ICWI2010 - Ecommerce-Semioticanoecommerce

WWW/Internet
IADIS
INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE
14-17 October
Timisoara, ROMANIA
2010
Proceedings
Edited by: Bebo White,
Pedro Isaas
and Diana Andone
international association for development of the information society

IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

WWW/INTERNET 2010
ii
iii

PROCEEDINGS OF THE
IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
WWW/INTERNET 2010

TIMISOARA, ROMANIA

OCTOBER 14-17, 2010

Organised by
IADIS
International Association for Development of the Information Society

Co-Organised by

iv

Copyright 2010
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 Bebo White, Pedro Isaas and Diana Andone

Associate Editors: Lus Rodrigues and Patrcia Barbosa

ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0

v
TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD xi
PROGRAM COMMITTEE xv
KEYNOTE LECTURES xix

FULL PAPERS

A FEATURE-BASED TOOLKIT FOR ELECTRONIC CONTRACT NEGOTIATION
AND RENEGOTIATION
Daniel Avila Vecchiato, Maria Beatriz Felgar de Toledo, Marcelo Fantinato and
Itana Maria de Souza Gimenes
3
THE INTENDED USE OF MOBILE TOURISM SERVICES
Niklas Eriksson and Peter Strandvik
11
UBIQUITOUS COMMERCE IN TRAIL-AWARE ENVIRONMENTS
Cldio Martins, Joo Rosa, Laerte Franco and Jorge Barbosa
19
SEQUENCING CONCEPTS FOR SUPPORTING AN E-LEARNING CLASS:
AN APPROACH BASED ON ONTOLOGIES AND THE STRUCTURE OF SIGNS
Herli J. de Menezes, Sean W. M. Siqueira and Leila Cristina V. de Andrade
27
EXPANDING A KNOWLEDGE MODEL REPRESENTATION TO BUILD
CULTURALLY MEANINGFUL ANALOGIES FOR WEB APPLICATIONS
Douglas O. de Freitas, Marcos A. R. Silva, Johana M. R. Villena, Bruno A. Sugiyama,
Gilberto Astolfi and Junia C. Anacleto
35
A FEASIBILITY STUDY ON DISTRIBUTED COOPERATIVE OCR SYSTEMS
USING WEOCR
Hideaki Goto
42
HEALTH 2.0 IN PRACTICE: A REVIEW OF GERMAN HEALTH CARE WEB
PORTALS
Roland Grlitz, Benjamin Seip, Asarnusch Rashid and Valentin Zacharias
49
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ACCESS AND USAGE OF THE INTERNET IN
KENYA
Ruth Diko Wario and Theo McDonald
57
SOFTWARE-BASED PROTECTION FOR CONTENT MEDIA DISTRIBUTION
Malek Barhoush and J. William Atwood
65

vi
HOTLINK VISUALIZER: ADDING HOTLINKS ON THE SPOT VISUALIZING
THE OUTCOME
Gregory Triantafillidis and John Garofalakis
73
CRITICAL FACTORS IN ELECTRONIC LIBRARY ACCEPTANCE: EMPIRICAL
VALIDATION OF NATIONALITY BASED UTAUT USING SEM
Rita Oluchi Orji, Yasemin Yardimci Cetin and Sevgi Ozkan
81
XLPATH: A XML LINKING PATH LANGUAGE
Paulo Caetano da Silva, Marcelo Mendona dos Santos and Valria Cesrio Times
89
ONTOMO: WEB SERVICE FOR ONTOLOGY BUILDING - EVALUATION OF
ONTOLOGY RECOMMENDATION USING NAMED ENTITY EXTRACTION
Takahiro Kawamura, I Shin, Hiroyuki Nakagawa, Yasuyuki Tahara and Akihiko Ohsuga
101
FROM THE PROBLEM SPACE TO THE WEB SPACE: A MODEL FOR DESIGNING
LOCALIZED WEB SYSTEMS
Claudia Iacob and Li Zhu
112
A FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING CONTEXT-BASED BLOG CRAWLERS
Rafael Ferreira, Rinaldo J. Lima, Ig Ibert Bittencourt, Dimas Melo Filho, Olavo Holanda,
Evandro Costa, Fred Freitas and Ldia Melo
120
ENFORCEMENT OF NORMS IN SELF-ORGANIZING VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES
Juliana de Melo Bezerra and Celso Massaki Hirata
127
ORGANIZATIONAL WIKIPEDIA
Diogo Arantes Fonseca Gonalves da Cunha, Artur Ferreira da Silva and Jos Figueiredo
135
FOLKSONOMY: USING THE USERS FREEDOM TO ORGANIZE TODAYS WEB
INFORMATION OVERLOAD
Roberto Pereira, M. Ceclia C. Baranauskas, Sergio Roberto P. da Silva, Jos Valderlei da Silva
and Filipe Roseiro Cgo
143
CREATING DECOMPOSABLE WEB APPLICATIONS ON HIGH-RESOLUTION
TILED DISPLAY WALLS
Shohei Yokoyama and Hiroshi Ishikawa
151
WIKLANG A DEFINITION ENVIRONMENT FOR MONOLINGUAL AND
BILINGUAL DICTIONARIES TO SHALLOW-TRANSFER MACHINE
TRANSLATION
Alssio Miranda Jnior and Laura S. Garca
159
E- COMMERCE CUSTOMISED GUIDELINES VS. GENERAL HEURISTIC
EVALUATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON EVALUATING E-COMMERCE
WEBSITES
Ghada Aldehim, Pam Mayhew and Majed Alshamari
168
A DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE FOR USER INTERFACE SERVICES
Gerald Hbsch, Christian Liebing, Josef Spillner and Alexander Schill
175
MAKING SENSE OF THE AFFORDANCE CONCEPT IN THE 3RD HCI PARADIGM
Lara Schibelsky Godoy Piccolo and Maria Ceclia Calani Baranauskas
183
DEVELOPING A MODEL TO FACILITATE SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION OF
WEBSITES BY NON-IT PROFESSIONALS
Daniel Kappler and Paul Darbyshire
192
vii
A HIERARCHICAL ARCHITECTURE FOR ON-LINE CONTROL OF PRIVATE
CLOUD-BASED SYSTEMS
Mauro Andreolini, Sara Casolari and Stefania Tosi
201
A PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF DCCP, CTCP, AND CUBIC, USING VOIP
AND CBR TRAFFIC PATTERNS
Priscila Doria and Marco Aurlio Spohn
211
DISCOURAGING ROGUE PEERS IN A MULTICAST CONTENT DISTRIBUTION
PROTOCOL FOR MANETS
Sidney Doria and Marco Aurlio Spohn
219
ORDINARY WEB PAGES AS A SOURCE FOR METADATA ACQUISITION FOR
OPEN CORPUS USER MODELING
Michal Barla and Mria Bielikov
227
QUERYCLOUD: AUTOMATICALLY LINKING RELATED DOCUMENTS VIA
SEARCH QUERY (TAG) CLOUDS
Christoph Trattner
234
PREDICTING SELF DISCLOSURE ON PUBLIC BLOGS
Chyng-Yang Jang and Michael A. Stefanone
244

SHORT PAPERS

PARALLEL PROGRAMMING FOR EDUCATION AND ITS TRIAL EVALUATION
Keiichi Shiraishi, Yoshiro Imai and Yukio Hori
257
SENSE OF COMMUNITY FEELING IN A BLENDED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT:
EFFECT OF DEMOGRAPHICS
Hale Ilgaz and Petek Akar
262
TECHNOLOGICAL ARTIFACTS FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION: STRUCTURE OF THE
BRAZILIAN SIGN LANGUAGE (LIBRAS), GESTURES FOR CITIZENSHIP
Cayley Guimares, Diego R. Antunes, Daniela F. G. Trindade, Rafaella A. L. Silva,
Sueli Fernandes, Alssio M. Jr. and Laura Snchez Garca
267
MULTI-AGENT ARCHITECTURE FOR THE VIRTUAL HEALTH RECORD
Luca Dan Serbanati and Andrei Vasilateanu
272
ENHANCING FAIRNESS: A NOVEL C2C E-COMMERCE COMMUNITY MEMBER
REPUTATION ALGORITHM BASED ON TRANSACTION SOCIAL NETWORKS
Wangsen Feng, Bei Zhang, Yunni Xia, Jiajing Li and Tao Meng
277
(SEMI-)AUTOMATIC NEGOTIATION OF SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS
Anne Kmpel, Iris Braun, Josef Spillner and Alexander Schill
282
REQUIREMENTS ORIENTED PROGRAMMING IN A WEB-SERVICE
ARCHITECTURE
Vinicius Miana Bezerra and Selma Melnikoff
287
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THE ROLE OF WEB-BASED COLLABORATIVE SYSTEMS IN SUPPORTING
FIRM'S CREATIVITY
Claudia Dossena and Alberto Francesconi
293
TOWARDS A MEANINGFUL EXPLOITATION OF IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIPS
AMONG COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND COLLABORATION ASSETS
George Gkotsis, Nikos Karacapilidis, Costas Pappis and Nikos Tsirakis
298
DO THE PERCEIVED ATTRIBUTES OF SOCIAL NETWORKS DIFFER IN TERMS
OF BEING INNOVATOR OR SKEPTICAL OF PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS?
Yasemin Koak Usluel, Pnar Nuholu and Bahadr Yildiz
303
A PROCESS CAPABILITY MODEL FOR SERVICES IN THE BRAZILIAN PUBLIC
SOFTWARE
Mrcia R. M. Martinez, Sueli A. Varani, Edgar L. Banhesse and Clenio F. Salviano
308
A STRUCTURED APPROACH TO THE INTRODUCTION OF ENTERPRISE 2.0
Roberto Paiano and Andrea Pandurino
313
RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF SERVICE-BASED INTERACTIVE APPLICATIONS
USING SERVICE ANNOTATIONS
Marius Feldmann, Felix Martens, Georg Berndt, Josef Spillner and Alexander Schill
319
SMART UBIQUITOUS APPLICATION DELIVERY BASED ON USABILITY RULES
Dieter Blomme, Heiko Desruelle, Frank Gielen and Filip De Turck
323
GVDSR: A DYNAMIC ROUTING STATEGY FOR VEHICULAR AD-HOC
NETWORKS
Michael Barros, Anderson Costa and Reinaldo Gomes
328
AN OWL BASED ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
BASED MEDICINE
Lukas Gerhold, Hilal Tekoglu, Markus Dorn and Michael Binder
333
LANGUAGES AND WIKIPEDIA: CULTURAL EVOLUTION INCREASES
STRUCTURE
Julia Kasmire and Alfredas Chmieliauskas
339
A TOOL TO SUPPORT AUTHORING OF LEARNING DESIGNS IN THE FIELD OF
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY EDUCATION
Sotirios Karetsos and Dias Haralampopoulos
345
BILINGUAL ALPHABETISATION OF DEAF CHILDREN AND PROGRESS
ASSESSMENT: A PROTOTYPE OF A WEB SYSTEM BASED ON A PHONIC
METHODOLOGY
Miranda, Alssio; Paula, L.J.de ; Garca, L.S; Capovilla, F.C; Direne, A.I; Sunye, M.S.;
Castilho, M.A.; Bona, L.E; Silva, F.; Machado, D.; Duarte, J.; Bueno, J.
350
GENERATING SECRET COVER IMAGE BY USING RANDOM ART APPROACH
Raghad Jawad Ahmed
355
BILINGUAL ALPHABETISATION OF DEAF CHILDREN: REQUIREMENTS FOR A
COMMUNICATION TOOL
Juliana Bueno, Laura Snchez Garca and Alssio Miranda Jnior
361

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REFLECTION PAPERS

SEMIOTICS OF BRAZILIAN E-COMMERCE SIGNS
Cayley Guimares, Diego R. Antunes, Alice G. de Paula and Alssio Miranda Jr
369
NEED FOR PROTOCOLS AND STANDARDS FOR A DECENTRALIZED WEB
SEARCH PARADIGM
Sergio R. Coria
373
A RECOMMENDER SYSTEM FOR E-LEARNING
Lara Cini, Matthew Montebello and Vanessa Camilleri
377
WEB 2.0: INTRODUCTION INTO E-GOVERNMENT APPLICATIONS
Francesco De Angelis, Roberto Gagliardi, Alberto Polzonetti and Barbara Re
382
STUDY CASES ON THE CURRENT USE OF MICROFORMATS
Iasmina Ermalai and Radu Vasiu
387

POSTERS

A WEB-BASED MULTILIGUAL DICTIONARY FOR TERMINOLOGY OF
POLYMERS
Tiago Frana Melo de Lima and Cludio Gouvea dos Santos
393
PROCESSING REMOTE SENSING IMAGES ON A GRID-BASED PLATFORM
Silviu Panica, Marian Neagul and Dana Petcu
397
DEVELOPMENT OF AN E-LEARNING SYSTEM TO SUPPORT SELF-LEARNING
OF NURSING SKILLS
Yukie Majima, Masato Soga and Yasuko Maekawa
400
DESIGNING AN E-LEARNING SYSTEM TO SUPPORT RE-EMPLOYMENT OF
POTENTIAL NURSES
Yukie Majima, Yumiko Nakamura, Yasuko Maekawa, Hiroko Makino, Yukari Nakajima and
Mizuko Hiramatsu
403
AUTOMATIC SEMANTIC IMAGE ANNOTATION WITHIN THE DOMAIN OF
SOFTWARE MODELING
Matthias Heinrich and Antje Boehm-Peters
406
LOCATION BASED MOBILE ADVERTISING
Matthew Sammut, Matthew Montebello and Vanessa Camilleri
409
BRAZILIAN PUBLIC SOFTWARE AND QUALITY
Angela M. Alves, Giancarlo Stefanuto, Paula F. D. Castro and Marcelo Pessa
413
THE INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE POSITIONING IN IT GOVERNANCE
Claudio Gottschalg Duque and Mauricio Rocha Lyra
416
x
DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM

TOWARDS A DOMAIN-EXPERT CENTERED ONTOLOGY ENGINEERING
METHODOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Bernd Stadlhofer and Peter Salhofer
421
WEBFDM: A WEB APPLICATION FLEXIBLE DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGY
Adelaide Bianchini
427

AUTHOR INDEX

xi
FOREWORD

These proceedings contain the papers and posters of the IADIS International Conference
WWW/Internet 2010, which was organised by the International Association for
Development of the Information Society and co-organised by "Politehnica" University of
Timisoara, Romania, 14-17 October 2010.

The IADIS WWW/Internet 2010 Conference aims to address the main issues of concern
within WWW/Internet. WWW and Internet had a huge development in recent years.
Aspects of concern are no longer just technical anymore but other aspects have arisen. This
conference aims to cover both technological as well as non-technological issues related to
these developments

Submissions were accepted under the following main tracks and topics:
Web 2.0
Collaborative Systems
Social Networks
Folksonomies
Enterprise Wikis and Blogging
Mashups and Web Programming
Tagging and User Rating Systems
Citizen J ournalism

Semantic Web and XML
Semantics Web Architectures
Semantic Web Middleware
Semantic Web Services
Semantic Web Agents
Ontologies
Applications of Semantic Web
Semantic Web Data Management
Information Retrieval in Semantic Web

Applications and Uses
e-Learning
e-Commerce / e-Business
e-Government
e-Health
e-Procurement
e-Society
Digital Libraries
Web Services/SaaS
Application Interoperability
Web-based multimedia technologies

xii
Services, Architectures and Web Development
Wireless Web
Mobile Web
Cloud/Grid Computing
Web Metrics
Web Standards
Internet Architectures
Network Algorithms
Network Architectures
Network Computing
Network Management
Network Performance
Content Delivery Technologies
Protocols and Standards
Traffic Models
Research Issues
Web Science
Digital Rights Management
Bioinformatics
Human Computer Interaction and Usability
Web Security and Privacy
Online Trust and Reputation Systems
Data Mining
Information Retrieval
Search Engine Optimization
The IADIS WWW/Internet 2010 Conference had 153 submissions from more than 28
countries. Each submission has been anonymously reviewed by an average of four
independent reviewers, to ensure the final high standard of the accepted submissions. The
final result was the approval of 30 full papers, which means that the acceptance rate was
below 20%. A few more papers have been accepted as short papers, reflection papers,
posters and doctoral consortium. Best papers will be selected for publishing as extended
versions in the IADIS International J ournal on WWW/Internet (IJ WI) and in other selected
journals.
The conference, besides the presentation of full papers, short papers, reflection papers,
posters and doctoral consortium presentations also included two keynote presentations from
internationally distinguished researchers. We would like also to express our gratitude to
Professor Mark Frydenberg, Senior Lecturer, Bentley University, USA and Dr. Molly
Holzschlag, Web Evangelist, Developer Relations, Opera Software, USA, for being our
keynote speakers.
As we all know, organising a conference requires the effort of many individuals. We would
like to thank all members of the Program Committee for their hard work in reviewing and
selecting the papers that appear in the proceedings.

xiii

We are especially grateful to the authors who submitted their papers to this conference and
to the presenters who provided the substance of the meeting
These Proceeding book contain a rich experience of the academic & research institutions
and the industry on diverse themes related to the Internet and Web. We do hope that
researchers, knowledge workers and innovators both in academia and the industry will find
it a valuable reference material.
Last but not the least, we hope that everybody will have a good time in Timisoara and we
invite all participants for the next years edition of the IADIS International Conference
WWW/Internet 2011.

Pedro Isaas, Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University), Portugal
Diana Andone, "Politehnica" University of Timisoara, Romania
Conference Co-Chairs

Bebo White, Stanford University, USA
Program Chair

Timisoara, Romania
14 October 2010
xiv

xv

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS
Pedro Isaas, Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University), Portugal
Diana Andone, "Politehnica" University of Timisoara, Romania

PROGRAM CHAIR
Bebo White, Stanford University, USA

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Abdolhossein Sarrafzadeh, UNITEC New Zealand, New Zealand
Adrian Stoica, University Of Patras, Greece
Alberto Barrn-Cedeo, Universidad Politcnica Valencia, Spain
Alexander Krner, Dfki, Germany
Alexander Pokahr, Pokahr, Germany
Alexander Schill, TU Dresden, Germany
Alexander Troussov, IBM Dublin Center for Advanced Studies, Ireland
Alexander Whrer, University Of Vienna, Austria
Amali Weerasinghe, University Of Canterbury, New Zealand
Ana Sanz, Universidad Carlos III De Madrid, Spain
Ana Regina Cavalcanti Da Rocha, Centroin, Brazil
Ananya S. Guha, Indira Gandhi National Open University, India
Andrea Kienle, University of Applied Sciences, Dortmund, Germany
Andreas Papasalouros, University Of The Aegean, Greece
Andreas Schrader, ISNM - International School Of New Media at the Un, Germany
Anglica Antonio, Universidad Politcnica De Madrid, Spain
Angelo Di Iorio, University Of Bologna, Italy
Anirban Kundu, West Bengal University Of Technology, India
Antonio Reyes, Universidad Politcnica De Valencia, Spain
Arturo Mora-Soto, Carlos III University Of Madrid, Spain
Asadullah Shaikh, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Batrice Rumpler, Insa Of Lyon, France
Beob Kyun Kim, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Informat, South Korea
Bianca Shoen, University College Dublin, Ireland
Bo Hu, Universitt Der Bundeswehr Mnchen, Germany
Brahmananda Sapkota, University Of Twente, Netherlands
Cao Rong Zeng, IBM China Research Lab, China
Carsten Ulrich, Shanghai J iao Tong University, China
Chih Cheng Hung, Southern Polytechnic State University, Usa
Christos Bouras, University Of Patras, Greece
Christos Georgiadis, University Of Macedonia Thessaloniki, Greece
Chunhua Tian, IBM China Research Lab, China

xvi

Ciprian Dobre, University Politehnica Of Bucharest, Romania
Clodoveu Davis, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil
Constantina Costopoulou, Agricultural University Of Athens, Greece
Costas Yialouris, Agricultural University Of Athens, Greece
Daniel Cunliffe, University Of Glamorgan, United Kingdom
Daniel Schuster, TU Dresden, Germany
Debajyoti Mukhopadhyay, Calcutta Business School, India
Demetrios Sampson, University Of Piraeus, Greece
Diana Prez Marn, Universidad Rey J uan Carlos, Spain
Dirk Thissen, Rwth Aachen, Germany
Dongqiang Yang, Flinders University, Australia
Elena Calude, Massey University At Albany, New Zealand
Elena Camossi, European Commission, J oint Research Centre, Italy
Elias Kirche, Florida Gulf Coast University, USA
Elif Ubeyli, Tobb Economics And Technology University, Turkey
Eloisa Vargiu, DIEE, Italy
Eva Sderstrm, University Of Skvde, Sweden
Ezendu Ariwa, London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
Fahim Akhter, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
Fan Zhao, Florida Gulf Coast University, Usa
Fatos Xhafa, Universitat Politcnica De Catalunya, Spain
Florence Sedes, Universite Paul Sabatier Of Toulouse, France
Florin Pop, University Politehnica Of Bucharest, Romania
Francesco Guerra, Universita Di Modena E Reggio Emilia, Italy
Francesco Pagliarecci, Polytechnical University Of Marche, Italy
Fuensanta Medina-Domnguez, Carlos III Technical University of Madrid, Spain
Fuhua Lin, Athabasca University, Canada
Geneen Stubbs, University Of Glamorgan, United Kingdom
George Gkotsis, University Of Patras, Greece
George Koutromanos, University Of Athens, Greece
George Vouros, University Of The Aegean, Greece
Gheorghe Cosmin Silaghi, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Giuseppe Patane, Cnr-imati, Italy
Guido Roessling, Darmstadt University Of Technology, Germany
Gustavo Rossi, Universidad Nacional De La Plata, Argentina
Hakikur Rahman, Institute of Computer Management & Science (ICMS), Bangladesh
Hamid Mcheick, Universit Du Qubec Chicoutimi, Canada
Henry Oinas-Kukkonen, University Of Oulu, Finland, Finland
Holger Hinrichs, University Of Applied Sciences Lbeck, Germany
Horst Hellbrck, University Of Applied Sciences Lbeck Horst, Germany
Idris Rai, Lancaster University, United Kingdom
Ioan Toma, University Innsbruck, Austria
J . Enrique Agudo, Universidad De Extremadura, Spain
J . K. Vijayakumar, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
J aime Ramrez Ramrez, Universidad Politcnica De Madrid, Spain
J ames Thong, Hong Kong University Of Science And Technology, Hong Kong
J ames Walden, Northern Kentucky University, United States
J an Zizka, SoNet/Dept. of Informatics, FBE, Mendel University, Czech Republic
J anez Brank, J ozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
xvii

