
relation to cognitive immersion. In particular we are interested in the precise moment where the changes in
attention impact the sense of presence and how that helps memory. Some examples of situations that would
trigger changes in attention are when we present different sensorial inputs (Effect von Restorff, Parker,
Wilding and Akerman, 1998 ).
We will present the users with different degrees of virtual reality from 2D and 3D (in one group we
present the information in a stereoscopic context and in the other group we present the information in a
immersive context),with different levels of emotional content (in this case we present 4 types of content, the
variables are in tow continuum boring / exiting and positive / negative, in this case we present the contend
between these continuum).
And finally we control the according to the preferences and motivations of the users, therefore we know
the preferences before to presentation of the virtually information to can adapt these preferences to the
content. In this content we will control of sensory changes in the context. We will measure their changes in
attention through eyetracking. We will also measure memory, and a posteriori give a questionnaire about
presence to understand both of the variables and how they are implicated in the moment of the change
(cognitive immersion). In addition, we will also manipulate some of the variables described in the brief
literature review. In particular we will like to see the effect of personal preferences about emotional content
and some characteristics of the 3D environment. In this case we can present the results in February of 2008,
therefore we know the implications of attention in cognitive immersion and we can measure this implication
through Psycho-physiological measurement.
Our findings will broaden the understanding of the mental processes involved, in particular to attention.
We will consider previous literature about the parts of the brain involved in attention, and problems which
disabled people have. After this experiment, if we confirm our hypothesis about the effect of attention, we

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will explore the usage of our knowledge about cognitive immersion with users who do not have injuries in
the frontal, prefrontal and parietal crust

REFERENCES
Parker, Wilding and Akerman, The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Vol 10, 691-703, Copyright © 1998 by The MIT
Press http://jocn.mitpress.org/cgi/content/abstract/10/6/691
Eunjoon Rachel, Hyuksoon s Song and Jan l Plass. The effect of positive emotions on multimedia learning)
Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Scientific American mind. Televisión Addiction. 48-55 Copyright 2003).
Katerina Mania Alan Chalmers A User-Centered Methodology For Investigating Presence And Task Performance
Freeman, Avons, Pearson. Effects of sensory information and prior experience on direct subjective rating of presence.
1999
Kritsachai Somsaman. Emotional expressiveness in visual-sonic integration: A framework for multimedia design. 2003
Brogni, Slater and Steed. More breaks less presence.
Jerrold D. Prothero,Donald E. Parker,Thomas A. Furness III, and Maxwell J. Wells In Proceedings of of the Conference
on Experimental Analysis and Measurement of Situation Awareness, 359-366. Towards a Robust, Quantitative
Measure for Presence

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THE DESIGN OF THE TUNTOOL, A SOFTWARE TOOL

FOR THE TUNING METHODOLOGY

Dr Philippos Pouyioutas
University of Nicosia
46 Makedonitissas Avenue, Nicosia 1700, CYPRUS

ABSTRACT
This paper presents the design of the TunTool, a software tool that supports the Tuning Methodology, a methodology
used for re-engineering academic programmes of study using the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). The paper
addresses the limitations of applying manually the aforementioned methodology vs. the advantages of having a tool, thus
identifying the user requirements of the tool. The paper concludes by giving a relational database design that will
underpin the development of the tool and discussing its future implementation.

KEYWORDS
Tuning Methodology, Bologna Process, Software Tools

1. INTRODUCTION
The Tuning Methodology [Gonzalez et al. 2008] is a methodology used for the design of academic
programmes following the directives and suggestions of the Bologna Process [Bologna 2008]. It also
provides a framework for the quality assurance of programmes. The first stage of designing a new
programme is to build its profile, which includes amongst others, its aims and objectives, as well as the
Learning Outcomes (LOs) [Kennedy et al. 2008] and the Competences (generic and subject specific)
[Bologna 2008, Gonzalez et al. 2008]. In order to make sure that the LOs of a programme and the expected
competences are achieved, Tuning Methodology utilizes various matrices that relate the LOs with the various
courses of the programme and the competences with the courses. Furthermore, every course of a programme
has its own LOs and cultivates into students competences, which they contribute to the LOs and the
competences of the programme. Currently, the Tuning Methodology has been adopted by many universities
both in Europe and in Latin America [Gonzalez et al. 2008]. As far as we are aware, there is still no software
tool to support the methodology and automate some of the tedious tasks that the users of the methodology
have to perform. In the rest of this paper, in Section 2 we address the problems/limitations of using the
methodology without the support of a software tool. Doing so, we identify the need for the TunTool and
identify its expected functionality. In Section 3, we propose a relational database design which will underpin
the development of the proposed tool. Finally, we conclude by discussing our current and future work.

2. THE NEED FOR TUNINGTOOL

When building the degree profile of an academic programme, one needs to define its Learning Outcomes
(LOs) and Competences. Ideally, one could utilize existing definitions rather than re-inventing the wheel.
Thus, one could select as many LOs and competence from a pool of such resources and then modify and add
new ones accordingly. This not only would reduce the effort needed for building the programme profile, but
also and more importantly maybe, it would create programmes that are compatible to an extent (of course one
may argue that this would have a drawback, namely reducing creativity and innovation). Currently, although
there is no such database of LOs and Competences that would allow downloading of such resources, the
Tuning Methodology provides a list of generic and subject-specific competences (in most subject areas). The

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creation of a database of such resources would allow one to select and use these resources as part of the
programme profile under development, thus benefiting from the aforementioned advantages.
Another time consuming and tedious task one faces is the checking that all the programme’s LOs and
competences are met by at least one course of the programme. As mentioned in the Introduction, matrices
can be constructed and checks can be made in order to verify this. This is a time consuming process.
Furthermore, if one needs to find the LOs and competences achieved by a course or the courses that achieve a
particular LOs and/or competence, s/he should consult the hard copy or electronic matrices and produce
manually in both cases the required information. This is because there is no database to store the relationships
between LOs and courses and competences and courses. A software tool based on such database, would
produce instantly the required information. Such a database could even store the relationship between LOs
and competences and produce some other useful information (e.g. LOs and related competences,
competences and related LOs, etc.). Furthermore, the database could store for each course its own LOs, its
assessment methods, its learning methods and the expected student workload. This basically would automate
the completion of the Tuning Methodology form which is used to calculate the student workload and thus the
number of the ECTS of the course, thus reducing further the time and effort needed for building further the
programme components. The automation would also allow what-if analysis and make workload and ECTS
recalculations very fast and error-free.
All the aforementioned advantages of automating the application of the methodology clearly indicate the
need for the proposed tool. TunTool will therefore provide a database of LOs and competences. This
database will be accessed and shared by many users. Users will have the choice of using a LO and a
competence created by another user but will not have write access on resources owned by other users. Thus,
each LO and each competence is owned by its creator. Since however, each such resource after its creation
will be used by other users as well and not just the owner, any change by the owner to such resource will
have to trigger a flag to any user (including the owner) of the amended resource for accepting/adopting the
new version or retaining the previous version in any part of the database that the resource is referred to. This
means that the database should keep the various versions of the resources.

3. THE RELATIONAL DATABASE DESIGN

In this section we provide a relational database design that accommodates the user needs as explained in the
previous section. We first give the ER model diagram of the application and then the corresponding
decomposed ER diagram. At the end we provide the relational tables of the database.

3.1 The ER Model

The following ER model describes the database entities and relationships of the proposed database. The
following abbreviations are used in the ER diagram that follows:
P: Programme
C: Course
PLO: Programme Learning Outcome
GC: Generic Competence
SSC: Subject Specific Competence
CLO: Course Learning Outcome
indicates many-to-many relationship
indicates one-to-many relationship

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C P

PLO GC SSC

CLO

Figure 1. The ER Model of the Proposed Database

In addition to the abbreviations already used, the following ones are used in the decomposed ER model.
PCA: Programme Courses Assigned
PLOA: Programme Learning Outcomes Assigned
PGCA: Programme Generic Competences Assigned
PSSCA: Programme Subject Specific Competences Assigned
CPLOS: Course Programme Learning Outcomes Supported
CGCS: Course Generic Competences Supported
CSSCS: Course Subject Specific Competences Supported

C PCA P

PLOA PGCA PSSCA

PLO GC SSC

CPLOS CGCS CSSCS

CLO

Figure 2. The Decomposed ER Model of the Proposed Database

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3.2 The Relational Tables of the Proposed Database

Based on the decomposed ER model of Figure 2, the following relational tables are created. The abbreviated
entity names in the ER model are also used herein as the names of the tables.
P (Pid, Ptitle, Paims, Pobjectives)
C (Cid, Ctitle, Caims, Cobjectives)
PCA (Cid, Pid)
PLO (PLOid, PLOversionnumber, PLOtitle, PLOdescription)
GC (GCid, GCversionnumber, GCtitle, GCdescription)
SSC (SSCid, SSCversionnumber, SSCtitle, SSCdescription)
PLOA (Pid, PLOid, PLOversionnumber,)
PGCA (Pid, GCid, GCversionnumber)
PSSCA (Pid, SSCid, SSCversionnumber)
CLO (CLOid, CLOtitle, CLOlearningmethod, CLOassessmentmethod, CLOstudentworkload, Cid)
CPLOS (CLOid, PLOid, PLOvesrionnumber)
CGCS (CLOid, GCid, GCversionnumber)
CSSCS (CLOid, SSCid, SSCvesrionnumber)

4. CONCLUSIONS
This paper has presented the preliminary stages of the design of the TunTool to support the application of the
Tuning Methodology for designing academic programmes using the ECTS. The need for the tool was
discussed and justified through the addressing of various current limitations of applying manually the Tuning
Methodology. In order to develop the tool, we provided a relational database design that will provide a
repository of LOs and competences and will store the relationships between programmes, courses of
programmes and LOs and competences of programmes and courses. The stored data will allow the
automation of various tedious and laborious tasks, such as the checking that all LOs and competences of a
programme are supported by the programme’s courses, the automatic calculation of a student workload in a
course and thus the course’s ECTS, etc. We are currently in the process of building the database based on the
proposed design and then develop the full functionality of the tool. We expect that the tool will be a very
useful asset to all academic personnel in charge of designing academic programmes.

REFERENCES
Bologna Process, 2008 - http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/educ/bologna/bologna_en.html
Gonzalez, G. & Wagenaar, R. 2008 Tuning America Latina, Reflections on and Outlook for Higher Education in Latin
America, ISBN 978-84-9830-097-0
Gonzalez, G. & Wagenaar, R. 2008 Tuning Educational Structures in Europe, Universities; Contribution to the Bologna
Process, ISBN 978-84-9830-132-8
Gonzalez, G. & Wagenaar, R. 2008 Tuning Methodology http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/bologna/
Gonzalez, G. & Wagenaar, R. 2008 Tuning Methodology, http://tuning.unideusto.org/tuningeu/
Gonzalez, G. & Wagenaar, R. 2008 Tuning Methodology, http://www.polifoniatn.org/Content.aspx?id=111
Kennedy, D. Hyland, A & Ryan, N. 2008 Writing and Using Learning Outcomes, A Practical Guide,
http://www.bologna-handbook.com/docs/frames/content_c.html
Keravnou-Papailiou, E., 2008, Implementing ECTS at the University of Cyprus, http://www.bologna-
handbook.com/docs/frames/content_c.html

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INCREASING TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING

STUDENT INNOVATION ABILITY AND APTITUDE
THROUGH COLLABORATIVE CROSS-DISCIPLINE
INNOVATION BOOTCAMPS

Dr. Geoffrey A. Wright

Brigham Young University
College of Engineering
230 Snell BYU, Provo, Ut. .84602

ABSTRACT
To keep pace and stay ahead of the rapid development and implementation of new science and technology in the 21st
century, we believe engineers need to possess an understanding of innovation and related skills (i.e., creativity, problem
finding and forming, ability to generate and develop new ideas into practical and helpful products, processes, and so
forth). This research focuses on the methods and efforts developed and being implemented to advance the culture of
innovation within our college of technology and engineering. The primary method we have developed to train, and help
our students better understand the process of innovation, and engage related principles has been an Innovation Boot
Camp. The Innovation Boot Camp is intensive hands-on, collaborative experiential learning workshop focused on
educating students on the principles of innovation by providing them several real-world problems they are to solve. The
structure of the initial Innovation Boot Camp was a two-day experience, blending students and faculty from six different
programs/departments (i.e., Technology Engineering Education, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Design, and so
forth) in the college of engineering. The primary instructional techniques and curriculum was based on “design thinking.”
Using a hybrid model culled from several sources including IDSA National Conference presentations, site visits to the
Stanford d.school and IDEO, publications from the The Rotman School of Business, and other sources on creative
problem solving, we defined Design Thinking as being a method that is User Centered, has a tradition of Prototyping
(including visualization), and a Trust in the Process of: 1) Seeking inspiration for problem finding through the activities
of Look, Do, and Ask; 2) Broad divergent ideation; 3) Implementation in the form of prototyping; and 4) Public
Presentation using the activities of Show, Tell, and Act.

KEYWORDS
Technology, Engineering, Innovation, Collaboration.

1. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to further describe the purpose, curriculum development, organization and
logistics, activities developed and engaged in, and methods of instruction of the Innovation Boot Camp.
Additionally, the paper will outline the learning outcomes, and the relative impact the Boot Camp is having
on student understanding of and skills associated to innovation, and how the experience is impacting our
college initiative to create a culture of innovation.

2. THE STUDY
A dozen Innovation Boot camps will have been held by the start of the e-Society 2009 Conference. Currently
we have held four Innovation Boot camps and have gathered mostly qualitative data up to this point,
however, as additional data points are aggregated in result of the subsequent six boot camp experiences, a
quantitative component will prove necessary and informative. The purpose of this study is to first and

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foremost understand the impact the Innovation Boot camp is having on student innovation ability and
aptitude. Holistically we feel the adoption and commitment to explicitly teach and provide students with
innovation training is necessary, however, the plausibility of a college-wide buy in and adoption is difficult,
due to a deeply traditional academic approach to teaching engineering and technology. The effort required to
change this culture requires us to spend a significant amount of time, separate from our normal teaching and
research load, and additional funding on this experience. Consequently this research study not only
significant adds to the theoretical underpinnings of innovation and creativity pedagogy, but it provides
insight into the needs and benefits of such an endeavor. In light of our interest to understand the influence the
Innovation Boot camp experience is having on our students and college, we have been gathering data
throughout the entire Boot camp experience (i.e., during curriculum development, during instructional time,
and at the end of the Bootcamp.) The summative evaluation efforts have included an online survey, a focus
group interview session, and follow-up one-on-one interviews. Thus far our on-line follow-up survey has a
60% response rate, however, our focus group interview session has a 98% response rate, and the one-on-one
interviews have a 100% response rate.

2.1 Statement of Problem

Dating from the foundation of the United States, one of its significant characteristics has been its ability to
encourage and accept innovation. However, with the economic need and acceptance of outsourcing, and
competition in global product development, among other things, many American engineering and technology
companies and institutions are re-thinking and re-structuring the content and instruction of engineering and
technology curriculum (McAloone, 2007). In an effort to address this issue, our college has established
several school wide technology and engineering initiatives, which focus on issues of leadership, global
awareness, and innovation. A committee was established within the college to investigate ideas of how to
promote innovation. The committee, or Innovation Design Team as they were called, travelled to several
internationally recognized institutions known for their exemplary models of innovation (i.e., Stanford D-
school, IDEO, and so forth), and performed a significant literature review of innovation and its various
related topics. One of the resulting ideas the Innovation Design Team developed and hoped would make a
positive impact on student innovation ability and aptitude was to institute an Innovation Boot camp. In short,
the Boot camp was an intensive workshop focused on innovation where students were immersed in an
experiential collaborative learning environment, where they worked in teams with students from the various
programs housed within the college (i.e., Industrial Design, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing,
Technology Engineering Education, IT, and Construction and Facilities Management), to identify and solve
problems using processes of innovation.

2.2 Background
Kleppe (2001) noted dating from the late 1700’s to modern day, “a major source of technological
advancement has been the result of individual inventors [and] innovations” (p. 16); surprisingly, most
technology and engineering programs around the U.S. do not explicitly teach innovation (Smoot, 2006).
With the increasingly complex and competitive global market, and with new interest and concern over
environmental issues, biotechnologies, many companies (American and foreign) are reforming how and in
what they do business. Additionally many academic institutions are calling for a “radical restructuring of the
theoretical knowledge taught in academic education programs… in order to create competencies of
professional value in today’s business situations (McAloone, 2007, p. 770). In order to address the many
challenges involved in the new global industrial arena, many engineering educators believe the theoretical
restructuring that needs to take place must involve and center on innovation. Kleppe (2001) argues if we want
to better prepare technology and engineering students to be globally competitive, we must expand and center
our current curriculum on innovation. Despite the need to include innovation as a key component of
technology and engineering curriculum, and although some universities have made restructuring efforts to
include aspects of innovation, a study done by the Southern Technology Council found that there are very
few universities supportive of innovation. The lack of support and inclusion of innovation in technology and
engineering programs seems to stem from archaic mathematic and science curriculum standards, and
immature technology and engineering curriculum standards. Although engineering programs have existed

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and been taught for well over sixty years at the university level, most of the courses and degrees have focused
on traditional engineering concepts (i.e., hard math and sciences) and have not bridged into the areas of
creativity and innovation. It has only been in the last five years that universities have started to recognize
creativity as a key component of engineering (Courter, 2006). In light of the need to ensure our students are
ready for the challenges in our global economy, we as technology and engineering educators, need to ensure
we are continuing to evolve our practices and curriculum – which at present time, demands the need to
include innovation as a key component of technology and engineering curriculum.

2.3 Methodology and Findings

There are 3 phases to this research project: (a) developing and implementing the Innovation Bootcamp, (b)
evaluating the Innovation Bootcamp experience, and (c) assessing and restructuring the Innovation Bootcamp
according to evaluation data. We discuss each in turn.
2.3.1 Innovation Bootcamp Development
The Innovation Design Team used the data they collected from their observations and visits of the various
well-known innovation institutions, and the literature they read (i.e., Handbook of Creativity, Six Thinking
Hats, Lateral Thinking, Creative Toolbox, various journal articles, and so forth) to formulate several ideas of
how to create a culture of innovation in our college of engineering and technology. Various ideas were
hypothesized, however, ultimately it was decided an intensive experiential workshop highlighting the key
principles of innovation would be first tried; this focused workshop was titled the Innovation Bootcamp. We
are on our 4th iteration of the Bootcamp experience, and will have held over a dozen by the time of the e-
Society conference, the Bootcamp structure is currently organized in the following way: It is a two-day
experience, where students from the various programs within the college collaborate to problem find, and
solve. Typically there were two to three students and one faculty member from each of the six programs,
averaging 18 - 24 participants in all. The students were split into 4 - 6 multidisciplinary groups of 4 – 6
students each, while the faculty members were put in their own group. We wanted to give the students a
chance to work independent of the faculty, and not be influenced by any figures of authority. We also
wanted to have a sense of competition between groups. During day one we introduced the students to the
need and idea of innovation, and led the students to establish a working definition of it. Then we provided the
students with the five key principles of innovation and had them do an experiential activity highlighting the
principle, which served as a tactical opportunity to semantically encode the principle. Each activity built
upon the previous, which helped the students transfer and scaffold their learning from principle to principle.
By the end of the day the students had developed an innovative product and or system in result of working
collaborative through each innovation principle activity. To conclude the first day each group of students
presented the problem they identified and the innovative product and or service they developed in result of
going through each of the principles of innovation. At the conclusion of their presentations they were
introduced to the capstone activity that would require them to go through the steps of innovation (principles)
one additional time. The students were expected to work Friday evening and early Saturday morning to ready
themselves for the capstone presentation and evaluation. The purpose of the capstone experience was to
evaluate if the students understood the principles well enough that they could go through each principle as
steps towards identifying a problem and then developing an innovative solution. Consequently day-two of the
Innovation Bootcamp was made up of each group showing how they came up with the problem and solution
of their capstone project using the five key principles of innovation. A panel of judges from local design and
engineering companies were brought in to evaluate the student’s projects. Awards were provided to the top
three teams. Before the Bootcamp was completed, there was a final summary discussion session where
students were asked to share their reflections of the Bootcamp, and to identify if, how, what they learned and
developed. Exit surveys were emailed to each student at the conclusion of the Bootcamp in anticipation that
the students would complete the survey within the first few days following the experience. Additional,
several students were randomly selected to participate in a focus-group exit interview.
2.3.2 Bootcamp Evaluation
As stated above formative and summative methods were used to evaluate the relative impact the Bootcamp
experience had on the students and faculty. A video documentary was filmed of the event, and later used to

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critique and analyze the attentiveness and participation of each student. The instructors of the Bootcamp were
also invited to watch the video to evaluate their instructional methods and the associated activities and
content. Two outside observers from the college were also in attendance and were asked to take notes on
what was done, how they perceived the instruction was being received, how the activities were helping the
students understand the principles and concept of innovation, and how the students enjoyed or did not enjoy
the experience and so forth. The students were also asked to provide summative feedback at the end of the
Bootcamp experience in both a survey and exit interview. Because of the limited nature of this proposal (e-
Society limits short paper submissions to 4 pages) only a few of the key themes from the evaluations will be
shared in this document. Overall survey results and interviews (n = 54) stated that 100% of the students
reported they believed the Innovation Bootcamp should be continued. 71% of the students (n = 54) said they
believed their time spent at the Bootcamp was Effective on a likert scale ranging from Ineffective, to Not Very
Effective, to Moderately Effective, to Effective, and then to Very Effective. When the students were asked to
rate on a 1 – 5 scale of how the Innovation Bootcamp influenced their understanding of innovation, the mean
was 4.0, the variance was a 1, and the standard deviation was a 1. When the students were similarly asked to
rate how they believe their propensity (interest and aptitude) for innovation was influence, 43% of the
students (n = 54) said it made a significant amount. Then when the students were asked to rate how they
believed their skills related to innovation were influence by the Bootcamp experience 86% reported they
believe their skills were either significantly or more than a little influenced by the experience. Also, 85% of
the students said they thought their time at the Innovation Bootcamp was spent either effective or very
effectively. The outside observers reported similar findings, and although they proposed various suggestions,
the majority of their findings centered on curriculum design issues and content. Their feedback however, was
essential in the further development of the Bootcamp.
2.3.3 Bootcamp Restructure
We recognize we are still in the beta stages of our development of the Innovation Bootcamp (we have only
had 4 to date, however, we plan on having an additional 8 by the time of e-society 2009), however, we
believe the findings from the surveys, interviews, and qualitative observations thus far have provided
wondering insight in how we might re-structure and continue to develop the Bootcamp experience. While we
believe we need to proceed, we anticipate doing so cautiously, because we want to ensure the benefits of the
experience continue to outweigh the costs (i.e., time, financial) we are incurring. The primary areas of
restructuring we have thus far experience center on the principles we are teaching. We have found there are
two primary sets of innovation principles common in innovation related literature, and although the
principles innately suggest similar concepts, we feel it is important to solidify the language (i.e., vocabulary)
being used. For example, in the first few bootcamps we used the idea of “Design Thinking” and its associated
principles of “Think, Look, and DO” (Welsh, 1993; Osborn, 1965; Sternberg, 1999; Kelly, 2005), while in
the later bootcamps we used the principles of: observing, questioning, idea networking, associated thinking,
and experimenting (Dyer et al., 2001). We believe there is a need to continue to evaluate the Bootcamp
experience, and anticipate continued restructuring of it, however, we also feel the results thus far have
provide great insight to how the seeds of a culture of innovation might be initially planted.

3. CONCLUSION
Although our data-set is somewhat limited as yet (due to the Innovation Bootcamp’s newness) we believe we
are commencing on an important journey towards better preparing our students for the globally competitive
technology and engineering market, where innovation is an essential and defining skill. We anticipate the
Bootcamp experience will continue to evolve, and we hope the experience will help us develop a culture of
innovation, where our students will benefit from working on multidisciplinary teams to solve important
problems, while learning and becoming increasingly innovative, and therefore prepared for the rapidly
evolving and competitive world.

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REFERENCES
Courter, Sandra (2006). Transforming college teaching courses into authentic experiences: Learning through diversity.
ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings, 32.
Hansen, John (2007). Creativity and innovation: Core capabilities for 6-12 engineering teachers. ASEE Annual
Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings, 16.
Kleppe, J.A. (2001). Teaching invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship to Northern Nevada high school science and
math teachers. Frontiers in Education Conference, 16 – 19.
McAloone, T. C. (2007). A competence-based approach to sustainable innovation teaching: Experiences within a new
engineering program. Journal of Mechanical Design, 769 – 778.
Smoot, Daniel C. (2006). Product and process of innovation. Journal of Advanced Materials, 64 – 79.

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USING VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIROMENTS AND ON-

LINE METHODS FOR TRAINING HOSPITAL PERSONNEL

Félix Buendía García

Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain)

Juan Vicente Izquierdo

Hospital La Ribera, Alzira (Spain)

ABSTRACT
Nowadays, Virtual Learning Environments are typical tools in education and training areas and they are the basis for on-
line courses and e-learning projects in general. In hospitals and other healthcare institutions there is an increasing shift to
use this kind of environments and on-line methods to give support to their training processes. The current work describes
the application of these environments and methods in the context of the hospital “La Ribera” (Alzira, Spain). Most of the
current e-learning projects in hospitals are involved in the training of their personnel. These projects are usually focused
on on-line courses to allow hospital employees to access these courses anywhere at any time. This work addresses the
personnel training in a blended-learning modality that combines the flexibility of scheduling on-line sessions with the
learning in real hospital scenarios. A method is proposed to guide the usage of e-learning platforms in a hospital training
context and a case study is described in order to evaluate this usage.

KEYWORDS
Virtual Learning Environments, on-line methods, hospital context, blended-learning, instructional design, personnel
training.

1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) are typical tools in education and training areas. These
tools are also called LMS (Learning Management Systems) and they are the basis for on-line courses and e-
learning projects in general. In hospitals and other healthcare institutions there is an increasing shift to use
VLE products and on-line methods to give support to their training processes. This work describes the
application of these products and methods in the context of the hospital “La Ribera” (Alzira, Spain) to train
their employees.
There are several kinds of e-learning applications and projects that deal with hospital contexts. The E-
hospital project (CESGA, 2008) is addressed “to promote e-learning activities for adult patients in hospitals”
and the National Healthcare Group (NHG, 2008) proposes the use of e-learning platforms to provide patient
education (“well-informed patients are our best healthcare partner”). Jones et al (2006) report a project to
involve academic staff, students, and patients in a common synchronous e-learning environment. Moreover,
most of the current e-learning projects in hospitals are involved in the instruction of doctors and nurses
(NHG, 2008) and the training of the staff (OHS, 2008). These projects are usually focused on on-line
(distance) courses (PHT, 2008) to allow hospital employees to access these courses anywhere at any time.
The current work addresses the personnel training in a blended-learning modality that combines the
flexibility of scheduling on-line sessions with the learning in real hospital scenarios including the possibility
of face-to-face communication. A method is described to address the usage of e-learning platforms in a
blended learning hospital context. The proposed method is based on the instructional design framework
called ADDIE (which stands for Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) that has
been successfully applied to multiple e-learning projects (Lynch and Roecker, 2007). In the current work a
generic platform like Moodle(2008) has been selected to implement the e-learning project in the Hospital “La
Ribera”. This is a very popular example of open-source VLE with a big community involved in its

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development and there are several hospitals which have used Moodle as its elearning-platform (EHS, 2008),
(PHT, 2008), (HUSC, 2008). One of the main advantages of Moodle is the availability of multiple
assessment mechanisms and log information that enable the evaluation of the training process described in
the current work.
The remainder of the work is structured as follows. Section 2 describes the Analysis addressed to obtain
the training requirements in the current e-learning project. Section 3 illustrates the Design and Development
of training courses based on a blended learning model and section 4 reports the performed Implementation
and Evaluation experiences. Finally, Section 5 gives some concluding remarks.

2. NEEDS ANALYSIS
The main motivation for the current e-learning project is the need for the hospital of a continuous instruction
and vocational training for its personnel, medical, paramedical, and staff as well. On the one hand, there are
several aspects to be considered in the context of the hospital instruction such as the wide range of users (i.e.
nurses, assistants, pharmaceuticals, or doctors), the instruction modalities (i.e. internal or external) and the
different types of required knowledge and skills. On the other hand, the staff training addresses multiple
issues such as little time and tight schedules to master the increasing number of applications in a hospital
context or the required accreditation processes.
The analysis of these requirements has been performed in the context of the hospital “La Ribera” which
promotes e-learning as part of new projects that incorporate information and communication technologies.
Moreover, a blended learning model oriented to train small groups of employees and supported by different
media and instructional strategies is being considered. All these aspects will configure the design and
development issues of the proposed e-learning project which will be described next.

3. DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

These two phases address the preparation of the e-learning project (i.e. one or more courses in the hospital
context) before it can be implemented and evaluated. The design phase deals with learning goals, subject
matter analysis, lesson planning, exercises and tasks, content items, media selection, and assessment
instruments. The development phase is where instructional designers and developers create and assemble the
content assets and activities that were prepared in the design phase.

3.1 The Course Design

The current work describes a method to design courses that are taught in a blended learning hospital context.
First, there are on-line course aspects that can be based on a VLE product (i.e. to provide access to content
items or communication activities). Secondly, these on-line issues can be complemented with face-to-face
scenarios in which activities such as discussion focus groups or seminars are designed.
A common step is the definition of learning goals which can be classified in several categories such as
cognitive, psychomotor, and affective learning. Table 1 shows some examples of these learning goals in a
course about oral presentations for hospital personnel.
Table 1. Learning goals in hospital courses.
Cognitive Psychomotor Affective
To obtain knowledge about To enable presentation abilities. To promote collaborative work.
presentation concepts. To practice with presentation To enable critical thinking.
To know the institutional procedures and tools.
presentation styles.
The subject matter analysis allows the instructional designer to select the activities and resources that are
required in the training process. This step is also guided by the learning goals defined previously. The
example of course related to “Oral presentation” is mainly addressed to doctors and other employees who

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have to disseminate research works in medical conferences. The next step will determine what resources and
strategies will be used in the course. As aforementioned, the main strategy is based on a blended learning
modality that combines on-line (OL) tasks and face-to-face (F2F) activities. Table 2 shows the time assigned
to the activities programmed along the course example and also the content items attached to these activities.
Table 2. Course activities.
Activity Time Type Related content
Initial classroom lecture 2h F2F Teaching guide
Individual discussion about a specific case study 5h OL Case report
Presentation example
Discussion and elaboration of work group 5h F2F Discussion guide
/OL
Work presentation 2h F2F Assignment
description
Finally, the assessment of the learner's understanding can be performed in several ways and it can be
based on two main evaluation models. On the one hand, formative evaluation involves gathering information
during the early stages of the training process to check if the proposed learning goals are being covered. On
the other hand, summative evaluation is the process of collecting data following the course ending in order to
determine if the objectives of the training process have been met. In the current course example, a final task
based on a face-to-face presentation peer-to-peer reviewed has been used as the procedure for the summative
evaluation.

3.2 Developing the Course

The development phase in the ADDIE model of instructional design addresses the tools and processes used to
create instructional material. During the development phase, all audio, video, and text materials are collected,
prepared, or created in order to deliver them through the selected VLE platform. The course materials are
summarized by means of a document titled Teaching Guide that provides their description and the main
guidelines to use them. Figure 1 shows the front page of a PDF document about the Teaching Guide related
to an “Oral Presentation” course.

Figure 1. Example of teaching guide of the course.

Particular importance is focused on the material that gives support to the course activities. For example,
the discussion guides that organize the steps in order to elaborate a presentation either in an individual way or
by means of a focus group. These guides are complemented with video examples and other multimedia
resources.
The final assessment is also supported by a PDF document that describes the assignment to be delivered
at the end of the course. In the current course example, a presentation essay is assessed by means of a
questionnaire that is answered by the other students (peer-to-peer review).

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4. IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION

After the course design and the development of the instructional materials, the final course can be
implemented by using a VLE product as the platform to deliver the materials and perform the scheduled
activities. Finally, the course is evaluated to determine the quality and effectiveness of the instructional
design as well as the final product.

4.1 The VLE-based Implementation

The VLE selected in the current implementation is Moodle (2008) that is one of the more popular e-learning
platforms. It is an open-source environment and another advantage is its ability to be adapted to specific
display requirements. In the current case, a Moodle system maintained by the Politechnical Universitiy of
Valencia gives support to the e-learning project implemented in the Hospital “La Ribera”. Figure 2 shows a
screenshot that displays a typical configuration of the Moodle system under the instructor role. In this
example, a weekly scheduling is selected to organize the student activities. The scheduling header includes
the links to the course materials, the teaching guide and other complementary resources.

Figure 2. Example of course screenshot based on a Moodle implementation.

4.2 The Evaluation of a Case Study

The current case study describes a pilot course using a blended learning model in the Hospital “La Ribera”
that involved about ten students. The evaluation results come from two main sources: the user’s point of view
and the information extracted from the VLE platform. On the one hand, questionnaires and interviews have
been provided to the course students. These questionnaires evaluate several pedagogical, organizational and
technical aspects. Figure 3 shows some of the questions that evaluate the course contents from a pedagogical
point of view. In general, the questionnaire results reveal a high degree of satisfaction of the students. On the
other hand, the “system logs” obtained from the Moodle platform provide a quantitative view of the course
effectiveness.

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Figure 3. Example of evaluation questionnaire.

5. CONCLUSIONS
The current work has described the application of Virtual Learning Environments and on-line training
methods in the context of the hospital “La Ribera”. This hospital promotes the use e-learning as part of new
projects that incorporate information and communication technologies. Several similar e-learning projects
have been developed in other hospitals although they are mostly focused on distance courses. The current
work has proposed the application of a blended-learning modality that combines the flexibility of scheduling
on-line sessions with the learning in real hospital scenarios. This application is based on a systematic
instructional method that guides the different steps in the usage of Virtual Learning Environments from the
initial analysis of needs to their implementation and evaluation. A case study has been developed about an
“Oral presentation” course addressed to medical personnel and its Moodle-based implementation has been
tested using questionnaire and the analysis of logs data. The obtained results have given rise to new
applications of these environments and on-line training methods for further works.

REFERENCES
CESGA, 2008. E-Hospital: Formación contínua a pacientes adultos hospitalizados de larga duración. Centro de
Supercomputación de Galicia (online: http://www.ehospital-project.net/).
EHS, 2008. Elearning Health Scotland (online: http://elearning.healthscotland.com/).
HUSC, 2008. Hospital Universitario San Cecilio Granada (online: http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/
servicioandaluzdesalud/hsc/moodle/).
Jones R. , Skirton H., Mcmullan M., 2006. Feasibility of combining e-health for patients with e-learning for students
using synchronous technologies. Journal of Advanced Nursing 56(1), 99–109.
Lynch, M.M., Roecker, J. Project managing e-learning: a handbook for successful design, delivery and management. Ed.
New York: Routledge, 2007.
Moodle, 2008. Moodle: A free, open source course management system for online learning (online: http://moodle.org).
NHG, 2008. Coming of age in healthcare training. National Healthcare Group, Singapore (online:
http://www.nhg.com.sg/nhg_03_eLearning.asp).
OHS, 2008. OHS Canada E-Learning (online: http://www.ohscanada.com/elearning/).
PHT, 2008. Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust (online: http://www.i-am-in-the-moodle.co.uk/).

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COMPLEMENTARY COGNITION: IMPROVING STEM

STUDENT MATHEMATICAL SELF-EFFICIACY AND
UNDERSTANDING BY TEACHING PROGRAMMING

Dr. Geoffrey A. Wright

Brigham Young University
College of Engineering
230 Snell BYU, Provo, Ut. .84602

ABSTRACT
Mathematics has long been a core ability in engineering, as noted by the American Society for Engineering Education’s
mathematics division. The Cold-War era “space race” pushed engineering awareness, mathematical, and scientific ability
to the fore of our educational system. And yet, the United States exited the 20th century in a quandary over the status of
its educational progress. An international Trends in Mathematics and Science Study in 1995 revealed that the U.S. fell
behind its industrialized counterparts in advancing mathematical and scientific skills as students progressed in their
educational careers. This study seeks not only to increase student self-efficacy and interest in technology engineering
classes, but to demonstrate how technology engineering courses can greatly impact student mathematical abilities and
self-efficacy. The purpose of this research is to examine the effect learning computer programming has on junior and
high school students’ mathematical ability and self-efficacy. We believe a student’s ability, motivation, and confidence to
learn mathematics is enhanced by learning to program, which consequently influences their willingness and capability to
engage in engineering curricula.

KEYWORDS
Technology Programming Mathematics Self-Efficacy

1. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this research is to examine the effect learning computer programming in technology
engineering courses has on junior and high school students’ mathematical ability and self-efficacy. We
believe a student’s ability, motivation, and confidence to learn mathematics is enhanced by learning to
program, which consequently influences their willingness and capability to engage in engineering curricula.
Current Technology Engineering curriculum standards (http://www.iteaconnect.org/TAA/PDFs/xstnd.pdf),
and technology and engineering positions require candidates to be skilled in various programming languages,
yet, few high school Technology Engineering classes explicitly teach programming. The paucity of cases
where programming is used in high school technology engineering classes is astounding, despite research
that clearly supports the relationship of teaching programming to high school students and their interest level
in areas related to STEM (e.g., computer science and engineering). We believe the results from this research
will have a direct impact on junior and high school students’ conceptual understanding of various
mathematical functions and processes, increase their processing skills by exposing them to various dynamic
programming activities that will push their problem solving abilities, require them to solve out-of-content
problems, and be more creative. Exposing junior and high school students to programming at an earlier age
in the type of programming environment described in this proposal will potentially help students by: (a)
developing a better understanding of engineering contexts, concepts, and applications, (b) exposing students
to an integral component of engineering that is not commonly included in engineering classes, and (c)
introducing students to material they can immediately manipulate, design, build and test in a hands-on
learning environment that provides quick feedback (e.g., game and robot programming).

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2. THE STUDY
Two junior high (grades 7 – 9) Technology Engineering classes in a specific school district (name withheld
for E-Society submission purposes) will be taught to program as part of their normal engineering design
curriculum, in an effort to study the influence teaching functions, methods, events, properties, algorithms,
and other core principles programming shares with mathematics has on students’ mathematical problem
solving ability, self-efficacy, motivation and success in engineering and technology classes.

2.1 Statement of Problem

Mathematics has long been a core ability in engineering, as noted by the American Society for Engineering
Education’s mathematics division. The Cold-War era “space race” pushed engineering awareness,
mathematical, and scientific ability to the fore of our educational system. And yet, the United States exited
the 20th century in a quandary over the status of its educational progress. An international Trends in
Mathematics and Science Study in 1995 revealed that the U.S. fell behind its industrialized counterparts in
advancing mathematical and scientific skills as students progressed in their educational careers. This helped
spurn legislators to implement the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). One outcome of NCLB has been the
winnowing of curriculum, especially in the early grades, to allow more time-on-task for mathematics and
language arts (Paris, 2000). Administrators’ justification for reducing curriculum is that time-on-task
increases assessment scores. But is time-on-task a sufficient and sustainable strategy for improving student
learning? Recent testing suggests it is not. We believe there is a need to increase student interest and
participation in technology engineering related areas. However, many districts are currently focusing their
attention on more traditional classes (i.e., English, mathematics, history) and reducing traditional engineering
related classes (i.e., technology and engineering fundamentals, applied physics, technology 1 and 2, etc.).
This study seeks not only to increase student self-efficacy and interest in technology engineering classes, but
to demonstrate how technology engineering courses can greatly impact student mathematical abilities and
self-efficacy.

2.2 Background
In 2003, the U.S. participated in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which tested 15-
year-olds’ science and math skills, placing near the top internationally in both categories. Three years later,
on this same test, U.S. students averaged the same scores, but were outperformed by 16 other industrialized
nations in science, and by 23 nations in mathematics (only 30 nations participated). The issue is not that U.S.
students’ skill are worsening, but that other countries have made strides while the U.S. has merely maintained
the status quo. Narrowing our curriculum to focus on "the basics" is not advancing the U.S.’s educational
system and is inadequately preparing students to compete in a 21st century world.
Complementary Learning
We question the wisdom in reducing the overall curriculum in order to improve performance in "core"
areas. While increased time-on-task may increases test scores, in practice many high school students that
underperform in Language Arts and Mathematics must spend extra time engaged in these subjects, whereas
those that perform well may choose the time for other activities. The result in many schools has been the
elimination of afternoon recess (Friel, 2003), the reduction or elimination of social studies, science, foreign
languages, art or music (Rosenthal, 2004; Stewart, 2005). Rather than reduce our curricula, scientific
evidence indicates that systematically pairing specific subjects may improve both learning and motivation.
For example, research one of the strongest positive predictors of successful performance in computer science
programs is prior math experience and achievement (Bergin & Riley, 2006).
Predictors of Success in Computer Science Courses
A myriad of research investigates predictive success factors in Computer Science courses. Multilinear
regression models generated in this research overwhelmingly include prior math experience and
achievement. This may involve high school math achievement scores, math scores on nationally recognized
tests (e.g., the SAT), and enrollment in prior math courses. In one study Leeper & Silver (1982) used data
from first-time computer science students' SAT scores (verbal and math), high school class ranking, and high
school grades in Math, Eng, Language Arts, and Science and compared these to their course scores. A

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multivariate regression analysis revealed that the model accounted for only 26% of the total variance in
student achievement in the course, but 14.3% of that variance was due to mathematics. Subsequent studies
sought to create more efficient predictive models. Even though the factors included in each model differed,
mathematics performance, experience, or both was consistently present in each model, often accounting for
the greatest or second-greatest positive variance (Hostetler, 1983; Honour-Werth, 1986; Austin, 1987).
Advanced statistical models now more effectively predict student performance in higher education
programming courses. For example, Bergin and Reilly (2006) conducted a multi-institutional study of
beginning programming students to identify predictors of different levels of success. Using logistical
regression methods, they generated a model that included 3 variables (high school mathematics score,
programming self-esteem, and # of hours playing video games). The model possessed 79% predictive ability
and, in almost every case, mathematics was the strongest positive predictor. The case in which mathematics
was less significant was due to missing mathematics data, and the model accounted for a reduced 71%
predictive accuracy, nearly 20% less than at other institutions. This contrast emphasizes the explanatory
power math experience has on success in computer science courses. In another study, Wilson and Schrock
(2001) used hierarchical linear modeling to examine the predictive power of 12 variables for 105 students
enrolled in an introductory programming course. A background questionnaire and computer programming
self-efficacy scale were administered at the beginning of the course and at mid-term. The proportion of
variance on the midterm from the model was .44 (p < .0001). Math background proved significant even
when placed last in the model (p < .0002), indicating it as the most important factor. Finally, Bryne & Lyons
(2001) conducted a study with 110 introductory computer science students and found similar results, that
students' "Leaving Certificate" math scores (a high school exit exam taken in Ireland) accounted for
approximately 35% of the variance in their success in the course (p < .01). In sum, recent results confirm
findings from earlier research, establishing an even greater relationship between mathematics experience or
ability and programming success.
Other studies have examined factors that lead to success and likelihood to remain in a Computer Science
program throughout their undergraduate studies. Campbell & McCabe (1984) used Multivariate regression
analysis, Chi-square tests, and Discriminate analysis to construct and compare attributes between students.
The difference between those who stayed and those that left, "were related to the students' SAT math and
verbal scores, their high-school rank, and their background in high-school mathematics and science" (p.
1113). While each study includes a series of varied factors in addition to mathematics, Bryne & Lyons
(2001) suggest that math is usually included in these statistical models because, "There is a belief that the
concepts which a student has to comprehend in order to master mathematics problems are similar to those for
programming. Mathematics aptitude is thus often a pre-requisite for acceptance into computer science" (p.
51). The corollary also appears to be true, that learning to program enhances one’s mathematical ability. The
National Mathematics Advisory Panel recently issued the following statement in “Foundations for Success:
Final Report” (2008):
Recommendation: The Panel recommends that computer programming be considered as
an effective tool, especially for elementary school students, for developing specific
mathematics concepts and applications, and mathematical problem-solving abilities.
Effects are larger if the computer programming language is designed for learning (e.g.,
Logo) and if students’ programming is carefully guided by teachers so as to explicitly
teach students to achieve specific math goals. (NCTM, 2008, p. 52)
The purpose of this study is therefore to examine the synergistic relationship between mathematics and
computer programming, when taught to high school students.
Subject Description
Participants will consist of junior and high school grade students at a school in the specified school
district. Students will be grouped in control and experimental groups. Experimental group participants are
those that choose to enroll in the Communication Technologies class as one of their electives. Flash was
originally selected as the tool to teach this concept. The students are aware the focus of this class is on
learning about programming, interactive media design, and other Internet-related concepts. Control group
students will be chosen from a random sample of academically equivalent students.

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2.3 Procedures and Methodology

There are 3 phases to this research project: (a) establishing a baseline, (b) administering the intervention, and
(c) measuring possible effects. To establish a baseline, we will first identify prior math scores of students that
voluntarily enroll in the Technology Engineering class. Scores will be retrieved from the district-level
COGNOS data system. This system tracks student progress on standardized tests (e.g., the Criterion
Referenced Test). We will then identify academically equivalent students that have not enrolled or previously
enrolled in the Technology Engineering course. Academic equivalence will be determined using prior
standardized math scores as reported by COGNOS. Once participants have been identified, we will request
parental permission to participate in the study. With this consent form, we will request demographic
information such as household income range, student age, race, ethnicity, access to computers, and prior
programming experience. The final method we will use to establish a baseline will be by using a 30-minute
engineering and mathematical problem-solving inventory. This inventory will be constructed using items
from the balanced assessment in mathematics project (http://balancedassessment.concord.org/). The purpose
of this assessment is to gauge students' ability to solve problems both within and slightly beyond students'
current mathematical abilities.
2.3.1 Administering the Intervention
Experimental group students will be taught by the in-service teacher of record. On average, there are 40
classes over a 16 week period. Researchers will act as co-instructors for roughly 60% of these courses,
assisting in the teaching of concepts thought to be shared between engineering, mathematics and
programming, such as variables, functions, parameters and arrays. While the course will focus on learning
common programming aspects, it will be modified for this experiment to focus more readily on core
programming principles, such as methods, behaviors, classes, prototypes, etc. In order to accomplish these
ends, participants will approach learning tasks from a game-creation perspective, wherein they develop
increasingly complex games to implement said programming concepts. This problem-oriented approach
mimics design-centered issues faced by engineering professionals in most capacities.
2.3.2 Measuring Possible Effects
Following the conclusion of the course, control and experimental students will take an alternate form of the
engineering mathematical problem solving inventory taken prior to the course. Participants will not be
constrained to complete the inventory in a designated time (although we anticipate it taking 30 minutes), but
will be timed to compare the amount of time students from each group spend on individual problems. These
sessions will be videotaped.
In addition to the engineering mathematics inventory, researchers will interview experimental group
participants to gauge to what extent participation in the course may have affected their: (a) interest in
engineering math, (b) engineering mathematics self-efficacy, (c) interest in computer programming, (d)
anticipated future engineering programming activity, and (e) unexpected outcomes of participating in the
course. In these interviews, researchers will encourage participants to discuss specific projects they designed
and the process they went through to complete these designs. Researchers will audio-record each interview.
2.3.3 Analysis
Data analysis will consist of mixed methods, though the drive of the study will be quantitative. Simple
descriptive statistics will be used to calculate the amount of time participants spend completing pre and post
problem-solving inventories. Researchers will score inventory items using scoring guides provided by the
balanced assessment project. Univariate and Multivariate regression models will then be explored to examine
the extent to which participation in the computer programming course affected overall mathematical
problem-solving ability. Statistics will be examined for each item as well as for the complete inventory.
Qualitative data analysis will be conducted using a thematic, constant-comparative approach (Glaser &
Strauss, 1967). Interviews will be transcribed and uploaded into NVIVO to complete this analysis,
identifying themes and patterns across participants. In addition, some math problems chosen from the
balanced assessment pool require written responses and lend themselves to multiple interpretations.
Researchers will examine these statements qualitatively to reveal possible themes and patterns.

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3. CONCLUSION
Although the study does not have any official empirical data to report yet (the study is set to be implemented
during the Winter 2009 semester (we have already received IRB approval for the study) – consequently if
this paper is accepted for the e-Society conference we will have data to present by the February conference),
we believe the results from this research will have a direct impact on high school students’ conceptual
understanding of various mathematical functions and processes, increase their processing skills by exposing
them to various dynamic programming activities that will push their problem solving abilities, require them
to solve out-of-content problems, and be more creative. Exposing high school students to programming at an
earlier age in the type of programming environment described in this proposal will potentially help students
by: (a) developing a better understanding of engineering contexts, concepts, and applications, (b) exposing
students to an integral component of engineering that is not commonly included in engineering classes, and
(c) introducing students to material they can immediately manipulate, design, build and test in a hands-on
learning environment that provides quick feedback (e.g., game and robot programming). Additional, we
believe the results will: (a) contribute to the growing database of theoretical frameworks and research
associated with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum, instruction, and pedagogy, (b)
establish a contemporary baseline of research regarding teaching programming to technology engineering
high school students, and its influence on their mathematical problem-solving abilities, self-efficacy, and
motivation to participate and succeed in engineering specific curriculum, (c) inform STEM educators and
stakeholders about the application and potential benefits of complementing current curricula with the
implementation of programming content into science, technology, engineering, and math related courses, and
(d) establish a new line of research revolving around the need to further study the potential benefits of
including refined programming curriculum in current STEM related areas.

REFERENCES
Bergin, S., & Reilly, R. (2006). Predicting introductory programming performance: A multi-institutional multivariate
study. Computer Science Education, 16(4), 303-323.
Bialystock, E. (1988). Levels of bilingualism and levels of linguistic awareness. Developmental Psychology, 24, 560-
567.
Bruck, M., & Geneese, F. (1995). Phonological awaeness in young second language learners. Journal of Child Language,
22, 307-324.
Campbell, P. F., & McCabe, G. P. (1984). Predicting the success of freshmen in a computer science major.
Communications of the ACM, 27(11), 1108-1113.
Campbell, R., & Sais, E. (1995). Accelerated metalinguistic (phonological) awareness in bilingual children. British
Journal of Developmental Psychology, 13, 61-68.
Friel, B. (2003). Don't know much about history. National Journal, 35(31), 2550-2551.
Galambos, S. J., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (1990). The effects of learning two languages on levels of metalinguistic
awareness. Cognition, 34, 1-56.
Honour-Werth, L. (1986). Predicting student performance in a beginning computer science class. Proceedings of the
Seventeenth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, , 138-143.
Hostetler, T. R. (1983). Predicting student success in an introductory programming course. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin,
15(3), 40-43.
Leeper, R. R., & Silver, J. L. (1982). Predicting success in a first programming course. Proceedings of the Thirteenth
SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, , 147-150.
Paris, S. G., & McEvoy, A. P. .. (2000). Harmful and enduring effects of high-stakes testing. Issues in Education, 6(1/2),
145-160.
Ricciardelli, L. A. (1992). Bilingualism and cognitive development in relation to threshold theory. Journal of
Psycholinguistic Research, 21, 301-316.
Rosenthal, B. (2004). No subject left behind? Think again. NEA Today, 23(2), 26-27.
Stewart, J. H. (2005). Foreign language study in elementary schools: Benefits and implications for achievement in
reading and math. Early Childhood Education Journal, 33(1), 11-16.
Wilson, B. C., & Shrock, S. (2001). Contributing to success in an introductory computer science course: A study of
twelve factors. 33(1), 184 - 188.

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A FRAMEWORK FOR THE EVALUATION OF LANGUAGE

LEARNING PLATFORMS

Mariona Estrada
Interaction and Perception Lab.
Barcelona Media
Av. Diagonal, 117 Barcelona 08018

Raquel Navarro-Prieto
Interaction and Perception Lab. Coordinator
Barcelona Media
Av. Diagonal, 117 Barcelona 08018

Martí Quixal
Voice and Language - Barcelona Media
Av. Diagonal, 117 Barcelona 08018

ABSTRACT
The objective of this paper is to describe the process of creation of a general framework for the evaluation of ICT-
enhanced learning platforms. This framework intends to provide general dimensions composed by different evaluation
goals that could be useful across different learning platforms for evaluations with end users in real environments. With
this aim, we are going to illustrate the first steps of our evaluation process: selection and description of the dimensions of
the platform to be evaluated; identification of the evaluation items for each dimension; and selection of the data collection
methodologies.

KEYWORDS
Evaluation framework, language-learning platforms, end-user experience, usability, AutoLearn

1. INTRODUCTION
This paper describes the process of creation of a general framework for the evaluation of IT-enhanced
learning platforms. We instantiated the framework for the evaluation of a concrete learning platform, namely
a moodle-based language learning one, which has been set up within the framework of an EU-funded project
(AutoLearn, 2007-3625 / 001-001). In AutoLearn we aim at creating an exhaustive evaluation plan for the
relevant dimensions in the platform.
AutoLearn has been conceived to define, carry out and evaluate a new ICT-based paradigm in Foreign
Language Training targeting at different audiences. The project is composed by a set of partners with
complementary expertise; the consortium has expertise in HCI, (technology-enhanced) Foreign Language
Teaching and Second Language Acquisition, and Natural Language Processing (NLP).
It is expected that through the project the consortium can establish a set of procedures and methodologies
to better exploit the opportunities offered by ICT-enhanced learning systems from the perspective of all
agents involved in the training activity (learners and teachers). At a more general level, it is expected that the
results of the project facilitate the organization of courses of foreign languages by training institutions, and
consequently promote an increase in the number of such courses offered by them, which will result in an
increase of the number of people (at the different education sectors) with access to foreign language
education.
In this paper we explain the different phases of our evaluation framework that take into account the
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) aspects of the platform as well as the pedagogical and linguistic issues.

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In this sense, our work expands previous efforts of creating an evaluation framework for the evaluation of
learning platforms with end users in real environments, going beyond evaluations based on the inspection
methods.

2. BACKGROUND
In recent years, different authors have been developing a large corpus of knowledge relating to software
usability in general (Nielsen and Mack, 1994) and educational software in particular (Storey et al., 2000). In
spite of these efforts, there is not a consolidated evaluation methodology for technology-enhanced learning
tools (Ardito et al., 2004) and this gap exists also for evaluation methodologies for language learning
platforms.
Nevertheless, in the evaluation of usability of e-learning tools, some authors have suggested some criteria
to design an adequate evaluation: according to Norman (1993), an e-learning platform must be interactive
and provide feedback; have specific goals; motivate, communicating a continuous sensation of challenge;
provide suitable tools; avoid any factor of nuisance interrupting the learning stream. In addition, the usability
evaluation should concentrate on ease of use (Hayes, 2000) and should integrate the assessment of the
educational aspects (Lanzilotti et al., 2006). In this sense, Tselios et al. (2001) point out that a good quality
evaluation of the usability of an educational environment has to take into account its pedagogical values.
Those are very important issues “because learning is a process that depends on other features, like learner’s
motivation, previous experience and learning strategies that the individual has been supported to develop, etc.
effectiveness of any educational environment cannot be considered independently of these aspects” (Tselios
et al., 2001:2). As an educational software, AutoLearn has some distinct characteristics that might affect the
applicability of the usability criteria. In this sense, is very important to balance the HCI dimensions to the
learning goal and take into account that in some cases more “usable” software doesn’t mean a better learning
context (Tselios et al., 2007).
In the previous usability literature and studies, we can found several usability evaluation methods a)
expert based methods, such as heuristic evaluation; b) user testing methods, for instance controlled
experiments in labs; c) exploratory methods such as interviews, questionnaires and ethnographic methods;
and d) analytic evaluation methods, based in task analysis systems. The techniques most commonly used to
evaluate the usability in learning platforms derive from heuristic evaluation; less frequently, other techniques
are used, such as field studies, observation, questionnaires, interviews or system logs. But, when evaluating
enhanced learning platforms some authors have shown the need to include end user experience, not only the
experience of the usability expert. From this point of view, Hartson, Andre and Williges (2003) state that in
educational environments “[b]ecause usability is ultimately determined by the end user, not an expert
evaluator, realness of problems needs to be established by the user” (2003:159). Following this perspective,
Tselios et al. (2007), through an empirical study, shown that a combination of expert based methods and
exploratory methods increase the effectiveness of the evaluation of learning platforms such as AutoLearn.
For our evaluation framework we have integrated the different perspectives summarised above. We will
try to integrate the pedagogical and HCI criteria. In addition, our goal is to enlarge the methodologies
previously used to gather information from these criteria. Because of the specific goals of AutoLearn, we
included also the linguistic aspects of learning among the criteria to be integrated. A challenge to be added to
our objectives is to study not only the learner’s but also the teacher’s perspective, who will be using the
platform as a means to achieve certain teaching goals.

3. EVALUATION FRAMEWORK
To achieve our goals we plan an evaluation in four steps or phases: 1) Selection and description of the
dimensions of the platform that we will evaluate; 2) identification of the evaluation items for each dimension;
3) selection of the data collection methodologies; 4) Executing several evaluation actions with learners and
teachers in different schools and across different countries. In this paper, we are going to explain briefly the
first three steps mentioned above; the fourth has recently started.

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3.1 Dimensions and Evaluation Goals

The first step is the selection and description of the different dimensions of the evaluation. Following the
work of Ardito et al. (2004), our evaluation will focus on the platform presentation, the application activity
and the different multimedia issues to evaluate the HCI aspects. Besides, we include one new dimension to
assess user satisfaction and the linguistic and pedagogical aspects of the platform:
• “Supportiveness for teaching and evaluating” and “supportiveness for learning”: this dimension
comprises all issues in the platform that have to help the user to reach the purpose of the course. In this case,
we have to distinguish between the two types of users since the purposes are different in each case.
• “Supportiveness for personalization”: it refers to all the issues that the user will need to prepare and
organize during the course in an effective and efficient way.
• “Supportiveness for communication”: in this case, we will evaluate the items that the users will use
to communicate with other users.
For these HCI dimensions we consider also the general principles of effectiveness and efficiency that
characterize usability (to evaluate if the Virtual Learning Environment satisfies the users objectives and to
evaluate if it does it appropriately). However, during the design process, these two objectives have been
merged, and we have used other specific names for the HCI evaluation goals representing in detail the focus
of the evaluation. For instance both effectiveness and efficiency were important for the “Supportiveness for
teaching and evaluation” evaluation goal. Therefore, we have chosen the specific name of “Supportiveness
for teaching and evaluation” and consider both efficiency and effectiveness when evaluating this goal.
• “User satisfaction”: with this goal we want to assess the end user’s expectations and motivations as
well as their needs and suggestions to improve AutoLearn. The user’s satisfaction in connexion with all the
aspects of the platform will allow us to know the real needs and problems of the end users. This is important
to evaluate not only the “objective” ease of use of the platform but also user satisfaction. User experience is
essential to determinate the quality of the platform as well as the adequacy of its pedagogical aspects.
• “Pedagogical and linguistic aspects”: we evaluate if the users learning gain is adequate along the
learning experience with the platform, and if the language and the metalanguage used are suitable for the
training purposes.

3.2 Identification of the Evaluation Items

Based in User-Centred Design (UCD), the variety of user categories must be considered, because of their
different interaction with the program, their different goals and their different motivations and expectations.
In addition, since the platform will be used by several kinds of learners (university, vocational and secondary
school learners) we had to keep in mind the specific differences between them: different learning strategies,
different language levels and different motivations in undertaking the learning task.
In this second step, we identified the different items of the platform available to be evaluated (where to
look at). The following figure reflects some of the items selected.

Structure and visualization

Multimedia
tools

Exercises

Feedback

Figure 1. Evaluation items

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As we mentioned above, our evaluation is centered on the end-user’s experience. Since AutoLearn will be
occasionally used in the context of a classroom (or a teacher-driven course), the teacher’s experience with the
platform has to be included in the design of the evaluation framework.
In this step of the evaluation, we have to consider that the evaluation goal is to observe the items relevant
for all dimensions above: HCI dimensions (supportiveness for teaching and learning, supportiveness for
personalization, supportiveness for communication), user satisfaction and pedagogical and linguistic aspects.
For instance, the evaluation item “exercises” will be evaluated in terms of these dimensions, as we show in
the following figure:

Are they clearly

HCI dimensions indicated?
Are they easy to use?

EXERCISES Pedagogical and Are they adequate to the

linguistic aspects learning level and to the
learning process?

User satisfaction Do they meet the

expectations of the
users?

Figure 2. Evaluation questions for each item

3.3 Data Collection Methodologies

In order to achieve all these goals, we have selected different types of methodologies related with the nature
of the each evaluation objective. Consequently, we will combine both quantitative and qualitative methods:
• Quantitative methods: to evaluate the HCI aspects of the platform we will record and analyse the
navigation of the user (“logs”). Through this method, we will get information of the user’s activity
when they were using the platform and analyse the supportiveness for the user needs. The log files
provide information about what the user is doing and their navigation through the platform. But it
not provides information about their intentions, objectives or needs. In this sense, it’s important to
support this methodology with observations, questionnaires and/or interviews to the users.
• Qualitative methods: to evaluate user satisfaction and the pedagogical and linguistic aspects, we will
use questionnaires, interviews and observations of the learning/teaching actions. Specifically,
through the observations we expect to collect 1) the interactions of the users with the platform and
the interactions with the external interferences as other computer applications, other users, etc.; 2)
observe and collect the emotions of the users when they are interacting with the platform and
subsequently analyze the user satisfaction. Besides, through the questionnaires we will collect user
perception and attitude towards 1) the effectiveness, usefulness and general satisfaction with the
platform; 2) the ease of use of all the items of the platform; 3) the pedagogic and linguistic aspects.
Finally, the main objective of the interviews is obtaining more information about some remarkable
and/or unusual issues that could appear in the questionnaire results analysis and collect the end
user’s suggestions in order to improve the platform.
In the implementation of the evaluation plan we will also take into account a) that AutoLearn will be used
in different learning contexts (university, adult and secondary school by now), so the evaluation must be able
to cope with the different specificities; b) that there are different users as long as the evaluation objective is
including both teacher and learner experience; and c) that, given that AutoLearn is a European project, the
evaluation has to consider the cultural differences of the countries in which the platform will be used
(Germany, Spain, Turkey and United Kingdom).
Finally, we want to mention that the project has planned two evaluation phases. Therefore, after the first
phase (to take place in November 2008) we will validate the evaluation framework and make improvements

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according to the results. The second phase will allow us to comprehend if the improvements performed in the
evaluation framework really result in a better evaluation process.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge the support for this work that is funded by the EU under the Lifelong Learning
Program as the project “AUtomatic tuTOr for lifelong language LEARNing” (AUTOLEARN), 2007-3625 /
001-001.

REFERENCES
Ardito, C, Marsica, M.D.; Lanzilotti, R., Levialdi, S., Roselli, T., Rossano, V. and Tersigni, M. (2004) Usability of E-
learning tools. In AVI’04: Proceedings of the working conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, Gallipoli, Italy,
ACM Press, 80-84.
Hartson, H.R., Andre, T.S., Williges, R.C. (2003) Criteria for Evaluating Usability Evaluation Methods. International
Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 15(1), 145–181.
Hayes, R. (1999). Exploring discount Usability methods to assess the suitability of online courses delivery products. The
Internet and Higher Education, 2(3), 119-134.
Lanzilotti R., Costabile M., Ardito C. (2006). Systematic Evaluation of E-Learning Systems. The International Journal of
Information Science for Decision Making (Available online: http://isdm.univ-
tln.fr/PDF/isdm25/LanzillottiCostabileArdito_TICE2006.pdf)
Nielsen, J. and Mack, R.L. (1994). Usability inspection methods. Wiley: New York
Norman, D.A. (1993). Thinks that make us smart: defending human attributes in the age of machine. Reading Mass:
Addison-Wesley.
Tselios N., Avouris N., Dimitracopoulou A. and Daskalaki S. (2001) Evaluation of Distance-learning Environments:
Impact of Usability on Student Performance. International Journal of Educational Telecommunications, 7(4), 355-
378.
Tselios N., Avouris N., Komis, V. (2007) The effective combination of hybrid usability methods in evaluating
educational applications of ICT: Issues and challenges. Education and Information Technologies, 13 (1), 55-76.

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTIMEDIA

RESOURCE NETWORK IN SOUTHERN PATAGONIA FOR
THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

Jesús Salinas, Bárbara de Benito, Adolfina Pérez

Universitat de les Illes Balears

Eugenia Márquez, Mª Elena Bain, Samanta Ramos

Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral

ABSTRACT
This paper describes the implementation of a cooperative ICT project for inclusion into the Information and Knowledge
Society. This community activity project for digital inclusion is part of a distance learning project in progress at the
National University of Southern Patagonia, in collaboration with the University of the Balearic Islands, for using ICTs to
improve the quality of the university system and vocational training. Its main aim is to make different university premises
available to communities, in order to build a group of local nodes (resource centers) that offer information services,
counseling and education for young people and adults.

KEYWORDS
Digital inclusion, distance learning, resource centers, virtual community.

1. INTRODUCTION
This paper describes the progress made by an international cooperation project for designing, organizing and
launching education services. It also describes the development and inclusion of a group of communities in
Southern Patagonia - characterized among other traits, by their high degree of isolation - into the Information
and Knowledge Society.
Significant progress has been made in the use of technologies to access information and communication
networks in Patagonia, where lack of access in each town makes it unprofitable for telecommunication firms
to operate (low population, limited purchasing power and so on). ICTs have become a strategic resource for
social and educational development and public policies are responsible for ensuring an adequate
technological infrastructure and generating strategies that allow residents to acquire skills, thus promoting the
development of a culture that make citizens true stakeholders in and beneficiaries of the construction of
social knowledge.
The different institutions taking part in this project (the National University of Southern Patagonia
(UNPA), the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), the Office of Science and Technology, the Santa Cruz
Regional Government, Patagonian municipalities, the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation
(AECID) and the Balearic Government, among others) are aware of the importance of access to a quality
education as one way of developing contemporary society.
Thus, the project aims to use an ICT-based learning system to offer education services in a virtual
environment and includes: fitting out premises for higher education, counseling and training to reform
educational spaces, education, health, ICT and distance learning programs, etc., for local communities.
This initiative helps strengthen the university’s social function, which is set out in the National University
of Southern Patagonia’s 2005-2009 Institutional Development Program.

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2. THE SOUTHERN PATAGONIA DIGITAL NETWORK (REVINDIPA)

This cooperation project is entitled the Southern Patagonia Digital Network (REd de VINculación DIgital de
la Patagonia Austral - ReVinDiPA) and focuses on designing, organizing and launching education services
for isolated communities through integrated efforts by different institutions.

2.1 Background
The National University of Southern Patagonia (UNPA) and the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) are
working to establish an inter-institutional regional integration network in the region’s different communities,
in order to build a group of local nodes – resource centers - that will enable young people and adults to access
services related to information, promotion, counseling and education.
This initiative, promoted by the UNPA and the UIB, is being supported by the National Argentinean
Science and Technology Agency, the Santa Cruz Regional Government and towns in the region through the
PICTO 31150 and the AECID (D6518-06, PCI Latin America 2006) Projects, as well as the Balearic
Government (the UIB’s Office for Cooperation in Development and Solidarity).
As part of an agreement with towns in the Santa Cruz province, the UNPA already has 14 information
points at its disposal to distribute educational material; together they form the UNPABIMODAL (a system
supported by a virtual learning environment), which allows access to undergraduate and postgraduate
degrees. Work is still underway on project D6518-06 to integrate two projects - the Community
Technological Centers (CTC) and Municipal Portals, given the municipality’s limited ability to guarantee the
quality needed to narrow the technological gap and make training possibilities more socially equitable.
The initiative consists of developing an ICT-based learning environment that adequately encompasses
(with quality and sustainability) all these centers for different education, information and leisure purposes,
which helps build a powerful training tool, democratizes education and promotes the development of the
region’s inhabitants and equal opportunities. Southern Patagonia is characterized by vast expanses of land
and a low population density (Chubut 1.8 h/km2, Santa Cruz 0.8 and Tierra del Fuego 4.7). It lacks the
technological infrastructure that allows ideal access to towns in the province.
Thus, more than one institution or sector should be involved in designing possible solutions; a multi-
sector initiative (universities, civil society, businesses, national, provincial and local governments) has
formed a consortium called the Southern Patagonia Digital Link Network (ReVinDiPa) to integrate
Patagonian communities into the Information and Knowledge Society.

2.2 Objectives
The activities in the project revolve around designing, organizing and launching education services for
isolated communities and encompass efforts from different institutions in the awareness that access to a high-
quality education at all levels and higher vocational training is one way to develop these communities. The
project aims to:
Offer minority groups and those in isolated communities or marginal circumstances the chance for
socio-economic integration, communication and learning
• Help establish information centers specializing in themes such as regional development
• Develop skills for inter-connecting towns with a certain degree of isolation
• Help train the heads of the centers
Make access possible to higher education, specifically, to the UNPABIMODAL, through an effective
on-line distance learning system
• Expand access to university courses through flexible education systems and distance learning
• Generate methods and experiences in using e-learning
• Offer a variety of courses for recycling and furthering knowledge
Explore innovative new ways for community access to ICTs to optimize the convergence of technology,
training and local and regional development, according to each community’s cultural traits.

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2.3 The Project Plan and its First Iteration

Four interrelated actions are considered crucial in successfully meeting the proposed objectives for
developing the project:
• The development of a diagnostic study to analyze the status of all institutional projects, the degree
of progress and limitations, etc., in order to articulate stable, functional, community development and an
education services network in Santa Cruz (Bain et alt, 2007), Chubut and Tierra de Fuego.
• The elaboration of an operational model for the Virtual Resources Centre for training inter-
institutional network technicians and staff, as well as the target population.
• Experimentation with Virtual Resources Centre operations in developing some of the services
planned for digital inclusion and education (skills-building, awareness-raising, professional training, new
project development, etc.) and their contrast to the designed model.
• Monitoring and evaluation of the Virtual Resources Centre and the entire network through the
assessment and adaptation of objectives.
Attention should be paid to all steps in the process of creating, devising, revising, introducing and
disseminating any program or product related to introducing ICTs into training processes in all fields (formal
and informal education, vocational training and lifelong learning, etc.) Defining the iterated processes allows
the models to mature as they develop and offers great flexibility as regards changes and better risk
management, although it requires a stricter systematization of the management process, which allows for the
definition of standards to consolidate the model.
We worked on two dimensions in the first stage of developing the project. The first dimension was
closely associated with the planned diagnostic study and the systematization and analysis of the status of the
basic stages upon which the inter-institutional network (the initial model) would be established. The
characteristics of projects from the University (UNPA Network, Unpabimodal), Community Technology
Centers (CTC), private telecenters and municipal portals were analyzed. The degree to which the region was
affected by ICTs was also analyzed according to international standards.
The second dimension analyzed two core aspects of inter-institutional network models with the same
characteristics as our project’s: the first was traditional organization (associated with selection mechanisms,
organizational structure, funding alternatives, the incorporation of mechanisms and the creation of new
network nodes) and the second was the administrative stakeholders’ cultures and behaviors and the use of
these kinds of experiences.
The results verified and contrasted the first or initial model’s operation, which led to the first adaptation.
The Virtual Resource Centre’s structure was reconsidered, since operations had not worked as expected.
Thus, the model was adjusted (Model 1) by determining two new constituents, the Cyber-Education sites
and the Multimedia Production Centre. The Virtual Resource Centre’s objectives and functions were
redefined to make what we call a Virtual Centre and several qualities were defined in connection with the
inter-institutional network in order to experiment with the model’s operations related to developing some of
the digital inclusion services and the training planned and its contrast with the designed model.
The first iteration was launched after the characteristics of Model 1 were analyzed. This second model
(Model 1) was then matched to the UNPA network, because the latter is similar to the ReVinDiPa, which
allows for emulation, with the control of some fixed conditions.

3. PROJECT RESULTS
The project was initially supported by the UNPA network (Service Centers Network). In addition to its
primary function – serving distance students at the UNPA through the Unpabimodal virtual learning
environment - these centers have already begun to develop a series of measures to energize the community
and achieve the digital inclusion associated with informal education programs. The UNPA network is the
project’s primary core and essentially the foundation of the Cyber-Education networks.
This project is defined by the following:

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3.1 Diagnostic Study

The first step in the project consists of analyzing the centers and projects’ possibilities and conducting a
diagnostic study (CTC and municipal portals, etc.).
This study included indicators that refer to the Latin American transition to the Information Society,
which was the result of the RICYT’s activities, through a matrix of four sectors or activities - Education,
Science and Technology, Computing and Advanced Value Added Services and Telecommunications -
considered the basis for benefiting from the Information Society. The initial results from this diagnostic study
are presented in Bain et alt (2007); in line with these results, the execution of actions and training should
improve people’s skills in these areas.
The diagnostic study’s second core includes an analysis of the different network models that support
teaching and learning and an attempt to define the attributes that characterize them and make the inter-
institutional network possible. The parameters to be measured were defined and the nodes, mechanisms,
make-up and reach of the virtual communities supported by socio-community networks were initially
evaluated with objectives associated with the project.
The need to redefine the original project and specify an initial approach to virtual teaching and learning
resource centers emerged from this process (Cyber-Education sites).

3.2 The Cyber-Educative

‘Cyber-Educatives’ are multimedia resources centers that support teaching and learning activities. This name
was chosen because of the high degree of familiarity in Argentina with the word “cyber” (cyber cafés,
cybernets for Internet games, etc.); the word “Education” is used to delimit the developmental field.
Cyber-Education sites, which are defined as the physical places where activities take place in teaching
basic literacy and developing digital resources/materials and community, education or economic projects for
different social groups and determining the work to be developed through the Internet.
Although the UNPA network can be considered a seed of this new network, a relevant factor for its
sustainability clearly emerges: the definition of certain stakeholders in the UNPA network, i.e., a group of
facilitators who are to act as a bridge between students and the university and facilitate student movement.
Facilitators undoubtedly play an important role in helping students use new technologies to access
information provided by the virtual environment; nevertheless, this group has certain characteristics that
palliate its “inexperience” in distance learning processes, whenever they come to the Centre willing to study
a degree or professional training at a national university.
This situation is differs greatly from the insertion of community stakeholders into the Knowledge Society
and promotes different groups that may not be aware of opportunities and seek an approach to a most
indefinite social process. Hence, the need to establish or configure a new role and therefore, training.

3.3 The Dynamic Character of Cyber-Educatives and Training

The UNPA Network Service Centers are manned by facilitators, whose main function is to process
documentation from local students for the University through the academic units of reference. Likewise, they
facilitate access to the virtual Unpabimodal learning environment and the academic processing system.
The facilitators’ role is carried out by staff selected by local towns. Therefore, their profiles are varied,
both as regards their professional orientation and posts within the local administrative structure. However,
they all work together collaboratively in a group through participation and communication in the UNPA
Network’s Unpabimodal environment.
The anticipation of future educational needs is also important (Salinas, 2005). Within this framework,
facilitators are expected to be able to create an environment in which stakeholders take part in activities, trust
work on the Internet, use ICTs and ascertain the advantages or benefits of using this system.
New scenarios that have changed communication and consequently, educational opportunities arose. Each
stage is determined not only by the available technology, but also by user characteristics. Users are not
identical (they have different needs, motivations, degrees of independence, conditions and availabilities, etc.)
(Salinas, 2006). Therefore, facilitators play a major role and require a general profile as well as a certain

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specialization according to a Center’s scope and the community’s real expectations of inclusion into the
Knowledge Society.
The facilitators’ role is presented in Márquez el alt. (2007) and underscores the need for a profile with
social skills and techniques as well as a pro-active, dynamic character. These characteristics include:
• The ability to research, select and organize information (local and global)
• A background in education
• A willingness to work in teams and on the Internet in a collaborative manner
• An innovative mindset
Thus, training is very important in building this role for Cyber-Education staff.
A training project for social and health workers was implemented during the course of experimentation on
the UNPA network’s Cyber-Education sites and roles were distributed in order to simulate and analyze
facilitators’ behavior in activities that differ slightly from common ones. Although the results of this training
were positive, an evaluation of the training developed showed that facilitators found it very difficult to work
with such groups.
The facilitators’ diverse profiles and the research on defining new roles have led to the implementation of
a specific training program adapted to the defined profile.
This training program was applied in pilot form to the Service Center staff, which also helped adapt staff
training mechanisms for incorporating Cyber-Education sites after all their aspects were concluded and
evaluated.

3.4 The Virtual Centre

Another important aspect is the Virtual Centre, which serves as an integrative service distribution centre to
achieve a community in which the different Cyber-Education sites, and through them the community, can
take part.
The gradual implementation of the Virtual Centre presents another challenge today, as it constitutes the
basis for integrating the virtual community into the network and furnishes common services (education
services, among others) from the Virtual Resource Centre. It will serve as a link to the virtual training system
while promoting projects for inclusion into the Information and Knowledge Society.

3.5 The Multimedia Production Centre

The Multimedia Production Center produces materials and multimedia content. In this sense, the materials
production area of the UNPA’s Distance Learning Program was simulated for the model’s first iteration;
thus, we are unable to show how the experience developed.

3.6 The Consortium

As a multi-sectorial project, the administrative and institutional aspects that breathe life into the network are
also fundamental.
As mentioned in the background to this paper, this meant developing a multi-sectorial initiative
(universities, civil society, business and national, provincial and local governments) in the initial stage to
integrate Patagonian communities into the Information and Knowledge society through a consortium as well
as profiting from the possibilities offered by the networks to advance in digital inclusion, thus providing
groups and communities at risk of exclusion (rural communities, remote communities, women, etc.) with
access to training and education. This requires dynamic local and community action and training based on
equal opportunities.

3.7 Integration into Other Networks

The participation of target communities in the Information and Knowledge Society requires the integration of
the ReVinDiPa into other, broader networks as a platform for diffusion, integration and user exchanges on
the Cyber-Education network.

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4. CONCLUSION
As yet, we cannot draw any final conclusions about the project’s on-going implementation, yet we wish to
offer several reflections to accompany this process:
1. The first refers to the role that the University – in this case the UNPA – plays in this area – whether it is
the main stakeholder in the project to incorporate local communities into the Information and Knowledge
Society or whether it is just another stakeholder in a group of other social stakeholders. Thus, the UNPA
Network should be redefined, since it is made up of the University’s provincial Service Centers and in itself
should be an internal project within the Cyber-Education Project. This is a change in the initial perspective,
since it was understood that the current Service Centers would end up being absorbed by the Cyber-
Education sites’ dynamics and development.
2. The Cyber-Education sites’ function in terms of digital inclusion. Although they should be constantly
redefined, nowadays their main objective is integrating the local community into the Information and
Knowledge Society.
3. The importance of the project’s sustainability. In a way, the project’s sustainability is guaranteed by its
inclusion into a more ambitious project involving different institutions that have already committed actions
and resources to it.
4. As mentioned previously, one of the main challenges in developmental cooperation is ensuring that
developing countries furnish the entire population, from primary to secondary studies, with accessible quality
education and equal opportunities. As a tool for improving community living conditions (health, gender
equality, democratic participation and economic growth, etc.), cooperative education projects are essential to
the war on poverty and developing towns. In our case, the results of the project are not sporadic. A services
network has been established in the province of Santa Cruz which the National University of Southern
Patagonia plans to apply and expand throughout the region through this project.

REFERENCES
Bain, Mª Elena et alt. (2007): Inclusión Digital: un diagnóstico de la penetración de la TICs en la Patagonia Austral.
Ponencia en EDUTEC’07. Inclusión digital en la Educación Superior. Desafíos y oportunidades en la Sociedad de la
Información, Buenos Aires.
Márquez, Eugenia, et alt. (2007): Los Gestores/Dinamizadores de los CiberEducativos. Una nueva figura en la estrategia
de inclusión digital. Ponencia en EDUTEC’07. Inclusión digital en la Educación Superior. Desafíos y oportunidades
en la Sociedad de la Información, Buenos Aires.
Salinas, J. (2005): La gestión de los Entornos Virtuales de Formación. Seminario Internacional: La calidad de la
formación en red en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior. Tarragona, 19-22 septiembre
Salinas, J. (2006): Modelos flexibles como respuesta de las universidades a la sociedad de la información. Formamente.
Rivista Internazionale di Ricerca sul futuro digitale Num: 0 93-112

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AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS OF THE BLENDED

LEARNING TEACHING STYLE

Carmen de Pablos Heredero, Mónica de Pablos Heredero

Rey Juan Carlos University
Social Sciences Faculty
Paseo de los Artilleros s/n, 28032 Madrid

ABSTRACT
The massive implementation of information and communication technologies in the different modalities of upper learning
education in the last years has produced an effect in the way in which we lecturers teach and the students learn. The
following paper offers a description about the expectations generated and the realities found in a group of students during
the period 2006-2008 in the Rey Juan Carlos University. The results coming from the exploratory analysis show that
although there are different groups with a variety of expectations, these do not differ too much of the ones analyzed by
different authors in the previous literature review. They are mainly influenced by the way the students study and the
compromise acquired by professors in this new modality of “blended learning”. It is suggested by considering the results
obtained, to establish the same analysis in a sample that represents the whole university population and that allows later
the development of more proactive strategies when implementing programs containing mixed methodologies.

KEYWORDS
Information and communication technologies, measurement, blended learning, performance, design, human factors

1. INTRODUCTION
The existence of web technologies that allow offering educational contents in a ubiquitous way (Alavi and
Leidner, 2001) have promoted the apparition of a group of alternative educational models where the
traditional educational style is integrated, mixed or even changed by a model more based in the on-line
interaction (Lockyer and Bennet, 2006). Brown and Duguid (2002) suggest that the application of web
technologies to university environments offers greater opportunities for the education of a group of students
that demand a more independent and self-management style in the way they learn. The main objective of this
paper consists of analyzing in which way the perceptions of a group of students coming from a Master degree
in the recent implemented modality of blended learning, have an effect in the way that they accept the new
roles that students and teachers must develop in this kind of system. We define in this paper blended learning
as the process of learning and the relationships existent between the professor and the student, supported at a
certain percentage in the usage of information and communication technologies for different educational
purposes. Mikropoulos (1998) analyses the attitudes that students develop towards the modality of virtual
learning. He stresses the main characteristics that make of a student a proper candidate for the usage of web
technologies in this modality of learning. Collins (1999) stresses the importance of the training in order to
achieve a positive attitude in the educational system by using information and communication means. Shrum
and Hong (2002) realize a more complete analysis by introducing the two implied parts, students and
lecturers. In their analysis they stress the importance of knowing the students characteristics, as users of web
technologies, for the lectures to develop proper strategies to these characteristics. Njagi (2003) proposes a
methodology that helps to develop attitudes in the students towards a more efficient usage of the resources
based in the web. Keller and Cerneud (2002) and Coldwebb, Craig and Goold (2006) are centered in the
perceptions that different groups of students show in the virtual learning styles. The Role of the Professor,
the role of a professor in an educational context, in general, consists of “assuring that the educational process
has taken place in a proper way for all the implied students” (Chang and Fisher, 2003:5). In the traditional
educational environments the professor has basically been an instructor that apart from lecturing, has offered

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students recommendations on how to study. Conti (1985) mentions the style centered on the professor, in the
sense that he is responsible for the managing of the training efforts. Chang and Fisher (2003) stresses how in
the online teaching style, the professor is an educational enabler that offers support guides in a community
composed by people desiring to learn. Goodyear, Salmon, Spector, Steeples and Tickner (2001) develop a
model including eight different roles for the lecturer practicing online teaching, content facilitator: he or she
offers to students the understanding on the contents; technologist: he or she selects the technological
environments that improve the online teaching; designer: he or she offers alternatives to the learning tasks;
manager: he or she manages objectives, processes enabler: he or she establishes rules, creates community,
manages the communication, shapes the social group behavior and establishes an identity for his classes;
consultant: he or she offers pieces of advice to the students, researcher: he or she creates new knowledge
relevant for the course content. Mazzolini and Maddison (2006) support the idea that the main role of the
instructor is that of a person that allows students to adopt a greater initiative in the way they learn. Chang and
Fisher (2003) and Barret (2006) amongst others, suggest that in the new educational styles supported in the
intensive usage of information and communication technologies a change of paradigm has taken place. It has
implied a migration from the educational style centered on the professor and the institution to a learning style
centered on the student. Therefore, the professor that practices blended teaching must proportionate the
knowledge, the organization, the design and the proper management to make viable his or her presence in the
on-line interaction. The Role of the Student, the students must develop a more active role in the learning
process in the educational environments supported by information and communication technologies. Pallof
and Pratt (1998) stress how the students must be more involved in critical discussions, think about alternative
solutions and work with minimum guides. The students that develop self-guiding capacities in the upper
education system will develop a positive attitude. In fact, it will allow them show their learning styles and
find the proper motivation to cheer them up to learn along the whole life (Clayton, 2003). A university
student must be able to identify and prioritize his/her skills and needs of personal training. As Birch points
out (2002:5), “be able to manage their own learning experience, by including clear objectives, by establishing
specific plans and by assuring the needed resources”. Logically, the students need to understand the main
objectives of the mixed learning. It must be understood that feeling comfortable with the technological tools
requires of time from the parts, students and lecturers.

2. THE EMPIRICAL STUDY

The present paper is part of a wider study supported and financed by the Rey Juan Carlos University and the
Madrid Government, where we try to analyze the impact of web technologies in different educational models
of upper university teaching style. The general model analyses different individual and group technological
and behavior factors that promote the proper use of web technologies for different university models. In this
study we are developing different techniques of analysis, revision of the literature, interviews with groups of
interest, students and lecturers, in public and private universities in Madrid. In this exploratory work we
present the perceptions that a group of students in a Master degree that has been recently implemented in the
University show about the role that they and their lecturers must perform in the models of mixed teaching-
learning styles; in this case in the blended teaching-learning style. The Rey Juan Carlos University is a Public
University composed by four different Campuses situated in the south and east of the Madrid Region. In
them we teach different disciplines, Humanities, Social and Law Sciences, Health Sciences, Tourism,
Communication, Journalism and Technical Studies. It is the youngest Public University in the Madrid
Region, starting in the academic year 1998-99. Today we count on with more than 16.000 students and 1.100
lecturers. The University has always been interested in implementing technological infrastructures to support
the traditional presence classes, and in the five last years we have highly worked in the implementation of on
line courses, as for example the Grade in Journalism on line or the Grade in Business Administration on line.
From the academic year 2006-07, lecturers in some Masters degrees, as the Master in Management are
offered the possibility of using a blended methodology. The University is using the WebCT platform for
offering the Virtual Degrees and for the rest of the Degrees for the development of different modalities of
blended learning. Therefore, in a progressive way, the opportunities of enriching the traditional resources
with electronic ones are increasing. In the online groups, professors and lecturers interact in a permanent way
in the virtual campuses. In the blended learning style, especially in the semi-presence modality, specific

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training courses are being offered to the lecturers and students for a better knowledge of the technological
possibilities. By starting the academic year 2007-2008, a group of preliminary interviews with a group of
students and lecturers from the Master in Management, suggested us that there could be a lack of
understanding and of information in both parts, about what the blended teaching modality would mean and
the tools they could use to practice it. This situation, offered us a opportunity to know deeper about the
expectations of lecturers and students in the new teaching and learning possibilities by applying web
technologies. The design in the research attempted to find out data about lecturers and students in the Master
in Management. The first part of the work consisted in discussing with a representative group of students and
professors coming from this Master if they really shared a common vision on how to teach and learn by using
information and communication technologies with the main purpose of practicing blended lecturing and
learning. The discussions took part from October 15th to November 15th, 2007. After that, and having into
account the obtained responses in the first part, a questionnaire was elaborated for students. It was offered via
the web page of the Social Science Faculty, by previously informing to the interested groups via email in the
period from January 15th till March 15th, 2008. The questions we have applied concerning to this analysis,
have been suggested by the literature review in some cases, and in others, they have been obtained from
different meetings held with lecturers and students. The final questions are referred to the following aspects,
demographics: age, gender, subjects, degree of experience in the use of web technologies for learning and
leisure; personal perceptions on semi-presence teaching style; personal perceptions about the role that
professors must play in the semi-presence teaching style; personal perceptions about the role that the students
must play in the semi-presence teaching style, the expectations that students have about the blended learning.
The greatest part of the questions are waiting for a response in the typical 1 to 5 Likert scale with degrees
ranking from 5 “completely agree” to 1 “completely disagree”, and yes/no responses. The SPSS software has
been used for the statistical analysis of the obtained data. In the academic year 2007-08, there are 43 students
in the Official Master in Management (URJC Post-doc service, 2007) situated in the Social Sciences Faculty.
An 80% of the teachers that lecture in this Master have chosen the blended methodology. A 65% of the
students in this Master are partial time (they work apart from study), a 35% are full time students. A 54% of
the students are females. The students full time dedicated are studying 5 subjects by semester. The part time
students are studying between 2 or 3 subjects by semester. 36 students have completed the questionnaire.

3. RESULTS
Now we show the percentages of the perceptions that we have collected from the 36 students that have
participated in the analysis.
Table 1. What are the students’ perceptions on lecturer’s roles
Scale (5 completely agree………1 completely disagree) 5 4 3 2 1
1. To offer me information on the subject 82,6% 12% 4,4% 1% 0%
2. To offer me information on the subject contents 94,4% 4,6% 1% 0% 0%
3. To offer me criteria to defeat arguments 57,6% 25,7% 7,9% 4,8% 4%
4. To offer me resources to improve my way of studying 75,6% 31,5% 6,1% 0% 0%

5. To prepare me for my professional future 68,4% 26,7% 4,9% 0% 0%

6. To help me to learn 56,8% 31% 6,7% 3,7% 1,8%
7. To be available always I need it 26,8% 29,8% 15,6% 13,6% 14,2%
8. To use a language I can understand 76,3% 15,6% 8,1% 0% 0%
9. To explain to me what I need to know to have success 83,4% 11,1% 5,5% 0% 0%
in my final results
10. To explain to me how I have to do the things 23,4% 21,6% 36,3% 12,8% 5,9%
11. To teach me to do research 16,7% 14,8% 14,3% 31,1% 23,1%
12. To establish me deadlines for finishing my 37,8% 26,4% 25% 14,6% 13,2%
assignments
13. To know all the responses to my questions 30,8% 26,4% 15% 14,6% 13,2%

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If we compare the obtained responses with the different roles that a lecturer should perform according to
Goodyear, Salmon, Spector, Steeples and Tickner (2001), we see that there is a clear fit between what the
theory explains to us and what in reality the students’ perceptions are. Content enabler: the high percentages
obtained in responses 1,2 and 3 in the highest ratios (5 and 4) show it. In the four cases, a 70% of the
students select the options containing the highest ratios (5 and 4). Technologist: question number 4, offers in
90% of the cases high values (between 5 and 4) in this aspect. Designer: the question number 9 shows very
high percentages again in this aspect. Manager: question 6 shows values between 4 and 5 again in most of
85% of the cases. Process enabler: questions 7 and 10 stress this aspect, maybe it is in this role where we can
find more differences amongst the students: the responses from more positive to less positive evaluation
criteria are located. Even in this case, positions 1,2 and 3 are more relevant. Consultant: question 10 reflects
something about this aspect. In this role, again the values are more divided, with no consensus. Adviser:
questions 12 and 13 show stronger this role. As in the other two factors, the opinion is more variable amongst
the students. However, again, more than a 70% of the cases are concentrated around values over 5,4, and 3.
Researcher: independently of his/her role as researcher, the students in this case have not perceived that the
professor must transmit them the knowledge on how to develop research. The students we have directed the
survey to, are first year students in the Master in Business Administration, that it is the reason why they are
not so interested in the research, as it would be the case of second year master students.
Table 2. What it must be my role as student
Scale (5 completely agree………1 completely disagree) 5 4 3 2 1
1. To be motivated 37,7% 36,8% 24% 1,5% 0%
2. To finish assignments on time 46,8% 25,7% 17,6% 9,6% 0%
3. To be informed about what I am required in each subject 57,8% 34,9% 7,3 % 0% 0%
4. To dedicate enough time for the study of each subject 35,6% 37,9% 23,1% 3,4% 0%
5. To dedicate enough time to the elaboration of the 25,8% 30,1% 32,6% 8,3% 3,2%
assignments required in each subject
6. To look for help when I need it 70,3% 29,7% 0% 0% 0%
7. To contrast knowledge 44,6% 24,7% 15,6% 6,8% 8,3%
8. To find what I need to accomplish the subject’s objectives 38,9% 24,6% 13,6% 18,2% 4,7%
9. To express my opinión 23,7% 28,6% 20,6% 13,4% 13,7%

The figures show how the students feel quite identified with the attributes that Coldwell, Craig and Goold
(2006) stress from a more theoretical perspective, motivation: question 1 reflects the options for this
characteristic. They effectively consider that the motivation is an important element in their student’s role. In
fact, more than a 75% of the students have ranked high (amongst 5, 4 and 3). Information: question 3 is the
one that best reflects this role. A 100% of the surveyed students position their evaluations between 5,4 and 3.
Positions 2 and 1 have been ignored. Dedication: questions 4 and 5 are the ones that best reflect this aspect in
our analysis. We must not forget that the most part of the students matriculated in the course where the
exploratory analysis has taken place are accustomed to a traditional methodology. In fact, for the greatest part
of them, it is the first blended initiative they have experienced. Critical spirit: it is in this characteristic where
the surveyed students are more dispersed (questions from 7 to 9). More than 60% of surveyed students
consider it important. Organization capacity: questions 2, 6 and 8 better reflect this analysis. Question 2 has
more to do with the organization of time, to be able to present the assignments on time, 6 more with
searching for help in case of need, and the 8 more with finding the needed tools to accomplish the subject
objectives. The students in our initial analysis seem to be more concerned about the search of help in case of
need. In this characteristic a 100% or the responses are located in the options 5 and 4, with no responses from
3 to 1. They are aware about sending the assignments on time, since a 78% reflect values over 3 in this
characteristic. Where they do not seem to have things so clear is in their capacity to find what they need to
accomplish for the objectives in each subject.

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4. CONCLUSION
The Universities are each time more involved with the projects dealing with educational innovation that
allow us to introduce in a rational way the information and communication technologies to offer best
opportunities to our customers. These programs have, in many cases, as main objective, the motivation of the
students by offering a group of realist expectations that we introduce in the study programs that support
blended learning. To minimize the lack of fit between the generated expectations and the perceived reality, it
could be of interest to analyze what the students expect from their lecturers in this new learning modalities
and how they perceive their role as students. This can also help students to know deeper our point of start in a
realistic way, and what are our opportunities, threats, strengths and weakness. It will help us to build
educational models that transmit value to our students. In this paper we have realized a preliminary
exploratory analysis in an only group of students matriculated in a Master degree and that have received, for
the first time, a semi-presence modality of teaching in a group of subjects. We are aware that we have
worked with a reduced sample, but this was our objective for the first time. Now we try to translate this
experience to a representative sample of students that are involved in different teaching-learning modalities
in our University. This way, by considering the feedback received, we will be able to work in the
recommendations for the decision makers at the University. This way, we will make possible a best fit
between the new educational possibilities, the information and communication technologies’ new
opportunities and the students’ and professors’ new roles.

REFERENCES
Alavi, M.; Leidner, D.E. (2001). Research commentary: technology-mediated learning- a call for greater depth and
breadth of research, Information Systems Research, vol. 12, nº 1, 1-10.
Barrett, K. R. (2006). Gender and differences in online teaching styles. En E- Trauth (ed.), Encyclopedia of gender and
information technology, vol. 1 (A-G), pp. 372-377. London: Idea Group.
Birch, P.D. (2002). E-learner competencies. Learning Circuit. Retrieved December 5, 2006, from
http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/jul2002/birch.html.
Brown, J.; Duguid, P. (2002). The Social Life of Information. Harvard: Harvard Business School Publishing.
Chang, V.; Fisher, D. (2003). The validation and application of a new learning environment instrument for online
learning in higher education, en M. Khine y D. Fisher (eds.), Technology-rich learning environments: a future
perspective (pp. 1-20). Singapore: World Scientific.
Clayton, J. (2003). Assessing and researching the online learning environment. En M. Kline y D. Fisher (eds),
Technology-rich learning environments: a future perspective, pp. 157-186. Singapore: World Scientific.
Coldwell, J.; Craig, A.; Goold, A. (2006). Student perspectives of online learning. Edinburgo: ALT-C.
Conti, G. J. (1985). Assesing teaching styles in adult education: how and why. Lifelong learning, vol. 8, nº 28, pp. 7-11.
Keller, C.; Cernerud, L. (2002). Students’ perceptions of e-leatning in university education. Journal of Educational
Media, nº 27, vol. 1-2, pp. 55-67.
Lockyer, L.; Bennett, S. (2006). Understanding roles within technology supported teaching and learning: implications for
staff, academic units, and institutions. Technology Supported Learning and Teaching – A Staff perspective, pp 210-
223, London: Idea Group.
Mazzolini, M.; Maddison, S. (2006). The role of the online instructor as a guide on the side, En J. O’Donoghue,
Technology Supported Leaning and Teaching – A staff perspective, pp. 224-241. London. Idea Group.
Mikropoulos, Ch. (1998). Students’ attitudes towards educational virtual environments, Education and Information
Technologies, nº 3, pp. 137-148.
Njagi, K. (2003). Assessing students’ attitudes towards web-based Learning Resources, en
http://naweb.unb.ca/procceding/2003/PosterNjagiIsbell.html
Salmon, G.; Goodyear, P.; Spector, J.; Steeples, C; Tickner, S. (2001). Competences for online teaching. Educational
Technology Research and Development, nº 49, pp. 65-72.
Shrum,L. Hong, S. (2002). From de Field: Characteristics of Successful Tertiary Online Students and Strategies of
Experienced Online Educators. Education and Information Technologies, vol. 1, nº 7, pp. 5-16.

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USING WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES TO BUILD LEARNING

COMMUNITIES

Clive Buckley, Angela Hastings, Richard Mottershead

Glyndŵr University
Plas Coch Campus
Wrexham
United Kingdom

ABSTRACT
Web 2.0 technologies, such as wiki pages, have the potential to facilitate the formation of on-line communities of
learning, especially useful when participants in that community are geographically dispersed and living in remote areas.
This paper describes the authors’ work with undergraduate health studies students tasked to work collaboratively on a
problem-based learning (PBL) project in which the students use wiki pages to share ideas and resources. The study
examines how different groups of students make use of the wiki facility in terms of the level and nature of contribution.
Work to date suggests that students readily adapt to the on-line community and, given sufficient instruction, utilize the
wiki pages to work together constructively. Evidence indicates that, provided tutors are supportive and provide
encouragement, the level of wiki activity is independent of whether contributions are formally assessed or not, however,
the language style adopted by students does change when their work is being assessed. When the contributions are not
assessed, students adopt a very informal language, reminiscent of the language used in instant messaging and SMS
texting; when the work is assessed, students revert to the more formal language of the traditional classroom.

KEYWORDS
Web 2.0, Wiki, Community, Undergraduate, Problem-based Learning, Collaboration

1. INTRODUCTION
This paper describes the authors’ on-going study of the potential of Web 2.0 technologies to facilitate
communities of learning within groups of undergraduate health studies students. Group projects and problem-
based learning has an established history within health studies courses but this presents challenges when
students are geographically dispersed as, traditionally, collaboration can only effectively take place when
students are physically on campus. Acknowledging that, even with such limitations, student collaboration and
group work have sound pedagogic value, the authors proposed to explore how emerging technologies, in
particular wiki pages, could facilitate greater flexibility and enhanced opportunities for students to
collaborate at a distance. What has emerged is not only how these technologies are enabling, in the sense that
students have opportunity to contribute to discussions at a time and place that is convenient to themselves,
but also how group dynamics and use of language is context-sensitive; students ‘behave’ differently on-line
even when they know tutors have access to and monitor their on-line activity. This paper describes in both
quantitative and qualitative terms the nature of student participation within the community of learners
together with the students’ perspective of their experience of using a wiki for the first time. We conclude by
recommending how such technologies can be applied successfully to facilitate collaboration and, in the
words of O’Reilly (2007), for the ‘harnessing of collective intelligences’.

2. WEB 2.0 – THE SOCIAL WEB

Web 2.0 technology probably became main stream on January 15th 2001 when ‘Wikipedia’ launched.
Described by Surowiecki (2004) as ‘the wisdom of crowds’; Wikipedia enabled individuals to contribute to a

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collective database of knowledge. Over the succeeding few years the ‘social web’, (Boulos et al,2007), has
become ubiquitous; social networking sites such as ‘Facebook’ and blogs have become increasing popular,
especially with young adults, and many of us in higher education are beginning to consider how this
phenomenon can be used to facilitate learning. We now have a ‘connected society’; connected not by face-to-
face interaction but rather by the internet; geographical location is no longer a barrier to discourse and
interaction. Applying these principles, the authors determined to evaluate whether student discourse at a
distance could supplement, even replace, traditional face-to-face interaction and how such interaction would
manifest itself.

2.1 Background to the Study

This paper describes our experiences with two student groups:
• Second Year Bachelor of Nursing students exploring issues of care following a road traffic accident;
in this instance the students were not assessed on their collaborative participation (Group A: 40
students divided into five sub-groups; A1, A2, A3, A4, A5).
• Second and Third Year Bachelor of Nursing students exploring issues related to mental health; in
this instance students were assessed on their participation (Group B: 16 students divided into four
sub-groups; B1, B2, B3, B5)
Both groups of students were adult (18+ years old), attending full-time education, many living in rural
locations within 50 miles of the university campus. Students in both groups were assigned to smaller sub-
groups and each of these provided with a password-protected wiki site for their collaboration; sub-groups
only had access to their own pages. Tutors monitored contributions and this was facilitated by an automated
email notification of any changes to the wiki pages. For the purposes of this paper all student contributions,
either to the wiki or in feedback on their experiences, have been anonymized.
In each case, students are exposed to problem-based scenarios; these are designed to promote autonomous
learning by encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning (Ousey 2003). This is done by
the identification of the student’s own learning needs in relation to the problems highlighted within the
weekly PBL scenario. PBL classes are timetabled for one day a week over a number of weeks. Each week the
students work in small groups and each group is facilitated by a nurse lecturer. The lecturer’s role is purely
advisory and students are encouraged to work together towards a consensus position.

2.2 Student Wiki Use

Student wiki use was analyzed with regard to the number of revisions made to each wiki page and the
‘quality’ of student contribution, taking note of the type of contribution (resource sharing, critical debate,
supportive commentary and language used) and the language style employed. Additionally, student feedback
on the value of the wiki was elicited using questionnaires.
2.2.1 Wiki Page Visits And Revisions
The numbers of wiki page visits and number of page revisions based on the average number per student per
week are presented in Table 1. Group A, whose contribution was not formally assessed, made, on average, 12
visits and 2.44 revisions per student per week; Group B, where contribution was assessed, made, on average
10.5 visits with 2.03 revisions per student per week.
Table 1. Average number of student visits and (revisions) to group pages per student, per week of activity
Average Number of visits (revisions)
(Per student, per week)
Group / Number 1 2 3 4 5
A 12 (2.3) 13 (2.6) 13 (2.7) 13 (2.7) 9 (1.9)
B 6 (1.5) 8 (1.5) 11 (2.0) 17 (3.1) n/a
The numbers for Group A are broadly consistent across the five sub-groups but in Group B, the number
of visits and contributions made by sub-groups B1 and B2 are significantly below those of sub-groups B3
and B4. This may reflect the fact that sub-groups B1 and B2 are year 2 students whilst B3 and B4 are third
(final) year students, this does not, however explain why the contributions across Group A, also year 2

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students, are 70% greater than those of their peers. This data indicates that, on average, students in both study
groups were making 1.5 visits to their individual group pages per day with just fewer than 20% of these
resulting in a page revision. This high level of activity contrasts with that reported by Kennard (2007) in his
study of wiki usage, who reported ‘low’ use of such pages in his group of postgraduate students. Kennard
(ibid) also suggested that the ‘number of times students altered page content may reveal the extent to which
wikis provide an opportunity for deep, rather than surface learning.’ Simple quantitative analysis of the
degree of alteration or addition to page content cannot, of itself, be a measure of the quality of learning
experience; more refined analysis is required if we are to develop an understanding of the role of social
interaction and group dynamic involved in establishing on-line communities of learning. To this end, one
must examine the nature of discourse conducted on-line and how, if at all, this differs from conventional
face-to-face interaction.
2.2.2 Language: Does Assessment Alter Context?
It has been recognized that social groups use language that is particular to their context (Maass, 1989), so one
should not be surprised when students adopt language and behaviour that they perceive as appropriate to their
given context. This study examined whether changing context had a significant influence upon student
language; one group were not assessed on their wiki contributions whilst another group were assessed; this
shift in context was tempered by the fact that students were aware that tutors had access to, and moderation
rights, to their discussions. What emerged was surprising; students being assessed adopted the formal
‘classroom’ style of language whilst those groups not assessed uniformly used informal language reminiscent
of instant messaging or SMS style. Typical of the postings made by the non-assessed group are:
• ‘c u tomorrow’ - see you tomorrow
• ‘hope u are all happy’ - hope you are all happy
• ‘Dus any 1 no’ - does anyone know

Typical postings made by the assessed group, in contrast, include:

• I looked at unusual posture; I found an article that stated that people that suffer from catatonia
often suffer with unusual posture and ….
• Some very interesting points, I guess we have to consider whether the benefits are to the 'system'
By changing the context from non-assessed to assessed, it seems that students acquiesced to the style of
language ‘expected’ of them within the formal setting; the impact this may have on their learning has not
been evaluated, however the significant decrease in wiki activity for the assessed group may suggest that, to
facilitate learning communities, tutors would be well advised to use wikis for informal collaboration rather
than as part of the assessment process. Assessing contributions may well be a disincentive to contributing.
2.2.3 Student Feedback
Student feedback has been elicited using anonymous questionnaires; these are presented in Table 2. This data
suggests that, whilst a significant proportion of first-time wiki users would prefer traditional face-to-face
collaboration, there is overwhelming agreement that the wiki ‘was useful’ to enable sharing of ideas and
resources.
Table 2. Results of student questionnaire (aggregated results from 33 returns)
Score
Agreement
Statement (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly
(as a percentage)
agree)
I found the wiki easy to use 3.76 72%
The wiki was useful in helping us 4.15 83%
share ideas and resources
Our group work improved because we 3.38 68%
used a wiki
I would prefer to use email to share 2.48 50%
ideas and resources
I prefer to meet face to face or by 3.15 63%
telephone

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I would prefer tutors could not see our 1.85 37%

wiki pages
I would like to use a wiki for group 3.79 76%
work in the future
Perhaps most surprising is that the vast majority of students would prefer (even when their contributions
are not assessed) that tutors have access to their discussions. Indications are that students want to demonstrate
to their tutors that they are actively participating in the group work. Given the informal language adopted by
the non-assessed groups, one is drawn to the conclusion that they (students) perceive the language used as
socially appropriate and that tutors will adopt strategies to accommodate this.

3. CONCLUSION
This paper has explored the use of Web 2.0 technologies to facilitate the establishment of learning
communities on-line. Emerging technologies offer the potential to engage geographically dispersed student
populations in reflective and constructive debate regardless of location or time. The role of assessing such
conversations within the overall objectives of encouraging deep learning has been explored; it seems that,
whilst tutors would wish to follow, and assess, the process, the actuality of collaboration and, hence, deeper
learning, may be best served by allowing students to explore such aspects free from assessment. Students, it
seems, welcome the opportunity to debate and discuss complex issues on-line and, whilst they welcome tutor
observation of their conversations, these conversations are far richer when they are not assessed.
Wiki pages enable those students who, perhaps through geographical location or personal characteristics,
find it difficult to attend face-to-face meetings, to contribute constructively to projects that involve a degree
of collaboration. Some students prefer to meet face-to-face but the vast majority feel that the using a wiki
improved their ability to share ideas and resources. Our use of wiki pages is not as a replacement to
conventional meetings but as a supplement. Furthermore, by observing the discussion between students, one
had the opportunity to evaluate the process of collaboration rather than just the product.
We plan to extend our use of wiki pages to other subject areas and to compare wiki use with other forms
of e-communication for collaborative projects.

REFERENCES
Boulos, M. N. and Wheeler, S. (2007) The emerging Web 2.0 social software: an enabling suite of sociable technologies
in health and health care education Health Information and Libraries Journal, Vol. 24, pp.2–23
Kennard, C. (2007). Wiki Productivity and Discussion Forum Activity in a Postgraduate Online Distance Learning
Course. In C. Montgomerie & J. Seale (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia,
Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2007 (pp. 3564-3569). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Maass,A., Salvi, C., Arcuri, L. and Semin, G.R. (1989) Language use in intergroup contexts: The linguistic intergroup
bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology vol. 57, pp 981-993
O’Reilly, T. (2007) "What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software".
Communications & Strategies, No. 1, p. 17, First Quarter 2007 Retrieved 12 July 2008 from SSRN:
Ousey,K (2003) The first year of a problem-based learning curriculum Nursing Standard, Vol. 17, No. 22, pp. 33-36.
Surowiecki, J., 2004. The Wisdom of Crowds. Doubleday New York
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1008839

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CLASS SUPPORT SYSTEM TO DEVELOP DISCERNING

EYES FOR INFORMATION

Kousuke Mikoshi, Yuki Watanabe

Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

Akinori Nishihara
The Center for Research and Development of Educational Technology
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

ABSTRACT
This research focuses on the problems that occurred in the standard high school subject “Information Study,” for which a
support system was developed. The aim of the system is to make students who are accustomed to correct, prepared
answers conceive various alternative plans by themselves, and to let the students take responsibility for the answers they
give. A prototype board was developed to help students summarize the content taught in every lesson and share the
summary with others simultaneously. Then, through usage in a real class, the evaluation method was examined.

KEYWORDS
Information Study, Information technology, Class support tool, Thinking.

1. INTRODUCTION
The goal of the standard subject “Information Study” in Japanese high schools is ruled as follows by the
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology: “Through the acquisition of knowledge and
the skill to use information and information technology, to foster scientific and systematical thinking about
information, to understand the role and the influence that information and information technology play in
society, and to foster abilities and attitudes that can independently correspond to the progress of
information.” When the content of “Information Study” is roughly divided, there are generally three elements
in the class curriculum: “power to use information,” “scientific understanding of information,” and “attitude
toward participation in an information society.” These elements are interrelated and do not exist by
themselves. These three elements are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. Three elements in the goals of “Information Study”

INFORMATION STUDY
Power to use information Scientific understanding of Attitude toward participation in
information an information society
The ability to collect, judge, express, The understanding of the The attitude that one must try to
process, and create necessary characteristics of information, the understand the role that information
information independently, including basic uses of information, and the and information technology play in
using the means of information basic theories and methods of social life and the influences they
appropriately according to the treating information appropriately; have; the desire to think about the
problem and the purpose, and also the ability to evaluate and necessity of information, its
sending/transmitting information improve one’s use of information. morality, and one’s responsibility to
based on the receiver’s situation. participate in the creation of a
preferable information society.

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Table 2. Three subject in “Information Study”

INFORMATION STUDY
Information A Information B Information C
Basic content is learned through The computer is used to teach The information society is
practical experience. problem solving; scientific ideas and understood through multimedia and
It is necessary to allot 1/2 or more of methods are learned. telecommunication networks.
the classes to practice time. It is necessary to allot 1/3 or more of It is necessary to allot 1/3 or more of
Problem solving is not a purpose, the classes to practice time. the classes to practice time.
though problem solving study It is necessary to consider the In the study of information
includes the Internet, etc. conflict-resolution tool because it transmission, even more advanced
“Power to use information” is becomes the purpose of problem content is demanded. This includes
learned through practices that use solving studies. differences in the expression of
Information Instruments; “scientific “Scientific understanding of information.
understanding of information” is information” is deepened through the Both the “power to use information”
promoted inductively; and “attitude study of problem solving, and and the “Attitude toward
toward participation in an “power to use information” will be participation in an information
information society” is fostered developed. Also, “attitude toward society” is improved by the study of
through experience. participation in an information the network. Also relevant to these
society” is promoted through ideas activities is the development of
about what technology that supports “scientific understanding of
an information society should be. information.”

“Information A,” “Information B,” and “Information C,” which put emphasis on each of these three
elements, are established as concrete classes. The features of each subject are summarized in Table 2.
In this research, we developed a system focused on “Information B” that especially stresses “Scientific
understanding of information.” The goal of “Information B” is to understand the role and the influence of
information technology in its support of an information society, as well as to understand how to show
information and its mechanisms on the computer. “Information B” also aims at the acquisition of a scientific
idea and a method with which to use computers to effectively solve problems (Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology, 2000).
Five years passed after the high school subject “Information Study” was first set up. Though the class was
not often done at first, such a situation has been improved now. Yet, it is also true that some high schools still
disregard “Information Study”. Moreover, the situation still continues that the average unit of study time for
many of the items shown in the Education Ministry guidelines does not meet the study time goal. In
particular, the items that many teachers find difficult to teach, such as “problems in the collection and
sending of information” and “participation in an information society and use of information technology,” are
at rates of 30 percent or less of their total goal (Hiroko KANOH, 2007).

2. METHOD
In this section, we introduce the outline of this system and the future experiment.

2.1 System Outline

We developed a class support tool using a web browser that supported the class’s promotion of students’
“ability to think.” This tool includes thirteen items of “Informatical and Systematical Thinking” put together
by Matsuda, to “share students” ability to think for themselves, to conceive various alternatives, and to take
responsibility for their answers when they are ordinarily accustomed to prepared correct answers.
Table 3 shows these thirteen items. We particularly aim at items 3 through 8, and we have developed and
evaluated the tool that promotes the students’ ability to think for them.
This system was used in an actual class. Teachers input a question about the course content on the
computer screen and shared the question with the students. The students then answered the question and
transmitted their answers. Other students’ opinions could also be inspected. After looking at the best opinion
from the other students, each student was given the opportunity to answer the first question again. Others’

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opinions were displayed anonymously. This system not only retains each student’s past answers, but also
retains the answers of the others via a seeing function. Teachers can inspect these answers and can draw
conclusions about the students’ understanding level. In addition, the system provides the following function:
Class evaluation questionnaire answers, Response analyzer and Retrieval.
The screen of opinion posting and inspection is shown in Figure 1 as an actual interface of this system.
The left side of the screen is the main menu screen. At this point, the user can choose what he/she wants to
do. Also, the lower part of the screen shows the opinions posted by others who have already answered the
question. New opinions are filled in at the right part of the screen.
Some other class tools were added besides the opinion contribution and inspection system. The class
evaluation function was used when the user wished to obtain information by means of questionnaires. Also,
the response analyzer function was installed so that the teacher could know what the students are thinking in
class, by seeing which versions of the given question each student chose. The function that finds a particular
word and deletes unsuitable opinions, such as abuse and slander, can be added by the teacher.
Table 3. Thirteen items of “Informatical and Systematical Thinking”
1. Thoughts on the use of information in various aspects of problem solving.
2. The problem caught by a systematic viewpoint (breaking an object into factors and thinking about the relationships
among them; e.g. to distinguish conditions and goals in terms of problem solving).
3. Paying attention to the fact that there are varying degrees of “goodness” and finding the best solution to a problem.
4. Understanding/recognizing that there is a trade-off relationship among types of “goodness.”
5. Fully working out solutions by collecting and dealing with information.
6. Understanding that there are multiple solutions for each problem and that there always exist good ways to use
information technology.
7. Deciding on what is effective and selecting solutions accordingly.
8. When exercising the right to make decisions (or decision-selection), becoming aware of one’s responsibility to the
result brought about by the decision and its influence on others, and making good judgments thereof.
9. Thoughts on the ingenuity of using information technology effectively (not thinking that information technology is
the solution to everything, but understanding that effective solutions can be created through collaborative activity).
10. Considering that the viewpoint of “goodness” required by the solution method might change, and that the evaluation
of the “goodness” of alternatives changes according to the situation and the person who judges it. One must not trust
absolutely in a single method and must not memorize ways of thinking as rules; one must be aware of changes in
technology.
11. Thoughts on the use of information technology and the invention of new solution methods, especially in situations
that have seemed difficult to solve. (This is a chance to use information technology at times thought to be
“troublesome.”)
12. Since man is not God, the future is not completely predictable; though information technology is designed to operate
within the range of expectation, no technology is 100% accurate. It is therefore necessary to prepare a corresponding
method when a change or an unexpected situation happens.
13. To improve problem solving skills, it is necessary to make procedures clear, to share rules, and to invent and check
each method.

Problem title

Space

Main menu

Past opinion
Figure 1. System Interface

2.2 Evaluation
The program of the experiment to evaluate this system is described as follows. The evaluation experiment
was conducted in an actual class. Table 4 shows the outline of our investigation. In the evaluation

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experiment, it was necessary to evaluate from both sides of the objectivity data and the subjectivity data. The
degree of improvement of “Power to think” was measured by retrieving information used when each student
wrote a report: the number of words, the process of getting the answer, the changes in the information that
the student used, and the information that the learner finally output. The interface usability of the tool was
measured in the subjectivity evaluation.
Table 5 shows the investigation item completed in the pre- questionnaire. The question paper consisted of
thirty-two items concerning the learner’s attributes and how to think to solve the problems Thirty-two items
were investigated on a 5-point Likert scale.
Table 4. Outline of investigation

INVESTIGATION OBJECT High school students and teachers living in Tokyo

DATE From the end of October to the end of November, 2008 (one month)
PLACE A Tokyo high school
PARTICIPANT Two first-year classes
EVALUATION METHOD Pre- questionnaire
Post-questionnaire
Construction of class report
FORM Question paper (selection + free description)
Report (class assignment given by the teacher)
Table 5. Investigation item in pre-questionnaire
First part: Please answer each of the following items.
1. Name 2. Age 3. Sex 4. Grade
5. What do you want to become in the future? 6. For how long per week do you use a PC at home?
7. Of those hours, how long do you use the PC for classes? 8. When did you start to use a PC?
9. Is there a PC in your house? 10. Do you have a PC of your own?
11. What is your hobby?
12. For what purpose do you use PC? Please apply a * sign to all corresponding items.
1. Word processor 2. Programming 3. Database 4. Email
5. Game 6. Internet 7. Others ( )
13. Please choose four of the following sources that are important for you, numbered in order of importance.
1. Television 2. Newspapers 3. Books 4. Movies
5. Internet 6. Music 7. Class 8. Conversation
9. Others ( )
14. Are you interested in the class called “Information Study”?
15. How does your high school information education experience differ from that of junior high school?
16. What was most interesting in the class about information?
17. Do you want to make the video game?
18. Do you want to play a particular game more?
Second part: Please apply a * sign to each of the following statements about yourself with which you agree.
1. Have something interesting talk about.
2. Good at using examples in conversation.
3. Can change thinking on and off easily.
4. Have various viewpoints.
5. Good at finding common features among different things.
6. Able to divide one problem into several smaller problems.
7. Have a wide base of knowledge.
8. Can come up with the ideas for solutions easily when faced with a problem.
9. If a problem cannot be solved in a certain way, can think of other ways immediately.
10. It is often said that you think of things that other people do not.
11. You can view from various aspects about one phenomenon.
12. It is possible to associate it one after another.
13. Asks questions whenever something is not understood.
14. Quick to gain understanding.
15. It is not anxious what your friends regard you as. 16. An opinion different from one’s own is not easily expressed.
17. Often asked how to solve problems.
18. Have firm opinions.
19. Have confidence when one thinks something can be done.
20. Can come up with the ideas for solutions easily when faced with a problem.

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21. Often said to be unique.

22. The structure of problems can be understood well.
23. When come up with the idea, you think about the packaging method.24. Often thinks about the structure of a
problem before solving it.
25. Various ways of solving the problem are discovered at the same time.
26. Can enjoy a fierce argument.
27. Believes that one has the power to understand the essence of ideas.
28. Even if a problem is solved, thinks there may be more attractive ways in which to solve it.
29. If a problem cannot be solved, gets irritated.
30. Is tenacious.
31. Prefers solving problems in one’s own way rather than in the best possible way.
32. You don’t consent when it is not logically.

3. CONCLUSION
The preparation and results cannot yet be considered for this experiment. It is thought that changes took place
in the students’ thinking patterns due to the specification of this system, and the fact that “Informatical and
Systematical Thinking” was acquired in the form of what loans is seen as a result of being possible to expect
it. It is thought that these effect and more can be expected through the use of this system in the long term; in
our experiment, however, the system was only used for a single month.
It is also necessary to compare this system with the direct guidance of “Informatical and Systematical
Thinking” as future tasks. This system was created for the teacher who was unable to effectively guide
students in “Informatical and Systematical Thinking.” Yet, it is thought that the use of this system will
increase if it is shown that it is more useful than the case guided directly.
We focused on the class support system for “Information Study,” a standard high school subject. We
sorted out the problems with the class and developed a system that aimed to “share students” ability to think
for themselves, to conceive various alternatives, and to take responsibility for their answers when they are
ordinarily accustomed to prepared correct answers. This was an important target for information education.
We developed a prototype of a board system that, in every lesson, organized the day’s content for students
and synchronized with others in the summary. We experimented with ways to use the system in class and
examined the evaluation method.

REFERENCES
Book
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2000. Description of Education Ministry guidelines in
high school in “Information Study” chapter, Kairyudo-publishers, Tokyo, Japan
Journal
Rie EMOTO, 2006. A Practical Research on ‘Informatical and Systematical Thinking’ as a Standpoint to be Applied to
Solving Problems. Special Issue: Accomplishments and Issues in Information and Communication Technology
Education, Journal of Japan Society for Educational Technology, Vol. 30, No.3, pp. 213-222
Shu-Ling Wang, Pei-Yi Wu, 2008. The role of feedback and self-efficacy on web-based learning: The social cognitive
perspective, Computers & Education, Vol. 51, Issue 4, pp.1589-1598
Conference paper or contributed volume
Hiroko KANOH. 2007. The Comparison of Situation and Contents about Completion of Information. Journal of Japan
Society for Science Education 31, Hokkaido, Japan, pp. 175-178.

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THE SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR THE PROJECT BASED

LEARNING

Makio Fukuda
Osaka International University
Osaka JAPAN

Michinori Yamashita
Rissho University
Tokyo JAPAN

Toshiyuki Ueyama
Chiba University of Commerce
Chiba JAPAN

Atsushi Tsubokura
Nippon Bunri University
Oita JAPAN

Minae Nishimoto
Kwanseigakuin University
Hyogo JAPAN

ABSTRACT
This research develops the system that supports the decision of the theme and making the research plan in the project
based learning. This system solves various problems of the project based learning, and aims at the improvement of the
learning effect.

KEYWORDS
Project based Learning, University students, Problem Solving, Graduation Research, Research plan

1. INTRODUCTION
Project Based Learning in Japan, from elementary school to graduate school at many stages of education.
Typical Project Learning at the University is called "Graduation Research" in Japan.
The graduation research is a class that researches some themes in one year before it graduates from the
university. In the graduation research, the student behaves according to the guidance of the teacher, and the
teacher guides it to the behavior result. In a word, it is a class form advanced while discussing between
students and the teacher.
The graduation research is a splendid chance that a lot of abilities about the problem-solving, the
communication and the presentation, etc. demanded in the society are promoted.
In this research, it aims to develop the computer system to support the teacher and the student of the
process for the planning of research especially paying attention to "Graduation research" in the project based
learning.

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2. GRADUATION RESEARCH AS A PROJECT BASED LEARNING

The graduation research is a class classified into the Project Based Learning. The process of the graduation
research is as follows. My class targets ten students. And, one theme of one student is given.
(1) Theme of research is decided by the argument of the student and the teacher.
(2) The research plan is established.
(3). The student performs investigation and an experiment by the research plan
(4) The result of investigation and the experiment is analyzed by the student.
(5) The student presents the result of the research.
We call that (1) and (2) are the first process, (3) is the middle process., (4) and (5) are last process.
The graduate research is the important learning for the student to learn it about problem-solving.
However, the graduation research has the following problems.
(1) The content of the teacher's guidance to the student is greatly different according to the teacher's
specialized field and his experience.
(2) The season when the student start the graduation research is the season of the job hunting in Japan.
Therefore, the student cannot do the approach that concentrated on the graduation research.
(3) The student often delay the entire process because there is no knowledge about the planning method
and the management method of the project for graduation research.
Especially, low performance work in the first process often causes a delay of the work beginning and
many corrections of work.

3. THE OUTLINE OF SUPPORT SYSTEM

The system that develops by this research is composed of "The decision support system for the theme of
Project" and "The support system for the making of Research Plan".

Figure 1. The General View of the Support System

3.1 The Decision Support System for the Theme of Project

The role of this system is support that students decide the theme of their project.
In this system, the following selecting steps will narrow themes.
(1) The student chooses a rough most interesting field.
(2) Next, the one interesting in the word related to the rough field is chosen.
(3) The standpoint in the field of the relating word is chosen.
(4) Selecting the aspect of the research.
How concrete, first shown in Figure 2, " Screen to decision theme " projected expansion in the LCD
projector. Then, while watching the screen, while teachers and students to promote discussion. This screen is
composed of items such as "Interesting Field", "Related word of the field", "Aspect concerning the related
word", and "Standpoint concerning the related word".

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The student chooses answering as the question displayed on the screen.

Other students in the same place can also see these processes. Because other students think that they serve
as a reference when own theme is decided.
Finally, sentences that connect the word as which these are chosen are output. The student decides the
theme by proofreading incomplete sentences to merely connect the word.
We look for each term of "Related word", "Standpoint", and "Aspect" from the data base in the research
paper. This database is Japan National Institute of Informatics.

Figure 2. The screen to Decision Theme

3.2 The Support System for the Making of Research Plan

The research plan document is made in the first process. The content of the research plan document is a
concretely described about “Back ground and purpose”, “Procedure” and “schedule”.
In this research, we developed the system to support making the research plan document. And, this
system achieves the standardization of the graduation research.
This system satisfies the following two points.
(1) The purpose, the meaning, the method and the evaluation of graduate research should be able to be
examined from various aspects in the first process.
(2) The student have could understand the plan of the graduation research structurally.
This system displays the question sentence in the data base.
The student inputs the answer for the question sentence to "Answer input" column on the screen in Figure
3. "Intention of the question" is displayed under the question sentence. This purpose is to support the
student's input. Moreover, "Answer example" is displayed. The system connects these answer sentences and
outputs it as syntax and a text file. And, it is displayed on the screen. The student proofreads this text file by
handling the editor. And, the student submits it to the teacher as a research plan document.

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Figure 3. The screen to make Plan

4. OPERATION
The operation using this Support System is shown in Figure 4.

①
Briefing
Teacher ⑥ Guidance

④
② Input
Proofread Document
Students
Teacher
③
Research Plan

⑤ Evaluation
Document
Evaluation

Figure 4. The processing order

(1) Briefing by a teacher.
(2) Students input the Result of Discussing about Theme.
(3) The idea of the Research Plan is output.
(4) Students proofread the Research Plan.
(5) The teacher evaluate the student’s Research Plan.
(6) The teachers vote to use the evaluation and give guidance to students.

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5. EXAMINATION
We examine the measurement the effect by the introduction of this system. And, we searched for the problem
in operation of this system at the same time.
The concrete examine method is the comparison for the research plan document of the group that used the
support system and the research plan document of the group that didn't use the support system.
The group that used the support system was assumed to be "Group A", and the group that didn't use the
support system was assumed to be "Group B". As for the general evaluation of the research plan document
that had been totaled after examine had been ended, “Group A” was higher.
In addition, the total of the evaluation of each chapter was a comparable result.
And, these evaluation results were given to test by the method of “Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test”. The
following can be said as a result.
(1) It may be said that there is the difference on the evaluation average of "Group A" and “Group B"
when seeing overall.
(2) In the chapter of "Background and purpose", it can be said that there is a difference of the evaluation
between "Group A" and "Group B".
(3) In the chapter of "Method", it can be said that there is the difference of the evaluation between "Group
A" and "Group B".
Therefore, the evaluation of the group that uses the system is overall high in each chapter.

6. CONCLUSION
The following can say from the result of examine.
(1) This system achieved efficiency improvement in the first process of graduation research.
The research plan document made by using this system is obviously standardized. And, shortening the
period of the first process was able to be attempted by using this system.
(2) The student understood how to make the plan through the experience.
The composition was learnt because it had input it repeating the reply for the question on each chapter of
which the student composed the plan many times.
(3) The standardization of the content was able to be attempted.

REFERENCES
Makio Fukuda, Sinji Kimura, Tadashi Ishiketa. 1996. CAI for the System Engineer Improving the Problem
Understanding Ability. Proc. AEESEAP'96 International Conference on Engineering Education, Chiba, JAPAN, pp.
T3-15-1-T3-15-4
Massey, AP; Ramesh,V; Khatri, 2006. Design, development, and assessment of mobile applications. The case for
problem-based learning. 2006, IEEE Transaction on Education, 149 (2), 183-192．

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MULTIMEDIA E-LEARNING CONTENT FOR

NON-BROADBAND USERS DEVELOPED BY WEBELS
SYSTEM

Zheng He, Jingxia Yue, Haruki Ueno

National Institute of Informatics
2-1-2 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8430, Japan

ABSTRACT
This paper discuss on the development of multimedia e-learning content for non-broadband users supported by a platform
named WebELS. This kind of content is series of image-based slides combined with synchronized audio data and cursor
movement. Comparison between the WebELS content and video-based content was carried out and positive results were
obtained.

KEYWORDS
E-Learning content, multimedia, non-broadband, Speex.

1. INTRODUCTION
The rapid development of computer and Internet technologies has made e-learning become an important
education method. One of the key characteristics of the e-learning is its capability to integrate different media
such as text, picture, audio and video to create multimedia contents which will provide flexible information
associated with instructional design and authoring skills to motivate the learning interests and willingness
inside students (Anaraki 2004; Carver 1999; Jane 1997; Sun 2005).
Generally, to support multimedia contents a network has to provide: bandwidth, consistent quality of
service and multipoint packet delivery. Today's multimedia applications have some bandwidth requirements.
For example, 64 kbps for telephone-quality audio, 100 kbps for simple application sharing, 128kbps to
1Mbps for videoconferencing, 1.54Mbps for MPEG video. Therefore, the multimedia e-learning with
acceptable quality seems to be impossible for that non-broadband. (Low 2002; Apivate 2008)
This paper discuss on the multimedia e-learning contents developed for non-broadband users, which is
supported by an e-learning platform named WebELS. The e-learning contents are image-based slide
combined with synchronized audio and cursor movements. Teachers can create or edit their multimedia
contents by transferring or integrating different kinds of raw materials then achieve them on WebELS server;
students can access those contents anywhere anytime even without wideband connection (Ueno 2002).

2. WEBELS SYSTEM

2.1 System Overview

WebELS is an online e-learning platform aiming to not only assist teachers to develop, deliver or archive
multimedia contents on the web, but also provide students various materials and flexible tools to study in
their own learning styles. Both asynchronous and synchronous learning are supported on this platform. The
system includes three main modules:
Editor: to develop multimedia contents from raw materials in various
Player: to provide a friendly e-learning platform for online or offline learning

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Manager: to manage achieved contents and categories, and information on course enrollment
In WebELS system, implementation of editor, player and manager is based on a typical (B/S) structure as
Figure 1. All user interfaces are implemented on web pages. Main tasks are executed by server side and only
small work is carried out on browser side, it will much lighten the loads on client-side computers. Moreover,
this kind of system can be accessed and used without downloading or install other tools beforehand.

Figure 1. Architecture of WebELS system

2.2 WebELS Content

The creations of contents that are able of capturing the attention of interest of the students and their disposal
in an appropriate way constitute the main purpose (Suarez 2008). WebELS content consists in three
elements: image files, audio files and cursor files. To simulate the real-life lecture as practical as to record it
by video camera, the image files graphically present lecture contents or lecturer’s image; the audio files can
be inserted into each image file accordingly; and the cursor files point out the lecture’s process.
All information involved in one slide of the course is stored into the database as Table1. WebELS system
provides an editor applet to easily synchronize the image, audio and cursor files like to record the lecture in a
virtual classroom. Therefore file size is decreased compared with most of the multimedia files while content
quality and teaching effect are ensured.
Table1. Data structure for one slide in WebELS content

Name Type Details

CourseIDinteger The ID assigned for each course
SlideNuminteger The slide number in certain course
DataTyp integer The type of data to be recorded into certain slide
DATA BLOB The data recorded in certain slide

3. IMPLEMENTION

3.1 Image-based Content

The WebELS content is present by series of images instead of video stream. Not only the e-learning contents
originally prepared in PDF, PPT or DOC format but also those pictures used to describe lecture scenes (such
as GIF, JPG and PNG format) will be automatically converted into a kind of image format by an edit applet
before they are uploaded to the WebELS server.
Figure 2 compares the picture quality between image-based contents provided by WebELS system and
video contents played by Windows Media Player. Obviously, the image-based picture with 800×600 pixels is
clearer and brighter than video picture with 512×342 pixels. So, if users have to limit the size of learning
contents due to network environment, image-based contents would be a possible substitution.

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Figure 3 is an example of image-based contents with enough resolution to ensure complete details in the
picture. By freely zooming or dragging such content based on high-quality images, students can see those
fine details which are difficult to recognize in common video contents.

Figure 2. Comparison image quality between image-based contents and video contents

Figure 3. Image-based contents in WebELS system with zoom-in function

3.2 SPEEX Audio Files

Audio contents are indispensable part in an e-learning course, and vocal files with high quality assist students
to understand lectures more clearly and actively. Normally, to improve the audio quality would result in large
size and heavy load of the audio contents, which is unpractical for non-broadband users. Therefore, an audio
format with high quality as well as low size is necessary.

Figure 4. Implementation of SPEEX audio files in WebELS system

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SPEEX is an audio compression format designed especially for speech. It is well-adapted to Internet
applications and provides useful features that are not present in most other codec. It is a free alternative to
expensive proprietary speech codec thus lowering the barrier of entry for voice applications.
In WebELS system, the audio contents are embedded into the e-learning contents by an editor applet. The
audio datum either recorded and saved previously or transmitted through sound pick-up outfits are encoded
into the SPEEX format. Thus the encoded audio data are saved into their corresponding slides one by one.
Figure 4 illustrates how the SPEEX audio files are implemented to the WebELS content.

3.3 A Synchronized Cursor

In the WebELS content, a cursor file is also embedded into each slide of the contents to simulate lectures’
action. Users can point the cursor onto the corresponding slide to tip the topic they are talking on, show the
points they want to strengthen. Each slide file in an e-learning course has its own timeline, which is used to:
i) chronologically record the cursor positions (x, y); ii) simultaneously store the information of the embedded
audio stream (s, f), which represents the current state (play or stop) and frame numbers.
As Figure 5, the cursor position is synchronized with audio stream in each slide file by the time shaft:
when t=t0, (S0, f0)=(play, 0) (the audio stream started playing) and the cursor position is (0, 0); when t=t1, (S1,
f1)=(stop, f1) (the audio stream was paused) and the cursor position is (x1, y1); when t=ti, (Si, fi)=(play, fi)
(the audio stream has processed fi frames) and the cursor position is (xi, yi).
Moreover, a continuous audio stream file can be dispersed to synchronize with each cursor position
according to the frame numbers recorded by the timeline. See the “decreased Audio Stream File” in Figure 5,
the file size was compressed when let f1=f4 and f5= f7. In fact, the playing time of the audio stream is
normally smaller than the acting time of the cursor although both of the actions are simultaneously recorded.
Compared with the complete synchronous recording system, the file size of the audio stream which was
edited based on timeline was decreased.

Figure 5. Synchronization of cursor positions with audio stream

4. COMPARISON
A comparison was carried out between video based contents and WebELS contents as Table 2. The original
content was a 42-minute video file with AVI format which was recorded in the classroom. Then the video
based content was edited on the WebELS system and converted into image-based content attached by audio
and cursor files. See table 2, the content size was much decreased while the image resolution was improved.
Both of the contents were presented by using 56K modem and only WebELS content played smoothly.
Furthermore, to test the degree of sensitivity to network condition, the two kinds of contents was played
under different network bandwidths. In the test, we firstly installed a streaming server for video content (free
software named GNUMP3d was used as the streaming server) and WebELS server for WebELS content on
the same server machine. Then the Bandwidth Controller (free trial version), a tool for bandwidth controlling,
was installed in the client-side computer to simulate various network bandwidths.
Figure 6 shows the time delay which is necessary to open the two kinds of contents under different
network bandwidths, include 56Kbps, 256Kbps, 512Kbps, 1024Kbps and 10Mbps. When the bandwidth is
less than 256Kbps, it was hardly to open the video-based content; WebELS content could be opened with
some delay during playing. And if the bandwidth is under 10Mbps, WebELS contents were easy to open
compared with video contents.

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Table 2. Comparison between video based contents and WebELS contents

Multimedia Contents Contents Size Image Resolution Streaming Quality
Video-based 154MB 512×342 Time lag and delay
WebELS 3.9MB 800×600 Smooth and stable

Figure 6. Comparison of the time delay under various network bandwidths

5. CONCLUSION
A kind of multimedia e-learning content which is accessible for non-broadband users has been developed and
implemented on a platform named WebELS system. The WebELS content is made up of image-based slides
with audio and cursor files, which own small size and high image quality. Audio files attached to each slide
are Speex format which also decrease the file size further. The synchronization of cursor positions with audio
stream not only make the contents more effective and vivid but also lighten the load of the audio stream.
The WebELS system has been launched at Internet URL http://webels.ex.nii.ac.jp/. Samples of
multimedia content are available. Free download source is also provided. The system is distributed as open
source software.

REFERENCES
Anaraki, F., 2004. Developing an Effective and Efficient eLearning Platform. International Journal of the Computer, the
Internet and Management, Vol. 12, No.2, pp 57-63.
Aptivate, 2008, Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth, Online, The Humanitarian Centre, Cambridge University,
http://www.aptivate.org/webguidelines/Multimedia.html (Accessed Sep. 21, 2008)
Carver, C.A. et al, 1999. Enhancing Student Learning Through Hypermedia Courseware and Incorporation of Student
Learning Styles. IEEE Transactions on Education, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp 33-38.
Jain, R., 1997. A Revolution in Education. IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, Vol.4, No. 1, pp 1-5.
Low, A.L.Y. et al, 2003. Multimedia Learning Systems: a Future Interactive Educational Tool. Internet and Higher
Education, Vol.6, No. 1, pp 25–40.
Suarez, M.D.A. et al, 2008. E-learning Multimedia Applications: Towards an Engineering of Content Creation.
International Journal of Computers, Communications & Control, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 116-124.
Sun, P. et al, 2008. What Drives a Successful e-Learning? An Empirical Investigation of the Critical Factors Influencing
Learner Satisfaction. Computers & Education, Vol. 50, No. 4, pp 1183-1202.
Ueno, H. et al, 2002. Web-based Distance Learning for Lifelong Engineering Education - a Personal View and Issues.
Information and Systems in Education, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 45-52.

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SEMANTIC LEARNING RESOURCES INTEGRATION

USING ONTOLOGY-BASED WEB SERVICES METADATA

Ngamnij Arch-int
Semantic Information Integration Laboratory (SIIL)
Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand, 40002

ABSTRACT
This research proposes an architecture of learning resource integration using ontology-based Web services metadata as an
assistance mechanism for integrating the learning resources from heterogeneous e-learning systems. The ontology-based
Web services metadata can be used as a repository of service advertisements to facilitate service discovery. In order to
enrich semantic service discovery, as well as semantic matching of Web service capabilities, the ontology-based Web
services metadata are modeled and mapped into the semantic Web services expressed in OWL-S. The ontology-based
Web services metadata constitutes an environment in which machines or agents can easily communicate on a semantic
basis and render maximal interoperability across heterogeneous e-learning systems.

KEYWORDS
Semantic Web services, semantic service discrepancies, ontology-based metadata, Information Integration, e-Learning
interoperability.

1. INTRODUCTION
With the greater benefits and growing acceptance of e-learning, most educational institutions develop their
Learning Management System or LMS independently. Therefore, the heterogeneous LMS platforms
introduce the problems of cross-system content sharing and exchanging due to the lack of content
compatibility and reusability. Until recently there has been a significant effort to set up a unit of learning into
Learning Object (LO) (Boyle, 2003) based on Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)
(Advanced Distributed Learning, 2004). With the increasing of large amounts of LOs across heterogeneous
repositories, the LOs need to be annotated by standardized metadata (IEEE P1484.12.1, 2002) to facilitate
accessibility, interoperability and reusability. Since most of the metadata standards still lack the formal
semantics and a common standard between heterogeneous metadata descriptions across domains (Stojanovic
et al., 2001), searching for the relevant LOs which have been developed by different authors is still being
difficult to discover and plug into the courseware.
Nowadays, Web services (W3C, 2004) have been identified as the salient technology in providing a
flexible solution for integrating the heterogeneous applications and enabling the dynamic interoperability
between different systems. However, the current service discovery mechanism through UDDI (OASIS,
2001) is not powerful enough for computer-interpretable to enabling automatic Web service discovery and
invocation.
This research proposes an architecture of learning resource integration using ontology-based Web
services metadata as an assistance mechanism for integrating the learning resources from heterogeneous e-
learning systems. In order to enrich semantic service discovery, as well as semantic matching of Web service
capabilities (Guo et al., 2005), the ontology-based Web services metadata are modeled and mapped into the
Web ontology (Uschold and Gruninger, 1996) language for services called OWL-S (Martin et al., 2004). In
addition, the metadata design provides a means to consolidate data retrieved from various web services into a
unified answer, while retaining consistent identification of the data semantics.
The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 presents the architecture of learning
resource integration system. Section 3 illustrates examples of the semantic service discrepancies through a

*
This work is part of the research project of Semantic Information Integration for e-Learning Systems using Ontology and Web Services
model which is supported by the Thailand Research Fund (TRF), Thailand.

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case study and presents how the proposed ontology-based Web services metadata solves the semantic service
discrepancies, and Section 4 summarizes the proposed work.

2. THE LEARNING RESOURCE INTEGRATION ARCHITECTURE

In this section, we focus on describing the logical architecture of learning resource integration system. The
architecture consists of multiple tiers, namely, web client components, learning integration system, and
learning service providers as depicted in Figure 1.

Figure1. The architecture of learning resource integration system

(1) Web client components. The Web client users consist of learning service requesters (e.g. learners,
and content authors) whose are allowed to search for learning online courses provided by learning service
providers. The learning service requesters specify the criteria based on LOM element search terms, such as,
title, keyword, type of resource, classification scheme, contributor, technical format or language, etc. These
input criteria are transferred along with input request data to the communication interface module of the
Learning Integration System.
(2) The Learning Resource Integration System. The Learning Resource Integration System (or LRIS
for short) encompasses six interacting components, namely, the communication interface, service translation
module, service matching engine, service discovery engine, Web service invocation, and user interface
presentation. The LRIS also incorporates ontology-based Web services metadata as a repository of service
advertisements to facilitate semantic service discovery, and to solve the semantic service discrepancies
occurred from heterogeneous learning service providers. The responsibility of each component is described
below.
Communication interface. Upon recognizing that a message is a learner request, the communication
interface transfers the learner inputs to a service discovery engine where an automated services discovery
process is carried out. Upon recognizing that a message is a service advertisement provided by a learning
service provider, the communication interface transfers this service advertisement to a services translation
module and services matching engine. As such, the ontology-based service advertisement is initiated and
matched over the semantically equivalent set of services advertised in an ontology-based metadata.
Ontology-based Web service metadata. The main functions of the ontology-based Web services
metadata can be summarized as follows: First, to provide an abstract view for the e-learning application
domain through a common ontology on which users can pose their requests in the terms (concepts) used in a
common ontology. Second, to provide a mapping mechanism to translate terms in a common ontology into
the associated input and output parameters of Web service providers such that the semantic service
discrepancies occurring from heterogeneous service providers are thus eliminated. Third, to enable automatic
Web service discovery by providing an abstract view for describing Web services’ properties and
capabilities.
Semantic discovery engine. Upon receiving the learner’s search criterion, the semantic discovery engine
combines the learner’s input criteria and matches against input parameters advertised in service profiles of
ontology-based Web services metadata. The correspondent service properties of learning service providers

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are thus returned from the ontology-based Web services metadata and forwarded along with learner’s input
data to the next component, Web services invocation component.
Web services invocation. The Web services invocation is responsible for providing an interface wrapper
to convert the incoming service properties and learner’s input data into a service request information called
SOAP (W3C, 2003) message. In the reverse direction, the Web service invocation component collects SOAP
response results obtained from each learning service provider and integrates into a canonical XML-based
result called a unified-learning result before forwarding to the user interface presentation component.
User interface presentation. The user interface presentation is responsible for formatting a unified-
learning result obtained from a Web service invocation module into a Web-based learning information before
presenting to the Web clients. The learning information provides lists of available learning courses offered by
different learning service providers, such as course title, technical format or type of file, size, course
description, content provider, and course location or URL. Upon the presentation of available learning
courses, the web clients can register to a desired course locating on a distributed learning site by calling the
learning registration service of the correspondent service provider.
Services translation module. Once the learning service providers advertise their service descriptions
through the communication interface, the learning service providers have to publish their service information,
such as provider information, and service descriptions, such as, service name, service category and WSDL
(Christensen et al., 2001) location. This service information is subsequently translated into an ontology-
based service advertisement expressed in OWL-S through this service translation module before forwarding
to the next component, services matching engine.
Services matching engine. The services matching engine is responsible for associating new semantic
service advertisement derived from the services translation module to current services information advertised
in ontology-based Web services metadata. The core objective of the services matching engine is to manage a
set of semantic correspondent parameters between these service advertisements by providing a means to
identify the semantic equivalent input or output parameters between service profiles. These sets of semantic
correspondent parameters are thus subsequently mapped into terms defined in a common ontology based on
LOM element search terms at user view.
(3) Learning Service Providers. The learning service providers consist of existing distributed LMSs
located at different educational sites. This tier aims to provide various kinds of services, such as, the user
registration services, and online course discovery services. The learning service providers register to the
LRIS via the communication interface and advertise their services in the ontology-based Web services
metadata through the service matching engine.

3. A CASE STUDY

3.1 Semantic Service Discrepancies for E-Learning Domain

To illustrate the application of the proposed ontology-based Web services metadata to a practical use and the
solution of the semantic service discrepancies, this section demonstrates examples of service information that
are described in WSDL files provided by different learning service providers as illustrated in Table 1.
Table 1. Example of services information provided by different learning service providers

LMS1: Web Service descriptions in WSDL file LMS2: Web Service descriptions in WSDL file
Operation: GetDesiredCourseDetails_Operation Operation: RequestSubject_Operation
Inputs Type Outputs Type Inputs Type Outputs Type
CourseCategory String CourseTitle String SubjectCategory String SubjectTitle String
CourseTitle String CourseFileType String SubjectKeyword String SubjectFileType String
CourseKeyword String CourseFileSize PositiveInteger SubjectFileType String SubjectFileSize String
CourseFileType String CourseDescription String SubjectDescription String
CourseExpense Decimal SubjectCost Integer

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The service information provided by learning service provider 1 (LMS1) consists of the operation
GetDesiredCourseDetails_Operation, which requires four input parameters: CourseCategory, CourseTitle,
CourseKeyword, and CourseFileType. It also produces five output parameters: CourseTitle,
CourseFileType, CourseFileSize, CourseDescription, and CourseExpense. The service information provided
by learning service provider 2 (LMS2) consists of the operation RequestSubject_Operation, which requires
three input parameters: SubjectCategory, SubjectKeyword, and SubjectFileType. It then produces five output
parameters: SubjectTitle, SubjectFileType, SubjectFileSize, SubjectDescription, and SubjectCost. The
service information from these different learning service providers illustrates three types of semantic service
discrepancies. First, parameter name discrepancies occur when the parameters with different names, for
instance the CourseCategory input from LMS1 and the SubjectCategory input from LMS2, are semantically
equivalent input parameters since they all refer to the same fact. Second, data type discrepancies occur when
the parameters, for instance the CourseFileSize output from LMS1 and the SubjectFileSize output from
LMS2, have different predefined types, “PositiveInteger” and “String,” respectively. Finally, scaling
discrepancies occur when the parameters, for instance the CourseExpense output from LMS1 and the
SubjectCost output from LMS2, have different units of measure, “EUR” and “USD,” respectively. These
examples will serve as the basis for the ontology-based Web services metadata design in the sections that
follow.

3.2 Ontology-based Web Services Metadata Representation

For this research, we illustrate two service profile instances named Profile_LMS1_LearningCenterService and
Profile_LMS2_LearningCenterService which are typed in the Academic_LearningCenterService class as shown in
Figure 2. Each service profile instance can associate to the advertised parameter instances through the
hasInput or hasOutput property defined as a sub-property of the hasParameter property. For example, the
CourseTitle_OUT and CourseExpense_OUT are advertised parameter instances of the
Profile_LMS1_LearningCenterService and are typed in the Output class. These advertised parameter instances
are associated with the Profile_LMS1_LearningCenterService through the hasOutput property. The advertised
parameter instances that are typed in the Output and Input classes inherit the parameterType, dataType, and
scalingType properties from the Parameter class. As such, the semantic service discrepancies can be resolved
by means of these properties described as follows.
r
dataType anyURI
r Class
LOMelement parameterType r
scalingType anyURI
d d property
d
sc r hasParameter
ServiceProfile
Parameter d instance
sp sc
sc d Profile
r hasInput
sc Input sp sc
r d
Cost Title Keyword Category hasOutput Academic_LearningCenterService
Output
type
String
dataType Profile_LMS1_LearningCenterService type
parameterType hasOutput
CourseTitle_OUT hasInput …..
hasOutput
Profile_LMS2_LearningCenterService
Decimal dataType CourseExpense_OUT
parameterType hasOutput hasInput …..
EUR scalingType hasOutput
parameterType String dataType SubjectTitle_OUT Integer
dataType
SubjectCost_OUT USD
parameterType scalingType

Figure 2. A portion of ontology-based Web services metadata: mapping of service ontology to common ontology level
To solve the parameter name discrepancies, the semantic mapping process has to be performed by
allowing the learning service providers to identify the semantic correspondence between the advertised
parameter instances and the requested parameters. For example, the advertised parameter instance

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CourseTitle_OUT and SubjectTitle_OUT, which are typed in the Output class, are associated with the
equivalent Title class, since they all refer to the same fact. Consequently, the parameter name discrepancies
stemming from such differences are eliminated.
To solve data type and scaling discrepancies, the LOMelement’s subclasses inherit the following two
additional unified properties from the LOMelement class: hasDataType and hasScalingType properties that
hold the predefined data type and scaling data type, respectively. For example, if the unified properties of
Cost are of the predefined data type “Decimal” and scaling data type “USD,” any data value returned from
CourseExpense_OUT and SubjectCost_OUT with different data types or units of measure can be converted
into the unified data of Cost instance with the same “Decimal” data type and “USD” unit of measurement.
This common ontology provides uniform access to learning data gathered from different learning resources
available through the course Web sites.

4. CONCLUSION
This work has presented the architecture of learning resource integration using ontology-based Web service
metadata as an assistance mechanism for the service discovery and matching engines, as well as solving the
semantic service discrepancies. The ontology-based Web services metadata provided an abstract view for the
e-learning application domain through a common ontology on which users can pose their requests in the
terms or concepts used in this common ontology. The semantic matching engine provided a mapping
mechanism to map terms in a common ontology into the semantically equivalent input or output parameters
from service profiles such that the semantic service discrepancies occurring from heterogeneous service
providers are thus eliminated. The ontology-enhanced service discovery could use the service information
provided by the ontology-based Web service metadata to automatically locate dispersed services from
external service providers. The ontology-based Web services metadata was represented in a form of OWL-S
that constitutes an environment in which machines or agents can easily communicate on a semantic basis and
render maximal interoperability across heterogeneous systems.

REFERENCES
Advanced Distributed Learning. 2004. SCORM® 2nd Edition Overview. [Online] Available at: http://www.adlnet.org
[Accessed 20 May 2005].
Boyle T., 2003. Design principles for authoring dynamic, reusable learning objects. In Australian Journal of Educational
Technology, Vol. 19, No.1, pp. 46-58.
Christensen E., Curbera F., Meredith G., and Weerawarana S. 2001. Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 1.1.
[Online] Available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl [Accessed 2 April 2005].
Guo, R., Le, J. and Xia, X., 2005. Capability Matching of Web services Based on OWL-S. Proceedings of the Sixteenth
International Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Applications, DEXA-05. Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 653-
657.
IEEE P1484.12.1. 2002. Learning Object Metadata (LOM) Standard. [Online] Available at: http://ltsc.ieee.org/wg12/
[Accessed 10 June 2004].
Martin D., Burstein M., Hobbs J., Lassila O., McDermott D., Mcllraith S., Narayanan S., Paolucci M., Parsia B., Payne
T., Sirin E., Srinivasan N., and Sycara K. 2004. Owl-s: Semantic markup for web services. [Online] Available at:
http: //www.daml.org/services/owl-s/1.1/overview/ [Accessed 3 January 2006].
OASIS. 2001. Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) [Online] Available at: http://www. uddi.org/.
Stojanovic, L., Staab, S. and Studer, R., 2001. eLearning based on the Semantic Web. World Conference on the WWW
and Internet (WebNet-01). Orlando, Florida, USA.
Uschold M. and Gruninger M., 1996. ONTOLOGIES: Principles, Methods and Applications, In The Knowledge
Engineering Review, Vol. 11, No.2, pp. 93-155.
W3C. 2003. SOAP version 1.2 Part 0: Primer. [Online] Available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/soap12-part0/ [Accessed 10
Mar 2005].
W3C. 2004. Web Services Architecture. [Online] Available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/ [Accessed 10 Mar 2005].

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 IADIS International Conference e-Society 2009

COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT AND

ASSESSMENT

Kamelia Stefanova, Valentin Kissimov

University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria

Dorina Kabakchieva, Roumen Nikolov

Centre of Information Society Technologies, Sofia University ”St. Kl. Ohridski”
125 Tzarigradsko shosse Blvd., Sofia, Bulgaria

ABSTRACT
An enterprise’s competitiveness today is to a large extent determined by its ability to seamlessly interoperate with others.
Observing and analyzing the growing need for collaboration, an international team of academic and industry partners is
involved in the development of an innovative integrated collaborative platform, intended to support collaboration
activities of SMEs which cannot afford the expensive software solutions available on the market. The main objective of
this paper is to present the research methodology used for identification of the platform architecture and functionalities
creation, and for evaluation of the developed solution. The results, achieved within the implemented project, could
encourage and support the European SMEs in developing their IT infrastructure, providing useful directions and possible
solutions for solving some pressing business needs. A number of ideas, related to further research, development and
exploitation of the collaborative environment, are also provided.

KEYWORDS
Collaborative Network, Extended Enterprise, Enterprise Interoperability

1. INTRODUCTION
Globalisation nowadays is linked to the enterprise challenge of managing changes and innovation in an
increasingly competitive world, as noted in the Enterprise Interoperability Research Roadmap [European
Commission, 2006]. The Roadmap also observes that this challenge is greater for small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs), “which do not have the large R&D budgets available to the large corporations and have
more limited capability to interoperate with other enterprises (if at all)”. An enterprise’s competitiveness
today is to a large extent determined by its ability to seamlessly interoperate with others. Collaboration,
in terms of the increased (by the medium of Internet) opportunities different objects (things, people and
firms) to work together, is considered as the new foundation of competitiveness [Tabscott, 2006]. There is a
process of transformation of the companies into flatter and more specialized enterprises, that link suppliers
and other businesses and form a larger, more open, value-creation entity (“business web”) [Tabscott, 2007].
The main aim of this paper is to present the critical challenges that SMEs should undertake in order to
keep their position well organized within the networked environment, to introduce the need for developing a
newly designed collaborative environment, and to describe a methodology for evaluating the results of its
development and implementation. The paper puts a focus on the research and development done in the
context of the EC 6FP Project E4 “Extended Enterprise management in Enlarged Europe”
(http://e4.cognovis.de/) which aims at developing an innovative integrated collaborative environment,
specifically tailored to support the communication and design needs of suppliers, operating in a network
which could involve companies from all over Europe.

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2. RATIONALE
While, globally, virtual collaboration among enterprises is growing, the clear lack of collaborative networks
among SMEs in EU and especially in Eastern Europe is an issue that comes with the looking for reliable
partners and investors. In domains, concerning the manufacturing of assembled products, suppliers and SMEs
rely on a great variety of tools, which are not integrated, difficult to use and often ineffective. High costs are
sustained to acquire tools of different make as required by the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM).
Besides, some challenges evolving from the OEM and SMEs requirements for team productivity should also
be considered. A technology, specifically designed to support product development and manufacturing
processes for co-located teams, is needed. Since the enterprise “moves from simple organization to a
complex networked organization (an extended enterprise)” some enriched views about it are needed
[Nightingale&Rhodes, 2004]. Enterprise Systems Architecting is considered as a “new strategic approach
which takes a systems perspective, viewing the entire enterprise as a holistic system encompassing multiple
views such as organization view, process view, knowledge view, and enabling information technology view
in an integrated framework”. Observing and analyzing the growing need for collaboration, the research team
devoted its efforts to developing an innovative, integrated, inexpensive and user-friendly software solution,
supporting collaboration activities in manufacturing business networks.

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The project development vision is to create an innovative environment specifically tailored to the needs of
suppliers operating in a network which involves companies from allover Europe. The main objective of the
research work is devoted to establish the readiness of the European market, and especially the SMEs, to use
an Extended Enterprise Management (EEM) platform and to identify the functionalities that such a platform
should perform.

Figure 1. Main research perspectives

The first activities were focused on the organization of market research and competitors’ analysis in order
to identify the market niches, technological gaps and concrete market demands. Fig.1 presents the relevant
steps undertaken while building a conceptual picture of the current market situation of available
technological solutions that solve the collaborative SMEs needs in Europe. The implemented research
approach distinguishes between overall enterprise tools for collaborative business processes and their
interoperability in terms of the extended enterprise idea, and special enterprise tools that cover parts of it. The
areas for differentiation and chances for improvement or extension are analyzed. The methodological
approach of the market analysis is summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. Methodological approach of the market analysis
Overall enterprise tools, including: Special enterprise tools for:
• ERP-Systems • Collaborative Management
• CAE Systems • Product Structure Management
• PM Tools • Collaborative Knowledge Management
Research and analysis of the scope and feasibility of • Quality Control Management
interoperability in respect of the extended enterprise Research and analysis of differentiation and
idea and functionalities. improvement/extension in respect of extended
enterprise idea and functionalities.

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The research was focused on a broad analysis of the vendors’ profiles, IT-solutions/tools for supporting
collaborative business networks in extended product development, and the main characteristics performed by
these products. It was found out that in all domains concerned with assembled products, the design is usually
carried out by a network of enterprises which take responsibility of subsystems at the higher tier, and of
simpler components at the lower tier. The SMEs, most often placed at lower tiers, usually perform activities
that tend to be short and plagued with frequent design changes originating from the higher levels. The
analysis revealed that each enterprise, participating in the existing networks within the manufacturing domain
targeted by the research, is typically a member of more than one development network. Each network is a
sort of a commonwealth, where different languages and tools are in use. In order to survive, the suppliers
within the network should configure and perform a large variety of tools. Sometimes they are guests of the
big proprietary system of the OEM, other times they have to acquire new tools. The results are high costs of
investment, high costs of training and high frequency of errors. In order to manage the activities, smaller
suppliers rely on simple project management (PM) tools such as MS Project or even Excel, which are good
for initial planning, but inadequate for project control and adaptation. The fact is that the product data
management (PDM) tools have appeared at the market focussing on the needs of SMEs, with simplified
features which make them affordable. But the needs of the SMEs go well beyond a PDM - they need to
coordinate all their activities through a single integrated environment that equips them with the full
collaborative functionalities. The final conclusions of the extensive research work are that there are no
available technological solutions which could satisfy the collaborative needs of SMEs linked in a
production network.
In parallel to the performed market research and competitors’ analysis, a user requirements gathering
process was also organized. Potential end users, SMEs especially in Eastern Europe, were interviewed based
on questionnaires, focus group discussions and interviews. The results revealed that the critical SME
requirements are related to the needs of integration between the OEM and the suppliers, and to the realization
of a distributed access in terms of a collaborative use of the environment. The formulated main development
objective is to establish an effective, integrated, easy to understand, user friendly and low cost solution
that will combine the following functions into one platform: Collaborative Project Management; Project
Monitoring and Control; Quality Control Management; Product Structure Management; Collaborative
Knowledge Management; and connectivity to the legacy systems. Combining all these functionalities in a
single platform for extended enterprise management will satisfy the potential end user (suppliers) needs for:
• Providing quality and traceability: to operate within a well defined framework which corresponds
to standard and well documented procedures;
• Providing visibility and reliability: to be able to report the progress in an objective way;
• Reducing costs and improve quality: to capitalize their expertise and the lessons learned and will
have an easy access to its inner knowledge, past or present;
• Achieving speed and effectiveness: to easily exchange data with the OEM and higher tiers;
• Achieving flexibility and efficiency: to be able to negotiate with the higher tiers especially when it
comes to constraints changes (cost, specifications or times).
The outcomes of the described steps within the presented methodology, lead to the definition of the new
collaborative environment logical architecture, described in the next paper section.

4. PLATFORM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

The logical architecture of the new collaborative environment is presented on Fig.2. It is split into 5 layers –
Data Layer, Common Services Layer, Vertical Modules Layer, Enabling Framework Layer and Presentation
Layer, which are briefly described below.