J avier Saldaa, Universidad Carlos Iii De Madrid, Spain
J essica Rubart, Arvato Services, Germany
J injun Chen, Swinburne University Of Technology, Australia
J ohn Garofalakis, University of Patras, Greece
J rg Roth, University Of Applied Sciences Nuremberg, Germany
J os Laurindo Campos dos Santos, Instituto Nacional De Pesquisas Na Amazonia, Brazil
J uan Ramn Prez Prez, Universidad De Oviedo, Spain
J uhnyoung Lee, IBM T. J . Watson Research Center, Usa
J ulie Yazici, Florida Gulf Coast University, Usa
Kai J akobs, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Kangsoo You, J eonju University, Korea (south)
Konstantinos Kotis, University Of The Aegean, Greece
Krzysztof Walkowiak, Wroclaw University Of Technology, Poland
Lars Braubach, Informatik Der Universitt Hamburg, Germany
Lazaros Iliadis, Democritus University Of Thrace, Greece
Leila Shafti, Universidad Autonoma De Madrid, Spain
Liping Liu, University Of Akron, Usa
Luca Spalazzi, Polytechnic University Of Marche, Italy
Lucia Rapanotti, The Open University, United Kingdom
Manolis Tzagarakis, University Of Patras , Greece
Manuel Montes y Gmez, INAOE, Mexico
Mara Nikolaidou, Harokopio University Of Athens, Greece
Margherita Antona, ICS - FORTH, Greece
Maria Claudia Buzzi, CNR - IIT, Italy
Markos Hatzitaskos, University Of Patras, Greece
Martin Gaedke, Chemnitz University Of Technology, Germany
Massimo Marchiori, Unipd/ Utilabs, Italy
Mauricio Marin, Yahoo! Research Santiago, Chile
Maytham Safar, Kuwait University, Kuwait
Michael Mrissa, University of Lyon, France
Michal Wozniak, Wroclaw University Of Technology, Poland
Michalis Vaitis, University of the Aegean, Greece
Miguel-Angel Sicilia Urbn, University Of Alcal, Spain
Ming-Puu Chen, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
Miroslav Bures, Czech Technical University In Prague, Czech Republic
Nikolaos Tselios, University Of Patras, Greece
Nikos Karacapilidis, University Of Patras, Greece
Nikos Karousos, University Of Patras, Greece
Nikos Tsirakis, University Of Patras, Greece
Olga Santos Martn, Uned, Spain
Omair Shafiq, University Of Calgary, Canada
Ourania Hatzi, Harokopio University Of Athens, Greece
Paolo Rosso, Universidad Politcnica De Valencia, Spain
Pedro Paredes, Universidad Autnoma De Madrid, Spain
Penelope Markellou, University Of Patras, Greece
Peter Geczy, AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Sc, J apan
Raquel Hervas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
Robert Burduk, Wroclaw University Of Technology, Poland
Robert Goodwin, Flinders University, Australia
xviii

Runa J esmin, University Of London, United Kingdom
Samad Kolahi, Unitec Institute Of Technology, New Zealand
Sattanathan Subramanian, Uni-BCCS, Norway
Silvia Gaiani, Universit Di Bologna, Italy
Sotiris Karetsos, Agricultural University Of Athens, Greece
Stefan Dietze, The Open University, United Kingdom
Stefan Fischer, Universitt Zu Lbeck, Germany
Steven Demurjian, The University Of Connecticut, USA
Stuart Cunningham, Glyndwr University, United Kingdom
Sung-kook Han, Wonkwang University, Korea, Republic Of
Tayana Conte, Federal University Of Rio De J aneiro, Brazil
Tharrenos Bratitsis, University Of Western Macedonia, Greece
Thomas Springer, Tu Dresden, Germany
Tobias Buerger, Salzburg Research, Austria
Tomoo Inoue, University Of Tsukuba, J apan
Tukaram Fulzele, Indira Gandhi National Open University, India
Vassilis Kapsalis, Industrial Systems Institute, Greece
Vic Grout, University Of Wales, United Kingdom
Wei Hao, Northern Kentucky University, United States
Wilhelm Schwieren, Rwth Aachen University, Germany
Yuanbo Guo, Microsoft, USA

xix

KEYNOTE LECTURES

FROM THE INFORMATION SUPER HIGHWAY TO THE CLOUD:
AN INCREDIBLE JOURNEY
by Mark Frydenberg, Senior Lecturer
Bentley University, USA

Abstract

Web 2.0 marked the evolution of the World Wide Web from a one way web filled with static
content to a dynamic read/write Web that has become a platform for applications promoting
collaboration and communication, linking people as well as the digital information they share. As
society creates more online content than it can consume, the need to organize, search, and
understand Web content becomes critical. Tim OReillys described Internet of Things and Tim
Berners-Lees vision of a Semantic Web are not far off. Or are they? This session will share
examples of emerging Web trends, technologies, and patterns and look at what is possible when
both data and applications live on the Web.

THE OPEN WEB:
PRACTICAL STANDARDS FOR FRONTEND DEVELOPERS
by Molly Holzschlag, Web Evangelist
Developer Relations, Opera Software, USA

Abstract

In this keynote session, Ms. Holzschlag will discuss the OpenWeb vision, where it emerged from
and what it provides to real-world Web developers. A look at the advancements in browser
evolution as well as visual examples of the Open Web Technology Stack will demonstrate a
powerful, open-standards oriented approach to the evolving Web of applications.

xx

Full Papers

A FEATURE-BASED TOOLKIT FOR ELECTRONIC
CONTRACT NEGOTIATION AND RENEGOTIATION
Daniel Avila Vecchiato*, Maria Beatriz Felgar de Toledo*, Marcelo Fantinato**
and Itana Maria de Souza Gimenes***
*University of Campinas, Institute of Computing, Av. Albert Einstein, 1251, Campinas - SP, Brazil
**University of So Paulo, School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, R. Arlindo Bttio, 1000, So Paulo - SP, Brazil
***University of Maring, Department of Informatics, Av. Colombo, 5.790, Maring - PR, Brazil
ABSTRACT
E-contracts usually describe inter-organizational business processes defining e-services to be provided and consumed as
well as non-functional requirements such as Quality of Service (QoS). Organizations involved in a cooperation need to
provide explicit guarantees in an e-contract, which can involve renegotiation of contractual clauses, penalty application or
intervention in the process execution. In this paper, feature modeling is used to represent e-services, QoS attributes and
control operations to be triggered when QoS attribute levels are not met. In addition, it describes FeatureContract, a
toolkit to support contract establishment based on features. An application example is exploited to show the proposed
approach feasibility. The main contributions are related to improved structure and reuse in information in e-contracts.
KEYWORDS
Business Process Management, e-contracts, contract negotiation, contract renegotiation, e-services.
1. INTRODUCTION
The current Business Process Management (BPM) scenario includes: i) one or more organizations that
provide and/or consume electronic services (e-services); ii) negotiation and establishment of electronic
contracts (e-contracts), including quality of service (QoS) attributes and levels; iii) definition, enactment,
monitoring, and auditing of business process; and, iv) process analysis and optimization. E-contracts between
two or more partners interested in an inter-organizational business process establish the activities to be
performed and the obligations, permissions and rights related to each involved party. During contract
enactment, if a party is unable to fulfill contractual clauses, a contract renegotiation may be triggered.
Fantinato et al. (2010) have developed a new approach to reduce the complexity in the wide management
of e-contracts for Web services (WS-Contract). The approach, based on Software Product Line (PL)
concepts, is named PL4BPM (Product Line for Business Process Management). A predominant part of the
PL4BPM approach is the WS-Contract establishment process, focused on providing improved information
reuse and structuring based on the use of feature modeling (Fantinato et al. 2008).
This paper discusses the e-contract life cycle from negotiation, establishment, enactment to renegotiation
within the context of a feature-based BPM infrastructure. The main contributions are: i) an extension of a
contract metamodel to include, respectively, the control operations to be performed in case of e-contract
violation and represent it by using the WS-Agreement specification; ii) an extended infrastructure to support
e-contract negotiation and renegotiation, including the extension of the FeatureContract toolkit; iii) more
efficient management, and reuse of information necessary for the establishment and renegotiation of
e-contracts; and, iv) an example of the approach showing the various stages of an e-contract establishment.
The feature modeling technique used in the representation of e-services and QoS attributes has shown the
following advantages (Fantinato et al. 2008): flexibility for e-services specification; modularization facilities
for QoS attributes specification; and, structured representation of the optional and mandatory WS-contract
elements. This may also be advantageous in contract renegotiations as we will see.
The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents basic concepts; Section 3 presents some related
work; Section 4 presents the extended Feature and WS-Contract metamodels; Section 5 presents the
IADIS International Conference WWW/Internet 2010
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extension made on the FeatureContract toolkit, within the proposed BPM infrastructure; Section 6 presents
an application example using the proposed approach; and, finally, Section 7 concludes the paper.
2. BACKGROUND
In this section, firstly e-contracts are described and then feature modeling concepts are presented as this is the
technique used in this approach to represent information to be included in e-contracts.
2.1 E-contracts
Organizations interested in Internet business partnerships must define details of the business process to be
enacted and express them in e-contracts (Fantinato et al. 2008). An e-contract defines details about the
organizations, the activities to be executed and the contractual clauses that must be met during process
enactment (Grefen et al. 2001). The clauses could be of three types: obligations, rights and prohibitions. The
obligation clauses include QoS of e-services within the inter-organizational process. In addition to the
functional aspect of e-contracts, there is also the legal aspect that will not be considered is this paper.
The activities to be contracted are e-services that may be implemented as Web services; when e-contracts
are called WS-Contracts. Web Services have spread as a promising technology for the effective automation
of inter-organizational interactions (Papazoglou 2007). The major benefit of it is the wide standardization
including: a language to describe service interfaces (WSDL), a service directory structure and APIs for
service publication and discovery (UDDI) and a communication protocol (SOAP).
The contractual clauses may be specified in languages such as WS-Agreement, a specification offering
assurance about Web Services execution (Andrieux et al. 2007). It was developed to represent and establish
agreements between two parts, usually a service provider and a consumer. The specification uses XML to
structure an agreement that is composed by elements such as Name, Context, Terms (Service Terms and
Guarantee Terms). WS-Agreement also allows the definition of service level objectives and qualifying
conditions associated with importance, penalties and rewards representing the business value to the provider.
2.2 Feature Modeling
Feature modeling captures and manages common points and variabilities in software product lines (Pohl et al.
2005). A feature model represents properties of some entity of interest. It can denote any functional or non-
functional property in the requirement, architectural or other levels. Features can be mandatory, optional or
alternative (Czarnecki et al. 2005). They are organized into a tree-like diagram in which a node represents a
feature and each feature can be described by a set of sub-features represented as descendant nodes. A feature
model describes a system family. A family member can be configured by selecting the desired features from
the model within the model variability limits, which is called feature model configuration.
3. RELATED WORK
The CrossFlow project is precursor in the area of inter-organizational business process (Grefen et al. 2001).
As some other earlier works, they use metamodels and templates to facilitate e-contract establishment. More
recently, Angelov and Grefen (2008b) defined an e-contract metamodel with different perspectives such as
function and communication perspective. They identify four e-contract lifecycle phases: i) information that
describes services and possible partners; ii) pre-contracting that customizes business operational aspects; iii)
contracting that establishes how the business process will be carried out; and iv) enactment that comprises the
execution of the contracted e-services. Angelov and Grefen (2008a) also defined a reference architecture to
contract systems development, using a component-based approach. It provides a component for each phase of
e-contracting (information, pre-contracting, contracting and enactment).
Bacarin et al. (2008) put forth a negotiation protocol with some primitive actions to assign property
values, to send offers, request for proposal (RFP) and votes. They identify the following phases: negotiation
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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announcement, leader determination, objective announcement, negotiation setup, restriction announcement,
core negotiation, commit attempt, contract (re)construction.
Some works (Angelov & Grefen 2008b; Bacarin et al. 2008; Grefen et al. 2001) use e-contract template to
facilitate e-contract reuse. In a general way, the renegotiation issue is still not completely addressed in a
proper way by the works proposed in the literature. Some architectures and frameworks (Angelov & Grefen
2008a; Bacarin et al. 2008) allows contract update during process execution. However, none of them
specifies the actions to be performed in the case of contract violation. This work addresses the issue of
control operations to handle contract enactment in the case of any clause violation.
4. FEATURE AND WS-CONTRACT METAMODELS
The BPM context involves business process composed by e-services. Our approach considers e-services
implemented as Web Services and hence the WS-Contracts to regulate the collaboration between the parties.
The WS-Contract is composed of: parties, e-services, contractual clauses and a business process. WS-BPEL
is used to define the parties and the orchestration of the e-services within an inter-organizational context
(Alves et al. 2007). E-services and QoS attributes are described in WSDL and WS-Agreement, respectively.
The WS-Contract metamodel, presented in Figure 1, represents the structure that supports the creation of
e-contracts. Originally, it was proposed by Fantinato et al. (2008) and was extended (in gray color) to
represent control operations. The metamodel comprises: i) Web Services described in the WSDL; ii)
Business process specified in the WS-BPEL; iii) QoS attributes of Web Services, described in
WS-Agreement; and, iv) Control operations to be handled in case of contract violation, also described in
WS-Agreement.
The WS-Contract is composed of three sections, as follows:
WS-BPEL definitions: this section defines the business process using the terms Variable, Partner
Link and Activity (including Basic Activity and Structured Activity);
WSDL definitions: this is the services section, it contains the base elements Message Type, Partner
Link Type, Port Type and Operation. The last two describe the Web Services;
WS-Agreement definitions: it defines the business terms. The following elements are used to
define QoS levels: Service Property (including Variable) and Guarantee Term (including Service Scope,
Service Level Objective and Business Value List). It includes also:
- Control operations: represented within the WS-Agreement definitions, more specifically in the
Business Value List section using the penalty tags" as illustrated latter in Figure 3.
A useful strategy explored here is the use of contract templates. An e-contract template is defined only
once, but allows instantiation of distinct and similar contracts. To facilitate the creation of templates,
Fantinato et al. (2008) proposed a feature metamodel. It originally consisted of two sub-trees e-services and

Figure 1. WS-Contract metamodel
5
QoS-attributes, but it has been extended to include a Control Operations sub-tree as presented in Figure 2.
The acronyms depicted in this figure are used to identify the feature type in the feature models, as in the
Figure 4 presented later. In Figure 2, each sub-tree is described as follows:
E-Services sub-tree: (mandatory) contains features representing the e-services offered by an
involved organization;
QoS-attributes sub-tree: (optional) contains features that represent the QoS attributes, which are
attached to e-services defined into the e-Services sub-tree. It includes choices of QoS attribute levels;
Control-operations sub-tree: (optional) it specifies control operations to be executed when QoS
attribute levels are not met. These attributes are attached to e-services defined into the e-Services sub-tree
and to QoS attributes defined into the QoS-attributes sub-tree. The Control Operation and Activity are
depicted latter in Figure 3, each control operation have a possibility to be controlled or not by an activity. The
element Value, in dark gray color, will only exist in the fine application activity and is used, to represent the
fine value.
The Control Operations sub-tree can be associated directly to an e-service or to specific QoS attributes.
The former is used as a default option whereas the latter is used as a specialization option. When a QoS
attribute is not met, if there are control operations settings defined for it, they are triggered; otherwise, if
there are control operations settings defined for the associated e-service, these control operations are
triggered instead. With this feature structure support, a unique set of control operations options, defined only
once, can be reused by all the QoS attributes and levels associated to all the e-services. During feature model
configuration, specific control operations options can be selected for each QoS attribute or for each e-service.
Figure 3 shows the possible Control Operations and the mapping with WS-Agreement section, as follows:
Renegotiation: used for contract update in three ways: i) Clause (QoS attribute) that can be
removed, added or updated. It can be necessary if new requirements in the inter-organization cooperation
appear; ii) Variable (QoS level) that can be renegotiated when triggering a penalty or control operations on a
process are not necessary; and, iii) Price that aservice or a QoS level price can be renegotiated. This can be
applied in services that are not having QoS attribute levels as expected;
Penalty Application: used to apply a penalty to the offending party. The penalty is a fine to
compensate some eventual loss. It can be selected, for example, if the QoS attribute availability" is not
fulfilled causing loss of money or clients;
Process: used to directly influence the business process execution. The available operations are: i)
Rollback that undoes operations already executed by the business process. It can be selected, for example,
for atomic e-services executed in a transactional way; ii) Suspend that stops the business process execution
until some condition is reached. It can be selected, for example, for the QoS attribute security, since the
process can be suspended until some security level is fulfilled; and, iii) Termination that terminates the
business process execution. It can be selected, for example, when clauses related to important e-services can
not be fulfilled and the process can not proceed.
In the right side of Figure 3, the Business Value List is composed as follows (Andrieux et al. 2007):
Penalty: defines an expression to be assumed when an associated objective is not met;

Figure 2. Feature Metamodel for e-Services, QoS and Control Operations
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Value Unit: (type xs:string) defines the unit for assessing penalty. It is used, in this work, to
represent a currency in case of penalty application or a control operation such as renegotiation or process;
Value Expr: (type xs:any) represents a value in case of penalty application or a control activity such
as variable, price or clause renegotiation;
Assesment Interval: defines the interval over which a penalty is assessed. It can be one of the
following: i) Time Interval that defines the assessment interval as a duration. For example, a weekly or
monthly interval for defining the assessment; and, ii) Count that defines the assessment interval as a service
specific count, such as the number of invocations.
When the Contract Renegotiation operation is chosen, a negotiation protocol must be specified. It will be
performed after a notification sent by the monitor to the collaborating parties. Other operations such as
Process Terminate, Process Rollback and Process Suspend will be executed by the WS-BPEL server. The
monitor and WS-BPEL server are elements of the infrastructure described in Section 5.
5. BPM INFRASTRUCTURE AND FEATURECONTRACT TOOLKIT
The proposed BPM infrastructure comprises four organizations: consumer, provider, negotiator and monitor.
The Consumer Organization includes: i) a structure called WS-Contract Definition responsible for
negotiation and establishment of WS-Contracts based on features; ii) a structure WS-Contract Execution
responsible for the business process execution; and, iii) a SOC System necessary if the consumer services
are part of the business process to be executed. In the Provider Organization, the SOC System control the
Web Services subcontracted by the consumer. The Monitor Organization has one structure WS-Contract
Monitoring that follows the business process execution guided by the QoS terms contained in the WS-
contract for service monitoring. The Negotiator Organization has one structure WS-Contract Negotiation
that uses a set of protocols responsible to (re)negotiation of contracts between providers and consumers.
The FeatureContract toolkit, extended in this work, implements the structure WS-Contract Definition and
has the following functionalities (Fantinato et al. 2008): i) Feature models creation and management; ii)
Services section, business process and agreement terms creation from the feature model; iii) Contract model
management through edition of its services section, business process and agreement terms; iv) Feature model
configuration that represents the services and related QoS levels to be contracted; and, v) e-contract
instantiation. The FeatureContract has a set of components that supports the different stages of contract
establishment, some were reused from other research and development groups whereas others were
developed by our research group. A description of each component is presented as follows:
FeaturePlugin: supports the elaboration of feature models and also the configuration of such
models. It was developed by Czarnecki research group (Antkiewicz & Czarnecki 2004), as an Eclipse plugin,
and it implements cardinality-based feature modeling. Only a few adaptations were necessary in order to
incorporate it as a component of the FeatureContract toolkit;

Figure 3. Mapping between control operation elements regarding both metamodels
7
Feature Model Parser (FMParser): supports the automatic transformation from e-service feature
models to an initial version of a WS-contract template. It was specifically developed to be a component of
the FeatureContract toolkit. This component works as a document parser, it has been implemented as J ava
code that is responsible to transform the XML exported by the FeaturePlugin in the services section, business
terms and business process;
XML Editor: supports the graphical visualization and edition of XML specifications. Since there is
no particular tool for editing WS-Agreement specifications yet, this tool is used to edit the business terms
section, represented by the WS-Agreement definitions, of the WS-contract template, if necessary. It is an
Eclipse plugin, part of the Web Tools Platform (WTP) (Eclipse Foundation 2010b);
WSDL Editor: supports the graphical visualization and edition of WSDL specifications. It is used
to edit the services section, represented by the WSDL definitions, of the WS-contract template generated by
the FMParser, if necessary. It is also an Eclipse WTP plugin (Eclipse Foundation 2010b);
Eclipse BPEL: supports the graphical visualization and edition of WS-BPEL specifications (Eclipse
Foundation 2010a). It is used to edit the business process of the WS-contract template generated by the
FMParser, which is created in a basic way. It is always necessary to edit it to fix the process logic;
WS-Contract Factory: supports the automatic WS-contract instantiation, based on the WS-contract
template and on the e-services feature model configurations. It was specifically developed to be a component
of the FeatureContract toolkit. It works as a document parser, which removes all the parts of the template
linked with features not present in the feature models configurations. This removal process is carried out
following the hierarchical levels of the contract parts, i.e. when an upper-level template element has to be
removed, all its internal lower-level element are removed as well.
The FeatureContract toolkit is considered a prototype as not all the functionalities have been implemented
yet, but it can express the feasibility of this approach as showed in the next Section. The extensions proposed
here were developed and an application example was chosen in order to be a complex task, but due to lack of
space it was simplified.
6. APPLICATION EXAMPLE
This section presents a summary of an application example to show the feasibility of the proposed approach.
This example requires a contract to be established between two fictitious organizations: A Travel Agency and
an Airline Company. The Travel Agency (Consumer)'s system supports tourism packages sale by
composing third-party services; e-services provided by the travel agency include: customer notification,
offers advertisement and travel packages that consume Airline Company e-services. The Airline Company
(Provider)'s system supports flight ticket sale and booking; e-services provided by the airline company
include: flight booking and purchase; seat and food selection. The stages for e-contract establishment are
presented, only in the Airline Company perspective, as follows.
In the first stage (Services Feature Model Elaboration), each company must elaborate a feature model
to represent: the provided e-services; the QoS levels related to each service; and the control operations related
both to e-services and/or QoS levels. Figure 4(a) presents a feature model example for an Airline Company,
which has two service groups: flight services group and services selection group. This first group has the
following services: timetable query, flight purchase and flight booking; and the services selection group has
seat selection and food selection. Only some items are expanded. The Airline Company feature model gives
the consumer (Travel Agency) a structured overview of which e-services, QoS levels and control operations
are offered by the provider. During the feature model configuration stage, described in the following, with
the control operations associated to the feature model, the consumer can choose e-services and their QoS
levels with control operations to be applied when QoS levels are not met. With the services features models
elaborated, XML files can be exported by the FeaturePlugin to be used in e-contract template creation.
In the second stage (e-contract Template Creation), the XML files exported from the feature models are
used by the FeatureContract to extract the WSDL and WS-Agreement sections of the template. Moreover, the
Eclipse BPEL plugin is used to define the business process flow. However, BPEL and WSDL sections of the
e-contract are not addressed in this paper since the extension proposed here is more closely related with the
WS-Agreement section. The template is composed by all the services and related QoS levels offered to be
contracted with the respective control operations in case of contract violation, as present in Figure 4(a). The
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main idea is to create one template that can be instantiated many times with different feature configurations.
Figure 5 shows a WS-Agreement excerpt that represents renegotiation related to a QoS Level. Not all the
possible values are depicted due to lack of space. Latter they will be removed, only the level chosen in the
feature model configuration will be left as described in the following subsection.

Figure 4. (a) Feature model; and, (b) Feature model configuration for the airline company
In the third stage (Services Feature Model Configuration), the Travel Agency system selects the
e-services to be contracted from the Airline Company system, QoS levels and control operations related to
these services are also configured. As depicted in Figure 4(a) by the symbol , all the features of the flight
services group are mandatory, the symbols and represents optional features that can be chosen by the
contracting party. Figure 4(b) depicts an example of a feature model configuration. The control-operations
sub-tree is associated to the flight-purchase e-service and its QoS attributes. The renegotiation of price is
defined as the default control operation for the flight-purchase service, which must be triggered if any QoS
attribute, for which there is no specialized control operation, is not met. Latter in the e-contract instantiation
the penalty tags, related to the flight-purchase e-service, that represents renegotiation of clause and variable
will be removed from the e-contract template. Only the penalty that represents price renegotiation will be left.

Figure 5. WS-Agreement Template Excerpt
In the last stage (E-contract Instantiation), the feature models configurations of the Airline Company
and Travel Agency systems indicate which information are relevant to a specific e-contract instance. From
the feature models configurations, new XML files are generated. Using the WS-Contract Factory, of the
FeatureContract toolkit, all the information related to e-services, QoS attributes and control operations not
selected during feature models configuration are removed from the e-contract template. New WDSL,
WS-Agreement and WS-BPEL files, containing only the information necessary to the specific agreement,
form a new e-contract instance, including control operations information related to Web Services and QoS
levels.

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7. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
This paper has presented an infrastructure that supports e-contract negotiation, establishment, enactment and
renegotiation. The emphasis was in the FeatureContract toolkit and the control operations in the contract
metamodel. The main advantages of the approach are: i) efficient information management, organization and
reuse, necessary for the negotiation and renegotiation of e-contracts through feature modeling utilization; ii)
understanding of the renegotiation process through identifying all possible alternatives to dynamically adjust
the e-contract; iii) information organization and presentation of e-services and QoS attributes linked with
control operations using feature modeling; and, iv) extension of the WS-Contract metamodel to include the
control operations elements already supported by the feature models.
As some lessons learned, the use of feature models to represent control operations to handle e-contract
violations makes this process easier to understand, simple and systematic. It can bring benefits for distinct
stakeholders, at different levels, as it has a high level of abstraction and structured way for representing
information. However, some disadvantages or limitations of the approach can be pointed out: i) necessity of
knowledge about the feature modeling; and, ii) negotiation is still made in an offline way; negotiation
protocols have not yet been included to automatically perform negotiation.
Future works, besides focusing on the weaknesses cited above, include: full implementation of the
WS-Contract Negotiation element with some example protocols; and integration with the WS-Contract
monitoring tool which has been developed by the same research group.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by The State of So Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and The National
Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Brazil.
REFERENCES
Alves, A et al. 2007, Business process execution language for web services version 2.0, OASIS, Available from:
<http://docs.oasis-open.org/wsbpel/2.0/OS/wsbpel-v2.0-OS.html>. [22 J uly 2010].
Andrieux, A et al. 2007, Web services agreement specification (ws-agreement), Open Grid Forum, Available from:
<http://www.gridforum.org/documents/GFD.107.pdf>. [22 J uly 2010].
Angelov, S & Grefen, P 2008, An e-contracting reference architecture, J. Syst. Softw., Vol. 81, No. 11, pp. 18161844.
Angelov, S & Grefen, P 2008, Supporting the diversity of b2b e-contracting processes, Int. J. Electron. Commerce, Vol.
12, No. 4, pp. 3970.
Antkiewicz, M & Czarnecki, K 2004, FeaturePlugin: feature modeling plug-in for Eclipse, in Proc. of the 2004 OOPSLA
workshop on eclipse technology eXchange, New York, USA, pp. 6772.
Bacarin, E et al. 2008, Contract e-negotiation in agricultural supply chains, Int. J. Electron. Commerce, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp.
7198.
Czarnecki, K et al. 2005, Staged configuration through specialization and multi-level configuration of feature models, in
Software Process Improvement and Practice, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 143-169.
Eclipse Foundation 2010a, BPEL Project, Available from: <http://www.eclipse.org/bpel/>. [22 J uly 2010].
Eclipse Foundation 2010b, Web Tools Platform, Available from: <http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/>. [22 J uly 2010].
Fantinato, M et al. 2008, Ws-contract establishment with qos: an approach based on feature modeling, Int. J. Cooperative
Inf. Syst., Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 373407.
Fantinato, M et al. 2010, Product line in the business process management domain, in Applied Software Product Line
Engineering, eds K C Kang, V Sugumaran, & S Park, Auerbach Publications, pp. 497530.
Grefen, P et al. 2001, CrossFlow: Cross-Organizational Workflow Management for Service Outsourcing in Dynamic
Virtual Enterprises, Data Engineering Bulletin, pp. 5257.
Papazoglou, M 2007, Web Services: Principles and Technology, Prentice Hall.
Pohl, K et al. 2005, Software Product Line Engineering: Foundations, Principles and Techniques, 1st ed, Springer.
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THE INTENDED USE OF MOBILE TOURISM SERVICES
Niklas Eriksson* and Peter Strandvik**
*Arcada University of Applied Sciences, Jan-Magnus Janssonin aukio 1, 00550 Helsinki Finland
**bo Akademi University, Institute for Advanced Management Systems Research, Jouhkahainenkatu 3-5A Turku,
Finland
ABSTRACT
This paper presents results from a study of the intended use of mobile tourism services. The theoretical foundation was
drawn from the unified theory for the acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and from relevant research theories for
adoption of electronic and mobile services. The data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire which was
handed out to 103 university students. The findings suggest that value expectancy has the most significant direct impact
on the intended use of mobile tourism services. Moreover, attitudes towards mobile technology and social influence have
a significant direct impact on the intended use of mobile tourism services.
KEYWORDS
Mobile services, tourism, technology adoption.
1. INTRODUCTION
The use of the Internet for doing commerce or interacting with customers has been growing rapidly in the
world wide tourism industry. Mobile commerce, or e-commerce over mobile devices, on the other hand has
had many conflicting predictions on its future popularity. Most predictions have been overly optimistic.
However, the benefits that arise from mobile technology have not yet been fully delivered, which to some
extent is explained by the fact that mobile applications, due to complexity or lack of relevance, fail to meet
customers expectations (Carlsson et al. 2006). Travel and tourism is an industry in which several different
projects have been conducted where mobile applications have been developed, tested and implemented, some
even with moderate success (e.g. Schmidt-Belz et al 2003, Repo et al 2006, Riebeck et al. 2009). Moreover,
there are a few different studies (e.g. Hpken et al 2007, Riebeck et al 2009, Katsura & Sheldon 2009) made
on consumer adoption of mobile tourism services. Nevertheless, more is needed in order to fully understand
the adoption issues of mobile services in different contexts.
The New Interactive Media (NIM) project, with funding from the European Union and the regional
government of the land islands, was a development programme of increasing knowledge, production and
use of new interactive media on the land Islands
1
in Finland during the years 2006 2008. Within the
project several mobile applications were developed for the travel and tourism sector on the islands. Two of
them, MobiPortal and MobiTour, will in this study be used as example services to investigate determinants
with direct effect the intended use of mobile tourism services.
2. MOBILE TOURISM SERVICES
The services in the NIM project were planned with a common logic namely the Braudel rule: freedom
becomes value by expanding the limits of the possible in the structures of everyday life (as presented by
Keen & Mackintosh 2001). The rule was then translated into a tourism setting which means that tourists real

1
land is an autonomous and unilingual Swedish region in Finland with its own flag and approximately 26.700 inhabitants. land is
situated between Finland and Sweden and consists of 6 500 islands. (www.visitaland.com)
11
or perceived need had to be met by the services and moreover, the services need to profoundly change the
way a tourist does or experience something
MobiPortal is a mobile version of an informa
site of the land Islands. The portal includes search for events, restaurants etc., a map service and facts on
the land Islands.
MobiTour is a guide for attractions such as the Bomarsund fortress which is downloadable / streamable to
the visitors own devices. The guide includes voice and/or video guidance.
See user interface of the two services in figure 1.

MobiPortal
Figure 1. User interface of MobiPortal and MobiTour
Both services ought to expand the limits of a tourist according to the Braudel rule by enabling 1) instant
access to local information and 2) experience enhancement for certain unmanned attractions.
experience enhancement features are generally seen as key drivers for successful customer satisfaction in
tourism (Pine & Gilmore 1999). The determinants for the intended use of mobile tourism services are,
however, a complex issue which will b
3. RESEARCH MODEL
Several models of technology adoption have been developed. One of the most used models is the technology
acceptance model (TAM) by Davis (1989) which is based on the theory of reason action (TRA) by Fishbein
et al. (1975). Other often used models in techno
theories (DIT) by Rogers (1995) and the unified theory for the acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT)
by Venkatech et al. (2003) which combines TAM with several other adoption models e.g. DIT. The U
model states that there are three determinants performance expectancy, Effort expectancy and Social
Influence with direct effect on the behavioral intention of technology. Two determinants facilitating
conditions and behavioral intentions have a direc
determinants self-efficacy, attitudes towards technology and anxiety are not direct determinants of the
intended behavior. Moreover, four moderators gender, age, experience and voluntariness of use are inc
in the UTAUT model. See figure 2
direct effect on intentional behavior: performance expectancy (PE), Effort expectancy (EE) and Social
Influence (SI), as our aim is primarily to f
intention of mobile tourism services. Nevertheless, due to that UTAUT is primarily focusing on
organizational contexts and not on consumer contexts; we will modify PE, EE and SI and include the
determinants Anxiety (AX) and Attitude (ATT) in our test. Moreover, based on previous tests of UTAUT a
modification to the model should be made when investigating mobile services (Carlsson et al 2006). Hereby
we discuss relevant research theories for adopti
modification of UTAUT for PE, EE, SI, AX and ATT. The moderators are left out in this research paper.

to be met by the services and moreover, the services need to profoundly change the
way a tourist does or experience something and to the better (Harkke 2007).
is a mobile version of an information portal www.visitaland.com which is the official tourist
is a guide for attractions such as the Bomarsund fortress which is downloadable / streamable to
the visitors own devices. The guide includes voice and/or video guidance.
See user interface of the two services in figure 1.
MobiPortal MobiTour

Figure 1. User interface of MobiPortal and MobiTour
access to local information and 2) experience enhancement for certain unmanned attractions.
however, a complex issue which will be discussed next.
RESEARCH MODEL
et al. (1975). Other often used models in technology adoption research are the diffusion of innovations
by Venkatech et al. (2003) which combines TAM with several other adoption models e.g. DIT. The U
conditions and behavioral intentions have a direct effect on the actual use of technology and three
efficacy, attitudes towards technology and anxiety are not direct determinants of the
intended behavior. Moreover, four moderators gender, age, experience and voluntariness of use are inc
See figure 2. The focus in this study will be to examine determinants in UTAUT with
Influence (SI), as our aim is primarily to find out determinants with direct influence on the behavioral
eterminants Anxiety (AX) and Attitude (ATT) in our test. Moreover, based on previous tests of UTAUT a
we discuss relevant research theories for adoption of electronic and mobile services to motivate the
to be met by the services and moreover, the services need to profoundly change the
which is the official tourist
is a guide for attractions such as the Bomarsund fortress which is downloadable / streamable to
MobiTour

access to local information and 2) experience enhancement for certain unmanned attractions. Especially
logy adoption research are the diffusion of innovations
by Venkatech et al. (2003) which combines TAM with several other adoption models e.g. DIT. The UTAUT
t effect on the actual use of technology and three
efficacy, attitudes towards technology and anxiety are not direct determinants of the
intended behavior. Moreover, four moderators gender, age, experience and voluntariness of use are included
. The focus in this study will be to examine determinants in UTAUT with
ind out determinants with direct influence on the behavioral
eterminants Anxiety (AX) and Attitude (ATT) in our test. Moreover, based on previous tests of UTAUT a
on of electronic and mobile services to motivate the
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
12

Figure 2. The final UTAUT model
3.1 Performance Expectancy (Value Expectancy)
The TAM model proposes two determinants, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, which impact
the intended usage behavior of a system and the adoption behavior as a result (Davis 1989). The first one,
perceived usefulness, is defined as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system
would enhance his or her performance. In the UTAUT model perceived usefulness has emerged into
performance expectancy and defined as the degree to which an individual believes that using the system will
help him or her to attain gains in job performance. However, perceived usefulness and performance
expectancy are foremost designed to research work performance improvements in organizational contexts. In
consumer markets consumer behavior is also influenced by other factors. It is typical that non-efficiency
factors impact consumer adoption of technology, e.g. good tourist technologies are not only those that make
tourists more efficient, but that also make tourism more enjoyable. Thus tourism can be characterized as
wandering, where tourists attempt to enjoy the city environment and chance upon things of interest, rather
than optimizing (Brown & Chalmers 2003). As the mobility (on the move) capability is generally seen as the
key value driver in m-commerce (Anckar & Eriksson 2003), mobile technology clearly has the potential to
support the wandering aspect of tourism. A word like flexibility has commonly been used to describe the
independence of time and space that is provided by mobile technology. According to Kim et al. (2005) the
hedonic motivation or the enjoyment aspect of tourism has, however, not been clearly defined in mobile
technology acceptance models. The perceived type and degree of perceived value of a mobile service depend
on the other hand on the situation or context of usage (Mallat et al 2006, Lee & Jun, 2005). Anckar & Dincau
(2002) introduced an analytical framework that identifies the potential value creating features of mobile
commerce. Mobile value elements in the framework for consumers on the move are: Time-critical
arrangements, Spontaneous needs, Entertainment needs, Efficiency ambitions and Mobile situations. Time-
critical arrangements refer to applications for situations where immediacy is desirable (arise from external
events), e.g. receive alerts of a changed transport schedule while on tour. Spontaneous needs are internally
awakened and not a result of external events, e.g. find a suitable restaurant while wandering around.
Entertainment needs, killing time/having fun, especially in situations when not being able to access wired
entertainment appliances, e.g. kill or fill time in transportation. Efficiency ambitions aim at productivity, e.g.
use dead spots during a travel to optimize time usage. Mobile situations refer to applications that in essence
are of value only through a mobile medium (e.g. localization services), which ought to be the core of mobile
commerce. Consequently perceived mobile value represent the degree to which a person perceives value
arising from the mobility of the mobile medium (when not being able to access a stationary PC).
Nevertheless not only the mobile medium creates value for the consumer but the essence of the services
as well. Electronic information systems can be divided into productivity oriented and pleasure (hedonic)
oriented systems (van der Heijden 2004). The hedonic systems focus on the fun-aspect of using an
information system rather than on productive use. For example, as discussed, good tourist technologies are
not only those that make tourists more efficient, but that also make tourism more enjoyable
As a result of the above discussion we will refer to performance expectancy as value expectancy which
includes mobile value and service value as productivity value and pleasure value. We expect value
expectancy to have a direct effect on intentional behavior.
Performance
expectancy

Effort expectancy

Social Influence
Facilitating
Conditions
Behavioral Intentions Use Behavior
Gender