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Presentation
Layer

Enabling
Framework
Layer

Vertical
Modules Layer

Common
Services Layer

Data Layer

Figure 2. Collaborative Platform Architecture

The lower layer is the Data Layer. Data may reside in the platform itself or be part of External System.
The Platform can exchange information with External Repositories or Systems through standard formats such
as XML. The Knowledge Repository is the whole common repository of the platform; it contains all the
information needed by the vertical modules and all the knowledge shared within the virtual organization.
This information may come from Projects, Deliverables, Products, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and
any other source of knowledge such as documents, ideas, emails, media, exchanged by the platform users.
The User Database resides here; it contains all the user profiles: enterprise employees, customers, suppliers
and administrators of the platform. The Process Model, the Data Model and the Ontology Database contain
the description of the adopted value chain reference model. The Common Services Layer is the layer of
technical fine-grained services. It consists of Ontology and Model Management, Data Management, User
Management, Data Exchange and all services that can provide reusable functions. The Vertical Modules
Layer contains the coarse-grained services. The vertical modules are logical clusters of the main functions of
the complex product development and manufacturing process from a supplier perspective (see Fig. 2). The
Enabling Framework Layer represents the Enterprise Service Bus and the Process Choreography layer of
the collaborative platform, based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles. This module provides a
set of infrastructure capabilities, implemented by middleware technology, that enable the integration and the
choreography of services in the SOA. On the top of the abstraction level is the Presentation Layer which
includes the User Interface module providing an access point to all platform functionalities. The five
architecture layers are fully integrated and ensure provision of different functionalities - Project Management,
Project Monitoring and Control, Project Traceability and Quality Control, Product Structure Management,
Knowledge Management and Connectivity to local OEM systems – combined into one web-based platform.
The constantly increasing complexity and heterogeneity of contemporary collaborative business networks
have led to the urgent needs for common standards and terminologies to support and improve the
collaboration between the participating partners. An important innovative feature of the new collaborative
environment is related to the use of a value chain reference model, providing a process perspective view on
networks and thus improving the collaborative business processes mapping. The software solution is realized
by implementing key emerging technologies - SOA based on Web services and ontology.

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5. PLATFORM ASSESSMENT
The pilot version of the platform is assessed based on the specifically developed testbed methodology,
focusing on three main aspects– identification and removal of potential hurdles, platform validation related to
the main platform functionalities testing in real business scenarios, and identifying the degree of end user
acceptance. The platform development and testing is performed based on the Rational Unified Process (RUP)
– an iterative software development process framework, and the Extreme Programming (XP) software
engineering methodology. Three end-users are involved since the very beginning of the project, starting with
gathering end-user requirements for platform development and finishing with platform testing and validation.
The selected end-users, included as project partners, are three enterprises with different characteristics– a
medium-sized Bulgarian enterprise (with about 1500 employees), producing electric power tools and
working with hundreds of suppliers; a small Slovenian enterprise producing professional kitchen equipment
and representing the formatted industrial cluster; and a Polish very small enterprise (with less than 10
employees) producing windows and working with a number of suppliers delivering window components.
This choice of end users is made in order to cover the variety of enterprises that could be potential platform
users. Specific use cases are created for each end user.
The platform testing intended to prove that the functionalities, delivered by the development team, are in
consistence with the end user requirements, specified at the beginning of the project; that the software is of
high quality and will support the intended business functions; and that the delivered software interfaces
interoperate correctly with the existing information systems. The testing process is performed based on the
developed test cases, executed by end users for validation of specific platform functionalities, reporting
available system bugs, giving suggestions for new functionalities or modifications, and providing feedback
related to system reliability and stability, and user acceptance. A number of Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs), based on ISO 9126 norms, are used for the software evaluation. KPIs from several categories are
selected, related to the platform functionality, reliability, usability, efficiency, maintainability, and
portability. The methodology for platform testing and validation is realized in several iterations. At the first
stage the basic platform functionalities are developed and tested by end users according to the exhaustive test
cases. The project ended with complete tests of the final platform version. The active participation of end
users throughout the whole project lifecycle, and the continuous interactions between the developers and
testers, were the key success factors, ensuring the development of a high quality, user-friendly platform,
providing functionalities that are highly independent of enterprise type and industry sector, and satisfying up-
to-date existing collaborative business demands.

6. FUTURE DEVELOPMENT AND POSSIBLE USE

Further platform development and use could be directed at enterprise networking improvement and value
chain management activities optimization. According to the currently adopted exploitation model, the
developed platform will be available as open source software and will be installed on a server located at the
OEM premises. The OEM will provide an access to the platform for its suppliers, and they will be able to
collaborate during the product development and manufacturing common activities. The platform concept
could be further developed by using a more sophisticated exploitation model – the platform is hosted and
maintained on a server by a platform provider, all companies use the platform by registering themselves and
their products. The catalogues with companies and products profiles, developed according to the complex
products manufacturing requirements, will provide opportunities for the registered enterprises to search for
companies that could be their potential suppliers, or they themselves to be found as possible suppliers of
bigger OEMs with introduction of selecting procedures using different KPIs. The development and
implementation of a platform with a wide range of collaborative functionalities within SMEs could
significantly contribute to their value chain management activities optimization. At the current stage, most of
the companies are concentrated mainly on their internal business processes. The platform implementation
will make company managers think about the business processes related to their collaboration with suppliers
within an open and flexible collaborative network. They will have an access to the broader range of
suppliers that could be measured and evaluated according to their actual performance. This will definitely
lead to improved supplier selection, flexible product development and cost effective manufacturing

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processes. The improvement of the value chain performance on the suppliers’ side will make companies
think about optimization of the value chain on the customers’ side. That will reveal new opportunities for
the platform developers and providers who would extend the functionalities, covering the relationships with
customers. In this way all issues related to value chain management optimization could be complete and will
contribute to improving company competitiveness.
The next challenge of research and development would be to upgrade the E4 collaborative environment as
to adapt it to the emergence of the so called Web 2.0 revolution [O’Reilly, 2007]. O’Reilly and his
collaborators consider Web 2.0 as a synonym of a new generation web. They define the core competencies of
Web 2.0 companies: services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability; control over unique,
hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them; trusting users as co-developers;
harnessing collective intelligence; leveraging the long tail through customer self-service; software above the
level of a single device; lightweight user interfaces, development models, and business models. The E4
collaborative environment could evolve into an Entreprise 2.0 environment [Tabscott, 2006; Tabscott, 2007].
The term “Enterprise 2.0”, introduced by the Harvard Business School professor Andrew McAfee, refers to
companies that use predominantly Web 2.0 tools and technologies into the Intranet – to support employees,
partners, suppliers and customers work together, to build networks and share information [McAfee, 2006].

7. CONCLUSION
The market and competitors’ analysis undertaken within the research phase provided the main understanding
of the existing technological gap for supporting SMEs in their collaborative work within expanding Europe.
The main guiding conclusions taken by the feasibility study within selected SMEs revealed needs for
developing an environment that could: support the integration of SMEs and suppliers in the networked
enterprise; realize distributed access in terms of a collaborative use of a platform; achieve higher quality and
efficiency in executing distributed processes related to products design and manufacturing. The reason for
creating this vision is based on the fact that virtual collaboration among enterprises is growing, especially due
to companies from new Member States – on one hand looking for reliable partners, and on the other, looking
for investors. Collaborative platform development could significantly improve the trust between the
companies within the created network. The critical functionalities that are identified within the research stage
are realized within the platform designed and developed according to a five-layer service oriented
architecture. Piloting and testing processes were organized with the full support of the end users and went
through three phases of iterations according to the specifically designed evaluating methodology. Future
collaborative platform elaboration could go in several directions according to the growing needs of the
globally expanding extended enterprises.

REFERENCES
European Commission, 2006. Enterprise Interoperability Research Roadmap. Available at:
ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/ist/docs/directorate_d/ebusiness/ei-roadmap-final_en.pdf
McAfee, A., 2006, Entreprise 2.0: the Dawn of Emergent Collaboration. MIT Sloan Management Review, Spring 2006,
pp.21-28.
Nightingale, D. and Rhodes, D. (2004). Enterprise Systems Architecting: Emerging Art and Science within Engineering
Systems. MIT Engineering Systems Symposium, Cambridge, USA.
O'Reilly, T., 2007, What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software.
International Journal of Digital Economics, 65, pp.17-37.
Tabscott, D., 2006, Winning with the Enterprise 2.0. New Paradigm Learning Corporation, Austin, USA.
Tabscott, D., 2007. Rethinking Enterprise Boundaries: Business Webs in the IT Industry, New Paradigm Learning
Corporation, Austin, USA.

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MOBILE PHONE-BASED ONTOLOGICAL MODELING

FOR SOCIAL NETWORK

Kyunghee Lee, Minkoo Kim

Graduate School of Information and Communication, Ajou University
Suwon, Kyonggido.Korea

ABSTRACT
Ubiquitous computing environment is based on anytime and anywhere services. The people can get any information
whenever they want it and the environment is changed rapidly. In this situation, the Mobile phone does an important role
as ubiquitous device. The mobile phone is not a phone anymore. It is small computer that provides various convenient
service like address book, scheduling etc. Various kinds of communication firms tend to develop application services
which provide convenient services for Social Network by using the various information of a Mobile Phone. In this paper,
we propose a Knowledge Modeling not only for the services which manage customers’ Social Network automatically by
using calling information, but also for use of the knowledge easily in many other services. It is the base of providing
future-Mobile Phone with the rapidly implementation of application services

KEYWORDS
Ontology, scheduling service based on Mobile-phone, Knowledge Modeling

1. INTRODUCTION
Ubiquitous computing environment is based on anytime and anywhere services. The people can get any
information whenever they want it in Ubiquitous Computing environment. But the Ubiquitous environment
is changed rapidly. In this environment a Mobile Phone acts an important role[2]. The mobile phone is not a
phone anymore. It is small computer that provides various convenient service like address book, scheduling
etc. It is becoming a device which provides customers a variety of convenient services in ubiquitous
environment. A mobile Phone is expanding its role as a private necessity. People can manage their Social
Network by Mobile Phones in the modern society, and they keep their close relationships by calling
frequently in the Social Network. In this aspect, the relation between Mobile Phones and Social Network gets
close. Using Data mining, many communication firms are working on recognizing customer’s Social
Network. In this paper, we suggest a service that builds “Knowledge” and manage Social Network by
utilizing the list of phone call. We also present ‘Modeling’ architecture for the Reasoning.
The remainder of this paper is as follows; We start our paper introducing related work of social network.
We briefly introduce some basic definition concentrating on a formal definition of what an ontology and
social network. Section 4 address scenario for social network, and Section 5 address conclusion.

2. BODY OF PAPER

2.1 Related Work

In modern times, close relationships between people are greatly important. The relationship between family
members, relatives, coworkers affect not only personal life but also successful life in society. The social
network which is a social group related to oneself is defined below.
“Social Network is a typical social structure presented by Social graph. It is defined by all the ‘instances’,
and the relationship among themselves at a certain point. It is related to certain classification or object which

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means specific network composed of the relationship in a company, family, alumni, and people who have the
same interests
2.1.1 Cyworld
As facing the Web 2.0 technology, users’ participation and co-ownership becomes quite important. People
make Blogs and use it in order to share their information with those who have the same interests. As these
web technologies have developed, Cyworld, which stimulates users’ participation by using construction and
user-friendly homepage, is gaining in popularity. This homepage, Cyworld, has not only the function which
many other homepages have, but also unique one by which we can have relations with other users. Members
cultivate online relationships by forming Ilchon buddy relationships with each other, and they can decide
whether they permit their friends read contents of the boards, and write something on their boards. Namely,
they manage Social Network simply. Although Cyworld simply have people had relations and Social
Network through web, it represents much to users.

2.2 Ontological Engineering of Calling information

In this section, we introduce how to construct Knowledge by taking advantage of plentiful information of
Mobile Phones for Social Network. The reason we express Knowledge as Ontology is that Ontology is useful
in reusability and interoperability, and it is composed of the structure which is easy to infer.
2.2.1 Ontology
The definition of Ontology is “Study or intellectual curiosity regarding what kind of subjects exists in
universe”. In IT area, it means “Actual and interaction Term about the knowledge of certain area”. The
definition of Ontology in artificial intelligence area was defined by Tom Gruber as “a specification of a
conceptualization which is used to help program and human share knowledge”. (Gruber 1993)
Hence, the term “conceptualization” in computer science refers to the philosophical notaion of ontologies,
whereas ontologies in computer science represent a more holistic approach. Here, two ontologies can use
different vocabulary while sharing the same conceptualization. It is important to note that ontologies as such
are not bound to any specific language, since they describe concepts and relationships between these
concepts.
We thereby concentrate on a formal definition of what ontology is . There is no common formal
definition of what an ontology is. However, most approaches share a few core items: concepts, a hierarchical
IS-A relation, and further relations. For sake of generality, we do not discuss more specific features like
constraints, functions, or axims. We formalize the core in the following way.
Definition: A ontology is a tuple O := ( C, is-a,R,∂), where C is a set whose elements are called concepts,
is-a is a partial order on C, R is a set whose elements are called relation names.[1]
2.2.2 Definition of Social Network
In modern society, concerns about Social Network which forms relations among people are increasing. In
developing web technology, web 2.0 technologies which are called open information and participation are
developing. Typical examples of Social Network in web are Blog or Cyworld. Cyworld is gaining
extraordinary increasing popularity. As you can see in web, Social Network plays very important role for
people. First, we define Social Network, and then by utilizing this definition, we construct a service which
manages Social Network by using calling information of Mobile Phones
Recently, there has been considerably growth of research in to complex networks in social and economic
systems that has developed analysis of social environments. A social network is a social structure that is
typically represented by a social graph, that is defined as an instance of all its entities and the relationships
between them at a particular point in time, and that is typically related to a particular category or target
audience.

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The relation ontology above Figure1 is constructing based on the information of mobile phone numbers
and profiles stored in a mobile phone. For instance, when calling someone stored in a mobile phone, it
provides services which automatically manage Social Network based on relation ontology by calculating the
frequency of phone call, call time, and intimacy.
Intimacy Ontology is shown in Figure 2 below. It manages Social Network automatically by sending
SMS to Mobile Phone users in order to inquire after them
We divide social relation into 3 branches which are Static, Semi-Dynamic, and Dynamic Relation. Static
Relation is the relation among family members and relatives. Once this relation is formed, it lasts forever.
Semi-Dynamic Relation is the relation among schoolmates. This relation is not unchangeable like Static
relation, but the fact they were fellows at school remains. Lastly, Dynamic Relation is the relation among
friends or the one which changes as time goes by.
Dynamic relation is changed over time. Our Research deal with more dynamic relation than static. The
intimacy ontology in the figure 2 is used to estimate intimacy degree by using the frequency of phone call
and call time.

2.2.3 A Correlation between Relation Ontology and Intimacy Ontology

Intimacy degree can be a unit which represents how close they are among relations. In this paper, we express
intimacy degree as maximum achievement degree which certain relations basically have. For instance, on the

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assumption that intimacy degree between lovers has maximum 100, the more frequently they call each other,
the higher intimacy degree they can get. However, as intimacy degree differs, changes in relations happen. If
intimacy degree has more than Top points, it changes into next level, and if it goes down lower than Bottom
points, it becomes lower level or previous level. In static relations, however, we cannot apply it because once
static relation is formed, it lasts internally regardless of frequency of call.

2.3 Social Network Scenario

A Mobile Phone provides a variety of services in ubiquitous environment. These days, mobile phones are
necessities for people, and they make it possible for people to enjoy convenient services. As web develops,
some people manage their relations on the web, but there are quite many people who manage their Social
network by calling someone whom they know. Relations can be divided into static, semi-dynamic, and
dynamic relation. Family members and relatives are classified in static relation. Lovers, friends, and
coworkers are in dynamic relation, and schoolmates are in semi-dynamic relation. For instance, if you start
calling a co-worker of yours late at night frequently, the intimacy degree increases, and if it goes up more
than 100 which is Maximum value(Top point), you and the co-worker are not considered as coworkers any
more, but lovers. If you have not called your mother for a while, the ontology automatically recommends you
to text messages or call her. It manages your social network automatically by calculating the intimacy degree.

3. CONCLUSION
The potential of semantic web technologies and ontologies is obvious: by giving information a defined
meaning and enabling for machine reasoning, the Web as a whole is enhanced to be more intelligent services.
We have described Ontological modeling for social network. In these case studies, we found to manage
social network. Without notice, numerous information is automatically gathered, and give people convenient
services in ubiquitous environment. Even though there are many other devices, mobile phones act important
role in recent times. New application programs are being developed which provide people convenient
services by utilizing various information of mobile phones. We developed services which manage Social
Network by making part of mobile phones’ information as knowledge. Knowledge-Base is built by Ontology,
and we use Protégé 2000. RACER, which is compatible with Protégé, is used as an ontology-based deduction
system. This Knowledge is reusable in other programs, and easy to be expanded.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research is supported by Foundation of ubiquitous computing and networking project (UCN) Project,
the Ministry of Knowledge Economy(MKE) 21st Century Frontier R&D Program in Korea.

REFERENCES
Buitelaar, P., Olejinik,D,Sintek,M(2004). A Protege Plug-In for Ontology Extraction from Text Based on Linguistic
Analysis. Proceedings of the 1st Wuropean Semantic Web Symposium : 31-44. Berlin.et al.:Springer
Butler, M Hjelm, J.,Kitagawa, K. (2004). Composite Capability/Preference Profiles. http://www.w3.org/Mobile/CCPP/
Chen, Finin, Joshi(2003). Semantic Web in a Pervasive Context-Aware Architure. In: Artifical Intelligence in mobile
System 2003
Gerd Stumme, and Alexander Maedche: FCA-MERGE : Bottom-Up Merging of Ontologies
R. Kernchen, David Bonnefoy, A.Battestini, B.Mrohs, M. Wagner, and M ,Klemettinen : Context-Awareness in
MobiLife

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A DEPENDABLE SOFTWARE SERVICE FOR GREEN

MANUFACTURING USING SOA

Sita Ramakrishnan, Andy Goh

Monash University, Clayton School of IT, Melbourne, Australia

Subramania Ramakrishnan
Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Australia

ABSTRACT
Service-oriented architecture (SOA) and web services are enabling enterprises to electronically interact with one another
over the internet. SOA style allows functionalities to be grouped as services around business processes. Reduction of
environmental impact of manufacturing processes is the result of the growing awareness of the need to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions and contributes to the practice of a greener manufacturing method. The business process execution
language (BPEL) enables the development of aggregate web services. However, the distributed and autonomous nature of
inter-organizational partner services pose challenges in creating reliable and dependable composite services. Web
services have to be managed to ensure compliance with the required level of service. Our focus is on providing
dependable services through dynamic service composition where variants are available for a service. In this paper, we
present a service-oriented design for greening the manufacturing process of an automotive component and provide a
prototype implementation for a dependable service-oriented software system for environmentally sustainable
manufacturing organization.

KEYWORDS
Web services, dynamic service composition, dependability, business process execution language, green manufacturing,
life cycle assessment.

1. INTRODUCTION
One of the major challenges faced by most manufacturing companies of the world is the reduction of
environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions associated with materials production and
manufacturing. The overall aim of our research is to investigate effective ways of providing software services
to manufacturing companies, for integrating environmental issues into their business practices. Driven by this
aim, this research focuses on the crucial research issue of model-based process engineering and validated
software services that can promote the reduction of global warming impact by environmentally sustainable
manufacturing in an automotive component manufacturing using lightmetals (eg. Aluminium or Magnesium).
The aim of the research project is the design of dependable service-oriented software systems for this domain.
The project links the concept of design for dependable software to the concept of design for environment to
reduce the environmental impact of manufactured products and processes. By linking these design concepts
from the two disciplines of software engineering and environmental management, the project deals with the
delivery of environmental knowledge via software services for end users in manufacturing enterprises.
A body of research exists on system architectures to support workflows and web services across different
organizations (Medjahed et al. 2003), and on modelling and composition of services. Previous work
(Ramakrishnan and Ramakrishnan 2007) on transforming a manufacturing entity using SOA did not explicitly
address the dependability issue. The dependability between multiple services across enterprise boundaries is
important in terms of delivering high quality services. This research uses the SOA approach to decompose
manufacturing processes involved in a manufacturing entity. The model is expanded to allow interactions with
external services to create a business process workflow with the environmental impact constraint in mind. The
dependability aspect has been analysed, especially the availability attribute in order to create a seamless

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integration between internal organization services and external services. In this paper, we focus on one aspect
of this larger project and address the modeling and implementation of a dependable software service for green
manufacturing. The paper is structured as follows. The next section links the environmental requirements to
business function. Section II also provides the background and context. Next, a case study is used to illustrate
our approach: in Section III, the requirement is illustrated through a case study; in Section IV, the
implementation aspects are explained. We conclude in Section V.

2. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

2.1 Linking Environmental Requirements to Business Function

The materials flow within the plant is characterised by the following: all materials purchased enter the store;
materials enter production lines as demanded by production planning; products are manufactured using
processes and their quality assessed; and manufactured products are stored as inventory for dispatch to other
plants or users. Outside the manufacture plant, transportation of raw materials to the manufacturing plant,
transportation of products manufactured in the plant to users and/or other plants, and recycling of used
products close the materials loop. The overall material loop, which is responsible for the environmental
burdens caused by a manufactured product, determines the life cycle impact of the product (Ramakrishnan and
Ramakrishnan 2006). As all the business functions and services support the entire business cycle of an
environmentally sustainable manufacturing company, the different services are essentially interlinked. Sharing
knowledge and software services across the actors of a product value chain in a geographically distributed
organisation is able to be supported as software services using SOA. However, one of the challenges for an
enterprise moving to SOA is the management and visibility of business processes end-to-end. As the adoption
of environmental best practices by businesses is an evolving process, software systems that address
environmental aspects must also be adaptable and trustable to meet the evolving needs of the global enterprise.

2.2 Web Services

Web services are used increasingly in creating inter and intra business processes. Workflow languages such as
business process execution language (BPEL) can be used to define service composition (business processes)
that contains a number of related services. Providing a predictable level of dependability for these services
which have been composed from services from various providers is an important requirement. Avizienis et al.
(2004) have defined dependability as “the ability to deliver service that can justifiably be trusted". A
dependable system must satisfy availability: readiness for correct service; and reliability: continuity of correct
service as primary attributes of dependability. The autonomous nature of interacting services and the
unreliability of such communication mediums pose dependability challenges such as availability and reliability
of partner services. Reliability techniques for service composition at the business process layer aims to provide
dependable web service compositions through failure handling. Such efforts have used either language-based
or non language-based approaches. Failure-handling and adaptation have been handled in language-based
techniques with additional language constructs to augment the process logic. In non-language based
techniques, adaptability is provided in the process execution engine such as by enabling adaptability in BPEL
process. This is the approach followed in our work where BPEL-based web service composition with dynamic
reconfiguration of the services available at run-time has been pursued. It allows a reconfiguration of the
invoked service endpoint for a given partnerLink at runtime. The WS-Addressing standard provides end point
reference mechanisms to select an available service in the WSDL, or even define new service at runtime.

2.3 Related Work

Ezenwoye and Sadjadi (2008) present the TRAP/BPEL framework to transparently incorporate self-
management behaviour into existing BPEL processes. It is a framework for dynamic adaptation of composite
services. TRAP/BPEL does not require extension to BPEL language nor its BPEL engine. There are situations
when partner services do not provide satisfactory service. They redirect the service request to a proxy service,

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to improve performance of overloaded or unresponsive services. Their adaptation is done in a manner that the
code for business logic is separated from the code for robustness of the process. Manageable and Adaptable
Service Compositions (MASC) is a policy-based framework and allows user to specify policies that govern the
discovery and selection of services, and adaptation of the process to handle special cases and recover from
typical faults (Maheshwari and Erradi 2008). However, this approach requires a lightweight service-oriented
management middleware named MASC middleware to execute the policies.

3. CASE STUDY
In order to reduce the environmental impact created by the manufacturing life cycle, we start by reducing the
environmental impact of the sub-processes involved. We can also utilise supplies that have lower
environmental impacts. By accumulating all the reduction in environmental impact, we are able to have a
process that has a lower environmental impact. We have chosen the manufacturing of automotive converter
housing as the auto-component product, which uses aluminium by the high-pressure diecasting process. This
component part is an external supplier to the automotive manufacturing plant and takes part in the service
interaction as a partner service. We also have the main automotive manufacturing plant which requires
supplies of automotive converter housing component as part of their manufacturing process. The greenhouse
gas emission, particularly the emission of carbon dioxide is chosen as the main impact criteria. The main
automotive plant has to pick a supplier of automotive converter housing component from a repository that
provides the lowest greenhouse gas impact, in order to lower their environmental life cycle impact as a whole.

Figure 1. Distribution of GHG impact Figure 2. Processes within an aluminium converter housing manufacturer
(Source: Ramakrishnan et al. 2003). (Source: Cradle-to-exit gate system (Ramakrishnan and Ramakrishnan
2006)

3.1 Automotive Converter Housing Manufacturing

The automotive converter housing can be manufactured from different metals but for this research, we look at
aluminium converter housing, manufactured by utilising high-pressure diecasting process. Figure 2 represents
the manufacturing process that produces the aluminium converter housing by means of diecasting. From
Figure 2, we can see that there are wastes and emissions given out throughout the life cycle of the
manufacturing process. We are only interested in the carbon dioxide greenhouse gas (GHG) emission.
Different aluminium converter housing manufacturers have different greenhouse gas impact depending on
their materials and processes. By including the scrap melting process in manufacturing, the plant will re-use
scrap metals from the other processes. Recycled metals produce less GHG emission compared to the primary
metal. Therefore the composition of primary aluminium and recycled aluminium affects the final greenhouse
gas emission of the manufacturing plant. We consider various manufacturers so that, some of the converter
housing plants include recycled aluminium as their input material, while others do not. We also use different

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ratio of primary aluminium and recycled aluminium as they have different GHG emission. Referring to Figure
2, we can see that the liquid metal production process takes an input material of 3.047 kg, where the output
will be sent to the manufacturing processes along with 4.569 kg of recycled metal. Some of the output
materials are lost, as wastes and emissions. As we can see from Figure 2, part of the output material (3.954 kg)
from the casting, trimming and grinding process is sent to the scrap melting process as input material, in order
to produce recycled materials to be used in the manufacturing processes. At the end of the process, 3.6 kg of
converter housing is produced. According to Ramakrishnan et al. (2003), and discussions with domain expert,
Dr. Subramania Ramakrishnan, ex-CSIRO Chief Scientist, the GHG impact of the converter housing in terms
of per kilogram of casting is equivalent to 20.77 kg CO2 / kg of housing (Figure 1). To break it down further,
the contribution of the metal production (70% primary metal and 30% recycled metal) is 16.7 kg CO2 / kg of
housing; whereas the manufacturing of the converter housing in the plant results in a GHG impact of 4.07 kg
(includes scrap melting) CO2 / kg of housing.
Manufacturing without Scrap Melting: Without the scrap melting process, the manufacturing process
generates 4.07 kg CO2 / kg of housing * 83% = 3.38 kg CO2 / kg of housing GHG impact. Considering that
we have 7.616 kg of primary aluminium used to produce liquid metal, and, ignoring the fact that some of the
mass of the primary aluminium contributes to the waste of the process, the liquid metal production process
produces (7.616 kg) * (16.7 kg CO2 / kg of housing) = 127.19 kg CO2. On the other hand, the manufacturing
process produces (7.616 kg) * (3.38 kg CO2 / kg of housing) = 25.74 kg CO2 of GHG impact. In total,
manufacturing of aluminium converter housing using purely primary aluminium without recycled metals
produces 152.93 kg CO2 per housing, or 42.48 kg CO2 / kg of housing.
Manufacturing with Scrap Melting: With scrap melting process, the scrap melting process produces (4.07
kg CO2 / kg of housing) * 17% = 0.69 kg CO2 / kg of scrap metal GHG impact. We consider using only 3.047
kg of primary aluminium, and 4.569 kg of recycled aluminium in this case. The liquid metal production which
produces liquid aluminium from primary aluminium generates (3.047 kg) * (16.7 kg CO2 / kg of housing) =
50.88 kg CO2 of GHG impact. The manufacturing process generates 25.74 kg CO2 of GHG impact as before,
but scrap melting contributes (4.569 kg) * (0.69 kg CO2 / kg of scrap metal) = 3.15 kg CO2 GHG impact to
the whole process. By accumulating all the GHG impact across different processes, we see that by including
recycled metal in our processes, lower greenhouse impact is 79.77 kg CO2 per housing, or 22.16 kg CO2 / kg
of housing. We use 70% primary aluminium and 30% recycled aluminium for the metal production process,
where they produce 16.7 kg CO2 / kg of housing. It works out that primary aluminium produce 22.5 kg CO2 /
kg of housing GHG impact; and recycled aluminium produce 3.17 kg CO2 / kg of housing. We can conclude
that recycled aluminium contributes much lesser GHG impact compared to primary aluminium. If we alter the
ratio of primary aluminium and recycled aluminium to 50% each, we get (22.5 kg CO2 * 50%) + (3.17 kg
CO2 * 50%) = 12.835 kg CO2 / kg of metal GHG impact. This shows that the composition of primary
aluminium and recycled aluminium also affects the final greenhouse impact of the manufacturing plant.

4. SERVICES
The above domain knowledge and input has been used in developing a service-oriented model for our case
study to automate the procedures in a main manufacturing plant to correctly pick the aluminium converter
housing manufacturer (external suppliers) that has the lowest greenhouse gas emission. Our system will query
a specific repository of aluminium converter housing manufacturer and retrieve their GHG emission impact to
the environment. With that query, we are able to compare the GHG emission of each supplier and choose the
one with the least impact, and acquire the converter housing from them. Note that the environmental impact
tag value may be viewed as the price impact tag in a new green business regime. Aside from dynamically
selecting products from suppliers, instead of waiting indefinitely for a response from the supplier, we do not
retrieve any GHG emission result from the said supplier and move on to the available one. Next, we illustrate
the approach with 2 services and business process interaction with partner services.

4.1 Supplier Service (Automotive Manufacturing Plant)

Supplier Service is responsible for retrieving the suppliers information from a specific repository, or database.
The service invokes each supplier to retrieve their GHG impact result. Finally, the service compiles an output

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with the impact result to be used in the Green Supplier Service. The repository stores information of the
service endpoint of the individual product manufacturers. The service endpoints are any Uniform Resource
Indicator (URI) that points to where the target service is situated. The results from the repository are returned
in XML-form as a SuppliersCollection, where it will be treated as an array of many Suppliers, with address
and empty impact element. The service will then invoke each supplier endpoints found from the result output
in order to retrieve the GHG emission impact. When a result is returned from the converter housing
manufacturer supplier service, it will be composed into the impact element of the Supplier node under the
collection SuppliersCollection. In order to maintain the availability of the services invoked, we incorporated a
fault handling mechanism into the retrieval process. When a service endpoint is not available, a remoteFault
exception is thrown. The remoteFault exception is caught during the GHG impact retrieval to ignore the
converter housing manufacturer supplier services that are not available at run-time. With this method, the
results returned at the end of the service only includes services that returned a result, thus ensuring only
available services are included in the Green Supplier Service. Another fault handling mechanism is added to
the retrieval process to catch services that are taking too long to respond.

4.2 Green Supplier Service

Green Supplier Service is responsible for making use of the result output from Supplier Service to choose the
supplier that has the lowest GHG impact. From the results returned from Supplier Service, Green Supplier
Service will iterate through each supplier returned in the XML output and compare the values of their
greenhouse gas impact. The supplier with the lowest GHG impact is returned at the end of the iteration, and
that particular service will be invoked in order to acquire the required products, in our case, the aluminium
converter housing. When the Green Supplier Service invokes the chosen Supplier Service, it is done
dynamically. This is to ensure that the service does not need to be re-deployed when a new supplier is added to
the system. The binding made use of the WS-Addressing standard, where an EndpointReference can be
assigned to a service with the correct Address information in order to properly invoke the correct service. One
downside for this approach is that the service endpoints still need to be added to the specific WSDL file, in
order to be recognised as a partner service. But since WSDL files are normal plain text file, we can append the
information from database to the WSDL file by other automated mechanisms.

4.3 Implementation
A prototype implementation has been developed with tools such as IBM Websphere Business Modeler, Oracle
JDeveloper and Oracle BPEL Process Manager. We retrieve the suppliers that provide aluminium converter
housing from a specific repository in order to get the service endpoint of the supplier. The results returned
from the repository will be in an XML-format of SuppliersCollection. The impact node is left empty
deliberately so that we can input the correct greenhouse gas impact value returned by each supplier. We also
need to initialise an EndpointReference variable, to hold the address of the service that needs to be invoked.
The schema of EndpointReference is defined in WSAddressing. The following will define an Assign activity
for our process to store the XML data into a variable called supplierReference. With the EndpointReference
properly defined, we can use the information retrieved from the repository to invoke the services involved. We
do this by defining a While activity to iterate through the results. Our iteration condition is set to run through
the total number of Supplier nodes in SuppliersCollection. For each Supplier, we assign the value of the
address element to the supplierReference variable that was defined before, then we will assign
supplierReference as the partner link of the Supplier Service, in order to invoke the correct supplier. There are
situations where a service might not be available during run-time, these situations cannot be decided at design-
time. In order to handle situations like this, we define a Catch activity to deal with exceptions such as “service
unavailable”. Within the scope of invoking multiple services sequentially, we define a Catch activity to handle
remoteFault. The fault handler will not do anything other than skip through the unavailable service. Once all
services have been invoked, we are required to retrieve the responses from the services. In this case, we want
to retrieve the GHG impact from each of the Supplier Service. We use the Receive activity to retrieve
responses from our invoked services. The Receive activities are defined within a While activity as well,
because we are dealing with multiple services, we want all the available responses so we can do a comparison

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on the multiple greenhouse gas impact values. The process concludes by returning the result message in XML-
format.
The Get Green Supplier Process is a much simpler process where it gets the output from the Get Supplier
Process and retrieve the service with the lowest greenhouse gas impact value. It makes use of the same method
by defining an EndpointReference to store the correct endpoint information for the service to be invoked. We
defined a partnerLink to the Get Supplier Process we had before, in order to make use of the output of that
process. In order to retrieve the output of the partner link, we define an Invoke activity to send a request to the
specific partner link and a Receive activity to consume the output from that link. As mentioned before, the
output from Get Suppliers Process is an XML formatted message, which includes the endpoint address of each
services, and the greenhouse gas impact values of them. A While activity is used to iterate through the results,
and compare the impact values in order to get the supplier with the least greenhouse gas impact. Once the
iteration is completed, we modify the variable that stores the EndpointReference to point to the correct
endpoint address of the supplier that we want to invoke. By doing so, partner links can be modified at run-
time. Order of products can be placed by invoking the correct operation of the Supplier Service.

5. CONCLUSIONS
The aim of this project was to investigate effective ways of integrating environmental requirements into
current business processes and create dependable software services. In this paper, we presented a service-
oriented model for our manufacturing case study that includes taking environmental requirements into
account. We defined services to retrieve environmental impact from various partner suppliers and a service to
correctly choose the right supplier in order to get supplies of converter housing. We presented models of
manufacturing processes, allowing business experts to concentrate on the business end of the problem. By
modelling processes using BPMN, the graphical representation of the connected processes can be translated
into BPEL by IBM Business Modeler to allow developers to work with the finer details of implementation.
We also present a solution that takes services availability into account, and properly adapt to situations such as
when a service is unavailable or service takes too long to respond. We utilized the fault handling ability of
BPEL processes to catch remote fault exception that happens whenever a service is not available. Exception
handling is also used when a service response takes longer than expected. This mechanism allows us to
provide a system that is reliable. Further improvements can be done on the solution so that the system will be
available to a more generic area. The dynamic aspect of the system can be improved so that the solution will
be WSDL-independent, instead of having to generate the services details into the WSDL file. Improvements
can be done on the models developed from IBM Business Modeler to enable automated calculations of
environmental impact, so business-end users can easily compare various inputs.

REFERENCES
Avizienis, A. Et al. (2004). Basic concepts and taxonomy of dependable and secure computing, IEEE Transactions on
Dependable and Secure Computing, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 11-33.
Ezenwoye, O. and Sadjadi, S.M. 2008. A proxy-based approach to enhancing the autonomic behavior in composite
services, Journal of networks, 3(5), May 2008.
Maheshwari, P. and Erradi, A. 2008. Dynamic binding framework for adaptive web services. Proceedings of the 3rd
International Conference on Internet and Web Applications and Services, pp. 162-167.
Medjahed, B. et al. 2003. Business-to-business interactions: issues and enabling technologies. The VLDB Journal, Vol.
12, No. 1, pp: 59-85.
Ramakrishnan, S. et al. 2003. Eco-efficient light-metals component manufacturing, Proceedings of Light Metals
Technology Conference 2003, Brisbane, Australia.
Ramakrishnan, S. and Ramakrishnan, S., 2006. E-business with software services for sustainable manufacturing.
Proceedings of the International Conference on E-Business (ICE-B 2006), Setubal, Portugal, pp. 77-82.
Ramakrishnan, S. and Ramakrishnan, S., 2007. Business process ontology and software service models for
environmentally sustainable manufacturing enterprises, Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on
Information Technology Interfaces (ITI’2007), pp. 501-506.

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WHAT KIND OF MOUSE-BASED INTERACTION IS BEST

FOR YOUR E-BUSINESS WEBSITES?

Hong-In Cheng, Kyong-Hee Lee, Sinah Jo, Hye Young Chang, Bom Pool Baek, Hyunhee Jung
Graduate School of Digital Design, Kyungsung University
314-79 Daeyeon-dong Nam-gu, Busan, 608-736, Republic of Korea

ABSTRACT
The mouse is a major interaction device for human-computer interaction for positioning a cursor, selecting an option and
activating an expected function. Four different mouse-based interfaces and e-business contents were examined during
different web interaction processes, with performance time, error, and other usability factors compared. Slide-over
interaction performed best on all comparisons. Slide-over buttons can be recommended as an alternative for pop-up
windows for registration web pages and simple web pages on which error is not important and cognitive processing is
relatively simple. Point-and-click and visual-following methods were observed to be good alternatives on e-business web
sites while an invisible-following button was evaluated least efficient. Point-and-click and visible-following interfaces
were reported by users to be less confusing, easier to use, and more predictable.

KEYWORDS
e-business, mouse-based interaction, user interface

1. INTRODUCTION
After the introduction of the first mouse, which was made with wood and used two wheels to detect x-y
coordinates (Dix et al., 1998), the mouse has become a major interaction device for human-computer systems.
Both mechanical and optical mice are popular type today.
Woods et al. (2003) compared trackball, joystick and mouse devices with the mouse assessed as most
favorable considering overall satisfaction. Mouse-based interaction is the most common interaction style for
contemporary computer systems including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and X Windows-based systems.
Mouse and mouse-based interactions have been studied extensively(Harvey et al., 1997; Gustafsson et al.,
2003). However, mouse-based interaction on e-business web sites has been little researched. The purpose of
this study was to compare mouse-based interactions by activating button interfaces as a first step to finding
an optimal design configuration.

2. METHODS
A simulated website consisting of a main page and sixteen additional pages was built for use with four
different mouse-based interactions and web page designs were developed for the experiment.
Three interface applications were built for the experiment: a pop-up window of an e-business
website(PU), the registration web page of a portal website(RE), and an e-business website selling
watches(SE)(Figure 1). Each web page was designed with four different versions based on four different
mouse-based interaction methods. The interfaces consisted of a:
- point-and-click (PC) button: regular button
- slide-over (SO) button: option is selected when a pointer moves over the button without clicking
- visible-following (VF) button: option is selected by clicking without positioning since the button always
follows under the cursor. Left (right) button follows when pointer is located on the left (right) half pane.
- invisible-following (IF) button: Unseen left (right) button is selected by clicking on the left (right) half
pane.

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a) pop-up window b) registration web page c) watch sale web page

Figure 1. Interfaces of the experimental web pages

Table 1 summarizes required actions to activate the buttons. Visible and invisible following buttons
require positioning only when cursor and button were placed on a different pane.
Table 1. Activation model of the experimental interfaces
Button Type Activating Methods
Point-and-click Positioning + click
Slide-over Positioning
Visible-following Movement + click
Invisible-following Movement + click

Selection time(ms) and errors were captured by a JavaScript program.

Twenty two students (6 males and 16 females) from the graduate school of digital design at Kyungsung
University (Korea) participated voluntarily in the experiment. The subjects ranged in age from 25 to 35
(mean=28.8, SD=3.09). All students reported having prior experience in the use of point-and-click buttons.
Six students indicated they had no experience using slide-over and invisible-following buttons
Performance measurements were time and error in the experiment. Other measurements were related to
users’ preferences and evaluated using a questionnaire after the experiment.
Subjects were asked to select positive or negative buttons on each web page. Trials were repeated four
times with performance time and selection errors recorded during the experiment. The interfaces were
presented to participants in random order.
After the experiments, participants evaluated the simplicity, familiarity, predictability, ease of use, and
overall satisfaction of each web page on a Likert 5-point scale.

3. RESULTS
It took approximately 40 minutes for each participant to complete the experiment. The data (22 subjects * 4
interaction methods * 3 situations * 2 repetitions) were used to perform repeated measurement ANOVA.
Mean time(standard deviation) due to the interaction methods and content(situation) is given in Table 2.
Table 2. Performance time due to the environment(mean time & SD)
Interaction PC SO
Content PU RE SE PU RE SE
Performance time 969.74 1007.89 956.81 687.69 665.31 800.22
(447.1) (279.86) (425.58) (371.12) (239.60) (289.43)
978.14 711.94
(390.41) (342.66)
Interaction VF IF
Content PU RE SE PU RE SE
Performance time 913.42 789.86 800.22 968.67 828.82 873.55
(376.42) (323.21) (310.34) (508.80) (336.76) (310.34)
834.50 890.34
(335.09) (398.02)

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The multivariate tests showed a non significant main effect of situation(Wilks’s Λ=.95, F2, 86=2.5, p=.09),
a significant main effects of interaction method(Wilks’s Λ=.33, F3, 85=57.5, p=.00) and significant situation
by the interaction methods(Wilks’s Λ=.80, F6, 82=3.36, p=.01). Because of the significant interaction follow-
up main effect, interaction comparison was tested.
On the discount coupon web page, performance time due to interaction methods was significant.
Significant differences were detected between PC and SO (t(87)=6.86, p<.001), SO and VF (t(87)=-4.81),
and SO and IF(t(87)=-4.81, p<.001). On the other web pages, SO showed significantly better performance
than other methods.
No significant difference in the number of errors was found between the different interaction method and
content.
Subjective evaluation results were shown in Figure 2.

4.5

3.5

3 siplicity
easy to use
2.5 familiarity
predictability
2 satisfaction
1.5

0.5

0
PC SO IF VF

Figure 2. Subjective evaluation results

Participants felt that the visible-following interface was more predictable than slide-over (P<.016) and
invisible-following interface (P<.016). The point-and-click button was also reported to be more predictable
than visible-following buttons (P<.001). Using the LSD method, a point-and-click button was evaluated
easier to use than slide-over interface (P<.001) and invisible-following interface (P<.001). Visible-following
interface also was assessed easier than slide-over (P<.003) and invisible-following button (P<.009)
Subjects felt that point-and-click button was more familiar than other interfaces (P<.001) with invisible-
interface was evaluated least familiar than other interfaces (P<.002).
For overall preference, the point-and-click and visible-following interfaces were felt to be better than
slide-over and invisible-following interface (P<.01)

4. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

Often users are required to select an option using pointing tools on a software application and websites. In a
WIMP (windows, icons, menus or mice, pointers) environment, users often must use a mouse to position a
pointer on a button, image, hyperlink, or icon and then click them to activate an expected function or to
navigate to linked web pages. The mouse is the most common among non-keyboard input device.
Several interfaces were manipulated during different interaction processes, with performance time, error,
and other usability factors compared. For performance time slide-over interaction was most efficient since
slide-over interaction does not require clicking on a mouse button, a result that corresponds to the results of
Bohan et al. (1998).
The point-and-click interface performed more poorly than visible and invisible-following interface for
selection time, which is consistent with the results of Farris et al. (2001). They showed that the time to select
a target can be reduced by positioning targets on the edge of the screen and introduced the term “edge target”.
To position the cursor on the edge buttons users needed to move the mouse to the edge quickly without actual

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aiming at the target. Such interaction saves performance time of following interfaces as compared to point-
and-click interfaces that require precise positioning of the cursor.
On the e-business web page, point-and-click interaction performed more poorly for performance time
with slide-over and visual-following interfaces performing best. The use of a visual-following interface on e-
business web sites is a good tactic because of the high error rate of slide-over. Invisible interaction should not
be employed on e-business web sites because of poor selection time and higher error rate.
However, slide-over buttons can be a reasonable alternative for the pop-up window because error is not
important and selection time can be saved by using slide-over interface on the pop-up window. Users actually
made fewer errors on the pop-up window.
Invisible interaction is not efficient for either time or error. In addition, users’ didn’t like the invisible
action. Users rely on vision to perceive the environment and visual receptors dominate our sensory receptors
(Ware, 2003). Visual stimuli are also significant for efficient interaction on web sites.
Point-and-click and visible-following interfaces were reported to be simpler, easier to use, and more
predictable in their response. Most common interface, point-and-click was believed most familiar and
preferred.

REFERENCES
Bohan, M., Chaparro, A., & Scarlett, D., 1998, The effects of selection technique on target acquisition movements made
with a mouse, Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 42nd Annual Meeting, pp473-475, Human
Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Dix, J. A., Finlay, E. J., Abowd, D. G., & Beale, R., 1998, Human-Computer Interaction (2nd Ed.). Prentice Hall Europe.
Farris, J. S., Jones, S. K., & Anders, A. B., 2001, Acquisition speed with targets on the edge of the screen: and
application of Fitts’ law to commonly used web browser controls, Proceedings of the Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society 45th Annual Meeting, pp1205-1209, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Gustafsson, E., & Hagberg, M., 2003, Computer mouse use in two different hand positions: exposure, comfort, exertion
and productivity. Applied Ergonomics, Vol. 34, pp107-113.
Harvey, R., & Peper, E., 1997, Surface electromyography and mouse use position. Ergonomics, Vol. 40, pp781-789.
Ware, C., 2003, Design as applied perception. Carroll, M. J. (Eds.), HCI models, theories, and framework:toward a
multidisplinary science (Chap. 2, pp. 11-26). Morgan Kaufmann.
Woods, V., Hastings, S., Buckle, P., & Haslam, R., 2003, Developement of non-keyboard input device checklists through
assessments. Applied Ergonomics, Vol. 34, pp511-519.

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HOW TO LAYOUT BROADCASTING SCREEN; EYE

TRACKING EXPERIMENT OF SCREEN VECTOR POWER

Mahnwoo Kwon, Jiyoun Lee, Yunjung Lee

Kyungsung University
School of Digital Content,110 Namku Busan Korea

ABSTRACT
Measuring and evaluation of audience’s attention are crucial process for scientific production of various content and
service. Vector power exists between objects in broadcasting scene is an alleged belief but has not been proved to be true
to broadcasting field. This study tried to test existence of screen vector power using eye tracker system. Especially this
experiment tested research questions about any positive correlation between screen vectors and viewers eye movements.
Four different groups exposed to four pictures representing 'independent vector', 'continuing vector', 'converging vector',
and 'diverging vector'. The results showed that screen vectors strongly induced viewer's eye to the vector object not only
by the locations, shapes, sizes and distance of visual stimuli, but also by the directivity of the visual stimuli.

KEYWORDS
Eye tracking, screen vector, visual perception, screen layout

1. INTRODUCTION
The aesthetical composition of screens has long been considered so-called the sixth sense area depending on
director's decisions off the cuff. This intuitive method is still used for most artistic genres of broadcasting and
film making. But industrial needs forced the composition method to be more scientific and objective. That is,
broadcasting industry needs to know the logical principles of how layout screens scientifically to attract
viewer’s attention.
This study attempted to examine a scientific relation of visual stimuli and viewer's perception limited to
the vector powers of screen. The mathematical terminology vector is also used for explaining computer data
set and indexing balance of power between elements of screen in broadcasting content. It can be said that
visual vectors are a force of directivity that move our visual attention. The screen vectors working on
viewer's visual perception are important clues for understanding the visual information processing. The aim
of this research is to find out how the directivity of visual vectors works on the viewer's eye attention, so that
to propose how to compose screens using vectors effectively.

2. RELATED WORK

2.1 Visual Vectors as Forces on Screens

In general, vectors are viewed as physical or mathematical objects that have size and direction. As often
represented graphically as arrows, vectors are related with the cognition of spatial forces. The concept of
vector space is one of the most important elements in that abstract relations can be visualized such as
physical processes and geometrical properties(Chilton, 2005; 82). Especially, some cognitive linguistic
researches have tried to figure out processes in the mental space using conceptual tools of geometry
(Fauconnier, 1994, 1997; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999; Chilton, 2005).
In media studies, the concept of vector is adopted as aesthetic or visual vector, one of the principles for
composition of screens by Herbert Zettl. He defines the visual vector as the force of direction which move

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our sight from one point to another which is the most powerful force working in screens(2001; 165).
Regarding screens, not only the vectors by physical movements but the vectors by implied vectors such as
arrows, objects in array and sight lines of people as well. Then, the screen becomes a vector field where
physical vectors, psychological vectors, and visual vectors are working together.
There are three vector types: graphic vector, index vector, and motion vector (Zettl, 2001; 165-167).
Graphic vector is made of an array of dots of lines which draw viewer’s attention with such a static
composing elements. Index vector is formed with people pointing to a specific direction or looking at a
specific object. Motion vector depends on moving objects or objects perceived as moving.
Regarding the vector direction, index and motion vectors are grouped in three kinds: continuing vectors,
converging vectors, and diverging vectors. Continuing vector is made when two or more index vectors or
motion vectors are in the same direction. While converging vectors operate when index or motion vectors
face each other, diverging vectors are formed when index or motion vectors are in the opposite direction.
Screens are full of various visual stimuli, so the viewers must face a task to draw pertinent meanings from
those visual stimuli. This interaction between screens and viewers are kind of psychological experience
operating through visual center of the viewers. In terms of this nature of visual perception, visual vectors of
screens, especially vectors directions are important elements of screens which induce viewer’s attention and
make the screen sensible.

2.2 Eye Tracking and Visual Vectors

Eye tracking method is effective research tool which can answer the question that how people actually view
objects and draw meanings from visual stimuli with evidences of their eye movements.Eye-track system is
more used in the studies on education and human engineering such as a study on visual verification on the
existence and disappearance of object(Lecuqer et al., 2004), and on the strategies in the process of text
reading(Rayner & Well, 1996). In media studies, eye-tracking is usually used in the studies on the
information search process of readers of news papers, advertisements, or web pages (The Poynter Institute
for Media Studies, 1991; Stanford-Poynter Project, 2000). In these studies, the focuses are usually upon the
important object among various information that reader's eye movement locations, and the orders that
reader's eye travels. The results of these researches are to be used in the array of information to draw reader's
visual attention easily.
The idea of this study is on the importance of the relations of visual stimuli -not only visual stimuli
themselves such as size or location- on the screen as represented as direction which operate as powerful force
leading viewer's visual attention. The visual vectors are one of principles of screen composition, and this
study attempts to show how they work by tracking the eye movements of viewers.

3. HYPOTHESES AND QUESTIONS

This experiment used four different screen vector variables; independent vectors, continuing vectors,
converging vectors, and diverging vectors. Continuing vector is made when two or more independent vectors
are in the same direction. Converging vectors operate when vectors face each other and diverging vectors are
formed when vectors are in the opposite direction. The specific research questions are as follows:
․ Question1: Are there any positive correlation between vectors and viewers eye movements?
․ Question2: Do the kinds of visual stimuli influence on the eye movements? To investigate the research
questions above, this study sets up experimental hypotheses as follows:
․ Hypothesis1: The participant's eye will fix at the direction of a person's sight, finger, and graphic
arrow.
․ H2: Participant's eye will fix at the direction of two persons' sights, fingers, and two graphic arrows.
․ H3: Participant's eye will fix at the direction of two persons' sights, fingers, and two arrows met point.
․ H4: Participant's eye will diversify to the directions of each person’s sights, fingers and each arrow at.

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4. EXPERIMENT

4.1 Participants
28 students were recruited from Kyungsung university in Busan, Korea. They are aged 19-29, 11 male and 17
female. Participants visited the Human Media Interface Lab at Kyungsung University.

4.2 Materials
Considering the distance between the monitor and participants, we used visual stimuli sized 400*300. 12
pictures are filmed in black and white to control other intervention. The pictures are grouped by different
visual vectors: (1) Human sight (S1-S4), (2)finger (S5-S8), and (3) Graphic arrow (S9-S12). Each group is
composed of four pictures representing independent, continuing, converging, and diverging vector.
Table 1. Visual Stimuli
Independent Vector Continuing Vector Converging Vector Diverging Vector
Human Sight S1 S2 S3 S4
Human Finger S5 S6 S7 S8
Graphic Arrow S9 S10 S11 S12

4.3 Procedures
We used "Tobii”(http://www.tobii.com) machine for tracking the viewers' eye movements. 12 visual stimuli
(Table 1.) have shown to each participant. Each picture presented for 7 seconds and the slide show of 12
pictures took 98 seconds. The experimental data was analyzed by the paired-sample T-test.

5. RESULT

5.1 Hypothesis 1: The Participant's Eye Will Fix at the Direction of a Person's
Sight, Finger, and Arrow - Independent Vectors Case
As the t-test table (Table2.) shows, the fixation duration at the location to which the human sight goes was
much longer than at the other side. And three different kinds of independent stimuli vector made same result.
In the case of the stimuli of human finger and graphic arrow, viewer's eye also stayed longer at the location to
which the stimuli points than at the other side (see Table3, Table4).

Figure 1. S1 Figure 2. S5 Figure 3. S9

Table 2. t-test of S1(fixation duration : ms)

Standard Standard error Signific
Mean T df
Deviation of mean ance
Front part of eye 5410.54 3335.08 640.28
11.04 27 .000
Opposite part 194.36 444.48 84.00

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Table 3.t-test of S5(fixation duration : ms)

Standard Standard error signific
Mean T df
Deviation of mean ance
Front part of finger 3164.04 1549.83 292.89
-5.98 27 .000
Opposite part 712.21 1173.77 210.10
Table 4.t-test of S9(fixation duration : ms)
Standard Standard error signific
Mean T df
Deviation of mean ance
Front part of arrow 5794.21 3128.76 591.28
7.64 27 .000
Opposite part 1149.54 872.19 164.83

5.2 Hypothesis 2: the Participant's Eye Will Fix at the Direction of Two
Person’s Sights, Fingers, and Two Graphic Arrows at- Continuing Vectors
Case
The result of our experiment verified the hypothesis as the participant's eye dwelled at the place the couple's
eyes went significantly longer than the residual place (6324.54 vs 1165.21 in Table 5). In the same way, S6
and S10 also supported continuing vectors power(see Table6, Table7).

Figure 4. S2 Figure 5. S6 Figure 6. S10

Table 5. t-test of S2(fixation duration : ms)

Standard Standard error of Significance
Mean T df
Deviation mean
Front part of two person’s eye 6324.54 2758.98 521.40
9.50 27 .000
Residual part 1165.21 1139.74 215.39
Table 6. t-test of S6(fixation duration : ms)
Standard Standard error of Significance
Mean T df
Deviation mean
Front part of two finger 6598.96 2529.61 478.05
11.78 27 .000
Residual part 1018.39 1102.49 208.35
Table 7. t-test of S10(fixation duration : ms)
Standard Standard error signific
Mean T df
Deviation of mean ance
Front part of two arrow 6483.50 3059.90 578.27
10.06 27 .000
Residual part 464.50 583.89 110.35

5.3 Hypothesis 3: the Participant's Eye Will Fix at the Direction of Two
Persons' Sights, Fingers, and Two Graphic Arrows Met Point - Converging
Vectors Case
Table 8 shows that the point of the couple's sights met captured visual attention longer than the other part
(6742.50 vs 923.46). The different visual stimuli (S7 and S11) also had the same results (Table 9, Table10).

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Figure 7. S3 Figure 8. S7 Figure 9. S11

Table 8. t-test of S3(fixation duration : ms)

Standard Standard error signific
Mean t df
Deviation of mean ance
Two persons’ sight met point 6742.50 3612.49 682.70
7.70 27 .000
Residual part 923.46 1171.31 221.36
Table 9. t-test of S7(fixation duration : ms)
Standard Standard error signific
Mean t df
Deviation of mean ance
Two persons’ sight met point 6277.14 2733.75 516.63
10.36 27 .000
Residual part 908.64 847.95 160.25
Table 10. t-test of S11(fixation duration : ms)
Standard Standard error signific
Mean T df
Deviation of mean ance
Two graphic arrows met 6467.36 3102.97 586.41
9.58 27 .000
Residual part 741.36 637.90 120.56

5.4 Hypothesis 4: the Participant's Eye Will Diversify to the Directions of Each
Person’s Sights, Fingers, and Graphic Arrow at -Diverging Vectors Case
Mean of the directions at which each person's sight was longer than the mean of the other side, although
the difference of fixation time was smaller than other vectors (2653.30 vs 1838.00 in Table 11). Also, both of
other stimuli had the same results (Table 12, Table13).

Figure 10. S4 Figure 11. S8 Figure 12. S12

Table 11. t-test of S4(fixation duration : ms)

Standard Standard error Signific
Mean T df
Deviation of mean ance
Each person’s sight point 2653.30 1173.77 1173.77
-3.01 27 .000
Residual part 1838.00 1171.31 1155.48
Table 12. t-test of S8(fixation duration : ms)
Standard Standard error Signific
Mean T df
Deviation of mean ance
Each person’s finger point 3085.00 1517.85 286.85
-6.98 27 .000
Residual part 930.07 771.23 145.75
Table 13. t-test of S12(fixation duration : ms)
Standard Standard error Signific
Mean T df
Deviation of mean ance
Each graphic arrow at point 2759.71 1609.50 304.17
1.74 27 .000
Residual part 1915.96 1521.02 287.45

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5.5 Comparison of Different Vectors Power

As the Figure 13 shows, visual vector power of two objects is more powerful than one object. Converging
vector power of two objects also show similiar results. If the visual vector power of two objects converge
together, it is stronger than one object (Figure 14).

Inversely, diverging vectors case reveals that vector power of two distract objects had a tendency of
losing power as compared with single object (Figure 15).

6. CONCLUSION
Through measuring and evaluating audience’s attention using eye movement tracker, we revealed that vector
power of screen exists between objects in visual content. Especially this experiment found that there are
strong correlation between screen vectors and viewers eye movements. Various vectors of screen strongly
induced viewer's eye movements to the vector object not only by the locations and distance of visual stimuli,
but also by the directivity of the visual stimuli. This research has also implies that addition and multiplication
of screen vector power are possible like mathematics if we operate visual objects’ direction and distance.
This research has a practical implications to the strategies about visual elements layout of HD format
content because HD format has 16:9 wide screen ratio. This research can provide scientific methodology for
verifying that how we set up the distance between visual objects, how we allocate the direction of objects,
and how much lead room or nose room do we need in screen.

REFERENCES
Book
Fauconnier, G.,1994. Mental spaces. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lakoff,G.& Johnson,M.,1980. Metaphors we live by. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Lakoff,G.& Johnson,M.,1999. Philosophy in the flesh. New York: Basic Books.
The Poyter Institute for Media Studies,1991. Eyes on the news. St.Petersburg, FL
Zettl, Herbert.,2001. Sight, Sound, Motion-Applied media aesthetics, in Korean translation by Duk Chun, Park & Ukeun,
Jung.,2002, Seoul : Communication Books.
Journal
Chilton, Paul, 2005. Vectors, viewpoint and viewpoint shift. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 3, pp. 78-116.
Lecuyer,R., Berthereau,S., Taieb,A.B. & Taroff, N., 2004. Location of a missing object and detection of its absence by
infants: Contribution of an eye-tracking system to the understanding of infants' strategies. Infant and Child
Development, 13. pp.287-300.
Rayner,K.& Well,A.D., 1996. Effects of contextual constraint on eye movements in reading: A further examination.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3(4), pp.504-509.

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LOCAL ePOLITICS REPUTATION CASE STUDY

Jean-Marc Seigneur
University of Geneva
7 route de Drize, Carouge, CH1227, Switzerland

ABSTRACT
More and more people rely on Web information and with the advance of Web 2.0 technologies they can increasingly
easily participate to the creation of this information. Country-level politicians could not ignore this trend and have started
to use the Web to promote them or to demote their opponents. This paper presents how candidates to a French mayor
local election and with less budget have engineered their Web campaign and online reputation. After presenting the
settings of the local election, the Web tools used by the different candidates and the local journalists are detailed. These
tools are evaluated from a security point of view and the legal issues that they have created are underlined.

KEYWORDS
ePolitics, local politics, Web campaign, online reputation.

1. INTRODUCTION
Web 2.0 technologies have increasingly facilitated the online publication of information by the users. The
Web has become so pervasive that many politicians have adopted these Web technologies to promote their
political parties, drive their election campaign and build their online political reputation. For example, during
the 2007 French presidential elections, one of the main candidates proposed a Web-based participatory forum
where users could submit ideas that other users could vote and comment. Similarly to the online tools
presented in this paper, that participatory forum was not so secure, for example, it was possible to vote
several times by creating different accounts. Another example is Barack Obama who has set up his own
online social network with over 1.5 million friends and over 45 000 followers on Twitter [N08]. Even if the
main candidates running for national political elections have an important budget, embracing a perfect online
Web campaign is still very hard to achieve due to the distributed aspect of the Web where counter sites or
defaming information can be propagated. In this paper, we investigate how candidates to a French mayor
election and with less budget than national elections engineered their Web campaign. In Section 2, we
describe the settings of the local election case study. These tools are then evaluated from a security point of
view in Section 3. We draw our conclusion in Section 4.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE LOCAL ELECTION AND ITS WEB TOOLS

We first present the general settings of the studied local election. Then, we detail the technical settings of the
online tools used during this election.

2.1 Local Election General Settings

The studied local election happened in March 2008 during the French municipalities local elections. The
studied municipality, namely Megève, one of the twelve Best of the Alps ski resorts, has around 3 900 voters.
Two candidates ran for the elections to become the mayor of this municipality. The municipality politicians
had been in place for twelve years for most of them. They had not to fight for their position six years ago at
the time of the previous election because there was only one candidate. The status of the municipality has
been quite worrisome because its population has decreased from more than 5 200 permanent people in the

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mid-eighties to around 4112 in 2007. This village is a well-known touristic place where the price of
properties keep increasing. Due to too high French inheritance taxes, local people cannot afford to keep their
family properties at time of inheritance. They have to sell their properties and then have to leave the village
due to the high renting prices. The winning candidate obtained around 70% of the votes. Debates were quite
fierce between the two candidates and as explained in the evaluation section below the online tools
contributed a lot to increase the hostilities.
Concerning the legal settings, there are French laws (articles from L 47 to L 52-3 [CE]) related to online
political elections that forbid the actions detailed in the following bullets. These bullets are used in Section 3
to evaluate the security and legal aspects of the different Web tools used during this election campaign:
z Defamation of a candidate, in our case via online information;
z Publication of new information by the candidate the day before the vote and the day of the vote, in
our case online publication;
z Publication of surveys results that are not official or statistically correct without informing the
readers that the results are not statistically correct;
z Collection of personal information by the candidates, for example, for political newsletters, without
informing the French privacy protection agency called CNIL [CL] of the existence of this collection.

2.2 Local Election Technical Settings

The five main Web-based tools that were involved in the political debate are described below. The fifth one
had been set up by us as part of a broader research project on the impact of online social networking tools on
village communities. It is worth mentioning that it was the first time that the mayor local elections involved
online tools in this municipality.
2.2.1 Candidate A's Web site
The official tool of the first candidate was a standard static Web site consisting of four HTML pages hosted
by 1and1.com and mainly automatically generated by the 1and1 WYSIWYG Web site creator. The domain
name was booked on the 24th of January 2008 and was the first to be publicly available. An online video of
the candidate was available on the main page. The page views counts was managed by an image marker
embedded by a third party traffic monitoring service. The cost of this Web site (excluding the cost of the
knowledge and the two to five hours to set it up) is estimated at around 12 Euros, which corresponds to the
price of the 1and1.com account for one year.
2.2.2 Candidate B's Blog
The second candidate set up a Typepad blog and bought the main domain name on the 9th of February 2008.
The blog contained both static Web pages as it is possible to set up with Typepad and blog articles submitted
from mid-February to the end of the elections in an increasing flow of information. People could subscribe to
this blog and receive the articles through their blog reader. After each public meetings, YouTube videos of
these meetings were embedded in articles or pages. No doubt that the WYSIWYG Typepad multi-authoring
tools facilitated a lot the edition, the administration and the referencing of candidate B's blog. Although the
comments were open until the day before the election, they did not use the feature to discuss negative
comments. The advantage is that it seemed more dynamic through the daily submission of articles. The cost
of that kind of blog (excluding the cost of the knowledge and the hours to edit the content) is estimated at
around 45 Euros, which corresponds to the price of 3 months of Typepad use.
2.2.3 Candidate A Partisan's Blog
In October 2007, someone set up a blog to publish articles about what is going on in the village: the touristic
events, the municipality projects... Based on the articles published by the authors of the blog, it seems clear
that the authors of the blog were for candidate A who lost the elections. That blog is quite basic and has been
set up on a French blog provider platform. Google Adsense advertisements are displayed throughout the blog
pages and articles. The blog is still active. It was worth mentioning that blog because it contributed to the
violence of the debates similarly to the main local newspaper site detailed below. Both tools are further
discussed in the legal part of the evaluation section.

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2.2.4 Main Local Newspaper's Web site

The main local newspaper provides a Web platform where its users can create an account and then leave
comments on the online version of its articles published on its paper-based version. The comments are
directly published and then manually moderated if someone reports an issue via an email. It is also possible
to vote for an article on a 5-star scale or for a comment with a thumb-up or thumb-down without being
logged in as depicted in Figure 1. The evaluation section below discusses where it failed to comply to the
legal rules listed in Section 2.1.

Figure 1. Main Local Newspaper Comment Rating

2.2.5 Our Local Online Social Networking Site

We designed and developed a Java-based online social networking Web site [MAG] dedicated to the
municipality and its inhabitants to study the impact of such online social tools on such a municipality. The
users used this site during the municipality campaign. From the beginning of August 2007 to the end of
February 2008, 41 proposals to improve the village were made on our online social network contributed by
124 users connected between them as depicted in Figure 2. Each user is placed uniformly around a circle and
a line, e.g. friendship or family relationship, represents a connection between a user and another user.

Figure 2. Local Online Social Network

The presentation layer of this site was based on JSP and JSF components from Apache MyFaces. The
Web server used was Apache Tomcat. The Java objects were persisted in a MySQL database through an

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Hibernate persistence layer. The site was opened to the public in August 2007. The users could create an
account linked to an email address, whose ownership is verified through an email challenge/response. At the
beginning, they were only allowed to propose and comment new ideas to improve the village. Those
propositions were listed in a forum section of the Web site. As they contributed, they earned participation
points and the best participating users were promoted on a specific ranking page. There were also special
users who had been coopted as real citizens of the village because they were known by the administrator of
the site or other previously coopted users. Coopted users were allowed to vote for such or such proposition.
To foster participation, the users could choose to remain anonymous when adding comments or propositions.
The site is now based on Drupal and its list of functionalities has changed as well as its use, which is much
lower than during the elections.
2.2.6 Overall Use of the Different Tools
Both candidates used a few other e-tools for their campaign. They submitted emailings through various
means: the mailing list collected through their Web site, messages to Facebook groups (one candidate had set
up a Facebook account), and allegedly even through unsolicited mass e-mailing as explained in the security
evaluation below. To estimate that traffic, given that the counter on the main page of candidate's A Web site
displayed 1 579 views on the 1st of March and that this Web site has 4 pages, around 6 000 pages may have
been viewed on candidate's A Web site. Concerning candidate's B blog, the Typepad views tool counted 25
353 pages views over approximately the same period of time. Figure 3 shows the distribution of the number
of page views per day. The first peak corresponds to when the local newspaper published its article
describing the candidate B's team and project with a reference to the blog URL. The second peak corresponds
to just after the election day and results. The number of views varied base on whether or not a blog article
was posted on that day and if it contained a video of the new meetings or not. Thus, it seems that the blog
approach attracted more page views than the static Web page approach.

1800
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1200
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0
06/02/08 10/02/08 14/02/08 18/02/08 22/02/08 26/02/08 01/03/08 05/03/08 09/03/08 13/03/08 17/03/08 21/03/08
04/02/08 08/02/08 12/02/08 16/02/08 20/02/08 24/02/08 28/02/08 03/03/08 07/03/08 11/03/08 15/03/08 19/03/08 23/03/08

Figure 3. Candidate B's Blog Daily Number of Page Views

3. SECURITY DISCUSSION
In this section, we start by discussing the different legal aspects introduced in section 2.1:
z Declaration of personal data collection to the CNIL [CL]: Although it is mandatory to declare
information collection and the declaration is quite easy through an online form, one of the
candidates did not mention its CNIL declaration number on its Web site. In addition to this number,
only one candidate respected the rule to clearly mention who was the editor of the information found
on the Web pages. Another privacy issue happened because one of the candidates allegedly mass
emailed to potential voters without having obtained their consent before submission of the emailing.
Thus, anti-spam laws have not been respected. CNIL and editor information is present on the main
local newspaper Web and our local social network. This point was less relevant to the partisan's
blog.
z No publication of new information the day before the vote and the day of the vote: Both candidates
seem to have respected this rule. The blog was not updated after the deadline and its comments

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features were disabled. The Web site of the other candidate did not change a lot anyway from the
start to the end because it was not a blog with daily blog articles. The partisan's blog also respected
this rule. The administrators of the main local newspaper platform had disabled the comments on the
articles related to this election. We closed down our social network a few days before the elections
in order to avoid any issue in this regard because we had not planned the functionality to forbid the
users to publish information.
z No publication of surveys that are not statistically correct without mentioning it: Neither the
candidates nor the partisan published surveys. As proposals to improve the village were voted and
ranked on our online social network, we clearly mentioned that the ranking was not statistically
correct and did not reflect the views of all the citizens. More detail on the number of people who
participated to our social network is presented below. The main local newspaper did not clearly
mention that the articles or comments ratings through the stars or the number of thumbs up and
down were not representative and statistically correct. In addition, the votes on the comments were
only protected by cookies and users could easily cheat, for example, just by clearing their cookies
cache and voting again many times on the same comment. We contacted them to underline these
issues but they had more important legal issues with their system as discussed below. Our online
social network was protected against such automated votes thanks to captchas [AB03].
z Defamation: The main local newspaper system was involved in a defamation trial and we argue that
it was mainly due to a bad design of their system. On the 24th of January, the local newspaper
published an article describing the first candidate, his team and projects for the municipality.
Comments started quickly to be published and attracted a lot of views. The day of the election, the
article had been viewed 10 242 times and 406 comments had been added. Almost all comments
have been voted and many of them have more than 100 votes. The pity is that these comments were
not moderated before publication and many comments were quite harsh. Furthermore, at the
beginning, the moderator who checks the comments had not really the time to keep checking these
comments and did not think it was so important to moderate this thread. On the 11th of February, an
article covered the other candidate profile, team and projects. Again this article attracted many
views (7 378 before the election) and 298 comments. The comments becoming more and more
known and harsher, the persons targeted by the comments started to complain to the newspaper. The
moderator had to spend more time on checking in real time the flow of comments and eventually
decided to close the comments submissions after one person sued for defamation. The last message
from the moderator is copied in Figure 4 (to sum up, the text says that the comments feature has
been disabled due to defamation trials, by the way, the author of the defamation was found by the
police after investigations although he used a pseudonym). In contrast, our online social network
experienced only one proposition to be moderated. It may be because the users felt that they were
more easily recognized on our specific social network and more information was displayed to them
regarding the risks that they were encountering. However, we had also to moderate the comments
after they had been published, which is an issue since the comments still appear for some time on
the Web site before being moderated.

Figure 4. Final Newspaper Moderator Message

The situation is clearly unsatisfactory from a security point of view because many of the listed legal
aspects are not fully respected. From a technical point of view, it seems clear that moderating before
publication is a required feature. Another technical improvement is to use other protection means than simple
cookies for vote protection. It should be costly and time consuming for users to cheat. From a user point of
view, it is a pity that the newspaper did not inform and educate enough the users about the risks of publishing
defaming information. Most of the users may have thought that they could not be found behind their
pseudonyms. As said above, the person who published the defaming information involved in the trial has
been found and sued in mid-July 2008. The newspaper should also have better explained that the results of

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the votes were not representative and not statistically correct. Another user comprehension issue related to
security happened. Initially we added a captcha to the registration form of our online social network. Many
aged users were not familiar with that kind of security mechanism and many users reported to us that they did
not succeed to create an account due to these captchas. Our framework logged how many times users were
calling the registration page and filling it with success. Before removing the captchas, only around one third
of the loaded registration pages ended in a successful user registration with all fields and captcha correctly
filled out. We eventually decided to remove this captcha on the registration page. From a security point of
view, it is interesting to know how many times the users have chosen to use the anonymization feature on our
online social network site when reacting to the 41 proposals published on the site. These 41 proposals created
81 comments and 29 of these comments were made with the anonymization option. Thus, around 35,8 % of
the comments were anonymized, which may indicate that an anonymization feature may increase the level of
participation.

4. CONCLUSION
Our case-study where local politicians tried to leverage the Web for their political success confirms Anderson
and Cornfield's statement made in 2000: “there are growing signs that democratic politics will increasingly
be conducted online” [AC02]. Park and Perry [PP07] found that the “use of campaign web sites is influential
for giving money to political candidate and sending e-mails urging people to vote with and without reference
to a particular candidate. However, the impact on voting is negligible”. We do not have the right data to
apply their evaluation method. We can just report that the candidate who won the local election of our case-
study was the candidate who used the more dynamic blogging platform. Local politicians are still not fully
aware of the legal aspects that must be respected on the Web, especially regarding defamation. These issues
also arise for the other actors, citizens and professionals such as the main local newspaper who did not put in
place enough mechanisms to avoid defamation issues and who did not inform well-enough their users about
their risks. These legal aspects will have to be addressed in the new open source or hosted technical solutions
that may be proposed to more easily and more cheaply build participative and interactive political campaigns.

REFERENCES
[AB03] Ahn, L.V., and Blum M., et al., 2003. captcha: using hard AI problems for security. Proceedings of Eurocrypt.
Warsaw, Poland, pp. 139-149.
[AC02] Anderson, D. M., and Cornfield, M., 2002. The Civic Web: Online Politics and Democratic Values. Rowman &
Littlefield.
[CE] Code électoral. http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr
[CL] CNIL. http://www.cnil.org
[MAG] http://www.mageva.com
[MEG] Megève. http://www.megeve.com
[N08] Nations, D., 2008. How Barack Obama is using Web 2.0 to run for president. About.com.
[PP07] Park, H. M., and Perry J. L., 2007. Do Campaign Web Sites Really Matter in Electoral Civic Engagement?:
Empirical Evidence From the 2004 Post-Election Internet Tracking Survey. In Social Science Computer Review,
Vol. 26, No. 2, pp 190-212.

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GOVERNMENT INFORMATICS AND CHINA

EARTHQUAKE RESCUE:
A CASE STUDY IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

Zelin Li
14, Kenry House, Kingston University London, KT2 7LB, UK

Xiongwei Song
Elmfield Building, University of Sheffield, S10 2TU, UK

ABSTRACT
China is undergoing rapid economic and political change after 30 years of reform, accompanied by developments in E-
government, with radical implications for citizens. In May 2008, a massive earthquake unexpectedly destroyed Sichuan,
China. Hundreds of thousands were killed. China had a quick response on the Sichuan earthquake relying on information
communication technology.
This time, Chinese relief work gained lots of positive comments and praise from the world, rather than experiencing
negative opinions from West, as on other previous occasions. However, that was a big challenge, because China was
preparing a historical event – Olympics at the same time. In order to ensure that Olympics and earthquake were both
handled well, China’s rescue jobs played an essential part within aspects of applications of information technology. What
lessons can we learn for ongoing research into government informatics in emergency management from this typical
developing country using economic and efficiency methods?

KEYWORDS
E-government, Emergency Response, Organisational Changing

1. INTRODUCTION
Government informatics has brought benefits for Chinese citizens. E-government is reshaping the
modernisation of public organisations, aiming to develop a solution to enhance the knowledge and practices
of information management, to improve emergency management. After data analysis, key elements were
found, which will implement a process for improving emergency management. E-government can be
achieved with collaborative work of central government, local governments and citizens in urgent situations.
This is the first attempt to move public information management in emergency management from theory into
practice in China, applied to emergency responses for a further research model. The outcomes are grounded
to move strategies into practices.
The scope of research combines E-government, organisational structure change and emergency responses.
E-government is a subsection of public management (Li, 2007). Public emergency management is a
fundamental function of public service. Emergencies put structures to demanding tests. Citizens benefit from
the improvement of new technology in emergencies or natural crisis. Efficient rescue work will saves lives.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The application of IT has been widely used, exploring governmental transformation alongside E-government.
The theoretical framework of emergency management, combined with public information management, has
been applied during natural disasters. A recent successful case was the China Sichuan seaquake. 600,020
people were rescued and 6 million homeless were resettled (Xinhua, 2008).

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2.1 China E-government Agenda

With rapid economic change, public governance in China has been improved, accompanied by developments
in E-government, with radical implications for citizens (Cai, 2006). E-government projects in China are
advised by the State Council Informatisation Office (Li, 2003), set up in Aug 2001. Local E-government
projects have been developed after 2001, led by local government informatisation offices.
Cai (2006) points out that three stage of development of Chinese E-government has been undertaken:
Office Automation, Implementation of Information Systems and E-government Projects (Li, 2007). Based on
the frustrations experienced, the next generation of public information management scheme will be from
technology-oriented to human-centred to service-oriented (Cai, 2006). E-government further development is
intended to achieve governmental service transactions available online, covering interactions for government
and users, and implementing digital governmental management with new standardisation (Zhou, 2007).
Organisational structure change has been impacted by informatisation, because government informatics
improves decentralization and low formalization criteria are specified for a modern organic organisation.

2.2 Organisational Change

E-government enabled by ICT reduces the cost of public management and transactions, but can also make
some organisational structures change more efficiently (Argyres, 1999). The theory of organisational
structure was influenced by Mintzberg (1983), who stated five basic organisational structures: the simple
structure, the machine bureaucracy, the professional bureaucracy, the divisionalised form and the adhocracy.
Liu and Li (2006) demonstrate the current organisational structure of Chinese governments is bureaucracy,
relying on standardized processes for coordination and control, and is mechanistic (Robbins, 2005). Robbins
(2005) argues the organic model, which uses cross-hierarchical and cross-functional teams, and involves high
participation in decision making. A mechanistic structure is designed to induce people to behave in a
predictable way. An organic structure promotes more flexibility and encourages organisational changing (Li,
2007), and fits the requirements of relief work in an urgent situation.

2.3 Emergency Response

The process of emergency management includes: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery - an
emergency management circle (Alexander, 2002). Efficient emergency management demands the integration
of managerial plans at all levels of public sectors, groups and societies involvement. This research
concentrates on the public information management of disasters responses, from the perspective of natural
disasters. Erickson (2006) sees the management of information as vital to the success of emergency response,
because of making decisions. Information must be collected, evaluated, and acted upon, etc.
Media become primary when they convey messages for risk communication to a target audience
(Coppola, 2007). The messages can be delivered throughout the world in seconds or minutes (Livingston,
1997). This form of communication relies on accessibility of media, including television, radio, internet. As
internet connects over one billion people worldwide, reported by Internet World Stats.com 2006, internet
communication is gaining over other media. Infrastructures of ICT in China played a crucial role in risk
communication during the earthquake. Chinese government used online media to report relief work in real
time. The pressure of the emergency helped to accelerate information opening up in China. The earthquake
information was not only published by governmental officials, but also uploaded videos and photograph by
Chinese internet users. They used personal blogs, websites, and website forums, changing the internet culture
in China. Information is becoming more transparent, influencing approaches to the use of IT, and government
informatics.
2.3.1 Management Information System
Expert systems have been developed for emergency planning and response. The Emergency Management
Information System (EMIS) is a database for disaster response, with support for executing and tracking the
contingency plan in disaster response. EMIS provide emergency managers support, offering integration of
plans to public or private sectors for emergency management. Erickson (2006) argues that even the most

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sophisticated technology is no guarantor of competence, nor can it correct the consequences of incompetence.
Technology needs to be clarified: the specific objectives of computerisation can be clearly defined in lights of
the needs of the response; information must be critically evaluated; each programme has its capacities and
limitations; and flexibilities are required at a practical level in the use of centralised computerisation.
2.3.2 Database Design
A team approach with the depth and diversity of expertise in emergency responses is preferable, in running a
database, and associated retrieval systems (Erickson, 2006). Systems designed by specialists groups from IT
to keys members of the community partnership for emergency plans are likely to meet technical criteria. In
the Sichuan earthquake, data and information processing strategies were undertaken by dynamic linkage
among different response expertise teams organised by official authority at the beginning of the catastrophe
(Xinhua, 2008). Different specialist teams supported the relief work in incident sites. Supporting groups were
from a wide range of fields: public and private sectors and non-profit organisations. An organic model with
horizontal communication matched the requirements of earthquake rescue in Sichuan.