Age

Experience

Voluntariness of Use

13
H1: Value expectancy has a significant direct effect on intentional behavior of mobile tourism services
3.2 Effort Expectancy
The second TAM determinant perceived ease of use is defined as the degree to which a person believes that
using a particular system would be free of effort. In the UTAUT model the ease of use determinant has
emerged into effort expectancy and defined as the degree of ease associated with the use of the system.
Moreover, the ease of use aspect has been widely discussed in mobile commerce. Limitations of mobile
devices (e.g. screen size) cause consumers to hesitate whether to adopt mobile commerce or not. According
to Cho et al (2007) device limitations suggest that focusing on easy to use mobile applications could enhance
the consumer acceptance of mobile commerce. Kaasinen (2005) points out that mobile services need to be
easy to take into use as well (ease of adoption) as mobile services are typically used occasionally and some
services may be available only locally in certain usage environments. As a consequence, information on
available services should be easy to get and the services should be easy to install and to start using. The ease
of adoption aspect has not been taken into account in models such as TAM. The ease of taking a service into
use may in fact have a direct impact on the adoption behavior of a mobile service (Kaasinen 2005). On the
other hand when problems arise, users in the consumer market are often expected to solve the problems on
their own (Repo et. al 2006). Consequently the use may rely on proper instructions or on a helping hand from
someone. Proper support conditions also in a consumer market may therefore be important especially for
advanced mobile services. This aspect is in the UTAUT called facilitating conditions which is proven to
significantly influence the actual use of technology in organizational contexts. Nevertheless we argue that
consumers many times expect to take a new product or service into use without instructions or help,
especially when it will be only temporary used while visiting a tourist destination. Furthermore, facilitating
conditions didnt have a direct link to the actual use of mobile services in a previous study by Carlsson et al
(2006). Therefore ease of adoption and facilitating condition will here together with ease of use be included
in the effort expectancy determinant. Hereby we expect effort expectancy to have a direct effect on
intentional behavior.
H2: Effort expectancy has a significant direct effect on intentional behavior of mobile tourism services
3.3 Social Influence
In UTAUT social influence has been identified to influence the intended use of information technology. In
UTAUT social Influence is defined as the degree to which an individual perceives that important others
believe he should use the new system (Venkatech et al., 2003). Social influence is also known as subjective
norm in the theory of reason action (Fishbein et al 1975) and in its extension theory of planned behavior
(Arjzen 1991). In consumer markets image and social status have been proposed to impact consumers
intentions to adoption of a WAP-enabled mobile phone (Teo & Pok 2003). A positive or negative subjective
norm can in fact in consumer markets make or break a new technology based product (Schepers and Wetzels
2007). Hereby we expect social influence as image to have a direct effect on intentional behavior.
H3: Social Influence has a significant direct effect on intentional behavior of mobile tourism services
3.4 Anxiety
Anxiety in UTAUT has been defined as evoking anxious or emotional reactions when it comes to performing
a behaviour (e.g. using a computer), but has not been seen to have a direct influence on intentional behaviour
of information technology. Therefore anxiety has not been included in the final UTAUT model. According to
Rogers (1995),The innovation-decision is made through a cost benefit analysis where the major obstacle is
uncertainty. Perceived risk is commonly thought of as felt uncertainty regarding possible negative
consequences of using a product or service and has been added to the two TAM determinants as a negative
influencer on intended adoption behaviour (Featherman & Pavlou 2003). Trust, as trust in the service vendor
to minimize the risks, has also been added to the TAM model (e.g. Cho et al 2007, Kaasinen 2005) and
pointed out as a strong influence on the intended use of mobile services due to that mobile commerce is still
at its initial stage (Cho et al. 2007). We refer to anxiety and trust as perceived risk defined by Featherman &
Pavlou 2003. They divide the perceived risk for electronic services into the following elements; performance
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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risk, financial risk, time risk, psychological risk, social risk and privacy risk. Performance risk refers to the
possibility of a service to malfunction and not performing as it was designed and advertised. The financial
risk refers to the potential monetary outlay associated with the initial purchase price as well as the subsequent
maintenance cost of the product and the possibility of fraud. Time risk refers to that the consumer may lose
time when making a bad purchasing decision e.g. by learning how to use a product or service only to have to
replace it if it does not perform to expectations. Psychological risk refers to the potential loss of self-esteem
(ego loss) from the frustration of not achieving a buying goal. Social risk refers to potential loss of status in
ones social group as a result of adopting a product or service, looking foolish or untrendy. Privacy risk refers
to the potential loss of control over personal information, such as when information about you is used without
your knowledge or permission. At least security and privacy issues have been highlighted as barriers to
mobile commerce (ODonnell et al. 2007). Also financial risks in form of high costs, including operating
costs and initial costs, have been highly ranked by consumers as hindrances for m-commerce in its early
stages (Anckar et al. 2003). Hereby we expect anxiety (perceived risk) to have a direct effect on intentional
behavior. The element of social risk is already included in the determinant social influence as described
earlier and is therefore not included in Anxiety.
H4: Anxiety has a significant direct effect on intentional behavior of mobile tourism services
3.5 Attitude towards using Mobile Technology
In UTAUT Attitudes towards technology has been defines as an individual's overall affective reaction to
using a system. Attitude has been theorized as having no direct effect on intentional behavior of information
technology. Also in diffusion theories personal innovativeness has been argued to be a prior condition to
other determinants of adoption decisions (Rogers 1995). Mobile service studies, nevertheless, argue that
attitude of mobile technology in fact may have a direct effect on the intended behavior of mobile services
(Carlsson et al 2006). Herby we expect attitudes towards using mobile technology to have a direct effect on
intentional behavior. We see three relevant elements of the attitude aspects: try out of mobile technology in
general, willingness of purchasing the latest mobile devices and curiosity towards new mobile services.
H5: Attitudes towards using mobile technology has a significant direct effect on intentional behavior of
mobile tourism services
3.6 Behavioral Intention
Information technology acceptance models separate between intended use and actual use. As we are only
demonstrating examples of mobile tourism services to the respondents, without them being able to use the
services on their own, we cannot expect the respondents to give answers based on their actual use but only on
their intended use of similar services. Therefore we need to investigate possible determinants which effect
(positively or negatively) the intended use of mobile tourism services. Nevertheless the intended use in
acceptance models has a direct effect on the actual use. We see three aspects of the intended use: the intended
use in the near future (next time visiting e.g. land islands), believe in future use when visiting different
places and the intended use compared to use of traditional services (e.g. paper brochures and guides).
Based on the literature discussion possible determinants for the intended consumer adoption of mobile
tourism services are: value expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, anxiety and attitude towards
mobile technology. The model to be tested is shown in figure 3.

Figure 3. Research model
Value expectancy
H1
Effort expectancy

Intentions to use mobile
tourism services
Social Influence

Anxiety

H5 Attitude towards
mobile technology

H2
H3
H4
15
4. DATA AND METHODS
Based on the literature discussion item statements were developed for each determinant. In total 19 item
statements were measured on a five point Likert scale (1 = I totally disagree and 5 = I totally agree). Negative
statements were reversed in the analysis so that all scales were comparable. The used statements are viewed
in Table 1.
Data was collected at Arcada University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki Finland during May 2010. The
questionnaire was handed out in a class situation and included a brief introduction to the two example mobile
tourism services; MobiTour and MobiPortal. The sample included in total 103 students, with a female student
domination of 62,1% . The average age was 21,5 years and 38,8% use mobile Internet services at least a few
times a month.
We used the software Smart PLS 2.0 to analyze the data. Partial Least Square (PLS) path modeling is
very well suited for analyzing small samples (Chin & Newstedt 1999). PLS is also increasingly being used
within several research fields such as research of consumer behavior (Hensler et al. 2009). Thereby PLS is
well motivated to use for this study. A two-stage analytical procedure was conducted to assess the
measurement model and then the structural relationships.
Table 1. Statements of the determinants
Determinants Items Item statements, scale 1 5
Value expectancy

Mobile value

I would find services like MobiPortal / MobiTour useful when on the move (when I
cant access a stationary PC)
Productivity value Using services like MobiPortal / MobiTour would save me time
Pleasure value Using services like MobiPortal / MobiTour would be fun
Effort expectancy

Ease of use It would be easy for me to become skillful at using services like MobiPortal /
MobiTour
Ease of adoption

In my opinion services like MobiPortal / MobiTour would be easy to take into use
(access / install and learn to use)
Facilitating condition I wouldnt need anyone to help me use services like MobiPortal / MobiTour
Social Influence Image / social status I feel trendy if I use services like MobiPortal / MobiTour
Anxiety
*Reverse scale

Performance risk I dont trust services like MobiPortal / MobiTour to perform as it is designed and
advertized
Financial risk 1

I fear that the monetary layout (e.g. transaction costs) would be high for services like
MobiPortal / MobiTour
Financial risk 2 I fear that I would need to pay without being able to use the service anyway
Time risk I fear that services like MobiPortal / MobiTour would waste my time
Psychological risk I believe I would be frustrated if services like MobiPortal / MobiTour do not perform
as promised
Privacy risk Im afraid of losing control over personal information when using services like
MobiPortal / MobiTour
Attitudes towards
mobile
technology
Mobile device I want my mobile phone to be the latest model
Mobile technology I like to try out the latest mobile technologies
Mobile service Im curious about using new mobile phone services
Behavioral
Intention

Near future I intend to use services like MobiPortal / MobiTour next time I visit e.g. the land
island
Traditional use I would rather use services like MobiPortal / MobiTour than traditional ones (e.g.
paper brochures and guides)
Future use I believe I will use services like MobiPortal / MobiTour in the future when I visit
different places
5. RESULTS
The results are assessed by analyzing the correlations between measures of potentially overlapping
determinants. Therefore we calculated the average variance extracted (AVE) and the composite reliability to
assess determinant reliability. AVE shared between each determinant and its measures should be greater than
the variance shared with other determinants. All determinants expect for Anxiety showed good composite
reliability (>0.7) and AVE (>0.5). The specific items should load heavier on their own determinants than the
other determinants. All items of the model showed the highest loadings for their own determinant. The
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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loading per item for a determinant should also exceed 0,55 and their significance should exceed 1,96. That
was not the case for a few items. Within the anxiety determinant the financial risk 1 and 2 items plus
psychological risk and privacy risk showed very low path loadings and low significance. Moreover both
AVE and composite reliability were low for anxiety and therefore these items were excluded from the final
analysis.
The latent scores were then calculated. Value expectancy and Attitude towards using mobile technology
show the highest significant impact on the behavioral intention. Especially the determinant value expectancy
stands out with a loading of 0,306. Also social influence has a significant impact on the intentional behavior.
Therefore the hypothesis H1, H3 and H5 are supported in this study. Nevertheless and surprisingly H2 and
H4 are rejected as not significant. The R2 value for Intentional behavior is 0,522 which means that about
52,2% of the variance in intentions to use mobile tourism services can be explained by Value expectancy,
Social influence and Attitude. The R2 value is good compared to e.g. earlier TAM studies. See figure 3.

*** P <0,001, **P < 0,01,*P < 0,05, n.s. = not significant
Figure 3. Tested research model
6. CONCLUSIONS
It must be emphasized that the sample consisted of students who may differ in their behavior compared to a
wider population. Students may be more used to technology and their effort expectancy and anxiety towards
technology services may therefore be different than for other user segments. Therefore the rejection of H2
and H4 shouldnt be over generalized for a wider population. On the other hand it can be argued that mobile
commerce is not in its initial stage anymore, which has been a key argument at least for consumer anxiety.
Value expectancy showed the highest direct impact on the intention to use mobile tourism services. Many
earlier studies have emphasized, as discussed in the theoretical foundation, the importance of value when
marketing and designing mobile services. This study supports that the value expectancy determinant is the
key driver also for the intended use of mobile tourism services, at least when it comes to young university
adults in Finland. This study also indicates that attitudes towards mobile technology and social influence play
a significant role in the adoption process of mobile tourism services.
Future research should include a wider sample of respondents. Moderators such as gender, age and usage
experience should be taken into account as well in the analysis. Therefore we plan to extend the sample to
e.g. incoming tourists on the land islands.
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R2 = 0,522
Social Influence

Anxiety

Attitude towards
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0,115 n.s.
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0,138 n.s.
0,196*
17
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UBIQUITOUS COMMERCE IN TRAIL-AWARE
ENVIRONMENTS
Cldio Martins, J oo Rosa, Laerte Franco and J orge Barbosa
PIPCA/Vale do Rio dos Sinos University - So Leopoldo RS Brazil
ABSTRACT
In mobile computing environments, the tracking of users allows applications to adapt to the contexts visited by users
(Context Awareness). In recent years, the use of context information and users profiles has been considered an
opportunity for ubiquitous commerce. The improvement and the wide adoption of location systems are stimulating the
tracking of users, allowing the use of Trails. A trail is the history of the contexts visited by a user during a period. This
article proposes a systemfor trails management and its application in the ubiquitous commerce. In this text, we consider
that Trail-Aware is an evolution of the simple use of contexts and profiles. The text presents a prototype and its
application in a shopping environment for discovery of deal opportunities using trail-aware.
KEYWORDS
Ubiquitous Computing, Ubiquitous Commerce, Location System, Trail, User Profile, Business.
1. INTRODUCTION
Currently, the evolution of mobile devices and high-speed wireless networks has been stimulating researches
related to Mobile Computing (Diaz et al, 2010; Satyanarayanan et al, 2009). In this area, the improvement
and proliferation of Location Systems (Hightower and Borriello, 2001; Hightower et al, 2006) have
motivated the adoption of solutions that consider the users precise location in the providing of services
(Location-Based Services (Dey et al, 2010; Vaughan-Nichols, 2009)). However, lately, mobile applications
have also become to take into account the users current context to distribute content and services (Context
Awareness (Baldauf et al, 2007; Hoareau and Satoh, 2009)).
The state-of-the-art context-aware computing enables applications taking decisions based on users data
and their current contexts (Hoareau and Satoh, 2009). Nonetheless, we understand that would be valuable
also to consider the users past actions performed in the contexts visited during a period, such as the activities
did, the applications used, the contents accessed, and any other possible event. We believe that this would
improve the distribution of content and services in context-aware environments, because instead of using
only context and profile data, applications would be using the historic of the users actions to take decisions.
Studies on users monitoring in mobile computing systems have shown that is possible to record the
history of contexts visited by users and their actions performed in each context (Smith et al, 2006). Usually,
this history is called Trail (Driver and Clarke, 2008; Levene and Peterson, 2002). Thus, in context-aware
applications, trails would enable using the users past behavior to distribute content and services. Hence, we
propose the application of trails to context-aware computing, considering that Trail-Aware is an advance in
Context-Aware computing. In this article, we introduce a system, which is named TrailM, for trails
management in mobile computing environments.
An important application area of the joint use of context and profile is the commerce (Shekar et al, 2003;
Roussos and Moussouri, 2004). In this field, some applications distribute contextualized deal opportunities
(Franco et al, 2009). In the same way that occurs in context-aware applications, in the commerce domain,
applications are limited to take decisions based on profile and context information. Furthermore, the use of
dealers profiles in context-aware environments is a recent research topic (Franco et al, 2009). Nevertheless,
deal discovery guided by the dealers trails is still an opened research area. Hence, we propose the use of
trails in the commerce scenario, expecting to improve the deal opportunities. In this article, we present a case
19
study in which TrailM was integrated with a ubiquitous commerce system (UbiTrade (Franco et al, 2009))
and used for contextualized discovery of deal opportunities.
The article is organized into six sections. Sect. 2 describes the TrailM architecture. The third Sect.
discusses the TrailM use in the ubiquitous commerce guided by trails. Sect. 4 presents the TrailM and the
UbiTrade prototypes as well as the integration between them, and still describes and evaluates the results
obtained from a case study involving trails in discovery of deal opportunities. Sect. 5 discusses related works
and the contribution of this work. And finally, Sect. 6 presents the conclusions and the future works.
2. THE TRAILM SYSTEM
This section presents the trails management system. Section 2.1 describes the main terms used by the system,
mainly those related to the trails composition, and finally, Section 2.2 presents the system architecture.
2.1 Entities, Trails, Ptrail, and Trailpoint
TrailM was designed to manage entities trails. In this context, entities represent persons, accessing
computational resources (for example, a smartphone), or mobile objects (for example, a vehicle). We choose
entity, instead of user, because then the model could manage trails of any mobile object. In this scenario,
different applications can be developed for trails. For example, a vehicle could have a trail, recording
information considered relevant, such as the occurrences of maintenances or failures.
Applications that use TrailM must temporally store data that composes a trail. For this reason, we propose
that the applications have internally a structure called ptrail (piece of trail), which is composed of the
following attributes: entity, resource, event, context, and location. The values of the entity and resource
attributes are stored statically in the ptrail after that an entity logs in the model. Nonetheless, the values of the
event, context, and location attributes are automatically updated as the actions or movements made by the
entity and monitored by the application. The records related to the contexts visited by an entity are stored in
only one trail. The trail is composed of a sequence of records of the ptrail. A record is composed of seven
attributes organized into three categories: identification, content, and temporality. The first category contains
only one attribute to identify the trail. The second category is used to store the ptrail content. The last
category contains date/time attribute, representing the time of the record creation.
We named trailpoint the process that makes the trail composition. This process sends the values
contained in the ptrail to be recorded in the entitys trail, which is stored in a server. The trailpoint occurs
when the application automatically identifies that an entity performed an event, for example, entry or exit
from a location, interaction with another entity, access to a file, among others. Figure 1 shows the trail
creation of a mobile device user. Each star represents the occurrence of an event, which causes a trailpoint.

Figure 1. Example of trail composition
2.2 The System Architecture
2.2.1 General Organization
Figure 2 presents a general view of the system, which is composed of a server (TrailM Server) and a client
(TrailM Client). In addition, TrailM considers the existence of an external provider that provides location
information. Next sections describe all these components, justifying why they are necessary.
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(a) TrailM Server (b) TrailM Client
Figure 2. The TrailM architecture
2.2.2 TrailM Server
Some of the TrailM Server basic tasks are to manage the entities trails and to enable application querying the
trails. To perform these functions, we designed the TrailServices module (see Figure 2a, which presents the
TrailM Server architecture). The TrailServices provides basic services to manage the trails and, moreover,
enables applications building their own specialized services according to their needs.
The basic services perform generic tasks which are considered strategic for the management of the server
and the trails. These services are organized into three groups: ManageTrail, ComposeTrail, and QueryTrail.
The ManageTrail group supports the services used for the control and management of the applications. The
ComposeTrail group supports the services used for the trails composition. In this group stand out the service
related to the sending of ptrails in the trailpoint process. The QueryTrail group contains the services that
allow queries related to the trails.
TrailM Server enables applications adding to the model their own specialized services, which can be
composed of basic services. Sect 3.2 describes four specialized services created to support the discovery of
deal opportunities guided by trails. The server has a database to store information of the entities, the trails and
their related content. The entities table stores identification data of the entities related to the trails that are
been managed. The trails table stores the ptrails that compose the entities trails. The trail related content is
stored in the others tables: context, region, event, extension of events and resources (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. TrailM database
Some services can have common functions, for example, to do database query and to manage the trails.
For this reason, we designed the TrailManager component, which performs basic operations that can be used
by the services. The TrailManager aims to meet the basic functionality for trail management as the control of
requests sent to the server, registration and authentication of users, access to the database and, one of its main
tasks, the composition of the record for the storage of a ptrail at the trailpoint solicitation moment. The
TrailRepository provides an interface to access the database repository, thus supporting the TrailManager.
2.2.3 TrailM Client
The TrailM Client resides on the mobile device and supports the applications of TrailM. The client
instantiates and manages the ptrails entities, making the synchronism of applications with TrailM Server. The
client is organized into three layers (Figure 2b).The top layer is the communication (TrailClientComm) client
to the server. The intermediate layer (TrailClientLocation) handles the communication device with the
external provider of geographic location. The management layer (TrailClientCore) manages access to device
capabilities.
21
3. UBIQUITOUS COMMERCE
This section presents the strategy used in the deal opportunities discovery guided by trails. Section 3.1
describes the ubiquitous commerce environment, in which TrailM was integrated. Section 3.2 describes how
the trails were used in the discovery process of Deal Opportunities (DOs).
3.1 The Ubiquitous Commerce Environment
The UbiTrade architecture (Franco et al, 2009), presented in Figure 4, is composed of eight components. The
first is the Location System, which allows the identification of the users' current context. The second is the
Profile System that stores the users' data. The third is the Category Tree, which keeps a taxonomy of products
and services. The fourth is the Reference System, which determines the users' reputation, according to the
previous transacted businesses. The fifth is the Service Manager, which operates as a layer of messages
exchange between the interface component and the others. The sixth is the Opportunity Consultant, which is
the main component of the model. It operates as an analysis engine, generating business opportunities from
the profiles and locations of the dealers. Finally, there are two components used as interfaces with users, the
Personal Assistant and the Website.

Figure 4. The UbiTrade Architecture
The deal opportunity identification depends of events occurrence. The opportunities, in UbiTrade, are
classified into three categories. The Buy & Sell category is generated from the desires of a dealer matched
with the offers of another dealer. The Knowledge Exchange category is created based on the desires of a
dealer matched with the desires of another dealer. The Experience Exchange category is produced from the
matching of desires of a dealer with businesses made by another dealer. The identification of the deal
opportunities is made by Opportunity Consultant through the dealers location and profile and the Service
Manager in charge for warning the users about deal opportunities.
3.2 Deal Opportunities Using Trails
3.2.1 Specialized Services in TrailM
The deal opportunities discovery guided by trails was based on specialized services created in TrailM and
accessed by Opportunity Consultant of UbiTrade. Table 1 summarizes the created services. The information
returned by the services is obtained through the analysis of the dealers trails. The preferences are determined
by the use frequency of contexts, regions, and business done in the trail.

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Table 1. Specialized services created in TrailM
Name Description
PreferredContexts Returns a list with the dealers preferred contexts in a trail.
DiscoveryDOs Returns a list containing all deal opportunities of dealers that have a desire and/or offer
in common based on trail.
PreferredDealingContexts Returns a list with the dealers preferred business conclusion contexts in a trail (for
example, jewelry store, restaurant or train).
TypeOfBusinessByRegion Returns a list with the type of business by region based on dealers trails (for example,
shopping).
3.2.2 The TrailM/UbiTrade Integration
The TrailM/UbiTrade integration was based on the following changes in UbiTrade: (1) we included the
support to the TrailM services in the Personal Assistant; (2) the Opportunity Consultant inferences became to
consider the dealers profiles and the services available by TrailM (described in Table 1).
Figure 5 presents the dynamic of the integration. In UbiTrade, the deal opportunities are warned to the
dealers according to the events occurrence based on Profile System during their trail. Location System
informs the context in which the dealer is to Opportunity Consultant, which identifies the occurrence of one
event that starts the process (step 1). Opportunity Consultant uses this information, combined with dealers
profile and the Reference System, to filter deal opportunities according the reference grade compatible with
the dealer (step 2). For dealers who have the data compatible, Opportunity Consultant matches the profiles,
trying to identify the type of opportunity that they are looking for (step 3). In this stage, UbiTrade uses the
TrailM services to improve its inferences. Identifying an opportunity, Opportunity Consultant sends a
notification to dealers, using the warnings service of the Service Manager component (step 4).

Figure 5. Discovery of DOs guided by trails
4. PROTOTYPE AND CASE STUDY
This section describes the TrailM and the UbiTrade implementations. Furthermore, it discusses the case study
used to validate the model.
4.1 The TrailM and the UbiTrade Prototypes
The TrailM Server prototype was implemented through the J ava programming language. The Hibernate
framework was used to access the database. The TrailServices layer is based on Web services.
The UbiTrade prototype (Franco et al, 2009) was implemented through the C#programming language.
The Opportunity Consultant and the Reference System components were designed as Windows services.
The Category Tree component and the Profile System were implemented using the Firebird relational
database. The Service Manager was developed using the standard Web service technology. The Personal
Assistant module was developed with .NET Compact Framework and runs on Windows Mobile. Moreover,
23
to capture Wi-Fi signals and to store the profiles in the mobile devices, we used the OpenNETCF library and
the .NET System.Xml library, respectively.
The integration between the TrailM and the UbiTrade prototypes was mainly based on changes made in
Opportunity Consultant in order to access the services provided by the Web services of TrailServices. The
TrailM Client prototype was developed through the addition of new functionalities in Personal Assistant.
The UbiTrade location system is based on triangulation of Wi-Fi antennas. Personal Assistant obtains the
antennas powers and forwards to Location System through a Web service. The system uses this information
to infer the mobile device location. The locations must be previously registered on the system database. The
mobile device location is inferred through a comparison between the data sent by Personal Assistant and the
data previously captured through samples.
4.2 Case Study
4.2.1 Obtainment of the Trails
The case study was based on simulated generation of two dealers trails, which were used in the real scenario
described in section 4.2.2.

Figure 6. Relationship of the real and simulation environment maps
Figure 6 presents the relation between the real and simulation environments used in the trails generation,
which is composed of the Houses, the Metro, and the Shopping regions. For example, a movement from
room 215 to room 206 represents the dealers presence on the train, moving from House to Shopping.
We defined these regions because we wanted to monitor the dealers activities while they were moving
from their houses to the shopping. Within the regions, we mapped some location where the users could go,
for instance, the cabstand, the fast food 1, and station 2.
The Metro region represents the area in which the dealers move from their houses to the shopping and
vice versa, therefore, the system can record the events made by the dealer during the movement between the
stations. The third region corresponds to the shopping. Within the shopping region, we defined two
subregions representing the stores and the food court. A region can be composed of one or more subregions,
and each subregion contains at least one location with the values of its geographical position.
Table 2. Example of the records
Dealer Device Event Location Extension Date
Cldio HTC 4351 Entry into location Shopping - Feb. 6 08:03
Cldio HTC 4351 Offer inclusion J ewelry Store Title: Piano
Category: Instrument Sound
Feb. 6 12:01
J oo HTC 4351 Entry into location Shopping - Feb. 6 19:32
Cldio HTC 4351 Exit from location J ewelry Store - Feb. 6 20:03
J oo HTC 4351 Created Opportunity Shopping DO Notification Feb. 6 21:12

In the simulation, the dealers profile information was based in two real people, focusing their preferences
and interests related to desires and offers, and registered in UbiTrade. The trails generation was based on the
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possible events made by the dealers during a period of six months and was simulated using an application
developed specifically for this purpose. Considering possible displacements and deals, the application
generated records related to the events of entry and exit from the locations, offers and desires inclusion,
created opportunities, and performed business. Table 2 presents an example of these records.
4.2.2 Validation through a Scenario
The scientific community has been using scenarios to validate context-aware environments (according to
Deys approach (2001)) and ubiquitous environments (according to Satyanarayanan (2001)). Following this
strategy, we created a scenario for tests and evaluations of the TrailM/UbiTrade integration, involving two
dealers (J oo and Cldio). The scenario was tested in the validation environment described in Sect. 4.2.1. The
dealers, carrying HTC 4351 (see Figure 7(a)), simulated the scenario moving around the environment rooms.
This scenario focuses on the discovery of DOs in different contexts based on the dealers trails, according to
the described below:
Cldio, who lives in Porto Alegre city, wants to sell a piano. During the week he takes the Train to go to
work at the Shopping and have lunch at the food court between 12:15pm and 12:50pm (by the activity
becomes a "preferred context). Joo wants to buy a piano, 3-4 times by month he goes with his family to the
Shopping, sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes at night (even so, the activity characterizes the context as
"preferred"). Therefore, the Opportunity Consultant uses the PreferredContexts service of TrailM to
determine the preferred contexts of each user. Once some preference change is detected, the Opportunity
Consultant uses the DiscoveryDOs service of TrailM to infer possible deal opportunities for dealers. So the
dealer receives a message (see Figure 7(b)) about the deal opportunity and has the possibility to exchange
messages with the counterparty.
Always that the dealers receive a notification of DOs, they can visualize (see Figure 7(c)) or delay the
access. This action indicates that the dealers are interested in the deal, but they do not want to access it at
the moment, i.e., Joo stores the deal opportunity to see in another moment.

(a) HTC 4351 (b) Notification of DO (c) DO details
Figure 7. The scenario snapshots
5. RELATED WORKS
There are ubiquitous commerce models that use profiles and localization (Shekar et al, 2003; Roussos and
Moussouri, 2004). The iGrocer (Shekar et al, 2003) was designed to be a smart assistant to provide help
while purchasing in supermarkets, its difference is the possibility of tracking and keeping the consumers
nutrition profile, suggesting the purchase of products or even warn the ones that must be avoided.
MyGrocer (Roussos and Moussouri, 2004) is an application projected to assist clients while the purchase
process. However, the main proposal is to control the stock of products. This control is performed in
commercial spots by using sensors on the shelves that will indicate the quantity of such product still left on
determined shelves. In the several works related to ubiquitous commerce (Zhang et al, 2009) none of them
use trails. To our knowledge this is the first work that focuses on the use of trails in ubiquitous commerce. In
addition, the UbiTrade focuses on generating business for the users, whether in the role of customer or
supplier. UbiTrade is also generic, working with the trade of products in different areas, rather than focusing
on a specific operation.
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6. CONCLUSION
This article has presented a system to manage trails and its application in the deal opportunities discovery in
ubiquitous commerce environments. TrailM initially has been integrated with UbiTrade, but its proposal is
generic and can be used by other systems. The use of trails allows the systems to be more effective, because
they can use more precise information of the users behavior. The objective of the case study was to
demonstrate that is viable to integrate ubiquitous systems with TrailM as well as to use the trails to improve
automatic decisions, in our case, deal opportunities.
The main conclusions were: (1) the use of trails confirms the mobile computing potential to improve the
deal opportunity discovery; (2) the availability of the history of visited contexts stimulates the use of mobile
devices as instruments to access contextualized contents; (3) TrailM supports content distribution guided by
trails; (4) the prototype and the experiment attest the proposal feasibility.
TrailM as well as its integration with UbiTrade is an initial proposal. The following activities will allow
the continuity of the study: (1) we will run additional tests with the trails obtained from simulation, for
example, the PreferredDealingContexts and TypeOfBusinessByRegion services were not used yet; (2) the
heuristic to determine the preferred contexts (frequency of visit) can be improved through additional
information, for example, time of each use; (3) the services performance involving a significant amount of
records must be evaluated, because the experiment considered a few number.
REFERENCES
Baldauf, M., Dustdar, S. , and Rosenberg, F., 2007. A Survey on Context-aware Systems. International Journal of Ad
Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 263-277.
Dey, A. et al, 2010. Location-Based Services. IEEE Pervasive Computing, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 11-12.
Dey, A., Salber, D. , and Abowd, G., 2001. A conceptual framework and a toolkit for supporting the rapid prototyping of
context-aware application. Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 97-166.
Diaz, A., Merino, P. , and Rivas, F.J ., 2010. Mobile Application Profiling for Connected Mobile Devices. IEEE
Pervasive Computing, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 54-61.
Driver, C. and Clarke, S., 2008. An application framework for mobile, context-aware trails. Pervasive and Mobile
Computing, Vol. 4, No. 5, pp. 719-736.
Franco, L. et al, 2009. Exploring Business Opportunities in Ubiquitous Environments. VIII IADIS International
Conference WWW/Internet. Roma, Italy, pp. 469-476.
Hightower, J. and Borriello, G., 2001. Location Systems for Ubiquitous Computing. Computer, Vol. 34, No. 8, pp. 57-66.
Hightower, J ., LaMarca, A. , and Smith, I., 2006. Practical Lessons fromPlace Lab. IEEE Pervasive Computing, Vol. 5,
No. 3, pp. 32-39.
Hoareau, C. and Satoh, I., 2009. Modeling and Processing Information for Context-Aware Computing - A Survey. New
Generation Computing, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 177-196.
Levene, M. and Peterson, D., 2002. Trail Record and Ampliative Learning. London: University of London.
Roussos, G. and Moussouri, T., 2004. Consumer perceptions of privacy, security and trust in ubiquitous commerce.
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 8, No. 6, pp. 416-429.
Satyanarayanan, M., 2001. Pervasive computing: vision an challenges. IEEE Personal Communications, Vol. 8, No. 4,
pp. 10-17.
Satyanarayanan, M. et al, 2009. The Case for VM-Based Cloudlets in Mobile Computing. IEEE Pervasive Computing,
Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 14-23.
Shekar, S., Nair, P. , and Helal, S., 2003. iGrocer: a ubiquitous and pervasive smart grocery. Symposium on Applied
Computing. Melbourne, USA, pp. 645-652.
Smith, A.D. et al, 2006. Towards Truly Ubiquitous Life Annotation. Memories for Life Colloquium. London, pp. 1-2.
Vaughan-Nichols, S.J., 2009. Will Mobile Computing's Future Be Location? Computer, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 14-17.
Zhang, L., Liu, Q. , and Li, a.X., 2009. Ubiquitous Commerce: Theories, Technologies, and Applications. Journal of
Networks, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 271-278.
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SEQUENCING CONCEPTS FOR SUPPORTING AN
E-LEARNING CLASS: AN APPROACH BASED ON
ONTOLOGIES AND THE STRUCTURE OF SIGNS
Herli J. de Menezes
1,2
, Sean W. M. Siqueira
2
and Leila Cristina V. de Andrade
2

1
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
2
Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro
ABSTRACT
Learning objects have been used in e-learning with the objective of allowing reuse content material. However, this
approach also demands getting the right pieces of content and assembling them together in order to build a semantically
richer instructional material. In order to guide this combination of the right content, it is necessary to define sequences of
topics to be covered and then the files to be used as learning objects. In this paper we discuss Learning Object
composition and sequencing from suggestions taken from Knowledge Domain Modeling. We propose the use of a
domain ontology for allowing the suggestion of sequences of topics to be covered, which is also based on some concepts
of Semiotics and Linguistics applied to multimedia narrative structures. Learning environment and the teacher action is
represented as an enactment where educational resources have a role similar to actors in a play. So, the unfolding of a
lesson is conceived as a narrative, like storytelling, so that the elements are assembled in a discourse. A representation of
the Knowledge Domain is coined as ontology represented by means of OWL DL and the relevant concepts are arranged
in a list extracted from the representative graph of the domain. From this list of topics, the user can chose the most
adequate corresponding learning objects to be used in a class or learning scenario. The proposal was validated with
domain specialists and the results are also discussed.
KEYWORDS
Learning Objects. E-Learning. Learning Objects composition. Ontology. Semiotics.
1. INTRODUCTION
The web nowadays has much information about almost everything. Finding the right information is not a
hard task anymore. This great amount of available content could be used in educational scenarios. Although
it is somewhat easy to find material about lots of subjects, organizing content to a specific audience is not so
straightforward. It is necessary to make the semantic connections about the concepts to be explored and their
level of explanation. When dealing with learning content there is a common sense towards the reuse
approach, resulting on the so called Learning Objects (LOs). LOs are a kind of resources defined as "any
entity, digital or non-digital, that may be used for learning, education or training" (IEEE, 2002). This wide
definition has the main purpose of encompassing different sort of resources (Wiley, 2002). In this paper, we
are focusing on learning content that is available through the learning management systems or through the
web, so only Digital Learning Objects (DLOs) are addressed. There are several types of DLO such as text
files, diagrams, drawings, mathematical formulas and expressions, exercises (quizzes, problems and
examples), sound and video files and multimedia files.
Rodrigues et al. (2008) stated that creating DLO's is time consuming and expensive, so reusing already
existing DLOs is desirable. In order to make this reuse possible it is necessary to provide mechanisms for
finding and accessing DLOs, and composing them according to the different possibilities of exploring
content or different learning scenarios.
For enabling searching and retrieving DLOs, they are described through metadata elements. There some
metadata standards for describing DLOs, but IEEE LOM (IEEE LTSC, 2002) is the most used. Although
LOM has a wide acceptance, some learning environments use other metadata not completely compatible with
LOM, making finding DLOs a more difficult task as it is necessary to deal with heterogeneity. Therefore,
27

composing and sequencing DLO become even more complicated. In addition, DLO composition is
influenced by DLO granularity as Wiley (2002) stated, reusability is in an inverse relationship to granularity.
There are some proposals for composing learning content in the literature. Reusability of DLOs is
discussed in (Barritt, 1999) from a modular perspective where five types are presented: concepts, facts,
procedures, processes and principles. Guidelines are proposed to build Reusable Learning Objects (RLO) by
aggregating (composing) such types. However, there is no guidance on how to sequence the adequate types
in specific learning scenarios and how each type complements the others.
Aroyo (2003) proposed a modularized concept-based framework to build courseware centered on topics
which are conceived as reification of concepts previously classified by an ontology so that its relationships
are used to propose a sequence of topics. However, a contextual approach for topics composition is not
discussed.
Rodrigues (2008), from a component based approach, suggested a way for LO composition. A flexible
mode of LO composition is proposed using lower granularity components and an algorithm which defines a
semiautomatic composition language based on some learning strategy. Since no specific learning theory is
addressed, this is a general proposal that can be applied in different learning contexts.
In this paper, we consider learning objects composition starting from the conceptual domain modeling
exploring the possibilities of LOs composition built from inferences of the conceptual structure of the
considered domain. We also consider some ideas rooted in semiotic concepts about signs and discourses
generated from the rules for composing narrative structures. As a result we devise some criteria and a
suggestion to compose Learning Objects.
DLO can be considered as a digitally coded physical media supporting some content so it has the main
characteristics of semiotic signs. From this assumption, we can think of a DLO as an entity comprising the
content and the expression aspect. Content is associated to the semantics of the resource and expression to its
physical form.
Some learning-teaching requirements must to be considered when designing a course or a lesson. The
first one is setting the learning objectives which comprises the subject to be taught pertaining to a knowledge
domain (KD). This subject has an internal structure, determined by the main concepts, axioms, experimental
facts and its inter-relationships. From a teaching-learning perspective, this subject must be modeled, so that
the main concepts and their relationships are identified and organized in a coherent way according to the
learning purpose. The second requirement is related to the learning outcomes to be accomplished. These
outcomes are verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, attitudes and motor skills (Gagn,
1974). The last requirement is related to the composition itself dealing with the promotion and holding the
learner attention by supplying elements to contextualize its previous knowledge and enhance its curiosity.
These requirements can be associated to the content plane.
The teaching-learning setting is modeled in (IMS, 2003) as a theatrical play, having acts so that each of
them has one or more role-parts. These acts follow a sequence and the role-parts are associated to a role in an
activity. This activity describing the role action in a given environment is, according to the model, equivalent
to an script which defines when the role-parts in an act runs in parallel, when there are many of them, or not.
A lesson could be envisioned as having some features of a narrative structure, as discussed in (Barthes,
1975), (Hagood, 2009), (Chatman, 1975) and (Dijk, 1975). The first is the story that according to (Hagood,
2009), considering the multimedia context, is "collection of experiences represented as resources" and a
discourse representing "what part of the story" is to be told and ''how it is told" (presentation). So this
discourse is just the way the scripts are arranged, or how the story is told.
We claim that for a virtual learning environment (VLE) these features are just like a storytelling system
using LOs acting as resources or characters in a play as defined by (IMS, 2003) so that authoring tasks or
learning design procedures define the way to orchestrate these elements to compose a narrative structure that
holds the attention of its learners and meet the defined learning objectives. We consider some methods for
achieving this from the starting point of a KD modeling in order to define the concept network issued from
this model. KD modeling is done by means of ontology, defined by (Gruber, 1993) as a formalization of a
conceptual model. The obtained concept model can be represented as a graph of nodes corresponding to
concepts and arcs to their relationships. The relevance of a node can be defined by the number of connections
on it (its degree) (Bollobs, 1998). The learning path in this representation corresponds to a path in the graph
connecting two concepts.
The remainder of this paper has the following structure. Section 2 summarizes LOM metadata structures
used for describing LOs. Section 3 presents some features of signs from a structural semiotic perspective.
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Signifier and significant aspects of signs, as well as, Peirces conception of signs are briefly discussed as well
as compositional aspects of signs in a discourse and semiotic features of LOs are stressed. Section 4 discusses
composition of LOs from their metadata structure and KD aspects. Domain ontology is considered a key
point to LO composition since a semantic structure is defined from the concepts of KD and their relationships
to support contextual composition of LO as well as some general rules for LO orchestration. In Section 5 we
present an example of the proposed approach applied to the field of introductory Physics and the opinion of
Physics teachers on composing these concepts. Finally, in Section 6 we draw some conclusions and address
future works.
2. LEARNING OBJECTS: A BRIEF DISCUSSION
LOs are described by a data model usually the LOM (Learning Object Metadata). LOM comprises nine
categories such as 1. General; 2. Lifecycle; 3; Meta-metadata; 4. Technical; 5. Educational; 6. Rights; 7.
Relation; 8. Annotation and 9. Classification. These categories are depicted in Figure 1.
In an extensive study on learning objects metadata, Motelet (2007) remarked that the LOM datatypes can
be organized into four categories: (a) Primitive types (size, format, id, URL, time stamp or date) concerning
to attributes like
1
: General.Identifier, Technical.duration, Technical.location; (b) Langstring type, used in
elements like Educational.description, General.keyword and General.title, so that information can be given in
different languages; (c) Vocabulary instances: Educational.interactivityType (=active, expositive, and mixed)
and (d) vCard: a standard file format for business electronic cards.
The Educational category is very important for educational purposes since it specifies some relevant
parameters to teaching-learning process as the interactivity type useful to match learning resources to the
modality of lesson (active, expositive, mixed). Another example is the Learning Resource Category, whose
value space indicates several kinds of resources to be used, ranging from exercises to lectures, however there
is no indication about its expressing power.
The sequencing and composing task must integrate some features related to the content and form of these
resources. In order to discuss theses aspects, we shift our approach to the semiotic field.