2.4 Sichuan Earthquake

The Great Sichuan Earthquake or Wenchuan earthquake, measuring 8.0 Magnitude, occurred at 14:28 CST
on May 12, 2008 in Sichuan province of China. The epicentre lies in Wenchuan County, 50 miles west-
northwest of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. The earthquake was felt by Beijing (932 miles away) and
Shanghai (1,056 miles away). On the 21st of July, 2008, official figures state that 69,197 were confirmed
dead, including 68,636 in Sichuan province, and 374,176 injured, with 18,222 missing. About 4.8 to
11 million people were left homeless. It is the strongest earthquake to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan
earthquake, which killed at least 240,000 people.
The earthquake was clarified as a priority emergency to be handled by government. Soon after the
earthquake, President Hu Jintao announced that the disaster response must be rapid. Ninety minutes after the
earthquake, Premier Mr. Wen, with an academic background in geomechanics, flew to the area to oversee
rescue work (Time, 2008). Xinhua, China national news agency, reported, within 2 hours, China's Health
Ministry had sent ten emergency medical teams to Wenchuan County. On the same day, China's Chengdu
Military Area Command dispatched 50,000 troops and armed police to help with disaster relief work. Rescue
timing efforts were undertaken immediately. Persistent heavy rain and landslides seriously affected rescue
efforts. Food, water and emergency aid had to be delivered by helicopters, which helped to evacuate the
injured and make reconnaissance of quake-stricken areas. At the start of rescue operations on the 12th May,
twenty helicopters were deployed. By the 14th of May, 300 rescuers reached the epicentre, and 300 pioneer
troops reached Wenchuan, partly reviving communication. On the 16th May, rescue teams from South Korea,
Japan, Singapore, Russia and Taiwan arrived. The United States shared satellite images.

2.5 Research Questions

Organisational structural change is constant, impacted by ICT projects. The theory of Chinese E-government
on emergency management and organisational theory lacks integration, although IT is applied in emergency
management. E-government issues are worth exploring on emergency management, including research
methodology, data collection analysis. What lessons can we learn for ongoing research into government
informatics in emergent management? Why do emergency management or regional crisis need public
information management – E-government?

3. METHODOLOGY
Bryman and Bell (2001) suggest that in the early stage of theory, qualitative research is better rather than
quantitative. A qualitative approach was taken to study a real world intervention. Canton (2007) notes that
the ultimate test of any strategy or plan for responses is an actual crisis event. Yin (2003) refers to case study
as a research method, a way of investigating an empirical topic. Case study is able to enrich the theory,

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confronting a real-life problem. It offers meaning and understanding of the world from a local and
international perspective (Yin, 2003). This study adopts an empirical, cross-sectional and single-case pilot
study, seeking the answers for the research questions. Secondary data were collected from news agencies and
official reports, for instance, BBC and Chinese national news agencies – Xinhua. This study employs semi-
structured interview for collecting primary data Telephone semi-structured interviews were used to talk to
interviewees who are living in Sichuan, where the earthquake epicentre was.

3.1 Data Collection

The qualitative dataset is from twelve interviews with Chinese and British people. Occupations of the
interviewees were diverse, largely professionals such as Chinese government civil servants, IT technicians,
rescuers and academic researchers. The issues cover the area of information control, governance and
emergency problem solutions. Having applied a coding scheme, a code-book for this dataset, and an index
was developed. The index work shifts some less relevant data from the raw data of the dataset. Through
reviewing the coding interview scripts and the charts for references to the interviewee’s knowledge, expertise,
experience and attitudes, key dimensions of opinions from interviewees were drawn out.

3.2 Data Analysis

Four key elements have been abstracted: 1. Leadership; 2. Information open access; 3. Quick emergency
response and 4. Multiparty cooperation and horizontal communication. The associations between them have
been illustrated in Figure 1. The early emergency response was counted in minutes to few hours. At this early
phase, leadership was top-down to make a quick and right decision. At the second phase, the focus is on
information and publicity. This has to be transparent based on communications, so that the detailed
organisation work can operate smoothly. IT management requires a higher level for efficient emergency
response. A bottom-up structure in governance was adopted within 72 hours. The case of donating blood
indicated that horizontal communication is necessary. Citizens are now able to call for help via Internet.
Transparency of
Information

Leadership: Strategy Information Efficient High-

Vertical hierarchy Management performance of
Emergency responses

Organisational Structure
Changing: Horizontal
Communication

Figure 1. Emergency Response Model

Interviewees agreed that leaders making the right decisions ensured that succeeding procedures could be
processed and taken. Chinese interviewees were satisfied with the information, transparently and effectively
delivered by governments. The media published the news of earthquake five minutes after Sichuan had been
shocked. Londoners suggested that it is necessary to improve. All the interviewees used internet to get the
latest news. Chinese official websites and news were viewed by most of the Chinese people during 12-24
May. Comparing with historic archives, during this period they used real time information updating by text,
photograph and video in the internet, rather than only TV channels and newspaper. The interviewees thanked
the Internet, which enables them to share information and resources. Collaboration was very close.

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4. CONCLUSION
Natural disasters happen unexpectedly. They may kill hundreds of thousands of lives and destroy buildings.
Human beings do not like tragedies. Disasters occur, although vast protection work has been done. Rescue
plans can be only organised by government or public sectors, with huge cost. Using IT management to
improve public emergency actions is essential, combining IT with emergency management. New technology
affects the conventional structure of public departments, enhancing operations for emergency scenarios.
Experience of the Chinese emergency response to the Sichuan earthquake demonstrates the vital
important of collaborative working, with technical expertise and understanding at the most senior levels. In
the overall context of a programme to develop E-government, the emergency required real time creative
responses. Events accelerated processes of opening up access to information and to the Internet. Continuing
research on E-government in China will monitor the extent to which these processes continue.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to deliver a big thank you to Richard Ennals. He inspires minds and gives us invaluable
advice. He is a kindly, generous, thoughtful tutor with international prestige.

REFERENCES
Alexander, D., 2002. Principles of Emergency Planning and Management. New York: Oxford University Press.
Argyres, N. S., 1999. The impact of information technology on coordination: evidence from the B-2 “stealth” bomber.
Organisation Science, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 162-180.
Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2001. Business Research Methods. Oxford University Press.
Cai, L, 2006. E-government in the era of information. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press.
Canton, L. G., 2007. Emergency Management: Concepts and Strategies for Effective Programs. Hoboken, New Jersey:
Wiley & Sons.
Coppola, D. P., 2007. Introduction to international disaster management. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinetmann.
Erickson, P. A., 2006. Emergency response planning and management (Second Edition). Oxford: Academic.
Li, X., 2003. E-government and Organizational Reform. Reformation & Strategy, Issue. 11, 2003.
Li, Z., 2007. How E-government affects the organisational structure of Chinese Government, AI & Society, Vol. 23, No.
1, pp 123-130.
Livingston, Steven., 1997. Clarify the CNN Effect: An Examination of Media Effects According to Type of Military
Intervention. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Liu, X. and Li, Y., 2006. The reform of the hierarchical structure of Chinese local governments. Review of Economic
Research, No.6, 2006.
Mintzberg, H., 1983. Structure in Fives: Designing Effective Organisations. Prentice Hall.
Robbins, P. S., 2005. Organisational Behaviour (11th Ed.). Pearson Education, Inc. p 452.
Time, 2008. China’s Quake Damage Control, Time Magazine, USA.
Xinhua, 2008. Reconstruction after earthquake. Chinese National Authority News Agency, July.
Yin, R. K., 2003. Case study research: design and methods London ; Sage.
Zhou, H., 2007. The Problems Existing in the Development of Chinese E-government and Countermeasures. Sci-Tech
Information Development & Economy, No.3, 2007.

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TOWARDS A SECURE, SCALABLE, COMPATIBLE AND

OPEN IPTV SOLUTION

Enrique de la Hoz, Antonio García, Bernardo Alarcos

Computer Engineering Department, University of Alcala, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid 28871, Spain

Daniel Hernanz
SIDSA, PTM. C/ Torres Quevedo 1, Tres Cantos, Madrid 28760

ABSTRACT
In the last years, the interest about the video streaming over Internet has been increasing. There are some solutions based
on open code that provide a good performance. Some of them has been tested during the last two years over the
university campus network and after that it has been made the decision of using a new system that increases the
compatibility with the receiver platforms using RTMP (Real Time Messaging Protocol) and Flash Video to allow the
conditional access to the contents based on user cryptographic credentials stored into a ``cryptographic token'' (USB
device with hardware oriented cryptographic algorithms). Finally, a first prototype of the system is presented

KEYWORDS
IPTV, Real Time Messaging Protocol, Flash Video, Conditional Access.

1 INTRODUCTION
In the last years, the interest about the video streaming over Internet has been increasing [1][2][3]. The
growths of bandwidth and computer power have enabled a true revolution in the kind of contents that are
delivered. In fact, a great percentage of Internet traffic is related to video delivery sites. It can be argued that
video contents are not novel at all and, in fact, they have been there from the very beginning times of the net
of networks but it has been only lastly when they have got so widely spread. While the above factors have
enabled the process, they were already present a few years ago but the process did not start. To understand
the actual situation, we should take into account the classical problems of video delivery in Internet. Provided
that we had enough bandwidth and processing power, we still did not have a mature model. First, there was
no common agreement in the protocol to use or the codec with the result that there were lots of different
media players adequate for receiving video of certain sites but not from others. Second, there were no
attractive contents for users; as we have stated the market was not mature. It was only when sites like
youtube or goggle video started to work, when the video contents started to govern the media environment in
Internet.
With this kind of sites, we got solutions for the two outlined problems. First, the Flash-video solution
became a de-facto standard [4] and second, the Web 2.0 paradigm of contents made by users for users put the
enough attractiveness on the media. Nevertheless, the model is far away from being perfect. Though the
model has been near universally adopted, it is not based on open standards. The transport protocol, Real Time
Message Protocol, is a proprietary protocol licensed by Adobe. The codecs, up to last versions, were also
non-open. In addition, though some security proposals have been issued (RTMPE), they are not open either
and some aspects like access-control have not been tackled adequately.
Our group has been working with video streaming protocols during the last few years. As a result of this
work, we have tested the main video streaming solutions and have developed a solution based entirely on
open software that, by putting together different open-source projects, allow to offer a flash-based video
delivery platform while offering a greater degree of security than existing proposals by means of using
standard protocols like TLS [5] and with no required modification of user-agent software.

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The rest of the paper will be structured as follows. Section 2 will describe the state of the art of video
delivery solutions. Section 3 will present the proposed architecture and to explain our security proposal.
Finally, section 4 will present the conclusions and future work.

2. STATE OF THE ART

As we have explained in section 1, there is no published standard describing the protocol used to transport
the video streams, Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP). In spite of this fact, some open-source projects
have made use of diverse techniques to figure out how the protocol works [10]. We have currently tested two
projects: gnash and red5.
The Gnash project [6] aims to create a free player and browser plug-in for the Adobe Flash file format,
replacing the proprietary software niche currently occupied by Adobe Flash Player. It developed from the
GPLFlash project. Gnash is released under the GNU General Public License. As a part of the gnash project, a
flash server started to be developed. Cygnal[7], which I the name of the subproject, is a Flash media server
compatible audio and video server. It handles negotiating the copyright metadata exchange, as well as
streaming the content. It will need to handle many thousands of simultaneous network connection, and
support running on large GNU/Linux clusters. It should support handling multiple streams with differing
content, as well as a multicast stream with a single data source.
Although, the feature list is promising and includes features like multicast or transcoding that are not
being provided by the commercial Flash Media Server, the tests that have being carried out on them show
that the project is still in the very first stages and that can not be used for production servers anyway. Even
the server developers suggested us to switch to another solution if we wanted a solution for the short-term.
A more mature solution is Red5 [8] Red5 is a free, open source Flash server that supports streaming and
recording audio/video, live stream publishing and Flash remoting. In our study, we have only studied the
media streaming capabilities of the software. Red5 is capable to stream using RTMP contents stored in local
disk or the video signal from a webcam but is not able to use any other source. Furthermore, it does not offer
a proper control and management interface. As a result of all these flaws, it can be stated that is not a media
server in the way that Darwin Streaming Server, Windows Media Server and VLC are, and that should be
complemented with additional features to offer such service.
However, it can be argued that as long as it is an open-source solution, it can be extended to meet all these
requirements. One of the main goals of our study has been the identification of these flaws and the design of
the subsystems to cover them. At the moment, we are in the very early stages if this development that when
finished will allow Red5 to accept the main video transport protocols, and a quick integration with ffmpeg
and vlc to allow transcoding and transport switch capabilities.
Finally, there is one quite recent project called haXeVideo [9] that try to focus on the media streaming
part of Red5. haXeVideo is a multithread FLV streaming server entirely written using the haXe programming
language. The source code is very small and the server is lightweight (both CPU and memory) but very
scalable. HaXeVideo support FLV video streaming, Webcam/Microphone recording and Live streaming (for
chat/web conferences), but it does not allow RTMPT, that is, the tunnelling of RTMP protocol inside HTTP.
As long as it will be needed by our proposal, we discard the use of haXeVideo.
Regarding the work carried out up to this moment, we have focused in offering security and access
control to the delivered media by means of integrating TLS with the RTMP protocol. In the next section, this
proposal will be detailed.

3. ARCHITECTURE PROPOSAL
As we have stated, we aim two main goals. First, we wanted to build an open-source platform for FLV video
delivery. Second, we wanted to extend the capabilities of the platform to offer some security services to the
video delivered, mainly, confidentiality, integrity, authentication and access control.
Related to the first goal, we propose to integrate Red5 with TLS by developing a interface among both
programs. This approach will take advantage of the media and protocol handling capabilities of VLC [11] to
take any source and convert it to flash-video format. There is not a fixed FLV format but it depends on the

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flash player version. Audio format is MP3. Video format depends on Flash Player version. Prior to version 8,
ITU H.263 [13] was used and the current format is ON2 (VP6 and VP7) although is has been announced that
next flash player version will support the use of ITU H.264 codec [14], that not only offer a better
compression ratio but also has free implementations widely available. Since VLC relies on ffmpeg [12]
software to do the coding work, it could be easily adapted to new video or audio codec formats, provided that
ffmpeg supports them what is quite a valid assumption if we notice the wide range of codec are currently
supported.
Most of the effort has been focused on developing a security architecture for the platform. At he moment,
there does not exist any commonly adopted solution to secure access with RTMP protocol. Recently, Adobe
has released a new version of Flash Media Server that provides a new protocol called Real Time Messaging
Protocol Encrypted (RTMPE). RTMPE is a version of RTMP with a 128-bit encrypted protocol. Adobe
alleged that RTMPE is more lightweight than SSL and it does not require certificate management as SSL
does. However, there are two main drawbacks. First, Adobe has made no publicly available version of this
protocol so it cannot be analyzed so in deep by security experts. Second, this protocol is mainly orientated to
DRM management. Adobe is planning to offer two forms of digital rights management that they call content
integrity and identity-based licensing. The former means that a particular piece of content is only playable if
it has not been altered, which is important if you as a content owner want to ensure for example that a pre-roll
video ad is always part of the main content. Identity-based licensing is the approach to ensure that an
authorised user can only play back a particular piece of content. Most of the times, it is not needed to keep
the content protection upon his reception. Furthermore, main media providers are discarding the use of this
kind of measures.
As a result of that, we propose a fully open source based platform that not only provides a way of
delivering audio and video contents but also allow to offer security services to them in a lightweight,
standard-based and easy to deploy manner. In the next figure we show a schema of the proposed architecture:

Figure 1. System Architecture

Our proposal combines the versatility of VLC and ffmpeg software to adapt any source of multimedia
content to the FLV format and deliver it to a modified version of Red5 that will encapsulate the signal
according to RTMP protocol specifications so that any flash player could receive it properly. In addition, we
add a security layer. This security layer consists of tunnelling the RTMP traffic in a TLS session thus
securing the RTMP traffic in a simplest way that RTMPE does and also standard based. Also, there is no
need to modify the existing Red5 code; that traffic is tunnelled into a TLS session that is not established or
maintained by Red5 but by a wrapper. At the moment, we are using stunnel to wrap RTMP traffic into TLS
but it is also possible to deploy Red5 as Tomcat application and configure TLS support in tomcat.
Although TLS is mostly used with server authentication, it can do mutual authentication as well. Our
proposal takes advantage of this feature to do client authentication, that is, clients will have to show a valid
credential in order to be able to establish a TLS session. Once the TLS session is established, we can use the
data stored in the presented certificate to grant access or deny access to video contents.
Users employ a web browser to access the service. This browser must be TLS-capable. Users are
provided a certificate when they join the system. In that moment, they request a certain type of service that
can be similar to the channel packages that are offered on cable or satellite TV and a certificate is issued.
This certificate contains either his identity or a pseudonym that can be mapped to his identity. To provide a
higher degree of security, the private key and the certificate is generated by the registration system and is

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stored in a cryptographic device that is given to the user. Provided that these kinds of devices are tamper-
resistant devices, first, we assure that the private key cannot be extracted so only the owner of the device can
access the system. Second, we provide a higher degree of security as long as it is more difficult to steal the
user private key. Finally, we are going to maintain the TLS session if and only if the device is plugged in. If
the user takes out the device, the video playback will stop suddenly, this way we avoid the sharing of the
subscription among users. As long as the certificate is valid, the user will be accepted by the system. The
certificate will be valid until is revoked or expires. Certificates will be revoked under two main
circumstances: the loss of the device or if the user leaves the video system. In these cases, we will update the
CRL list taking into account the newly revoked certificates.
In addition to the extra degree of security, we have another advantage derived from the use of
cryptographic devices; the ability of video-roaming. User A is watching a program at home, like a film under
this model. Suddenly, he decides to go to a friend’s home but he wants to keep watching the film. With our
system, the only thing that it should do is taking the crypto device and going to his friend’s home and plug in
the device in his friend’s computer. Once he has done that, he only has to access the system page with his
favourite TLS-capable web browser to be authenticated, and to continue watching the program from the point
he left it. This info will be kept for possible connections in the future. As long as RTMP has the ability of
random access to video contents, we will be able to continue exactly in that point. It is possible to see a demo
in http://it.aut.uah.es/antonio/investigacion/VideoDemoFinal.avi.

4. CONCLUSIONS
In the last years, the interest about the video streaming over Internet has been increasing. The Flash-Video
approach has emerged like a de-facto standard for video streaming in the Internet. Nevertheless, the
specifications are not open and there is no consensus on the security model to use. In this paper, we try to
present an open-source alternative to this model after comparing the most interesting proposals that can be
found in the state of the art. In addition, we present one of the first approaches to security in this scenario,
that we believe to be lightweight, standard-based, simple and easy to deploy as well as offering a greater
degree of security than other proposals by means of using cryptographic devices. Not only the system offers
this advantages, but other like video roaming that bring together the IPTV paradigm and home TV
approaches. In future work, we will offer an in deep comparison with RTMPE protocol.

REFERENCES
Dapeng Wu Hou et al., 2001. “Streaming video over the Internet: approaches and directions”. IEEE Transactions on
Circuits and Systems for Video Technology. Volume: 11, Issue: 3 On page(s): 282-300 ISSN: 1051-8215
Xiao, Y. Du et al., 2007, “Internet Protocol Television (IPTV): The Killer Application for the Next-Generation Internet”,
IEEE Communication Mag. Vol 45, pp. 126-134.
Eveline Veloso et al., A hierarchical characterization of a live streaming media workload, IEEE/ACM Transactions on
Networking (TON), v.14 n.1, p.133-146
Adobe FLV (Flash Video) http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/flash .
Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, 2006, "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.1", RFC 4346.
Gnash web site: http://www.gnashdev.org/
Cygnal web site: http://wiki.gnashdev.org/Cygnal
Red5 web site: http://osflash.org/red5
haXeVideo web site: http://haxevideo.org/
RTMP (Real Time Messaging Protocol) Protocol [DRAFT] http://osflash.org/document
VideoLAN VLC http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Ffmpeg project. http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/
ITU-T Recommendation H.263, 2005. “Video coding for low bit rate transmission”, Series H: Audiovisual and
Multimedia Systems.
ITU-T Recommendation H.264, 2005. “Advanced video coding for generic audiovisual services”, Series H: Audiovisual
and Multimedia Systems.

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SIE-HEALTH, E-HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM

Loxo Lueiro-Astray, César Parguiñas-Portas, Rubén Romero-González, Cástor Sánchez-Chao,

Juan Carlos González-Moreno
GWAI group – Intelligent Agents Web Group
Dept. Informática, Universidad de Vigo, Escuela Superior de Ingeniería Informática.
Edificio Politécnico, Campus Universitario As Lagoas s/n, 32004, Ourense, Spain

ABSTRACT
In recent years, the incessant development of new communication technologies has provided a better way for accessing
information and also a lot of useful opportunities. The implementation of these new technologies gives us an ideal
environment for transmitting and receiving real-time information from anywhere. One of the sectors that have a great
potential to use and exploit this kind of technologies is the healthcare sector. Nowadays, the application of all these new
technologies to support the clinical procedures has taken part in the definition of a new concept known as e-Health. This
concept involves a lot of different services related with the medicine/health terms and the information technologies.
However, to provide emergency transportation with better care capabilities to the patient is something that still has a lot
to improve. Within this context SIe-Health comes into being, a software platform which is oriented for developing
Telemedicine solutions. The solution model proposed here allows remote assistance for a mobile health emergency (for
example, an ambulance), integrating in this service electro-medical devices and videoconference services.

KEYWORDS
e-Health4, Telemedicine1, Teleassistance3, Electro-medical devices, real-time information, mobile platform, health
emergency, Clinical Data, Monitoring.

1. INTRODUCTION
The peak of communication between mobile devices and the potential that they have for their integration in a
distributed system makes possible the development of new solutions, more dynamic than before, and also
more useful in this information society. The implementation of these new systems in every sector of our
society, especially in public utilities, is making a revolution in the way the users can use the different
services. Examples of this revolution are: simple actions such as recharging a phone card, checking the TV
schedule, accessing news in real time, or going shopping, are totally integrated in distributed systems,
making it more comfortable because it allows citizens to do anything anywhere.
One of the sectors with a great potential to use and exploit this kind of technologies is the healthcare
sector. Healthcare involves a lot of different services where the integration of new technology devices is very
reliant on environment. The attention to the elderly through services like teleassistance, centralized control of
the patient’s state in hospitals, or the recent telemedicine systems used by Army5, which are being
implemented for civilian use, are just the beginning. Specifically, the implementation of these new
technologies to support clinical practice has given birth to a new concept known as e-Health1. This term
includes a wide range of different services related to medicine / health terms and information technology:
Electronic Medical Records (EHR14), that allow easy communication of patient data between different
healthcare professionals; Telemedicine2, which includes all types of physical and psychological
measurements that do not require a patient going to a specialist; Evidence Based Medicine, that involves a
system providing information of a suitable treatment under certain patient conditions; Consumer Health
Informatics10 (or citizen-oriented information provision): both healthy individuals and patients want to be
informed on medical topics; Health knowledge management (or specialist-oriented information
provision): e.g. an overview of latest medical journals, best practice guidelines or epidemiological tracking;
Virtual healthcare teams, involves collaboration and sharing information on patients through digital
equipment; Health or m-Health; and Medical research.

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This work arose from various sectors of health with the main goal to provide emergency transports with
an increased healthcare capacity over the patient to increase the quality of service and the possible action
over that patient. This need is usually the lack of information and training of the staff attending the service, as
most of them are not covered by medical staff (Doctors). This problem appears when a simple patient
transfer, becomes a vital urgency. Consider for example the following potential situation.
There is a transfer of a patient who suffers an unspecified ailment and whose state, this situation at first,
is not a vital urgency. Thus according to the operating protocol of the most emergency health centres, the
service is attended by an ambulance with no medical staff (an ambulance without Doctors). Suddenly a
worsening of the patient state occurs, requiring immediate attention by a Doctor; but he is not available. In
this case we find a clear shortcoming of the attention that the patient is receiving from the ambulance staffs
that are covering this service. A system such as proposed in this paper, provides the ability for transmitting
more relevant data (included audio and video) of the patient state in real-time, in order to enable a first
diagnosis from a doctor (hospital emergency service staff) and advise to the ambulance staff about how to
proceed. Besides the obvious improvement in the quality of service provided during the emergency, there is
another added benefit: The medical staff of the emergency service in the hospital could know the exact
situation of the patient every time, and assign to assist the patient the same advisor of the urgency.
There are currently platforms that are trying to solve some of the problems previously mentioned:
BioShirt13 focuses primarily on capturing clinical data on a continuous basis, moving into the background the
real-time monitoring of an emergency. There has also been another feature referring to specify the type of
patients. This feature is also shared by the system HMES9 of Akogrimo Consortium. Both systems are
focusing their attention on a group of patients defined as high-risk with a certain pathology previously
diagnosed (heart chronic diseases). Another system, eSana11, serves for most types of patient; however, it
does not contemplate the possibility of using data transmitted in real time to establish an early diagnosis.
There are a number of international studies that support both the benefits and the possibility of
establishment of such architectures6. Some like BC eHealth System Concept Architecture1 support a macro
system for comprehensive integration of any element that generates information relevant to the health of a
patient. Software architectures for digital healthcare are another proposal to the total management which is
focused in the use of international protocols for exchanging communication known as HL78.

Figure 1. Sie – Health Platform Architecture

SIe-Health was born to give full solution to the problem just presented previously. The creation of a
platform which allows solving current shortcomings in care systems of medical emergencies has been
marked as its main objective, helping the flow of useful information in real time, among all the subjects
involved in the care of urgency. At this point, the designed system allows Sie-Health do the following: (i) to
obtain from the Coordination Centre (CC), real-time information on all vehicles intended for emergency care.
(ii) to connect multiple electromedicine devices to the patient to collect clinical data. (iii) the dispatch of
clinical data in real time from the ambulance toward the CC, Hospital and / or CAP. (iv) monitoring and
tracking multiple emergencies from the CC at the same time. (v) communication support through audio,
video and data channels, between the ambulance and the CC, and simultaneously, with any other destination
referred to in architecture.

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2. ARCHITECTURE OF “SIE-HEALTH”
The platform architecture is divided into three main parts taking in mind practical aspects as: the geographic
location of each of the applications that shape this system, the workload distributions, the available resources,
the technology constraints, and of course the scalability of the systems that shape this type of architecture.
These systems often tend to have a growth both horizontally and vertically. The duplication of the server
implies: the increase in the robustness or an improved performance. The duplication of clients allows an
increase in availability of systems. In the solution adopted both clients and thick servers have been developed
(they often tend to be complementary). Figure 1 represents a scheme of the platform architecture.

2.1 “On Board”

The main function of this architecture's part is to obtain information from devices connected to the system
and transmit it. It also presents feedback of what has happened to the central or to the CC where these request
has been treated. Finally, basic objectives that make this part of the architecture are the following: Getting
data devices connected to the system. Storing data. Presentation of data through a user interface.
Establishing communication with the server area. Creating a log system for the system in operation.

2.2 “Server Area”

The main function of this part is to provide a communication link between a mobile unit and the monitoring
station. Finally, basic objectives that make this part of the architecture are the following: Capturing of data
from mobile units. Managing communications between mobile units and the monitoring station. Presenting
information about the state of the units associated with a service. Storing data and logs. Authentication
management. Management of local operations when the monitoring station hands over control to the server
area.

2.3 “Monitoring Station”

This part of the architecture centralizes control operations most important platform, providing full control
over all connections that are served in this system. Finally, basic objectives that make this part of the
architecture are the following: Addressing all requests from the platform. Data transmission between mobile
units and Action Clients. Managing and delegating control transmissions on a given server area. Mass
storage of data.

3. SIMULATION SYSTEM

3.1 Main View of Interface Monitoring – Monitoring Control Interface

In this interface all the information of all ambulances under centralized control is shown. This list is divided
into sectors corresponding to different geographical areas that are managed by the application.

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Figure 2. Main View – Monitoring Control Center

3.2 Main View – Control Interface

Figure 3. Main View – Control interface

4. CONCLUSIONS
The need for obtaining information from the real world for analysis is increasingly required more quickly. If
this is what moved the world of medicine this speed increases exponentially. This is evidenced by numbers
devices, which emerge daily that allow access to such data or information. Regardless of that, in many cases
obtaining not enough, but the data are obtained through various obstacles (distance, format...) and it cannot
be analyzed by competent personnel or devices. During the development of "Sie-Health" has succeeded in
solving these two types of problems and unify the solution in a single platform.
This paper has presented "Sie-Health", a platform that facilitates obtaining information from patients in a
vehicle intended for emergency health and onward shipment to a plant where they will be analyzed by
qualified personnel to provide support during the patient care, staffs that are covering such urgency.
"Sie-Health" is an open platform capable of annexing new features that may be sued by staff who really
are the end users of the system. It is also capable of adapting to the needs that are arising from technological
advances, improved communications, new devices, and so on.
As for future possibilities that can provide the platform can highlight the most relevant:
• Monitoring patient’s state through mobile devices: in this line of work, it would try to keep
monitoring the patient's general condition in a controlled environment (hospital complex, geriatric nursing
home, etc...) through the transmission of information from different electro-medical devices.

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• Monitoring and advice during surgery: Integrating and implementing a system of video conferencing
and data transfer electro-medical devices present in the operating theatre.
• Module access to patient medical history: integration into the platform system of digitized medical
records.
• Integrator "for MDP-sie Health" on the platform: MDP (Diagnostic Module Preliminary), which is in
its early stage of development. Its aim is to provide an initial diagnosis and guidelines for action in an
emergency medical via mobile device isolation.

REFERENCES
Books
BC eHealth Steering Committee (2005). “BC eHealth Conceptual System Architecture”. British Columbia Ministry of
Health Services. National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data: ISBN 0-7726-5375-5.
Ferrer-Roca, Olga (2001). “Telemedicina”. Editorial Médica Panamericana. ISBN 84-7903-606-0.
Journals
Álvarez Díaz, Pedro (2007). “Teleasistencia Médica, ¿hacia dónde vamos?”. RevistaeSalud.com Vol 3, Nº 10. Available
at: http://www.revistaesalud.com/index.php/revistaesalud/article/viewArticle/155/411
Eysenbach, Gunther (2001). “What is e-Health?”. Journal of Medical Internet Research (J Med Internet Res
2001;3(2):e20). Available at: http://www.jmir.org/2001/2/e20/
Hernández Abadía de Barbará, Alberto. “Sistema de Telemedicina de las Fuerzas Armadas Españoles”. Unidad de
Telemedicina del Hospital Central de la Defensa. IGESAN. Ministerio de Defensa. Available at:
http://www.csi.map.es/csi/tecnimap/tecnimap_2006/05T_PDF/sistema%20de%20elemedicina.pdf
Other sources
Bernhard Riedl, Veronika Grascher and Thomas Neubauer (2002). “A Secure e-Health Architecture based on the
Appliance of Pseudonymization”. Secure Business Austria, Vienna. Available at:
http://www.academypublisher.com/jsw/vol03/no02/jsw03022332.pdf
DICOM, Digital Imaging and Comunications in Medicine. Available at:
http://medical.nema.org y http://www.hl7.org/standards/dicom.html
HL7, Health Level Seven Spain. Disponible en: www.hl7spain.org
Loos, Christian (2006). “E-Health with Mobile Grids: The Akogrimo Heart Monitoring and Emergency Scenario”.
Universität Hohenheim, Information Systems II. Available at:
http://www.akogrimo.org/download/White_Papers_and_Publications/Akogrimo_eHealth_white_paper_short_200602
07.pdf
López-Manzanares, Norman (2004). “Servicios Móviles en la Sanidad: Un paso más en la Mejora de la Salud”,
Telefónica Móviles España. Available at:
http://www.csi.map.es/csi/tecnimap/tecnimap_2004/comunicaciones/tema_05/5_007.pdf
Marco Savini, Andreea Ionas, Andreas Meier, Ciprian Pop, Henrik Stormer. “The eSana Framework: Mobile Services in
eHealth using SOA”. University of Fribourg. Available at:
http://www.mgovernment.org/resurces/euromgvo2006/PDF/21_Savini.pdf
Mikko Korpela, Juha Mykkänen, Jari Porrasmaa and Matti Sipilä (2005). “Software architectures for digital healthcare”,
HIS R&D Unit, University of Kuopio, Finland. Available at: http://www.uku.fi/tike/his/exporthis/CHIMA2005-
architectures-corrected160605.doc
S. C. Shin, C. Y. Ryu, J. H. Kang, S. H. Nam, Y. S. Song, T. G. Lim, J. W. Lee, D. G. Park, S. H. Kim, Y. T. Kim
(2004). “Realization of an e-Health System to Perceive Emergency Situations”. Microsystems Research Department,
Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Deajeon, Korea. Available at:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/9639/30463/01403930.pdf
Waegemann, C. Peter (2002). "Status Report 2002: Electronic Health Records". Medical Record Institute. Available at:
http://www.medrecinst.com/uploadedFiles/MRILibrary/StatusReport.pdf

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CONTEXT AWARE INTELLIGENT SERVICE BASED ON

FOLKSONOMIES

Joonhee Kwon
Department of Computer Science, Kyonggi University
San 94-6, Yiui-dong, Yeongtong-ku, Suwon-si, Kyonggi-do, Korea

Sungrim Kim
Department of Internet Information, Seoil College
49-3, Myonmok-dong, Jungrang-Ku, Seoul, Korea

ABSTRACT
Context aware computing and folksonomies in Web 2.0 have revolutionized the way we use the information system. The
convergence of the technologies enables the intelligent service that is enriched with user's context and community
information. We propose a new method for a context aware intelligent service based on folksonomies. Most previous
services require mandatory tagging and information request. They need an intelligent service hidden from the user. We
integrate social context aware annotation of tags and information service in folksonomies. It enables advanced context
aware service in ubiquitous computing and Web 2.0 environment. We describe the algorithms and method in context
aware application.

KEYWORDS
context awareness, folksonomies, ubiquitous intelligent service, Web 2.0

1. INTRODUCTION
Mark Weiser coined the phrase ‘ubiquitous computing’ around 1988. The fundamental consequence of the
ubiquitous computing is a disappearance (Weiser, 1991). The use of contexts is important for the
disappearance in ubiquitous computing applications.
Web 2.0 is one of a recent another important technology. The Web 2.0 approach has revolutionized the
way we use the information system. This is justified by the emergence of much more dynamic, responsive
and user friendly web applications such as Google Maps or Flickr. An essential part of Web 2.0 is harnessing
collective intelligence, turning the web into a kind of global brain (O’reilly, 2005). Social tagging has
become a very efficient way of categorizing. Folksonomies allow content users to easily and informally
describe web sites, documents (Lopez-de-Ipia et al, 2007). There are several systems to explore the
underlying folksonomies. However, most services based on folksonomies require mandatory tagging and
information request. Intelligent techniques may well be inside the system, but should be hidden from the user.
The emergence of Web 2.0 technology and the development of context aware computing lead to a
situation, where the users can share the services regardless of the place, time and device (Koskela et al, 2007).
They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it (Weiser, 1991).
Noticeably, context aware service based on folksonomies may allow the efficient discovery of information.
We integrated social context aware annotation of tags and information search method in folksonomies.
The integration of them might enable advanced context aware service in ubiquitous computing and Web 2.0.
This work explores the convergence of context aware computing with Web 2.0. We propose a new method
for a context aware intelligent service based on folksonomies. Two tasks for the service are presented. The
proposed method is capable of providing information effectively in a context aware application.
The first task is to model folksonomies using context tags. In this task, we adopt the Adapted PageRank
algorithm based on PageRank algorithm (Hotho et al, 2006). The PageRank algorithm reflects the idea that a
page is important if there many pages linking to it. This leads naturally to the idea of extracting communities

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of interest from the folksonomy. The second task is to provide intelligent service for each context. When an
excessive number of information is provided on a limited device, it is more difficult to find the relevant
information. To overcome it, we provide context tags instead of information itself. The context tags make
easy to find relevant information in excessive number of information.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 discusses related works. Section 3 describes an
algorithm for context aware service based on folksonomies. Finally, we conclude in Section 4.

2. RELATED WORKS
Web 2.0 is attracting the attention of IT professionals and businesses. Sites like Delicious and Flickr have
pioneered a concept that some people call ‘folksonomy’, a style of collaborative categorization of sites using
freely chosen keywords, often referred to as tags. Tagging allows for the kind of multiple, overlapping
associations that the brain itself uses, rather than rigid categories (O’reilly, 2005).
Using traditional information retrieval, folksonomy contents can be searched textually. However, as the
documents consist of short text snippets only, ordinary ranking schemes such as TF/IDF (Salton et al, 1988)
are not feasible. To overcome it, Adapted PageRank method uses the PageRank (Brin et al, 1998) approach.
First, this method models the folksonomies. The model presents a formal definition of folksonomies with
users, tags, and resources. Then, the model is converted into an undirected tripartite graph. The set of nodes
of the graph consists of the disjoint union of the sets of tags, users and resources. Using the graph, PageRank
algorithm is applied. This leads naturally to the idea of extracting communities of interest from the
folksonomy (Hotho et al, 2006). However, the method has a disadvantage of a manual tagging.
Context is any information that can be used to characterize the situation of an entity. An entity is any
person, place or object that is considered relevant to the interaction between a user and an application,
including the user and application themselves (Abowd et al, 1999). Examples of contextual information are
location, time, proximity, user status and network capabilities. The key goal of context aware service is to
provide a user with relevant information and/or services based on his current context.
A more interesting extrapolation of context aware service could be convergence of context and
folksonomies. A location, object or even a person can be augmented with some contextual attributes. Some
examples are Tagzania, Sociallight, DSG project. Tagzania (Tagzania, 2005) is a geofolksonomy and a mash-
up which combines social tagging in a Delicious style with geographical information coming from
GoogleMaps. With the help of its web front-end, users may associate tags to planet locations and then browse
through them. The Socialight (SOCIALIGHT, 2005) enables sharing location-based notes, termed
StickyShadow, pictures and sounds from the web and a phone. A StickyShadow is made up of media, such as
text and a picture, and information about who can see it and when and where that note is available. The DSG
(Lopez-de-Ipia et al, 2007) aims to tag the planet not only with location but more general context based
annotations, which are triggered only when a user’s mobile device matches some contextual attributes.
However, we find that folksonomies have not been seriously considered in the existing context aware
service. Moreover, very few context aware systems considering folksonomies do not support enhanced
information retrieval facilities.

3. CONTEXT AWARE SERVICE BASED ON FOLKSONOMIES

3.1 Modelling Folksonomies with Contexts

In this task, we model folksonomies with context tags. As shown in Figure 1, there are two steps in the first
algorithm. We adopt the formal model and adapted PageRank for folksonomies in (Hotho et al, 2006).
Compared with it, we use user’s contexts and tag them as tags automatically. Our model is consisted of the
vertices of the sets of tags, users and resource information. The elements of a tag vertex are the kind of
contexts, value of contexts, and ranking value. The elements of a user vertex and a resource information
vertex are the value, and ranking value, respectively. The edges are a set consisting of two element subsets of
vertices.

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For automatic tagging, we tag contexts when the degree of participation occurrences of context of source
information is above a certain threshold. In Figure 1, step 1 shows the method of tagging context as tag. In
Figure 1, step 2 is as follows. In Adapted PageRank, a resource which is tagged with important tags becomes
important itself. In our method, resource information which is tagged with many context tags becomes
important. An important resource information has higher ranking value. By step 2, the resource information
is ranked globally using pagerank value.
Input : user’s context C, user U, resource information I
Output : modelled information

[Step 1]
Compute the total number of participation occurrences, T
WHILE (for each context Ci of information Ij)
Compute the number of participation occurrences of context Ci of source information Ij ,CI
IF ( CI / T > threshold) THEN Tag contex tag Ci to information Ij
[Step 2]
Construct Graph G=(V, E), where V = C∪ U ∪ I and E = { {c,u}, {c,i}, {u,i} }
Perform Adapted PageRank algorithm based on G
Assign pagerank values as rank values of information I
Figure 1. Algorithm of modelling folksonomies with contexts

3.2 Context aware Service based on Folksonomies

In this task, we provide information for each user’s contexts. Figure 2 shows the algorithm. In the second
task, there are four steps. The step 1 is to extract the information with the user’s current context tags from
resource information. It is extracted from the result of first task. In the step 2, the context tag is provided as
index information to users. Our method simply does not provide source information itself. When the number
of information is greater than the maximum number of information to be provided to the user, we provide
contexts as tags instead of simply providing the information itself.
In context aware service, a mobile device is usually used but it has limited resource. When an excessive
number of information is provided on a limited mobile device, it is more difficult to find the relevant
information. To overcome it, we provide tags instead of information itself. The folksonomic tagging is
intended to make information increasingly easy to search, discover, and navigate over time.
Input : modeling result from first step, user’s context C
Output : ranked information

[Step 1]
Extract information with C as context tag
[Step 2]
IF (the number of information from step 1 > the maximum number of information to be provided)
THEN
Categorize context tag sets, CTs that index information
[Step 3]
IF (CTs is not empty) THEN
Sum rank value of information for each context tag
Sort context tags by rank summation value in descending order
ELSE
Sort source information by the ranking value in descending order
[Step 4]
Compute attention weight AW for C
Extract information according to the ratio of AW
Provide information to user
Figure 2. Algorithm of context aware service based on folksonomies
In the step 3, the information is ordered by the ranking value from first task. The resource information
with higher ranking value becomes more important than lower ranking value. In the existing tagging system,

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the information is ordered by date, i.e., the information last show up at the top (Hotho et al, 2006). Moreover,
the traditional information retrieval ranking systems use the TF/IDF method. However, the TF/IDF method is
not effective in folksonomies containing only a short tag description. Compared with the existing tagging
system, our method adopts PageRank method. It enables the more relevant information is provided at the
higher position.
In the step 4, the information from the step 3 is refined in relation to the attention. We adopt the
parameter of attention weight, AW, as found in the previous research (Kwon et al, 2006). Attention is
defined as focused mental engagement on a particular message or piece of information. In the effective
service, the amount of information needed for a context with a high weight of AW is larger than that needed
for a context with a low weight.

4. CONCLUSION
A new breed of Web 2.0 and context aware application is currently emerging on the information technology.
Context aware services allow users to access service automatically according to their current context.
Folksonomies are the essential part of Web 2.0. Services based folksonomies require automatic tagging
generated from social annotations, linked with contexts. It makes the convergence of context aware
computing with Web 2.0.
We propose a new method for a context aware intelligent service based on folksonomies. We integrate
social context aware annotation of tags and information service in folksonomies. Our method involves two
tasks. The first task is to model folksonomies using context tags. The second task is to provide intelligent
service for each context.
Our method uses the PageRank algorithm and context tags as index information. The PageRank algorithm
enables that resource information is important if there many tags linking to it. Moreover, context tags make
easy to find relevant information in excessive number of information. The proposed method is capable of
providing information effectively in a context aware mobile computing environment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the GRRC program of Gyeonggi province.

REFERENCES
Abowd, G.D. et al, 1999. Towards a Better Understanding of Context and Context-Awareness. In Lecture Notes In
Computer Science, Vol. 1707, pp. 304-307.
Brin, S. and Page, L., 1998. The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine. In Computer Networks and
ISDN Systems, Vol. 30, No. 1-7, pp. 107–117.
Hotho, A. et al, 2006. Information Retrieval in Folksonomies: Search and Ranking. Proceedings of the 3rd European
Semantic Web Conference. Budva, Montenegro, pp. 411-426.
Koskela, T. et al, 2007. Towards Context-Aware Mobile Web 2.0 Service Architecture. Proceedings of International
Conference on Mobile Ubiquitous Computing, Systems, Services and Technologies. Papeete, French Polynesia,
pp.41-48.
Kwon, J. and Kim, S., 2006. Multicontext-Aware Recommendation for Ubiquitous Commerce. In Lecture Notes In
Computer Science, Vol. 4317, pp. 291-304.
Lopez-de-Ipia, D. et al, 2007. A context-aware mobile mash-up platform for ubiquitous web. Proceedings of 3rd IET
International Conference on Intelligent Environments, Ulm, Germany, pp. 116-123.
O'Reilly, T., 2005. What Is Web 2.0, O’Reilly Media, Inc., USA, viewed 10 October 2008,
<http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html>.
Salton, G. and Buckley, C., 1988. Term-weighting approaches in automatic text retrieval. In Information Processing and
Management: an International Journal, Vol. 24, No. 5, pp.513-523.
SOCIALIGHT 2005, Kamida, USA, viewed 10 October 2008, <http://socialight.com/>.
Tagzania 2005, CodeSyntax, Spain, viewed 10 October 2008, <http://www.tagzania.com/>.
Weiser, M., 1991. The computer for the 21st century. In Scientific American. Vol. 265, No. 30, pp. 94-104.

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USING A MOBILE TERMINAL TO HELP VISUALLY

IMPAIRED PEOPLE

Sangman Moh, Jian Shen and Ilyong Chung

Dept. of Computer Eng., Chosun University
375 Seoseok-dong, Dong-gu, Gwangju, 501-759 South Korea

ABSTRACT
This paper presents novel technology-adaptive approaches to using a wireless mobile terminal to help visually impaired
people recognize surrounding environments. The three step-by-step approaches of remote human translation, remote
server translation, and mobile terminal translation are to adapt the evolution and feasibility of advanced computer and
communication technologies. The first approach can be easily implemented but requires the involvement of human
interpreters. The second and third approaches require automatic object extraction, classification and recognition from an
image or video clip. In particular, for the mobile terminal translation scheme, a light-weight, low-power, high-
performance, small-sized mobile terminal should be provided to locally process the computing-centric image or video
recognition on real-time basis. Even though this work is currently at the design phase, it will be possible to provide
visually impaired people with the context-aware mobile terminals that interpret image or video clip intelligently on the
real-time basis in the near future.

KEYWORDS
Visually impaired people, remote translation, mobile terminal translation, video interpretation, wireless communication.

1. INTRODUCTION
The sense of eye sight is the most important means for information gathering. In general, visually impaired
people recognize surrounding environments via the sense of hearing, touch and smell unless special aids are
provided. In order to help them, there have been active research activities for many years [1-2]. In order to
empower visually impaired people to benefit from modern technology, sight improvement aids have been
studied. A navigation helping system based on GPS (Global Positioning System) was introduced for the
general navigation situation of visually impaired people in an urban environment [3]. A navigation support
device based on talking GPS information was conceptually proposed and discussed [4]. Ad hoc networks for
enhanced mobility were studied to augment visually impaired people’s reality by giving hypertext a physical
presence in the real world [5]. A PC-based dynamic lighting sign system for people with poor vision was
introduced for way finding [6], and a portable PC-based system to detect and track green and red traffic lights
was researched for blind people based on computer vision [7]. On the other hand, an interactive device for
environment recognition using an ultrasonic sensor other than computer vision was introduced [8]. A voice
guidance system to support walking mobility for visually impaired people was developed with infrared audio
communication by setting up infrared transmitters on the way to be walked [9].
In this paper, as a design phase, we explore new approaches to using a wireless mobile terminal to help
the visually impaired people recognize the surrounding environments. To adapt the evolution and feasibility
of technology, this paper considers three step-by-step approaches: remote human translation, remote server
translation, and mobile terminal translation. In the remote human translation, human interpreters at the
interpretation center translate the image or video clip transmitted from mobile terminals into voice, and then
the translated results are transmitted back to the mobile terminal. In the remote server translation, the overall
procedure is the same as in the remote human translation scheme except that computer-based machine
translation is used instead of human interpreters. In the mobile terminal translation, the wireless mobile
terminal itself locally performs the computing-centric function of automatic machine translation, enabling
real-time recognition and translation of image or video clip on real-time basis. The first approach can be

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easily implemented but requires the involvement of human interpreters. On the other hand, the mobile
terminal translation scheme is an implementation challenge in terms of technological complexity.

(a) Camera phone (b) PDA phone with a camera

Figure 1. Wireless mobile terminals available in the market.
Notice that mobile camera phones and PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) phones with a camera, which are
shown in Fig. 1 and currently available in the market [10], can be effectively used for the wireless mobile
terminals. The PDA phones are sometimes called pocket PC phones by some vendors, and can have wireless
LAN interface as well. The qualified service of real-time video transmission is currently available in some
countries and will be possible in most countries in the near future.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: The two remote approaches of human and machine
translation are presented in the following section. Section 3 discusses the mobile terminal translation scheme
and its implementation challenge. Finally, conclusion is covered in Section 4.

2. REMOTE TRANSLATION
The two remote translation approaches are presented in this section. The remote human translation scheme
and its operational procedure are presented with a figure first, and then the remote server translation scheme
is discussed in terms of major technical issues such as object classification, extraction and recognition.

2.1 Human Translation

The remote human translation involves wireless mobile terminals that visually impaired people use, a remote
interpretation system where human interpreters translate the image or video clip transmitted from the mobile
terminals into voice, and wireless communication channels. A mobile communication network or a wireless
LAN can be used for the wireless communication channels, and a mobile camera phone or a PDA phone with
a camera can be used as a wireless mobile terminal.
Fig. 2 shows the consecutive procedure that a visually impaired person with a wireless mobile terminal
recognizes the surrounding visual environment. As Fig. 2 reveals, when a visually impaired person needs to
recognize the surrounding visual environment, the image or video clip of the surrounding environment is
input to the mobile terminal that the visually impaired person has. The mobile terminal then sends the image
or video clip to the remote interpretation center where a human interpreter translates the image or video clip
into voice. During the image or video clip transmission, the visually impaired person’s voice can be
piggybacked as additional information for the human interpreter. Subsequently, the mobile terminal receives
the voice from the remote system and speaks it out via its speaker.
Since such a series of operations should be carried out on the real-time basis, the human translation has to
be done promptly on request. The other operations can be automatically performed on the real-time basis
without human involvement. Sine there might be many visually impaired mobile users and they can request
real-time interpretation at the same time, a reasonable number of human interpreters should be in the
interpretation center. Compared to the other two approaches, this scheme can be easily implemented in terms
of technical complexity. However, this approach requires the involvement of human interpreters resulting in

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financial burden. Obviously, if the visually impaired person’s voice is piggybacked, this approach would be
interactive and more effective.
⑥ Listen ③ Translation
⑤ Output (human or machine)
…… (voice)
④ Receive
(voice)

① Input ② Send
(image/video clip) (image/video clip)
Wireless mobile Remote system
terminal (Interpretation center)

Figure 2. Procedure for a visually impaired person to recognize a visual environment

2.2 Machine Translation

Like the remote human translation, the remote server translation involves wireless mobile terminals, a remote
interpretation system, and wireless communication channels. However, instead of human interpreters,
computer-based machine recognition and translation are used in the remote interpretation center. In other
words, an automatic object extraction, classification and recognition system is necessarily used.
When a visually impaired person with a wireless mobile terminal wants to recognize the surrounding
visual environment as shown in Fig. 2, this approach requires an automatic object extraction, classification
and recognition system for recognizing the image or video clip of the surrounding environment and
translating it into voice.
For real-time service, the computer-based automatic translation has to be done promptly on request. Of
the three approaches, this scheme can be regarded as intermediate solution in terms of technological
complexity. In order to provide visually impaired people with this kind of service, however, it is highly
required to further develop and tune novel image or video clip recognition systems including automatic
object extraction, classification and recognition.

3. LOCAL TRANSLATION BASED ON A MOBILE TERMINAL

④ Listen
③ Output
…… (voice)

② Trans-
lation
① Input
(image/video clip)
Wireless mobile
terminal

Figure 3. Procedure to recognize a visual environment in the mobile terminal translation

Unlike other two approaches, the mobile terminal translation does not involve a remote interpretation system.
It consists of wireless mobile terminals and wireless communication channels. Strictly speaking, the wireless
communication channels are not required in this scheme, but they are used for usual telecommunication.
Hence, the translation functions should be performed locally within the wireless mobile terminal without any
remote assistance. In other words, the mobile terminal itself has to locally perform the functions of automatic
object extraction, classification and recognition of image or video clip on the real-time basis. Fig. 3 shows the
operational procedure for a visually impaired person with a wireless mobile terminal to recognize the
surrounding visual environment.
In the mobile terminal translation, the wireless mobile terminal itself performs the computing-centric
functions of automatic object extraction, classification and recognition, enabling the real-time recognition
and translation of the image or video clip. Therefore, in order to locally process the computing-centric image

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or video recognition on the real-time basis, a light-weight, low-power, high-performance, small-sized mobile
terminal should be provided in the mobile terminal translation scheme. This fact makes the mobile terminal
translation scheme an implementation challenge with respect to technological complexity. The qualified
service of real-time video transmission is currently available in some countries and will be possible in most
countries in the near future.

4. CONCLUSION
In this paper, new technology-adaptive approaches to using a wireless mobile terminal have been presented
in order for helping visually impaired people recognize the surrounding visual environment. To adapt the
evolution and feasibility of advanced computer and communication technologies, the three step-by-step
approaches of remote human translation, remote server translation, and mobile terminal translation have been
proposed as a conceptual design. While the first approach is easily implemented but requires the involvement
of human interpreters resulting in financial burden, the second and third approaches require automatic object
extraction, classification and recognition of an image or video clip. In particular, in order to locally process
the computing-centric image or video recognition on the real-time basis, a light-weight, low-power, high-
performance, small-sized mobile terminal should be provided in the mobile terminal translation scheme.
Even though this work is currently at the design phase, it will be a feasible and adaptable solution for
visually impaired people. In the near future, it will be possible to provide visually impaired people with the
context-aware mobile terminals that intelligently recognize and interpret the surrounding image or video clip
on the real-time basis. Of course, this is our challenging work.

REFERENCES
Buhler, C., 2002. eEurope – eAccessibility – User Participation: Participation of People with Disabilities and Older
People in the Information Society. Proc. of Int. Conf. Computers Helping People with Special Needs. Linz, Austria,
pp. 3-5.
Legat, K. and Lechner, W., 2001. Integrated Navigation for Pedestrians. Proc. of GNSS 2001. Seville, Spain.
Guillet, V., Rumpler, B., and Pinon, J.-M., 2008. Providing Help for Visually Impaired People’s Navigation in an Urban
Environment Using GPS. Proc. of Int. Conf. on Computers Helping People with Special Needs. Linz, Austria, pp.
429-436.
Kowalik, R. and Kwasniewski, S., 2004. Navigator – A Talking GPS Receiver for the Blind. Proc. of Int. Conf. on
Computers Helping People with Special Needs. Paris, France, pp. 446-449.
Harper, S., Pettitt, S., and Goble, C., 2004. proXimity: Ad-Hoc Networks for Enhanced Mobility. Proc. of Int. Conf. on
Computers Helping People with Special Needs. Paris, France, pp. 430-437.
Akita, J., Ito, K., Gyobu, I., Kimura, K., Mihara, A., Mizuno, R., Nakakoji, J., and Yanagihara, K., 2004. Dynamic
Lighting Sign System for Way-Finding by People with Low Vision. Proc. of Int. Conf. on Computers Helping People
with Special Needs. Paris, France, pp. 450-453.
Aranda, J. and Mares, P., 2004. Visual System to Help Blind People to Cross the Street. Proc. of Int. Conf. on Computers
Helping People with Special Needs. Paris, France, pp. 454-461.
Okamoto, M., Akita, J. Ito, K., Ono, T., and Takagi, T., 2004. CyARM – Interactive Device for Environment Recognition
Using a Non-visual Modality. Proc. of Int. Conf. on Computers Helping People with Special Needs. Paris, France, pp.
462-467.
Oyama, S., Yairi, I. E., Igi, S., and Nishimura, T., 2006. Walking Support Using Compact Terminals with Infrared Audio
Communication. Proc. of Int. Conf. on Computers Helping People with Special Needs. Paris, France, pp. 468-475.
Samsung’s digital world, 2007. http://www.samsung.com/.

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ANALYSIS OF THE SECURITY REQUIREMENTS FOR

THE ID MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Yeonjung Kang*, Haeryong Park*, Kilsoo Chun*, Junghwan Song**

Korea Information Security Agency, Jungdaero 135, Songpa-gu, Seoul, Korea *
Hanyang University, Haengdang-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, Korea**

ABSTRACT
The number of services using the Internet - including electronic financial transaction, e-Government and cyber training
services - is increasing so rapidly as to be practically innumerable, owing to the wide diffusion of the Internet and the
evolution of the usage environment. However, the diffusion and popularization of the Internet has also led to
dysfunctions such as privacy infringement resulting from online identity theft, deception, and the misuse and abuse of
personal information. It is becoming increasingly evident that these damages are likely to become more serious as our
daily life becomes more dependent on the Internet and as the Internet service environment evolves towards a more
advanced stage. To cope with these challenges, the identity management system is being actively studied and rapidly
standardized to ensure more secure and convenient management of individual ID information. This paper defines the
generic user-centric IDMS, and sets the security goal of implementing the IDMS safely, and presents the security
requirements of each component object including the user, identity service provider, and relying party.

KEYWORDS
ID Management, IDMS, security requirement, identity

1. INTRODUCTION
Currently, the Internet provides various services to Internet users via the process of producing and processing
various sources of knowledge and information, besides serving as a simple means of information change.
Generally, an Internet service requires authentication from the service providers. For this purpose, users must
register their personal information in advance in most cases, and set their identifier and password as the
authentication information. If users want to use a service, they should be authenticated using their registered
ID and password, which causes inconvenience in that they should be authenticated by the respective service
provider each time they want a service from the veracious websites. In addition, users have to remember and
manage as many IDs and the corresponding authentication information as the number of services they wish to
use. Even worse, users sometimes cannot remember a service or the ID and the authentication information
they have registered. For these reasons, most general users prefer to register their ID using information that is
easy to remember or that is related with themselves, or register the same ID with several service providers.
This practice exposes their authentication information to ID hacking. In addition, users are required to input
similar types of personal information repetitively when subscribing to several services, or modify their
information manually in the subscriber services one by one if their personal information needs to be updated;
however, sometimes it is difficult to determine which website should be modified. More seriously, it could
trigger a privacy violation, which has in recent times emerged as a serious social problem. Privacy
infringement problems can occur due to the misuse and abuse of personal information by the service
provider, because it is difficult for users to check how the service providers manage and utilize the
information they have registered in the current Internet environment. In other words, since utilization of the
Internet has increased by a large extent, its users have to put up with the inconvenience of managing
numerous IDs and run the risk of incurring damages as a result of the misuse/abuse of personal information.
Accordingly, the IDMS, which authenticates the user and manages the user’s ID information, is widely
recognized as a means of resolving these problems throughout the world, and many vendors and
organizations are now studying the related technology. In the IDMS, the identity service provider, Internet

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service provider, and user are inter-working to manage the authentication information. To use the Internet
management technology systematically and safely, the IDSP or the provider should be equipped with criteria
regarding how to collect personal information within a given scope. Also, security requirements should be
presented regarding secure communication between several IDSPs. In addition, the ISP should have criteria
on how much personal information can be requested to authenticate the user, depending on the quality of the
service provided. This paper analyzes the vulnerabilities of the IDMS and defines the general IDMS model. It
also sets the security goal for implementing a safe IDMS and proposes the security requirements for each
component object – namely the user, IDSP, and relying party.

2. IDENTITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The IDMS has become well established as an independent IT service industry with the development of the IT
industry. The IDMS encompasses various technologies, such as authentication management, which
represents the user’s identity based on the user’s ID, and digitalized personal information, ID management
technology, and the Public Key Infrastructure. Generally speaking, ID management technologies are
classified into Liberty-based, WS-*based, and URL-based technology. In addition, the IDMS market is
composed of Liberty Alliance (Liberty-based), which uses the SAML, Microsoft (WS-*-based), which uses
the CardSpace foundation technology, and URL-based vendors who use OpenID. In Liberty Alliance, the
company generates the ID (personal identifier), whereas the individual generates the ID in OpenID or
CardSpace. If the user generates an ID as in OpenID and CardSpace, the user has the right to manage the ID,
which is called “user-centric.” This chapter consists of a brief overview and description of the features of the
representative ID management technology for each IDMS type.

2.1 SAML
The Liberty Alliance standard proposes that the company is the subject of providing the ID for the IDMS.
However, several organizations and companies have been studying the standard while fusing the IDMS,
which has resulted in an ambiguous boundary. The Security Assertion Mark-up Language standard of Liberty
Alliance, which is expressed invisibly, is applied to diverse areas such as government, education, medical
services, and companies. It is mainly utilized in the IDMS area for the internal employees and customers. The
SAML standard defines the framework that enables the secure exchange of security information among
online business partners. It also defines the various mechanisms that enable users to trust the assertion
submitted by the RP. In addition, even if the assertion provided by the RP can be trusted, the local access
control policy should define whether the target can access the local resources. For example, the web single
sign-on allows the user to obtain the right to access the website resources belonging to other domains without
having to resort to the additional authentication procedure, once the user has successfully logged in to the
first domain. For SSO, a relationship of trust should be established before sharing the user’s IDs that grants
the necessary rights. Therefore, if a certain organization attempts to build an SSO framework, the domains
included in the SSO should use the same product. The SAML resolves this problem. As described above, the
SAML is the standard that transmits information on the security-related property security of an organization’s
internal communication in the distributed computing environment.

2.2 CardSpace
Microsoft’s card-based IDMS, which is based on WS-Trust, implements the ID meta system proposed by
Kim Cameron through the law of identity as CardSpace. CardSpace is based on WS-Security (OASIS
standard) and supports all security token formats such as X.509, Kerberos, and SAML. It is expected to be
applied on a large scale through the Windows Vista operating system and Microsoft Framework 3.0.
CardSpace increases the convenience of the user by showing the user’s digital ID visually (information card),
and supports the secure input of personal information using encryption technology. It is based on
interoperability standards such as WS-Security, WS-Trust, WS-Metadata, WS-Exchange, WS-Security
Policy, and other WS-* protocols. In addition, the self-issued card of CardSpace is one by which the users
save their personal information manually. It can be modified by the user. However, it lacks of the function

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that synchronizes with the website. As a result, the users should visit the website to modify their personal
information in their self-issued card. The synchronization function is needed to save the personal information
provided to the website and the website URL information in the electronic ID wallet. There is one difficulty,
however, in that the electronic ID wallet card should be created in such a way that the data has the same
structure as that of the self-issued card, or can be linked with it.

2.3 OpenID
The URL-based IDMS shows the tendency by which technologies utilizing various existing URLs as the ID
are being integrated into OpenID. It is mainly used in web application areas such as blogs. The representative
application areas include OpenID, LID (Logical Link Identification), and YADIS. When OpenID is used, the
OpenID provider, having issued the OpenID to the user, performs user authentication for the website to be
used on behalf of the user. Therefore, users can authenticate themselves for the website without having an
account with the website concerned. Using one issued OpenID, users can log into every website and use
services that support OpenID without having to subscribe. In addition, users can receive the OpenID from the
trusted OpenID provider. The OpenID can be issued by the user without any special identity confirmation
procedure, once the user has inputted the personal information required for the creation of a user account,
such as the OpenID for use as an ID, password, e-mail address, and date of birth. However, the OpenID has a
particular vulnerability in that the malicious website can snatch a user’s password by creating a phishing site
and disguising the OpenID provider to which the user has subscribed. If the password for one OpenID is
exposed, all of the websites to which the user has subscribed or logged in will be exposed. To resolve this
problem, a function is required that saves the website URL of the OpenID provider to which the user has
subscribed in the electronic ID wallet, in order to prevent the exposure of the user’s password in the event
that the user is deceived into visiting the phishing site.

2.4 Other ID Management Technologies

Other ID management technologies include the URL-based YADIS and digital ID wallet. YADIS is an ID
service discovery protocol that converts the YADIS URL into a user-centric ID management service
identifier such as OpenID and LID. YADIS was developed independently with each other, and can be used
by ID management systems such as OpenID and LID. In addition, the user’s digital ID can be exchanged via
the YADIS URL specified by the user. Therefore, a function that links to the specific service site is
supported. KISA and ETRI in Korea are developing the electronic ID wallet jointly with Microsoft. The
digital ID wallet is a user-centric IDMS that provides various ID services such as user authentication,
personal information sharing, and certificate loading.

3. ANALYSIS OF THE SECURITY THREATS FACING MAJOR IDMS

AND THE CONSEQUENT SECURITY REQUIREMENTS
In this chapter, major security threats are analyzed regarding the representative user-centric IDMSs such as
OpenID and CardSpace. The use of OpenID can lead to cyber rights infringement and cause widespread
damage. In addition, when a user clicks the log-in button during the OpenID authentication procedure, an
attacker can snatch the moment of redirection to the OpenID providing site and connect the IP spoofing site,
in order to steal the user’s. Furthermore, it is also weak in terms of security in that the authentication key
encryption method in the SSO environment is symmetric. In addition, the inconsistent authentication validity
period between the OpenID provider and the RP can make service provisioning inconvenient, and disclose
personal information due to an authentication error.
CardSpace can make user access difficult due to the use of the SSL. Currently, the safety of the
CardSpace protocol is based on SSL communication using the public key, which is shared among the RP,
IDP, and user, as well as block encryption for data encryption. If the SSL is used, it also can prevent phishing
because the user can trust the RP and the IP when using the site certificate of the RP or the IP. However, it
cannot be applied to environments in which the SSL cannot be used easily, as it is based on the client/server

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architecture that uses ActiveX or Java-Servlet. After all, sufficient safety cannot be guaranteed when it is
required to transfer important information such as the card number. By the same token, OpenID 2.0 is not
recommended, even though it supports the personal information sharing function as well as the SSO function.
In addition, even though CardSpace is an ID management technology for sharing the user’s information, the
user has to access the site of the ID provider which stores and manages the information, in order to modify or
delete the information. Furthermore, the policy of sharing personal information has to be dependent on the
privacy protection policy of the ID provider, because the relying parties should receive the user’s
authentication information from the IP issuing agency in order to identify the user. It is not very different
from other ID management technologies, seen from the perspective of user convenience with respect to the
personal information sharing policy. Personal information that has already been shared by CardSpace does
not affect the RP, even if the user modifies it in the ID provider’s information storage. That is, the user
should remember which card contains the latest information, because the information is not synchronized.

4. SECURITY REQUIREMENTS OF THE IDMS

The IDMS service is gradually evolving around integrated management elements such as the user, IDSP, and
RP, based on a user-centric foundation. Therefore, this paper defines the general IDMS, which is composed
of the user, RP, and IDSP, as well as the security goal, and proposes security requirements in line with that
definition.

4.1 Composition of the Generic IDMS

The IDMS component objects include the user, RP and IDSP. The relying part is the subject that uses the
user’s personal information, whereas the IDSP provides the user’s personal information. A chain of IDMS
services is performed when the user uses a service provided by the RP, using the ID information created by
the IDSP through a chain of applications provided by the IDSM installed on the system. At this time, the
critical factor is that all user ID information flows should be determined under the control of the user.

4.2 Security Goal

The IDMS includes a function that can affect the safety and interest of the individuals concerned, as it
enables the identification of each individual and shares their personal information on the Internet. It is true
that safety can be provided by using secure encryption technology and security technology. This chapter
defines the security goals that are required to implement the IDSM securely, in order to guarantee the safety
features described above.
1) Information transmission using the secure communication channel
Online/Offline information transmission of the IDMS should be performed via the secure channel as
described below.
- Offline: Information within the application installed at the RP, IDP, and user end should be transmitted
via a secure channel.
- Online: Information exchanged between the RP, IDP, and user should be encrypted before transmission
while procuring a secure communication channel, and authentication among each of the subjects should
be performed using a verified method.
2) User authentication using a secure means of authentication
To prevent access to the IDP by an unauthorized user, user authentication to the IDP should support object
authentication for the user’s authentication information as well as user authentication that authenticates the
user himself. All authentication procedures should employ a verified authentication method.
3) IDP authentication using a secure means of authentication
The user should access the secure IDP to prevent attacks such as phishing, and the IDMS should provide
the authentication method that enables the user to authenticate the secure IDP to ensure safety.
4) Securing the integrity of the application and the authentication media used for the IDMS
The IDMS applications installed on the user’s system, the applications installed at the IDP, and those
installed at the RP should prevent forgery and falsification; integrity should be guaranteed to that end.

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5) Limitations on the collected personal information and clarification of the collection purpose
To protect privacy, the collection of personal information with which the user does not agree should be
prevented.
6) User’s privacy protection through user-centric information management
The user’s personal information should be collected in accordance with the “Limitations on the collection
of personal information and clarification of the collection purpose,” and managed and processed
according to the user’s wishes.

4.3 Security Requirements

The IDMS security requirements are divided into the one commonly required for all subjects, and the one
required for each subject.
1) Common security requirements
Each IDMS subject should support the following security requirements in common.
- Information transmission : Information transmission between the user client and IDP or RP should be
applied with an encryption algorithm that complies with the regulations, as well as a method of key
generation (or key distribution) suitable for this purpose.
- User control of the transmitted information : The user’s personal information transmitted from the IDP to
the RP should be transmitted with the consent of the user. If the user refuses transmission, the
information should not be transmitted. The user’s consent should be determined by the user before
information transmission or in advance of transmission.
- Authentication : The subjects that participate in the service and communication of the electronic ID
wallet should be able to verify object authentication with each other and verify the integrity of the means
of authentication.
2) User (Client) security requirements
- User database creation : The user database created for the IDMS stores the user’s personal information.
This database should be kept safely.
- User authentication : Only the authorized user should be able to use the client. If multiple users use the
client, authentication method for each users database should ensure the safety and uniqueness of the user.
- Forgery and falsification prevention : The integrity of the client in use should be verifiable upon the
user’s request.
- User information backup : The IDMS should provide a backup function for the user’s offline
information, and the user’s backup information should be stored at the online/offline media specified by
the user.
- User information recovery : If the user’s information is damaged or lost during the IDMS service, the
user’s information should be retrieved and restored from the user information stored by the “User
information backup” function.
- Independent startup : The client should be started independently from the browser that invokes the
operating system or the client, and the processing information should not be exposed.
- Information disposal when the service is stopped : When the IDMS service is stopped, no IDMS-related
information should be left in the user’s system buffer. That is, when the client stops running, all memory
contents should be cleared.
3) IDP security requirement
- Request for issuance of authentication information : If a user wishing to use the IDMS service requests
the issue or re-issue of authentication information, the safety of the user’s authentication procedure and
the integrity of the authentication information to be issued should be checked.
- Creation of the user ID : The user ID should be created by the user, and the IDP should check for
duplication of the ID.
- Creation of authentication information by the user ID : The authentication information on the user’s ID
should be created by the user, and should consist of a random number of rows or strings of a safe length.
- User authentication : User authentication should be performed by the authentication information issued
at the time of issuance, and the integrity of the authentication information should be checked.

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- Safe management of the user’s personal information : The collected personal information of the user
should be managed safely. Any sensitive information such as the user’s authentication information or
resident registration number should be encrypted by the encryption algorithm before storage.
4) RP security requirement
- Clarification of the collection of the user’s personal information : The RP that uses the user’s personal
information should obtain the user’s agreement regarding the collection of personal information, and
notify the user of the purpose of information collection.
- Safe management of the user’s personal information : The collected user information should be managed
securely. In particular, any sensitive information such as the user’s authentication information, account
number, or card number should be encrypted by the encryption algorithm before storage.

5. CONCLUSION
This paper studies the identity management system that is proposed as an alternative in preventing the
misuse/abuse of personal information in the Internet space - an important problem in the ubiquitous era - and
in enhancing the convenience of the service user. In particular, emphasis was placed on the user-centric
identity management system, currently the subject of considerable research, to utilize personal information
securely and efficiently. First of all, this paper covered the trend in IDMS studies and the direction of
technology development. On the basis of these factors, the vulnerabilities of the user-centric identity
management system were analyzed, and the security requirements to be resolved were identified.
It is thought that this paper could lay the foundation for IDMS development, which is designed to protect
users from such crimes as the illegal use of their identity and Internet phishing, to reduce the social costs
caused by these crimes, and to resolve any inconveniences caused by the duplication of user IDs and the loss
of passwords. In addition, this kind of IDMS will lay the foundation for a safe Internet environment by
effectively resolving the various problems occurring on the Internet, including the misuse and abuse of
personal information and privacy infringement.

REFERENCES
Johannes Ernst. “The Identity Landscape of 2006”, available at http://netmesh.info/jernst/Digital_Identity/ three-
standards.html
Kim Cameron, Kim Cameron’s Identity Weblog, “THE LAWS OF IDENTITY”, available at http://www.
identityblog.com/stories/2005/05/13/TheLawsOfIdentity.pdf
Windows CardSpace (formerly "InfoCard"), available at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/ko-kr/winfx/Aa663320.aspx
OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data, available at
http://www.oecd.org/document/18/0,3343,en_2649_201185_1815186_1_1_1_1,00.html
Y.oiwa at al, 2008.08, "Mutual Authentication Protocol for HTTP draft-oiwa-http-mutualauth-03", IETF
W. Diffie and M. E. Hellman, 1976.11, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, "New Directions in Cryptographyvol.
IT-22,
ISO/IEC, 2006.05, "Information technology - Security techniques - Key management - Part 4: Mechanisms based on
weak secrets", ISO/IEC 11770-4:2006
JungHwan Song, 2008, "The security evaluation criteria in internet ID management service", KISA, Korea
Arun Nanda, 2007.04, “Identity Selector Interoperability Profile v1.0”, Microsoft Corporation, USA
Youngsub Cho, Seunghun Jin, Kyoil Jung, 2006, IEEK journal, “ID connection based ID Management System: e-IDMS”,
Vol.43
Jeasock Yoon, Kyongsick Min, 2006, KISA, “Internet digital ID management trend”, available at http://kidbs.itfindor.kr/
WZIN/ jugidong/1311/131101.pdf

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SECURITY ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Diego ABBO and Dr. Lily SUN

School of Systems Engineering, University of Reading, UK

ABSTRACT
Approach to the idea of Information Systems (IS) security management attempts to handle this concept as a continuous
evolution technological path under observation. The evolution is regarding the social exploitation of IS, the new threat’s
capacities and the activation of the pertinent defensive profiles. This paper considers the IS security as a social science to
be observed in accordance with analytical models that always are focusing the ratio between costs and performances of IS
security in longer distance period, and the confrontation game, between Threat and Security, in the day-to-day operations.
Furthermore the first model is gets the preambles of risk estimation in a quantitative way and the second for qualitative
risk evaluations. By assuming this methodology it always possible to measure the impact of the defensive profile on the
IS considered architecture and to adapt it to a range of flexible options in order to actively monitoring and react in both
sides for social and technological changes.

KEYWORDS
ELISA

1. INTRODUCTION

The analysis of information systems security is a new operational proposed perspective, completely engaged
in the broadest security discipline. It aims to create a conceptual reference lay-out in order to adapt or change
into pertinent requirements the conventional IS security issues.
The previous works on security and risk perceptions methodologies focus on developing new ways for
facing actual and future security needs for information systems. There are two main genre of security
literature that should be considered: the first is the management of general security with the growing
importance in the corporate agenda; the second is the information security, mainly focusing technological
solutions and standard organized on best practiced issues. However both visions are not entirely fitting the IS
security needs due to the fact that the architecture performances should be planned and managed under a
“security umbrella vision”. Furthermore the delivery systems are under the critical pressure of “more speed”
and “always more integration” among all the connected entities. That means, and it is the principal aim of
this paper that it should be introduced new horizons of research in order to fulfill actual and future security
gaps.
This paper is organized as follows: section 2 outlines the conceptual references of security and its link
with the general security needs of IS. Section 3 focuses on how security performs in accordance with the
quantity of dedicated resources and the quality of the reactive defense profile. The conclusion in section 4
wants to address the future analytical paths for a better IS security.

2. THE SECURITY PREMISES

The analysis of the actual state of art engages the definition of security: “Security is a function of the
interaction of its components: Asset (A), Protector (P) and Threat (T) in a given Situation. These can be
represented in the equation:
S = f(A;P,T) Si.

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This logical formula is the inspiring baseline for the whole research from Manunta (2000, p 2) who states
that security is the contrived condition of an Asset. It is created and maintained by a Protector in antagonism
with a reacting counterpart (Threat), in a given Situation. It aims to protect Asset from unacceptable damage.
The IS Assets are usually identified as the availability, confidentiality and/or privacy, integrity,
authentication and no-repudiation and the analysis is tailored on the traditional definition of risk, according to
the ISO/IEC (2002, p 2), is “combination of the probability of an event and its consequences, but the term
risk is generally used only when there is at least the possibility of negative consequences.”; the increasing
dependence of the human activities from the ISs make more and more difficult the estimation of a given risk
by the traditional statistical and /or analytical model RSSG (1992, p. 4). In addition for any negative event,
normally, we have direct damages (the costs of the pure loss) indirect damages (the costs of reset) and
consequential damages (can be the loss of image, business activity or a step of the Threat to pursue other
more harmful aims) and the individuation of the damage value is almost impossible in a large amount of
cases (Innamorati, 2002).
A defined IS can range in dimensions that start from a single internet connected PC to the network realm
of the public service of a government or of the international governmental organisations (e.g. European
Union, UN system etc). If we consider institutional bodies or relevant corporate we have normally two
domains:
• The minor - a classified domain in which rigid and running-in INFOSEC regulations and procedures with
specifically dedicated security personnel and a separated insulated network. The fixed point is that the
security classification is due to the fact that a breakage into the availability, the confidentiality or the
integrity, authentication and no repudiation of the information data can create a range of more or less
measurable damages to the owner institution;
• The major - the national network system that, by a security perspective, is an arena in which are
conflicting: open sources information available to any single user, restricted items only at hand to “whom
it may concern” and service staff, privacy requirements, on-line services and trades, forensic needs and
last but not least information of dissimilar classes of estimated value that need different sets of security
profiles. The main characteristic is that any security breakage is not so easy to be related to immediate or
future damage.
Those domains are existing always even if we downgrade the magnitude of the IS to a personal computer;
and both are increasing their dimension due to the progressive passage from paper information to digital
information and both are normally engaged in rules in accordance with specific national or supranational
laws or in absence of law with the so called “best practice”. In addition the delivery systems, of both
domains, are upgrading their performance in order to tend to the full integration of all the ISs’.
The UN (2008) defines five stages of e-government:
1. Emerging: a government’s online presence is only comprised in a web page or in an official web site with
no links among the ministries and little
interaction with citizens. REACTIVE DEFENCE PROFILE
2. Enhancing: Governments provide more
Threat penetration curve
information on public policy and PENETRATION
RDP curve
governance. Easily access for citizens.
TIME

Area of planned competitive

3. Interactive: Governments deliver online advantage on the Threat
services like downloadable forms for tax
payments and applications for license T5
renewals. T4

4. Transactional: Governments introduces T3

two - ways interaction between citizens T2

and governments. All transactions, like

applying for ID cards, passports, birth T1

certificates and licence renewal are

O
conducted online on a 24/7 basis.
RDP 1 RDP 2 RDP 3 RDP 4 RDP 5

5. Connected: Governments transform LEVELS OF REACTIVE DEFENCE PROFILE - RDP

themselves into a connected entity that Figure 1. The area between the two curves represents the profile of
responds to the need of their citizens by standing operating procedures that routinely are engaging the IS security.
developing an integrated back office

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infrastructure. This initiative is characterized by horizontal, vertical and infrastructure connections and
connections between governments and citizens and among stakeholders (governments, private sector,
academic institutions, NGOs and civil society).
By a current managerial point of view the ICT security is regarded as layered systems. A layered security
needs to be incorporated for any assessment and evaluation process by ensuring the multiple facets of a
customer’s information security profile are addressed. There have been hundreds of interpretations of layered
security but everyone agrees on some core areas to be addressed: network perimeter protection, internal
network protection, intrusion monitoring and prevention, host and server configuration, malicious code
protection, incident response capabilities, security policies and procedures, employee awareness and training,
physical security and monitoring. These areas are key points of failure within the information security
architecture at many organizations” (Rogers, 2005).
The issue is something born with the humankind’s security perception, since the primordial communities,
fully shown by physical layers of defensive concentricity in most archeological evidences. The negotiation
between Threat and Protection both in any considered profile and mainly in the whole system is represented
by the formula called “security equation”:
Pt > At + It
That means the penetration time (Pt) should be larger than the sum of Alert time (At) and Intervention
time (It) that the security safeguards needed to neutralize the action of the Threat.
The “security equation” means that we should manage that each profiles of safeguards, calling (At + It)
the Reactive Defensive Profile (RDP), should be in accordance with the graphics in Figure 1. The threat
penetration curve (TPC) equals a kind of “static fortress”. Anyway it’s possible to determine a degree of
flexibility in the protection plan. That is represented by the escalatory measures to be implemented due to
particular alert sensitivities for a definite period of time.
TPC and RDP represent a substantial share of deterrence. In the broader security we can consider
deterrence both physical and psychological (Fay, 1993). The physical deterrence can be measured and
equalize the time and the work of the Threat to succeed in its aims. The psychological aspect exhausts itself
both in the forensic ability of security mission and in the consideration of sanctions or punishments granted
by the judicial system.