1 We adopt a general notation form LOM attributes in the form Attibute.sub-attribute.

Figure 1. Diagrammatic representation of LOM-IEEE.
29

3. SIGNS AND ITS STRUCTURE: A BRIEF REVIEW
Signs, as discussed in the field of Semiotics, are twofold entities, according to (Saussure, 1945), composed
by a signified and a signifier represented as two layers. As stated in (Barthes, 1975), signified can be thought
as the content layer and the signifier as the expression layer. A further unfolding of these layers was proposed
by (Hjelmslev, 1974) into two sub layers of form and substance. Table 1 schematically shows the structure of
signs, as discussed.
For instance, let us take the sign Mountain: (a) its signifier is the string chain [m,o,u,n,t,a,i,n], (b) its
signified (the mental image of a mountain). The form of expression is given by the phonetic, orthographic
rules to compose the sounds or the characters. The substance of expression is the elements used to compose
(the text font family or the sound waves that are emitted). From the content layer side, the form of content
sublayer is the formal organization of signifiers and the substance of content is the emotional or ideological
aspects, (that mountain I have climbed on the last week-end walk.)
Table 1. Structure of Sign according to Saussure and Hejlmslev
[Adapted from (Chandler, 2001) and (May, 2007)]
Substance Form
Signifier (Expression)
Physical Materials or the medium (words,
sound recorded, words printed)
Language, formal syntactic structure,
technique and style
Signified (Content)
Emotions, Ideological aspects, specific
information content
Semantic structure, Thematic structure,
Conceptual Structures, ontologies

Peirce (1955) represented signs as a triadic relation instead of dyadic representation of Saussure. In his
model, the form which the sign takes is defined as the representamen; the interpretant is the sense made by
the sign and, the object is the substantial aspect of sign. It must be remarked that the representamen is itself a
sign, so, as stressed by (Eco, 1976), a sign is interpreted by means of other signs, in an unending recursive
process, defined as semeiosis (Peirce, 1955). This structure is represented in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Sign components according to Peirce and its interaction (Semeiosis)
A further aspect to be noted is that there are different kinds of signs. Iconic signs stands for an object by
resembling or imitating (Yeh, 2004) while the index refers to the effect produced by the object and the
symbol, which refers to object as the virtue of law, convention or rule. These signs are combined to express
and form a discourse.
Signs composition according to Structural Linguistics occurs in a plane defined by two dimensions. The
syntagmatic dimension is composed by syntagmas, or the string of words that compose a larger unit in the
speech or in a sentence (Saussure, 1945). The syntagma gets its value as opposed to its predecessor or
successor. The second dimension is the paradigmatic one, referred to the associative fields whose
determination can be, in linguistic context, by sound affinity (materialization/conceptualization) or by sense
(education/learning). The speaker chooses from his/her repertory the sign he/she must use to convey the
intended message.
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The outcome of this operation is a discourse defined, in the linguistic field, as a ... formal discussion of a
subject in speech or writing
2
. In a broader sense, this definition can be extended as a ...system of
representation consisting of a set of representational codes for constructing and maintaining particular
forms of reality within the ontological domain defined as relevant to its concerns (Clandler, 2001).
These semiotic categories can be used to analyze other kinds of 'discourses', such as movies or
hypermedia. In movies domain, we have syntagmatic elements such as long shots, close up, travelings
3
that
are matched with sound (special effects, music and dialogues), that are arranged to transmit the film maker or
author's intention according to some paradigmatic composition
4
. Lets us move to LO field in order to discuss
some of its semiotic aspects.
4. LEARNING OBJECTS AS SIGNS
When a user interacts with a learning environment (LE) he/she establishes a communication link since the
users (receptor/leaner) and a sender (LE) interchange messages. There is, surely, another virtual element,
the author, represented by the LE. Messages are structured as a discourse composed by syntagmas and
structured according to some system, or paradigm. This is not a linear discourse since it comprises different
medias and different and simultaneous codes.
A Knowledge Domain (KD) can be represented by means of ontologies which are the formal
representation of the concepts and relationships on a domain (conceptualization) (Gruber, 1993). Ontologies
can are represented as assertions expressed by means Description Logic axioms. These assertions can be
represented in a machine understanding form by means of OWL DL, a subset of the family of XML-based
languages proposed by W3C consortium (Antoniou, 2008).
The abstract form of ontology is provided by Description Logics, whose main constructs are the set of
axioms, terminology elements and facts. Let us consider, for instance, a set of concepts C and a binary
relationship dependsOn, represented by D. The dependence relationship between the concepts C
1
and C
2
,
conceived as classes of individuals, is expressed in Description Logic as , the set of instances (or
individuals) of C
1
that depends on the instances of C
2
. The relationship between concepts can be represented
as a graph, where nodes represent the concepts and edges, the relationship between them. Then, it is possible
to retrieve paths from a concept to another, which is equivalent to exploring the semantic relationships of
learning content to guide the LOs composition.
We can apply these concepts to model a small knowledge domain with only one type of relation. In order
to do this we built an ontology for the Introductory Physics sub domain in order to do a preliminary test for
the proposed method.
5. AN EXAMPLE FROM INTRODUCTORY MECHANICS
From the considered sub domain, we choose a set composed by the concepts: Mass, Force, Work, Velocity,
Derivative, Squared Velocity (SquaredVelocity), Acceleration, Conservative Force (ConsForce), Limit,
Potential Energy, Kinetic Energy and Energy. An Ontology for this set was constructed as OWL DL classes
using Protg 4.1
5
editor, a free open source editor and knowledge base framework and its graphical
representation using the OntoGraph plug-in is displayed in Figure 3, where the dotted arrows mean the
relation DependsOn and continuous ones stand for the inferred relationship hasSubClass. In order to
accomplish the requirements of the proposed approach we have also defined some relationships between LOs
and concepts using the LOM structures mapping them to the ontology.

2 Random House, Webster's Everyday Dictionary.
3 Travelling refers to the camera movement following the actor walking keeping the same relative position (Source: www.wipedia.org).
4 According to (Metz, 1972) paradigmatic features in a semiology of movies is somewhat feeble, since the inventory of probable units is
open, although finite.
5 http://protege.stanford.edu/
31

From the ontology model, a graph structure was modeled (Figure 4) and the set of nodes and edges was
processed in order to determine all the paths in the graph starting from energy node to limit node using a
Breadth First Search algorithm written in Python language. These paths were determined and a concept
dependence list (output list) below was obtained.

Figure 4. Graph obtained from ontology information
>>> find_all_paths(graph,'energy','limit')
[
['energy', 'force', 'mass', 'acceleration', 'velocity', 'deriv', 'limit'],
['energy', 'force', 'mass', 'velocity', 'deriv', 'limit'],
['energy', 'work', 'force', 'mass', 'acceleration', 'velocity', 'deriv',
'limit'],
['energy', 'work', 'force', 'mass', 'velocity', 'deriv', 'limit']
]
>>>

Figure 3. Proposed OWL DL graph for concepts, learning objects and their relationships
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
32
Notice the results of the output list should be considered in inverted order, i.e., it is necessary to depart
from limit and finish on energy. This output list could suggest a sequence of concepts so that a user could
select matching learning objects from LOM description (keyword) to each concept. From a semiotic
approach, this implies that the composition and sequencing is done, so that the path extracted from ontology
graph is the form of content.
We took the longest path ['energy', 'work', 'force', 'mass', 'acceleration', 'velocity', 'deriv', 'limit'] and asked
them to put the concepts in the order they think is the best way to be presented to the students. The results are
shown in the Table 2.
Table 2. Suggestions for sequencing learning objects as tested by physics teacher
Professor Energy Work Acceleration Velocity Limit Force Derivative
A
7 6 4 3 1 5 2
B
7 6 4 3 1 5 2
C
6 7 4 3 1 5 2
D
7 6 4 3 1 5 2

It is also important to notice that the longest path ['energy', 'work', 'force', 'mass', 'acceleration', 'velocity',
'deriv', 'limit'] is really similar to the professors answer ['energy', 'work', 'force', 'acceleration', 'velocity',
'deriv', 'limit'], which demonstrates the proposed approach has a good result. A remarkable fact is that all the
professors defined the same sequence and none included the concept mass. However, this fact does not
seems to be of capital importance, since at graduate level, mass is a fundamental concept related to the
inertial properties of the particle. Its deep meaning is worth discussing if gravitational or inertial properties
would be discussed. The other paths were also considered valid by the professors although which is the best
alternative depends on the learning situation. In addition, as the discussion on which were the most adequate
LOs for presenting each concept was divergent, we decided not to address such questions, but to investigate
possible reasons as future works
6. CONCLUDING REMARKS AND FUTURE WORKS
In this paper we discussed some features of Learning Objects composition and sequencing assuming that
these objects have some properties or characteristics similar to signs as studied in Semiotics. As an
arrangement of signs, this composition shares some features with narrative structures, so that its form of
content is given by the ontology of the addressed KD.
The ontology was modeled from the dependence relationships between concepts. Since ontologies can be
represented as directed graphs, paths can be defined in these graphs so that they can be interpreted as possible
solutions for sequencing learning content to be explored in a class. For each concept in the path, some
suitable set of LOs can be assigned according to a specific learning strategy. This association between LOs
and the concepts can be achieved by means of LOs descriptors that can be used to tentatively map to the most
adequate set of LO to explore some concepts according to the learning situation (learners characteristics,
didactical and pedagogical aspects, technological restrictions etc.). Educational descriptors such as
Interactivity Type, LearningResourceType, InteractivityLevel, and SemanticDensity as well as the physical
aspects (Format, Size, Location, Operating System or Browser requirements, InstallationRemarks and
Duration) are media centric, and generally are closed packed, which demands additional work to decompose
and reuse them.
An example was developed and the evaluation of the approach showed promising results. The ontology
developed for testing the approach aimed to represent the concepts and their relationships for an Elementary
Classical Mechanics sub domain. Four professors were considered to validate the sequence generated by the
prototype.
However, our proposal has some limitations. The first one comes from the fact that the selection of LOs is
executed manually, however, from the use Semantic Web tools, such as SPARQL query language, selection
could be done by means of the agent technology executing on LOM expressed in OWL DL. The second
limitation is due to the fact that our model is a simplified one, do not encompassing other intrinsic
relationships among the concepts of a complex domain as Physics. The third limitation comes from the
33

reduced scope of the test scenario, whose main result was to confirm, in some aspects, the correctness of the
proposed ontology from the teacher practice standpoint. These limitations are going to be addressed in future
works.
It is important to emphasize, however, the quality of the sequencing strategy as it was equivalent to the
professors answer. This is a promising approach to guide students to automatically find the concepts that are
necessary in order to learn a specific subject. Additional work is necessary to automatically make a complete
sequence of learning material according to the learning situation.
REFERENCES
Antoniou, G. et al. 2008. A Semantic Web Primer. The MIT Press, New York.
Aroyo, L., et al. Using Topic Maps for eLearning. In Proceedings of The IASTED International Conference on
Computers and Advanced Technology in Education, CATE 2003.
Barritt, C. et al, 1999. Cisco Systems Rusable lnformation Object Strategy. Definition, Creation Overview and
Guidelines. Version 3.0, June 25, 1999. Cisco Systems Inc.
Barthes, R. lements de Smiologie. Paris: ditions du Seuil, 1964. Portuguese translation by Blikstein, r. S Paulo:
Editora Cultrix, 1974.
Barthes, R. et al. An Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative. New Literary History, VoI. 6, No. 2, On
Narrative and Narratives (Winter, 1975).
Bollobs, B. 1998. Modern Graph Theory. Springer Verlag, Berlin
Chandler, D. 2001. Semiotics for Beginners. Available http://www.aber.ac.ukjmedia/Documents/S4B, retrieved in June,
2010.
Chatman, S. Toward a Theory of Narrative. New Literary History, VoI. 6, No. 2, 1975.
Dijk, T. A. Action, Action Description, and Narrative. New Literary History, VoI. 6, No. 2, (Winter, 1975).
Eco, U. 1976. A theory of Semiotics. Valentino Bompiani & Co., Milan.
Gagn, R., et al. Principles of Instructional Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, 1974.
Gruber, T. Thomas R. Gruber (1993). Toward principles for the design of ontologies used for knowledge sharing. In
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Volume 43, Issue 5-6 Nov./Dec. 1995, Pages: 907-928
Hagood, C., et al. Investigating a thematic approach to narrative generation. In: Proceedings of International Workshop
on Dynamic and Adaptive Hypertext: Generic Frameworks, Approaches and Techniques (DAH'09) 2009.
Hjelmslev, L. Prolegmenos a uma teoria da Linguagem. In Ensaios Lingusticos, 91-92. So Paulo: Ed. Perspectiva,
1974.
IEEE, 2002. Learning Object Metadata Specification. Available at Itsc.ieee.org/wgI2/20020612-Final- LOM-Draft.html
IMS. IMS Learning Design, Best Practices and Implementation Guide. IMS Global Learning Consortium, 2003.
Martin, M. Le Langage cinmatographique. Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1990.
May, M. 2007. A Semiotic Framework for the Semantics of Digital Multimedia Learning Objects. In: 14th International
Conference on Image Analysis and Processing Workshops, 2007. ICIAPW 2007, pp. 33-38.
Metz. C. Essays sur la signification au cinma. Paris: Editions Klincksieck, 1968. Portuguese translation A Significao
no Cinema, So Paulo: Ed. Perspectiva, 1972.
Motelet, O. Improving Learning Object Metadata Usage during Lesson Authoring. PhD Thesis. Universidad del Chile,
2007.
Peirce, C. S. et al. Phylosophical Wittings of Peirce. Dover. New York, 1955.
Rodrigues, D. S. S. et al., R. N. A Strategy for Achieving Learning Content Repurposing. In: Lecture Notes in Computer
Science. Berlin, Springer- Verlag, 2008.
Saussure, F. Curso de Lingistica Estrutural, p. 91. Editorial Losada. Buenos Aires: 1945.
Wiley, D. et al. The Instructional Use of Learning Objects. Agency for Instructional Technology. Association for
Educational Communications & Technology, 2002.
Yeh et al. 2004. Towards a Semiotic Framework for Using Technology in Mathematics Education: The Case of 3D
Geometry. International Conference on Computers in Education
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
34
EXPANDING A KNOWLEDGE MODEL
REPRESENTATION TO BUILD CULTURALLY
MEANINGFUL ANALOGIES FOR WEB APPLICATIONS
Douglas O. de Freitas, Marcos A. R. Silva, Johana M. R. Villena, Bruno A. Sugiyama,
Gilberto Astolfi and Junia C. Anacleto
Federal University of So Carlos
Washington Luis KM 235, So Carlos, SP, Brazil
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we describe a strategy to improve the Minskys model in order to be used in the search for analogies. We
investigated the Gentners theory to understand how the process of finding analogy is. We realized that the relations used
by Gentner are flexible and dynamic. Thus, we created other kind of relation that we named as meta-relation which is
obtained through Minskys model. We believe that this new kind of relation is more meaningful because it expresses
action and characteristic which, according to Gentner, both attribute more semantic to relation. We made two
experiments to search for analogies in the commonsense semantic network that uses Minskys model: the first one used
just this model while in the second the meta-relations were added. Through these experiments, we observed that the use
of meta-relation increased the quality of the results.
KEYWORDS
e-Learning, Analogies, Minskys Model, Gentners Theory, Meaningful Learning.
1. INTRODUCTION
The research and the use of semantics in computer applications is a subject that has been gaining prominence.
Assigning meaning to information or understanding data and knowing how to manipulate them are important
factors for the most effective use of the computer (Liu and Singh, 2004).
One way to enable the effective use of semantics, especially for a better understanding of information by
people, is to understand how people see some information, how they know it, perceive it and believe in it.
Because of that, it is important to find ways to collect, store and process cultural knowledge. An example is
the semantic network from the OMCS-Br project that uses cultural knowledge to develop cultural sensitive
computer applications taking into consideration the users cultural background. Through this semantic
network, it is possible to obtain some resources that can support on creating these contextualized
applications, such as analogy.
A practical use is in educational application where contextualizing it is one of the main pedagogical
issues found in the literature and commonsense knowledge can be used for this purpose (Ausubel, 1968;
Freinet, 1993; Freire, 1996). Ausubels Theory defends a similar approach. According to Ausubel, in order to
promote a meaningful learning, teachers should make the students attach the new piece of knowledge to the
knowledge which is already in their cognitive structure.
Analogy is an example of a way that allows the teacher presenting a new subject according to the
students cultural knowledge. The teacher can explain through analogy new concepts considering other
concepts that the student already know. This facilitates the learning and the memorization. For instance, in
nutrition area, the teacher can explain about a Brazilian fruit called Jabuticaba building an analogy with a
grape: both of them are fruit, small, sweet and round. These characteristics are part of the students common
sense, thus it is important that teachers are aware of this kind of knowledge in order to explain a new one
based on the ones that were already assimilated.
35
In this context, the main goal of this work is to improve a commonsense semantic network in order to
perform better searches for analogies and to create meaningful analogies. We intend, through this strategy, to
help teachers promoting meaningful learning.
The paper is structured as follows: the first section shows an overview of the OMCS-Br Project that we
adopt its commonsense semantic network that use Minskys model. The second one describes Gentners
theory about analogy. The following section provides the experiments and our strategies to improve the
search for analogies. The last section shows some conclusions of this work.
1.1 OMCS-Br Project
The Open Mind Common Sense in Brazil (OMCS-Br) project, developed by the Advanced Interaction
Laboratory (LIA) at Federal University of So Carlos (UFSCar) in collaboration with Media Lab from
Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT), has been collected common sense of general public through a
web site which can be accessed by anyone through http://www.sensocomum.ufscar.br. The database is
accessible over the internet through an API for computer applications. This common sense database encodes
the relationships between statements generated by people though the common sense database project and
represents cultural knowledge about specific subject. Of particular relevance to our project is that the
database provides demographics that allow us to access the beliefs, attitudes and vocabulary specific to a
particular age group in a particular geographic location.
The website collects data from its visitors. After entering, a person can register and have access to various
activities and themes available for them on this website in order to complete statements about the themes.
Some examples of themes are Personal Preferences, Slang, Children Universe, Sexuality, Health and others.
Statements are completed by filling in a template sentence pattern such as in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Example of two templates where the dynamic part is filled in by the computer, the fixed part is the query
structure and the last part is where the user fills in their thoughts
Words or phrases are typed in by the users in natural language, parsed and stored. The parser derives
tokens from the text and then interprets them using an engine that is based on Marvin Minskys model
(Minsky, 1987) about knowledge representation. This engine generates a semantic network called
ConceptNet (Liu and Singh, 2004), shown in Figure 2.
The ConceptNet organizes the knowledge in a graph where nodes are the concepts and the directional
links represent relations. In this paper, the relations based on Minskys model were defined as Minskys
relation by us. For example, the template banana is used for eat (Figure 1) has a link labeled UsedFor
between banana and eat. This template is stored as a tuple: {UsedFor banana eat}. There are others
relations, such as: IsA, MotivationOf, DefinedAs, CapableOf, etc. as defined by Minsky (Liu and Singh,
2004). His model has shown to be useful for culturally sensitive software development (Singh, 2002).