3. THE ANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVES

We consider a model called “ICT Security Company’s System” with three entities in a close market (see
Figure 2).
The first entity is “ICT security
ICT SECURITY COMPANY’s SYSTEM
mission” a manufacturer of the other
two entities considered customers:
COMPANY’S
“Information mission” and “Company’s
MISSION
mission” We should consider
Company’s mission an external running
business engaged internally in an
innovation e-policy which dedicates
resources and requirements to
information and ICT security missions.
When we talk about resources we mean
all the instrumental items: money Resources, Requirements
INFORMATION
budgets, software, manpower, ICT SECURITY
&Threats

MISSION MISSION
hardware, facilities, training, know-how Protection Service
capabilities, operating procedures etc.
that can be full- time or par-time
Figure 2. The three missions are the entities of a close market where
dedicated. All those assets are
Company and Information are the two customers of Security
component of the “chain of value” of Services.
the company to fulfill its mission.

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One of the key point that any instrumental item can have a multiple use one for each entity. For instance
an employer is dedicating his working time to Company Mission” but he/she is spending a percent of this
working time to “Information mission” for duty purposes (e.g. production of digital documents, connection
with the network) and smaller percent of time is dedicated at ICT Security Mission (e.g. unlock the door,
enter the system with the password, updated the security software etc). The focal point is that considering
each single resource in terms of 100 percent functional units we can share it in three complementary slots. If
we put on graphics the percent of each relevant resource that is dedicated respectively to the Information
mission and to the ICT security mission we have the ISO-line of balanced budget (see Figure 3).
Having several classes of resources, we should produce a graphic for each class of resource and compare
in analytical context, or to use a mathematical system of nth equations. It should be outlined that the values in
the graphic ranges from 0 to 100 and they are expressing percentage and the amount of resources that is
given to ICT security mission is subtract from information mission budget. We should introduce the
definitions of real cost and functional cost of the resources. The real cost is the prize of a resource in the
external market and is clearly represented in the balance sheet of the Company’s mission. The functional cost
is the percentage of each single resource that we should invest for the defensive measures of the resource for
its operational survival.
By definition we can assume that
ICT security mission represents the ISO-LINE OF BALANCED BUDGET
percentage of “Information mission”
Information Mission
it should be employed for its survival
100%

and in an extensive sense to the ICT

A:(y1; 100- y1)
“Company mission” survival. The Y1 Security Mission
real cost is measured in actual
currency and ranges from zero to B:(y2; 100- y2)
infinity, the functional cost it is a
percentage ratio and ranges from zero Y2

to one hundred and by dimensions it

is a pure number. Now we can
associated, in the same graphic the
ISO-line of balanced budget the curve
of security performance: y = SP(x) 100-Y1 100-Y2 100%
that associates to every combination
O

of functional cost of Information Figure 3. The entire resources dedicated to IS systems are divided in two
mission a point of security shares: the first rate is specific for information mission and the
complementary one, dedicated to security, represents the functional cost.
performance (see Figure 4). The
combination of the functional costs is
efficient only in the area represented by the integral of the realistic curve. The value of security performance
is represented by the ordinate of each point in the realistic curve that is a percentage value. The difference
between one hundred and the value
of security performance represents CURVE OF SECURITY PERFORMANCE
both the value of “threat A:(y1; 100- y1) R2
performance” and the “quantitative 100%
Represents, for each Asset,
risk analysis” for any model that has P2
the ratio between the quantity
same premises and surrounding y = SP(x) of no compromising data and
conditions. R1 the total number of data
treated by the information
The calculation of functional cost mission in the same
should be something of relatively P1 amount of time.
easily to individuate and its E.g. referred to
the point R1 the
acceptance as an analytical tool value in the
addresses any possible scenario B:(y2; 100- y2) curve of SP
represented by all the families of equals:
P1
security performances in every IS Realistic curve
100
security context. In addition any Non realistic curve

change in the security architecture of

O 100-Y1 100-Y2 100%

Figure 4. The curve represents the level of security performance

an existing or projected IS system
dependable from the functional cost.

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should take always into consideration both the functional cost and the rate of security performance. TPC and
RDP represent a substantial share of deterrence as we have seen in the previous heading. If TPC is essentially
physical according to Fay in the RDP curve we can find both the physical and psychological tools. However
the psychological aspect exhausts itself both in the forensic ability of security mission and in the
consideration of sanctions or punishments granted by the judicial system. Anyway the analysis of the
Threat’s capabilities, and opportunities, is something that is the up-stream IS security analysis. In fact the
TPC and RPD curve are built after any possible evaluations regarding threat concerns. Once it has been
developed, the security organizational structure can be seen as a permanent negotiation between Threat and
Protection and should be evaluated with the Competitive advantage (see figure 5). In this figure the dynamic
confrontation is self-explanatory for the ongoing processes. By an analytical point of view that means to
draw the curve y = SP(x): the functional cost is fixed but the correspondence with the value of Security
Performance Curve is variable that should be conquered on the field. While functional cost and security
performance rates are variables that should be considered in the strategic planning, the dynamic confrontation
is related to the operational planning. The tactical context should be tailored, in the middle period, for
monitoring intrusions in order to:
• create a continuative operational feed back for a better security proficiency;
• to match together the quantitative and qualitative risk analysis;
• to create a kind of “field continuative intelligence” versus the Threat attempts and breakages.
The current use of data mining
investigations and link analysis
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE ON THE THREAT
techniques it can be proficiently
integrated with the “broader
Newcomer
intelligence of the “Company’s Threats
Mission” or with any allied IS
security systems. Actually all the
domain is largely unexplored in the Dynamic
Actual strengths
sense that the “IS intelligence and vulnerabilities
confrontation
Variations in
Security Demanding
abilities” are mainly used in the of the safeguards
of Security of Information and
vs Threat
relations either between the defence profile Company’s Missions
Information and Company missions
or between the Company mission and
its delivering customers. In the other Insertion of
hand the reporting capacity for IS substitutive
security purposes ranges mainly in Threats
the operational planning for “daily
purpose statistic”. Figure 5. An application of the Porter’s diagram to the confrontation
between protections and threats.
The implementation of the same
existing process between the
Information and Company missions like CRM, Business intelligence and the appropriate definition of
indicators and warning will be a proper way to close the security loop for any implementing stage of security
governance. The capacity of reporting like any “measurable issue” is limited by two main considerations.
The first is the capacity of measurement both by a technical and by a managerial point of views. In the
specific case the reporting capacity of the security disruption (or attempt of intrusion) should consider if the
technological tools can be proficient enough and if its employment on a large scale can create managerial
bias on the of IS architecture governance. The second is the willing, the needs or the convenience of the
Company mission management to implement a reporting process function in the tactical domain, the
threshold of implementation and the level of accuracy.

4. CONCLUSION
The purpose of seeing the IS security models (like the ICT Security Company’s System, the formula of
Security and all the others mentioned in the publication) is to create a scientific approach to understand the
nature of IS security issues, and to manage the connected problems in the most possible consistent way. The

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main advantage of an analytical approach is not only the possibility of always estimating costs, proficiency,
adaptations and re-usability of an IS security architecture. Actually the IS security is perceived as a common
sense knowing where the dominant perception is linked to experience; but the build-up of security
performing rules requires a point of view beyond the pure empirical report. The main perspective of IS
security analysis is to create a “reference lay-out, in order to make global, measurable and repeatable lay-outs
to describe the security issues of any IS context.
The possible applications are inclusive of all the IS architecture and a scientific analytical approach should
become an obligation when entering in the above mentioned stage V of UN e-government Survey 2008. The
limitations in the applications are mainly instrumental in the sense that in any security issue it should be
considered its functional cost.

REFERENCES
Fay, J. (1993) Encyclopaedia of Security Management – Techniques and Technology, Butterworth-Heinemann,
Burlington MA USA, pp. 229-230.
Innamorati, F. (2002) La security d’impresa, Insigna Edizioni Simone, Milan ITALY pp.61-62
ISO/IEC, (2002) Risk management - vocabulary – guidelines for use in standards, GUIDE 73, Geneva CH. p. 2.
Manunta, G. (2000) Cranfield Security Centre – The Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, UK p. 2.
Porter, E.M. (1985) The competitive advantage, Simon and Shuster Inc., First Free Press Edition U.S.
Rogers, R. (2005) Network Security Evaluation using the NSA-IEM, Syngress Publishing Inc. Rockland, MA, USA, pp.
5-6.
RSSG, (1992) Risk analysis perception management, The Royal Society Study Group, London, UK, p. 4.
UN, (2008) From e-government to Connected Governance, e-GOVERNMENT SURVEY,
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN028607.pdf

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PKI ARCHITECTURE FOR EMERGENCY AND RESCUE

MANET

Enrique de la Hoz, Juan Carlos Otero, Bernardo Alarcos, , Iván Marsá-Maestre,

M.A. López-Carmona
Computer Engineering Department, University of Alcala de Henares, Spain

ABSTRACT
A general observation is that none of the proposed key-management schemes for MANETs are truly effective for all
MANET scenarios. The application must be taken into consideration. In this work, we propose a PKI architecture for
emergency and rescue MANET that allow moving from a classical PKI approach to a pure ad-hoc networks depending on
the environmental conditions.

KEYWORDS
MANET, PKI, revocation, key management

1. INTRODUCTION
Efficient collaboration among rescue personnel from various organizations is a mission critical key element
for a successful operation in emergency and rescue situations. There are two central requirements for
efficient collaboration, the incentive to collaborate, which is naturally given for rescue personnel, and the
ability to efficiently communicate and share information. Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) could provide
[1], [2], [3] the technical platform for efficient information sharing in such scenarios, assuming that all rescue
personnel is carrying and using mobile computing devices with wireless network interfaces.
As we have stated, the same infrastructureless nature of ad hoc networks that is good for easy, fast, and
cost effective deployment makes difficult to support secure communication. Many security solutions rely on
public key cryptography, the deployment of which requires the effective management of digital certificates
through two fundamental services: secure binding of a cryptographic key to an entity (e.g., a user, a mobile
node, or a service) and validation of such bindings to other entities. In an ad hoc network without any
infrastructure support, most traditional solutions are not directly applicable. A general observation is that
none of the proposed key-management schemes for MANETs are truly effective for all MANET scenarios.
The application must be taken into consideration [4].
An emergency scenario with the rescue personnel working on it cannot be thought as a pure ad-hoc
network. One of the first things that must be made in such scenario is the deployment of a small fixed
infrastructure to provide some coverage as a control centre, for example. Also, most of the nodes involved on
it will not be fully unrelated but they will be belonging to certain groups with a prior trust relationship
(firemen, police men) so we can think of sets of nodes each one trusting their group fellows.
The goal of this paper is to propose a hybrid PKI architecture to be able to exploit the advantage of
having a fixed infrastructure and to change towards pure ad-hoc mechanisms when the connectivity to the
fixed infrastructure disappear. Our work focuses in the processes of changing from a fixed infrastructure to a
pure ad-hoc infrastructure.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes scenario features and some assumptions
on it. Giving this, we will propose an architecture for PKI that allows trust establishment between pair of
nodes. Main PKI characteristics are exposed in section 3. Section 4 shows the certificate revocation and
validation mechanism proposed. Finally, section 5 is about conclusions.

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2. SCENARIO DESCRIPTION
In a typical scenario, we will find people and group of people collaborating in the catastrophe zone (fire,
flood, earthquake, etc). Rescue personnel will carry computing devices with wireless network interfaces. By
means of them, they will be provided communication, information and control services. These devices can
range from plain sensor devices to ultra portable computers.
Not only we will be able to find lightweight devices but also we will have fixed equipment to provide
communication and management services in surveillance and control points, vehicles (like ambulances,
fireman truck, help vehicles, helicopter, airplanes,..), surveillance towers…
Wireless communication will be used. Due to the dynamic nature of the scenario and the possible hostile
conditions, it will be nearly impossible to provide connectivity among every node and the catastrophe
management system. Moving vehicles (i.e, planes) can meet isolated groups; take information from them to
another groups or to the fixed infrastructure.

3. HYBRID PKI ARCHITECTURE

One of the most challenging issues regarding security in ad-hoc networks is related to key management. Even
if it is the case that nodes have the enough computational resources to deal with public-key cryptography, we
still have to deal with the issuing, validation, storage, retrieval and revocation of certificates.
First we have the Network nodes (Ni). They are the nodes forming the ad-hoc network and making use of
certification services to establish trust relationship among them. These network nodes will belong to groups,
each one of them will carry his own group certification authorities (CAi) so they will be able to set trust
relationships easily. Every node not belonging to a group will get a certificate from a special CA called
Auxiliary Certification Authority (ACA). Finally, Control Certification Authority (CCA) will certify any
group CA acting like a hub or bridge [5] for certification paths to simplify his creation and validation.
In our proposal, each group can have its certificates issued in advance. This is quite an improvement in
terms of deployment speed because the rescue teams do not need to contact any entity when they get to the
catastrophe zone. There is only need for his CA to get cross-certified with a central CA that will be in charge
of certifying group CAs.

One of the main characteristics of our proposal is simplicity. Certification paths should be easy to build as
a result of having only one certificate path between nodes in contrast with having multiple trust paths [5] that
involve complex power-consuming search algorithms. In addition, certification paths should be short. We do
not use cross-certification between group CAs because it will be time and resource wasting for CAs and
network nodes while does not increase security.
The most certificates they have, the most resource-wasting that certificate verification will be [6]. The
longest certification path between two nodes, say N1 in CA1 and N2 in CA2, would be 3, that is, CA1<CCA>,
CCA<CA2>, CA2<N2>. Even if we add more groups, the longest path length would still be 3. The only way
to shorten this path would be adding a global CA but this would be a bottleneck and would slow down the
node incorporation and this is not desirable in an emergency scenario. The only path between CAs will be the
one that crosses CCA. The described architecture is scalable: adding new groups is as easy as cross certificate

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the group CA with CCA. This speeds up the certification process and network deployment. If it was the case
of having many groups, new ACAs could be added.
In this scenario, nodes, due to mobility, or to the characteristics of the zone can get isolated. Because of
that, we propose that every node store a minimal set of certificates to allow it validate other user certificate
under those circumstances. Provided that there are not many nodes, the storage capacity needed is low
enough to be supported even by the smallest nodes. When a CA gets cross certified with the CCA, it will
broadcast to every node in the group the CA<CCA> certificate in order to make them trust CCA. In turn,
CCA will announce the just acquired trust relationship by broadcasting the CCA<CA>certificate. Any node
receiving this certificate knows that it can trust in this new CA. The newly incorporated nodes must be
reported about every CA, ACA included, trusting them. Sending them the full set of CCA <CA> certificates
makes this.

4. CERTIFICATE REVOCATION PROCEDURE

The greater challenge is certificate revocation. Although it is believed that the frequency of such revocations
in networks for emergency and rescue operations will be low [4], we have to deal with the fact of malicious
nodes and intrusion attempts. For these reasons, the certificate may need to be revoked and information made
available to network peers in a timely manner.
For conventional networks, CAs issue certificate revocation lists [7] (CRLs) at regular intervals. The
CRLs should be placed in online repositories where they are publicly available or they may be broadcast to
the individual nodes. Also, other solutions as OCSP [8] or DeltaCRL[9] are available.
The validation of certificates can be done if each node stores the public keys of the trusted CAs that
issued the peers it needs to communicate with and if the calculation of certification paths is affordable for the
computational power of the nodes. In our proposal, the CA hierarchy is simple enough to keep low the
number of certificates each node must store. Not only the simplicity of the hierarchy allow us this but also
simplifies the calculation of certification paths: they are always unique and of a maximum length of three.
This is very important as it has been shown that certificate path calculation is quite resource consuming [1].
This also reduces greatly the number of messages needed which is important as it has been shown that the
practical constraint of MANETs is more likely the communication capacity rather than the computational
power and energy consumption [4].
As long as the number of nodes and CA will remain low in our scenario, it seems intuitive to use the CRL
approach as it usually fits better in this kind of environments and, under this assumptions, requires less
communication overhead. Also, OCSP is a much more complex protocol and due to node mobility, the OCSP
responder could not be reachable most of the time. On the other hand, the CRL will be small and so the nodes
can store them locally and use them even when they cannot reach any CA. Nevertheless, some researchers
[10] have proposed modifications to the conventional OCSP that could fit well also in our scenario. At the
moment of this writing, we are conducted simulations to evaluate both approaches and to decide whether to
use OCSP, CRL or deltaCRL.
Whether CRLs., OCSP, or any certificate validation schemes are used, network connectivity to CAs and
central repositories is still needed. Conventional approaches usually discard the use of these techniques in
ad-hoc networks because network connectivity to these entities cannot be assured and for fault-tolerance
reasons.
Our contribution to the state of the art of revocation is the use of a hybrid approach to revocation and
validation. When a network node receives a certificate, it will assign it a trust level (c) according to:

c = αc pki + βc p + γco
The trust level will be calculated taking into account three components. The first term (cpki) includes the
trust level assigned to the certificate received using the information that about the certificate can be retrieved
via CRL checking or OCSP weighted by alpha. The second and third term, will take into account the node
past experience (cp) and the neighbour nodes experience(co)[11], also weighted by beta and gamma
respectively. This will result in a overall trust level. Depending on the operation for which the certificate will
be used, a different trust level will be required. The most critic the operation is, the highest level will be
required.

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The three trust levels are weighted to take into account the current node situation. The sum of the three
weighting parameters must equals 1. If the node can retrieve fresh revocation information or the stored
information is still valid, the alpha parameter will tend to 1 as we do know current certificate state. If the
node loses connectivity to those entities or the validity of the stored info expires, the other terms will reflect
the situation by increasing his weights. As time passes by, the alpha parameter will decrease and the other
parameters will increase consequently. In conventional networks, when there is no chance to get fresh
revocation information certificates can no longer be validated. With our approach, a certain level of trust can
be assigned at least. The trust levels and weights can be tuned to reflect the characteristics of the environment
(required security, risk level, number of nodes, number of past revocations…).
Finally, we propose the use of mobile nodes (as fire planes, for instance) to carry updated revocation info
to those zones where can be isolated groups. As soon as a node is able to reach the revocation information
source again, he will update his CRL, having then full trust in cpki.

5. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

We believe that the proposed architecture to establish trust relationships in ad-hoc networks to be adequate
for emergency and rescue operations scenario.
First, it takes advantage of having a fixed infrastructure to deploy the initial trust relationships with very
little delay, as it is required in these scenarios. The hybrid nature of the architecture enables the evolution
from this initial set-up to a pure ad-hoc network schema as nodes move by the catastrophe area and appear
isolated groups, or if it is the case where the fixed elements (CCA, ACA) get compromised.
Certification paths are short (there is a maximum of three certificates per path) and easy to build because
they are unique. The shortest and ease to build the paths are, the least resources are needed in the nodes, so in
resource-limited devices, as mobile nodes are, this appear as a key aspect.

REFERENCES
A. M. Hegland et al., 2006, A Survey of Key Management in Ad Hoc Metworls. IEEE Communications Surveys ·, Vol.8.
No. 3. Pp. 48-66.
C.R. Davis, 2004,A localized trust management scheme for ad hoc networks, in: 3rd International Conference on
Networking (ICN'04), 2004, pp. 671-675.
D. Cooper, S. Santesson, S. Farrell, S. Boeyen, R. Housley, W. Polk “ Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure
Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile”. RFC 5280. May 2008.
ITU-T X.509, ISI/IEC 9594-8, 2005, Information technology - Open Systems Interconnection - The Directory: Public-
key and attribute certificate frameworks.
J. Kong et al.. Adaptive security for multilevel ad hoc networks. Journal of Wireless Communications and Mobile
Computing, Vol. 2, Págs. 533–547, John Wiley & Sons 2002.
J. Van Der Merwe et al.. A Survey on Peer-to-Peer Key Management for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks. ACM Comput. Surv.
39, 1, Article 1, Abril 2007.
K. Papapanagiotou, K. et al, 2006,"Performance evaluation of a distributed OCSP protocol over MANETs," in
Proceedings of 3rd IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC'06), vol. 1, pp. 1-5, Las
Vegas, Nev, USA.
M. Myers, R. et al., 1999, “X.509 Internet Public Key Infrastructure Online Certificate Status Protocol – OCSP”. RFC
2560.
R. Perlman, 1999, An overview of PKI trust models. IEEE Network Magazine,.
T. Repantis & V. Kalogeraki. Decentralized Trust Management forAd-Hoc Peer-to-Peer Networks. 4th International
Workshop on Middleware for Pervasive and Ad-Hoc Computing (MPAC ‘06), ACM Press 2006.
Y. Elley et al.. Building Certification Paths: Forward vs. Reverse. Network and Distributed System Security Symposium
(NDSS 2001), 2001.

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FEATURE REDUCTION FOR DOCUMENT CLUSTERING

WITH NZIPF METHOD

José Luis Castillo Sequera, José R. Fernández del Castillo, León González Sotos
Department of Computer Science, University of Alcalá
Campús Universitario s/n, 28871 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid- Spain

ABSTRACT
In this paper, we discuss a feature reduction technique and their application to document clustering, showing that feature
reduction improves efficiency as well as accuracy. We select the terms starting from the Goffman point, selecting an area
of suitable transition making use for it of the Zipf law (our method is called NZIPF). The experiments are carried out with
the collection Reuters 21578 and the results are compared with other methods to validate their efficiency. Finally, we
demonstrate experimentally that the transition zone that provides better results is taking 40 terms starting from the
Goffman point for a supervised clustering algorithm.

KEYWORDS
Clustering, Information Management, Information Search and Retrieval, Data Mining.

1. INTRODUCTION
The natural features of text documents are words or phrases, and a document collection can contain millions
of different features. Even after applying standard features reduction techniques, the number of features
remains large. Often users receive search results which contain a wide range of documents, only some of
which are relevant to their information needs. To address this problem, ever more systems not only locate
information for users, but also organize that information on their behalf. We look at two main automatic
approaches to information organization: interactive clustering of search results and preprocessing documents
to provide hierarchical browsing structure, both suffer from the curse of dimensionality documents are
typically represented by hundreds or thousands of words (features) which must be analyzed and processed
during clustering.
Document clustering has attracted much interest in the recent decades [2] [4][5], and much is known
about the importance of feature reduction in general [1] and, in particular, clustering [5], but little has been
done so far to facilitate reduction for document clustering of query results, hence, we carry out a method that
reduces the dimensionality, and we validate it experimentally with an algorithm of supervised cluster. In this
paper, we select the terms of document starting from the Goffman point [3], selecting an area of suitable
transition making use for it of the Zipf law [6]. First, a list of stop-words was used to eliminate obvious
functions words of the language. Although real document collections have a lower number of effective
dimensions that the size of the vocabulary might indicate and despite the fact word histogram document
representations are by no means random vectors, each additional dimension tends to not only spread the size
of a cluster but also dilute the distance of two previously well-separated clusters. Hence, it seems prohibitive
involving all semantic features (e.g. the words) of a document collection for document clustering

2. USE OF THE ZIPF LAW

This law treats the frequency of the use of the words in any language. It proposes that inside a
communication process, they usually use most often some terms, because the authors usually avoid the
search of more vocabulary to express their ideas [4].

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Zipf establishes that if we order the words of a text for falling order of occurrence, the frequency of the word
that occupies the position "r-ésima" will come given by a distribution frequency-range of the type:

f (r ) =
k
, r = 1,2,3,...
(r + w)b
Where "k" only depends of the size of the text, and, "w" and "b" are variable parameters.
The one enunciated more simple of this law of Zipf, it is a case peculiar of the previous (having b=1 and
w=0) equation, it makes that the call Zipf law that works well in words of high frequency, decrease to:
f (r ) = k
r
Of this expression, it is obtained that r * f (r ) = k , obtaining an equation then [6] that decreases
to: R * F = K . This expression indicates that the product of the frequency of a word for its range is
constant.
Where: R = it is the order of the word in the list, F = it is the frequency or the number of occurrences of that
word, and K = it is the constant for the text. There is another law of Zipf that is developed next: If we call: I1
to the word count frequently 1, In to the word count frequently "n.", It is verified that:
I 1 n ⋅ (n + 1)
=
In 2
Leaving of these laws, Goffman established a procedure to eliminate the non outstanding terms of the
documental base [3]. According to Goffman, the functional (articles, conjunctions, etc.) words, are the words
of higher frequency and, on the other hand, the words of very low frequency are the strangest words that
denote the style or vocabulary. The transition zone should be in the area in that In, this is, the word count of
frequency n store at 1, then operating in the second law of Zipf, substituting In for 1, we obtain:
−1+ 1 + 8 ⋅ I1
n = .
2
Therefore, finding that "n", they would serve us as terms indizadores (Point of Goffman, see figure 1)

Hence, in the transition zone among some and other they should be the terms indexes of the documental
base, that is to say around this point; taking those values that they are in an environment of the frequency
"n"; this is, all the words of frequency "n", and those of frequencies n-1, n-2, n-3... and n+1, n+2, n+3...
until having a number of terms that we consider appropriate; in our experiments we make vary the number of
terms from < n-K, n+K > (see figure 2) until being able to obtain the best vectors of characteristics that
allow to obtain a better representation of the documental base.

Once we have obtained all the terms with discriminatory bigger power, that is to say, the most
representative, we proceed to select it the terms to represent to the documents. This process consists on the
construction of vectors with the size of the significant terms that they have been. That is to say, a document
"gave" it will be identified by means of a collection of terms Ti1, Ti2, Ti3, ....Tit where Tij represents the
weight, or importance of the term j in the document i. (see table 1).

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Table 1. Vectorial Representation of the documental base

Documents T1 T2 T3 ………… Tt
Document 1 T11 T12 T13 …………. T1t
Document 2 T21 T22 T23 …………. T2t
Document 3 T31 T32 T33 …………. T3t
………. …… ……… …………. ………… ……….
Document n Tn1 Tn2 Tn3 ………….. Tnt

2.1 Collection of Documents and Preprocessing

We use the collection Reuters 21578, this collection is the interest to researchers in machine learning, as it
provides a classification task with challenging properties. There are multiple categories, the categories are
overlapping and there are relationships among the categories. Due to that the approaches to measure the
quality of a cluster require that each document belongs to a single group, with the objective of then to be able
to compare the quality of the clusters that be obtained with some method of well-know cluster, we can obtain
to that category belongs each document, and the total number of groups in each documentary base.
It is hence that the initial procedure was to extract only those documents that only have a value in the
field "Topics" of the collection Reuters.
Initially we extract the terms of the text of the document where each one of the extracted words will be
compared with a list of empty ("stoplist") words that will eliminate the words that don't have interest or they
lack own meaning. Then, the words will be able to suffer a process of cutting of their roots (stemming); it
stops then to apply some processes of selection of outstanding terms with Zipf law; and finally to use a
function (IDF) to obtain the weight associated to each term.
In the collection Reuters each document has 5 different categorization fields: Market value, Organization,
Person, Place and Topic; and in each field, the document can have a single value, several or none; the field
was chosen “Topics” to be the most used in the different experimentations that have been carried out with
this documental base. This way, each one of the different categories of the collection Reuters to which a
document can belong will be associated by this label and this way if it is that a document belongs to any, an
or several categories this information we find it making a revision of the information that we have in this
label ("TOPICS" labels). It is necessary to mention that the collection is made up of 21578 documents, that
which they are distributed in 22 files: and that the documental base is in format SGML.
This first process automatically carries out it through programs, this way, after this process we have
obtained a group of documents that are associated to a single category, the different categories to which a
document can belong in the collections Reuters, they are shown in the table 2.
Table 2. Different categories of collections Reuters 21578

Next with the file of temporary text we prepare a file of "Topics for each Document" that contains for
each document the document number and the group to which belongs each document, we can have this way
for example a disposition of the data like the one that is shown in the table.3. Next, we order these groups
(see table 4).

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Table 3. Initial disposition of data after the filtration Table 4. Disposition final data after the filtration process
Documents Group Documents Group
Document 1 Earn Document 2 Acq
Document 2 Acq Document 3 Cocoa
Document 3 Cocoa Document 5 Cocoa
Document 4 Earn Document 1 Earn
Document 5 Cocoa Document 4 Earn
…………. ………….. …………. …………..

Thus, in this manner with this information can be formed the real groups of documents for the collection
Reuters 21578, with that which for example one would have the following grouping of documents (Table 5):
Table 5. Disposition final data after the Sort process.
Document Group
Group 1 (acq) Document 2
Group 2 (cocoa) Document 3, Document 5
Group 3 (earn) Document 1, Document 4
…………. …………..

This table we can get the existing groups in the distribution Reuters for use in the algorithm supervised.
The table.4 is an useful information that will be good to be able to evaluate the quality of the vectors obtained
with the method proposed. For all the documents they are applied “stop-list” and the stemmer.

3. CLUSTERING ALGORITHM AND EXPERIMENTATION

Clustering purpose is to divide a given group of documents in a number of groups in order that the objects in
a particular cluster would be similar among the documents of the other ones. This technique tries to solve
how to distribute N documents in M clusters according to minimization of fitness. The problem is to classify
a group of documents form clusters of points in a n-dimensional space. These clusters form groups of similar
documents. The formal procedures use an optimization criterion such as minimize the distance additions of
each document to the clusters centre, which can be considered as the gravitational of a cluster, for us the
gravitational point is the Goffman point. We use the algorithm Kmeans to be a supervised very robust and
stable algorithm if we know the number of groups that we want to obtain. In this work we have opted to use
the outline "ntn" proposed for Salton [4] to carry out the comparisons that it allows us to determine the
quantity of terms lemmatizer that we will have to choose of the transition zone, and to our method we have
denominated it NZIPF.
We try to prove experimentally which method offered a bigger number of successes, comparing clusters
of documents with the method of Kmeans, taking as entrance the vectors processed by each method (“ntn” or
“Nzipf”) and then to compare the maximum number of successes of each method, try to find the transition
zone more appropriate to select the terms representing the document. For it, initially the documents of the
distribution Reuters was taken in groups from the available information after the filtration (2, 3, 4, 5 groups).
This way, the experiments were carried out with until 4 groups of documents of each distribution, varying the
range of terms (between 10 and 70 terms) to select starting from the point of Goffman. The objective was to
obtain a transition zone that provides bigger number of successes.

3.1 Experiment Results

The experimental tests were carried out with 6 distributions Reuters (that is to say with a sample of more than
25% of all the distributions). Next we show the results obtained for each distribution comparing the successes
obtained on the number of documents of the distribution according to the group that we compare. In each
table we have the notation AA / BB, where AA indicates us the number of successes, and BB it indicates us
the number of existent documents in the group. In the tables 6 at the 11, we show the analysis of the
successes obtained for the 6 distributions of Reuters. We also show each one of the ranges (transition zone
with terms) starting from the point of Goffman that we use with each method, and we analyze the best
method optimizing the biggest number of successes. (See Figure 3 evolution of the number of successes).

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Table 6. Obtained results using the distribution 0 of Reuters Table 7. Obtained results using the distribution 1 of Reuters

Table 8. Obtained results using the distribution 2 of Reuter Table 9. Obtained results using the distribution 3 of Reuter

Table 10. Obtained results using the distribution 4 of Reuter Table 11. Obtained results using the distribution 5 of Reuter

Evolution of the num ber of success es w ith the m ethod Nzipf in 4 groups take n
at random for the 6 pirm eras dis tributions of the collection Re uters 21578
according to the transition area to evaluate
4

Num ber of 3
success es
on
4 groups 2
tak en
at random 1

0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Number of terms lematizados in the transition area
Dist ribut ion 0 Reut ers Distribut ion 1 Reut ers Dist ribut ion 2 Reut ers
Dist ribut ion 3 Reut ers Distribut ion 4 Reut ers Dist ribut ion 5 Reut ers

Figure 3. Evolution of the number of successes (method Nzipf) in 4 groups

4. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper we show that it is necessary to select only 40 lemmatisers terms of the transition zone from the
point of Goffman to reduce the dimensionality of the vector documentary using our method called Nzipf to
implement it in a grouping of documents with an algorithm of the supervised type. The results show that the
grouping obtained with these terms is robust because the results are very similar to the true of the collections,
including improving the method proposed by Salton called “ntn”, as show by experiments.

REFERENCES
Baeza-Yates R, Ribeiro-Neto B. “Modern Information Retrieval”. ACM Press 1999 Addison Wesley.
Marcus A. Malov. “Machine Learning and Data Mining for Computing Security” Springer 2006
Pao M.L, 1976 “Automatic indexing based on Goffman transition of word occurrences”. American society 80
Salton G. “Automatic Text Processing by Computer”. Addison-Wesley, 1989.
Olson David and Dursun Delen. “Advanced Data Mining Techniques”, Springer 2008.
Zipf GK. “Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort”. Cambridge: Adison Wesley, 1949.

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A GROUP BASED FUZZY TOPSIS APPROACH TO

SELECTING A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

S. Farid Mousavi
Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI)
R&D department of Export Development Bank of Iran, Tehran, Iran

Amir Sanayei
Islamic Azad University - Bonab
Department of Industrial Engineering, Islamic Azad University–Bonab Branch, Bonab, Iran

ABSTRACT
Many scholars and practitioners recognize the power of Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives in organizations
performance but insufficient attention has been paid by researchers to select suitable KM strategy models. This paper
describes a methodology for selecting a KM strategy based on TOPSIS technique. In general, some quantitative and
qualitative factors must be considered to determine strategy. In this paper, linguistic values are used to assess the ratings
and weights for those factors. In addition, the preferences of more than one decision maker are internally aggregated in to
the strategy selection problem therefore an extension of TOPSIS to a group decision environment is investigated. To
illustrate how the approach is used for the KM strategy selection problem, an empirical study of a real case is conducted.

KEYWORDS
Knowledge Management Strategy, TOPSIS, fuzzy theory

1. INTRODUCTION
Knowledge has become one of the critical driving forces for business success nowadays. Organizations are
becoming more knowledge intensive, they are hiring minds more than hands, and the need for leveraging the
value of knowledge are increasing (Wong, 2005). Thus, knowledge in the organization should be managed
properly. Many organizations have failed to realize the expected benefits of knowledge management (Kim et
al., 2003). For ensuring the successful implementation of knowledge management, companies must select a
favorable management strategy before the implementation process begins. According to Wu and Lee (2007),
selecting a proper knowledge management strategy is a kind of multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM)
problem. In this paper an MCDM model for group decision making in fuzzy environment is proposed to
proper knowledge management strategy selection in companies. The rest of the paper is structured as follows:
Section 2 discusses the KM strategies. TOPSIS model is discussed in Section 3. In section 4 an overview
and the concepts of the fuzzy sets are given. Section 5 concentrates on the proposed model. A real case study
is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed method in section 6. In the final section some
conclusions are drawn.

2. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Knowledge is based on data and information. There is growing evidence that firms are increasingly investing
in KM initiatives and establishing KM systems in order to acquire and better exploit this resource (Choi, et
al., 2007). Nowadays Companies have implemented knowledge management (KM) as a new management
technique. KM refers to the set processes or practice of developing in an organization, the ability to create,
acquire, capture, store, maintain and disseminate the organization's knowledge (Chan, Nagai, 2005). In this
situation knowledge management strategy is required for implementing effective KM. Kim et al. (2003)

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proposed that organization tend to implement KM strategies for following reasons: Increase in the
finance/non-financial performance and corporate value, Construction of the technical and organizational infra
structure for KM., Building the knowledge-friendly culture and learning organization, Establishing formal
and informal KM processes, Securing top and middle management supports and Construction of flexible
knowledge and organization structures.
Several literatures proposed typology of KM strategies; But Hansen et al.'s (1999) typology of knowledge
strategies has become the most supported and referenced one (Meono-Cerdan, et al. 2007). Meono-Cerdan,
et al. (2007) noted that Lee and Choi (2003) review KM strategies. In Table 2 this review is depicted. They
conclude in a distinction between a system-oriented and a human-oriented approach.With concerning
knowledge management intricacies in a global context Desouza et al. (2003) through a serious of semi
structured interviews with 29 senior managers, classified global knowledge management strategies in three
groups, head-quarters commissioned and executed strategy, head-quarters commissioned and regionally
executed strategy and regionally commissioned and locally executed strategy. In other study in this field
Desouza et al. (2006) examining of KM practices in more than 50 software organizations and classified
strategies in same categorized. therefore knowledge management strategies in firms which span multiple
countries are differ from one which is not operate in a global context. For more information please refer
Desouza et al. (2006).

3. PROPOSED METHOD
As mentioned above several literatures are developed to identify the knowledge management strategies to
better perform KM process but According to Wu and Lee (2007) few of those have provided methods which
can evaluate and model KM strategies selection for organizations. They applied ANP model which was
introduced by Saaty (1996) to select appropriate strategy for organization. Their proposed model select a
strategy among three strategies which introduced by Lee and Choi (2003); But they assumed that the
performance rating of each strategy with respect to each criterion is crisp.
It must be considered that much knowledge in the real world is imprecise rather than precise. Furthermore in
KM implementation it is vital to involved several people and experts from different functional areas within
the company. This paper suggested the Fuzzy MCDM group based model to select appropriate KM strategy.
The technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) approach is proposed by Hwang
and Yoon (1981). Saremi et al. (2009) developed this technique for group decision making in fuzzy
environments. Also they discussed advantages of TOPSIS in applying to decision problems. In this paper the
recent approach is employed for KM strategy selection problem.
A systematic approach to extend the TOPSIS is proposed to solve the strategy-selection problem under a
fuzzy environment in this section.
Suppose k decision makers K = (1, 2,..., k ) have to chosen the organization knowledge management strategy.
Strategy selection first requires identification of decision attributes (criteria). Martensson (2000) suggested
some important factors for evaluating KM strategies. Wu & Lee (2007) used some of them for evaluating
KM strategies. In this paper the same six factors C j = ( j = 1, 2,..., 6) are chosen, too. These factors are:
(Martensson, 2000)
C1= Support from top management C3=Culture and people C5=Time
C2=Communication C4=Incentives C6=Cost
These factors can be classified into two types: benefit factors ( C1 ) like Incentives, Culture and people,
Communication and Support from top management and cost factors ( C 2 ) like Time and Cost. The decision
group can modify (add or omit) these criteria. Obviously, the strategies and the factor
set C j = ( j = 1, 2,..., 6) are finite, so it is very convenient to denote the rating of strategies on factors by fij .Then
a decision problem can be concisely expressed as the following decision matrix:
D k = [ fijk ]m× n , fijk = (aij , bij , cij ) is a linguistic variable, Indicating the rating of each i -th strategy with
respect to each j -th factor respect to k -th DM. These linguistic variables can be described by triangular
fuzzy numbers.

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In decision making process, different attributes have different importance. Suppose wi = (i = 1, 2,..., m) is
∑
i=n
the relative weight of factor Ci , where wi ≥ 0 and i =1
wi = 1 . it is suggested in this paper that the decision-
makers use the linguistic variables to evaluate the importance of the factors. The linguistic variable schemes
in the rating set and weighting set, shown in Tables 1 and 2, respectively, are used in this study to evaluate
the ratings of strategies with respect to different factors and the importance of the factors, If there is
consensus among DMs with respect to rating and importance of factors suppose k = 1 in proposed procedure.
The procedure of the TOPSIS method consists of the following steps:
a. Establish a normalized matrix
The decision matrix must first be normalized so that the elements will be unit-free. The structure of the
normalized matrix for the k -th decision maker can be expressed as follows:
R k = [rijk ]m× n (1)
, k = 1, 2,..., Κ; i = 1, 2,..., m; j = 1, 2,..., n
Where the rijk is the normalized value of fijk = (aij , bij , cij ) which be calculated by the following relations:
If j -th criterion is a benefit one:
aij bij cij and
rijk = ( , , ) Where c*j = max cij (2)
c*j c*j c*j
if j -th criterion is a cost one
a −j a −j a −j
rijk = ( , , ) Where a −j = min aij (3) (11)
cij bij aij

b. Construct the weighted normalized decision matrix

Considering the different importance of each criterion, the weighted normalized decision matrix will be
constructed as follows for k -th decision maker:
V k = [vijk ]m× n , k = 1, 2,..., Κ; i = 1, 2,..., m; j = 1, 2,..., n (4)
Where vijk = rijk (×) wkj and vijk = (vij1 , vij 2 , vij 3 ) is a triangular fuzzy number.
c. Calculate the separation measure from the ideal and the negative ideal solutions for
each decision maker
The positive ideal solution indicates the most preferable alternative, and the negative ideal solution indicates
the least preferable alternative. So determine the fuzzy positive ideal solution (FPIS, A + ) and fuzzy negative
ideal solution (FNIS, A − ) as follows (Chen et al., 2006):
A+ = (v1+ , v2+ ,..., vn+ ) (5) A− = (v1− , v2− ,..., vn− ) (6)

Where v +j = max(vij 3 ) and v −j = min(vij1 ) , i = 1, 2,..., m; j = 1, 2,..., n

i i

For k -th, the distance of each alternative from A + and A − can be currently calculated as:
n
(7)
dik + = ∑ d (vijk , v +j ) , i = 1, 2,..., m; j = 1, 2,..., n
j =1

n
dik − = ∑ d (vijk , v −j ) , i = 1, 2,..., m; j = 1, 2,..., n (8) (15)
j =1

Where, d (∗, ∗) is the distance measurement between two fuzzy numbers.

d. Calculate the overall separation measure from the ideal and the negative ideal
solutions
To derive group preferences provided by multiple decision makers and combine the group synthesis and
prioritization stages into a single integrated stage, the geometric mean with the modified TOPSIS approach is
employed. The overall separation measure calculated as:

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K 1
di+ = (∏ dik + ) k , i = 1, 2,..., m (9)
k =1
K 1
di− = (∏ dik − ) k , i = 1, 2,..., m (10)
k =1
(17)

e. Calculate the relative closeness to the ideal solution

+
The relative closeness of the alternative Aj with respect to ideal solution A is defined as:
d i−
Ci = , Where Ci range belong to the closed interval [ 0,1] and i = 1, 2,..., m . (11)
d i + d i−
+

f. Rank the alternatives

A set of alternatives can now be preference ranked according to the descending order of Ci .the one with the
maximum value of Ci is the best.

4. CASE STUDY
An empirical study of the auto part industry established in Tehran is proposed to show the practicability and
usefulness of the proposed methodology. Three Knowledge management strategies which were introduced by
Desouza et al. (2006) are evaluated by three DMs under a fuzzy environment against five factors. Finally
decision group specified Culture and people, Communication, Support from top management, Time and Cost
as decision criteria. DM's have relevant experience in knowledge management initiatives for several years.
The linguistic ratings and weights of factors employed by three DMs under 5 factors for the three strategies
are presented in Table3 and Table 4. At last according to the closeness of the three strategies the regionally
executed strategy and regionally commissioned and locally executed strategy (third one)is the best.

5. CONCLUSION
Numerous books, articles and special editions of journals have already been devoted to explaining concept of
knowledge and its management in organizations and several them are developed to identify its relative
strategies in organizations to better perform it but few of those have provided methods which can evaluate
and model KM strategies selection for organizations. the purpose of this paper is to present an effective
framework using TOPSIS method for KM strategy selection. One of the important advantages of the
proposed model is that KM strategy selection problem includes both qualitative and quantitative factors,
additionally, this problem adheres to uncertain and imprecise data, and fuzzy set theory is adequate to deal
with it. Furthermore, the group of experts must be involved in this problem. The fuzzy group based TOPSIS
proposed in this paper is a useful tool for solving this problem. Applying other MCDM techniques which are
best suited with this problem characteristic to improve the quality and effectiveness of decision making
process, can be considered as future works.
Table 1. Linguistic variables for the ratings Table 2. Linguistic variables for the Table 3. Importance weight of
importance weight of each criterion factors from 3 Decision-Makers
Linguistic variables (cost Fuzzy
factor/benefit factor) triangular Linguistic variables Fuzzy triangular DM1 DM2 DM3
Very Low/Very Poor (0,0, 1) Very Low (0,0, 0.1) C1 M H L
Low/Poor (0, 1, 3) Low (0, 0.1,0. 3) C2 H MH H
Medium Low/Medium Poor (1, 3, 5) Medium Low (0.1,0. 3,0. 5) C3 M ML L
Medium/Fair (3, 5, 7) Medium (0.3,0. 5,0. 7) C4 H VH H
Medium High (0.5,0. 7,0. 9) C5 VH VH VH
Medium High/Medium Good (5, 7, 9)
High (0.7,0. 9, 1)
High/Good (7, 9, 10)
Very High (0.9, 1, 1)
Very High/Very Good (9, 10, 10)

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Also the systematic framework in a fuzzy environment presented in this paper is flexible enough and it can
be easily extend to deal with other management decision making problems no matter whether the data are
quantitative or qualitative.
Table 4. Ratings of the 3 strategies by Table 5. The distance measurement
the DMs against the various factors
DM1 DM2 DM3
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 − + − + −
d 1 d 1 d 1 d 1 d 1 d 1+
A1 F MP L VH VH A1 0.79 3.05 0.84 3.24 0.42 3.19
DM1 A2 MG F F M H A2 1.76 2.34 1.93 2.46 0.77 2.9
A3 VG VG G H MH
A3 2.21 1.84 2.2 2.05 2.3 1.91
A1 F P G VH H
DM2 A2 MG MG MG H ML Table 6. the final closeness coefficient of each
consultant
A3 VG VG VG M MH Alternative Overall
A1 G P VP VH VH A1 0.172
DM3 A2 G MP P H M A2 0.351
A3 MG VG MG ML ML
A3 0.537

REFERENCES
Book
Hwang, C.L., Yoon, N.,(1981) Multiple Attributes Decision Making Methods And Application. Springer-Verlag, Berlin,
Germany
Saaty, T. L.,(1996). Decision making with dependence and feedback: The analytic network process. Pittsburgh, PA: RWS
Publication
Journal
Chan, E.W.C., Ngai, E.W.T., (2005). Evaluation of knowledge management tools using AHP. Expert Systems with
Applications, 29, 889-899.
Choi, B., Poon, S., K., Davis, J., G., (2007). Effects of knowledge management strategy on organizational performance:
A complementarily theory-based approach. Omega, 36, 235-251.
Desouza, K.C., Awazu, Y., Baloh, P., (2006). Managing knowledge in global software development efforts: issues and
practices. IEEE Software, 30-37.
Hansen, M.T., Nohria, N., Tierney, T., (1999).What's your strategy for management knowledge?. Harward Business
Review, 77 (2), 106-117.
Kim, Y.G., Yu S.H., Lee J.H., (2003). Knowledge strategy planning: methodology and case. Expert System with
Applications, 24, 295-307.
Lee, H. And Choi, B., (2003). Knowledge management enablers, processes, and organizational performance: An
integrative view and empirical examination. Journal of Management Information Systems, 20(1), 179-228
Meono-Cerdan, a.l., Lopez-Nicolas, C., Sabater-Sanchez, R., (2007). Knowledge management strategy diagnosis from
KM instruments use. Journal of Knowledge Management, 11 (2), 60-72.
Martensson, M., (2000). A critical review of knowledge management as a management pool. Journal of Knowledge
Management, 4(3), 204-216.
Saremi, M., Mousavi, S. F., Sanayei, A., (2009). TQM consultant selection in SMEs with TOPSIS under fuzzy
environment, Expert Systems with Application, 36, 2742–2749
Wong, K.Y., (2005).Critical success factors for implementing knowledge management in small and medium enterprises.
Industrial Management & Data System, 105 (3), 261-279.
Wu, W.W., Lee, Y.T., (2007).Selecting knowledge management strategies by using the analytic network process. Expert
Systems with Applications, 32, 841-847.
Conference paper
Desouza, K.C., Jayaraman, A., Evaristo, J.R. (2003), "Knowledge management in non-collocated environments: a look at
centralized vs. decentralized design approaches", Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on
System Sciences (HICSS-36), IEEE Press, Los Alamos, CA, No.January.

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USER EXPERIENCE OF ONLINE SOCIAL-NETWORK

SERVICES: COMPARING OLD AND YOUNG ADULTS
USING LADDERING ANALYSIS

Jung Min Kang, Sunjae Kim, Daniel Kim, Inseong Lee, Jinwoo Kim
HCI Lab of Yonsei University in Korea
Shinchon-dong 134, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-749, South Korea

ABSTRACT
In these aging societies, the decline of social relationships of older adults due to physical limitations is being identified as
critical social problems. Social networking services (SNS) have been proposed to enhance the social relationships of
older adults. However, today’s SNSs only focus on younger users and are thus hard to use for older adults, and actual
usage by older adults are close to none. Thus, this study focuses on comparing old adults and young adults in terms of
their experience of using online social network services. We conducted individual interviews, service analysis, and focus
group interviews for old as well as young adults. The qualitative data was analyzed by using laddering analysis technique.
The results indicate old adults used social network services quite differently from young adults with different needs and
motivation. The study results are expected be used as empirical foundations to develop online social network services for
old adults.

KEYWORDS
Online Social Network Services, Old Adults

1. INTRODUCTION
The population of older adults in the world has increased and continues to do so. For example, Japan and
Italy became super-aged societies with more than 20% of their respective populations being older adults
(Korea National Statistical Office, 2006). Due to this trend, a diverse number of older adult studies have taken
place in different fields, with research utilizing the Internet, E-mail, chat, or instant messaging in order to
overcome the limitations that come with aging.
Along with these studies, programs such as SeniorNet, Encore, and The Next Chapter have been designed
for older adults on the Internet. Active social networking through services, programs, and online
communities are expected to help older adults to have reduced stress levels (Bargh and McKenna 2004) and
feel life-satisfaction (Karavidas, Lim et al. 2005)..
Likewise, providing diverse benefits through social networking activities for older adults on the Internet
are said to bring an overall satisfaction in their lives (Karavidas, Lim et al. 2005). Social networks (SN)
commonly refer to connections with close friends, family, and neighbors (Due, Holstein et al. 1999). In the
case of older adults, events such as children moving out of the house and friends passing away make it much
harder for them to find targets of social networking (Penninx, van Tilburg et al. 1999). In addition, difficult
mobility due to health deterioration make it all the harder to retain social networks themselves (Colins 2003).
Due to the above reasons, it is important to provide social networking services (SNS) for older adults.
SNS refers to services that allow social networking activity on the Internet (boyd and Ellison 2008). SNSs
have become a popular online service in recent years. Top SNSs such as Facebook and Myspace rank fifth
and seventh in the world, respectively.
However, most SNS users are aged between 10 and 30 years old, while older adults only account to
0.46% of total users (RapLeaf 2008). According to a study by Pew Internet & American Life Project in 2006,
among the 33% of American older adults who use the Internet (Pew Internet & American Life Project 2007),
those who use SNS services account to a much less ratio. Lee (Lee 2007) points out that SNSs that are

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popular with younger generations have not properly reflected upon the SNS of older adults. Thus, the reason
behind older adults’ lack of usage of SNS regardless of knowing how to use the Internet is due to the fact that
contents and functions are directed towards only the younger generation. Despite the findings, there have no
research conducted on SNS designs for older adults, and that is why this research sets itself apart from
previous studies.
The purpose of this research is to compare old adults and young adults in terms of their behavior and
attitudes toward social network services. These results are expected to provide basic empirical findings for
the development of SNS that suits the specific needs and wants of old adults.

2. REESARCH METHOD
This study was conducted in a three-step qualitative research method in order to find out social networking
characteristics and their cause and effect relationships. First, individual interviews were carried out based on
old and young adults who have thriving social networking activities in both online and offline environments.
Afterwards, participants’ social networking contents in their respective online sites were analyzed, and a
triangulation was conducted based on the individual interviews. Finally, focus group interviews (FGI) were
conducted with six participants for young as well as old adult groups.
The demographic information about study participants is presented in Table 1 below. Twenty-two who
are older than 60 were recruited for the old adult group, whereas twenty college students and entry-level
workers were recruited for the young adult group. All participants were to have been actively using at least
two interactive online SNS such as blogs and online communities for at least one year.
Table 1. Demographic information of study participants

Older Adults Younger

Participants n = 22 n = 20
Age Mean 66.10 25.60
Gender
Male 15 14
Female 7 6

Laddering analysis was employed to compare the old and young adult groups. The laddering analysis was
designed to understand how people translate the attributes of products into meaningful associations with
respect to self (Reynold, T.J. et al, 1988). The final output of laddering analysis is hierarchical experience
map (HEM), a visual representation of causal structure. A well designed graphic takes advantage of vision as
the primary medium of thinking and facilitates the processing of large amount of information. Thus, the
HEM may be very effective at representing the causal relationship structure for SNS.

3. RESULTS
Hierarchical experience map for the old adults group is presented in [Figure 1], whereas one for the young
adults group is presented in [Figure 2]. As shown in the figures, the line segments connecting the variables
are of varying degrees of thickness, representing the number of times a connection was made by participants.

3.1 Hierarchical Experience Map for the Old Adult Group

Three causal relationship patterns were emerged from the laddering analysis of the old adult group as shown
in [Figure 1]. All three patterns start with the key concept of “I think I am old.” The first pattern leads to the
core concept of “active busyness.” Active busyness refers to the busyness that occurs due to performing
activities that don’t necessarily have to be fulfilled, such as volunteer work, alumni associations, travelling,
hobbies, and religion. Due to active lifestyles and the numerous social relationships they maintain, they did
not feel the needs to form new social network. The second pattern led to the feeling that they were confident
about their wisdom which was built through their long experience. This led to the desire to share information

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with others and even teach others, and naturally led to the building of new social network. Finally, the third
pattern led to the feeling that “I feel the needs to learn new things” because it was difficult for the old adults
to learn how to use social network services. In order to learn new things, they participate in online social
network actively and feel the needs for new social networks.

Figure 1. Hierarchical experience map for the old adult group

3.2 Hierarchical Experience Map for the Young Adult Group

Three causal relationship patterns were emerged from the laddering analysis of the young adult group as
shown in [Figure 2].

Figure 2. Hierarchical experience map for the young adult group

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All three patterns start from the key concept of “I have a job.” The first pattern led to the concept of
“passive busyness, ” which refers to the busyness that occurs due to performing activities that have to be
fulfilled, such as school study and job work. Since they were passively busy, they did not want to make new
social networks and rather wanted to concentrate on managing existing social networks. Also, they worried
about the possibility of breaking down social relations with friends and relatives, which again led to the
activity of concentrating on the current social network. The second pattern led to the concept of “need for
new information.” They needed new information for many reasons, and participating in social network
activities was one way to acquire new information. Finally, the third pattern leads to the concept of “passive
need.” The passive need occurs when people need something because of their jobs or works. The third
pattern occurred when people were in passive need but no one was around to feed the needed information and
their social network was rather limited in terms of its size and strength. Therefore, they wanted to build new
social networks and to meet diverse online social networks.

4. CONCLUSION
Three distinctive causal-relationship patterns were found for the old adults. Some old adults did not want to
have new online social network because they were already busy due to the activities that they did not have to
perform. On the contrary, other old adults wanted to build new social networks either because they would
like to learn knowledge or share their knowledge with others. Three rather different causal-relationship
patterns were found for the young adults. Some young adults did not want to expand their social network
because they were busy doing their jobs and they rather wanted to maintain their existing networks. On the
contrary, other young adults wanted to expand their social network just because they want to know new
information or because of their jobs.
The results clearly indicate that old and young adults have different causal relations for both expanding to
new social network and maintaining old existing social new network. Understanding these diverse reasons
will help to build online social network services that are more suitable to the needs and wants of old adults
who will be the major part of aging society.

REFERENCES
Bargh, J. A. and K. Y. A. McKenna, 2004. The Internet and Social Life. Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 55, pp 573-
590.
Boyd, d. m. and N. B. Ellison, 2008. Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-
Mediated Communication, Vol. 13, pp 210-230.
Colins, G. A., 2003. Rethinking Retirement in the Context of an Aging Workforce. Journal of Career Development, Vol.
30, No. 2, pp 145-157.
Due, P., B. Holstein, et al., 1999. Social relations: network, support and relational strain. Social Science & Medicine, Vol.
48, pp 661-673.
Karavidas, M., N. K. Lim, et al., 2005. The effects of computers on older adults users. Computer in Human Behavior,
Vol. 21, No. 5, pp 697-711.
Korea National Statistical Office, 2006. Population Projections for Korea : 2005~2050.
Lee, D., 2007. Older Adults Face Facebook Mystery. ABC News
Penninx, B. W. J. H., T. van Tilburg, et al., 1999. Social Network, Social Support, and Loneliness in Older Persons with
Different Chronic Diseases. Journal of Aging and Health, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp 151-168.
Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2007. Demographics of Internet Users.
RapLeaf, 2008. Study of Social Network Users vs. Age.
Reynolds, T.J. et al., 1988. Laddering Theory, Method, Analysis and Interpretation, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol.
28, No. 1, pp 11-31
Wright, K., 2006. Computer-mediated social support, older adults, and coping. Journal of Communication, Vol. 50, No. 3,
pp 100-118.

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INFOCAMPUS. UNIVERSITY SOCIAL NETWORK FOR

ENTERTAINMENT, CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY

Francisco Ortiz, Raul Fraile, Juan Galiana

Department of Physics, Systems Engineering and Signal Theory. University of Alicante

ABSTRACT
This article presents the development of Infocampus, the free and open university social network for entertainment,
culture and technology, developed at the University of Alicante for all Spanish universities by “Plan Avanza”, Ministry
of Industry, Tourism and Trade of Spain. The article will discuss the contents of the social network, its applications and
technology used for their development.

KEYWORDS
Web 2.0, social networks, plan avanza, university open source.

1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years have increased the number of Web 2.0 applications, in which each user is no longer a passive
element. Web 2.0 websites allow users to do more than just retrieve information. They can build on the
interactive facilities of "Web 1.0" to provide "Network as platform" computing, allowing users to run
software-applications entirely through a browser.
An example of such applications include social networks, which focuses on building online communities
of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities
of others. Today there are many social networks, although none really important at the university level.
The aim of Infocampus (www.infocampus.es) is to create a social network that allows to all members of
the university community the exchange and promotion of technological, cultural and leisure information. It is
an open system, which is not limited only to students but to teachers, researchers, administration and
services, and even to any individual who interacts with the educational community and / or university.

2. INFOCAMPUS SOCIAL NETWORK

The project aims to create a virtual space of opportunities for users, allowing the promotion of cultural and
leisure activities, as well as information about new technologies, videoCVs, syndication of videos, classified
ads to promote the rental market, sale, job vacancies, as well as cultural blogs or specialized search engines
for cultural or educational content.
It will be discussed each application and its technical aspects.

2.1 Classified Ads

The classifieds portal offers various types of ads: houses, employment, buying and selling, studies and
leisure, focused primarily on the needs of the university community.
Because of the publication system and automatic review of Infocampus, the user can publish ads
immediately without having to wait until it is approved by a moderator. If an ad does not follow the
conditions set by Infocampus, it is reported automatically and then deleted, even by other users of the social
network, reporting it as inappropriate.

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One of the great advantages of Infocampus compared to the rest of systems for classified ads, is that each
ad can be enriched with various multimedia elements: images, videos, interactive maps and virtual views.
• Images. The user can post pictures related to the advertisement. Each image is scaled to the
appropriate size and then added a watermark.
• Videos. It is allowed to publish videos, both local and from YouTube ™, using their API.
• Interactive maps. The system is capable of converting an address in a pair of coordinates (latitude,
longitude). Using these coordinates, it is possible to add interactive maps to the ad and to create a
KML file, which can be displayed on Google Earth / Maps.
• Virtual Views. In those ads that have a map, and in some cities, the user can see the nearby streets
in three dimensions, using the Google Street View technology, (as we can see in Figure 1).

Figure 1. Multimedia elements that can be added to an ad

Another important issue is the classification of ads on different levels, making the search easier. Each ad
belongs to a category and subcategory (allowing filtering ads by type), to a university or province (allowing
filtering ads by geographic location) and is tagged with keywords (allowing filtering ads on their labels) .

2.2 Employment
The employment portal incorporates the videoCVs system, which allows users to record and edit their own
CVs on video (Figure 2). In addition to the video, may be added the usual text curriculum. The user only has
to make a record summarizing the experience and knowledge, as if it were an ordinary curriculum.

Figure 2. Example of videoCV in www.infocampus.es.

Any user of the social network can vote and comment on the videoCV, providing to the author an
excellent feedback to further improve its video.
The other part of the portal is used to publish job offers by companies. These companies receive
videoCVs of the candidates when any of these are interested in a offer.
As in the classifieds portal, the classification of job vacancies and videos, takes place at different levels:
by category, geographical location or labels.

2.3 News and Video

The collaborative tool of news and video allows the users of the social network to publish news related with
technology, culture and leisure, with text or multimedia content.
The system is not just an arena where anyone can post news, is a system of promotion in which users are
the players through their votes decide which news will come out in front and which will not. In addition, we

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get news from universities, as most of them syndicate their news through RSS standard (an xml-based
language). Users can vote, comment, recommend to a friend, share, etc.
Taking advantage of the many options free software offers, we have been able to adapt it to our needs.

3. TECHNOLOGY
The proposed software has been developed to fulfill all the recommendations of the social web or Web 2.0.
We have developed the applications focusing in the end user. Have been followed international standards in
fulfilling this aspect. In addition, it makes it easy to navigate, offering the user a lightweight, simple and clear
visual interface, as recommended by the W3C.
With regard to the accessibility, one of our priorities is to satisfy the Royal Decree 1494/2007, November
12, by approving the Regulation on the basic conditions for access for disabled people, products and services
related to information society and media. In this way, we share the principles that inspired the decree,
established in the Law 51/2003 of December 2, essentially, accessibility and universal design for all.

3.1 Geocoding
Geocoding is the process of finding associated geographic coordinates (often expressed as latitude and
longitude) from other geographic data, such as street addresses, or zip codes (postal codes). In Infocampus,
these geographic coordinates are then used for various functions:
• Classified ads can have an interactive map using Google Maps.
• In certain classified ads, the user can also make a virtual tour of the nearby streets, using the
technology of Google Street View.
• KML files are generated from the classified ads, job offers and videoCVs, which can then be
displayed in programs like Google Earth.
In order to implement all these functions, we have used some of the tools for developers that Google
offers.

3.2 Obtaining Content from External Sources

We have used several methods for obtaining external content (ads of the Society of Public Rental, job offers,
news on universities ...), although the main methods used are:
Asynchronous Method: as the author has new content, makes an HTTP POST request, enclosing an XML
file with a defined structure, which indicates the type of operation to be performed (insertion, deletion or
modification) and includes other necessary information.
Synchronous Method: the system automatically reads an XML file that has previously generated the
author of the content, and checks for new elements. The more content, the reading will take place more
frequently.

3.3 Self-management of the System

To keep the project over time without external dependence we apply various techniques to automate tasks as
far as possible.
The content of the social network is ensured by the users themselves, thanks to the platform offered to
them for that purpose. There might be problems associated with not having absolute control over this data.
One of the most important problems facing us is the spam, eg unsolicited messages, sent in bulk, affecting
the quality of content.
To ensure the quality, and avoid unwanted content we apply techniques in the code that filters the
messages. For example, it is not allowed to publish several messages in a very small period of time (which
indicates that it is a automated software), as well as many other checks. In the same way, it is checked out
that the visitor who is going to add content to the network is not included in any blacklist.

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4. USAGE STATISTICS
Infocampus is focused on the university community, but anyone can use it. According to statistics collected
until November, almost 60% of the content comes from users who are not directly related to the university,
but who uses Infocampus to offer a service to the university community (eg job or classified ads ). 34%
comes from students, while 6% is provided by faculty and staff of various universities.
With regard to the pageviews, there has been significant growth since its launch, as shown in the Figure
3:

Figure 3. Pageviews from August to November

5. CONCLUSION
Infocampus promotes a free and open social network, that promotes culture, entertainment and technology.
Some advantages are: promotes the exchange of information between universities and organizes information
scattered in every university, offering a common site for all of them.
Infocampus is growing, and we are working hard to overcome the current limitations of the system, such
as ads from outside Spain, translation of the website into other languages.
Among the possible uses of Infocampus, include:
• Replacing the current classifieds portals of universities, for a common portal.
• It is a valuable source of information for the media.
• It can be used as a complement to other job portals, adding a videoCV hosted in Infocampus.
As future work we have planned to add social applications to complement the social network in areas
such as art, graphic design and research. These can be summarized in creating a virtual system for promoting
scientific content, which would create an actual social technology network, an area of creation for artistic and
multimedia content with the aim of encouraging artistic creation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work has been developed with the support of the “Plan Avanza”, Ministry of Industry, Tourism and
Trade of Spain. Exp. PAV-070000-2007-75.

REFERENCES
Carrington, P., Scott J., Wasserman S., 2005. Models and Methods in Social Network Analysis (Structural Analysis in the
Social Sciences ). Cambridge University Press, New York, USA.
Davis H., 2006. Google Advertising Tools: Cashing in with AdSense, AdWords, and the Google APIs. O'Reilly Media
Inc. California, USA.
Evjen, B. et al, 2007. Professional XML. Wiley Publishing, Indiana, USA.
Google APIs. http://code.google.com.
Hammersley B, 2005. Developing Feeds with RSS and Atom. O'Reilly Media Inc. California, USA.
jQuery. http://docs.jquery.com.
Linton C. Freeman, 2004. The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in the Sociology of Science. BookSurge,
LLC, South California, USA.
Plan Avanza - Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade. http://www.planavanza.es.
Reinheimer P., 2006. Professional Web APIs with PHP. Wiley Publishing, Indiana, USA.
World Wide Web. http://www.w3.org.

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UNOBTRUSIVE ESTIMATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL

STATES BASED ON HUMAN MOVEMENT OBSERVATION

Javier P. Egüez Guevara and Hiroyuki Umemuro

Tokyo Institute of Technology
Tokyo, 152-8552 Japan

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of estimating six types of users’ emotions and three other
psychological states based on external emotional signals such as human body movements. In order to protect user’s
privacy, no voice recording was used, while video recording was used only for body movements’ parameters measuring.
Also, in order to minimize intrusiveness, no devices were attached to the users. Instead, motion and infrared sensors were
utilized to estimate psychological states through a real-life setting. The experimental results demonstrated some emotions
and psychological states could be estimated by movement predictors. The methods employed in future studies should
include a larger set of emotions, and a larger group of subjects.

KEYWORDS
Emotion recognition, affective computing, body movements

1. INTRODUCTION
Emotions are integral to human life and as such, the recognition and classification of emotions becomes an
important venue to understand emotions dynamics and complexity. Additionally, emotions play a critical role
in contemporary technical societies which are equipped with numerous systems that serve human beings in
various ways (Brave & Nass 2003). In doing so, assistance systems demonstrate various interaction
possibilities. These systems and environments that provide services to its occupants has been called smart
environments. These environments must be able to detect settings’ emotional state (with regards to the
peoples present) or context (with regards to the environment itself) (Dey et al., 1999). Social interfaces have
been identified as requiring the ability to recognize and respond to users’ emotions (Picard, 1997). This
process of recognizing and responding to emotion might enable effective, real-world, interpersonal
interaction strategies.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of estimating users’ emotion and other
psychological states based only on body movements. In Section 2, relevant studies on emotion, emotion
recognition, and techniques to estimate emotions based on movements were reviewed. Section 3 described
the earlier work done for the construction of a set of hypotheses related to emotion and body movement. This
hypotheses set is described in Section 4. Section 5 described the experiment to validate the hypotheses and
the implemented system. Section 6 discussed the experimental results. Finally, Section 7 concluded this
study, presenting a summary of results and suggestions for further studies.

2. RELATED WORK: EMOTION RECOGNITION

Previous studies on emotion recognition have used mechanisms that include the analysis of brain responses
using electroencephalogram recordings EEG, physiological responses, and body movements by markers
attached to the body landscape. However it has been discussed that generally the use of devices in laboratory
settings can cause stress and distraction in subjects; it has also been said that even modern EEG devices are
still clumsy and obstructive (Brave & Nass 2003), limiting the normal activities of the subjects being tested.

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Emotion inducing studies have relied on music, pictures, movies, or autobiographical memories. It has
been argued that the mentioned inducing mechanisms are the main reason for poor results in emotion related
studies because they induce weak emotions that lack in context, and may comprise ethical issues (Peter &
Herbon 2006).
Most of these studies use behavior monitoring mechanisms utilizing visual and audio cues, text, as well
as speech, image, physiological signal and gesture. The use of these monitoring systems generally conduces
to input-specific issues. Display rules and Systematic Ambiguity are example of these issues. This refer to
subjects who tend to hide at embarrassing situations, or overact to fit in groups. This potential mismatching
of behavior movements to emotions may be conducing to undesired results (Fragopanagos & Taylor 2005).

3. EARLIER WORK
Two sources were reviewed in order to set up the basis for the hypotheses to be tested in this study. The first
source was the results of a pilot study that studied body movements compared to emotions. The second
source considered was the Emotion Diagram formulated in light of related literature
The pilot study aimed to derive hypotheses to estimate human emotions based on observable gross
movements. The everyday motions in real-life settings of an individual subject and a group of subjects were
observed by means of video recording, excluding all audio inputs. The subjects were asked to report their
emotions once every 30 minutes based on a list of six basic emotional states namely, anger, disgust, fear,
happy, sad and surprise states, as well as neutral state. Individual differences between subjects were noticed,
as different subjects expressed their psychological state in different ways by portraying energetic, tiredness or
“thinking” states. Furthermore, velocity, directness, trunk orientation, arms movements, motion load, and
individual characteristic gestures were found to describe positive and negative valence emotions (e.g. happy
as opposed to disgust).
On the other hand, the Emotion Diagram illustrated the six primary emotions: anger, fear, disgust, sad,
surprise and happiness. It described the characteristic movement features for each emotion (Montepare et al.,
1999) over a one-dimensional space named valence. Many of the movement features were shared by two or
more emotions. For example, the featured describing “full of action” was characteristic both by happy and
angry states. This diagram was used to find possible relationships between body movements and emotions.
Thereafter, candidates for the association rules were discussed in an exploratory way.

4. INFORMED HYPOTHESES FROM EARLIER WORK

The hypotheses proposed for this study according to their corresponding human movement descriptor are
divided in the following 4 groups, velocity, motion load, walking directness and arm movements. The
velocity hypotheses are two, H1: High walking speed denotes disgust, happy or angry states; and H2: Low
walking speed denotes neutral or sad states. There are also three motion load hypotheses, which are H3: High
physical activities denote happy or angry states; H3’: High physical activity denotes energetic state, and H4:
Low physical activity denotes neutral or sad states. The third group, walking directness, has three hypotheses,
H5: Indirect movements denote disgust or neutral states; H5’: Indirect movements denote reflection, and H6:
Direct movements denote neutral or anger states. The final group is arm movement, with three hypotheses,
namely, H7: Active upper limb stretching conveys happiness; H7’: Active upper limb stretching conveys
tiredness, and H8: Passive upper limb usage expresses neutral or sad states.
The hypotheses descriptor parameters were measured individually for each participating subject, i.e.
walking speed, motion load, and arm movement frequency. Walking directness hypotheses referred to direct
and indirect movements. Direct movements were described by walking trajectories with a specific ending
point, i.e., without intermediate stops. On the other hand, indirect movements described walking trajectories
with multiple pauses before reaching the target.

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5. PROCEDURE
Three participants volunteered for the validation experiment. They were aged 43 (subject A), 25 (subject B),
and 24 (subject C), and all in good health. Each of them pursues daily academic work in three different
rooms. Room for subject A was middle sized, with free walking possibilities, while rooms for subjects B and
C were smaller and much more scattered in nature. In addition, rooms for subjects B and C were not suitable
for arm movements’ hypotheses testing. For this reason, subject A participated to test hypotheses H1 through
H8, whereas subjects B and C only participated on the testing of hypothesis H1 through H6.
One computer with digital web camera, which served as the apparatus of the study, was set up in each of
the subjects’ room. The web camera used was the Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks Pro and its
corresponding QuickCam Software version 10.0. Additionally, a set of 6 motion sensors and 2 IR sensors
were used. These sensors were adapted to a board, the PhidgetsInterface 8/8/8 (Phidgets Inc. (n.d)), and an
emotion recognition system called Just Feel It! designed for this purpose.
In a first stage subjects were video recorded for about 10 days, to gather information about their behavior
along their rooms. This information was used to calculate threshold times concerning the emotion recognition
system. The period in which the validation experiment was realized was of 12 days for subject A for 87
analyzed hours, 27 days for subject B for 81 analyzed hours, and 15 days for subject C for 78 analyzed hours.
The Emotion Recognition System Just Feel It! was loaded at the place where the sensors and the System was
mounted, and was not stopped unless the subject needed. Meanwhile the Recognition System was running, it
was asked to the subjects to act freely in their room in order to let the Recognition System capture the
subjects’ body movements. Additionally, it was asked to the subjects to write over the provided paper
response material their emotion once every thirty minutes marking from a list of psychological states anger,
disgust, fear, happy, sad, surprise, neutral, tired, energetic and thinking. After collecting the subject‘s
emotion marked material, the emotion recognition system output was compared with the marks to find out
the hit rate HR which will be defined in the next subsection.

5.1 Evaluation Method

Hit rate is the number of hits divided by the total number of responses for each hypothesis, within the
experiment analysis time. Hit rate HR is defined as: HR(i, j) = (number of hits (i, j)) /( total responses (i, j)),
where HR (i, j) represented the hit rate for hypothesis i in day; i was the hypotheses (i=1, 2, 3, 3’,..., 8); j was
the day (j=1, 2, 3,..., n); hit was considered to be a response from the system which had at least one mark of
the same emotion category from the subject within a time range; and total responses (i, j) being the total
number of responses from the system for hypothesis i in day j. A hit has been considered to be a response
within a range since the autonomic nervous system, after an emotion-eliciting stimulus has come and gone,
takes a time to return to its deactivated state (Brave & Nass, 2003). This time has not been clearly defined by
the literature. Thus, this range has been set to 30 minutes after and 30 minutes before a mark.

6. RESULTS

6.1 Distribution of Subjective Reports on Psychological States

Overall results revealed that fear state received no marks from any of the subjects. Anger, sadness, and
surprise states marks do not reach the 5% of the emotion distribution along the three subjects. Energetic and
happy states were the most answered by the subject A. Neutral and tired states were the most marked by
subject B, while subject C has a prominent mark for neutral state. It was found a greatly unbalanced mark
distribution.

6.2 Estimation Results

Results of hypotheses hit rates for subject A revealed that H1, H2, H3’, and H5 had more than an 80% of

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accuracy (80%, 85%, 86%, 86% respectively), explaining that velocity and motion load were good
psychological states descriptors for subject A. H5’ and H7’ presented low hit rates (26% and 36%
respectively) showing that emotion estimation by walking directness and arm movements were not effective
in estimating emotion for subject A.
Results of hypotheses hit rates for subject B showed that H2 and H4 were the most effective hypotheses
with hit rates of 91% and 82% respectively, showing that velocity and motion load were again effective
emotion estimating descriptors for subject B. However H1, H3’ and H5’ showed low hit rates at 38%, 5%,
and 11% respectively. This could be explained by the fact that subject B’s room did not presented many
possibilities to freely walk around. Thus, walking directness descriptor sensors could have been triggered
along with motion load sensor’s misleading the results of these hypotheses.
Subject C differed from subject A and B, in that his distribution of psychological states was the most
unbalanced one with 0% marks distribution for anger, fear, sad and surprise states; no more than 10% of the
total emotion marks for disgust (4%), happy (8%), and thinking (5%) states. For this reason, this subject’s,
emotion hypotheses could not ascertain effective movements’ descriptors for emotion inferring.

7. CONCLUSION
This study investigated the possibility of estimating user’s emotions based on human body movements. The
importance of this study lies in that emotions are a fundamental component for humans’ life in today’s
technical societies. The present study’s core contribution was to estimate human emotion by human body
movements under unobtrusive techniques. Although it was not the purpose of this study to ascertain human
emotion in very precise levels, it analyzed possible ways to provide clues about human emotional condition
in a given period. The results in the validation experiment showed that psychological states could be
estimated by predictors such as walking speed, motion load and walking directness.
Since the approach used in this study resulted in an unbalanced distribution of emotional events observed
across emotion categories, further experimentation is necessary especially regarding emotions with negative
valence. Subjective responses used in this study were considered to be one of the possible reasons for
inaccurate results. Although this study used a direct affect ascertaining method, relying only on this source
may not provide the subjects’ accurate emotional-psychological condition since the questionnaires used were
capable of measuring only the conscious experience of emotion. Future work should verify alternative
emotional data collection possibilities in order to identify human states coming also from non-conscious
processes.

REFERENCES
Brave, S., and Nass, C., 2003. Emotion in human-computer interaction. In Julie A. Jacko and Andrew Sears (Eds): The
Human Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies and Emerging Applications. New
Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 81-96.
Dey, A., et al., 1999. A context-based infrastructure for smart environments. Managing Interactions in Smart
Environments, pp. 114-128.
Fragopanagos, N., Taylor J. G., 2005. Emotion recognition in human-computer interaction. Neural Networks, 18(4), pp.
389-405.
Montepare, J., et al., 1999. The use of body movements and gestures as cues to emotions in younger and older adults.
Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 23, pp. 133-152.
Peter, C., Herbon, A., 2006. Emotion representation and physiology assignments in digital systems. Interacting with
Computers, 18, pp. 139-170.
Phidgets Inc. (n.d.). Developer and Manufacturer of Phidgets. Retrieved November 1, (2007). Available on line from
http://phidgets.com/
Picard, R. W., 1997. Affective Computing. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

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MOBILE GIS FRAMEWORK & SWE STANDARDS IN

EMERGENCY UTILITY MANAGEMENT

H. Tahami, A. Mansourian, M.Farahani, M. Mesgary, M. Farnaghi

K.N.Toosi .University of technology
Faculty geodesy and Geomatics,K.NT.University of technology, Mirdamad cross Valiasr ST.,Tehran,Iran.postal

ABSTRACT
Due to variety and large amount of information required for urban management, sensor networks have been identified as
proper instruments for data collection. For many urban management applications such as utility management in
emergency situations, real-time access to up-to-date spatial information, describing a current situation, is essential.
Mobile GIS is a well-known technology for such an aim. Using Mobile GIS provides decision-makers and field workers
with information exchange, processing, analysis and visualization. Integration of Mobile GIS with sensor networks
provides users (anywhere and anytime) with the capability of real-time access to update spatial information required for
analysis and decision-making. The heterogeneities between different sensors and Mobile GIS environment is one of the
main issues for developing such an integrated system. This paper intends to address utilization of sensor web
environment (SWE) standards, proposed by open geospatial consortium (OGC), for development of Mobile GIS
applications. Integration of these standards with Mobile GIS system creates an interoperable environment for utility
management.

KEYWORDS
Mobile GIS, Wireless Sensor Network, SWE standards

1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays we find real time monitoring and control systems in almost every utility management activities.
One of the main requirements for such a system is the availability of detailed and manifold spatial data and
Wireless Sensor Network is the most powerful and suitable tool to be applied in such applications. The
wireless sensor networks are structures which move measurement data through a network from the sensors
which collect the data to applications which use them. This process can result in the collection of large
amount of data which can be used to feed analysis within a specified utility problem domain. Additionally the
processing and analyzing issues for a better decision-making should be considered. The convergence of
number of key technologies including Geographic Information System (GIS), Internet, Wireless mobile
communication, Mobile computing solutions, mobile handheld devices, Global positioning System (GPS)
lead to deploy GIS functionalities in a mobile computing environment, namely Mobile Geographic
Information System (MGIS). By use of MGIS Functionalities provide utility field workers with a proper
instrument for data acquisition, editing and verification, visualization of information, performing some GIS
functionality in the field.
This paper describes an integrated framework using web services compliant to well-known OGC
standards specifications (SWE standards) that has been proposed for emergency utility problem. In this
system we try to simplify the acquisition and analyzing of spatial and non spatial data by integrating MGIS
and WSN functionalities to handle management of emergency operations for utility workers in the field. This
paper consists of a total four sections. A brief overview of sections’1 to 4 follows. Sect.2 provides an
introduction to MGIS, describes WSN and SWE specifications. In Sect.3 we propose our system architecture
for specific type of application. Finally Sect.4 provides the conclusions and issues of future work.