Figure 2. Example of a semantic network
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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This ConceptNet intends to reflect a simplistic, usable structure related to human cognitive structure. It
can support people, through the information encoded, to plan, to execute and to complete an activity. For our
purposes, it is not important whether the facts are true or not that are encoded in the database; in fact, they
will likely be inconsistent as it is the perceptions and beliefs which is what we are after.
2. GENTNERS THEORY
Gentner worked with Natural Language Processing (NLP) to identify methods to discover literal similarity,
analogies, metaphors and abstraction (Gentner, 1983). The base that she works is different from OMCS-Br
base which uses Minskys relations to connect and store concepts. The main challenge that we consider is to
understand Gentners theory and map it to be applied in order to expand the semantic network of the OMCS-
Br project to improve analogies search.
Analogy is a comparison between source domain and target domain relations, i.e. edges (relations)
(Gentner 1983). For example, it is shown in Figure 3 one example that illustrates an analogy between Earth
and Electron because there is the same relation (revolve) in both independently of the others concepts. In
other words, Earth and Electron revolve around the sun and the nucleus, respectively.
Figure 3. Two analogy concepts
3. MINSKY AND GENTNER
Minsky and Gentner use different relations to map the knowledge. Gentner uses actions and properties to
compose relations. Therefore, the number of relations are bigger and more specific than Minskys one, which
contain approximately 20 relation (Liu and Singh, 2004), augmenting the concept semantics.
In next section, we present the first experiment using Gentner theory applied in OMCS-Br base.
3.1 First Experiment
We developed a prototype to investigate analogies in the OMCS-Br semantic network. We choose randomly
a concept that we want to look for analogies, in this case the concept banana. Through this concept the
prototype generated a specific semantic network related to the concept banana as shown in Table 1:
Table 1. Specific semantic network of the concept banana
Relation(Concept1, Concept2)
Formal Specification
LocationOf(banana, fruit bowl) R1 (X, Y1)
UsedFor(banana, eat) R2 (X, Y2)
IsA(banana, fruit) R3 (X, Y3)
PropertyOf(banana, yellow) R4 (X, Y4)
MadeOf(ice cream, banana) R5 (Y5, X)
MadeOf(cake, banana) R6 (Y6, X)

Table 1 shows just the first six results as example. With the result of Table 1, the prototype search for
different concepts that match just each relation R in the whole semantic network of the OMCS-Br project.
For each relation, in Table 1, we will show three matches in Table 2:
With these matches we can define a score which represents the times that a concept is linked through the
same relation (R). For example, the score between banana and legume is 1, because they have the
relation LocationOf in common. Table 2 shows the concepts with higher score based in the results of Table 1.
37
It is important to observe that the concept that has a higher score is more similar to the concept banana,
i.e. more analogous.
Table 2. Matches for analogy between relations related to banana with other concepts
First Search:
LocationOf(banana, fruit bowl)
Second Search:
UsedFor(banana, eat)
LocationOf(car, gas station)
LocationOf(paper, library)
LocationOf(legume, refrigerator)
UsedFor(doll, play)
UsedFor(computer, work)
UsedFor(pencil, write)
Third Search:
IsA(banana, fruit)
Fourth Search:
PropertyOf(banana, yellow)
IsA(car, vehicle)
IsA(dog, animal)
IsA(woman, human)
PropertyOf(woman, pretty)
PropertyOf(cat, cute)
PropertyOf(fruit, sweet)
Fifth Search:
MadeOf(ice cream, banana)

MadeOf(cheese, milk)
MadeOf(bacon, pig)
MadeOf(table, wood)

Taking into consideration the matches of Table 2, the prototype gives us the analogies concepts based in
Minskys relation. Some examples are illustrated in Table 3.
Table 3. Analogous concepts related to banana order by Score
Concept Score Number of Search (Table 2)
Car 2 first and third
Woman 2 third and fourth
Dog 1 third
Legume 1 First

Observing the results of Table 3, we can see that the concepts are analogous just because they are linked
through the same Minskys relations. For example, in the Table 3, we can observe that the concept car was
considered analogy because it has two same relations (LocationOf and IsA) but these relations are not
specific, i.e., there are a lot of concepts in semantic network with them although we do not identify analogy
among the concepts. It is worth saying that these results showed us that it is not feasible to consider any
Minskys relation to generate analogies. Thus, things like car, dog and woman are considered by this
prototype analogous to banana. On the other hand, we did not consider that a good result. The kind of
relations used by Gentner are more specific and give a stronger semantic. In order to allow that Minskys
relation could have these characteristics, we propose a strategy that combines Gentners theory and Minskys
model to expand its potential. This strategy that we named as meta-relation is described in the next section.
4. DEFINITION OF META-RELATION
The relations used in Gentners theory are flexible and have a semantic that can be an action or a
characteristic, while Minskys relations are established, approximately 20 (Liu and Singh, 2004). In order to
enhance the potential of Minskys model, we create a strategy to combine his relations to generate more
flexible and specific ones named meta-relations.
The meta-relations have two properties: flexibility and specificity. Flexibility because the meta-relations
are created from the set of relations and concepts in semantic network and when it increases, new meta-
relations can be generated. Specificity because in the meta-relation there are the same characteristics as the
ones Gentner uses, such as action and/or characteristic.
One way to create a meta-relation is combine the relations CapableOf and UsedFor from Minskys
relations, represented as follow:
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The example of meta-relation that we defined is represented by Y, in the formula above. To create it we
combine two Minskys relations (CapableOf and UsedFor) because we perceive that they complement each
other. If X
1
is capable of Y and if X
2
is used for Y, then X
1
and X
2
can be connected through the action
represented by Y.
For example, to create a meta-relation to the sentence a monkey eats banana, considering the sentences
presented in Figure 1, there is the possibility of creating the meta-relation eat. The mapping to define a
meta-relation is described as follow:
CapableOf(monkey, eat) + UsedFor(banana, eat) = eat(monkey, banana)

The complementation cited above can be observed, in this case, because CapableOf express the ability of
a concept and UsedFor express for what a concept is used for. In other words, if the monkey is capable of eat
and the banana is used for eat, then it is possible to create the relation that express the monkey eats banana,
i.e. eat(monkey, banana).
Thus, we can observe that the meta-relation eat is more specific than the Minskys relations, because it
express an action that, according to Gentners theory, give us more semantic. Different from Minskys
relation, where different concepts can be linked through the same relation, the meta-relation eat involves a
domain of concepts more specific (only the ones involved with this action).
In order to observe the potential of the meta-relation, which apparently has more semantic than Minskys
relation, we decided to make the second experiment in order to investigate if the use of the meta-relation can
improve the analogies results.
4.1 Second Experiment
We choose the same concept used in the first experiment, banana. Through this concept the prototype
generated a specific semantic network related to the concept banana, as shown in Table 4:
Table 4. Specific semantic network with meta-relations of the concept banana
Relation(Concept1, Concept2) Formal Specification
LocationOf(banana, fruit bowl) R1 (X, Y1)
UsedFor(banana, eat) R2 (X, Y2)
IsA(banana, fruit) R3 (X, Y3)
PropertyOf(banana, yellow) R4 (X, Y4)
MadeOf(ice cream, banana) R5 (Y5, X)
MadeOf(cake, banana) R6 (Y6, X)
Cook(mother, banana) MR1(Y7, X)
Cut(man, banana) MR2(Y8, X)
Eat(monkey, banana) MR3(Y9, X)
Buy(supermarket, banana) MR4(Y10, X)
Peel(woman, banana) MR5(Y11, X)

Table 4 shows just the first six results considering Minskys relation and the first fifth results considering
meta-relations. With the result of Table 4, the prototype search for different concepts that match just each
relation R and meta-relation MR in the whole semantic network of the OMCS-Br project. For each meta-
relation, in Table 4, we will show three matches in Table 5. We just added the meta-relation matches because
the Minskys relation matches were presented in Table 2.

39
Table 5. Matches for analogy between relations related to banana with other concepts
Sixth Search:
Cook(mother, banana)
Seventh Search:
Cut(man, banana)
Cook(chief, pasta)
Cook(grandmother, potato)
Cook(human, pasta)
Cut(knife, meat)
Cut(scissors, vegetable)
Cut(peeler, potato)
Eighth Search:
Eat(monkey, banana)
Ninth Search:
Buy(supermarket, banana)
Eat(rabbit, carrot)
Eat(child, chips)
Eat(dog, meat)
Buy(butchery, meat)
Buy(restaurant, pasta)
Buy(mother, vegetable)
Tenth Search:
Peel(woman, banana)

Peel(knife, carrot)
Peel(peeler, potato)
Peel(woman, potato)

It is worth pointing out that the first concept in each meta-relation presented in Table 5 represents entities
(Y) that can perform an action (MR) in something (X). For instance, the meta-relation eat(monkey, banana),
formally expressed by MR(Y, X), shows that the entity monkey can perform the action eat in the object
banana. With these matches we can define a score which represents the times that the same concept has the
same relation (R) or meta-relation (MR) as banana. Table 7 shows the concepts with higher score based in
the results of Table 2 and Table 5.
Table 6. Literal similarity concepts to banana order by Score
Concept Score Number of Search (Table 2
and 5)
Potato 4 Sixth, seventh tenth and tenth
Pasta 3 Sixth, sixth and ninth
Meat 3 Seventh, eighth and ninth
Vegetable 2 Seventh and ninth
Carrot 2 Eighth and tenth
Car 2 first and third
Woman 2 third and fourth
Dog 1 third
Legume 1 First

Comparing the results between the two experiments, we noted that the analogous concepts which have the
same meta-relations are more related with banana because they are capable of receiving the same action. For
example, banana and potato are analogous concepts because both can receive the actions of cook, cut and
peel, different from the first experiment, where banana and car are analogous concepts because they have
the LocationOf and IsA relation.
Of course other meta-relation can be considered to refine the results in order to augment the specificity.
The results are just one example to illustrate the potential of the meta-relation, i.e. considering more meta-
relation the results will be stronger.
5. CONCLUSION
The early results presented show evidences that the Gentners theory to search for analogies in the semantic
network of the OMCS-Br Project was not suitable. Because, for analogy, it is necessary to use a network with
more semantic, provided by the addition of the meta-relation created by the combination of Minskys
relations.
It is important to explain that nowadays there are Minskys relations and meta-relations in the OMCS-Br
semantic network in order to search literal similarity and analogies. On the other hand, in this paper, we just
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presented the use of the meta-relation in analogy search because we consider that using only Minskys
relation does not bring expressive results.
Searching analogies using meta-relation showed good results because when there is the same meta-
relation in two or more concepts, they are more analogous than Minskys relation because meta-relation
express action and characteristic which according Gentner both attribute more semantic to relations.
Nowadays, our prototype does analogy search using Minskys relation and meta-relation. Because of that,
the score is the sum of the both results. On the other hand, in our second experiment there was not this sum,
because there were not common concepts between Minskys relation and meta-relation results as shown in
Table 6. Nevertheless, this sum is possible and it helps to attribute more semantic to results.
A weak point of the meta-relations presented in this work lies in its creation. The meta-relations are
created by matches between Minskys relations, so the meta-relation does not cover all types of concepts,
only those who are able to do some kind of action, expressed by the relation CapableOf. For future work, we
intend to investigate even more Minskys relations to create new matches to generate meta-relations.
Finally, the commonsense semantic network of OMCS-Br combined with the Minskys relation and
meta-relation allow a better search for analogies which any educational computational application can use.
For example, there is a computational application called Cognitor (Buzatto et al, 2009) which any educator
can create on-line learning material taking into consideration students commonsense knowledge. This tool
can provide a list of analogous concepts, considering as parameter concept inputted by the teacher. Through
this material, students can easily understand the subject of the material because it is explained considering the
knowledge that already learned.
It is important to mention that through the API any computer application which has access to the internet
can use analogies to build educational materials or any learning content.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We thank FAPESP, CNPq and CAPES for partial financial support to this research. We also thank all the
collaborators of the Brazilian Open Mind Common Sense Project who have been building the common sense
knowledge base considered in this research.
REFERENCES
Anacleto, J. C.; Carvalho, A. F. P. De, 2008. Improving Human-Computer Interaction by Developing Culture-sensitive
Applications based on Common Sense Knowledge. Advances in Human-Computer Interaction. Vienna: I-Tech.
Ausubel, D.P., 1968. Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Freinet, C., 1993. Education Through Work: A Model for Child Centered Learning. Edwin Mellen Press, New York.
Buzatto, D.; Anacleto, J. C.; Dias, A. L., 2009: Providing Culturally Contextualized Metadata to Promote Sharing and
Reuse of Learning Objects. In: ACM International Conference on Design of Communication (SIGDOC 2009).
Bloomington, Indiana. p. 163-170.
Freire, P., 1996. Pedagogia da Autonomia: Saberes Necessrios Prtica Educativa, 31 ed. Paz e Terra, So Paulo.
Gentner, D., 1983. Structure-mapping: A theoretical framework for analogy. In: Cognitive Science 7(2), (1983): 155-170.
Godoi, M. S., 2007. Uso de conhecimento de senso comum na educao para a gerao de similaridades e analogias.
Master's degree dissertation, UFSCar.
Silva, M. A. R. ; Anacleto, J. C., 2009. Promoting Collaboration through a Culturally Contextualized Narrative Game. In:
Filipe, J.; Cordeiro, J.. (Org.). Enterprise Information Systems - ICEIS 2009. 1 ed. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, v. 1, p.
870-881.
Liu, H. and Singh, P. 2004. ConceptNet - A Practical Commonsense Reasoning Tool-Kit. BT Technology Journal 22, 4
(Oct. 2004), 211-226.
Minsky, M., 1987. The society of mind, Simon & Schuster.
Singh, P., 2002. The public acquisition of commonsense knowledge. In: AAAI Spring symposium on acquiring (and
using) linguistic (and world) knowledge for information access. Palo Alto, CA
Singh, P.; Barry, B.; Liu, H., 2004. Teaching machines about everyday life. BT Technology Journal, v. 22, n. 4. pp.
227-240.
41
A FEASIBILITY STUDY ON DISTRIBUTED
COOPERATIVE OCR SYSTEMS USING WeOCR
Hideaki Goto
Cyberscience Center, Tohoku University
Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi, 980-8578 Japan
ABSTRACT
Collaboration of the network and optical character recognition (OCR) has a great potential to extend the applications of
OCR and to open up new vistas in some future services using OCR. We presented the basic ideas of synergetic OCR
system in 2004, and developed a platformcalled WeOCR to realize the web-based OCR services. The number of
accesses has soared since the experimental servers were put into service in 2005. This paper provides an overview of the
current WeOCR system, shows some updated statistics, and describes the knowledge obtained through a feasibility study
on the web-based OCR systemusing WeOCR. The unique survey conveys some useful hints for future development of
network-oriented OCRs, not limited to WeOCR, and potential OCR applications in the Grid/Cloud Computing era.
KEYWORDS
Web-based OCR, WeOCR, OCRGrid, character recognition, document analysis, Cloud Computing
1. INTRODUCTION
Collaboration of the network and optical character recognition (OCR) is expected to be quite useful for
making lightweight applications not only for desktop computers but also for small gadgets such as Smart
Phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). For example, some mobile phones with character recognition
capabilities became available in the market (Koga 2005). Another mobile phone with a real-time English-
J apanese translator was proposed by a J apanese company. Although it has a simple, built-in OCR, it requires
a large language dictionary provided by an external server on the Internet. Another example is wearable
vision system with character recognition capabilities for visually-impaired people (Goto 2009). Due to the
limitations of the hardware, it is very difficult to put a large character-set data and a dictionary for language
processing into such small gadgets or wearable devices. In addition, we cannot use a sophisticated character
recognition method because the processor power is quite limited. Thus, use of network can be beneficial to
various applications.
The network-based architecture has some advantages from the researchers' and developers' points of view
as well. Recent OCR systems are becoming more and more complicated, and the development requires
expertise in various fields of research. Building and studying a complete system has become very difficult for
a researcher or a small group of people. A possible solution is to share software components as web services.
Since the programs run on the server sides, people can provide computing (pattern recognition) powers to
others without having their source codes or executables open (Lucas 2005, Goto 2006).
We presented a new concept of network-oriented OCR systems called Synergetic OCR (Goto 2004), and
proposed a revised version called OCRGrid in 2006 (Goto 2006). Since year 2004, we have been designing a
web-based OCR system, called WeOCR, as a HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol)-based implementation of
OCRGrid. The WeOCR system was put into service in 2005. To our knowledge, there was no commercial
web-based OCR service at that time. In addition, WeOCR is currently the only Grid-oriented, cooperative
OCR platform in the world. One of the biggest concerns with web-based OCR is about the privacy of
documents. A simple question arises Do people really want to use a system like that? To answer this
question, we need to investigate the usage of the system.
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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In this paper, we provide an overview of the current WeOCR system, show some updated statistics
following our previous survey (Goto 2007), and describe the knowledge obtained through a feasibility study
on the web-based OCR system using WeOCR.
2. OVERVIEW OF THE WeOCR SYSTEM
2.1 Basic Concept
We designed OCRGrid to make a lot of OCR engines work cooperatively over the network worldwide to
gain some synergetic effects such as performance improvement of OCR, to realize multilingual, high-
function, sophisticated OCR systems, and to provide ubiquitous OCR services. The basic concept of
OCRGrid is quite simple. Many OCR servers are deployed on a network as shown in Figure 1. The OCR
servers work either independently or cooperatively communicating with each other. A client connects to one
of the OCR servers and sends text images to it. The servers recognize the images and send the recognition
results (i.e. character codes, etc.) back to the client.
Although OCRGrid is expected to be used world-wide over the Internet, we may use any networks such
as wireless networks, corporate local area networks (LANs), virtual private networks (VPNs),
interconnection networks in parallel servers, and even inter-process communication channels.
Some potential applications of the platform have been discussed in (Goto 2004, Goto 2006).
Unlike some commercial OCR systems equipped with web user interfaces, we are expecting WeOCR
servers will be supported by the communities of researchers, developers, and individuals as well as
application service providers.
client
client
OCR
server
OCR
server
OCR
server
OCR
server
OCR
server
OCR
server
WAN/LAN
receive
recognition results
send images
cooperative work

Figure 1. OCRGrid platform
2.2 WeOCR Toolkit and Server Search System
Making a web-based OCR from scratch as an application server requires a lot of expertise about network
programming and network security. Since many OCR developers and researchers are not so familiar with
network programming, we developed a toolkit to help those people build secure web-based OCRs easily.
(See http://weocr.ocrgrid.org/)
The document image is sent from the client computer to the WeOCR toolkit via the Apache web server
program. The programs in the toolkit check the image size, examine the file integrity, uncompress the file if
necessary, convert the image file into a common file format, and invoke the OCR software. The toolkit
includes some programs for protecting the web server from malicious attacks or from the defects of the OCR
programs. The recognition results are converted into HTML data and sent back to the client.
To enable the end users to search for appropriate OCR engines easily, we developed a directory-based
server search system. Figure 2 depicts the overview.
43

Figure 2. Directory-based server search system
A specification file written by the server administrator is attached to each OCR engine. The specification
file is written in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) so that automated data handling becomes easy. The
file describes the specifications of the server, including the location (URL) of the server, the location of the
application interface program (CGI), the name of the OCR engine used, supported languages, supported
document types, etc. The portal server has a robot program for collecting the specification data automatically
and periodically from the OCR servers. The robot analyzes each specification file in XML and updates the
database entries. A simple search program picks up the OCR servers that match the client's needs from the
database and shows the search results.
2.3 Available Servers
Table 1 shows the WeOCR servers known to the author as of Sept. 2010. All the servers are constructed
based on Open Source OCR software. Although these OCR engines work very well with some limited kinds
of documents, the average performance is basically inferior to that of commercial products. Thanks to
Tesseract OCR (Smith 2007), the situation is improving.
Table 1. WeOCR servers (as of Sept. 2010)

Since there was no Open Source OCR for J apanese, we also developed a J apanese OCR engine called
NHocr from scratch to contribute to the developers and end-users who eager to have one. (See
http://code.google.com/p/nhocr/)
Unfortunately, there is no server outside our laboratory today. Actually, there was a Turkish WeOCR
server with a private (closed) post-processing in Turkey. It was shut down sometime a couple of years ago
for unknown reasons. We have heard from some developers that they are interested in deploying OCR
servers. However, none has been completed or opened to the public as far as we know. Although some
Server name
/ location Sub-ID Engine Deployed Description
ocrad GNU Ocrad Feb 2005 Western European languages Michelle
/ J apan
(formerly known as
ocr1.sc)
gocr GOCR Nov 2005 Western European languages
ocrad GNU Ocrad J un 2006 Western European languages
hocr HOCR J un 2006 Hebrew OCR
tesseract Tesseract OCR Aug 2006 English OCR
scene Tesseract OCR
+private preprocessor
Apr 2007 Scene text recognition for
English (experimental)
Maggie
/ J apan
(formerly known
as appsv.ocrgrid)
nhocr NHocr Sep 2008 J apanese OCR
J imbocho
/ J apan
Feb 2010 (mirror of ocrad, tesseract and
nhocr on Maggie)
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commercial web-based OCR services have been launched so far, none of them has WeOCR-compatible Web
API (Application Programming Interface).
The following list shows the web-based OCR services and demos spotted by the author.
LEADTOOLS OCR Service by LEADTOOLS
Web OCR service by KYODONETWORKS (for J apanese text only)
OCR Demo by Startek Technology (for printed numerals only)
ocrNow! by Wordcraft International Limited (limited trial)
Google Docs by Google (built-in OCR engine can handle some European languages only)
None of them takes into account Grid-based, collaborative use of OCR engines as far as we know.
Our idea of Grid-style open OCR servers has not been successful yet. For commercial providers, one of
the reasons is probably the lack of plausible business model. From the researchers and developers points of
view, the incentives may not be so clear because the return gains are often indirect. Without a lot of
contributions, we would not be able to achieve collaborative environments or synergetic effects such as
multilingual processing. We need to investigate the feasibility of OCRGrid platform further.
3. FEASIBILITY STUDY ON WEB-BASED OCR SYSTEM
3.1 Access Statistics
We are interested in how frequently the WeOCR servers are used. A survey was conducted from Nov. 2005
to J uly 2010. Note that a warning message Do not send any confidential documents is shown on every
image submission page (portal site). Some detailed information about the privacy is also provided.
Figure 3 shows the monthly access counts on the two WeOCR servers, Michelle and Maggie. The
numbers of requests to six engines (except NHocr) are added together. The line access represents the
numbers of requests, while another one image_ok shows the numbers of successful image uploading. The
failures were mainly due to file format mismatch and interrupts of data transmissions.
The number of accesses was increasing gradually in the first year, despite the privacy concerns, until the
first automated client was spotted. Then, the server load began soaring and reached to the current average
around 400,000 counts/month (J uly 2010). One of the heavy users seems to be running a program for
monitoring numerals shown on displays of some kinds of apparatuses. Figure 4 shows the access counts on
the NHocr server only, which is almost free from an automated client. The server load has reached to the
current average 25,000 counts/month.