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2. MOBILE GIS, WSN AND SWE SPECIFICATIONS

The term of mobile GIS provide the hardware-software integrated framework to access spatial data and
services via mobile devices and wired or wireless communication network. The wireless component is
considered to be the enabling element of a mobile GIS. Wireless data access allows users to be more
productive by allowing them to get the information they need wherever they are, and disseminate information
between field operators and server. Wireless networks provide the flexibility and freedom required to
seamlessly integrate computing with field-based activities. Ideally, a mobile device should be able to select
the network that best meets the users’ requirements [1].
In recent years, advances in miniaturization; low-power circuit design; simple, low power, yet reasonably
efficient wireless communication equipment; and improved small-scale energy supplies have combined with
reduced manufacturing costs to make a new technological vision possible: Wireless sensor networks [6].
Wireless sensor network is a new member of wireless data networks family with some specific characteristics
and requirements. A generic wireless sensor network is composed of a large number of sensor nodes
scattered in a terrain of interest. Each of them has the capability of collecting data about an ambient
condition, i.e. temperature, pressure, humidity, noise, lighting condition etc, and sending data reports to a
sink node [4]. The fundamental aim of a wireless sensor network is to produce globally meaningful
information from raw local data obtained by individual sensor nodes [7].
The development of software applications for mobile computers has been recently spurred by the
availability of more powerful operating systems and the transfer of standardized programming languages on
ever-smaller computing platforms. These developments have opened the door for creating new applications
that bring computing power to field scientists [3, 8, 12].
The term ‘sensor web’ (SW) was first proposed by the NASA Sensor Web Applied Research Planning
Group. In 2001, NASA provided a definition of a Sensor Web as follows: A Sensor Web is a system of intra-
communicating spatially distributed sensor pods that can be deployed to monitor and explore new
environments [9].
OGC’s Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) objectives encompass specifications for interfaces, protocols and
encodings that enable following tasks:
• Web-based discovery of sensor systems and observations by means of catalogs
• Retrieval of real time observations and cove rages
• Tasking of sensors to automatically acquire observations
• Subscription to and publishing of alerts and automated metadata creation using XML schemes [10].
The works of the SWE group in OGC addresses self-describing in-situ sensors and imaging devices,
remote-sensing devices, stored data and live sensor feeds, and simulated models that use sensor data. The
ultimate goal of SWE is to provide for the processing of raw sensor data into value-added information with
semantic descriptions and link sensors to the network and network-resident processing services. Members of
OGC's Technical Committee are close to agreement on key standard XML encodings for information models
and metadata schemas for sensors and observations [5].
The main application area of such a system in emergency utility management is to provide the user with
the ability to gather information, execute functional activities specific to their job, provide quick access to
external data, update the data stored on the mobile device, and synchronize the data with the external
datasets.

3. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
In the large range of utility management systems, our proposed system focuses on water utility management.
Nowadays with the increasing drought problems and the rate of population and industries increasing too fast,
that results in foreseeable lack of water, it is required to implement newer and better solutions and tools for
effective water utility management.
We have proposed a prototype system to handle management of decision making based on up to date and
reliable information in emergency operations for utility workers. Utility workers have this ability to use
different parts of system on mobile devices, making it possible to do some analysis that is required for their
decision making and finally to up-date changed information. In this system the deployment of wireless sensor

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network in the local region and monitoring water pressure at the large number of locations in water
distribution network was proposed. System uses sensors to measure water pressure in order to detect damages
in pipeline. Since variation of water pressure in pipeline, out of normal range, may cause irrecoverable
detriment within distribution network, the need for using equipments such sensor network is essential. These
sensors provide utility workers the information about water pressure in different location in water distribution
network. Also the ability for announcement of leak detection in the system, can be helpful tools for
preventing damages in pipelines. The location of damages occurred in pipelines can be determined from
sensor location information specifying subnormal water pressure. The utility workers, who will be sent to
mentioned area, for effective decision making, can perform different GIS analysis relating to water
distribution network. The proposed architecture for our system is next briefly described. The client tier
consists of Mobile GIS software applications including codes to support connecting to database and
interfacing wireless sensors network. This application runs on windows mobile of mobile devices. This
application supports the following tasks:
• Acquisition real-time information from wireless sensors and displaying them in proper formats that
is supported by mobile device platforms
• Performing simple GIS functionalities such as ability to zoom, pan and also GIS analysis such as
flow direction and upstream and downstream analysis in water distribution network.
• Finding features based on simple queries
• Selecting and enabling the edition of features properties.
There is a database on mobile client that is designed for maintaining and manipulating the data gathered
from sensor network and user input. This database helps emergency workers when connecting to internet is
lost and provides a backup data when the event data is corrupted while being sent from or to the server.
Using wireless sensor networks different types of parameters that related to utility operations can be sensed
and recorded. Sensor tier consists of sensors feed real-time observations to mobile client. This information is
about sensors, sensor’s location, sensor’s measurement and sensor’s metadata.
OGC web services will allow distributed geoprocessing systems to communicate with each other using
XML and HTTP. This means that systems capable of working with XML and HTTP will be able to use OGC
web services [9]. By using web services supported by SWE specifications mobile client application can run
Sensor Observation Service and other related web services and registers the URL to access observations for a
sensor. Utility workers can use different interfaces of these web services such GetCapabilities,
GetObservations and DescribeSensors to provide complete information about sensor network. The XML file
response contains detailed information of sensors characteristics that some of them encoded in SensorML
(Sensor Model Language) or O&M schemas. The exchange of formats to use data on mobile devices is
essential. The server tier includes an application server which sends and receives information and stores
within a utility database. The application server also has the role to expect requests from mobile client
application analyze and process them and send the proper response to the client application which makes
them. Communication tier provides connection between different parts of system. The connection between
Sensor network and mobile devices is through WLAN and the communication between server tier and client
tier is based on GPRS/GSM. A means of transferring the data between the mobile devices, sensors and the
server is needed and one possible cheap solution of this problem could be the GSM network provided by
mobile operators [11]. In this case the sensors are connected to mobile device which can send and receive
information from the server using HTTP protocol over GPRS and the cells of a mobile operator’s network.
Much of the work involves the OGC members reaching consensus on the best ways for distributed
geoprocessing systems to communicate with each other across the Web using technologies such as http,
XML,WSDL and SOAP [5]. SOAP essentially provides the envelope for sending the Web Services
messages. SOAP generally uses HTTP, but other means of connection may be used. HTTP is the familiar
connection we all use for the Internet. In fact, it is the pervasiveness of HTTP connections that will help drive
the adoption of Web Services. The communication layer of system use HTTP protocol.

4. CONCLUSION
In this paper integrated system architecture was designed to facilitate simplification acquiring, storing and
displaying, analyzing and transmitting geospatial and attribute data during field emergency operations. Since

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the wireless sensor network is a new domain with implication in many utility operations we found that
integrating these types of networks and Mobile GIS framework can be helpful tools allowing standard web
services to be accesses by utility workers. The system provide for both retrieval of information in response to
user request from WSN and also access to needful information analysis tools for a better decision making. In
developing such mobile applications there are several factors that should be considered such as limited user
interaction capabilities as well as mobile device and wireless communication limitations.

REFERENCES
Andrew Hunter,2000, The Road to Ubiquitous Geographic Information Systems, SIRC2000
Carver, S., Heywood, I., Cornelius, S., Sear, D.,1995, Evaluating Field based GIS for Environmental Characterization,
Modeling and Decision Support, J. Geo. Inf. Sys., 9(4), pp.475-486.
Dazhi Chen, Pramod k. Varshney, QoS Support In Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey, Department of EECS, Syracuse
U.S.A University
George Percival, 2005, Sensor Web: Enabling Decision Support and Enterprise Architecture, Iso/TC211.
Holger Karl, Andreas Willig,2003, A Short Survey of Wireless Sensor Networks, Technical University Berlin.
Pavlos Antoniou, Andreas Pitsillides, Wireless Sensor Networks Control: Drawing Inspiration from Complex Systems,
Network Research Laboratory, Computer Science Department, Cyprus University
Pundt, H., Brinkkotter, Runde, k.,2000, Visualization of Spatial Data for Field based GIS, Computer and Geoscience,
pp.51-56.
S.H.L.Liang, V.Tao, A.Croitoru, Sensor Web and GEOSWIFT- An Open Geospatial Sensing Service, GeoITC Lab,
Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, Toronto
Ulrich Boes, URSTT Ltd, Sofia Bulgaria,2008, The Sensor Web: Disaster Management in South-East Europe, Inter geo-
East, Belgrade
Velislava Spasora , 2008, An Example of Distributed Mobile System for Monitoring, International conference on
Computer Systems and Technologies, CompSysTec’08
Wilson, J.D., 2001, The next Frontier: GIS Empowers a new Generation of Mobile Solutions, Geoworld, 6, pp.36-40

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LOOKING FOR BIOINFORMATICS INFORMATION IN

E-LEARNING ENVIRONMENT: PERSPECTIVE ON
LIBRARIAN’S ROLE IN MANAGEMENT OF
INFORMATION WITH WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGY

Shri Ram
Jaypee University of Information Technology, Distt-Solan (HP)-173215, INDIA

Prof N Laxman Rao

Department of Library and Information Science, Osmania University, Hyderabad (AP), INDIA

ABSTRACT
Information sharing in e-learning environment is crucial in emerging fields like bioinformatics. Bioinformatics
encompasses the basics of biology, logic of mathematics and statistics, and technology of computer and information
technology for analysis of massive biological data generated through daily research and developmental work. The field
has increasingly become information-intensive disciplines, with enormous amounts of information on literature,
databases and software tools to manage and analyze data. With this explosion of information, end-user support in
identifying appropriate resources and tools for research applications is potentially needed. In such an environment, e-
learning can be a potential solution. Bioinformatics has put a challenge in front of library and information professionals
for effective mechanism for delivery of information services. This paper will throw light on how Web 2.0 Technology
that can help in effective management of information, along with how library and information professional can help
bioinformaticians in information literacy and management of information with Web 2.0 technology and some of the
major impact and challenges ahead.

KEYWORDS
Bioinformatics, e-Learning, Web 2.0, Blog, RSS, Podcasting.

1. INTRODUCTION
Bioinformatics is a discipline based on wealth of diverse, complex, distributed data resources arises in the
subject taxonomy as a result of amalgamation of biology, mathematics, statistics, and information and
computer technology. Luscombe et al. have defined bioinformatics as an application of computational
techniques to understand and organize information associated with biological macromolecules such as DNA,
RNA and Proteins and also for storage, retrieval, manipulation, and distribution of information. Searching
for right kind of data / resources integration and information communication is a challenge for people
working in this field as well as to the librarians, who provide information services on bioinformatics. This
scenario has become alarming as there is an exponential growth in number of databases (more than 1170 in
2009, which was 281 in 2001), software tools, computer programs and published information. Moreover, the
integration of information resources – a prerequisite for most of bioinformatics researchers - is perennial and
costly affair. In this situation, there is a need for exploring the deployment of e-learning and Web 2.0
technology in support of creating the training materials, which may offer enhanced access to resources.
Information is available to the users of bioinformatics over the internet. Standardization, categorization,
evaluation and awareness about the right information is lacking at every step. Here librarians role become
challenging to understand the user’s basic requirement and providing the access to relevant resources in
bioinformatics. The major challenges in molecular biology is in respect to problem of structure, function and
communication, heterogeneity, numerous task involved, information need and seeking behavior, data
literature mining, interface design have been visualized by scientists working in the field of bioinformatics
(MacMullen, 2005). E-Learning is online or internet based learning technique, which has benefits over

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traditional methods with increased accessibility to information, ease of distribution, immediate updation,
personalized instruction, standardization and accountability. The adaptability of e-learning technology is due
to: (i) offering larger amount of information; (ii) parallel availability of narrow and open information; (iii)
interactive-retroactive and visual approaches of communication stimulating learning process; (iv) information
searching, management, production runs simultaneously; and (v) geographical barriers eliminated. E-
Learning is becoming a standard method for offering the training programs and materials in several domains
including Bioinformatics. The Web 2.0 perspective of e-learning provides new ways for improved learning
with the support of technology.
Bioinformatics being a latest addition into the universe of subjects, relevant subject knowledge is
scattered in various forms in different resources. Thus, the integration of these resources in single user-
friendly meta-server is necessary to maintain the e-learning environment. For this web 2.0 technologies are
useful and effective. Based on literature surveyed, and different features of Web 2.0 such as Wikis, Podcasts,
Really Simple Syndications etc if included, then its short term and long term impact on bioinformatics e-
learning can be analyzed as under.

2. MANAGEMENT OF BIOINFORMATICS INFORMATION IN E-

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT WITH WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGY

2.1 Content Development System with Open Source Social Software

Development and management of subject content is one of the major challenges in today’s Knowledge
Society. Librarians have to provide qualitative access in addition to acquiring, storing and maintaining the
collection. E-learning environment needs continuous support and updating / supply of information both to the
learner and the educator located at different places. Further, in the process of updating the needy, the
librarians also need to handle both print and digital collection (including the web / Internet resources). They
become key players in the learning process thereby their roles are being multiplied and changed from
information provider to educator with complete technical support. This change converts them from
“Information Gatekeeper” to “Information Gateway”.
In e-learning environment, the librarians role become vital to provide desired information by searching
and retrieving useful resources to both educator and learner immaterial whether the resource is available with
them or not. The services include providing (a) On-demand information such as full-text and / or multimedia
databases; (b) providing synchronous programs between a reference librarians and users through WAP
technology; (c) Providing learners with interactive contents to learn on a simulation playing field; e.g.
through the virtual reality design in a digital library.
The e-learning process demands easier and faster access to the information resources with in a stipulated
time. Development of Digital library supports to larger extent this demand. The digital library provide
benefits by linking user to the library catalogue, journals, books, archival materials digital images, selected
internet resources, courseware, tutorials (both commercial and open / free in digital form). Such links support
faster information communication and interaction with others by social software. In contrast to Web 1.0, Web
2.0 represents a shifted focus from working locally to working in networked setting. In this shifted focus, the
Web 2.0 is seen as social, collaborative and collective space. The collective, sharing of aggregate knowledge,
community driven content, social software creates the foundation of collective intelligence in the form of
wikis, weblogs, Really Simple Syndication (RSS), social book-marking, collaborative tagging
(folkosonomies), mashups, podcasting and video streaming services, and user defined contents. This
spectrum of collaborative concepts underpinning these Web 2.0 are now getting popularity.

2.2 Wikis
A Wiki is collaborative website whose content can be edited by any one who has access and additional latest
information. Wikipedia is one of the classic examples of the wiki in action today. It represents a promising
principle of participation by the interested parties through which it makes all concerned as partners and this is
a significant transformation in this information age. Wikis are not only the sources for obtaining information
and knowledge but act as sites of virtual collaboration for sharing dialogues and information among the

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participants with projects in the same or related subjects. The wikis support the consolidation of information
on a specific subject and in turn help in bringing the researchers together and enhance the research activity.

2.3 Weblogs or Blogs

‘Blog’ is related web information sharing technology. It contains dated entries in a reverse chronological
order (newer first) related to a particular topic / subject. Blog engage people in knowledge sharing
reflections, and debate engaging larger community to share knowledge on a common topic.
www.blogspot.com is an example. These blogs also support consolidation of the knowledge in one or more
subject fields / topics. Few blogs allow users participation in updating the content. Again this is an example
of bringing the users together and joining their hand for information consolidation and access.

2.4 Podcasting
The essence of podcasting is creating content for users who want to use for listening whenever they missed
live situation. Users can download contents and listen them as and when needed. The podcasts can be used to
record lectures and if the users miss the lectures or classes. Even these lectures can be used for revision
purposes. YouTube is currently hosting much of educational videos of different curricula and streams. The
user group can upload videos, audio files in flash media format for sharing them to other members of the
Society. This can be done by sharing information through blogs and website URLs linking for awareness to
others.

2.5 Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

RSS feeds are subscriptions normally free, to online publications. New Articles, development news is
delivered automatically to the user’s computer. RSS is a XML based content-syndication protocol that allows
websites to share information as well as aggregates information based upon the users needs (Cold, 2006).
Users can locate content that is pertinent to their job and subscribe them, which enable a much faster
communication stream.

2.6 Instant Messenger (IM)

IM is another tool for sending quick messages, which in turn support access and awareness and may
contribute in solving the problems in short time. It is software which makes the users as well as service
provider to chat each other by entering the text in the IM box. The IM has facility and supports voice and
video communication. The best examples that provide the IM facility are GoogleTalk, Yahoo, MSN and
AOL messenger.

2.7 Social Book Marking

Social Book marking, or social tagging, is the way for users to classify and share resources with others. Users
assign tags, or keywords, to the site that they bookmarked, and these tags then used for finding materials at a
later date. This falksonomy, or informal classification, has exploded in popularity on the web. A number of
different social book marking sites are available on the web, such as del.icio.us, CiteUlike. It is quite helpful
in bibliographies, as bioinformatics people largely depend upon PUBMED data. This enables to tag the
related literature, software tools, and biological database on bioinformatics.

3. WEB 2.0 IN MANAGEMENT OF BIOINFORMATICS INFORMATION:

IMPACTS AND CHALLENGES
As the Web 2.0 technologies are having the increased impact on users especially on bioinformatics people,
who were finding difficult to get access to distributed knowledge. The Web 2.0 can contribute in better

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interaction through blogs, slide sharing, Medline RSS feeder and social networking of similar interest group
through Orkut® etc. The Web 2.0 is not ultimate web and it continues to evolve and grow but it is an
important stage as it brought new paradigm for social communication and collaboration. The social software
in Web 2.0 is provided as a service and bioinformaticians may not able to find the needed information unless
it is explored and used to build as a centre / source of information for optimal use. Thus, an interface needs to
be uploaded with user-defined (user based) information needs. Such services can make an impact on further
exploration of information and supplementing needs. Web 2.0 also encourages significant and improved
interaction between the users. Many theorists argue that Web 2.0 supports the deeper and more active
learning as well as builds communities of learning.
Information literacy is one of the most essential requirements in e-learning environment which implies
three independent steps adhere together as (i) aware of user’s information needs, (ii) perform efficient
information location and (iii) being able to evaluate and use the obtained information. As the nature of
bioinformatics is heterogeneous, information literacy may help the individuals to locate, evaluate and access
the required information from various options made available through the web 2.0. The libraries have to rope
in all those associated with this field (researchers, students) and create multi dimensional environment for
information access by exploiting the facilities available in Web 2.0. The library role becomes prominent in
the context of significant increase in enrollment in bioinformatics and rapid pace of new knowledge in the
field. They have the knowledge of both the information sources and the technology and therefore, innovative
approaches to information management have to be designed and developed using the brand new technology
like Web 2.0. Accessibility of information resources, flexibility of use of information, Ease of use with simple
concept of information retrieval is some of the challenges in front e-learners in the field of bioinformatics.
These challenges can be achieved by the libraries with the technologies in vogue by working out with
enhanced access through efficient information management.

4. CONCLUSION
To extend the application with new functionality, Web 2.0 is a plug-in mechanism, which allows adding new
functions and tools to the central skeleton of the application. If effectively deployed the wikis, blogs,
podcasts, flickers, RSS could offer a greater way to enhance the skills of handing the information /
knowledge. Therefore, the research should be conducted to determine the best ways to integrate these tools to
existing e-learning environment. The libraries have to investigate and find out the solutions to integrate
digital resources available on bioinformatics on web. This is possible through use of Web 2.0, which can
maintain to bring the resources on a single platform for a cohesive bind with web-based services in order to
provide a coherent wholesome learning experience. Librarians and libraries need to reposition themselves as
information managers of the ‘learning space’ and carry a number of new and very definite functional
requirements for fast, seamless access of information with better interface for utilization of both commercial
and open sources / tools / software for development of comprehensive platform for enhanced access to
bioinformatics information.

REFERENCES
Blood, R.(2004). How blogging software reshapes online community. Communications of ACM, Vol. 47, No. 12, pp 53.
Boulos, Maged N Kamel, 2006. Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative
clinical practice and education. BMC Medical Education. Vol. 6, No. 4, pp 1-6.
Cold, S. (2006). Using RSS to enhance student research. ACM SIGITE Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp 6-9.
Galperin Michael Y. (2009). Molecular Biology Database Collection: 2009. Nucleic Acid Research. Vol. 37, No. 1. ppD1
Luscombe, N. M., Greenbaum, D., and Gerstein, M. (2001). What is bioinformatics? A proposed definition and overview
of the field. Method of Information in Medicine. Vol. 40, No. 4, pp 346–58.
MacMullen, W. John and Denn, Sheila O., 2005. Information problems in molecular biology and bioinformatics. Journal
of American Society for Information Science and Technology. Vol. 56, No. 5, pp 447-456.
Matheson, Catherine and Matheson, David, 2008. Accessibility in e-learning. In: Donnely, Roisin and Mcswinney, Fiona.
Applied e-learning and e-Teaching in Higher Education. IGI global Inc, USA.
Raitt, D. (2000). Digital Library Initiative across Europe. Computer in Libraries. Vol. 20, No. 10, pp 26-35.

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REPUTATION-BASED TELECOMMUNICATION
NETWORK SELECTION

Jean-Marc Seigneur
University of Geneva
7 route de Drize, Carouge, CH1227, Switzerland

Xavier Titi
University of Geneva
7 route de Drize, Carouge, CH1227, Switzerland

ABSTRACT
Nowadays, mobile users can switch between different available networks, for example, nearby WiFi networks or their
standard mobile operator network. Soon it will be extended to other operators. However, unless telecommunication
operators can directly benefit from allowing a user to switch to another operator, operators have an incentive to keep their
network quality of service confidential to avoid that their users decide to switch to another network. In contrast, in a user-
centric way, the users should be allowed to share their observations regarding the networks that they have used. In this
paper, we present our work in progress towards attack-resistant sharing of quality of service information and network
provider reputation among mobile users.

KEYWORDS
Reputation, trust, quality of service, telecommunication network provider.

1. INTRODUCTION
On the 10th of September 2008, the European Commission launched its Future Internet Research and
Experimentation (FIRE) initiative.
We envision the Future Internet as being able to infer the user experience quality of the network services
that it provides and to take into account these user-centric observations at time of selection of these network
services. As a first step towards this vision, we have been investigating appropriate mechanisms for mobile
network selection based on Quality of Experience (QoE). We stress that it is important to make the difference
between QoE and Quality of Service (QoS). The ITU-T in its E800 recommendation [ITU-T E800] defines
QoS as follows: “the collective effect of service performances, which determines the degree of satisfaction of
service users”. Thus, QoS has mainly focused on objective technical evidence such as session throughput
measurement. QoE goes beyond purely technical evidence and includes asking the opinions of the users
about their degree of satisfaction after using the service. Assuming that it is infeasible to have a unique QoE
information service trusted by everybody and collecting all QoE information generated in the world, QoE
information will be distributed and provided by different entities. We work on a project where the users share
their QoE information in a decentralized peer-to-peer fashion. In this case, traditional telecommunication
operators, who are powerful entities, may invest a lot of resources to influence their level of QoE to keep or
attract more users. Telecommunication operators may even try to attack such a user-centric system to protect
their market. In Section 2, we present a decentralized model where users will be able to share their QoE
without being censored or abused.

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2. TOWARDS REPUTATION-BASED NETWORK SELECTION

We consider the level of QoE of a telecommunication or network provider as its QoE reputation. That QoE
reputation can be influenced because it is not formally proven and composed of distributed information that
may not be complete or from unauthenticated sources. Romans considered reputation as “a vulgar opinion
where there is no truth” (“reputatio est vulgaris opinio ubi non est veritas”) [Bouvier M.]. Nowadays, there
are still many potential attacks on computational trust and reputation metrics [Hoffman K., et al.]. In this
section, we first depict the attack model expected in our shared user-centric-generated QoE scenario. Then,
we present our work in progress towards an attack-resistant computational reputation model for this scenario.

2.1 Security Aspects of Reputation-based Network Selection

QoE may be more subjective than objective technical evidence. QoE may vary between users for the same
network or telecommunication provider because users have different tastes and preferences. Thus, network
QoE reputation may vary between users for the same network. Of course, in a democratic tolerant world,
having a different opinion cannot be considered as an attack. However, one may be tempted to cheat to
influence QoE reputation. Worse, it may be a coalition of entities who collude to drive that reputation to the
level they wish. This time, this is an attack. The different types of attackers that we consider are:
z Network Provider: The goal of having Always Best Connected (ABC) may be different between
telecommunication operators and end-users. Unless telecommunication operators can directly
benefit from allowing a user to switch to another operator, operators have an incentive to bind the
user to their networks or service provisioning. In contrast, for end-users ABC may mean saving
money by switching to the lowest cost operator.
z End-user: They may attack for different reasons, from playing to making money for example as
being paid to take part into a coalition of attackers.
z Coalitions of attackers composed of:
c End-users only,
c Network providers only,
c A mix of end-users and network providers.
In addition, different types of attacks can be carried out at the reputation level:
z Technical attacks:
c Propagation of false QoE evidence: by many pseudonyms created and controlled by a same
entity through:
■ normal pseudonym creation,
■ spoofed pseudonyms,
■ compromised legitimate pseudonyms.
c Destruction or denial of reputation evidence.
c Use of the good reputation of:
■ a compromised entity,
■ by a spoofed entity.
z Social engineering attacks: Attackers may propagate false QoE evidence via not directly controlled
entities from external information posted on forums to rewarding real influencing end-users or
misleading end-users on the network provider that they have been using. For example, by choosing
a WiFi SSID with a friendly name mentioning a well-known provider for a bad network...
z Whitewashing attacks: When the entity reaches a high-enough level of reputation either via normal
actions or propagation of false evidence, the entity behaves very badly without being prosecuted
afterwards. The entity may be able to rejoin under another pseudonym without being detected.
z Privacy attacks: If all would be known about an entity, the reputation would correspond to the truth
but the entity would have lost privacy. Mechanisms are needed to protect the privacy of the end-
users.
We have been investigating computational trust and reputation management to increase the resistance of
our system against the previously listed attacks.

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2.2 A Trust Engine for Reputation-based Network Selection

Trust engines, based on computational models of the human notion of trust, have been proposed to make
security decisions on behalf of their owner or help their owner to choose with a selection of the most
trustworthy targets including their trust information [Hoffman K., et al.]. These trust engines allow the
entities to compute levels of trust based on different sources of trust evidence, that is, knowledge about the
interacting entities:
z local direct observations of interaction outcomes, that is in our case, the QoE level given by the
user;
z recommendations, that is, sharing these personal QoE level observations with other users;
z and even reputation when it is an aggregation of QoE levels from an unknown number of
unauthenticated recommenders.
Reputation is more difficult to analyze because generally it is not exactly known who the recommenders
are and the chance to count many times the same outcomes of interactions is higher. Reputation may be
biased by faked evidence or other controversial influencing means as mentioned in the previous subsection.
Reputation evidence is the riskiest type of evidence to process. We define reputation as follows: reputation is
the subjective aggregated value, as perceived by the requester, of the assessments by other people, who are
not exactly identified, of some quality, character, characteristic or ability of a specific entity with whom the
requester has never interacted with previously. We assume that reputation management only means to be able
to perceive and monitor the reputation of an entity without trying to maliciously influence reputation that is
considered as attacks. We propose to use a trust engine in our case to manage trust and reputation of the
different entities, from end-users pseudonyms to networks to network providers… QoE evidence or potential
networks will be weighted with trust values through our trust engine before being returned to the users for
their final selection or an automated selection. Since we use a peer-to-peer system for information storage.
Any peer, including any mobile terminal, will have its own local trust engine that may vary in terms of
memory space for evidence and computation power. All trust engines will communicate between them and
support peers may host evidence for peers and compute trust values on behalf of peers in case the
computations are too intensive.
We define the trust value as follows: a trust value is a non-enforceable estimate of the entity’s future
behavior in a given context based on past evidence. The reputation value will simply be a trust value when no
direct observation has been made previously. A trust metric consists of the different computations and
communications which are carried out by the trustor (and his/her network) to compute a trust value in the
trustee. Three main trust contexts occur in our scenario:
o Network QoE trust context,
o User Recommending Network QoE trust context, the trust in the recommendation made by a user,
o Friend trust context, manually enforced by the users who will be allowed to specify who their
friends are.
The main components of our trust engine are depicted in Figure 1. The identities of the involved entities
are the first context elements that we need. To be able to assess the current risk involved in the selection and
use of the future network, we need other context information such as the type of the application to be used,
for example, a game or a m-banking session… We assume that context information is given by a Context
Recognition component. Another component is the Trust Value Computation component that can
dynamically compute the trust value, that is, the trustworthiness of the requesting entity based on pieces of
evidence (for example, direct observations, recommendations or reputation) and manually set friend trust
relationships.

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Re que st
Trust
Re que st Va lue Computa tion
De cision

De cision
Conte xt De cision Evide nce Evide nce
Re cognition - Tra cking
Ma king
Evide nce

Trust Va lue
Risk
Conte xt Informa tion Computa tion
Trust Engine S e curity Pe rime te r
Se le ction

Figure 1. High-level View of the Trust Engine

The risk component will dynamically evaluate the risk involved in the interaction based on the recognized
context. Thus, risk evidence may also be needed in our scenario. In this case, the trust engine may be able to
answer to a Risk Request with a Decision related to the risk level. In the background, another component,
called Evidence Tracking, is in charge of gathering and tracking evidence: recommendations, comparisons
between expected outcomes of the chosen actions and real outcomes… In our case, the expected outcome is a
QoE matching the user expectation or user agreed QoE. The feedback from the user will create the real
outcome. This evidence is used to update risk and trust information. Thus, trust and risk follow a managed
life-cycle in our system.

3. CONCLUSION
Mobile users can already switch between their standard telecommunication provider and nearby available
WiFi networks. In the near future, it will be possible for them to move from fixed subscription-based unique
operator to on demand-based operator selection. To facilitate the choice of the best network available, we
envision to share network QoE information among the users. To avoid false information propagation, we
propose to use computational trust engines and reputation management that are resistant to a number of
attacks that we have listed in this paper. Our future work is to implement and fine-tune the attack-resistance
of our system.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work is sponsored by the European Union, which funds the FP7-ICT-2007-2-224024 PERIMETER
project.

REFERENCES
Bouvier M., 1856. Maxims of Law. Law Dictionary.
Hoffman K., et al., 2007. A Survey of Attack and Defense Techniques for Reputation Systems, CSD TR #07-013, Purdue
University.
ITU-T E800, http://www.itu.int/md/T05-SG02-080506-TD-WP2-0118/en.

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A STUDY OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN

COMMERCIAL AND NOT FOR PROFIT CRM SYSTEMS

Peter Flory and Sergio de Cesare

Brunel University
Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK

ABSTRACT
CRM systems were originally developed for improving the sales operations in commercial organisations, but today they
pervade every sector of society including the not for profit sector. A question arises as to how similar not for profit sector
CRM systems are to commercial sector CRM systems. This paper defines what is meant by traditional (commercial)
CRM and then compares and contrasts commercial and not for profit CRM systems. This is done by selecting a number
of leading commercial CRM systems and a number of leading not for profit CRM systems and identifying the major
functional areas of each. A conclusion drawn is that they have the same general objectives and some major functional
elements that are the same but there are more differences than similarities. It appears that the commercial CRM systems
do not cater properly for the needs of the not for profit market and the not for profit CRM system suppliers do not fully
understand CRM. Consequently, if not for profit organisations are to obtain maximum benefit from CRM systems, an
important first step is to define a set of generic requirements for not for profit CRM systems.

KEYWORDS
CRM, not for profit, requirements, functionality.

1. INTRODUCTION
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are vital to the efficient operation of commercial
organisations. They are also vital to the efficient operation of not for profit (NfP) organisations, such as
charities, advocacy groups and membership bodies. In the NfP marketplace actors such as ‘donor’,
‘supporter’ or ‘member’ replace ‘customer’ as the typical interlocutor of commercial organisations. There are
literally hundreds of packaged software systems aimed at the commercial CRM market and there are still
over 100 aimed directly or indirectly at the NfP market. However, there are some fundamental differences
between commercial CRM systems and NfP CRM systems. This paper is a preliminary study to research into
the detailed CRM requirements of the NfP sector which will eventually lead to the definition of a generic set
of such requirements that can be reused by many organisations. The paper seeks to identify the major
differences between available packaged commercial and NfP CRM systems.

2. BASIC ELEMENTS OF CRM SYSTEMS

There are many definitions of CRM but Gummesson (2002) says that the common definition is “developing,
maintaining and enhancing long-term customer relationships” before introducing the concept of “relationship
marketing” which concerns “marketing based on interaction within networks of relationships” (Gummesson
2002, p587). Kalakota and Robinson (2001) define CRM as “an integrated sales, marketing, and service
strategy that precludes lone showmanship and that depends on coordinated enterprise-wide actions.” (Kalkota
and Robinson, 2001, p172). Sweat (2000) discussed the benefits of a “360-dgree view” of a customer’s
interactions with an organisation. This involves capturing information about customer interactions from
every possible communications channel that they might use, be it mail, telephone, email or website.
Relating this to the NfP sector, Slack (2007) in her article on “high value donors” talks about how
important it is for a charity to maximise the potential of supporters currently on their database because of the

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high cost of recruiting new supporters. She quotes Tony Elischer, a well-known UK charity fundraising
consultant, as saying that “they (potential high value donors) investigate and research which charities to
support, and as such require more detailed involvement and feedback” (Slack 2007, p23). This means CRM.
Bradshaw and Brash (2001) discuss the concept of the “virtuous triangle” saying that a successful CRM
implementation will effectively combine “front office systems” (sales, service and marketing), “back office
systems” (manufacturing, fulfilment, billing and logistics) and “analytic systems” (data warehousing,
establishing patterns in customer data and providing these to the front office). Harej and Horvat (2004)
segment CRM functions into “marketing” (customer acquisition segmentation and retention, campaign
management, marketing content management, marketing analysis and effectiveness programs, continuity and
loyalty programs), “sales” (contact and contract management, opportunity management, order management,
sales and revenue forecasting) and “service” (inquiry and service request resolution, service delivery,
customer satisfaction measurement).
Anderson (2001) segments CRM functions into Pre-sales, Post-sales and Customer Service. There is
minimum reference to marketing and the sales area functions are split over Anderson’s Pre-sales and Post-
sales areas. Anderson’s Post-sales area also contains some back-office functions, such as provisioning, that
the other authors do not consider part of CRM systems. This is somewhat confusing and at odds with other
authors. However, Anderson introduces another important functional area, that of Systems Integration. This
is important as Anderson says that new CRM systems will have to integrate with “legacy systems” because
not all systems in an organisation will be replaced by a CRM implementation.
When trying to rationalise the different ways to segment the functionality of a CRM system the following
is important. The ‘back-office functions’ of Bradshaw and Brash are usually carried out by existing ‘legacy’
systems and they have less direct impact on customers than the other functions listed. Consequently, they can
be eliminated from consideration other than the fact that they are necessary for a complete service to the
customer. They can be catered for within a CRM system via ‘integration’. This leaves the major functions of
Bradshaw and Brash as front-office and analytics. The front office functions of marketing, sales and service
are major areas according to Harej and Horvat and Kalkota and Robinson. Lee et al. (2007) give equal weight
to “customer capture” (marketing), “customer purchase” (sales), “customer service” (service) and “customer
analysis” (analytics). Thus it seems reasonable to segment the CRM systems area into the major areas of
Marketing, Sales, Service, Analytics and Integration.
In order to move on from here and develop a generic set of CRM functions, it is necessary to examine
some of the CRM systems available in the market today. Four commercial systems were chosen for review
because of their prominence in the commercial CRM marketplace and the fact that they have some
representation, albeit very small, in the UK not for profit marketplace. These were Microsoft Dynamics
CRM, Pivotal CRM, Salesforce.com and Siebel CRM. The four NfP systems chosen for review were the
market leaders in that sector in the UK. These were Care, ProgressCRM, thankQ and The Raiser’s Edge.

3. COMMERCIAL AND NFP CRM SYSTEMS COMPARED

The information in the Commercial and NfP columns of Table 1 was gathered from an examination of the
suppliers responses to many invitations to tender conducted in the past three years and from information
given on the respective organisations’ websites; Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Microsoft 2008), Pivotal CRM
(CDC Software 2008), Salesforce.com (Salesforce.com 2008) and Siebel CRM (Oracle 2008), Care (Iris
2008), ProgressCRM (Fisk Brett 2008), thankQ (ESiT 2008) and The Raiser’s Edge (Blackbaud 2008).
In Table 1, the more complex areas have been broken down into smaller areas of functionality. A tick (√)
in the cell indicates that the function exists to high degree of sophistication. There are significant similarities
between the four commercial products at the highest level as they all begin with the functional breakdown of
Marketing, Sales and Service. None of the NfP CRM suppliers segment the functionality of their products in
this way indicating that they do not fully understand the principles of CRM or that they are looking at CRM
in a different manner. However, the functions are covered by their products in one form or another and Table
1 shows how they compare against the commercial systems. There are many similarities between the two
types of CRM systems but there are also some very distinct differences. The Marketing and Integration areas
are exactly the same in both cases. The Sales and Service areas of commercial systems are more extensive
than that of NfP systems and Analytics hardly rates a mention in NfP systems. Other functional areas become

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apparent from the respective suppliers’ documentation. Those that appear in both Commercial and NfP
systems are; Account/Contact Management, Relationship Management, Event Management and Document
Management. Partner Management and Contract Management appear in commercial systems only and there
are a ten other functional areas that appear in NfP CRM systems only. These are; Fundraising, Fund/Project
Management, Membership and Subscriptions, Legacy Administration, Finance, Fulfilment, Alumni
Tracking, Volunteer Management, Sponsorship and Grant Giving. These areas represent a very large part of
any NfP CRM system. The largest of these areas, Fundraising, itself contains more than 10 sub-areas.
Table 1. Functional areas of Commercial and NfP CRM systems compared
Functional Area Commercial NfP Functional Area Commercial NfP
Marketing √ √ Other functional areas √
Sales √ √ - Partner Management √
- Lead Management √ - Account Management √ √
- Territory Management √ - Relationship Management √ √
- Call Scripting √ - Contract Management √
- Forecasting √ - Event Management √ √
- Product Pricing √ - Document Management √ √
- Quotes and Orders √ √ - Fundraising √
- Stock Control √ - Fund/Project Management √
Service √ √ - Membership/Subscriptions √
- Case Management √ √ - Legacy Administration √
- Service Scheduling √ - Finance √
- Workflow Management √ √ - Fulfilment √
- Knowledge Management √ - Alumni Tracking √
- History Tracking √ √ - Volunteer Management √
Analytics √ - Sponsorship √
Integration √ √ - Grant Giving √
An examination of the commercial CRM system suppliers’ websites reveals very little mention of the NfP
market or facilities for this specialised market. Microsoft, CDC Software (Pivotal) and Oracle (Siebel) do not
mention it at all. Many references can be found to not for profit functionality on the Salesforce.com website
but all under the banner of other companies who use Salesforce.com as a basic platform upon which to
develop additional functionality. The problem with this is that in order to obtain a complete NfP solution,
modules have to be purchased from multiple suppliers. There is no complete solution. This indicates that the
commercial CRM suppliers have built their systems for a different market and have little knowledge of the
functionality required for the NfP sector. To reinforce this point some research on CRM systems recently
conducted for a very large UK charity (Charity 2008) uncovered a case study of another major UK charity
who had NfP functionality added to one of the commercial systems being examined in this paper, the result
of which was considered to be a complete disaster. The report stated that much of the required functionality
was missing or was so complex that it was extremely difficult to use, it was impossible to obtain some of the
required management reports and the concept of analytics was missing completely.
An examination of the NfP CRM system suppliers’ websites and invitation to tender responses reveals an
apparent lack of knowledge of CRM in general. Only one of the four uses the phrase Customer Relationship
Management and even this one does not characterise CRM as marketing, sales, service and analytics. One of
them has recently added CRM to the name of their product but the words do not appear anywhere in their
documentation. In addition, two other case studies in the research for the charity above highlighted where
two of the NfP products had been extended to have more commercial facilities, particularly in the area of
analytics, and which were also considered to be disasters. One example was a data analysis routine that took
30 hours to run. Data analysis is an area highlighted by Ahn et al (2003) when they discuss data mining in
order to discover patterns of customer behaviour for application back into marketing, particularly one-to-one
marketing as opposed to mass marketing. One-to-one marketing and ‘personalisation’ are key CRM concepts
discussed by Sin et al (2005). However, with their emphasis on selection and segmentation, mass marketing
is the area with which NfP CRM systems are most familiar. None of the NfP systems reviewed has any
concept of data mining nor pattern identification nor one-to-one marketing nor personalisation.

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4. CONCLUSION
There are more differences than similarities between commercial and NfP CRM systems. Although both have
the same objective of understanding customers better in order to serve them better and make more ‘sales’, the
nature of the interaction with their respective customers is fundamentally different. With commercial systems
the objective is to sell more products whereas with NfP systems the customers are giving money and getting
little or nothing in return (except the feeling that they are doing something altruistic). In addition, they have
another class of customer, those people for whom they provide services (for no payment). These differences
are highlighted by the abbreviated sales function and the inclusion of specialist functions such as fundraising,
membership and fund management in NfP systems. Effective definition of requirements is a key success
factor for systems implementation and given that most commercial CRM systems do not cater for the needs
of the NfP market and that most NfP CRM suppliers do not understand traditional CRM, this paper, with its
list of functional areas, provides the starting point for documenting a generic set of such requirements that
can be re-used multiple times for different NfP organisations when selecting a new packaged CRM system.

REFERENCES
Ahn, J.K. et al, 2003. On the design concepts for CRM system. Industrial Management and Data Systems, Vol. 103 No.
5, pp 324-331
Anderson, W.O. Jr, 2001. Customer relationship management in an e-business environment. Change Management and
the New Industrial eVol.ution, Vol. 7 No. 9, pp 311-316
Blackbaud, 2008. The Raiser’s Edge, Available from:
http://www.blackbaud.co.uk/products/fundraising/bberaisersedge.aspx (Accessed 30 October 2008)
Bradshaw, D. and Brash, C., 2001. Managing customer relationships in the e-business world: how to personalise
computer relationships for increased profitability. International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, Vol.
29 No. 12, pp 520-529
CDC Software, 2008. Pivotal CRM: Software Solutions that Fit Your Complex Processes, Available from:
http://www.pivotalcrm.com/en/Products.aspx (Accessed 29 October 2008)
Charity, 2008. The organisation has asked for its identity to not be disclosed
ESiT, 2008. thankQ, Available from: http://www.esit.co.uk/index.php (Accessed 30 October 2008)
Fisk Brett, 2008. ProgressCRM Enterprise Edition Features, Available from:
http://www.fiskbrett.co.uk/solutions/progresscrm_enterprise_features (Accessed 30 October 2008)
Gummesson, E., 2002. Relationship marketing and a new economy: it’s time for deprogramming. Journal of Services
Marketing, Vol. 16 No. 7, pp585-589
Harej, K. and Horvat, R.V., 2004. Customer relationship management momentum for business improvement. 26th
International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces 2004, Vol. 1, pp107-111
Iris, 2008. Care, Available from: http://www.computersoftware.com/business-need-
solution.asp?businessneedid=3&solutionid=36 (Accessed 30 October 2008)
Kalakota, R. and Robinson. M (2001) e-Business 2.0 Roadmap for Success. New Jersey, Harlow, Addison-Wesley
Lee, C.S. et al, 2007. CRM ontology based on CMMI project planning for business applications. Proceedings of the Sixth
International Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics, pp2941-2946
Microsoft, 2008. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 overview, Available from:
http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/product/overview.mspx (Accessed 29 October 2008)
Oracle, 2008. Siebel Customer Relationship Management Applications, Available from:
http://www.oracle.com/applications/crm/siebel/index.html (Accessed 29 October 2008)
Salesforce.com, 2008. Selecting the Right Salesforce.com Edition, Available from:
http://www.salesforce.com/assets/pdf/datasheets/DS_RightSFDC.pdf (Accessed 29 October 2008)
Sin, L.Y.M. et al, 2005. CRM: conceptualization and scale development. European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 39 No.
11/12, pp 1264-1290
Slack, B., 2007. Quality not Quantity. Professional Fundraising, April 2007, pp22-24
Sweat, J., 2000. The well-rounded customer. Information Week, No. 781, pp44-52

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AN INTEGRATED REPOSITORY OF ELECTRIC

MEDICAL RECORD AND MEDICAL IMAGE FOR STATE
WIDE INTER-HEALTH SYSTEM REFERRALS

Mitsuhiro Takasaki *，Tadahide Totoki

Saga University Hospital *
5-1-1 Nabeshima, Saga 849-8501, Japan *

Nobumitu Okita, Touichiro Majima, Yuuiti Miyamoto, Hiromi Akizuki, and Takahiro Nagao
Shiroishikyouritu Hospital
1296 Fukuda, Shiroishi, Kishima-gun, Saga 849-1112, Japan

ABSTRACT
A new type of state wide inter-health system referrals is being developed in Saga Prefecture, Japan, and is being tested in
the southern medical region. There are two types previously. One is to use the same vendor’s system among the
collaborating clinics or hospitals to refer the patient’s record. The other one is to use new database server to collaborate
and to save the copied record into it. Previous system had the several shortages, such as the limitations of multi vendor
system, huge amount of initial and operation costs, and lack of scalability. The new system in this study is based on the
repository database. To collaborate, only small gateway servers are necessary for each hospital, which are operates their
own electronic medical record system, and small clinics and primary physician’s office only require a internet-accessible
PC. We successfully operated a pilot system in the southern medical region. All the users, physicians, hospital staff, and
patients were satisfied. We established a consortium comprising of university hospital, prefectural hospital, middle/large
functional hospital, healthcare related government, medical doctors’ association, nurses’ association to smooth
coordination.

KEYWORDS
Community healthcare, State wide inter-health system referrals, Medical care information repository

1. INTRODUCTION
The Japanese government has been pushing for cost reduction in an increasingly serious financial condition.
In the area of healthcare, it is necessary to ensure effective utilization of limited resources of medical care in
terms of clarifying an ambiguous medical care supplying system according to the function of medical care
institutions. Although the number of hospitals equipped with electronic medical record (EMR) system, has
increased, information sharing among hospitals has only been implemented in limited trials.
There were two types of trials of EMR sharing1, 2): one is to install a terminal PC of a specific hospital’s
EMR system at another clinic. The other approach is to install a new database server which stores the shared
information. These methods allows sharing of records among cooperating institutions, but have limitations
which made participation in such a system difficult, including, such as being limited to sharing data among
systems from the same vendor, and large installation/operating costs.
We developed a standard SOAP (simple object access protocol)-based repository for collaboration, and
operated a trial evaluation in the Saga south medical district. Based on our experience, we are planning to
extend operations to the entire prefecture.

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2. METHOD
The collaboration system which developed in this study, are used ID-LINK System® by SEC Corporation,
Hakodate, Japan. The system made it possible to share information among the EMR systems of Fujitsu,
NEC, and CSI that occupy the majority of the share of present Japan.

2.1 Specification of Inter-Health System Referrals

The electronic health record sharing system uses a gateway installed at the hospital where the records are
located in order to enable viewing the records from another hospital. Information accessible through the
gateway includes medical images, medication information, test results, reports, and checkout summary.
Communication between the gateway and electronic record system used SOAP. For institutions which do not
install a gateway, the system allows referral letters and memos to be recorded.
ID-LINK allows each hospital to access records related to patients using their own IDs.
Small clinic which does not have EMR system can be referable their patient data in the collaborated
hospital information system by using this system only with the internet connectable PC. For the case of
institutes without having the gateway, such as small clinics, or they usually are primary physician, as the
information system has not been developed well in those clinic, referral letter or memo which was made by
commercially available software, such as word processor or spreadsheet was able to transfer to the
collaborating hospital using this system.

2.2 Organization for System Operation

For smooth operation of this system, we organized a collaboration consortium of Drs, nurses, MSWs and
hospital staffs for sharing EMR information among the healthcare institutions in the community. The
consortium regulates the operation of this system.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Installation of this system has required for about three months. During this term, 8 meetings were held in the
organizing hospital as shown in Table 1. The meeting among coordinating hospitals or clinics were also held
concurrently. Participants and discussion subjects were listed in table 2.
The system was able to prepare well in a short term. All processes from the hardware loading to the trial
operation were achieved within only one month.
Table 1. Preparation Meetings in the organizing hospital in this project.
Date Subject
08/JUL/2008 Selection of the institution to be participate
11/AUG/2008 Preparation of the brochure
25/AUG/2008 Preparation of operation guideline
03/SEP/2008 Education to the staff.
17/SEP/2008 Preparation for the setup of the participant institution
24/SEP/2008 Preparation for the setup of the participant institution
29/SEP/2008 Completing the system specification
06/OCT/2008 Discussion after one-week operation
Table 2. Preparation Meetings in the capital hospital in this project.
Participants
Date Subject
Drs*1 Staffs*1 Drs*2 Staffs*2 institutions
20/AUG/2008 System Demonstration, Q & A 14 46 22 10 19
26/SEP/2008 Operation 11 13 9 11 10
*1: from organizing hospital. *2: from referral institution.

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At the start of this system operation, 14 institutions as shown in Fig. 1 have been participated and shared
information of 18 patients. Six institutions are considering joining.
On the referral to other hospital with any reason such as, further examination, operation, and so on, the
patient receives the explanation of this system. Registration of the patient to this system was performed by
her/his consent.

Figure 1. Fourteen institutions participated in this program at the time of inauguration.

Figure 2 showed typical usage of this system. When a patient is selected from the referral patient table, a
detailed content is displayed in the weekly calendar format. In this calendar, the information is divided into
six categories (Prescription, Injection, Laboratory examination, Medical imaging, Clinical Report,
Miscellaneous Memo), and indicated by icons if any data exist in the term. Detailed data in each category
becomes available by clicking the icon. Calendar format display can be changed daily, weekly, monthly, or
annually span.

Figure 2. Typical Usage of this system. In this example, detailed prescription and result of laboratory examination were
shown.
Figure 3 shows the viewing of a medical image. When the list of images is displayed, the date when the
image was taken and the modality is displayed. When the desired category is clicked, the DICOM viewer
activates and displays the image. Basic image processing functionality such as brightness and contrast
adjustment are possible.
All the users, doctors, nurses, other staffs in the hospital were almost satisfied with this system at (1) ease
of assessment, (2) patient’s satisfaction, and (3) ease of operation. Using this system, very large amounts of
information can be passed to the referral hospital than the current method. There are a lot of safe and
economical advantages in confirming information electronically.

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It was pointed out that it was necessary to improve the response speed showing medical images from the
doctors in the collaborating hospitals.
As for a present running cost, further reduction in costs is demanded though it is very reasonable for
7,000 yen (65-75USD/50-60EUR) per month for the clinic and 80,000 yen (900-910 USD/685-695 EUR)
per month for the hospital with gateway.

Figure 3. Typical usage of this system. In this example, magnetic resonance images were referred using the web-based
DICOM viewer.

4. CONCLUSION
The current system is characterized by (1) ease of understanding information, (2) improved patient
satisfaction, (3) high operability. Regardless of the source/destination of referrals, information shared by
cooperating institutions can be shown on 1 screen according to time. In addition to time of referral, past data
can also be shown according to time, so this makes it easy to understand patient history.
Since all information is shared, duplicated examinations and medication can be prevented. In addition,
late delivery of information is eliminated. Therefore, waste is decreased and safety/reliability is increased.
The time required for examination is also decreased.
This system manages all information from collaborating institutions, so even if a patient has been treated
at multiple hospitals, all of his information can be accessed quickly, and coordination of IDs among hospitals
is unnecessary.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
A part of this work has performed by the grant for community based ICT utilization for distance medical care
of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

REFERENCES
http://www.ehr.or.jp/news/media_data/JM060602-0109.pdf (In Japanese)
http://di.mt-pharma.co.jp/libraries/medical/pdf/med_019_04.pdf (In Japanese)
http://www.secinc.co.jp/
http://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_02/ict/u-japan/pdf/bp_2008/03g.pdf

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CONSTRUCTIVIST TEACHING 2009: VIRTUAL WORLDS,

PROMISING TECHNOLOGIES, INSPIRING EXAMPLES

Dr. Maureen Brown Yoder

Lesley University
Cambridge, Massachusetts

ABSTRACT
Many educators have serious concerns about multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs). They doubt the educational
value of virtual worlds such as Second Life and other MUVEs. Numerous virtual world projects have emerged, however,
that are excellent examples of experiential learning and constructivist theory. Virtual classes, libraries, and resources,
including ISTE’s and the NMC (New Media Consortium) are being developed. At Virtual Morocco, students learn about
different cultures in a re-created environment that mirrors real life. Emerson University’s Boston site can foster and
support civic engagement about important local issues. Blogs, wikis, and podcasts are being incorporated to engage
students in dialog and broadcast their experiences beyond their classrooms. Students gain knowledge in a highly visual
and graphic environment. The interaction and social networking aspects need to be observed to make sure that they
promote, and not contain, learning opportunities. It is essential to pose questions and present challenges that motivate
and engage students. To create and facilitate virtual experiences educators need resources, tutorials and supportive
materials for getting started, models of excellence, and practical ideas. This session will involve traveling through virtual
worlds through the eyes of an avatar.

KEYWORDS
MUVE , virtual worlds, online learning, avatar

1. INTRODUCTION
Join my avatar on a journey through educational possibilities. Learn how teachers are incorporating emerging
technologies in exciting ways in virtual classrooms.
Come see a virtual world through the eyes of an avatar, an avatar whose real life is focused on inquiry-
based learning and constructivist techniques, and whose human persona had serious concerns about multi-
user virtual environments (MUVEs) not too long ago. If you have doubted the educational value of virtual
worlds such as Second Life and other MUVEs, come to this session to be surprised and amazed. We will
experience classes, libraries, and resources, including ISTE‚s and the NMC (New Media Consortium). We'll
travel to Morocco and observe how students learn about different cultures in a re-created environment that
mirrors real life. We'll journey to Boston to experience how a site can foster and support civic engagement
about important local issues. We'll look at how blogs, wikis, and podcasts are being incorporated to engage
students in dialog and broadcast their experiences beyond their classrooms.
Underlying these adventures will be a focused perspective on experiential learning and constructivist
theory. How do young students gain knowledge in a highly visual and graphic environment? How do the
interaction and social networking aspects promote or contain learning opportunities? What kinds of
questions and challenges best motivate and engage students? What do you need to know and what skills do
you need to master in order to create and facilitate these kinds of experiences? The session will end with an
overview of available resources, practical ideas for getting started in your classroom, tutorials and supportive
materials for the MUVE novice, and what emerging technologies and projects show promise for the future.

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2. VIRTUAL WORLDS AND THE NOVICE AVATAR

I never played Dungeons and Dragons. I considered video games entertaining but marginally educational. I
thought of virtual worlds as science fiction-like, often ominous, environments designed for adults. Not any
more. I tentatively put aside my skepticism and designed my virtual self. My awkward avatar stumbled onto
learning opportunities never before possible. I discovered constructivist teaching and experiential learning
within virtual wonderlands that would have inspired even Alice.
Even more intriguing, and now possible, are international collaborations, with ambitious goals such as
dealing with human rights issues and improving the global environment. In addition to content rich
explorations, students in a virtual environment learn social, technical, and practical life skills in a setting in
which they are engaged, inquisitive, and playful.
“Get ready for total inundation,” said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at the research firm eMarketer,
who estimates that “Twenty million children will be members of a virtual world by 2011, up from 8.2 million
today.”
MUVEs are Internet-based multi user virtual environments, with locations ranging from realistic looking
cities to imaginative fantasies. Some MUVEs, such as Second Life, are public, are designed for adults, and
require residents to download software, create a username and password, and design a cartoon like character
called an avatar. Residents can walk, fly, or teleport to sites where they can socialize, shop, play games, and
learn. Amidst the array of entertainment-oriented islands, there are a growing number of high quality
educational locations where teachers can share resources and learn new skills. One island where you will feel
welcome is the ISTE island in Second Life, where there are networking events, speaker series, and virtual
NECC conference sessions.
Second Life, one of the most popular MUVEs for adults, created the Teen Grid where discounted
educationally oriented islands could be purchased and developed. It is only open to 13 to 17 year olds and
their teachers. Background checks are required. School systems and individuals can purchase real estate and
construct campuses, amphitheaters, cities, and inventive, otherworldly settings.

3. GLOBAL KIDS NETWORK

One of the most successful efforts to engage students in virtual worlds is the Global Kids Network.
http://www.globalkids.org The Global Kids' mission is “to educate and inspire urban youth to become
successful students and global and community leaders by engaging them in socially dynamic, content-rich
learning experiences.” GK has a variety of projects that engage students in worthy efforts to promote global
understanding.
Barry Joseph , director of Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program, believes that “Virtual worlds can
provide an assortment of learning opportunities, from identity formation, to social networking and
entrepreneurial skills, to financial literacy. Global Kids has responded by developing programs that formalize
this informal learning to support youth leadership development around social and global issues.”
One of the projects, “The Science Through Second Life” class at the High School for Global Citizenship
in New York City, “has led to increased motivation and participation which has led to high attendance of
students”, according to Dr. Elizabeth Wellman, Science Consultant for Global Kids. The high school
freshman interdisciplinary life and physical science curriculum exists in a blended environment of classroom
activities and the Teen Grid of Second Life. Students enter the virtual world every day, to learn about
science from a global perspective, and continue to participate after school, sometimes late into the evening.
GKN, along with Game Pill, has initiated socially conscious games that are engaging, timely, and
educational. At the Web site: "Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City"
http://www.tempestincrescentcity.org, you can play a game, taking on the identity of woman traveling across
New Orleans in search of her mother. Along the way you have the opportunity to talk to citizens, and to help
people who are injured and trapped, earning “hero” points.
“Ayiti: The Cost of Life”, http://costoflife.org, focuses on third world countries and the challenges
children face in their efforts to get an education. It has been played over 1.5 million times and serves as an
example of how young people can become aware of and active in global concerns. (Figure 1)

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Figure 1. Ayiti: The Cost of Life”

In the summer of 2008, teenagers in New York and Chicago participated in an intensive camp called “I
Dig Tanzania” where they learned about Tanzania culture, politics and scientific research while exploring
Second Life. (Figure 2)
http://www.holymeatballs.org/2008/07/idt_overview_of_i_dig_tanzania.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ6CuoHob9E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u32N2Rqsyw

Figure 2. I Dig Tanzania

The most recent project, and one that involves after school programs as well as individual students, is the
D.I.D.I., Dream It. Do it. initiative. It is “A Second Life partnership between Youth Venture and Global Kids
to improve health and healthcare”. Students are encouraged to attend D.I.D.I. workshops in Teen Second Life
to explore the possibilities, identify a community issue, and develop an Action Plan. Teens become social
entrepreneurs, helping to solve real life problems, and may qualify for $1000 in seed money. Global Kids
assists students with ongoing support. One of most impressive accomplishments has been with 16-17 year old
males who participated from a juvenile detention center. Though their world was limited by their
incarceration, their ability to learn within a virtual environment opened up opportunities for collaboration and
gaining awareness of world problems that were not previously possible. (Figure 3)

Figure 3. Dream It, Do It

Read more about the Global Kids Dream It Do It initiative at:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/news-by-subject/community/index.cfm?i> =54719
What may be Global Kids Networks greatest contribution, so far, to educators is RezEd, “The Hub for
Learning and Virtual Worlds”. Whether you are new to MUVEs, want to learn more about how you can use

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them in your classrooms, or wish to discuss related issues with other teachers, you can find what you are
looking for at this comprehensive, ever evolving Web site. One of the best resources is The Global Kids’
Second Life Curriculum. It is a nine level curriculum with modules that include 163 “missions”. There is no
cost for these classroom activities and teachers can benefit from the planning and implementation that
experienced virtual world designers have completed.
http://www.rezed.org/group/GKslcurriculum
If you are an educator, or a student who has turned 18 and is no longer permitted in Teen Second Life,
there are educational opportunities on the main grid at:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching/222/165/24
The Global Kids Digital Media Initiative blog is at:
http://www.holymeatballs.org/second_life/didi_initiative/
The Global Kids projects mix virtual world technologies with real world challenges. They engage young
students in socially responsible efforts that can impact the world they live in as well as improve the chances
for a promising future. Henry Jenkins, MIT Professor, writes “We have to think of ways to use games not
just to escape reality but to re-engage with reality . You [Global Kids] are talking about real things, that touch
real people.”

5. CONCLUSION
If you have been skeptical about virtual worlds, it will take some courage on your part to explore what can be
unfamiliar and sometimes frightening. Educators are finding that it is worth the effort, that the educational
opportunities possible are enriching classrooms in ways not previously possible.

REFERENCES
Clarke, J., & Dede, C. 2005. Making Learning Meaningful: An Exploratory Study of Using Multi-user Environments
(MUVEs) in Middle School Science. Presented at AERA, Montreal, April, 2005; from
http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/documents/aera_2005_clarke_dede.pdf
EDUCAUSE (2005). 7 Things You Should Know About... Emerging Learning Technologies and Related Practices.
EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) series. Updated annually. Retrieved 2008.
http://www.educause.edu/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutSeries/7495
Yoder. M. 2006. Adventures in Electronic Constructivism. Learning and Leading With Technology, Vol. 34, No. 1, Pp.
24-27.
Web sites: From Now On http://fno.org/ Jamie McKenzie
Eduscapes http://eduscapes.com/ Annette Lamb

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WHO ARE YOU ON THE INTERNET? DIGITAL

IDENTITY: AN EXHIBITION CONCERNING THE
TECNOSOCIAL USES OF THE NET

Margalida Castells
ALEA Serveis Professionals SL
Camí de la Real, 56. 07120 Palma de Mallorca. Illes Balears

Bel Llodrà
Fundació IBIT
Parc Bit. Ctra. Valldemossa, Km. 7,4 Edifici 17 - Planta 3ª Porta D-2 07121 Palma de Mallorca Illes Balears

ABSTRACT
Digital Identity is a representation of ourselves through the medium of Internet. It is a self-pottrayal generated on the web
by every single action that we do, like using an e-mail, tipyng a nickname, writing a blog, buying a web domain,
publishing comments, photos or videos. Even marking geographical localisations of the pictures that we share with
friends and relatives can compromise our personal privacy. Each interaction on the net leaves a small trace of ourselves.
The sum of this traces offers a perception about our digital personal image. Obra Social Sa Nostra and IBIT Foundation,
in their aim to contribute to disseminate Information Society, have created an exhibition that shows the role of personal
and corporative digital identity in the web society. This project has been designed to show the importance of building and
managing an optimal digital identity. It wants to underline the opportunities and risks of an active digital life. There are
two importat reasons to take care of the digital identity: a) To avoid social digital exclusion; b) To control the digital
personal image that we show to others through our interventions in cyberspace, and to track personal information that
others publish about us on the web.The lessons learned are three: (1) Digital actions can have an effect on the building of
a digital identity; (2) Digital identity is an inescapable requirement within the net society, specially for young people.
Nobody can avoid having a digital representation; and (3) Visibility, popularity and recognition must be taken into
account on the net as in the physical world. Half of the Internet users of Balearic Islands say that on the Internet they
make no effort to hide their identity. For this reason it is important to make people aware of the consequences of
disclosing their true identity.

KEYWORDS
Identity, Digital Literacy, Net society, Cybersociety, Digital Native, Digital Immigrant.

1. INTRODUCTION
Everyday there are more and more people connected to the Internet (67.3% in Balearic Islands). People surf
on the web and interact with others through different applications and tools. Each person's interaction leaves
a trace about their identity.
Obra Social Sa Nostra and IBIT Foundation have investigated the building of digital identities with the
aim of documenting the “Digital Identity: Who are you on the Internet” exhibition. This work has been useful
in underlining, to users in the Balearic Islands, the importance of taking care of one's digital identity, because
of the way in which information contained within the identity can affect a person's reputation, image and
credibility.
A goal of "SA NOSTRA" Caja de Baleares is to provide goods and services of general interest for society
through the Welfare Foundation and the Sa Nostra. The essential purpose is to encourage the development of
social welfare and cultural development in its geographical area of operation as well as promoting the
conservation of natural heritage and environment. IBIT Foundation is a research organization and a

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technological center devoted to the analysis, development and promotion of new technologies to drive the
Balearic Islands towards the Information Society and Knowledge.
Prior to the current project, in 2007 "SA NOSTRA" started a program of activities entitled "Promises and
certainties of the digital era" that included a course and a series of lectures on digital journalism and 2.0
webtools. The project identified the need to address adequately the concept of digital identity and raised the
opportunity to address it through an exhibition and other associated activities.
The project runs from February 2008 until February 2009. The following sub-phases can be identified:
0 .- Before February 2008: Planning. Research and documentation.
1 .- February-March 2008: Internet Viral Campaign. We created a fictious digital identity for a
personality called Josomid, who would provide a figurehead of knowledge and experience.
2 .- March-May 2008: Exhibition an dactivities in Majorca.
3 .- June to October 2008: Dissemination Project
4 .- November-December 2008: Exhibition and activities in Menorca.
5 .- December 2008-January 2009 Exhibition and activities in Ibiza.
The project is currently focused on the Balearic Islands, although the institutions involved are open to
extend it or adapt it to other territorial and social contexts, in collaboration with other national and
international institutions.
This project consists of a traveling exhibition within the Balearic Islands (Palma de Mallorca, Mao and
Ciutadella in Menorca, and Ibiza), a program of events (conferences, roundtables, practical demostrations,
cinema, educational workshops, teacher training courses on metaverses, celebration of the Day of Internet).
An informative website includes a catalogue of digital identities has been created, and a survey on the
attitudes and decisions of the Balearic citizens in relation to their digital identity
(http://www.identitatdigital.net) and a viral marketing campaign centered on Josomid.
In relation to the catalogue of digital identities and the survey about how citizens perceive the digital
identity, which have been collected during the period of the exhibition, the results presented in this paper
contribute to explain that in the Balearic Islands most of the sample that has responded use a nickname to
build his or her digital identity, and half of the sample say that their digital identity is real.
People that have visited the exhibition have been made aware of the importance of building an optimal
digital identity. The exhibition also employed a cultural guide who talked to visitors and explained the
aspects of personal identity. Part of the conclusions are from those conversations and part of them from the
survey.

2. KEY EXHIBITION CONTENTS AND RESOURCES

This project wants to bring the concept digital identity to the general public and make aware the importance
of properly creating and managing a personal digital identity in the same way that we worry about the
physical identity.
To be present in cyberspace, that is, to act on the Internet, you need to have a virtual representation, real
or fictional. This representation builds slowly, as we connect to the network, and we interact with others.
Virtual identity allows us to recognize each other on the Internet, a community with its own rules. Socializing
in the virtual world will become as important as in the physical world, simply because relations of trust and
power is also being built on the Internet. Knowing the benefits and risks of having an Internet presence is
essential to properly manage digital identity. Managing the way tools with which everyone can build his or
her presence, visibility and reputation in the network is essential to continue living in society in the
information age. "The most important element is not technology but human relations" (RHEINGOLD, 2005).
"A network is a set of interconnected nodes. (...) The relative importance of a node lies not in its specifics,
but in its ability to provide relevant information to the network." (CASTELLS, 2002). Digital identity is built
in the cyberspace through the network between other users. In this network " I am the first and main source
of Information about myself." (DASH, 2007). A walk in the exhibition between mirrors and examples from
the Internet invite visitors to discover what is a digital identity, how it is created and what are the shape
attributes: pseudonym or nickname, name, photo, video, avatar, username and password, email, text
description, form, meme, geolocation, commentary, web domain, photo, video.

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"Young people are not creating digital public places to scare away their parents, if they act well it is
because they need youth spaces, places where they meet, where to see and where to be seen among equals."
(BOYD, 2002). A digital identity is subject to the assessment of others and involvement in certain social
networks. This site addresses the role of reputation, valuation, credibility and social participation in shaping a
digital identity positively or negatively.
Web 2.0 tools allow a digital identity representation: wiki, microblog, podcast, presentations, networking,
online auction, electronic banking, social bookmarks, wishlists, online radio, search engines, virtual games,
blogs, photoblogs and videoblogs. With web tools "Never before in the history of the planet have so many
people-on their own-had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many
other people" (FRIEDMAN, 2005).
"The games are the laboratories for the construction of identity. You can be who you want to be. You can
completely redefine yourself, if you want. You can be of the opposite sex. You can be more open. You may be
less open. Whatever. You can be just anyone, really, who you are able to be." (TURKLE, 1997). It is
essential to analize the immersion in the architecture that characterizes the metaversos or virtual worlds like
The Sims, World of Warcraft and Second Life, because there users can act out a fictitious identity.
“The digital publication is eternal and omnipresent at the same time" (DE KERCKHOVE, 2001) this is
the conclusion of the project. For this reason, the recommendation to control one's own presence on the
network is essential.

3. DIGITAL IDENTITY IN THE BALEARIC ISLANDS

People from the Balearic Islands who visit the physical exhibition or the website www.identitatdigital.net can
register on a catalogue of digital identities of the Balearic Islands and respond a survey about digital identity.
The results are an indicator about the behaviour of citizens of Balearic Islands on the net.
585 users have been registered on the catalogue. 705 users have responded to the survey. To the question
“who are you on the internet”, 53,9% of users say that they identify themselves, 13,9% of users say that they
identify part of themselves, 14% of users have more than one identity, 6% of users use a fictitious identity,
4,5% of users participate on the net anonymously, 6,1% of users say they are not on the net, and 1,6% of
users say that they leave their identity to the intermediaries.
About the question if on the net people lie 51% of users say yes, 4,7 % of users say no, 42% of users
think that sometimes people lie, and 2,3% of users do not know.
To the question related to personal image, 51% of users would publish videos or fotos about themselves.
Only 4,7% of users would not publish images about themselves, 42% of users, sometimes, and 2,3% of users
do not know. 19,1% of users watch videos and look at photos, but only 2% of users publish videos or photos.

4. CONCLUSION
The impact of the project in our community has been produced in four levels: (1) People who visited the
exhibition: more than 1300 visitors. (2) Generation of articles, news and public opinion on the mass media in
the Balearic Islands: More than 100 media references. (3) People visited a information point in the Science
Fair (Mallorca and Ibiza, April 2008) and the Metaverses Conference held in Ibiza (June 2008): more than
15000 visitors. (4) Visibility on the official website and through social software: more than 6800 visits on
www.identitatdigital.net (Exhibition's Web) and more than 3000 visits on http://josomid.balearweb.net
(Josomid's Blog).
In all these offline and online spaces, the theme of the exhibition -the importance of managing a digital
identity- has been pointed out. Visitors have been made aware of the importance of their digital identity in
terms of preserving their digital reputation in the same way that they take care of themselves in the physical
world.
The consequencies of personal identity security vary with the user profile. Young Internet users now
know the risk of uploading pictures or videos, or the information that they give at social sites because this
can damage reputation and privacity. Professional users now recognize that a planned management of their
identity can be positive because they can achieve more professional opportunities and they can build a good

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digital reputation. People who are not connected now better appreciate, thanks to examples, what is
happening on the Internet, why people go on the net and what they do, what tools they have to create and
manage their digital identity and the opportunities and risks.
The most innovative point of the exhibition is to show the concept of 'digital identity'. Although it is quite
common to see exhibitions devoted to digital art, we have not been able to find another similar project,
focused on the sociologic impact of the new technologies. The aim of the exhibition is people make aware of
the use of digital technologies, on the cyberspace and the net society, users' personal identity and users'
personality can be created, recreated and managed to obtain credibility, reputation and visibility, as well as to
maintain privacy and security.
The exhibition “Digital Identity, Who are you on the Internet” is exportable and we are open to offers to
transfer the project to other regions or countries. We think that it is important to hold a debate about the
building of a personal digital identity and the impact of new techonologies on image, reputation and
credibility. It is important to open research to citizens explaining how to build their digital identity. New
ways for the research would be to define a set of indicators about building of indentity, reputation, visibility
and popularity on the Net and to analise how it can affect our own reputation in the off-line world.
This is one project with two objective: increase awareness about digital identity and analise how people
build their digital identities.

REFERENCES
Boyd, D. 2002. Faceted Identity: Managing Representation in a Digital World. Cambridge, MA.
Burnett, R. 2004. How images think. The Mitpress.
Castells, M. 1997. El surgimiento de la sociedad de redes, Alianza, Madrid.
Castells, M. 2002. La galàxia Internet: Reflexions sobre Internet, empresa i societat. Barcelona: Plaza & Janés.
Castells, M. 2003. L’era de la informació: economia, societat i cultura. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.
Castells, M . 2008. Identitat digital: una experiència de sensibilització de la comunitat educativa balear. Congreso
Internet en el Aula.
Crang, M. 1999. Virtual Geographie. Bodies, Space and Relations, Sussex, Routledge.
Contreras, P. 2004. Me llamo Kohfam. Una aproximación antropológica a la identidad hacker. Barcelona: Gedisa.
Damer, B. 1997. Avatars! Exploring and building Virtual Worlds of Internet.Peachpit Press
Dash, Anil. 2007. A Blog About Making Culture. http://www.dashes.com/anil/
De Kerkhove, D. 2001. The Architecture of Intelligence, Birkhäuser Basel.
Flanagan M,, et al. 2002. Reload Rethinking Women + Cyberculture, The Mitpress.
Friedman, L. 2005. The world is flat. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Gross, Larry et al; 003. Image ethics in the digital age, University of Minessota Press.
Gutmair, U. 2000. Ideal idols: New stars in global networks. A: Artificial humans - manic machines - controlled bodies.
Berlin; Jovis Verlagsbüro.
Hine, C. 2004. Etnografía virtual, Editorial UOC
Ibit Foundation. 2008. Presentation of the Information Society Data on the Balearic Islands 2008.
<http://www.ibit.org/home/en/hemeroteca/noticia.php?id=2035> [Consulted 05-01-2009].
Piscitelli, A. 2002. Ciberculturas 2.0 (En la era de las máquinas inteligentes) Editorial Paidós Contenidos.
Rheingold, H. 2005. Multitudes inteligentes. La próxima revolución social (Smart Mobs), Editorial Gedisa.
Rheingold, H. 1996. La comunidad virtual, Editorial Gedisa.
Sasseny S. 1991. The global city. New York, London, Tokyo, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Thély, N. 2002. Vu à la webcam. Essai sur la web-intimité. Les Presses du réel.
Turkle, S. 1997. La vida en la pantalla. La construcción de la identidad en la era de Internet, Ediciones Paidós Ibérica,
Barcelona.
Wardrip-Fruin, N, et al. 2004. First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, Mitpress.
White, M. 2006. The body & the screen. Theories of internet spectatorship. The Mitpress.
Windley, P. 2005. Digital identity, O.Reilly.

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TOWARDS DESIGNING AFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGY TO

PROMOTE PRODUCTIVE LOVE

Ramon Solves Pujol and Hiroyuki Umemuro

Tokyo Institute of Technology
2-12-1 W9-67 O-okayama, Meguro-ku ,Tokyo, 152-8552 JAPAN

ABSTRACT
We offer an original proposal of guidelines for designing technology that aims to improve loving relationships. The
proposed guidelines are based on an extensive review of literature, including Productive Love, Receptive Love, and
elements from theoretical and empirical studies about love in general terms but which seem related to productive love.
Additionally, the proposed guidelines take into account as well an exploratory brainstorming about Erich Fromm’s
(1956), four central elements of love: care, respect, responsibility and knowledge. Furthermore, we explore principles of
engagement with technology, such as technology as a mirror, fun, pleasure and flow, which may be important when
designing love-promoting technology. Finally we propose a practical design example of a Productive Love promoting
application that embraces several of the proposed guidelines.

KEYWORDS
Affective technology, love, care, family, lovers

1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays electronic devices and applications are extensively oriented for making people’s lives easier, to
help on work activities and to provide entertainment. However, there are practically no antecedents on
devices or applications that aim to improve loving relationships. We investigate the possibility of using
technology for improving a people’s elemental human aspect such the capacity to love. In the era of
ubiquitous technology, almost all the people feel more excited for using the latest technology than reading
the latest books. Therefore, it seems possible to make use of technology as a medium for human-human
interaction and improve love. The objective of this study is to provide an understanding of the nature of love
in a manner that may be usable for designing the most appropriate love-promoting technology.
Erich Fromm (1956), in the book “The art of loving”, proposed four basic elements common in all forms
of for love: care, responsibility, respect and knowledge, which appeal us to use them as a key-basis for
designing technology to improve love. In addition to Fromm’s approach, we base the proposed guidelines on
an extensive review of the works of other theorists and researchers. Still, the theories and researches taken
into account have as a common focal point the understanding of love not as an involuntary passion but as a
voluntary action, which can be improved. The reason that brought us to choose this approach is that the
understanding of love as an action brings up the possibility to make use of the existent or future technologies
to help to improve love.

2. LOVE APPROACH FROM THEORETICAL REVIEW

It seems that most of the people and some theorists share the tendency to regard love as innate, passive, and
basically the same as falling in love. For instance, Burston (2007) explains that Plato, Schopenhauer,
Nietzsche, Freud, and, Lacan represents the common understanding that Erotic love is an involuntary
passion, where love is "blind" and therefore, the adversary of reason. On the other hand, Burston, points as
well that Kierkegaard, Scheler, Buber, and Fromm represents the belief that genuine love always includes an
element of volition. explicitly, Fromm (1956), differentiated two kinds of love. Immature love or symbiotic

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union, which corresponds to the person whose character has not developed further than the receptive
orientation, which we call Receptive Love. And mature love, attributable to the person who has developed
productive orientation, which is the representative of the active love, and we call Productive Love.
In this study five key aspects are taken into account in order to understand Productive Love, first we took
into account what has been described to be in relationship to it. Secondly we contrasted it with what has been
described in relation to Receptive Love, its antagonist. Third, we included elements of theories and empirical
studies about love in general terms that seem to be in accordance with Productive Love. Finally, in order to
explore what Fromm’s (1956), four basic elements of love mean for nowadays people we realized a
comparison between Fromm’s understanding of care, respect, responsibility and knowledge and the results of
a brainstorming regarding to them carried out with five participants.

3. GUIDELINES FOR DESIGNING TECHNOLOGY THAT PROMOTES

PRODUCTIVE LOVE
This section introduces an initial proposal of theory and some examples of how Productive Love could be
taken into account when designing love-promoting technology.

3.1 Preservation of Personal Individuality and Freedom, Not Feeling of Duty

When using a love-promoting technology, there should not be rules of “good” or “bad”. There should neither
be obligation to do stereotyped acts such as using emoticons, which may not represent the user. On the other
hand, love-promoting technology should facilitate every person to feel easy to express freely, for example
accepting an open-ended rage of actions instead of offering a pre-defined and limited one.

3.2 Respect, not Objectification or Exploitation

Love-promoting technology should respect everyone’s desired degree of privacy, for instance not
encouraging the use of devices such as cameras if they attempt against one’s privacy or lead control over a
person. Moreover, love-promoting technology should not help for acquire a person, or obtain something from
the other, as it could be to obtain personal favors or getting chores done.

3.3 Self-growth, not Dependency on Others

Love-promoting technology should not lead to create dependency, for instance, a device that facilitates a
person to awake the other person in the morning would be better if facilitates as well the receiver learn to do
it by himself. A love-promoting device that intends to improve self-growth could facilitate to show the
person’s improvements, which may help to improve self-awareness.

3.4 Care and Responsibility, not Involuntary Love

A love-promoting technology which intends to improve active concern for the other person and
responsiveness for the other’s actions could inform about the person illusions, dislikes or moods which could
motivate to be responsive to the other needs, for example thinking how to do something for the other person
when seeing that he or she needs it.

3.5 Giving, not Exchange and Fairness

The actions done on love-promoting technology should facilitate to understand the other’s pace instead of
focus on a return, which may be derived for instance, from an operating logic that requires correspondence of
actions. The user should find pleasure when doing an action for the other, for instance, this could be
motivated by providing information of the other person’s feelings when receives an action.

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3.6 Selflessness, not Egoism

In a love promoting technology the source of pleasure should not remain in the human-device interaction but
grow to be in the human-human interaction, which may lead to learn to enjoy doing actions for the other. In
order to accomplish that, the actions carried out in the love-promoting technology should be far from fiction,
but closer to real actions and real persons as accurately as possible.

3.7 Enjoy the Other, as he is, not Evaluation of the Other

Love-promoting technology should not make differences of rank, status, personal scoring, comparisons or
competition, for instance high amount of actions should not be evaluated as better. Likewise, actions such as
“buying a present” or “asking how are you” should not be established as having different value, both of them
should be shown as valuable in order to let the receiver understand its context and enjoy them.

3.8 Enjoyment of the Love Experience, not Materialism

Love-promoting technology should not premium the user actions by obtaining any return such as points or
evaluation, which may drive to focus on the regard. However, initially, something similar to a game might
provide initial interest, which could help to appreciate the love experience.

3.9 Realism, not Delusion

Love-promoting technology should avoid showing an unreal image of the partner, which may lead to create a
wrong image of him or her, for instance, showing too many sings of affection such as exaggerate emoticons,
may lead to idealization. What is more, in order to help for an objective understanding of the partner; love-
promoting technology should transmit realistic information about both, good and bad things.

3.10 Knowledge, not Lack of Understanding

To know about the other person could be helped by facilitating the user to provide personal information such
as talking or writing about oneself, or sharing personal images or objects. However, sensory technology can
collect knowledge as images, sound, movement, presence, etc. It is possible as well to use the collected data
to estimate the person’s activity, emotions or feelings.

4. ENGAGEMENT WITH THE TECHNOLOGY

Love-promoting technology besides being a vehicle for human-human interaction is still a piece of
technology that requires human-technology interaction. This section discusses factors that seem critical to
effectively engage with the love-promoting technology.
Bolter and Gromala (2003), defended that technology can be a mirror where every application must be an
experience. Besides, concerning with the quality of the experience, the importance of enjoyment related to
human computer interactions has been discussed by Blythe and Hassenzahl (2003), who explained fun to be
trivial, repetitive, spontaneous, frivol and spectacle-like. While pleasure was explained to be relevant,
progressive, not necessarily spontaneous, somehow serious, aesthetics or art-like, to require commitment to
the basic principles and rules of the activity and which sources are limited to three: opportunities for personal
growth, memory attachment, and anticipation. Accordingly, in order to make the experience pleasurable, the
love-promoting technology could strive for the feelings that can be experienced when remembering a loved
person, or when anticipating the other persons acts. Moreover, the mirroring of own acts could stress the
consciousness of the active engagement, which may lead to personal growth.
Nevertheless, besides being pleasurable, love-promoting technology might need to compete with
nowadays most popular daily leisure activities. Among those, videogames and web activities have been

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extensively linked to flow, concept that was initially introduced by Csikszentmihalyi (1990), who explained
it as an optimal experience that follows the optimal combination of challenge and skill levels of the person
and the situation. In that sense, a game-oriented or web-oriented application could be at first appropriate for
the love-promoting technology, for example if icons that appear on a screen suggest some kind of easy
interaction, it might lead to reactive operation and thus, be attractive and fun.

5. PRACTICAL DESIGN EXAMPLE

In this section we describe a hypothetical system that targets to improve the love between distant persons,
they could be lovers, familiars, friends, etc. This provides an example of a love-promoting technology design
that embraces several of the proposed guidelines for love-promoting technologies and engagement factors.
The system automatically takes pictures of each of the users and sends to another selected user. The
automatism frees the users from a task that could represent duty, a burden, and thus, could be abandoned.
Essentially, it intends to attract the interaction with the system, and consequently with the other person.
The pictures are taken in random intervals, this way the photographed person appears natural, doing
whatever he is doing and away from posing and choosing the best smiling picture to be send. This ensures
that the information objectively represents the person. Realistic information is a good basis to appreciate
what the other does, how looks, or even to infer the other’s feelings.
However, in order to respect intimacy, the user is able to regulate the extent and allocation of time for the
taken pictures. The span of time where the pictures are taken is selected manually by the user, it varies from
very short, in punctual situations such as while having lunch, or while using the PC, to more longer spans of
time, such as while being in a room, kitchen, etc. This regulation reflects degrees of openness between the
users, providing information about them and the relationship. The degree of clarity of the pictures can be
regulated as well; as a result, those who feel very open choose a completely clear picture, while when the
user needs to keep some distance he or she selects a blurry effect.
The number of pictures sent is handy, a set of three plus a short video every day. The receiver is able to
find them very accessibly in an application of his computer, gaming console, digital picture frame or a “love
device”. The user feels desire of taking a look into his lover pictures, and then to his mother ones.
In order to promote active concern for the other, as well as engagement, the system includes a touch panel
display. Using the touch panel display, the pictures are directly commented writing on them, and re-send to
the original person. This encourages the person to take an action related to the person who appears in the
picture, which helps to move the concern from the self to the other person. Besides, receiving commented
pictures of oneself, which one has not seen yet, serves as a mirror that supports personal awareness.

6. CONCLUSION
Based on providing enjoyment of doing activities related to the other person, a love-promoting technology
may substitute general forms of entertainment, which are done without relation with the loved persons.
Spending time considering the other person is a condition that may lead to improve love.

REFERENCES
Blythe, M., & Hassenzahl M., 2003. The semantics of fun: Differentiating enjoyable experiences. In M. A. Blythe, A. F.
Monk, K. Overbeeke & P. C. Wright (Eds.), Funology: From Usability to Enjoyment, Kluwer, Dordrecht, the
Netherlands. pp. 91-100.
Bolter, J. D., Gromala D., 2003. Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art and the Myth of Transparency.
M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, M.A.
Burston, D., 2007. Reply to Pnina Shinebourne's Essay Review in Existential Analysis, 17 (on the Art of Loving by Erich
Fromm. Existential Analysis. Vol. 18 No. 1. pp. 198-201.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., 1990. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper Row, New York.
Fromm, E., 1956. The Art of Loving. 1995 edn. Thorsons. London.

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TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AND SERVICES SCIENCES

INNOVATION

Alan Jones
University of Teesside, School of Computing, Middlesbrough, UK, TS1 3BA

Simon Scotchbrook
Qnet House, Stockton-on-Tees, UK., TS18 2QX

ABSTRACT
This paper takes a longitudinal look at one successful and one failed technology transfer, to investigate how successful
Internet service innovations are achieved. Services Sciences is a new subject that is encouraging research into innovative
services; Services Sciences asserts that there is a skills gap of people management and business management in the
deployment of Internet services. This paper reflects on empirical evidence to test this assertion.
The Actor-Network Theory is used to identify the roles of knowledge transfer agent and company. As the transfer
progressed at a virtual reseller SME, the technology was deployed to create a call-centre to relieve pressure on the
company’s staff during a period of commercial uncertainty. However, as it progressed at a facilities management SME,
the developed was isolated and starved of interaction with company processes, and failed.
We conclude that successful innovation using new internet services demands hands-on, dynamic adaptation of the
business model within the company. A reactive, administrative entrepreneur will fail.

KEYWORDS
Services Sciences policy, eCommerce, Internet services, Technology Transfer.

1. INTRODUCTION
The investigation and reflection reported here examines the assertion that a successful Internet services
business requires a change of business organisation and a change of attitude, or social policy, towards the
people who operate such a new service. The first example business was to create a virtual enterprise to resell
electronic equipment, The Reseller business. The second was to create a global facilities management
enterprise, the FM business.
When the two technology transfer episodes were started, the Internet services technology was just
becoming accessible to SME businesses, and the enterprise consequences were unknown. This paper
describes empirical observations about Services Sciences by reflecting on the results of two episodes of
technology transfer to two different SME businesses, one transfer episode resulting in success and the other
in failure.

2. SERVICES SCIENCES
Service systems are a growing proportion of the world economy; they change the way businesses work. What
has propelled services to the forefront of electronic business is the ability to conduct business transactions
machine-to-machine by using interoperability standards between different software systems (Paulson, 2006).
The advantages offered are very traditional; productivity, low-cost, 24-hour operation, and global reach to
market. One aspect alone drives the new interest in study of services, the machine-to-machine interfaces.
This is not e-commerce as we have known it, which works through a machine-to-person interface. The
producer and consumer in new internet businesses are both machines. This has had most striking impact in
the integration of supply chains (Spohrer etal, 2007; Tadahiko 2005; Zysman, 2006).

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This has intensified the practice of systems analysis, since the internal processes of business are now the
focus of automation in order to exploit the new interoperability via the Internet. The vocabulary of
interoperability is becoming more widely known as its successes are published (Nezhad et al, 2006). External
to the automation of business transactions is new problems of designing contracts of sale, role definitions
people in all parts of the business, and creating the business models that support and exploit the advantages
on offer. The new analysis practices, combined with the speed with which business must react to remain
competitive, together create the driver towards a study of services (Bitner and Brown, 2006).
The metaphor ‘choreography’ is used to describe standards that allow XML messages about business
transactions to travel safely, securely and reliably across the internet. XML has become the standard
language of interoperability because of the ease with which it can represent documents originating in any
proprietary code. Unsurprisingly, the price of this ease is performance, as translating in and out of an
intermediate transport code takes time. But the advantages of being able to exchange documents between, for
example, an IBM database and an Oracle database make the cost worthwhile (Peltz, 2003).
The metaphor ‘orchestration’ is used to describe the process of modelling the actions of business to
exploit this Internet connectivity. The tools here are an integration platform whereon the automated
business-models, written in Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), exist and execute. This
integration platform is variously called an Enterprise Service Bus or an Integration Manager. Its role is to
manage the automated processes constructed in BPEL and connect them to the standard choreography,
represented by Web Services (Peltz, 2003).

3. THE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER EPISODES

3.1 Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) are methods of government-supported transfers of technology from
Universities to businesses. The change agent, a graduate called the KTP Associate, is employed to effect the
change with technical and managerial skills, plus mentoring from a relevant University academic (KTP,
2008).
As an Actor, the academic is a negotiator who progressively creates a network almost to ensnare other
actors, such as the KTP Associate or the company MD, and non-human entities, such as computers, in
identities defined by the prevailing strategy of the interaction (namely to create a Virtual Reseller, or a global
Facilities Management business). Hence the academic mentor must realise that he sees the business through
rose-tinted spectacles that predetermine what he sees. And if he has vision and negotiating strength, he can
co-opt others to his view as if it was theirs as well (Callon, 1991). This is not to say a KTP is a thing of
smoke and mirrors, but that the result of a KTP on a small or medium-sized company is a moving thing.
Creative tension between the Actors affects the final outcome, as does the business landscape, such as the
current credit crunch.
The first episode was to create a virtual enterprise to resell electronic equipment, The Reseller business.
The second was to create a global facilities management enterprise, the FM business. The businesses that
form the basis of this reflection are an agent who operates collection services; this is the Reseller business
because the aim of the technology transfer was to create a virtual reseller capability in order to diversify the
business into telecommunications sales from its major customer, a cable TV company for whom the VR
business acted as a collector of TV set-top boxes from customers who declined to pay any more
subscriptions. The second business is an agent who operated a people sub-contracting business for chemical
process industries; this is the Facilities Management (FM) business. In order to prepare their workers, the FM
business was interested in Health and Safety training certification. The aim of the technology transfer, to
create an Internet service to deliver on-demand training, quickly became to create services to deliver on-
demand real-time reports about a variety of business assets, or facilities management.
In the case of the VR business, the aim of the technology transfer was to create a Virtual Reseller by
managing fulfilment from the original supplier without holding intermediate inventory. This decision to
embrace IT technology diversification does not accord with the model of Ottenbacher and Harrington (2008),
which suggests that a stronger motivation for new service development comes from existing customers.

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However, the second example fits better meeting the needs of customers. The Facilities Management
(FM) technology transfer arose from a more prosaic conversation about creating multi-media CDs for Health
and Safety training. The ability of new Macromedia products to access Internet choreography standards
releases the CD from just marketing to income generation. If competence checks at a process industry
Gatehouse showed an out-of-date or absent safety certificate, an on-line training course, with online
assessment and on-line delivery and charging of the pass-certificate, offers a new standard for management
responsibility of workers’ Health and Safety. From this business model came extensions towards monitoring
other aspects of process plant operation, which lead to the label ‘Facilities Management’. But in this lies the
danger of deviating away from known customer behaviours towards grander visions (Ottenbacher et al,
2006).

3.2 Disruptive Events and Consequences

For the VR, the first disruption came from the disorganised way that the cable TV company issued their
collection orders for set-top boxes. These orders did not differentiate between recovery agents and gave each
of them the same set of customer addresses. Early in 2006, we realised that the Integration Manager software
could electronically select appropriate orders within the post-code areas that the VR had contracted to
service, and produce a routing for visits and create an ordered list for a call centre to contact the target
customers in advance of the collection event. The startling effectiveness of this system allowed the VR to
contract more collection orders from the cable company. While being remunerative business, it did not help
to develop new markets.
The VR then became enmeshed in the TV ‘wars’ of 2006. Cost-reduction pressures were applied to sub-
contractors and the VR found itself in protracted negotiations about revised work-orders. The infrastructure
for the remunerative business was now redundant. In 3rd quarter 2006, the UK satellite and cable companies
entered more confrontational disagreements about their business. The result on the VR was a disastrous
reduction of business income from its major cable customer. A spirit of entrepreneurial survival gripped the
VR MD who negotiated a £500,000 overdraft with his bank to ensure business continuity including
continuation of the technology transfer operation. On reflection about this evidence, the MD showed courage
and determination beyond flexibility by negotiating an overdraft to keep his company alive. The KTP
programme completed successfully.
At the FM business, the MD was quick to seek redeployment of the aims of the transfer to address some
sources of investment he had found in early 2006. After hiring two programmers to work with the KTP
Associate, he was looking for inward investment to help pay for the extra costs. This took the development
away from FM in the process industries to FM in an area of logistical, highly competitive business. This lack
of understanding of customers and competitors has already been linked to unsuccessful outcomes by
deBretani (2001). This and other issues lead to a cash-flow crisis within the FM company, resulting in a
cessation of payments for the technology transfer. The University closed the KTP programme prematurely.

4. COMPARISON OF ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOUR

Cooper characterizes innovation by descriptions of opposites; administrative versus technological,
incremental versus radical, and product versus process (Cooper et al, 1999). Cooper’s descriptions place the
FM MD as an administrative, incremental and product-focused innovator concerned with resources and the
social structure of the organisation. Cooper’s analysis of the VR MD shows he behaved in a technological
way, by looking to radical innovation to refresh the process by which he ran his business.
Gordon’s “social network” concept fits the behaviour of both MDs because of their close involvement in
all aspects of the transfer process (Gordon, 2007).This involvement, modeled by Gordon as a social network,
increases the ability to recognise a business opportunity.
The VR MD acted to protect the transfer of technology into his company, whereas the FM MD was
willing to sacrifice the advance offered by the technology by defaulting on payments. Cooper’s analysis
frames the key difference of behaviour; the research question is about behaviour consistent with Internet
service success. Is administrative care for social organisation the same as technological involvement in the

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social network of innovation? By the evidence reported here, a hands-off administrative approach is a
contrary indicator; a hands-on technological approach is a positive indicator.

5. CONCLUSIONS WITH RESPECT TO SERVICES SCIENCES

Services Sciences recognises that three skill sets of technology, people organisation and business process are
required to equip a business to exploit an Internet services model. Evidences presented here indicate that
‘people organisation’ needs finer definition. Successful service innovations focus on the process of what the
organisation does; processes are modified to enable the innovation’s advantages. When the focus is on the
administration of the innovation, the danger is that the people-focus becomes an end in itself, not as the
complementary aspect of entrepreneurship.
The successful VR MD used technology innovation to change his company’s direction and business
process model. The unsuccessful FM MD was an administrative entrepreneur, concerned with plans to
finance and produce the knowledge transfer product.
This limited case study of one successful and one unsuccessful technology transfer of similar technology
but with different aims demonstrates that successful innovation with new Internet services demands
entrepreneurial skills that combine business organisation, flexibility of business process definition and a
competent technological appreciation of the process benefits to be gained. On the other hand, entrepreneurial
skills that combine administrative oversight with a focus on a fixed end product are negative behaviours, not
likely to bring success with Internet services. The elements of Services Sciences are corroborated with
additional qualifications that the three skill sets must be closely and almost-equally interlinked; if one skill
dominates the others, a bad outcome is predicted.

REFERENCES
Bitner, M-J, and Brown, S.W., 2006, The Evolution and Discovery of Services Science in Business Schools,
Communications ACM, 29(7) July 2006, 73-78 and 33-34.
deBretani, U., 2001, Innovative versus incremental new business services : different keys for achieving success, Journal
of Product Innovation Management 18(3), 169-187.
Callon, M., 1991, Techno-economic networks and irreversibility, in A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power,
Technology and Domination pp.132-165, ed. J. Law, London. Routledge.
Cooper, R.G. and Edgett, S.J, 1999, Product development for the service sector, Perseus Books, Cambridge.
Gordon, S.R., 2007, Interpersonal trust, vigilance and social networks roles in the process of entrepreneurial opportunity
recognition, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business 2007 - Vol. 4, No.5 pp. 564 – 585.
KTP, 2008, www.ktponline.org.uk viewed April 2008.
Nezhad, HRM et al, 2006, Web Service Interoperability Specifications, IEEE Computer, 39 (5), May 2006, 24-32.
Ottenbacher, M. and Harrington, R.J., 2008, New service development in the IT sector, International Journal of
Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 9 (1), 21-31.
Ottenbacher, M., Shaw, V. and Ermen, D. 2006, The new service development process for successful entrepreneurial
firms, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation 7 (2), 77-86.
Paulson, L.D., 2006, Services Sciences: a New Field for Today’s Economy, IEEE Computer, 39 (8) Aug 2006, 18-21.
Peltz, C, 2006, Web Services Orchestration and Choreography, IEEE Computer 36 (10), Oct 2003, 46-52.
Spohrer, J. et al, 2007, Steps Toward a Science of Service Systems, IEEE Computer, 40(1) Jan 2007, 71-77.
Tadahiko, A. , 2005, What is Service Science, Research Report 246, Fujitsu Research Institute, Japan and online at
http://jp.fujitsu.com/group/fri/downloads/en/economic/publications/report/2005/246.pdf viewed 2008 March 18.
Zysman, J. , 2006, The Algorithmic Revolution – the Fourth Service Transformation, Communications ACM, Vol. 47,
no. 7, p48.

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E-PAYMENTS AND E-LEGISLATION IN NAMIBIA

Anicia Peters
School of Information Technology
Polytechnic of Namibia
Private Bag 13388, Windhoek / NAMIBIA

ABSTRACT
Namibia has attempted to create an enabling environment for electronic commerce ever since the Southern Africa
Development Community (SADC) Heads of State signed such a declaration in 2001. A “Use of Electronic Transactions
and Communications Bill” has subsequently been drafted in 2005, but it somehow failed to be tabled in Parliament to
date. In a country that is considered as the important tourist destination amongst least developed countries, the absence
of such an important piece of legislation certainly raises many questions. During September to November 2007, research
was conducted in Namibia to investigate web-based online electronic payment (e-payment) solutions without manual
intervention such as cards-not-present systems. The tourism sector had been selected as focus area because e-tourism was
a fast growing industry, yet online e-payment solutions were conspicuously absent in Namibia. One of the key research
questions was whether the regulatory framework was aiding or restraining e-payment solution adoption. The research
methodology comprised survey based instruments coupled with on-site interviews amongst tourist operators, structured
interviews and a panel discussion with key stakeholders. Findings pointed out how Namibian businesses resorted to
taking risks in hosting e-payment solutions in different countries and then also opt to transact under those countries’
jurisdiction and its e-legislative instruments. Furthermore, the notion that functional equivalence between the cyber world
versus the real world made the need for e-legislative instruments obsolete, was proven wrong by the research findings.
Although stakeholders expressed many fears associated with e-payment solutions and the legal vacuum, 79% of tourism
operators surveyed indicated that they would indeed make use of such e-payment solutions if offered. However, without
e-legislation in place, most operators would refrain from declaring taxes for e-transactions and thereby deprive the
Namibian Government of revenue.

KEYWORDS
E-Legislation, E-Payment Systems, E-Commerce, E-Tourism.

1. INTRODUCTION
This paper reflects on research that was conducted on e-payment solutions for the tourism sector in Namibia
during September to November 2007. These payment systems included Credit Cards, Debit Cards, Virtual
Credit Cards (prepaid), Internet Bank Transfers, Mediating Services and Digital Cash. The selection of
payment systems focused on card-not-present systems, thus certain payment systems such as smart cards had
been excluded. The research was further restricted to the tourism section in Namibia as tourism was cited as
the fastest growing industry on the internet (PayGate. 2007).
The purpose of the research was to answer the following questions: 1) Are e-payment solutions really
used and needed in the Namibian market? 2) What are the obstacles to implementing/utilising such solutions?
3) Is the regulatory framework aiding or restraining e-payments? 4) What are the options most suitable to the
Namibian market? This paper concerns itself only with question number 3: the regulatory framework.
The methodology employed comprised of a questionnaire survey based on a semi-random sampling of
different types of establishments in the tourism sector, i.e. different business sizes and sectors in urban, semi-
urban and rural areas. These questionnaires were administered during on-site interviews and via e-mail.
Structured interviews were conducted with the banking industry, Bank of Namibia, Payment Association of
Namibia (PAN), the E-Laws Working Committee tasked with drafting the e-commerce laws, ICT sector,
Government, consumers and others. A panel discussion was also held with stakeholders. A comprehensive
documentary- and web study was also undertaken where literature as well as websites with payment engines
was reviewed.

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This contribution will reflect mostly on the how the absence of e-legislation in countries can hamper the
adoption of e-payment solutions and hence also e-commerce.

2. RESEARCH FINDINGS
Namibia has been gearing up for some time to create an enabling environment for electronic commerce as
per the SADC Heads of State signed declaration 2001 undertaking that the region will work together to
remove barriers to electronic commerce. However, Namibia seems not to have come out of the starting
blocks whereas electronic payment solutions have become an almost essential must-have with e-commerce
solutions for any country to remain competitive in the global arena. As Namibia is considered as the most
important tourist destination amongst Least Developed Countries (Wiig. A. 2002), this sector would benefit
tremendously from providing online payment solutions to their international clientele.
An enabling environment for e-payment solutions and e-commerce in general includes the legislative
framework, payment engines, security, privacy, copyright and intellectual property protection, and the
consideration of user fears and insecurities. To this effect, Namibia adopted an ICT policy in 2004 and
drafted a “Use of Electronic Communications and Transactions Bill’’ in 2005.
The fact that the “Use of Electronic Communications and Transactions Bill’’ has to date not been tabled
in Parliament created a legal vacuum for tourism operators, businesses and private persons conducting
transactions via the internet in Namibia.
Findings indicated that some Namibian businesses used e-payment solutions hosted outside of Namibia
and often also hosted their websites outside of Namibia. Such businesses would then transact under that
country’s jurisdiction and e-legislation. Quite often, a separate bank account would also be maintained in a
different country in order to obtain an internet merchant account. However, in some instances the internet
merchant account would be issued by the Namibian bank and submitted to the foreign solution provider.
Businesses have to take all the risk for fraud cases as it is very costly and difficult to prosecute such cases
since the Namibian courts do not have jurisdiction over many of the internet transactions. In fact, many of
the e-transactions are not defined as physical paper trails are the only means of proof permissible in
Namibian courts. This proved to be contradictory to some stakeholder views that there existed functional
equivalence between the real- and cyber worlds and e-legislation was not really a necessity in Namibia.
Many businesses expressed a “fear of being ripped off’; fraud and security of such solutions as well as a
lack of consumer protection in the “e-legal” vacuum as factors hampering the adoption of e-payments.
However, despite the risks that the e-legislation vacuum posed, 50% of businesses surveyed indicated that
they would use such payment solutions if it would be offered locally and 29% said that they might consider
using it.

2.1 Why is e-Legislation so Important?

Transactions conducted via the internet are both borderless and faceless, and thus very susceptible to criminal
activities. During interviews it transpired that consumers needed legal certainty with respect to a number of
issues, some of them being:
2.1.1 Online Offers
These should include all information such as what goods/services should be included in the offer, what
warranties should be made, what should be the cooling off periods (period that the consumer has to return the
item without any further obligations), taxes to be charged and validity period of offer. It should also consider
all implied warranties unless it was specifically indicated on the website as excluding some warranties. 83%
of respondents who used e-payment solutions indicated that they did not display warranty information on
their sites, with the remaining 17% indicating uncertainty as to whether such information was displayed or
not.

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2.1.2 Online Contracting

The internet brings about the problem on where the contract is signed due to its borderlessness and
facelessness nature. More often than not, the time and place of internet contract formation is very difficult to
prove, hence making it an international transaction. Without the necessary regulations and guidelines
concerning this internationality, corporate transactions can become very difficult cases. (Van der Merwe. M.,
Janse van Vuuren. F. 2004).
Internet contracts (click-wrap agreements, shrink wrap agreements and web wrap agreements) could be
formed by accepting an offer via e-mail or on a commercial site by clicking on an icon to signify acceptance
of the terms and conditions (Pistorius. T. 2004). These types of agreement need to be afforded some type of
legal status under any envisaged e-legislation. Recognition should also be given to secure electronic
signatures in the absence of physical signatures on the contracts.
2.1.3 Online Billing/Invoices
Legal recognition should be given to online invoices and receipts as Namibia’s legislation still stipulated that
a physical paper trail needed to be present. The Namibian Value Added Tax (VAT) directive for invoices
should be extended to online invoices as these were found to be non-compliant in the absence of any e-
legislation. Permissibility of electronic records, electronic signatures, electronic archiving and audit trails
should be included in any envisaged legislation.
2.1.4 Borders and Jurisdiction
The issue of internet jurisdiction is particularly difficult as some countries such as the United States adopted
a “country of origin” approach where jurisdiction always rests with the seller in an online transaction. Most
European countries however, support a “country of destination” approach where jurisdiction is with the end
consumer (Geist.M. 2007). Dispute resolution- and arbitration mechanisms/methods have to be included as
well in the envisaged legislation. E-legislation should also direct explicitly the inclusion of the Forum
Selection Clause and Long-arm statutes on websites.
2.1.5 E-Taxation
Taxation of e-transactions proved to be a contentious matter as direct and indirect e-taxes were not defined or
regulated at all. According to the Namibian VAT Act, VAT becomes liable when the service is rendered in
Namibia and an invoice is sent. Transactions are already difficult to trace by Namibian authorities when an
online invoice is generated from a site hosted in a different country. Vendors located outside the European
Union (EU) are required to register for VAT collection in the EU if they sell services and goods to EU
residents (Geist.M. 2007). In Namibia, most of the foreign clientele hail from the European Union, yet at the
same time when the service is rendered in Namibia, it is also VAT liable in Namibia. This situation causes
double taxation which should be resolved, especially in cases where there are no double taxation treaties.
Namibia also has to consider the source based principle very carefully as a business might host its
websites on servers outside of Namibia in order to evade tax. Domain name issues further compound the
problem of tracing revenue as 70% of domain names for Namibian sites ended with .com and only 30%
ended with .na in 2007. (Sources: panel discussion and interview with Inland Revenue Department, Ministry
of Finance). Pressure groups like the ICT Alliance in Namibia have been calling for an independent Domain
Name Authority to be appointed in order to regulate domain name regulations such as cyber squatting,
name/ownership changing and name stealing issues. This issue was so urgent that it was included under the
draft Communications Bill.
2.1.6 Consumer Protection and Cyber Crime
Consumer protection and privacy are important components to be addressed in legislation to enable a
common understanding and agreement on how to handle customer data due to different cultural expectations
throughout the world. This should include customer sensitive data and dealing with minors.
Cyber crime, money laundering and cyber terrorism need to be defined in e-legislation in order to give
consumers legal certainty on what action they can take. Furthermore, issues on identity theft, information
theft, etc. also have to be addressed.

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3. CONCLUSION
The research indicated that the absence of e-legislation had a profound impact on the adoption of online
payment solutions and e-commerce in general.
Already in 2003, a BON research report dealing with legal and regulatory issues highlighted specifically
1) security, 2) privacy, 3) legal risks 4) consumer protection, 5) cross border/jurisdictional issues as risks to
e-commerce. It indicated that “the current legal and regulatory regime cannot adequately regulate e-
commerce activities. This may therefore pose risks to entities involved in e-commerce activities. There is,
therefore, a need to formulate a new legal framework that adequately covers transactions that are concluded
electronically.” (Iyambo. A. et al. 2003. p. 25). These issues had not been addressed at all to date. The
notion of functional equivalence between the bricks-and-mortar world versus the cyber world was found to
be insufficient in providing the much needed legal certainty and consumer protection for the “borderlessness”
of cyber transactions. E-legislation is therefore a must for any country, in particular Namibia.
If Namibia would address the lack of e-legislation, then the country would not only be closer to an
attempt to bridge the digital divide, but it would also benefit economically. This legislation would give more
businesses and individuals peace of mind to transact their business internationally and the Government would
be able to trace taxes more effectively.
The research could be extended to more developing countries and experiences exchanged in order to
provide more effective e-legislation for e-commerce.

REFERENCES
Geist. M. 2007. A Guide to Global E-Commerce Law. University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/e-
strategies/pdf/IP/Attach04.doc.) (last accessed Nov. 2007 )
Internet Contracts. Cyberlaw @ SA II (The Law of the Internet in South Africa), Chapter 6
www.cyberlawsa.co.za/1st_index.html (last accessed Dec. 2008 )
Iyambo. A. 2003. Electronic Commerce: Implications for the Financial System. Bank of Namibia Research Department.
Windhoek, Namibia
PayGate. 2007. PayGate internet credit card processing solutions for tourism and Travel in southern Africa.
www.cbn.co.za/pressoffice/paygate/fullstory/441.htm (last accessed Dec. 2008)
Pistorius. T. 2004. Click-Wrap And Web-Wrap Agreements. SA Merchantile Law Journal: Special Volume On Law And
E-Commerce, Vol 16. MSP. University of South Africa pp 569 - 571
Van der Merwe. B.A.. 2004. VAT in the European Union and Electronically Supplied Services to Final Customers. SA
Merchantile Law Journal: Special Volume On Law And E-Commerce, Vol 16. MSP. University of South Africa.
South Africa. p 577
Wiig. A. 2002. Developing countries and the tourist industry in the internet age: The Namibian case. P. 34.
www.econ.ku.dk/DERG/nordicconference/Wiig%20A.pdf (last accessed Nov. 2007)

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"PEER PROJECT": FREE OPENING OF ACADEMIC

E-BOOKS, AUDIO-BOOKS AND EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES AT THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF ISRAEL:
LESSONS FROM THE FIRST YEAR

Edna Tal-Elhasid, Yoav Yair, Hagit Meishar-Tal

The Open University of Israel

ABSTRACT
The Open University of Israel (OUI) launched its OCW (Open Courseware) project in May 2008, intending to share its
best-practice in teaching and in development of textbooks and learning materials with other academic institutions and
with the general public in Israel. This special project, called Pe'er – a Hebrew word meaning "splendor" and an acronym
for "Opening the Treasures of the Mind," responds to the one of the core missions of the Open University, which is
enhancing accessibility to higher education.

KEYWORDS
OER, Open Educational Resources, OCW, Open Courseware, e-books, Audio books, Learning Object

1. INTRODUCTION
The Open University of Israel (OUI) is the largest public university and academic publisher in Israel. With
more than 45,000 students, it offers 650 courses in all major disciplines. Since its establishment in 1974, the
OUI has published over 500 academic titles, and prints more than a million copies annually. These books
constitute the largest and most comprehensive collection of university-level textbooks in Israel, especially
adapted to the needs of distance learners. The books and the accompanying course materials (study guides,
assignments, audiovisual, multimedia and web-based) are delivered to OUI students and are used for
independent study. The university has a robust Hebrew-based homegrown LMS and it offers a rich variety of
online learning models, including Web 2.0 applications. We use a hybrid pedagogical model (Bonk et al.,
2005) which combines distance asynchronous tutoring with face-to-face sessions, some by video
broadcasting to classrooms in study centers and to students' homes via their broadband web access.
Throughout the period from 1998 to the present, the faculty and teaching staff at the OUI have developed
tens of thousands of learning objects for use in their courses. These were part of the Opus Hebrew-based
learning system and were password protected for OUI students only. In May 2008, in line with OCW
ideology, the Open University embarked on its own project, aiming to share its best-practice in teaching with
other institutions and with the general Israeli public. The Pe'er project (Hebrew acronym for "Opening
Treasures of the Mind") offers free access to course materials and learning objects, e-books, and recorded
video-lectures as well as an abundance of exercises, tests, digital photo albums, simulations, examples and
other web-based materials.

2. REVIEW OF THE OCW INITIATIVE

The initiation of MIT's Open CourseWare initiative (http://ocw.mit.edu) in 2002 marked a major shift in the
paradigm of restricted access to academic materials. MIT decided to open its ~1800 courses to the general
public, allowing free usage of course materials, syllabi, exercises, presentations and lecture notes for anyone
who wishes to (MIT OpenCourseWare site, 2008, Kirkpatrick, 2006). Faculty members were encouraged to

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publish their study materials, and with a clever design and a sophisticated portal, achieved rapid publication
and dissemination of course materials online. Several major projects have adapted the MIT approach and
now share course contents with outside users (UNESCO, 2002; OECD, 2007). The leaders of such initiatives
are Carnegie Mellon's Open Learning Initiative (OLI - http://www.cmu.edu/oli), Rice University's
Connexions project (http://cnx.org/) and the UK Open University's OpenLearn endeavor
(http://openlearn.open.ac.uk). Open Educational Resources (OER) are defined by UNESCO (2002) as
"technology-enabled, open provision of educational resources for consultation, use and adaptation by a
community of users for non-commercial purposes. They are typically made freely available over the Web or
the Internet. Their principal use is by teachers and educational institutions to support course development, but
they can also be used directly by students." The OER movement has become a global force, recognized by
the ICDE and UNESCO (D'Antoni, 2007) and the OCW consortium, an international arena for universities
sharing OERs, now includes over 60 institutions from 16 countries (http://www.ocwconsortium.org/).

3. OCW AT THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF ISRAEL

The Open University of Israel is the first academic institution in Israel to join the worldwide trend towards
providing free access to study material and knowledge for the public good. This special project, called Pe'er
– a Hebrew word meaning "splendor" and an acronym for "Opening the Treasures of the Mind," is based on
an endowment from the Yad-Hanadiv foundation that should last until the end of 2009. The Hebrew Pe'er
portal (http://ocw.openu.ac.il) offers free access to many of the OUI’s academic textbooks in electronic
format (e-books) and some also in full audio version in MP3 format; free access to course materials and
reusable learning objects (RLO) (Polsani, 2003); recorded video-lectures and a plethora of lecture notes,
lesson plans and lesson summaries, interactive exercises, sample tests, digital photo albums, presentations
and other web-based materials. The unique aspect of the Pe'er project, compared to other OCW efforts, is the
"Open Books" component, where we publish electronic versions of ~50 OUI course textbooks, amounting to
some 200 volumes. These books were fully transformed from print to digital format. The search, mark-up
and highlight capabilities are built-in and enable personalization of the e-book so that users can re-visit their
"own" copy online and edit their personal notes and comments. A forthcoming tool will enable writing
"public notes" where users can share comments and ideas on the e-book, though publication is subject to
academic quality assurance by the OUI team. The e-books cover the major academic fields taught at the OUI
(sciences, humanities, economics and education) and are almost entirely in Hebrew. Several course books
translated into Russian and Arabic will be made available online in the coming months. Many of the books
are accompanied by an audio version (in MP3 format) of the entire text, which can be downloaded to mobile
audio players. Some books also include video lectures given by the authors or by other content experts. The
e-books can only be viewed on-line and cannot be downloaded or easily printed. Upon registration for book
viewing, we require only basic user information (age, gender, profession, geographic location), and the
resulting user database is available for research on usage patterns of specific objects and for user statistics.
The Open University uses the Creative Commons license for some books and for the learning materials to
which it owns the intellectual property rights (IPR).

3.1 Usage and Users

Since its launch in May 2008, and until December 2008, more than 120 courses and ~5500 RLOs were
posted on the Pe'er portal by all OUI departments, most from the departments of Natural Sciences,
Psychology and Education, and History, Philosophy and Judaic studies. The "early adopters" (Rogers, 2003)
were 88 courses for which the departments volunteered to open their resources to public viewing and use.
Additional courses are slowly joining in. During the first 7 months of the project, we followed user visits
through the Google Analytics system (http://www.google.com/analytics) which supplies statistical analysis of
user behavior, such as number of visitors, number of visits, pages viewed and more. The average number of
users who visited the Pe'er portal per month was ~6435 users, and most of them viewed materials from the
Department of Management and Economics and the Mathematics Division. During the first 5 months of the
project, there was a steady and continuous rise in the number of users, and the significant increase in
November and December is probably due to the beginning of the academic year (figure 1). Presently, the

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average number of e-book visitors is ~1000 per month (figure 2). The vast majority of these visitors are
students and teachers. The average number of e-book pages viewed per month is ~43,500. As some of them
were viewed several times, we identified ~7355 different pages per month, which represents 40.4% of all e-
book pages. The two most popular books are Introduction to Statistics for Students of Social Sciences and
Fundamentals of Physics. Demand is highest among students from other universities and from independent
adult learners.

Figure 1. Figure 2.

Since free opening of our books for viewing and use may prove harmful to sales of the print versions, the
economic aspects are being closely monitored. So far, no clear decrease in sales of the printed version has
been observed, although there was also no increase.

4. SUMMARY
Publishing books and teaching materials, and making them freely accessible, reflects a changed perspective
of knowledge ownership. Willingness to contribute one of the OUI's most important assets – its academic
study materials – to the public, without compensation or intent for profit is a revolutionary and challenging
idea that has not been tried to date in Israel, and in this sense, the OUI is a pioneer and a trailblazer. Our
vision is to enable people with a thirst for knowledge to access OUI learning materials from anywhere in the
world.

REFERENCES
Bonk, C., Graham, C., J. Cross and M. G. Moore (2005). The handbook of blended learning: global perspectives, local
design. Pfeiffer & Company, ISBN: 0-7879-7758-6.
D'Antoni, S. (2007). An international community of interest on OER: Discussion and deliberations. ICDE SCOP 2007,
Heerlen, The Netherlands.
Downs, S., (2007). Models for Sustainable Open Educational Resources, Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and
Learning Objects, 3, 29-44. [http://ijklo.org/Volume3/IJKLOv3p029-044Downes.pdf].
Kirkpatrick, K.L. (2006). OpenCourse Ware: An "MIT Thing"? Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professionals
14(10), pp. 53-58.
MIT OpenCourseWare, http://ocw.mit.edu, Accessed October 16, 2008.
OECD (2007). ‘Giving Knowledge for Free: the Emergence of Open Educational Resources’, OECD/CERI Report.
ISBN-978-92-64-03174-6
Polsani (2003). Use and Abuse of Reusable Learning Objects, Journal of Digital Information, Vol 3, No 4 (2003)
Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations. 5th Edition, New York, NY: Free Press. ISBN: 0-7432-2209-1.
UNESCO (2002). ‘UNESCO Promotes New Initiative for Free Educational Resources on the Internet”. Retrieved from:
http://www.unesco.org/education/news_en/080702_free_edu_ress.shtml.

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THE LAW IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

Noemí L. Olivera
Grupo de Estudio de la Complejidad en la Sociedad de la Información –GECSI-,
Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales, Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Edificio de la Reforma, calle 48 entre 6 y 7, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina (CP 1900)

Araceli N. Proto
Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
Laboratorio de Sistemas Complejos, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Av. Paseo Colon 850 4P 1063 Buenos Aires, Argentina

ABSTRACT
The paper explores the tension between the tools of the Law of Modernity –based on state legality- and those that are
emerging in the present times as answers to the demands of the technological development in the field of
communications. Analyzed the consequences of the ongoing legal policies, a new legal system, intended to grant the
rights of all the actual and prospective actors of the Information Society is propound.

KEYWORDS
Legal System; Law; Information Society; Legal Policies.

1. INTRODUCTION
Our present project is devoted to the study of the social and legal aspects of the Information Society –IS-. We
consider the Information Society a complex system and therefore, use complex systems tools to analyze and
go ahead in the understanding of the mechanisms that govern it, from the socioeconomic point of view. In the
legal area, the study is aimed to contribute to the definition of the most adequate legal policies that are
required to achieve the “people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society” the World
Summit on the Information Society proclaims [WSIS-03/GENEVA/DOC/4-E].

2. LAW IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

The legal system of Modernity, in force at the present time, reduces the idea of law as ‘legal system’ to law
as ‘rule’ [Grossi; Galgano, 2008], two concepts that are certainly important in the frame of this work.
Therefore, and in order to prevent misunderstandings, in this paper, and from now on, ‘law’ as a general rule
shall be written in lowercase letters and ‘LAW’ meaning a legal system, fully in capital letters.

2.1 Law and Society

The relationship between LAW and society can be and has been described in many different ways. Although
this matter exceeds the limits of this contribution, it must be said that there is wide fan that goes from people
who think that LAW shapes society to those who think that society shapes LAW. Beyond the theoretical
discussions, there lays reality, and it shows that decisions on legal policies are not neutral in terms on social
impact. According to the circumstances, such decisions can lead to social exclusion or bankruptcy. The
advance towards an integrated Information Society depends of an adequate legal frame that ensures an
egalitarian and fruitful society, avoiding, in so doing, the threat of a two-speed society, which is the cause of
the Digital Divide.

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2.2 What Has Been Done?

The attempts to analyze and rule the relationship between computers and law gave birth to the branch of law
that is called either Cyberlaw [Rosenoer] or Computer Law [Standler] in English and Derecho Informático
[Barrio] in Spanish. An inventory of the institutes that have been or are being analyzed and/or regulated in
most legal systems shows that they include electronic invoice, e-signature, e-document, e-copy. This shows
that these topics are mainly a problem for people that are, not only ‘in’, but impelling the technological
development of the Information Society, the same as regarding the debate about Intellectual Property in the
net. As far as the LAW is concerned, the issue seems to be restricted to the introduction of new institutes in
the legal system. Barely few analyze how the existing legal system interferes with the institutes or
instruments that are being developed in the context of the Information Society. Moreover, many conflictive
situations involve different legal subsystems (public law, private law, human rights), and most of them can
only achieve a satisfactory solution when a decision is taken by a third party -an arbiter or a judge-.

3. THE FUTURE OF LAW IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

The Information Society grows wider, and the legal problems involved in it loose national State level.
Moreover, due to the connatural internationality of the net, they involve different legal traditions, at least that
of Civil Law and that of Common Law, not disregarding the growing influence of the Chinese and Japanese
[Galgano, 2006]. They include, as referred above, Private Law problems –i.e.: e business, e signature-; but
also Public Law ones -regulation of communications-, and even matters related to Human Rights. Because of
this reason, neither the New Lex Mercatoria [Galgano, 2001] nor the Principles of Unidroit, both of them
restricted to Private Law, are able to provide suitable solutions for such problems. Therefore, the LAW of
Modernity, built among myths and based on national legal orders [Grossi], has abruptly been faced with its
limits. In addition, the modes of production, trade, consume, to sum up, to communicate, have been affected
by ICT in such a way that it could even been stated that technology has replaced law [Severino et al;
Reidenberg]. The truth is that a tremendous crisis affects the state law dogma [Galgano, 2006], but it is not
necessarily bound to affect the LAW itself. There are different sources of LAW, ready to be reckoned with
legitimacy in the Information Society.

3.1 The Sources of International Law

International Law is the branch of law that appears at first sight of the outmost importance given the
characteristics of the Information Society. Historically, there are two main sources of international law:
treaties and customary law. Treaties are agreements between states which are legally binding, while
customary law is derived from the continuous practice of states insofar as such practice is motivated by the
sense of legal obligation. Soft law is a third source of international law that has rapidly developed in recent
decades, especially to deal with sensitive matters such as human rights, the protection of the environment and
bioethical issues. Moreover, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) has
made full use of this tool, producing Model Laws, that function as invitations to states to enact such a norm,
in an attempt to overcome the problems that international trade must face, such as that national laws are
primarily aimed at regulating domestic relationships, differ from one another, might be confusing and a
hindrance for international trade.

3.2 Soft Law in the Information Society

Strictly regarding the IS, we can quote the UNCITRAL Model Laws on Legal Aspects of Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI) and Related Means of Communication (1996), on Electronic Commerce (1996-1998) and
on Electronic Signatures (2001). Even so, soft law has proved not to be enough in this area. The UNCITRAL
Model Law on Electronic Commerce is there since 1996 to prove that, although it has served as legal
reference in various countries, there is still much work to do. As the International Trade/Commercial Law &
e-Commerce Monitor shows, by 2005 legislation based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic

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Commerce had only been enacted in 19 countries, and Uniform legislation influenced by the Model had been
prepared in the United States and enacted by several States as well as in Canada and enacted in a number of
Provinces and Territories, as well as in various non sovereign jurisdictions.

3.3 Self-Regulation
The real problem is whether the law, strictly understood as a ‘general rule’, shall survive. Many outstanding
authors, like Galgano, maintain that law as a general rule is bound to be replaced by contract –law between
parties- [Galgano, 2001; 2008], a phenomenon that is known as self-regulation within the legal system.
However, the idea of self-regulation –contract being a paradigmatic example of it-, though being tempting, is
tricky. To begin with, it involves some sort of privatization of the production of LAW [Grossi].
3.3.1 Some Non Legal Considerations
To give a more concrete exemplification of the discussion on general rules (law) or particular rules (contract)
and on state or non-state regulations, it is adequate to appeal to a simple semiempirical modelization of the
problem at hand. Mathematical models are an important tool which utility relies upon the fact that they are
able to give, at least, an ideal response to be contrasted with reality. Going back and forth between model and
reality, more and more accurate idealizations can be made.
If we try to follow Galgano’s idea, one obvious question is referred to the size of the agents. It is easy to
see, for example, that for a provider of some service it is more convenient to attend the requests of a company
that those that come from a large quantity of individual consumers. Besides, the provider is likely to be more
interested in big companies than in SME. So, the ‘size’ of the agent should be taken into account while
talking about self regulation ideas. By the way, the expression ‘self regulation’ is not exactly used by lawyers
as it is in physics, where the definition of self organized systems requires a detailed mathematical analysis.
However, something can be said about the ‘self regulation’ idea using a mathematical model.
3.3.2 Introducing a Model
For this purpose, we need a model where the agent size could be taken into account. A very attractive
candidate is the ‘generalized Lotka-Volterra model’ [Lotka; Volterra] applied to model the competition
between web sites [Maurer et al] and in hung scenarios in sociology [Caiafa et al]. The Maurer et al model is
very versatile, and different scenarios can be described with it. Simulations with this model, using different
model parameter considerations, have been done, taking into account the agent size in two different ways
[Caram et al; Olivera et al]. Multiagents systems admit the modelization of many different situations that lead
to stable or chaotic scenarios. In the two analyzed cases described above, stable (sustainable) situations are
given among similar ‘size’ agents. Highly competitive scenarios are not recommended, as they lead to
stratified (social divisions) stable situations, where the big size agents are on the top, although they are only a
few. To arrive to a stable and not highly stratified or divided society requires strong peer to peer cooperation.
Actors in the Information Society are deeply asymmetrical; therefore self-regulation is only bound to fulfill
the interactions between those few that are equals.

3.4 Alternative Legality

Actors in the IS, aware of the fact that its internationality reduces their chance of attaining justice, should
assume themselves as collective subjects, and struggle for giving themselves an alternative legality
[Wolkmer]. Such a possibility is not likely to provide solutions to the different legal problems they should
face. Specially because many of those problems should involve other people who do not feel that they belong
to such a collective and do not acknowledge the rules of that group as LAW, neglecting their enforceability.

4. CONCLUSION
Whereas the Information Society, due to the connatural internationality of the net, goes beyond borders, the
existing legal system –despite the different traditions, such as Civil Law and Common Law- is based on state

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legality. This is the first discordance to mark between the existing and the required legal system. The legal
problems involved in the Information Society include, as referred above, Private and Public Law problems,
and even matters related to Human Rights. This fact prevents us to appeal to the New Lex Mercatoria or the
Principles of Unidroit -both of them restricted to Private Law-, in the search for suitable solutions to such
problems. The Model Laws related to our topic have had scarce fortune at the time of being enacted in
sovereign states. This shows that soft law is not being reckoned as an adequate tool to face the problem at
hand. It would be fruitless, therefore, to insist on such an effort.
The chance to arrive to a stable and not highly stratified or divided society requires strong peer to peer
cooperation, but it also proves that stable (sustainable) situations are given among similar ‘size’ agents.
Because of this, self-regulation is only bound to fulfill the interactions between those few that are equals.
Actors in the Information Society are deeply asymmetrical. Therefore it is not by means of the privatization
of the production of law involved in self-regulation that the inadequacy of the existing legal system to
provide solutions to the problems shall be overcome.
Two centuries of the LAW of Modernity have almost succeeded in reducing the idea of LAW to law –
almost as unique source-. Whereas the importance of the law lies in its character of ‘general rule’, the fact
that it is strictly related to national legal orders shows its inadequacy to the problem at hand. However, there
are different sources of LAW, ready to be reckoned with legitimacy in the Information Society. The times
demand some kind of general regulation that fully grants or, at least, sincerely intends to grant, the rights of
all the actual and prospective actors of the Information Society –on both sides of the Digital Divide-. Being
the Law of the Net, we propose to name it Lex Retialis. No doubt, it shall emerge as soon as we achieve a
prospective account of what is possible.

REFERENCES
Barrio F. Sobre la existencia del Derecho Informático, 2008, AR: Revista de Derecho Informático, No. 121, Edita: Alfa-
Redi, http://www.alfa-redi.org/rdi-articulo.shtml?x=10726
Caiafa C F and Proto A N, 2006, Dynamical emergence of contrarians in a 2-D Lotka –Volterra lattice, International
Journal on Modern Physics C, Vol. 17 385-394
Caram L F, Caiafa C F, Proto A N, Ausloos M, 2008, A Multiagent System with Peer-to-Peer Competition, submitted for
publication to Physica A.
European Commission, 1999, “Towards a new framework for Electronic Communications infrastructure and associated
services. The 1999 Communications Review", COM(1999)539.
Galgano F, 2001, Lex Mercatoria, Il Mulino, Italia.
Galgano F, 2006, La Globalización en el Espejo del Derecho (traducción de Horacio Roitman y María de la Colina),
Rubinzal-Culzoni Editores, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Galgano F, 2008, Los caracteres de la juridicidad en la era de la globalización. En: Silva, Jorge Alberto (Coordinador).
Estudios sobre Lex Mercatoria. Una Realidad Internacional, (C)2008 IIJ-UNAM, Instituto de Investigaciones
Jurídicas de la UNAM.
Grossi P, 2003, Mitología jurídica de la Modernidad (traducción de Manuel Martínez Neira), Editorial Trotta, Madrid.
Lotka A J, 1925, Elements of physical Biology. Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore.
Maurer S M and Huberman B, 2000, A Competitive Dynamics of Web Sites. Xerox Palo Alto Research Center CA94304
Olivera N, Proto A and Redelico F , 2008, Legal policies for the sustainability of the Information Society, Proceedings,
RC332008 7 th International Conference on Social Science Methodology, Naples, Italy. Sept. 1-5
Reidenberg J R, 1998, Lex Informatica: The Formulation of Information Policy Rules Through Technology, Texas Law
Review, Volume 76, Number 3, February.
Rosenoer J, 1997, Cyberlaw: the Law of the Internet, Springer-Verlag, New York, Inc.
Severino E and Irti N, 2001, Dialogo su diritto e tecnica, Roma-Bari.
Standler R B, 1999, What is Computer Law? Available: http://www.rbs2.com/cdefn.htm
Volterra V, 1931, Leçons sur la théorie mathématique de la lutte pour la vie. Gauthier-Villars, Paris.
Wolkmer A C, Pluralismo jurídico: nuevo marco emancipatorio en América Latina,
http://bibliotecavirtual.clacso.org.ar/ar/libros/derecho/wolk.rtf.

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DIGITAL RECORDKEEPING IN SUPPORT OF SOCIAL

INCLUSION IN AN ESOCIETY

Anne Gilliland
Department of Information Studies, University of California Los Angeles
212 GSEIS Building, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1520

Kelvin White
School of Library and Information Studies, University of Oklahoma
401 W. Brooks, Bizzell Library, Room 120
Norman, OK 73019-6032

ABSTRACT
This paper reflects upon the notion and necessity of robust, reliable and culturally-sensitive digital recordkeeping in an
eSociety, not only as a fundamental infrastructural component of egovernment, ebusiness, ehealthcare, and escience, but
especially in support of such desirable objectives as democracy, human rights, self-determination, sustainable
development, and social inclusion that might be pursued by less bureaucratically-organized groups in society. The paper
notes briefly the imperatives currently driving digital recordkeeping in large bureaucratic settings. It asks how, if
powerful organizations are struggling to put in place effective digital recordkeeping even in the face of pressing
mandates, can inclusivity, accountability and organizational memory needs be prioritized and supported through digital
recordkeeping in smaller, less empowered and less-resourced settings? It concludes by suggesting several strategies that
might be employed: more focus on education, features that could be included in off-the-shelf commercial software,
innovative preservation partnerships, and more inclusive ways to approach standards development.

KEYWORDS
Accountability; Digital Records; Memory Preservation; Recordkeeping; Social Inclusion.

1. INTRODUCTION
This paper reflects upon the notion and necessity of robust, reliable and culturally-sensitive digital
recordkeeping in an eSociety, not only as a fundamental infrastructural component of egovernment
(Thibodeau 2001), ebusiness (Evans et al.), ehealthcare (Daly 2007), and escience (Shankar 2008), but also in
support of such desirable objectives as democracy, human rights, self-determination, sustainable
development, and social inclusion that might be pursued by less bureaucratically-organized groups in society
(Gilliland et al. 2007; McKemmish et al. 2005). Jackson et al. have argued that “effective infrastructures
appear as timeless, un-thought, even natural features of contemporary life. This sort of naturalization and
forgetting is central to the effectiveness and deep value of infrastructure, and is indeed one of its highest
aspirations, but it also makes it challenging to recall what is at stake with infrastructure (which turns out to be
quite a lot), or to chart the processes by which infrastructures grow and change” (Jackson et al. 2007).
As a component of infrastructure, digital recordkeeping is frequently one of the most “un-thought” and
under-addressed aspects within marginalized or disenfranchised groups and communities that are employing
information and communication technologies (ICTs) and especially the Internet to organize themselves and
to raise their visibility and the profile of their concerns and needs. Every time a digital interaction takes
place, some kind of trace is left behind that documents that interaction, often within a system’s metadata.
That trace, which is often created completely unreflexively and even unbeknownst to the parties who have
been interacting, is a record of that interaction, Records, regardless of their form or format, serve as crucial
instruments of self-knowledge, accountability, transparency, institutional and social memory, and identity
establishment in and over time. Recordkeeping should be a conscious and holistic regime that manages

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records in ways that they can serve as trustworthy evidence today and into the future. Without creating
records and putting adequate recordkeeping in place, organizations, communities and movements will likely
remain or will ultimately become disempowered, marginalized, or even erased from history. Today,
however, even large organizations with extensive infrastructure and resources are struggling to identify what
are the parameters of records that are created or received and maintained digitally, and also with complex
technological, fiscal, administrative and political considerations regarding how to capture, preserve and make
available authentic copies of records for as long as there might be a reason to access them.
A review of almost any national or bureaucratic setting will reveal that for as long as there have been
written cultures in place, textual records have tended to support the needs and perspectives of elite aspects of
society and that those less empowered, to the extent that their presence is documented at all, are generally the
subjects, rather than the creators of those records. In other words, high infrastructure groups usually
correspond to high power groups with the resources to self-document and the ability to control contemporary
and historical outcomes and narratives. Those without universally accepted records experience invisibility,
disempowerment and marginalization. For example, the extensive impact of “undocumented” workers (i.e.,
immigrants without legal rights to work or reside in the country) upon the economy of the Western states in
the United States over the past century remains largely unsubstantiated because of these workers’ absence
from the official record (Valenzuela et al. 2006). In Latin America there are communities comprised of
descendants of former slaves, such as those living in Mexico’s Costa Chica region of Oaxaca, whose national
contributions, as well as their continued existence as distinct racial communities have not been recorded in
their country’s official narratives (White In press). In Australia, official records of the parentage and
birthplaces of children of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders who were removed from their families and
placed in charitable and religious institutions under government “resocialization” programmes in the
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries - the so-called “Stolen Generations” – were either not kept or were
deliberately altered, thus obliterating the children’s Indigenous identities (Australian Human Rights
Commission 1997).
Today, many low infrastructure groups, such as activist groups, local ethnic and global diasporic
communities, and Indigenous peoples are enthusiastic users of personal and community websites, electronic
mail, social networking utilities such as Facebook, and photographic, video and audio sites such as Flickr and
YouTube. However, the technologies and sites that offer such interactions often lack the ability either to
demonstrate conclusively that the materials they host are trustworthy, or to preserve those materials in ways
that we can access and trust them over long periods of time. That they do not, or cannot do this is the result
of a lack of recognition that the new kinds of materials being created and hosted are potentially valuable as
records and evidence; lack of awareness of how such records and evidence, if preserved, can support the
goals, rights and identities of those who created them; and lack of inexpensive and easy ways for groups with
little infrastructure and often few other resources to preserve trustworthy evidence of their activities.
This paper notes briefly the imperatives currently driving digital recordkeeping in large bureaucratic
settings. It asks how, if powerful organizations are struggling to put in place effective digital recordkeeping
even in the face of pressing mandates, can inclusivity, accountability and organizational memory needs be
prioritized and supported through digital recordkeeping in smaller, less empowered and less well-resourced
settings? It concludes by suggesting several strategies that might be employed: more focus on education,
features that could be included in off-the-shelf commercial software, innovative preservation partnerships,
and more inclusive ways to approach standards development.

2. IMPERATIVES FOR DIGITAL RECORDKEEPING

Recordkeeping, and indeed records, have undergone profound changes with the transition to primarily digital
creation and management. As Cook has observed, there has been “a shift away from viewing records as
static physical objects, and towards understanding them as dynamic virtual concepts; a shift away from
looking at records as the passive products of human or administrative activity and towards considering
records as active agents themselves in the formation of human and organizational memory; a shift equally
away from seeing the context of records creation resting within stable hierarchical organizations to situating
records within fluid horizontal networks of work-flow functionality” (Cook 2000).

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The past two decades have seen the proliferation of many new forms of conducting and documenting
business, including electronic mail and texting, distributed databases and data warehousing, scientific
collaboratories, electronic lab notebooks, mash-ups and wikis. As Cook states, in such settings, the record
has become a dynamic and virtual construct, one often without readily discernable physical boundaries or
designated stewards, one that can only be described in terms of its procedural and functional parameters
(Gilliland-Swetland and Eppard 2000). It is also at greater risk than ever before of deliberate or accidental
alteration or obliteration, while at the same time non-canonical versions may abound. Today it is argued that
it is no longer possible to preserve an original digital record, only to reproduce an authentic copy of an
original record, something which requires a sophisticated end-to-end digital management and reproduction
system (Duranti 2005). Entrepreneurial opportunism, new forms of scientific collaboration and
experimentation, and concern about the changing nature of records, fueled by the desire to make
recordkeeping more effective and to hold creators more accountable, have led to heightened imperatives for
powerful organizations to address digital recordkeeping. In government settings, for example, public
records, freedom of information, privacy and data security legislation, coupled with high profile litigation
such as that surrounding Presidential records in the United States have all added to requirements for digital
recordkeeping and the development of extensive infrastructure in their national archives to ingest and
preserve digital records. In industry, several factors have led to substantially increased investment in digital
recordkeeping: compliance with ISO 9000 suite of standards for quality management systems; the ability to
submit digital documents in support of patent and trademark approval in several countries; the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration requirements for digital records to be submitted in support of product approval; the
desire to use sophisticated knowledge and digital asset management techniques to support mining of explicit
and tacit corporate knowledge as well as entrepreneurial re-use of digital content; and, probably the single
biggest motivator for companies doing business in or with the United States currently, the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act of 2002, which was enacted to bring about more corporate accountability and transparency following
several high-profile corporate scandals.
So what are the imperatives for digital recordkeeping in settings that are not high infrastructure, high
power organizations? Certainly there is an imperative for the information professions to work with such
organizations, communities and groups to ensure that they are able to participate as fully as possible in this
new recordkeeping environment and not find themselves further marginalized. The Records Continuum
Model, developed by Australian records theorist Frank Upward, is the most detailed articulation to date of the
complex social and cultural embeddedness of records and recordkeeping. Upward has argued that
recordkeeping occurs along four intersecting axes: Evidentiality, Identity, Recordkeeping Containers, and
Transactionality, and has four concentric dimensions: Create, Capture, Organise, and Pluralise. The model
should, theoretically, be applicable in any recordkeeping setting regardless of size or status (Upward 1996).
However, the inclusion of the fourth dimension—Pluralise—has raised consciousness about the societal
implications of recordkeeping, and provides a way to demonstrate and contextualize the need for
recordkeeping within low infrastructure marginalized and under-represented groups in terms of supporting
their particular societal goals and aspirations as well as addressing the wider societal imperative to ensure
that digital recordkeeping can help to document, empower and enfranchise.

3. STRATEGIES
Any strategy for addressing the lack of infrastructure for digital recordkeeping in disenfranchised or
marginalized groups and communities has to begin with awareness-raising about why records should matter
to them—as documentation of their existence, identity, rights, achievements, and to protect and share
information resources that may enable collective political and social causes to be realized. It then has to
demonstrate the kinds of records they may already be creating using ICTs and how they need to be managed,
as well as to identify the kinds of records that are not currently being created but that should be in order to
ensure that they document their activities and maintain accountability and transparency. Finally, it needs to
be able to point to realistic solutions for managing digital records within the resources and expertise available
to those groups and communities. Some possible approaches include the following:

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3.1 Focus on Education

Understanding the issues and being able to articulate them persuasively to those who might be able to come
up with creative ways to address them is crucial. This requires ongoing education at several levels.
Programs training information professionals need to prepare their graduates to collaborate with and offer
consultation services to these communities and groups in ways that are sensitive to their various cultural
practices and mores, as well as to their aspirations and resource limitations. This may involve taking on a
more activist orientation as well as the ability to “think outside the box.”
In turn, these information professionals will need to be able to educate several other constituencies,
including records creators, community leaders, systems designers, software developers, resource allocators,
and policy makers about why it is important to create and maintain trustworthy records and how this is to be
achieved.

3.2 Including more Recordkeeping Features in Inexpensive Off-the-Shelf

Commercial Software
Commercial software developers need to learn about recordkeeping requirements, especially requirements
related to implementing audit trails and personal archiving and ongoing digital preservation, and should
incorporate them into commonly used commercial software such as database management systems,
electronic document management systems, and web authoring tools.

3.3 Exploring New Preservation Partnerships

Large-scale digital recordkeeping, from creation through preservation, requires specialized and costly
technology and expertise. It is unlikely that any one small organization or community group would have the
resources to take this on alone. Precedents for a partnership approach can be found in the world of film as
well as photographic archives, where there is recognition that such materials need specialized long-term care
and will not survive except in an appropriately configured repository. However, most such repositories are
based within large organizations whose missions are often at odds with those of smaller groups and
communities. Funding agencies and community organizations could work together to explore whether a
cooperative model that is community-based is feasible. In such a scenario, a funding agency might support
much of the costs of the initial set-up of a repository or service that is located within the community, and then
participating groups and communities might pay a retainer or a “pay-as-you-go” fee to have access to
recordkeeping and technological expertise, and long-term records storage and reproduction facilities.

3.4 Contemplating more Inclusive Ways to Formulate and Articulate

Standards
Currently, standards and best practices that are relevant to digital recordkeeping such as the ISO Records
Management (15389 2001) and Records Management Metadata (23081 2006 and 2007) standards and
archival and other descriptive standards are developed based upon input from professional organizations,
established information institutions, concerned industries, and individual information professionals. There
has been little participation of or consultation with local ethnic and Indigenous communities that might have
differing notions about such things as the conceptualization, naming, ownership, temporality, and
dissemination of their records and stories, as well as how trust is established. These translate into a range of
concerns on the part of some communities about how and when their records are captured, represented,
preserved and viewed. In order to participate in wider ICT initiatives, these communities often must also go
along with standards and practices that do not represent their beliefs and needs. One example of such
differences in perspectives can be found in the draft Protocols for Native American Materials (First Circle
Archivists (2007). Contemplating more inclusive ways to formulate and articulate standards is an issue that
needs to be recognized and contemplated further by the relevant parties.

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4. CONCLUSION
Finally, there needs to be more widespread recognition, especially on the part of the information professions
and policy makers that the lack of digital recordkeeping infrastructure in these groups and communities is an
issue with similar societal dimensions and implications to that of the digital divide. Although the potential
for these groups and communities to have their voices and stories included in national and historical
narratives that have traditionally spoken for them is now stronger than ever because of their ability to come
together and disseminate text, video and audio over the Internet, without developing strategies and
programming to assist these groups and communities with digital recordkeeping that will capture such
documentation, the full potential for their inclusion in the eSociety will never be realized and they will be
absent or under-represented in the digital record as they were in the paper record.

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Cook T. 2000. Archival Science and Postmodernism: New Formulations for Old Concepts. Archivaria, Vol. 1, No.1, pp.
3-24.
Daly, R. 2007. Funding, Logistics Deter Electronic Record Adoption. Psychiatric News, Vol. 42, No.24, p. 6.
Duranti L. ed. 2005. The Long-term Preservation of Authentic Electronic Records: Findings of the InterPARES Project,
Archilab, San Miniato, Italy.
Evans J. et al. 2005. Create Once, Use Many Times: The Clever Use of Recordkeeping Metadata for Multiple Archival
Purposes. Archival Science, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 17-42.
First Circle Archivists (2007). Native American Protocols for Archival Materials. http://www2.nau.edu/libnap-
p/index.html (accessed 22 November, 2008).
Gilliland A. J. et al. 2007. Pluralizing the Archival Paradigm: Critical Discussions Around the Pacific Rim. Archives &
Manuscripts, Vol. 35, No.2, pp. 10-39.
Gilliland-Swetland, A. and Eppard, P. (2000). Preserving the Authenticity of Contingent Digital Objects: The
InterPARES Project. D-Lib Magazine Vol. 6, No.7.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july00/eppard/07eppard.html (accessed 22 November 2008).
Jackson S. J. et al. 2007. Understanding Infrastructure: History, Heuristics, and Cyberinfrastructure Policy. First Monday,
Vol. 12. http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1904/1786 (accessed 22 November,
2008).
McKemmish S. et al. 2005. ‘Communities of Memory’: Pluralising Archival Research and Education Agendas. Archives
and Manuscripts, Vol. 5, pp. 146-175.
Shankar K. 2007. Order from Chaos: The Poetics and Pragmatics of Scientific Recordkeeping. Journal of the American
Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 58, pp. 1457-1466.
Thibodeau K. 2001. Building the Archives of the Future: Advances in Preserving Electronic Records at the National
Archives and Records Administration. D-Lib Magazine, Vol. 7, No. 2.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february01/thibodeau/02thibodeau.html (accessed 22 November, 2008).
Upward F. 1996. Structuring the Records Continuum - Part One: Post-custodial Principles and Properties. Archives and
Manuscripts, Vol. 24, No. 2.
http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/rcrg/publications/recordscontinuum/fupp1.html (accessed
22 November, 2008).
Valenzuela, Jr. A. et al. (2006). On the Corner: Day Labor in the United States. Technical Report, UCLA Center for the
Study of Urban Poverty, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
White, K. (In press). Meztizaje and Remembering in Afro-Mexican Communities of the Costa Chica: Implications for
Archival Education in Mexico. Archival Science.

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HUMAN-AWARE APPROACHES FOR WEBSITE

CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Pavel Vasev
IMM UrB RAS, Yekaterinburg

ABSTRACT
We reflect some approaches of website content management systems usability, and suggest the concept of “human-aware
content elements”. Our ideas and observations are implemented and used for more than four thousand websites.

KEYWORDS
Web Content Management Systems, Websites, Information Management, Human Computer Interaction, eCommerce.

1. INTRODUCTION
There are many web-based hosted content management systems (CMS) on the market. For example,
Microsoft Office Live™, Google Sites™, and Yahoo Small Business™. With these services user can start
creating a website immediately. To become successful, CMS must be easy to use. That is especially
important for hosted CMS services, because there is no personal training provided for the user.
Almost any CMS operates in technical terms: pages, forms, layouts. However, real people don’t think in
these terms. They think in terms of their needs: “I need a website with company information, contacts,
services and vacancies”. It is difficult for non-technical person to map in mind his needs to technical terms
and to perceive steps required to achieve his goals [Vasev]. For example, to add vacancy on a site user often
should perform following steps: create a page, create and format vacancy description, add links to that page
from main menu, and add announce to company’s news. So user wastes his time and even may leave the
service.
We believe that adding non-technical terms into CMS interface may solve this problem.

2. CMS USABILITY APPROACHES

Let’s see how the problem stated in introduction may be solved.

2.1 Webpage Templates

These are templates for webpages of various content types, for example calendar of upcoming events, or
employee biography. When user chooses template, CMS generates new page with predefined textual and
graphical content. Then user can modify this page using WYSIWYG editor. The greatest advantage of page
templates is that user doesn’t start from scratch. Instead, he uses generated content and layout and modifies it
according to his needs. The disadvantage is that the user should format new content manually. If the user
needs many pages with content of same layout, this can become a problem.

2.2 Human-Aware Content Elements

In addition to page templates, human-aware content elements can be even more useful. For example, to add
sales contact page, the system asks user for person name, photo, phone and email. Then, a page aggregating

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this information is added to website. When user wants to change that contact page, he clicks “edit” and the
system asks him again for that person’s contacts (showing previously entered information). This simple
example illustrates one important idea: we shouldn’t leave user just with WYSIWYG editor, but give him a
chance to modify content in a data-oriented manner.
Of course, these elements should vary depending on website class – business, personal, scientific, etc.

2.3 Structure Templates

At the beginning of site creation process, user is asked for his company type: real estate, car rental, DVD
store, etc. Then, according to his selection, the site structure is generated. For example, a real estate agency
website will contain apartment’s catalogue, market assessment articles, and sales contact info. This approach
saves user’s time and creates sense of nearly-achieved user’s goals.

2.4 Clearness over Functionality

We believe that hosted CMS service interface should be obvious. At any moment user should know what and
how he can do next. We assume that usability is more important than functionality for hosted CMS, because
experienced users rarely use such services. And inexperienced users don’t need a lot of features, they just
want to solve technically-simple problems: to publish company info, products and services, and so on.
During first stages of site’s life it even can have no meta-tags describing site contents because systems like
Google Adwords don’t require them for successful operation.

3. CONCLUSION
The usability approaches stated above are implemented in the LineAct hosted CMS service (www.lact.ru). At
the moment of writing this article 4362 websites were created using the service by people all over the world.
In feedback emails people say that it is comparably easy to work within the system. However, there are still
some problems waiting for solution. We are looking forward for more simple and clearer ideas of the
interface.

REFERENCES
Vasev P., 2008. Human-aware content elements as a base for website backend interfaces. Proceedings of Third
International Conference on Mathematical and Informational Technologies in Management, Engineering and
Education. Yekaterinburg, Russia, pp. 122-123.

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PREFERENCE AND PURCHASE DECISION FOR THE

JEWELRY PRODUCTS ON E-BUSINESS

Kyong-Hee Lee, Min-Jeung Cho, HyunHee Jung, Jin-Young Son, Yae-Nae Huh, Hong-In Cheng
Graduate School of Digital Design, Kyungsung University
110-1 Daeyeon-dong Nam-gu, Busan, 608-736, Korea

ABSTRACT
E-business market has been increased considerably fast and is expected will be continuously increased in the future. E-
business transaction size in Korea was five hundred sixteen trillion five fourteen billion Korean won in 2007 which was
expanded by 24.9 percent comparing the previous year. The jewelry products are not, however, actively purchased on-
line. In this study, EEG(electroencephalograph) was measured and survey was conducted to find the possibility of e-
business for the jewelry products. Customers did not show different preference and purchase decision when the online
pictorial image and real product were presented. Although the jewelry products give similar preference on the web or
mortar market, elaborative web design is still required for successful e-business.

1. INTRODUCTION
In Korea, E-business market was considerably increased in 2007 with turnover 3 trillion 924billion won,
compared with 124.9% last year (Korea National Statistical Office, 2008). Lee(2005) reported that college
students did not believe the quality of the jewelry products on e-business web sites and had negative mind
about purchasing products only after examining their appearance on the web sites. However, they were
positive about wide range of purchase and convenient shopping. In this study, Product presentation methods
and designs were comparatively studied by analyzing questionnaires and measuring
EEG(electroencephalograph) of participants.

2. EXPERIMENT
The purpose, all procedures, risks, and benefits of the experiments were explained to the participants and
informed consent was obtained. Volunteers were then wired up to an EEG machine which records skin
responses as well as brainwave patterns. The wiring position was selected by following the International
MCN 10-20 System, 8 positions were chosen and wired including the ground(GND) and reference(REF).
When electroencephalogram became stable, experiment was started and the activity of the brain was recorded.
2 males and 12 females voluntarily participated in the experiment. They reported experiencing no brain
damage, having normal eyesight and sensing ability.
Four jewelry products were selected for the experiment from the on-line jewelry E-business
site(http://www.arte.co.kr) managed by Kyungsung University in Korea because of their unique
appearances(Figure 1).
In the experiment independent variables were presentation methods(Image and real jewel) and kinds of
the jewels. Dependent variables were participants’ preference, purchase decision, and electroencephalograph.

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Figure 1. Stimulus

3. RESULTS
Electroencephalograms were converted by FFT(Fast Fourier Transformation) and extracted absolute power
from the waves.
There was no significant difference in preference between real jewels and images of jewels. Participants
reported that only image of jewel gave enough information for purchasing the jewelry products. However
significant difference was detected among different designs(Figure 2). In some cases, participants prefer the
design of real jewels to the design of the jewel on the e-business web sites. The power of FP2, F4 and T4
channel were recorded higher value when image was shown but P4, FP1, F3, T3 and P3 showed higher value
for the real jewels presentation(Figure 3).
4.5 180

160

140

4
E v a lu a t io n

120

100
Power

80
3.5
60

40

20
3
Jewerly 1 Jewerly 2 Jewerly 3 Jewerly 4 0
FP2 F4 T4 P4 FP1 F3 T3 P3
De s ig n Channel

● : Images, ● : Real Jewels

Figure 2. Preference of Jewelry Figure 3. Preference of Channel

When real jewels were presented no difference was observed between the EEG of the left and right brain.
EEG of the right brain generated higher power for the web site image (Figure 4). Real jewels made the
parietal, temporal, occipital lobes generate higher powers and pictorial image gave higher power of the
frontal lobe (Figure 5).
100 140

95 120
Power
Power

90 100

85 80

80 60
Left Right Prefrontal Frontal MID Temporal Parietal
Brain Area

● : Images, ● : Real Jewels ● : Images, ● : Real Jewels

Figure 4. Difference of the left and right for preference Figure 5. Difference of the left and right for preference

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No significant difference was found for the purchase intention according to the presentation methods.
Jewel design was significant factor to purchase the jewelry products(Figure 6). The power of P4 were
recorded the highest value for both images and real jewels (Figure 7).
When real jewels were presented no difference was observed between the EEG of the left and right brain.
EEG of the right brain generated higher power for the web site image(Figure 8). Real jewels made the
parietal, temporal, occipital lobes generate higher powers and pictorial image gave higher power of the
frontal lobe(Figure 9).
4
180

160

140
3.5
120
Eva lua tio n

100

Power
80
3
60

40

20

2.5 0
Jewerly 1 Jewerly 2 Jewerly 3 Jewerly 4 FP2 F4 T4 P4 FP1 F3 T3 P3
De s ig n Channel

● : Images, ● : Real Jewels

Figure 6. Purchase Decision of Jewelry Figure 7. Purchase Decision of Channel

100 140

95
120

90
Power

Power

100

85

80
80

75 60
Left Right Prefrontal Frontal MID Temporal Parietal
Brain Area

● : Images, ● : Real Jewels ● : Images, ● : Real Jewels

Figure 8. Difference of the left and right for purchase Figure 9. Difference of the left and right for purchase

4. CONCLUSION
Jewelry products are not transacted actively on e-market although e-business has become very popular last
few years. We examined the possibility of the e-business for the jewelry products and found no different
preference and purchase decision between the picture image on e-business web site and real product of
mortal market for jewelry products.
Design was only factor to differentiate customers’ preference and purchase. E-business has potential
power to be a major jewelry market as e-business showed for other products. 3 dimensional and interactive
interfaces can give better cozy purchase environment to customers.
A brief acknowledgement section may be included here.

REFERENCES
Journal
Min Yoon-Ki and Kanghee Lee, 2000, The Comparison of EEG Changes in Performing EEG Interface GAme and
Computer Game, Korean Journal of The Science of Emotion & Sensibility, Vol 3. no. 1, pp 17~24
Oh Won-Tack, 2000, Realities and Developing Orientation of the Jewelry Industry in Korea, Journal of Korean Society
of Design Science, Vol.13 No.2, pp.55~63
Lee Hak-Ryul and Jun-Ho Kim, 2005, A Study on the Jewelry Buying of University Students, Korean Business
Education Association, Vol. 7, 12, pp 125~138

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RESEARCH ON RESEARCHER EVALUATION SYSTEM

WITH COOPERATIVE VIRTUAL CURRENCY

Akira Ide
Tokyo Metropolitan University

ABSTRACT
In this paper, I would like to represent new virtual currency system which is available for estimation for researchers. By
using this system, we can understand values of researchers exactly. Moreover, as subsidiary effects, human connections
on academic society could be shown clearly.

KEYWORDS
Virtual currency, Evaluation system

1. INTRODUCTION
As a traditional rule, evaluation of researchers in academic area has been done by citation. However, I
believe that this citation system has 4 big problems:
1. Especially in the area of social science and humanities, many citations are issued in order to criticize
former papers. Therefore, the number of citations may not reflect the evaluation of researchers.
2. We cannot appreciate unwritten former works or former comments which are enlightening.
3. Citation system cannot express how much each of the previous studies affects later research.
4. Though intellectual effects among researchers do not go one-way but rather complicated, it is difficult
to express this academic situation.
In this paper, to overcome the difficulties of these problems, I propose a new academic estimation system
with cooperative virtual currency including our appreciation.

2. BODY OF PAPER
The intellectual structure among researchers looks like “on the shoulder of giants” and knowledge is usually
not created individually. Moreover, the enlightening relationship is not simple but complicated as Fig.1
shows. In other words, while one researcher enlightens another researcher, the latter researcher may also
enlighten the former in the long run. Besides, to improve our researches, discussions at the conferences or
speeches from big scholars are needed in addition to actual former papers.

Figure 1 The Structure of Our Knowledge Flow

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Therefore, to visualize the academic effects among scholars and to appreciate people who inspired later
research, I suggest a virtual currency system which includes all members in one academic society.
The rule of this virtual currency system is as follows;
1. All members are given virtual money, for example “500 IEEE”
2. All members must give their own money to other members during a certain fixed period (eg.1year).
The money moves from the receiver of the inspiration to the person who inspired the presenter. The unit of
money is free. Member can either give their own money to only one person or divide their money into some
hundreds of people. But if the money does not move for a year, the effect of the currency expires.
3. Persons who receives this money can lay keep it for themselves or can hand it out to other researchers
again.

3. THE EXERCISING AND ANALYZING EFFECTS

What kinds of meaning should we give effects of fluency of money for one year? In my opinion, a researcher
who got much money can give an award to himself or herself, and if he or she is already one of the major
researchers, they may give young researchers new awards to develop new generation. Now, this virtual
currency has another merit besides evaluation for researchers. Please see Fig.2

Figure 2. Indirect School Effects: Big arrows represent intellectual effect,

and small arrows shows the flow of virtual currency.
In Japan, especially about law society, if researcher A and C belongs to each school and each school is
not friendly, there are scarcely cases that C cites A directly even in case of effects from A to C. If C is to cite
A, C would like to cite B who stands neutral and C wants to hide the effects from A. Thinking of present
citation system, it is difficult for us to find out effects from A to C. On the contrary, if my system is exercised,
we can see appreciation from B to A or academic effects from A to B. Moreover, we can also recognize
academic appreciation from C to B by means of virtual currency system. This is how, if the system shows
processes of fluency about virtual currency, we can understand directly that the origin of study of C is from A.
Until now, in the research for virtual currency, traceability has not been regarded important. However, it is
meaningful to trace fluency of virtual money in order to grasp the whole shape of system of intellect in
academic society.
Another merit about this system is to intercourse with other academic society easily as Fig3.shows, and
we can see the intercourse with virtual currency system. For instance, in the Fig,3 A,B and C are the member
of IEEE and D,E and F are the member of ACM. There are many cases that the member of IEEE effects on
the member of ACM, and we can see opposite case frequently.

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Figure 3. Intercourse Between Two Academic Societies (Big arrows show intellectual effects)
Even if the suggested system developed differently in each academic society, two different virtual
currencies can be exchanged by setting a kind of an “exchange rate” which will show the difference of value
among academic societies. For example, fixing an exchange rate between IEEE and ACM can be set into
10:8. This exchange system will lead to a system of intellectual intercourses over many academic societies.
For instance, in Fig3., B who is a member of IEEE inspired F who is a member of ACM, and the effects
reached to E and D. If D gives 40 acm(this is the currency unit) to B ,who inspired D, as his or her
appreciation, B can receive 50ieee(this also is a currency unit). This kind of point exchange system has
already been practiced in the mileage system or credit card points. In system like these, points tend to flow
into a system with higher profit rate. On the contrary, the new system circulates virtual currency to show
academic appreciation. Therefore, the circulation trends may be different from usual virtual currencies.

4. CONCLUSION
It is said that the essential function of currencies is to save, exchange and measure value. Until recently,
virtual currency system was assumed to be exchange to real currency. Therefore, even for the cooperative
behavior, it was difficult to deny its characteristic of commercialism. This new system is focusing on
“evaluation” and “appreciation”, and there is no relationship with real currency. Some may claim that this
proposed system is not a virtual currency. However, among academic researchers, evaluation has a close
relationship with income. This is why my system is connected with economic activities. Besides, in the real
world, money sometimes circulates to show appreciation or condolence even though monetarist texts do not
refer to such functions. In this circulation, many kinds of “feelings” can be seen and money also represents
these feelings. This new system has another meaning that traditional economics like financial or monetarism
has never dealt with, and that meaning may be one of the new essential values of money.
Issues to be addressed are:
1. How to give incentives for the active flow of virtual currency.
2. How to deal with life span of the currency
3. Consider if it good to release the route of flow to the public in terms of privacy.
These are clear and present problems for my research.

REFERENCES
Book
Brooks.C ,2008,Introductory Econometrics For Finance (Information Technology & Law S) Cambridge Univ Pr (Txp)
Nishibe.S, 2000, Ethics in Exchange and Reciprocity Trust, Cooperation and Competition- A Comparative Study (eds.
Shionoya, Y. and Yagi, K.), ch.4 Springer-Verlag

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DIGITAL DIVIDE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: LIBYA

AS A CASE STUDY

Khamis Faraj Alarabi

Faculty of teachers, Beniwalid
7th October University

ABSTRACT
Countries world wide complain at least of one kind of Digital divide aspects, developing countries in particular still
complain of many. In this paper, Libya as a developing country, has been chosen as a case study. DOI as a measurement
tool for ICT penetration was applied for Libya during the years 2004-2007 and it scored 0.97, 0.4 and 0.07 for the year
2007 for sub-indices Opportunity, Infrastructure and usage respectively [1]. This paper is focused mainly on the usage
area of IT in Libya and an attempt has been made to highlight the reasons that have restricted the use of internet Libya to
mere 4.3% of population. Information on the use of Internet across the country has been gathered through a questionnaire
distributed on-line to ICT specialists. The summarized results are presented at the end of the paper.

KEYWORDS
Digital divide, DOI, ICT.

1. INTRODUCTION
A World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), that was held by UN in 2003 and 2005 has
demonstrated the importance of ICT and its impact on people's lives; motivated the world to transfer towards
information society and explained that, the availability of ICT and expanding the internet benefits to
everyone creates and improves the Digital opportunity: the object Digital divide turned into. In most of the
developing countries, people first complain of the non-awareness of the importance of ICT and then they
complain of the lack of required technologies. In this paper, Libya has been chosen as a case study. Libya as
a developing country, tries to improve the digital opportunity and to narrow the digital divide as a result.

1.1 Libya at a Glance

Item 2008 Last date
Area 1,759,540 sq km
Population 6,000,000 (est.) 5,673,000 (2006) 60% are 15-64 years
Households 1,000,000 (est.) 963610 (2006)
Fixed phone Lines 750,000
Wireless lines 800,000
Mobile phone subscribers 6,000,000
Dial up internet subscribers 80,000 (Dec. 2007)
Broadband internet subscribers 15,636 (Dec. 2007)
Internet users 260,000 ( ITU) 4.3% of population
GDP per capita US $ 8,438 (2006)
Figure1. Libya at glance

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2. ICT IN LIBYA
Digital Opportunity Index (DOI) as a tool for tracking the progress in information societies was applied for
Libya in 2004, 2005 and 2005/06 by ITU [2].
The results obtained were compared to other results of success stories in developing countries as shown in
the following table:
Table 1. Sub-indices of Libya's DOI-2005/6 compared to other countries.
Economy Opportunity Infrastructure Usage DOI World rank
Korea 0.99 0.74 0.67 0.8 1
Morocco 0.89 0.16 0.37 0.47 68
Senegal 0.73 0.07 0.31 0.37 106
Libya 0.93 0.13 0.02 0.36 109
Although Libya has scored 0.93 for sub-index "opportunity", table (1) shows that Morocco and Senegal
have scored DOI better than Libya and ranked higher. The table also shows that Libya scored 0.13 for sub-
index "infrastructure", that is higher than Senegal, and a bit less than Morocco. On the other hand, Libya
scored only 0.02 for sub-index "usage", while Senegal and Morocco were much higher than it at 0.31 and
0.37 respectively. Morocco and Senegal have gained good score in this area because of the large number of
internet users. Where the real key to growth in internet use was the cyber cafés, which offer a high speed
internet for a little money.[2]
DOI was applied for Libya also in 2007[1]; the scores were obtained as shown in table (2).
Table 2. DOI components for Libya 2007
Economy Opportunity Infrastructure usage DOI
Libya 0.98 0.40 0.07 0.48
The table above shows that, the sub-index "usage" scored the lowest value at 0.07. That was mainly
because of the low number of individuals that used the internet. Therefore, the main problem that this paper
is focusing on is "Why Libya has so less number of internet users, while it has an excellent achievement in
the area of opportunity".

3. THE INTERNET USE IN LIBYA

3.1 Methodology
One of the challenges faced by Libyan government during implementation of development programs was the
arbitrary distribution of inhabitants on such wide area. This makes conducting of any global survey difficult.
Therefore, for collecting information about internet usage in Libya, a questionnaire was electronically
distributed to 123 ICT specialists across the country. They were either from academic or academic-related
fields, who were qualified with graduate or post-graduate degrees.
The questionnaire was composed of three categories of questions as following:
The first category was about the specialist himself and what he personally is using the internet for.
The second category was about the availability of internet and its services at the organization that the
person is working for. Here, Organizations only include: Universities, higher institutes, higher technical
centers, academic research centers and academies. The third category was about Libyan society, Libyans'
equality in the opportunities of internet access, and lastly about reasons they consider that led to the number
of internet users to be so low. The questionnaire in fact has another part that provides a possibility for adding
any related and useful information.

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3.2 Analyzing the Returned Questionnaires

Out of 123 questionnaires, only 111 were returned filled in. 12 questionnaires were ignored because the
respondents were not residents of Libya, and their answers will not reflect Libyans status. Thus only 97
questionnaires were considered for analysis.
The data collected present a summary of the facts that, all respondents have internet access at home and
they are using the internet quite often. The average of hours they spend on internet was 13 per week.
However, only half of them have used the internet for activities not related to their work. That means:
excluding their work-related usage, these people, who have skills and availability, are rarely using the
internet for other common purposes.
The results show that 73 % of organizations have websites but only 36 % of them have facilities of online
registration. Which means people will not have to access the internet for registration, as well as staff
members do not have their personal web pages for publishing their activities that include homework, notes,
lectures, etc. which encourage their students and others to get online access.
Results also show that, only 27 % of organizations introduce a kind of e-learning and 18 % of them have
online Forums on their websites. E-learning and online Forums are encouraging people to use the internet.
According to specialists, there is an inequality between rural and urban people in Libya with regard to
opportunity of Internet access. There exists a gender-based inequality too. 64 % of the respondents find that
religion and traditions of Libyan society set restrictions on Internet use by children.

4. CONCLUSION
ICT specialists have summarized the reasons that kept the number of internet users low on two main points:
The first is the non-awareness of internet benefits and its impact on all levels of people's lives.
The second is the lack of digital content that encourages people to use the internet.
Therefore, they suggest a strategy should be adopted and implemented to promote the internet usage and to
develop the digital content to include all aspects of people's activities.

REFERENCES
Alarabi, K., 2008, Digital opportunity in Libya and proposed strategy for improvement. Proceedings of the National
conference on information and communication technology, Tripoli, Libya, pp 148-156
ITU, 2007, World information society report, pp 47,153.
UN, 2006, World development indicators. 

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EVALUATION OF ONLINE THERAPY AS TRAINING

PROGRAM PSYCHOLOGY

Georgina Cárdenas López, Lorena A. Flores Plata, Anabel de la Rosa Gómez, Ximena Duran Baca
Virtual Teaching and Cyberpsychology. Faculty of Psychology
National Autonomous University of Mexico
Av. Universidad 3004, Col. Copilco-Universidad, CP 04510, México

ABSTRACT
Recently, computer-based treatment systems have been published with successful results. These new modalities are
increasingly applied for depression and anxiety disorders. These systems have not only reduced time and financial costs
of evaluation and analysis, but have also facilitated an alternative for helping psychologists to learn new competencies for
practice in the tele-health field. This paper will present results of the implementation and evaluation of a teaching
program, aimed at 17 Psychology students, that provides psychological services through Internet.

KEYWORDS
E-Therapy, education, treatment, behavioral-cognitive treatment, depression, anxiety.

1. INTRODUCTION
The evolution of ICT and particularly the growth of Internet have changed the way in which we
communicate and relate to each other. In recent years, it has been put emphasis on the integration of ICT in
various fields such as education and mental health.
In the mental health field, Online Psychotherapy is a concept often used. It emerged from the term
Behavioral Tele-health proposed by Nickelson in 1998 which implies the simple application of
telecommunications and technological information to provide behavioral health services. The main goal of
this paper is to describe the basic structure of a training program for clinical skills in distance psychotherapy.
The training program comprised of six units, lasted six months and is based on a model of professional
competencies. A pilot study with 17 Psychology student participants was implemented. Data from this pilot
study inform that the participants improved their clinical skills after finishing the program of training. With
regard to participant’s satisfaction with the training program, they consider that it is an innovative training
scenario for the development of its clinical skills. The possibility that higher education may count with this
program for student’s integral formation, in particular the linking between the theory and the practice
represents a great contribution.

2. BODY OF PAPER

2.1 Method
A pretest and posttest were designed to evaluate the knowledge acquisition and development of clinical
skills, were administered. The training program was evaluated in a pilot study as an educative option for the
professional development of psychology students and its effects on the acquisition of knowledge,
specifically, case formulation and adherence to the treatments protocols.

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Participants
17 students participated in the training. The average age was 22 years old and they were going into their
last year of study at university. In order to be selected, participants must have had a formation in the field of
clinical psychology, have attended previously or attending the following courses: introduction to
psychotherapy, psychometric diagnosis, integration of psychological tests, behavioral rehabilitation,
psychodynamics of groups and clinical interviews. It is preferred they have had some practice carrying out
therapy face-to-face. They also had to be familiar with the use of technologies.
Setting
The training was carried out in a multimedia classroom equipped with 27 personal computers, Internet
access, microphones, headsets and video conference cameras. This room has a monitoring system through
which supervision on real-time can be done.

2.2 Results
Initial results obtained from the pilot study based on conceptual and skills evaluations point out that initially
students had difficulties formulating a case study treatment according to the model of professional
competencies, which works based on four levels (Cárdenas et al., 2004). Most of the students covered up to
the second level of competencies, which include specific knowledge directly associated with each disorder,
diagnosis criteria and instruments used for its evaluation (Graph 1 and 2). In a qualitative evaluation, after the
training program, students indicated they felt more confident when taking care of a patient since they
considered they had enough knowledge to know what to do throughout treatment and they could be advised
should any doubt arise satisfaction with regard to aspects such as costs, program’s characteristics,
communication with the patient, scenario, functionality, system requirements and whether or not he would
recommend the modality to other clinicians.

Graph 1. Present the grades obtained by 17 students before and after the training program. Data shows an average
increment from 52 to 88% of correct answers

Graph 2. Shows the results from pre and post evaluation, concerning the dependent variable: therapeutic skills, taking
into consideration that 60.6% is considered as competent. Data shows an increment from 15.8% to 84.7% in clinical
skills at the end of the second semester of supervised practice after the theoretical training.

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3. CONCLUSION
The E-therapy as an innovative scenario for training clinical skills for Psychology students gives advantages
mainly to the student-therapist in this stage of formation or professional update. The use of the computer plus
communication via Internet facilitates the possibility of filing completely all communication maintained
between the psychologist and the patient.
The psychologist posses a digital record of the clinical material that the patient provides through e-mail or
messenger. This allows the therapist and his supervisor to make an analysis much more careful of the
direction of the problem in order to design more treatments that are effective and to carry out a more precise
pursuit to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment.
Another advantage for the therapists is that at any moment the supervisor can advise them. The supervisor
can guide them with regard to the decisions to take for the benefit of their patients.
This modality of psychotherapy that is simultaneously a training setting of clinical skills for the
psychologist, allows the therapists in the process of formation to have a first contact with the patient without
representing a highly stressing event for them, it represents a good alternative for the training with supervised
practice, which allows developing clinical skills.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Acknowledges: This project is funding by PAPIME Program of the UNAM. México.

REFERENCES
Cárdenas, G. et al, 2004. Desarrollo de ambientes virtuales para la enseñanza de competencias profesionales en el
tratamiento de fobias. En Memorias de Virtual Educa, Madrid, España.
Nickelson, W., 1998. Telehealth and the Evolving Health Care System: Strategic Opportunities for Professional
Psychology. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, Vol. 29, No. 6, pp. 527-535.

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A PARADIGM FOR RHETORICAL STRUCTURE THEORY

(RST) BASED RELATIONS TO ACCOMMODATE
MULTIMEDIA OBJECTS

Dr. Muhammad Shoaib and S.Khaldoon

College of Engineering and Computer Science
Florida Atlantic University Florida USA
Dept.of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Engineering & Technology
Lahore Pakistan

ABSTRACT
The types of digital data originated from different types of media are different in nature. Different types of relations exist
between the different multimedia objects. As rhetorical relations for RST are available for the text data only so there is
need of a paradigm of rhetorical relations for RST to accommodate the multimedia objects. A Multimedia Framework
(MF) has been presented. MF attempts to accommodate the extra features of the multimedia objects which the rhetorical
relations for the text can not. The rhetorical relations for multimedia objects along with their explanation have been
presented in the light of MF. Case study shows that the proposed relations can be used to capture the rhetorical relations
exist between multimedia objects. The further research can be carried out for using these relations for different
applications involved multimedia objects like filtering spam from E-mails containing text and image.

KEYWORDS
Rhetorical Relations, Multimedia Objects, MF

1. INTRODUCTION AND RELATED WORK

The Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) has been used by different researchers for different tasks which
involved the multimedia objects. Some of the work is reported as below.
Carenini et al., 1993;1990 use the RST for dialogue generate of 14th century frescoes from a multimedia
database. With Rhetorical Schemata the systems was not successful to generate the dialogue but also they
were successful in generating frescoes and film sequences [4].An other attempt was made by André and Rist
(1996) to generate multimedia presentations. He established the relations not only between text segments but
also within the parts of different media, such as pictures or labels for different parts of a picture[5].Many
researches focused on the documents rhetorical structure as input to the hypermedia devices. These include
Lloyd Rutledge, Jim Davis, Jacco van Ossenbruggen and Lynda Hardman (2000).They have done research
on framework for hypermedia communicative devices that simultaneously affects multiple dimensions of
presentation structure [6].Lindley et al (2001) presents his ideas for the applicability of RST to the generation
of an interactive news program including speech and images. They propose to produce video data in response
to a goal specified by the user. Different news segments can be produced, depending on different constraints
[7].The researches Jacco van Ossenbruggen, Joost Geurts, Frank Cornelissen, Lynda Hardman and Lloyd
Rocchi and Zancanaro (2003) propose the use of RST structure to produce summaries of different medium
like video documentaries [9]. Dong Zheng, Yan Liu, Jiying Zhao, and Abdul Motaled el Saddik (2007) in
their articles discuss in detail the work principles, embedding process, and detection process of the typical
RST invariant image watermarking algorithms and point out their advantages and disadvantages by analysis
and evaluation [10, 2].No reference have been found in the literature where a clear frame work for
multimedia relations have been given also the RST relations lack of basic information about the multimedia
objects.

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2. RHETORICAL RELATIONS FOR MULTIMEDIA OBJECTS

In order accommodate the multimedia objects we have to change the general format of the RST relations. To
accommodate all the types of multimedia objects as audio, video, text, graphics, and images etc the following

Span
format has1been proposed. Span 2
Ri
(Nucleus) (Satellites)

Multimedia
Framework (MF)
Then, for our proposed model for Multimedia Objects w.r.t. RST, will be:
(N, S(t, n), MFi) (i)
Where N is Nucleus; S(t, n) will be satellite or satellites to provide solutions for the large objects,
containing the text which provide support to nucleus where, ‘t’, is the text part in inverted commas, a word or
a sentence, related to the multimedia objects and ‘n’ describes the number of satellites to be affiliated with
the nucleus, starting from ‘0’(or) zero. So S(t, n) can described as: S(t, n) ={S(t, o), S(t, 1), …, S(t, ,n-1)}
MFi is Multimedia Frame work (MF) which is introduced to provide two basic features of multimedia
objects. i.e.; first one is its raw data of the object and second feature is its features associated with the
multimedia object. So MFi can be elaborated as follows:
Mi = (D ,f) (ii)
‘D’ raw data of the object. e.g JPEG,Image,or an MPEG and ‘f’ features associated with the multimedia
object.The nucleus will dealt with the information extracted from multimedia objects. The satellite part will
also be the text provided in the caption (or) characteristics extracted from Multimedia Objects. The
Multimedia Framework (MF) further will consists of raw data of the object and features associated with the
multimedia object. The reason for only induction of these two features is because they are the basic
parameters of any multimedia objects.

3. CASE STUDY
We take “Evidence” and “Motivation” RST Relations for our proposed paradigm. We take following
statements in our example:
1) Car is moving , Car is moving due to gas.,Car is HONDA Civic.
We have taken three statements to enquire the database or internet for query. Now this query can be extracted
from caption or characteristics of Multimedia objects
We will convert these statements into parts and try to describe “Evidence” and “Motivation” relations among
the statements as follows:
For the Evidence Relation:
Partition Description Spans
Car is moving Multimedia Object
Car moving Claim Nucleus
Action

Car is moving
Due to gas Evidence satellite; is
S(“car is moving)

Car is HONDA Civic Evidence satellite; is

S(“Car is HONDA Civic)

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In this case we are considering the both satellites as the evidence part of the nucleus which will be helpful
in searching our required query. We are considering the first statement due to two reasons as the other
statements come as support of the first statement and secondly it describes what we need to look in this
example an image (Multimedia Object). Partitioning the sentences or queries will enhance our searching
process.MF can be regarded in our example as we have located the any multimedia object over the internet.
Consider we have searched an image of following properties. i.e.; Image format JPEG and its size is 101 KB.
So our MF w.r.t. equation (ii) will become: Mi = (JPEG, White co lour shape is CAR etc)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work has the financial support of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan in the form of funds for
Post.Doc programme at Florida Atlantic University, Florida, USA.

REFERENCES
André, Elisabeth and Thomas Rist. (1996). “Coping with temporal constraints in multimedia presentation planning”,
Proceedings of Thirteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (Vol. 1, pp. 142-147). Portland, Oregon.
Dong Zheng, Yan Liu, Jiying Zhao, and Abdul Motaled el Saddik (2007) “A Survey of RST Invariant Image
Watermarking Algorithms” ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 39, No. 2, Article 5, Publication date: June 2007.
Jacco van Ossenbruggen, Joost Geurts, Frank Cornelissen, Lynda Hardman and Lloyd Rutledge Centrum voor Wiskunde
en Informatica (CWI), Amsterdam “Towards Second and Third Generation Web Based Multimedia” WWW10, May
15, 2001, Hong Kong. ACM 1581133480/ 01/0005.
Lloyd Rutledge, Jim Davis, Jacco van Ossenbruggen and Lynda Hardman “Inter-dimensional Hypermedia
Communicative Devices for Rhetorical Structure” CWI (Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica), P.O. Box 94079,
NL-1090 GB Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Mann, W.C., Thompson, S.A., “Rhetorical Structure Theory: Towards a Functional Theory Of Text Organization,” the
Journal Text, 8 (3). 1998, Pp 243-28.
Maite Taboada and William C. Man, “Rhetorical Structure Theory: Looking back and moving ahead”; published in
Discourse Studies 8 (3), 2006 , Sage Publications Ltd.
McKeown, Kathleen R. (1985). Text Generation: Using Discourse Strategies and Focus Constraints to Generate Natural
Language Text. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Modern Information Retrieval by Ricardo and Berthier: Second Edition; pages 156-157, Chapter 6: Text and multimedia
languages and properties.

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HOLISTIC APPROACH TO THE CONSUMPTION

MOTIVATIONS ON THE WEB: STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
OF THEIR COMPOSITION AND ONLINE BEHAVIOURAL
CONSEQUENCES

Katarzyna Skowronek-Duarte
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Doctoral Programme on Information and Knowledge Society
Edition 2008-2010

Written under the supervision of

Dr Inma Rodríguez-Ardura and Dr Francisco J. Martínez-López
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

ABSTRACT
This research project aims to analyze, theoretically and empirically, the consumers’ motivations in the Web. Based on a
holistic approach, a conceptual model of consumption motivations developed by Martínez-López et al. (2006) forms the
starting point of the project. As the paper of reference is purely theoretical, development and validation of measurement
scales for consumption motivations on the Web represents the primary objective of this research. Second main objective
consists of the empirical testing of the entire conceptual model.

KEYWORDS
Utilitarian/hedonic motivation; holistic perspective; SEM.

1. INTRODUCTION
Growing interest of potential buyers in the e-commerce contributes to its ever stronger position in the
retailing. On the other hand, as Rodríguez-Ardura and Martínez-López (2008) point out, strong and growing
competitive pressure which firms are subjected to seems to be pushing them into adopting more frequent and
aggressive conventional commercial practices, which do not satisfy consumer desires. Thus, it is of great
value to be able to correctly predict consumption behaviour of potential buyers and correspondingly adapt an
offer to their needs. The key to properly execute that lies in the understanding of customers’ motivations.
Although there are numerous references to the topic of consumption behaviours on Internet, little
attention has been paid to their underlying causes. Previous studies are either narrowed to the area of
shopping motivations only, or are limited in perspective to for example motivational aspects of particular
features of online shopping environment or to a standard set of motivations that supposedly characterise a
typical online shopper. Apart from the conceptual model of motivations for consumption behaviours on the
Web developed by Martínez-López et al. (2006), there is hardly any study that takes on a holistic approach to
the consumption motivations in this context.

2. CONCEPTUAL MODEL BY MARTINEZ-LOPEZ EL AL. (2006)

Theoretically, the model details different constructs and paths that together form a structure of online
consumption motivations and their behavioural outcomes (Figure 1). Taking on the aprioristic distinction
between utilitarian vs. hedonic consumption motivations, it analyzes their plausible antecedents and

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consequences. The construct proposed by Martínez-López et al. is important as it shows, in a comprehensive

manner, a complex character of consumer’s online experience.

Motivation: Motivation: Behaviour Output of the

Dimensions Meta- orientation in the consumption
dimensions Web experience in
the Web

Utilitarian

Dim Ut. 1

Dim Ut. 2 Utilitarian

.
.
Goal-directed

Dim Ut. k

Tendency to
buy during the
OSL FLOW process of
navigation
Hedonic

Dim He.1 Experiential

Dim He.2 Hedonic Browsing

Ongoing
. information Recreational
search
.

Dim He. q

Figure 1. Conceptual model

3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND HYPOTHESES

Realizing the importance of implications stemming from Martínez-López et al.‘s conceptual model, we
propose a research with the following primary objectives:
⇒ Development and validation of measurement scales for the consumption motivations on the Web.
⇒ Empirical analysis of the conceptual model.

3.1 Primary objective 1

Focal point of the conceptual model by Martínez-López et al. is marked by a distinction between two main
groups of consumption motivations, i.e., utilitarian vs. hedonic meta-dimensions. There has been a clear
tendency to formally distinguish categories relating to motivational aspects by making use of the terms
utilitarian vs. hedonic (see, as e.g.: Childers et al., 2001; Hoffman and Novak, 1996; To et al., 2007;
Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2001). The differential importance of utilitarian vs. hedonic dimensions in relation
to the online environment has been in focus for theoretical and empirical testing (Childers et al., 2001; To et
al., 2007). On the contrary, there has not been much interest in the specification of factors these constructs
are associated with. Apart from few attempts (Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2001), no empirical testing has been
undertaken to resolve this problem. Marketers usually characterize these two main categories of motivations
referring to consumers’ descriptions of online shopping experience, information on consumers’ online
browsing behaviour and findings on online and offline environments. What appears is that the accounts of
what online shoppers really desire are quite diverse in relation to the utilitarian motivations, and very limited
in relation to the hedonic motivations.

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Hence, the first question to ask in this context of analysis must address the specification of each of the
meta-dimensions in terms of defining parameters. This question presents a methodological challenge due to
limited number of available sources (e.g., Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2001) on dimensional aspects related to
the hedonic meta-dimension. With regards to the utilitarian meta-dimension, more references can be found in
studies on physical markets, as well as other market contexts closer to Web-based electronic markets, such as
in-home shopping methods; nevertheless there is no consensus as to what exactly defines this meta-
dimension.

3.2 Primary objective 2

The introductory phase to the empirical analysis of the conceptual model developed by Martínez-López et al.
consists in the formulation of the following hypotheses centred on the relationships among the model
constructs.
H1: Consumption motivations can be usually characterized by the tendency for dominance of one of
the meta-dimensions.
It has been previously suggested (see, as e.g.: Babin et al., 1994; Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982) that
consumers approaching a shopping environment differ in the benefits they seek. While some are more
focused on a quick accomplishment of a specified task (utilitarian aspect), others are interested in
entertainment and fun (hedonic aspect). With regard to this question, Martínez-López et al. proposed that
there is usually a dominant meta-dimension which initially defines an online behaviour orientation. It must be
noted here that such dominance is not regarded as an enduring predisposition of a consumer and may vary
depending on the time and circumstances of the development of one’s navigational process.
In the light of the differences of consumers’ motivations, a proposition of dominance of meta-dimensions
appears reasonable; nonetheless, it has not been explicitly suggested before in relation to the online shopping
environment. The few previous considerations specific to the online context are either narrowed in scope to
shopping motivations only (To et al., 2007), or take no notice of the constancy and/or concomitance aspects
of motives ascribed to the consumer types (Childers et al., 2001; To et al., 2007; Wolfinbarger and Gilly,
2001). Furthermore, as has been already mentioned, there are no measures of utilitarian and hedonic
motivations that would give support to the existing claims of concomitance relations of meta-dimensions. It
is however important to verify if the suggested tendency exists, as it may imply differences in behaviours on
the Web resulting from different perceptions of value from a session of network navigation.
H2a: Utilitarian meta-dimension leads to goal-directed behavioural orientation.
H2b: Hedonic meta-dimension leads to experiential behavioural orientation.
Several studies on consumer behaviour in the Internet have identified two broad categories of behaviours
in which consumers engage during time spent on the Web, i.e. goal-directed vs. experiential behaviours
(Hammond et al., 1998; Hoffman and Novak, 1996, 1997; Novak et al. 2000; Smith and Sivakumar, 2001;
Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2001). Differentiation between the two categories is usually linked to the influence
of certain motivations or benefits sought in online shopping. Whereas goal-directed behaviour is thought to
be driven by specific task-completion goals, experiential behaviour is associated with benefits of excitement,
surprise, spontaneity and fun. Perhaps, owing to the fact that the relation between consumption behaviours on
the Web and specific motivations seems quite obvious, only few exploratory studies have successfully
managed to actually demonstrate existence of such relations (Mathwick et al., 2002; Wolfinbarger and Gilly,
2001). Thus, we intend to test the above hypotheses, expecting goal-directed behaviour to correlate highly
with utilitarian meta-dimension whereas exploratory behaviour with the hedonic one.
H3: Differences in behavioural orientations are a direct consequence of the differences in the intensity
of initial motivations.
Although the differentiation between goal-directed and experiential behaviour on the Web has been
acknowledged (Hammond et al., 1998; Hoffman and Novak, 1996, 1997; Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2001),
relatively little attention has been devoted to the topic of concomitance between these two constructs. It has
been supported (Novak et al., 2000) that consumer’s early Web experiences are more likely to be
characterized by an experiential, time-passing quality, but that over time, Web navigation evolves and
becomes more goal-directed (Hoffman and Novak, 1996). Unlike in the theoretical framework (Hoffman and
Novak, 1996), in the examination (Novak et al., 2000) no reference has been made to the motivational
aspects which initially define behaviour orientation.

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Martínez-López et al. made such reference by turning to considerations on concomitance of utilitarian

and hedonic meta-dimensions. They suggest that, “as a consequence of the differences in the intensity of
initial motivations [i.e. dominance of a meta-dimension], there should be a dominant [consumer’s behaviour]
orientation when starting the process of navigation” (Martínez-López et al., 2006, p. 11). Such perspective is
significant inasmuch as it focuses not only on the online consumption behaviour orientations but also on their
plausible causes.
H4: Greater flow state leads to the maintenance or development of exploratory behaviour.
Martínez-López et al. include in their model concept of flow state with regard to its plausible influences
on consumers’ navigational processes. Hoffman and Novak define flow as a cognitive state experienced
during navigation which “involves merging of actions and awareness, with concentration so intense that there
is little attention left to consider anything else” (1996, p. 58). There are also other studies on consumer
behaviour on the Web (see, as e.g.: Korzaan, 2003; Luna et al., 2002; Mathwick and Rigdon, 2004; Novak et
al., 2000, 2003; Smith and Sivakumar, 2004) that focus on the concept of flow state. Some of the studies
relate flow to the development of experiential behaviours (Hoffman and Novak, 1996; Korzaan, 2003). More
recent evidence, however, suggests that flow occurs during both experiential as well as goal-directed types of
activities, though proof is stronger in the second type (Novak et al., 2003). Yet another study (Novak et al.,
2000) presents quite complex results on the relationship of flow to exploratory behaviour. Although initially
support is found in the base model for the suggested relationship, in the revised model it is not. So it is not
determined by the study whether exploratory behaviour is best modelled as an outcome of flow. Several
studies on flow in human-computer interactions, not necessarily consumption oriented, indicate to the
increased exploratory behaviour as a consequence of flow (e.g., Ghani and Deshpande, 1994; Webster et al.,
1993). In response to the above findings, Martínez-López et al.’s proposition to associate higher flow states
with experiential behaviour seems well-founded. To verify if such a tendency exists, we set forth hypothesis
H4.
H5: Greater OSL level corresponds to greater exploratory behaviour.
This hypothesis relates to Martínez-López et al. theoretical considerations on the influence of consumer’s
optimum stimulation level (OSL) on the tendency to develop exploratory behaviour on the Web. The idea
behind OSL theories is that “an intermediate level of stimulation obtained from the environment corresponds
to the most favourable affective reaction” (Hoffman and Novak, 1996, p. 61). There is general agreement that
the higher a person’s specific need for stimulation, the greater the extent to which s/he will engage in
exploratory behaviour (see, as e.g.: Raju, 1981; Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1992). This relates to the
assumption that exploratory behaviour provides the consumer with a means of increasing stimulation
(Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1992). So far, the hypothesized tendency between OSL level and exploratory
behaviour has not been examined in the Web context.
H6: Greater OSL level corresponds to the development of (greater) flow state.
It has been suggested that people with higher OSLs are more likely to experience flow during the process
of navigation on the Web (Hoffman and Novak, 1996). In other words, they tend to be more focused when
performing the process of navigation. Novak et al. (2000) found that focused attention influences flow
indirectly through telepresence and time distortion. In the same study however no evidence was found of the
direct link between focused attention and greater flow. In the absence of further empirical testing on that
matter and with the ultimate object of verifying the entire conceptual model we set forth hypothesis H6.
H7: Tendency to buy will be greater for consumers whose navigational pattern is goal-directed than
for those who engage predominantly in exploratory behaviour.
The consumer choice process can be either goal-directed or oriented to navigational choices (Hoffman
and Novak, 1996). The first one is a consequence of an immediate decision problem which needs to be
solved. Navigational choices on the other hand are closely linked to affective, exploratory aspects of human
behaviour. Whereas in the goal-directed behaviour the outcome is what matters most, in the exploratory
behaviour it is the process itself, regardless what outcomes it leads to. Hence, it is reasonable to think that
goal-directed behaviour driven by utilitarian benefits and characterized by strong situational involvement (i.e.
goal-directed flow) is more likely to finish with a purchase as compared with experiential behaviour
(Hoffman and Novak, 1996). Yet, in the case of multi purpose navigational patterns or experiential
behaviours of product enthusiasts and recreational shoppers other scenarios can be equally feasible. In the
light of the diversity of consumer responses to the Web offerings, it is important that we contrast our future
research data with the proposed hypothesis.

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4. METHODOLOGY
In order to examine and define the phenomena of online consumption motivations, at first we will apply a
qualitative exploration. Two types of qualitative methods will be used: personal interviews with experts on e-
commerce, followed by focus group discussions. Obtained results supplemented by analysis of findings from
previous studies should lead to a proposal of motivations integrating every meta-dimension. Next step will
consist in the development of multi-item measurement scales relating to utilitarian and hedonic meta-
dimensions. Proceeded by exploratory factor analysis, the structure of the scales will be assessed for
reliability through SEM-Lisrel application.
Next, the following steps will be applied for testing the conceptual model by Martínez-López et al.:
1. Summary of the key features of Martínez-López et al.’s conceptual model.
2. Definitions and operationalization of constructs (application of measurement scales).
3. Consideration of moderator variables and specification of testable hypotheses.
4. Development of survey instrument (proceeded by small-scale pretests and large-scale pilot test).
5. Data collection. Population: experienced e-consumers. Sample: min. 400 individuals. Survey format:
electronic, most likely Web fill-out form.
6. Analysis of results. Testing of the conceptual model through the use of SEM.

REFERENCES
Babin, B. et al, 1994. Work and/or fun: measuring hedonic and utilitarian shopping value. Journal of Consumer
Research, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 644-656.
Childers, T. et al, 2001. Hedonic and utilitarian motivations for online retail shopping behaviour. Journal of Retailing,
Vol. 77, No. 4, pp. 511-535.
Ghani, J.A. and Deshpande, S.P. (1994) ‘Task characteristics and the experience of optimal flow in human-computer
interaction’, Journal of Psychology, Vol. 128, No. 4, pp. 381-391.
Hammond, K. et al, 1998. Fun and work on the Web: differences in attitudes between novices and experienced users.
Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 372-378.
Hirschman, E.C. and Holbrook, M.B., 1982. Hedonic consumption: emerging concepts, methods and propositions.
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 46, No. 3, pp. 92-101.
Hoffman, D. and Novak, T., 1996. Marketing in hypermedia computer-mediated environments: conceptual foundations.
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 60, No. 3, pp. 50-68.
Hoffman, D. and Novak, T., 1997. A new paradigm for electronic commerce. The Information Society, Vol. 13, No. 1,
pp. 43-54.
Korzaan, M.L., 2003. Going with the flow: predicting online purchase intentions. Journal of Computer Information
Systems, Summer, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 25-31.
Martínez-López, F.J. et al, 2006. Motivations for consumption behaviours on the Web: a conceptual model based on a
holistic approach. International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 3-20.
Mathwick, C. et al, 2002. The effect of dynamic retail experiences on experiential perceptions of value: an Internet and
catalogue comparison. Journal of Retailing, Vol. 78, No. 1, pp. 51-60.
Novak, T. et al, 2000. Measuring the consumer experience in online environments: a structural modelling approach.
Marketing Science, Vol. 19, No.1, pp. 22-42.
Novak, T. et al, 2003. The influence of goal-directed and experiential activities on online flow experiences. Journal of
Consumer Psychology, Vol. 13, No.1/2, pp. 3-16.
Raju, P.S., 1981. Theories of exploratory behaviour: review and consumer research implications. Research in Marketing,
Vol. 4, pp. 223-249.
Rodríguez-Ardura, I. and Martínez-López, F.J., 2008. Playing cat and mouse: consumer empowerment and marketing
interactions on the Internet. International Journal of Business Environment, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 201-214.
Steenkamp, J-B.E.M. and Baumgartner, H., 1992. The role of optimum stimulation level in exploratory consumer
behaviour. Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 434-488.
To, P. et al, 2007. Shopping motivations on Internet: a study based on utilitarian and hedonic value. Technovation, Vol.
27, No. 1, pp. 774-787.
Wolfinbarger, M. and Gilly, M., 2001. Shopping online for freedom, control, and fun. California Management Review,
Vol. 43, No.2, pp. 35-55.

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ENGINEERS’ WORK AS INFORMATIZED WORK -

TRAJECTORIES IN AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERING

Mascha Will-Zocholl
Technische Universität Darmstadt
Post Graduate School „Topology of Technology“
Karolinenplatz 5 (P.O. Box 1404)
D-64289 Darmstadt
Germany

ABSTRACT
Engineers are confronted with changes in the nature of their work caused by technological innovations and restructuring
of organizational boundaries. The use of modern information and communication technologies and new construction
software is leading to the evolution of new working methods. Collaborative engineering methods are being increasingly
applied and global engineering seems to be a reachable goal. Computer-supported collaborative working tools should
bring people together in virtual spaces. Engineering seems to be becoming spatially flexible: anytime – anyplace. This
will have consequences for their work and the international division of labor. This case study analyzes relevant aspects of
engineering in the German automobile industry.

KEYWORDS
Informatization, Collaborative Engineering, Global Engineering, eWork

1. INTRODUCTION
This paper presents the first empirical evidence from my dissertation project “Knowledge work in the
automobile industry – local and global challenges for engineers” located at the Graduate School “Topology
of Technology” at the TU Darmstadt. The dissertation analyses how work in engineering is currently
changing in the German automobile industry and it describes their consequences in the context of
informatization , internationalization and standardization.
The project is embedded in current discussions about transforming societies from post-industrial into
information or knowledge societies . Knowledge work is considered to be both an indicator for the status
of social change and transformations in the mode of employment.
My key question is how the nature of engineers’ work changes through the use of new technologies and
as a result of the restructuring of organizational boundaries . Which consequences for engineers and the
international division of engineers’ work emerge from these changes and thus, which trajectories will form
the basis for future developments?

1.1 Changes in Engineers’ Work

Engineering in the automobile industry, a very innovative industry, is closely connected with the use of
technological innovations. According to engineers’ work as informatized work, tendencies of standardization
play an important role. The use of modern technologies, i.e. software, information and communication
technologies, as it is widespread in all engineering disciplines has fundamentally transformed the work of
engineers engaged in product development processes in the automobile industry. The product development
process has been completely virtualized. Models are no longer designed on the drawing-board, but created
and simulated by the use of digitized 3D-Models. These 3D-CAD models are used to create digital mock ups
(DMU) which are to be used to simulate future functions of the single components and the whole product as
a virtual prototype.

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The virtualization leads to the simulation of virtual production plants integrating all relevant areas like
production, controlling, logistics, finance and marketing [17]. The digitalization of construction data can be
seen as a crucial precondition for the increase of engineering outsourcing. As a consequence of internal
organizational restructuring and emerging organizational networks the content of engineering tasks has
changed. Today, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are important tools for cooperation,
not only with other departments or with other sites of the company, but also with suppliers and service
companies that all work together in distributed teams. An IAO Study found out that creative construction
tasks were increasingly replaced by communication and coordination tasks. In contrast documentation tasks
have increased as a consequence of distributed work [18].

1.2 Restructuring of Automobile Engineering

The trajectories are influenced by engineering outsourcing processes. Especially Original Equipment
Manufacturers (OEMs), have restricted and continue to restrict the scope of engineering. This is realized by
outsourcing more and more engineering units to their suppliers or by contracting engineering services from
engineering service providers. Engineering outsourcing is practiced in national and international contexts,
leading to collaboration between the different players. These collaboration processes are supported by several
collaboration tools used at the interfaces. Global and local engineering networks emerge between OEMs and
system and module suppliers, OEMs and complete and special engineering service providers as well as
system and module suppliers and part and component suppliers or special engineering service providers
[10][12].
While collaborative engineering has become a popular working method in multinational and national
companies, global engineering is supposed to be the next step forward in the future of engineering. Global
engineering is the glittering vision of efficient and optimized engineers’ work: engineers all over the world
collaborate to work non-stop on a single component of a product [13]. Concepts of global engineering
suggest that engineering will become spatially flexible and this has been adopted optimistically by the
management of companies, organizations, and even at universities.
One aim of the dissertation will be to find out if engineering will become spatially flexible and if not
which role regional and international locations will play when engineering is outsourced. Further, I want to
examine how the division of labor is organized among the engineering partners.
Besides the specific restructuring processes in the automobile industry the companies of all industries
have to deal with challenges. The new level of informatization and globalization reached by the companies
which went global has led to perpetuated reorganization processes. These can be characterized by
decentralization and re-centralization [14] processes as well as market orientation [15]. On the one hand
companies are being structured complying to market conditions and on the other hand an internal market is
created in which corporate units compete. Market principles replace hierarchical control. A new mode of
surveillance and regulation appears. Indirect regulation is discussed as a keyword of this development. That
is to manage the company by business ratios and head counts. Closely connected with indirect regulation is
the self-organization of the employees. This means that they have to take over the responsibility and
organization of their own work and become entrepreneurs in an enterprise [14][15].
The case study analyzes which restructuring processes in the automobile enterprises are related to the
general restructuring processes and which ones are caused by engineering outsourcing, Engineering
outsourcing is closely connected to an increase of interfaces among the engineering partners. Processes of
organizational restructuring are reflected in organizational structures, process- and project-management,
cooperation processes, etc. These issues are the field of study to trace the trajectories of engineering
outsourcing.
The implications of the organizational restructuring result in manifold changes in engineers’ work
organization. Besides the many challenges caused by new technologies and organizational restructuring that
have arisen, the effects of increasing number of interfaces as well as the changing tasks with different
requirements is becoming the center of attention of the study. How do the employees deal with the changes in
their daily work and what are the consequences for their working capacity [4]?

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2. METHODOLOGY AND SAMPLE ENTERPRISES

To investigate changes and challenges in engineers’ work in automobile engineering, the dissertation is based
on case studies and pursues a multi-method approach. To draw a picture of recent developments in the
automobile industry statistical data and documents are analyzed. The analysis of structures and strategies in
the case studies these are combined with qualitative interviews targeting experts in engineering management.
In this first phase also experts in academic research institutions and in unions are interviewed. In the second
phase guided qualitative interviews with engineers working in engineering centers are used to analyze their
work and their attitudes. The expert interviews will be analyzed by means of a qualitative content
analysis[19].
In this paper, I will focus on the interviews in the development and construction departments at two
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). These departments were selected because here the use of new
technologies and the restructuring of organizational boundaries goes along with substantial changes in the
nature of engineers’ work. The first OEM is an American-based mass car maker which aggregates 13 brands
worldwide. They own 13 engineering center in four global engineering regions. The European region has
three locations and is governed by the German location. The company is organized globally from the United
States and follows a platform strategy. The responsibility for car projects is distributed by car size among the
engineering regions. The second OEM (OEM2) is a German premium car maker with two consolidated
brands. Eight engineering centers are distributed worldwide focusing on specifications and country-specific
applications. The German engineering is the center of their engineering strategy in which a platform strategy
plays a minor role.

3. FIRST FINDINGS
From a series of expert interviews with senior managers from two OEMs, an American-based mass producer
(OEM1) and a German premium car company (OEM2), unionists from the Metalworkers’ Union executive
board (IG Metall), scientists from the WZ Berlin and the ISF Munich, I obtained initial empirical evidence
about strategies which the German automobile industry uses to deal with the increasing pressure of
globalization. A period of spending more and more money in research and engineering centers was followed
by stagnation of expenses at a high level . Today, the OEMs try to drastically cut their engineering costs
per car project. Due to new players in the field of engineering, especially in the emerging markets of China
and India, they are still seeking “the” strategy.

3.1 Organizational Settings in the Sample Entreprises

Today, the OEMs are trying to drastically cut their engineering costs per car project. Due to new players in
the field of engineering, especially in the emerging markets of China and India, they are still seeking “the”
strategy. OEM1 follows an international engineering strategy which integrates all captive engineering centers
in the four engineering regions of the world. Every car development project has a home room for
engineering, but all regions are involved in creating the new models. They distribute work labeled “brand
identity building” among their captive engineering centers. As a consequence of their international structure
engineering, OEM1 is organized in a matrix with a global and a regional axis. Global harmonization of
processes takes the center stage of the restructuring effort. This decides which processes should be
standardized globally and which processes must be adapted locally. OEM2 pursues an engineering strategy
concentrated in Germany, mostly working with suppliers and engineering service providers located nearby,
in Germany and Austria. They realize the “brand identity building” components in their German research and
development center. Their organizational structure is very centralized and hierarchically even though car
projects were organized in a project matrix. OEM2 has also tried to standardize processes as well but is not as
consistent as OEM1. Their focus is on avoiding doing things twice.
Both OEM1 and OEM2 outsource their engineering. While OEM1 has the opportunity to distribute work
among the captive engineering centers around the world, OEM2 relies completely on its partners along the
value chain. Both have projects and modules or components engineered by suppliers and engineering service

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companies. The strategies of the two OEMs are aimed at reducing the overall engineering time. However,
whether they really save money is questionable, due to the additional costs for technological systems (e.g.
video conferencing), new software and data systems, higher travel expenses as well as solving
communication problems occurring in intra- and inter-organizational project teams.
When asked about the vision of “Global Engineering” in the context of 24-hr-engineering of one
component around the world, the interviewees mentioned that they do not believe that this can be realized for
several reasons (e.g. construction processes are creative and cannot be standardized as they should be). In
addition, even the technological prerequisites are not sufficiently developed to implement the in-time transfer
of the huge data quantities involved. Realizing that global engineering in this sense remains a “vision”; both
companies are using a “follow the sun approach” in arranging for simulations, calculations, etc., to be done in
India. Because of the time difference between Germany and India, they receive the data they sent in the
German evening the following morning, they then can continue working without losing any time waiting for
the results.

3.2 Challenges for Engineers

The interviews with engineers from both case companies working in product development showed that
engineers are trying to deal with these issues and the strategic guidelines of their companies in their own
way. They experience this situation as one of heavily increased time pressure because of simultaneous
engineering concepts and the increase of additional tasks needed to organize the distributed work. They are
now faced with an increase in the complexity of their work. In order to work together successfully in spatial
flexible contexts, they mention trust as a crucial condition when asked about working in distributed teams.
Hence the interviewees attach a special value to face-to-face-meetings, even though the time consuming
traveling activities make it even more difficult to fulfill their ambitious working objectives. New
collaboration technologies, e.g. virtual team spaces, etc. have not replaced the “old” ones like telephone
conferences and face-to-face-meetings yet. The new technologies are regarded as not flexible enough and not
apt to simulate the situation of meeting face-to-face. This seemed to be based on the existing skepticism
towards computer supported visualizations and on the missing of informal structures in virtual contexts. The
handling of communication tools differs from the intension of the innovators due to these reasons.

4. CONCLUSIONS
Concerning engineering outsourcing strategies it could be said that for the moment the division of labor is
more regional than international. Only the mass car producer (OEM1) has an international engineering
strategy, mainly it is an American-based company with brands and captive engineering centers all over the
world. But in effect the German engineering center of OEM1 distributes its work more regionally than
globally. The suppliers and the engineering service providers they contract are located close-by. By contrast,
the second car maker has no international strategy in engineering concentrating instead on the local or nearby
players. Engineering processes remain locally bounded in regional engineering networks. The amount of
engineering outsourcing in the case of the two OEMs to low cost countries, e.g. to India, is not very high at
present time. But outsourcing of highly standardized tasks appears to be a perspective for future
developments.
In addition to problems of working in diverse countries and the fact that contact persons change
frequently, the complexity of engineers’ work appears to be the major obstacle in regard to the challenges.
These issues and the questions drafted in the introduction will be the focus of the work in progress with
further analysis and four more sample enterprises.

REFERENCES
Schmiede, R., 2006. Knowledge, Work and Subject in Informational Capitalism. In: Berleur, J.; Nurminen, M.I.;
Impagliazzo, J. (Eds.). Social Informatics – An Information Society for All?, pp. 333-354. Springer Science and
Business Media, Heidelberg

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Boes, A. and Kämpf, T., 2007, The nexus of informatisation and internationalisation – a new stage in the
internationalisation of labour. In: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, Vol. 1, Issue 2, pp. 193-208
Castells, M., 1996. The Rise of the Network Society, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Vol. I.
Cambridge, MA; Oxford, UK: Blackwell
Pfeiffer, S., 2004. Arbeitsvermögen, Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden
Marchington, M., Grimshaw, D. and Rubery, J., 2005. Fragmenting Work. Blurring Organizational Boundaries and
Disordering Hierarchies. Oxford UP, Oxford (2005)
Jürgens, U., 2004. An Elusive Model – Diversified quality Production and the Transformation oft he German Automobile
Industry. In: Competition & Change, Vol.8, Issue 4, pp. 411-423
VDA, 2007. Autojahresbericht, Frankfurt/Main
Becker, H., 2007. Ausgebremst. Wie die Autoindustrie Deutschland in die Krise fährt, Ullstein, Berlin
Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft, 2007. Statistik FuE-Aufwendungen, Frankfurt
VDA, 2004. Future Automotive Industry Structure (FAST) 2015 – die neue Arbeitsteilung in der Automobilindustrie.
Materialien zur Automobilindustrie 32. Frankfurt/Main
Womack J.P., Jones, D.T., Roos, D., 1990. The machine that changed the world. Rawson Ass., New York
Schamp, E. W., Rentmeister, B. and Lo, V., 2004. Dimensions of Proximity in Knowledge-based Networks: The Cases of
Investment Banking and Automobile Design. In: European Planning Studies Vol. 5, Issue 12, pp. 607-624
Bichler, D., 2001. 24-Stunden-Entwicklung. In: Die Welt vom 20.04.2001, p. 29
Sauer, D., 1999. Corporate Reorganization. Human Resource Management and the Flexibilization of Work and
Employment. A German View. Contribution to the International Conference on Business Transformation and Social
Change in East-Asia (II) Taichung/Taiwan
Moldaschl, M., 1998. Changing Organizational Structures – A Socio-political Perspective. In: Scherer, E (ed.): Shop
Floor Scheduling and control – A Systems Perspective. London/Berlin. pp. 67-90
Kühl, S., 2000. Grenzen der Vermarktlichung, Die Mythen um unternehmerisch handelnde Mitarbeiter. In: WSI-
Mitteilungen, Issue 12, pp. 818-828
Anderl, R., 2006. Produktentwicklung in der Automobilindustrie, In: Baukrowitz, A.; Berker, T.; Boes, A.; Pfeiffer, S.;
Schmiede, R. and Will, M. (Eds.): Informatisierung der Arbeit - Gesellschaft im Umbruch. edition sigma, Berlin
Bullinger, H.-J., Kiss-Preußinger, E., Spath, D., 2003. Automobilentwicklung in Deutschland – wie sicher ist die Zukunft?
Chancen , Potentiale und Handlungempfehlungen für 30 Prozent mehr Effizienz, rgb Verlag, Stuttgart
Mayring, Ph., 2000. Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. Deutscher Studien Verlag, Weinheim

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E-GOVERNMENT IN KUWAIT: A MODELING

FRAMEWORK

Rachid Meziani
Laboratoire Paragraphe Université de Paris 8
Université de Paris 8 - 2, rue de la Liberté 93526 Saint-Denis Cedex 02

ABSTRACT
E-government or electronic government is a fundamentally new integrated way of providing public services through the
optimum use of ICT. This research will attempt to propose an e-government model based on Singapore experience,
which is at the cutting-edge of knowledge in this domain; an end-to-end solution which could be ultimately implemented
in Kuwait or any other similar country. This research will tackle two main parts: (1) Part I will focus on the strategy and
planning by proposing an e-government model based on the experience of Singapore and the constraints and specificities
of Kuwait (2) Part II will focus on the process modeling and implementation by proposing a modeling framework.

KEYWORDS
E-government, Kuwait, e-government framework, process modeling, modeling framework

1. INTRODUCTION
E-government or electronic government is a fundamentally new integrated way of providing public services
through the optimum use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The e-government reflects
the final visions in order to modernize and reorganize the public administrations and governments (Wimmer
and Krenner, 2001).
E-government applications are known as being rather complex as a number of actors (citizens, clerks,
authorities, etc.), different business processes and heterogeneous technologies have to be integrated.
Following this fact and due to a currently running modernization issue of public administrations, an urgent
need for a model-based transformation of traditional public services towards web-supported service provision
rises. With fast changing business conditions and the requirements of the public sector for an appropriate tool
for the depiction of e-government processes the complexity to find an appropriate solution for each
application area rises tremendously (Karagiannis and Palkovits, 2003) (Silke and Wimmer, 2003).
Singapore e-government is an experience and a model at the cutting-edge of knowledge, based on key
success factors, required and needed for any new e-government initiative. These success factors, allowed to
radically transform Singapore to an "intelligent island" of the 21st century, where the e-Economy will be the
central piece of the economical development plans and the e-Society will be the inclusive community of
citizens and residents (Chung, 2007) (Lim and Low, 2003).
On the other side, a small country in the Gulf region, namely Kuwait, is at the starting point of the e-
government initiative. Kuwait has many similarities with Singapore, such as the country area, the number of
inhabitants, the GDP, the political structure where all decisions are centralized, and many others, all of which
make Singapore e-government model as a base reference for Kuwait to start with. This model will be based
initially on the Singapore key success factors, risks and lessons learned during this journey.
The main objective of this research is to propose an e-government modeling framework for Kuwait based
on Singapore experience; an end-to-end solution which may ultimately be implemented. This research project
will tackle two main parts:
• The first one (Part I) will focus on the strategy and the planning
• The second part will focus on the technical aspect, modeling and implementation
The next sections are organized as follow: section 2 presents the Singapore e-government story and its
key success factors, section 3 defines the needs of process modeling in an e-government initiative and sets

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the boundaries of the process modeling, section 4 describes the approach and research methodology, while
section 5 draws a preliminary conclusion.

2. SINGAPORE E-GOVERNMENT JOURNEY

Singapore's success as one of the most important e-government provider goes beyond offering government
services with technology; it involved also a tremendous effort to reform the public administration, which
leads to important structural and operational changes.
The journey started with the vision and leadership of the PAP (People's Action Party) which knew how to
maintain the drivers of the power and economy for more than thirty years, and lead the way to national plans
that go beyond the e-government initiative (Kieron, 2005).
At the beginning of the eighties, the PAP initiated a big National Computerization Plan (NCP) (Chung,
2007) (Yew, 2000). The objective of this plan was to kick-off a new industry based on the Information and
Communication Technology (ICT), as such; the priority was given to the training of professionals in ICT.
One of the most important decisions with its ramifications was the computerization of the civil id service in
1982. Many schemas and plans followed the NCP and all with the objective of awareness in ICT in
governments, the industry, and citizens and mostly for the digital divide bridging (Weiling et al., 2006).
During the nineties, Singapore developed a solid ICT industry, which helped putting in place the NII
(National Information Infrastructure). This plan connected computers in each school, office and house, and
allowed the access and the assimilation of information coming from different sources (Tan and Yong, 2005)
(Chung, 2007).
Being ready and prepared for an IT-literate community, e-government developed quickly with a very high
uptake rate. In 2003, approximately 68% of income taxes were filled electronically through IRAS (Inland
Revenue Authority of Singapore). In 2005, 95% of services that could be delivered electronically were online
(Chee-Wee and al. 2003).
The actual iGov2010 plan is part of the master plan of ten years IN2015 (Intelligent Nation). This plan
has an objective to integrate governments to better serve the citizen and connects the citizens. Moving from
E-government to I-government symbolises a shift in focus from the means (electronic) to the outcome
(Integrated Government) (IDA, 2006):

2.1 Key Success Factors

Singapore is one of the leader and most innovative in e-government domain. Its unique experience and
success make it a model for any country starting this path necessary for the digital economy of the 21st
century. Singapore's success was build upon key factors which could be used as a base for any new initiative
in general and Kuwait in particular. These key success factors are summarized as follow (Chung, 2007)
(IDA, 2008):
ƒ Clear Long-Term Vision and Goals
Singapore's success in e-government came at first from the solid leadership and the clear long-term vision
of its government. The PAP (People's Action Party) vision and objectives were clearly defined, planned and
carried on major national plans since the beginning of the eighties, which paved the way for the e-
government initiatives (Kieron, 2006). The e-government vision and objectives were clearly defined and all
stakeholders were invited to contribute on a common objective (Yew, 2000).
ƒ Government commitment and financing
The government created a dedicated organization for the development and the supervision of public
sector computer systems. Government plans gradually focused on the improvement of work through
computerization (CSCP: Civil Service Computerization Programme), the creation of an online network for
administration services (eGAP I: e-Government Action Plan I), the improvement of administration services
quality (eGAP II: e-Government Action Plan II), and it continues to consolidate the back-end services with
the actual master plan iGov2010. The financial commitment was strong, as the government allocated a total
of $1 bln for the eGAP I over a period of three years, $923 mln for e-GAP II over a period of three years, and
allocated a $1.4 bln over five years for iGov2010 (Lim and Low, 2003).

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ƒ Dedicated organization (NCB/IDA) to manage the strategic planning and its execution
In 1999, the National Computer Board (NCB) and Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS)
were merged to create the Infocomm Authority of Singapore (IDA), to lead the development and the
promotion of information and telecommunication and unify their governmental supervision (Hioe, 2001).
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) was designated as the sole authority in providing and approving the funding
of all e-government projects (except those that were self-funding). It also owns all central ICT infrastructure,
services, and policies within the public service. The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) the
government agency responsible for promoting and regulating telecommunications in the country was
designated the chief technology officer and chief information officer to the Singapore government (IDA,
2008).
ƒ Customer-Centric e-Service Delivery
The e-government efforts focus was always on the users, rather than on the needs of government
agencies. Being user-centric than government-centric, focus on understanding what the users need and
leverage the technology to develop new possibilities. What usually users want is a one-stop portal to interact
with the government. Singapore e-government challenge was to transform these users' wishes to reality and
make them work. A good example was the e-Filing of IRAS (Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore) and
OLBS (Online Business Licensing Service), and many other successes, which were all customer-centric
(Chee-Wee et al. 2005) (Tan and Yong, 2005).
ƒ Partnership with ICT Industry, private and people sectors
The last key success factor but not the least, is the collaboration with the industry to provide the online
services. The close government-industry partnership worked perfectly and allowed to reach the defined
vision and objectives. It make sense that the industry being involved in the e-government efforts, it is at the
cutting-edge of the technology and can come up with innovative ideas and suggestions, on the new ways of
using ICT, to provide e-government services. This freed-up the government to focus on the master plans, the
policies review and the re-engineering of the processes. It allowed Singapore to develop a strong and
worldwide class ICT industry, which today is exported beyond its borders (Hioe, 2001).
This section presented the important changes that lead Singapore e-government journey to excellence. We
summarized the key success factors behind this success story, which could be used as a base for every e-
government initiative in general and Kuwait in particular. It's not trivial to use the Singapore model as is for
Kuwait e-government, even though the existence of many similarities. Some realities of the Kuwait
environment and society make it even more challenging to succeed this initiative. Among these realities:
ƒ Habits and some ancestral traditions of the citizens and government agencies, make that
almost all the interactions happen only on a face-to-face basis.
ƒ The complexity of the public procedures, with its horizontal approvals governed by a
complex legal framework
ƒ Public-private partnership is at its primary stage, and especially those related to ICT,
legislation in place could be an obstacle.
ƒ The penetration rate of the computer and the Internet is very low, only 25000 users using
ADSL (IWS, 2008). We saw that Singapore, paved the way for e-government, with the
national plan of computerization and ICT.
There are definitely other realities which may add more challenges to the Kuwait e-government initiative.
To succeed this initiative, we have first to adapt the Singapore key success factors to the Kuwait society and
come up with new ones. The comparative study of the two societies and environments, and specifically the
government agencies practices, will tell us more about these key success factors and allow us to propose a
model based on Kuwait specificities.

3. E-GOVERNMENT THROUGH PROCESS MODELING

E-government maturity is measured with the different level of interactions with the authorities (St-Amant,
2005) (Layne et al. 2001). The first level is informational where the institutions offer online information (e.g.
working hours, forms, documents, etc.). The second level is communication which allows bilateral
interactions (e.g. Forms and requests are sent by email). The third level is transactional, where the services
could be processed online (e.g. e-Filing of IRAS and OBLS, online payment). The last and fourth level is

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integration. This level implies a thorough review of internal procedures and the organization of the public
administration. This one changes from a vertical to a horizontal structure, user-centric and unifies the
response to be provided.
To reach the transaction level, every step of the administrative process, must be carefully analyzed, and if
possible, modified. Adequate procedures and modeling tools are required for this purpose. Unfortunately, the
majority of the modeling tools on the market do not fully support the modeling of the government processes.
This may be one reason why a systematic approach to modernizing the services have not been conducted in
several e-government projects (Lenk and Traunmuller, 2002). To provide transactional services, it is essential
to model the government processes for e-government.
E-government could not be reached by deploying existing solutions. A careful analysis must be conducted
on how ICT can improve government processes, making them more effective and efficient. In an e-
government performance and efficiency are very vaguely defined: they relate to both government agencies as
service providers and citizens and businesses as users of services (Becker et al. 2006).
A recent study identified that the strict legal framework governing public processes is one of the main
obstacles to establish an effective e-government program. It usually delays the ambitious programs because
expert opinion is often required. To review and model the process efficiently, information on legal
requirements are quickly required and in any phase of the development (Sebastien and Carlo, 2008).
Government processes are generally more regulated than business processes; In general, private actors
have more freedom to define the terms of trade agreements. Therefore, there are other conditions for
modeling methods for e-government (Truanmuller and Wimmer, 2003):
ƒ The process model must contain relevant subjects, objects, activities, events and
constraints of administrative processes that constitute an operation.
ƒ The process model must be transparent, where degrees of freedom for individuals exist.
ƒ The government processes must be standardized in the sense that they can be synchronized
together to form a single "One-Stop" for users.
ƒ The model must be able to show the restrictions for reengineering due to public regulation.
ƒ The method itself should not be too complex, because the government managers are not
familiar with the methods of modeling.
In our case, the selection of an adequate modeling tool is essential for a successful e-government,
knowing that dozens, if not hundreds have been developed, with the vast majority are designed for specific
needs of a particular case or context (Andersen et al. 2005).
This section showed that government processes operate in a complex context, which include policy,
ethics, strict legal framework, technical and confidentiality that may be important challenges for any changes.
However, any e-government initiative will necessarily go through changes of existing processes. Given the
complexity of these processes, a modeling tool is necessary and an appropriate choice is a challenge by itself,
as there are hundreds of tools on the market.

4. APPROACH AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The participative action research (AR) methodology will be adopted for this research. AR provides a secure
basis for an exploratory study of semi-iterative implementation processes to develop a higher level of internal
consistency in the findings (O’Brien, 1998). AR allows the investigators to observe with consistency the key
success factors, as well as the complexities and issues of developing the national plans presented in section
two. I will conduct an in-depth study of the Singapore model through the existing literature (research articles,
online web sites, case studies such as e-Filing of IRAS and OBLS. I'll develop and conduct interviews in
Singapore with the key players. I will also conduct interviews with the Kuwaiti key players to present the
findings from Singapore e-government and suggestions for the Kuwaiti one.
The Part II will address the technical aspect of the research, by proposing a modeling framework and
validating it through a pilot project.

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5. CONCLUSION
Succeeding an e-government initiative is a big challenge for a small and rich country like Kuwait with its
specifics, politic, ethics and legal framework. In this proposal, I presented Singapore as a leader, a most
innovative and at the cutting-edge of knowledge in the e-government domain. I outlined also that many
similarities with Kuwait could make Singapore e-government model a reference base to propose a modeling
framework that will work in Kuwait or any similar country; an end-to-end solution that could be ultimately
implemented. In order to achieve this objective, this research work will tackle two main parts (1) Part I will
focus on the strategy and the planning, which is related to the organization, the governance and leadership (2)
while Part 2 will focus on the technical aspect, which is modeling and implementation.

REFERENCES
Becker J. et al, 2006. A procedure model for process oriented e-government projects. Business Process Management
Journal, Vol. 12(1): p. 61.
Chee-Wee T. et al, 2003. Managing e-transformation in the public sector: an e-government study of the Inland Revenue
Authority of Singapore (IRAS). European Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 12, pp 269–281.
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ACTION RESEARCH. LEARNING NETWORKS AND

EDUCATIONAL ONLINE RESOURCES WITH CULTURAL
HERITAGE CONTENT

Janine Sprünker
IN3-UOC PhD intern researcher
Internet Interdisciplinary Institute - IN3
Av. Canal Olímpic, S/N, Edifici B3
08860 Castelldefels
Barcelona
Spain

ABSTRACT
The relationships museums-schools are changing through the use of Internet. It is relevant to analyze these possible new
relationships, product of social and technological changes which allow new interactions and participation that at the same
time imply changes in organization forms, web resources management and teaching and learning methods and process.
Specifically, shaping learning networks can establish a new form of relationship museums-schools, and educational
online resources with cultural heritage content can provide learning opportunities and knowledge resources outside of
formal education walls. But there must be experimental projects to test how this kind of teaching and learning practice
will work within a determinate social and cultural context. Thereby, Action Research can contribute to develop a learning
experience, where the study subjects are also researchers. The goal of this experimentation is to obtain a working model
of joint production and use of educational online resources with cultural heritage content through learning networks
which seek to contribute to High School students acquiring scientific knowledge and curriculum issues. The outcomes of
the Action Research project which imply a learning experience and collective construction of knowledge based on
practice will be part of a dissertation.

KEYWORDS
Action research, web-based learning community, heritage education, learning network, dissertation

1. INTRODUCTION
The formal, non-formal and informal learning (Alderoqui & Alderoqui, 1996; Asensio & Pol, 2002; Hein,
1998; Hooper-Greenhill, 1999) borders are almost invisible by the introduction of digital content through the
use of ICT in the classroom. Nowadays, we can find learning opportunities and knowledge resources outside
formal education walls which could be an answer to current teaching and learning needs. In fact, the papers
of the internationals conference of Museum & The Web show experiences where it is emphasized that there
are an increasing demand from teachers to heritage institutions. Teachers seek and add online educational
resources with cultural heritage content into teaching and learning processes (Horwitz & Intemann, 2007).
We divide educational online resources with cultural heritage content into activities and materials in
Internet. These kind of educational resources seek student’s personal and social development. These
educational resources aim to develop student knowledge and skills required for living in our society. They
also seek to bring students closer and sensitize them about the local, social and cultural reality placed in a
global framework.
The collaboration between heritage institutions and schools has established new pedagogical methods and
it can support other forms of learning, such as e-learning (UNESCO, 2006). There are museum online
communities (Caruth & Bernstein, 2007) formed by people who belong to cultural heritage and formal
education institutions. They come together in a virtual environment (Adsit, Barger, Helal & Royal, 2007) to
share knowledge, to collaborate in projects and learning. Communities of learners who work together in the

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online environment establish a learning network. Learning network uses computer networks for educational
activity (Harasim et al. 2000).
Learning networks could be a professional opportunity for teachers who are looking for professional
development to respond to current students learning needs and also for heritage managers, it could be a new
way of heritage diffusion while at the same time, they could carry out of one of their main function,
education. Students could access educational resources, key information, send mails to experts and work
together with teachers and heritage managers who meet on a virtual environment.
3C4Learning project is a pilot experience. There is a learning organization (meta-network) composed of
researchers, heritage managers and teachers that fin together at a virtual platform. Heritage managers and
teachers are divided into three communities (sub-network). Inside of each virtual community are also High
school students which use and create educational online resources with cultural heritage content. The
learning organization (Senge, 2005) supports the work of communities, explores, gives insights and helps in
questioning and making sense of practice and so informs and helps the research.

2. EMPIRICAL RESEARCH: ACTION RESEARCH

After, contacting voluntaries and showing them the proposal, we had co-designed action and began the
3C4Learning project where our aim is to see how learning networks formed by heritage managers, teachers
and students will work within a specific social and cultural context, and how a joint production and use of
educational online resources with cultural heritage content, through this new organization form, could
contribute to High School students acquiring scientific knowledge and assume curriculum issues.
We agreed to establish two cycles. In the first cycle (September-December 2008), only two virtual
communities have interacted. These two communities have worked and learned to create and use educational
online resources with cultural content, while the teacher and the two heritage managers of the third
community have observed the process. There was not any collaboration between stakeholders inside the
learning organization. The learning organization did not support the process or reflect on the actions and
concepts inside the meta-network space. The communication flows between sub-network and meta-network
fall during the first cycle because there was not any appropriate monitoring work. Reflexive interviews
(Denzin and Lincoln, 2000) have reaffirmed the data and information gathered about the fact that the monitor
did not find the way to imply the stakeholders in this space where they could have reflected and shared
knowledge and experiences. Apart from reflecting about the past experience which tried to uncover
participants “theories in use”, rather than just their “espoused theories”, and capturing visions, proposes and
values, the reflexive interviews aimed to identify and study in depth the problems and solutions about
activating the meta-network. The stakeholders agreed that there must be a higher intervention of the monitor.
For instance, on the one hand, she should suggest relevant discussion subjects in a provocative way that
promote dialogue at the forum (meta-network space) which must also be coordinated. We are establishing a
list of the noteworthy outcomes of the project of each stakeholder (Roth & Bradbury, 2008) which will be
showed and discussed at the next face-to-face meeting. The notable outcomes will establish the basis for
inquiry from participants in subsequent face-to-face meetings and online communication. On the other hand,
technical issues must be also taken in account which will be introduced by the webmaster. Other applications
must be considered to receive information from the virtual platform that will facilitate the connection and up-
date what is on. Stakeholders brought to light the need to have working and learning materials (technical
FAQ, glossary, noteworthy outcomes of a project) that guide and support them. So, the virtual community
will also have a resource area which will support the community-based learning and working. We need and
environment where we can construct knowledge and meaning (Jonassen, D.; Bruner, G.; Piaget; Falk i
Dierking).
The teachers needed more technical support at the ICT classroom and methods to use heritage content in
learning and teaching process, using ICT. The heritage managers expressed concern about their role and
action to develop within the learning network. They saw barriers and opportunities, but they did not share it
with the other stakeholders. They shared it with the action researcher who intervened by supporting teachers
mainly with technical issues and adopting the role of heritage manager. For instance, teacher and heritage
manager of the Museu la Patum community shared information only at face-to-face meetings. Then, the
teacher worked with the students without the heritage manager, but they needed technical and content

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support. Action researcher and teacher established collaborative work because teacher and students wanted to
continue the work on La Patum heritage which had been worked on in Spanish literature and language
subject using ICT. They prepared teaching and learning processes and materials by mail exchange. They
taught together and created online educational resources with the students from the classroom.
Teachers and heritage managers had to face educational needs which came up in education of heritage
and education through heritage using ICT. The project-learning promoted active learning (Diffily & Sassnab,
2002). For example, the students of Parc Arquològic de Gavà community developed their discourse not only
around digital heritage (Cameron & Kenderdine, 2007) image obtained from the primary source institution,
but they also used images from searching in Google Image. Here the use of scientific object must be
considered and will be defined. The project-learning was learner-centered (Diffily & Sassnab, 2002). For
example, the students of Museu la Patum community did not understand the feeling of “berguedans” (citizens
of Berga) about this tradition, immaterial heritage. So, we used ethnographic approaches to bring closer the
students to feelings and sense that people give to heritage.

2.1 Research Questions

• How will the participative elements contribute to High school students acquiring knowledge and
skills about heritage and curriculum issues by creating educational online resources?
• How do we create online educational with cultural heritage content through learning network? How
do the actors establish scientifically and pedagogical quality criteria?

2.2 Research Objectives

To develop an experience at national level where heritage managers, teachers and High school students are
involved at the same virtual learning platform as coproducer of educational online resources with cultural
heritage. This will imply:
a) Building and activating learning networks which included heritage managers, teachers and High school
students in such way that allow to observe which teaching and learning process will generate the actors and if
the content of the educational online resources will show educational and scientific criteria
b) Comparing the way of integration of culture heritage at curricular issues and how the students assume
knowledge and skills about heritage and curricular issues through the use and the creation of educational
online resources

2.3 Research Methodology

Action research is not about testing preconceived hypotheses, but it is about depicting the context, change
processes, learning results and theorizing of individual or group in a process of mutual change and inquiry.
The experience shows that we need a tool that captures, assesses and diffuses learning and change initiative
during the second cycle. We will define together the conditions for conducting the learning history and using
the document. On the one hand, the learning history is an action research practice and it will be a support to
make learning actionable. On the one hand, the learning history will be an analytical tool for developing the
dissertation. The learning history has started with a planning process that generates a list of what stakeholders
consider to be the noteworthy outcomes of a project.
In developing conceptual-theoretical integrity, we will use quantitative and qualitative data. The
quantitative data will come from the database of Drupal. Action researcher will analyse the communication
flows. Specifically, she will gather the communication degrees that each actor establishes to other members
within the same network. The analysis of communications flow could show us the network structure and the
group cohesion. The emphasis on this kind of data is the fact that we can map the social participation and
think about it. We could also know which, when and with which frequency the actors use the participative
tools.
But, the qualitative data will provide us knowledge about how, why or which effects have the
participative tools for supplying a satisfactory co-learning during the creation and use of educational
resources. So, we will have qualitative data which will be gathered from documents and other kinds of

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resources, observation, participative-observations and interviews. This kind of data will come from
information collected by teachers, heritage managers, students and researchers. Action researcher will use the
follow techniques:
• Field notes from teachers, heritage managers, students and researchers
• Recording of electronic texts, audios, videos, images
• Interactive games
• inform and grade of the about student assignments
There will be a systematic bibliographic review, data and information gathering, analysing and writing.
The learning history will be a document where we will capture and reflect on data. It will be an analytical
tool where we will narrate the learning history. It is important to take into account how people make sense of
the text when thinking about how people learn from a learning history. So, they will not need to accept
authored meanings. They will bring their own background, experience and knowledge to what they read.
Meanings are created by the interaction of content, readers and author. The goal of the learning history is to
reflect the insight and learning of the organization and not the testing of theory by researchers. So, reflexive
thinking must be improved which at the same time will help to carry out the dissertation.

3. CONCLUSION
This project is in progress. The outcomes of the first cycle will help to plan the second cycle (February-June
2009) where only the third community Fàbrica de les Arts community will work, but it will be supported by
the learning organization. Now we are seeking for solutions and positive changes which will improve
learning organizational and community practices. At the next face-to-face meeting (6th February), the
stakeholders will be involved at the design of actions the second cycle. In other words, change initiatives
(Roth & Bradbury, 2008) will be incorporated at the second cycle.
Once we have identified strengths and opportunities as well as the benefits, action researcher will propose
the following goals for the second cycle that must be validated and will imply to plan action within mutual
consensus:
Establish a learning organization that include heritage managers, teachers, student and researcher and
provides inquiry skills and methods for developing people capacities to reflect upon and asses the outcomes
of their effort
Define technical and social mechanism to activate learning networks at the virtual community
Establish quality criteria of online educational resources with cultural heritage content
Determine participative elements which support the acquisition of knowledge about heritage and curricula
issues during the creation of educational resources
Dialog must seek to provide web-based collaboration which implies efficient communications tools,
atmosphere of trust, making and sharing contributions, awareness, commitment and continuity. Researchers,
heritage managers, teachers and students must trust each other, mutual respect and trust in the way they talk
to each other, and work together, no matter what their position may be because it is the only way that the
organization will learn and establish a working model which could benefit other communities.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thanks very much Prof. Hilary Bradbury for the helpful comments and suggestions.
This research project is relying on the predoctoral grant of IN3-UOC.
I also very appreciate the support of Museia research group.

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 AUTHOR INDEX
Abbo, D. ........................................................195 Heredero, C. ................................................... 106
Akizuki, H. .....................................................245 Heredero, M. .................................................. 106
Alarabi, K. ......................................................291 Hernanz, D. .................................................... 172
Alarcos, B............................................... 172, 201 Hoeschl, H........................................................ 23
An, S.................................................................43 Holtz, B. .......................................................... 53
Arch-int, N. ....................................................130 Hoz, E. ................................................... 172, 201
Arunatileka, S...................................................57 Huh, Y............................................................ 285
Azémard G. ......................................................63 Ide, A.............................................................. 288
Baek, B. .........................................................151 Izquierdo, V. .................................................... 85
Bain, M...........................................................100 Jahns, V. .......................................................... 27
Benito, B. .......................................................100 Jo, S. .............................................................. 151
Boys, J. ............................................................13 Jones, A. ........................................................ 261
Buckley, C......................................................111 Jung, H. .................................................. 151, 285
Buendía, F. ......................................................85 Kabakchieva, D. ............................................ 135
Cárdenas, G. ..................................................294 Kang, J. ......................................................... 215
Castells, M. ....................................................253 Kang, Y. ......................................................... 189
Castillo, J..........................................................38 Khaldoon, S.................................................... 297
Cesare, S.........................................................241 Kim, D............................................................ 215
Chang, H.........................................................151 Kim, J............................................................. 215
Chapman, K. ....................................................57 Kim, M........................................................... 141
Cheng, H................................................. 151, 285 Kim, S. ................................................... 181, 215
Cho, M............................................................285 Kissimov, V. .................................................. 135
Chun, K. .........................................................189 Kwon, J. ......................................................... 181
Chung, I..........................................................185 Kwon, M. ...................................................... 155
Dorloff, F..........................................................27 Lee, I. ............................................................ 215
Dran, X. .........................................................294 Lee, J. ............................................................ 155
Egüez, J. .........................................................223 Lee, K. ........................................................... 141
Estrada, M. ......................................................95 Lee, K. ................................................... 151, 285
Farahani, M. ..................................................227 Lee, Y............................................................. 155
Farnaghi, M. ...................................................227 Li, Z. .............................................................. 167
Fernández, J. ..................................................205 Llodrà, B. ....................................................... 253
Figueiredo, J. ....................................................18 López, G. ....................................................... 294
Flory, P. .........................................................241 López-Carmona,M. ........................................ 201
Fraile R...........................................................219 Lueiro-Astray, L. ........................................... 176
Flores, L. ........................................................294 Majima, T....................................................... 245
Fukuda, M. .....................................................120 Mansourian, A. .............................................. 227
Galiana J.........................................................219 Márquez, E. ................................................... 100
García, A. .......................................................172 Marsá-Maestre, I. ........................................... 201
García, E...........................................................38 Martínez-López, F.......................................... 303
Gilliland, A. ...................................................276 Meishar-Tal, H. .............................................. 269
Goh, A. ..........................................................145 Mesgary, M. ................................................... 227
González-Moreno, J. ......................................176 Meziani, R...................................................... 313
González, L. ...................................................205 Mikoshi, K. .................................................... 115
Hastings, A. ....................................................111 Miyamoto, Y. ................................................. 245
He, Z...............................................................125 Moh, S. .......................................................... 185
 Mottershead R. ...............................................111 Sundberg, H. ...................................................... 8
Mousavi, S......................................................210 Tahami, H. ..................................................... 227
Muresan, M. .....................................................33 Takasaki, M. .................................................. 245
Nadir Júnior, A. ................................................23 Tal-Elhasid, E. ............................................... 269
Nagao, T. ........................................................245 Titi, X............................................................. 237
Navarro-Prieto, R. .....................................73, 95 Totoki, T. ....................................................... 245
Nikolov, R. ....................................................135 Tsubokura, A. ................................................ 120
Nishihara, A. ..................................................115 Ueno, H. ......................................................... 125
Nishimoto, M. ...............................................120 Ueyama, T. .................................................... 120
Noël, L. ............................................................63 Umemuro, H........................................... 223, 257
Okita, N. .........................................................245 Vasev, P. ........................................................ 283
Olivera, N. ..................................................3, 272 Verhenneman. G. ............................................ 48
Ortiz, F. .........................................................219 Watanabe, Y................................................... 115
Otero, J. ..........................................................201 White, K......................................................... 276
Parguiñas-Portas, C. .......................................176 Whitten, P. ....................................................... 53
Park, H. ..........................................................189 Will-Zocholl, M. ............................................ 308
Parra, E. ............................................................73 Wright, G. .................................................. 80, 90
Pérez, A. ........................................................100 Yair, Y. .......................................................... 269
Peters, A. ........................................................265 Yamashita, M. ................................................ 120
Pouyioutas, P. ...................................................76 Yoder, M. ....................................................... 249
Proto, A. .....................................................3, 272 Yue, J. ............................................................ 125
Pujol, R...........................................................257 Zantout, H. ....................................................... 13
Quixal, M. ........................................................95
Ram, S. ...........................................................233
Ramakrishnan, S. ...........................................145
Ramos, S.........................................................100
Rao, N.............................................................233
Rodríguez-Ardura, I. ......................................303
Rohani, V. ........................................................68
Romero- González, R. ...................................176
Rosa, ..............................................................294
Salinas, J. .......................................................100
Sanayei, A. .....................................................210
Sánchez-Chao, C. ..........................................176
Sandberg, K, ......................................................8
Schmitz, V. ......................................................27
Scotchbrook, S................................................261
Seigneur, J. ............................................ 161, 237
Sequera, J. ......................................................205
Shen, J. ..........................................................185
Shoaib, M. .....................................................297
Skowronek-Duarte, K. ...................................303
Son, J. .............................................................285
Song, J. ..........................................................189
Song, X...........................................................167
Sprünker, J......................................................318
Stefanova, K. ..................................................135
Sun, L. ............................................................195

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