Figure 3. Monthly process counts. (Michelle +Maggie)
45

Figure 4. Monthly process counts. (NHocr on Maggie)
These results show that there are a lot of applications of OCR in which privacy does not matter. Statistics
of processed image types can be found in our previous report (Goto 2007).
3.2 Applications of WeOCR
The WeOCR platform has been used in various ways.
For example, majority logic is known to be useful for combining multiple classifiers and improving the
accuracy of character recognition (Miyao 2004, Tabaru 1998). We also investigated the accuracy
improvement based on the majority logic using WeOCR (OCRGrid) platform (Goto 2006). Some private
OCR engines were deployed on a local WeOCR platform in our laboratory in the experiments. A client
program sends each character image to multiple WeOCR servers, collects the recognition results from the
servers, and chooses the most popular character as the top character candidate. A WeOCR server itself can
also become a client. Since the methods based on majority logic require a lot of OCR engines with different
characteristics, the Grid-based approach should be quite useful.
People in Seeing with Sound The vOICe project (Meijer 1996) have made an e-mail interface for
mobile camera phones. The server receives an image from the mobile phone and sends the recognized text
data back to the user. An OCR engine on the WeOCR platform is used as a back-end server. The system was
originally developed in order to help visually-disabled people read text on signboards, etc. Any OCR
developers can help those people through the WeOCR platform.
Table 2 shows the WeOCR application software/server known to the author so far. These applications use
WeOCR platform instead of a built-in OCR library. All the applications except the last one were made
independently by developers having no special relationship to our laboratory. In addition, some other
experimental WeOCR client programs and web services have been spotted on the Internet. Thus, our
WeOCR platform has been accepted as a useful building block by many developers, and created new OCR
application design and usage styles suitable in the Grid/Cloud Computing era. Actually, any developers can
add OCR functions to their programs quite easily using WeOCR platform.
A potential future application of WeOCR (OCRGrid) platform is multilingual processing. Thousands of
languages exist all over the world. ABBYY FineReader, one of the worlds leading OCR packages, can
handle around 180 languages so far. However, the spell checking is supported for about 40 languages only. It
seems impossible to have a large number of languages and dialects supported by OCR engines from only a
couple of companies. WeOCR platform can provide a lot of community-supported OCR servers with
localized dictionaries. We will be able to obtain better recognition results, since we can expect that the
servers for a language are better maintained in the countries where the language is used. In addition, having a
lot of OCR servers for various languages are very useful for research on multilingual OCR systems.

ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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Table 2. WeOCR client software. (as of Sept. 2010)
Name Platform Description
The vOICe server (server) e-mail interface for mobile camera phones
WordSnapOCR Android Proof-of-concept application for word input using camera on
Android
Kanji Yomi
Eigo Yomi
Kanji Yomi Lite
Android Kanji/English reader with online Kanji-English dictionary look-up
function
Cest What? Android, iPhone A mobile OCR & translation application for iPhone and Android
WWWJ DIC for
Android
Android Android frontend for WWWJDIC
Reading Assistant
online edition
Windows A proof-of-concept toy Reading Assistant for helping the visually-
impaired (developed by the author)
3.3 Extensions of WeOCR and OCR Engine
During the WeOCR usage observation, we have recognized a need for single-character recognition in
J apanese and Chinese. Looking-up individual Kanji (or Han character) is a popular way of finding the
meaning, stroke order, similar characters, etc. Figure 5 shows an example of single Kanji look-up.
Although single-character recognition mode was taken into account in the early design of WeOCR
toolkit, we have revised the API and defined a new data structure so that client programs can receive some
top candidates of characters. We have also added single-character mode to the OCR engine NHocr to fulfill
the demands in some applications. NHocr produces a few top candidates of characters, and this function
allows the end-user to choose a correctly recognized character.

Figure 5. Character recognition and Kanji look-up by Kanji Yomi
4. CONCLUSIONS
We have introduced WeOCR system, which was designed to realize a distributed, cooperative, synergetic
OCR environment, and described the results of a feasibility study on the web-based OCR system. We have
been operating the worlds first and only Grid-style web-based OCR servers for almost five years. According
to the usage statistics, the number of accesses to the servers has soared significantly. The following
conclusions have been drawn.
There are a lot of applications of OCR in which privacy does not matter. Many people are willing to
use online OCR despite the privacy concerns. Actually, some commercial web-based OCR services have
been launched these couple of years.

47
WeOCR system has become a nice building block for various OCR application software / servers in
the Grid/Cloud Computing era. Some interesting applications have been developed and become popular,
especially on Smart Phones. In other words, WeOCR has been successful in expanding OCR applications and
in providing developers with ready-to-use OCR engines.
Full-featured OCR with strong document layout analysis is obviously desired. On the other hand,
even a single-character recognition feature has been proved to be quite useful in various applications.
Despite the open, Grid-oriented design of WeOCR, our laboratory is currently the only service
provider. None of the commercial servers is known to have WeOCR-compatible Web API. Our idea of
Grid-style open OCR servers has not been successful yet.
A popular complaint from the users is about the precision of the OCR engines. As long as we use
Open Source OCR engines, the precision is limited in general. There is an urgent need to provide the users
with better OCR engines online.
If some state-of-the-art OCR engines are registered, WeOCR (OCRGrid) system will be very useful not
only for end-users worldwide but also for researchers and developers working on OCR systems. We would
like to encourage many developers and researchers to provide WeOCR services of their own. Our future
work includes investigating the feasibility of OCRGrid platform further, developing some applications and
architectures to draw synergetic effects, and refinement of WeOCR API and toolkit.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research No.18650036 mainly, and No.22300194
partially, from J SPS, J apan. The author would like to thank all the developers of WeOCR client applications
and services.
REFERENCES
Goto, H. and Kaneko, S., 2004. Synergetic OCR : A Framework for Network-oriented Cooperative OCR Systems.
Proceeding Image and Vision Computing New Zealand 2004 (IVCNZ2004), pp.35-40.
Goto, H., 2006. OCRGrid : A Platform for Distributed and Cooperative OCR Systems. Proceedings of 18th International
Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR2006), pp.982-985.
Goto, H., 2007. An Overview of the WeOCR Systemand a Survey of its Use. Proceeding Image and Vision Computing
New Zealand 2007 (IVCNZ2007), pp.121-125.
Goto, H. and Tanaka, M., 2009. Text-Tracking Wearable Camera System for the Blind, Proceedings of 10th
International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR 2009), Volume 1, pp.141-145.
Koga, M. et al, 2005. Camera-based Kanji OCR for Mobile-phones: Practical Issues. Proceedings of 8th International
Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR 2005), pp.635-639.
Meijer, P., 1996. Seeing with Sound The vOICe (website), http://www.seeingwithsound.com/
Miyao, H. et al, 2004. Printed J apanese Character Recognition Using Multiple Commercial OCRs. Journal of Advanced
Computational Intelligence, Vol.8, pp.200-207.
Smith, R., 2007. An overview of the Tesseract OCR Engine. Proceedings of 9th International Conference on Document
Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR 2007), Volume II, pp.629-633.
Tabaru, H. and Nakano, Y., 1998. A Printed J apanese Recognition SystemUsing Majority Logic. Proceedings of Third
IAPR Workshop on Document Analysis Systems (DAS98), pp.185-188.
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HEALTH 2.0 IN PRACTICE: A REVIEW OF GERMAN
HEALTH CARE WEB PORTALS
Roland Grlitz, Benjamin Seip, Asarnusch Rashid and Valentin Zacharias
FZI Forschungszentrum Informatik,
Karlsruhe, Germany
ABSTRACT
Contemporary studies show that the usage of health-related web portals increases continuously. Additionally, the
internets usage is in a transition towards more user participation by allowing more and more user generated content. In
the area of health care this development is commonly called health 2.0; a development that leads more patients and
doctors to actively participate and contribute on health portals their virtual communities. This results in numerous
opportunities for health care providers to capitalize on online health communities.
In order to aid the understanding of this emerging trend, this paper presents an extensive analysis of up-to-date German
web portals that provide health-related content from a user perspective. They are classified as well as clustered according
to their characteristics regarding usage of web 2.0 technologies and health care specialization. With this clustered
overview of the current health care web portals this paper tries to clarify the term health 2.0. Additionally, general design
options for health care portals are drawn from the analyzed web portals and state-of-the-art literature to aid in the
development of new health care portals.
KEYWORDS
Health 2.0, Medicine 2.0, e-Health, health care, virtual community, review
1. INTRODUCTION
With emerging new technologies and applications the use of the internet changed drastically in the course of
the past decade giving rise to the term Web 2.0 (O'Reilly, 2007). In the frame of web 2.0, many derivates
have appeared, for example music 2.0, enterprise 2.0, science 2.0, health 2.0 and medicine 2.0. The latter two
are found to be denoted very similar and both terms are generally attributed to eHealth, which already popped
up in the context of telemedicine in the year 2000 (Hughes et al., 2008, Mitchell, 2000). It is used
inconsistently and unfortunately there is no clear definition, but due to the strong influence of the internet, its
conception is gradually shifting to health care practices based upon usage of telecommunication and internet.
Nevertheless, eHealth, in contrast to medicine 2.0 and health 2.0, does not imply collaboratively generating
and utilizing content. In particular, health 2.0 is characterized by an interactive information sharing and user-
centered design. Nevertheless, it is not defined what extent of user-centered design health 2.0 generally
implies.
According to contemporary studies, the use of health-related web portals increases continuously. Due to
advancing health 2.0, the user generated content (UCG) is becoming more and more important (Kummervold
et al., 2008). This offers numerous chances, because the doctor is an expert in identifying a disease, but the
patient is an expert in experiencing it. In this context there are many publications that discuss the influence of
the internet on medical practice in general and on individual consumers focusing on information quality, trust
and acceptance. Furthermore, there are studies that focus on social interaction and benefits of crowd sourcing
in health care. However, there are no publications that review and analyze health-related web portals
utilization of web 2.0 technologies and virtual communities, thus the importance of user generated content in
their business model.
This paper presents a broad review of German health-related web portals. The range of incorporated
social media is analyzed from a user perspective and they are clustered according to their degree of
specialization in health care and potential interaction between users. Due to this two-dimensional
49
characterization, the websites are clustered according to their purpose, offered services and means of
participation, which facilitates the comparability among the portals. Individual portals are then analyzed with
a focus on the utilization of web 2.0 components and virtual communities. Then a set of design options that
allows describing the web portals business model according to a framework for virtual communities
described by Leimeister et al. (Leimeister and Krcmar, 2004). Thus, by reviewing contemporary health-
related websites, design options for virtual community business models in health care are identified.
2. HEALTH CARE AND THE WEB 2.0
In the last decade the internet started to be perceived as an important source of information and naturally it
also became a source for patients seeking health information (Wilkins, 1999, Baker et al., 2003, Diaz et al.,
2002). Since health information are vital, many publications assess the quality of health information on the
internet (Impicciatore et al., 1997, Eysenbach, 2002, Baker et al., 2003, Wilkins, 1999), assess the
trustworthiness of experts performing these quality assessments (Craigie et al., 2002) and evaluate its effect
on transforming the traditional system of medical primary care (Murray et al., 2003, Cross, 2008).
However, with the upcoming of web 2.0 technologies, the research focus has switched to the effects of
the collaborative components of health care websites, which utilize the collective wisdom of the crowd. For
example, Eysenberg discusses the influence of social networks as well as the willingness for patients to
collaborate regarding health related subjects online in his article about medicine 2.0 (Eysenbach, 2008).
Because of an increasing number of people that use social networks regularly, an increasing number of
people use social networks to find answers to health-related problems. Nevertheless, there was no evidence
found that the influence of virtual communities and online peer to peer interaction did have a significant
impact on the patients convalesce (Eysenbach et al., 2004, Griffiths et al., 2009). Furthermore, in
interrelation to the common lack of willingness to pay for content that is available online, people are not
willing to pay for health related content either (Adler, 2006).
3. METHODOLOGY
The methodology of health portal analysis is two-fold and has a qualitative as well as a quantitative approach.
The first part consists of a quantitative search for German health-care-related portals, their classification and
subsequent clustering. In the second part, a set of business-oriented design options for community-centered
health care portals is identified through qualitatively analyzing particular portals more closely and state-of-
the-art literature.
3.1 Searching, Classifying and Clustering of Health Portals
The search process for the German health-related web portals incorporates three procedures: a web search
using Google, Bing and Yahoo with the German key words depicted in Table 1 in which the first 20 search
results are considered excluding pages that do not target an audience seeking health-related information,
products and services; interviews with healthcare researchers as well as domain experts; and examining
relevant links on the retrieved websites that are identified with the first two procedures.
Table 1. Translated German key terms used for the web search
Age
Care
Care relatives
Care support
Community
Disease
Doctor
Geriatrics
Health
Health Care
Health insurance
Helping the elderly
Living in old age
Medicine
Nursing home
Nursing service
Patient
Physician
Relatives
Retirement home
Self-help group
Seniors
Wellness

After the search process, the identified health-related web portals have to be classified in order to
compare their characteristics as well as cluster similar portals together. Consequently, the portals are
classified along two dimensions, which assess their accentuation of health care and user participation.
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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Precisely these two dimensions were chosen, because they grasp the core of health 2.0: health care and user
participation.
The results of the classification are plotted in a chart in which the x-axis denotes the degree of web 2.0,
which represents the user involvement in generating the offered content and the y-axis denotes the websites
degree of specialization in health care. The degree of user involvement ranges from 1, indicating no user
involvement at all, to 5, in which the user provides all the content. The second dimension, the degree of
health care specialization also ranges from 1 to 5, whereas 1 is a rather universal portal that among others
also addresses health care issues (e.g.Wikipedia) and 5 implies a very specialized website focusing on one
aspect of a disease. All the found web portals are classified according to the two introduced dimensions by
two persons independently. If the two analysts classify one particular website differently, it is assessed again
and its characteristics are determined together.
After searching and classifying the German web portals with health-related content, they are exploratively
clustered subject to their position in the chart that indicates the individually classified specialization in health
care and degree of user involvement.
3.2 Identifying Design Options for Health Portals
In the second part of the analysis design options for virtual community business models are determined
exploratively. They are grouped according to a framework describing virtual community that was introduced
by Leimeister et al. (Leimeister and Krcmar, 2004). Leimeister defines four separate models that need to be
considered when designing a virtual community, thus the design questions are grouped according to the
partial models for strategy, products and services, actors and revenue. An initial set of design questions is
specified iteratively through analyzing representative web portals that have been identified in the first part.
4. RESULTS
4.1 Results of the Health Care Web Portal Classification
The search yielded 246 German web portals with health care related content. The specific URL and the
corresponding degrees of specialization in health care and web 2.0 of each web portal are depicted in Table 2.
Table 2. The 246 web portals and the classified values for their degree of web 2.0 and degree of specialization in health
care denominated X and Y, respectively
Web Portal X Y Web Portal X Y Web Portal X Y
www.achse-online.de 1 4,5 gesundheitsinformation.de 1 3 www.pflege.org 1 4
www.ahano.de 3 2 www.gesundheits-laden.de 1,5 3 www.pflegeagentur24.de 1 4
www.aktiv-in-jedem-alter.de 1 2 www.gesundheitslexikon.de 1 3 www.pflegebedarf24.de 1 4
www.aktiv-mit-ms.de 2,5 5 www.gesundleben-apotheken.de 2,5 2,5 www.pflegebeduerftig.de 1 4
www.patienten-verband.de 1 3 www.getwellness.ch 1,5 2 www.pflegeberatung24.de 4,5 4
www.alzheimerblog.de 5 4,5 www.g-netz.de 1 3 www.pflegeboard.de 4 3
www.alzheimerforum.de 2 4,5 www.goldjahre.de 2,5 2 www.pflegedienst.de 1 4
www.alzheimerinfo.de 2 4,5 www.gutefrage.net 5 1 www.pflege-erfahrung.de 4 4
www.amazon.de 2 1 www.pflegehilfe.biz 1 4 www.pflegehilfe.de 1 4
www.pflegedienst.org 1 4 www.helphive.com 5 1 www.pflegenetz.at 1,5 4
angehoerigenberatung.de 1 1 www.hilfe-und-pflege.de 1 4 www.pflegenetzwerk.com 1 3
www.aok.de 2,5 2,5 www.hilfe.de 2,5 1,5 www.pflegen-online.de 1,5 4
www.aok-gesundheitsnavi.de 3 3 www.hilferuf.de 2,5 1 www.pflegestufe.info 1 4,5
www.apotheke.de 1 2,5 www.hilfswerk.at 1 1,5 www.pflegeverantwortung.de 2,5 4
www.apotheke-am-markt-
bielefeld.apodigital.de
1 2,5 www.illumistream.com 1 2 www.pflegewiki.de 5 4
www.apotheken-umschau.de 2,5 2,5 www.imedo.de 4 3 www.thema-altenpflege.de 2,5 4
www.down-syndrom.org 1 4,5 www.info-aerzte.de 1 3 www.planetsenior.de 3,5 2
www.arzt-atlas.de 1,5 3 www.medizin-2000.de 1 3 www.platinnetz.de 4 2
www.arzt-auskunft.de 1,5 3 www.iquarius.de 4 2 www.pro-senior-direkt.de 1 2
www.arztverzeichnis.at 1 3 www.jameda.de 2 3 www.qualimedic.de 2,5 3
www.awo-pflege-sh.de 1 4 www.karlsruhe.de/fb4.de 1 1 www.qype.de 2 1
www.barmer.de 1 2,5 www.kkh-allianz.de 1 2,5 www.rehacafe.de 2,5 2,5
www.beauty24.de 1,5 2 www.klinik-krankenhaus.de 1 3 www.richtig-beantragen.de 1 1
51
www.beruf-und-familie.de 1 1 www.krankenhaus.de 1 3 www.wellness-gesund.info 1 2
www.besano.de 2,5 3 www.krankenhaus.net 1 3 www.selbsthilfe-online.de 1 2,5
www.betanet.de 1 3,5
www.krebsforum-fuer-
angehoerige.de
4,5 4 www.selbsthilfe-tirol.at 1 2
www.betreut.de 4,5 1 www.pflege-gt.de 1 4 www.lungenemphysem-copd.de 2 5
www.bloghaus-ms.de 1,5 5 www.pflege.portal-lb.de 1 4 www.pflegende-angehoerige-sz.de 1 4
www.brambor.com 1 4 www.landesseniorenrat-bw.de 1 1 www.selbsthilfegruppe.at 2,5 5
www.bremer-pflegedienst.de 1 4 www.last-minute-wellness.com 1 2 www.pflegehilfe24.com 1 4
www.arzt.de 1 3 www.leben-mit-ms.de 2,5 5 www.senior-balance.de 1 2
www.patienten-beraten.de 1 3 www.lebenshilfe.de 1 3,5 www.senioren-seelsorge.de 2,5 3,5
www.careshop.de 2 4 www.lifeline.de 2,5 3 www.senioreninfo.de 1 2
www.caritas.de 1 1,5 www.special-pflege.de 2 4 www.senioren-online.net 4 2
pflegende-angehoerige.or.at 2,5 4 www.lust-auf-abnehmen.de 2,5 2 www.senioren-ratgeber.de 2,5 2
www.copd-aktuell.de 1 5 www.mcgesund.de 2 2 community.seniorentreff.de 4 2
www.dak.de 1 2,5 www.medfuehrer.de 2,5 3 www.s-wie-senioren.de 1 2
www.altersportal.de 1 2 www.medhost.de 1 3 www.zuhause-altern.de 1 4
www.gerontologie-forum.de 4,5 4 www.mediclife.de 1,5 2 www.senioren-fragen.de 1 4
www.das-pflegeportal.de 1 4 www.medikompass.de 2 3 www.senioren-hilfe.org 1,5 2
www.ernaehrung.de 1 2 http://www.medinfo.de/ 1 3 www.seniorenland.com 1,5 2
www.pflegen-zuhause.net 2,5 4 www.medizin.de 1 3 www.seniorennet.de 1 2
www.demenz-support.de 1 4,5 www.medizinfo.de 1,5 3 www.seniorenportal.de 4 2
www.familienatlas.de 2,5 1 www.medknowledge.de 3,5 3 www.seniorweb.ch 3 2
www.deutsche-alzheimer.de 2,5 4,5 http://www.medisuch.de/ 1 3 www.familie-siegen.de 1 1,5
www.hirntumorhilfe.de/ 1 4,5 www.mein-pflegeportal.de 2 4 www.spiegel.de 2,5 1
www.krebsgesellschaft.de 1 4 www.meine-gesundheit.de 1 2 www.sprechzimmer.ch 1 3
www.krebshilfe.de 1 4 www.menschen-pflegen.de 1 4 www.stiftung-gesundheit.de 1 3
www.dmsg.de 2,5 5 www.menshealth.de 2,5 2 www.netz-fuer-pflegende.de 1 4
www.gliomnetzwerk.de 1 5 www.mobidat.net 1 2,5 www.thema-pflege.de 1,5 4
www.deutsches-krankenhaus-
verzeichnis.de
1 3 www.mobile-pflegehilfe.de 1 4 www.tk-online.de 1 2,5
www.krebsinformation.de 1 4 www.mobilepflege.net 2 4 treffpunkt-pflegende-angehoerige.de 1 4
www.medizin-forum.de 4,5 3 ms.ms-angehoerige.de 2,5 4,5 unabhaengige-patientenberatung.de 1 3
www.diakonie.de 1 1,5 www.ms-gateway.de 2,5 5 www.unterstuetzungskasse.de 1 2,5
www.diaet.com 2,5 2 www.ms-infozentrum.de 1 5 www.vz-bawue.de 1 1
www.dmsg.de 2,5 5 www.ms-lexikon.de 1 5 www.vitalitat.de 4 2
www.doccheck.de 2,5 3 www.ms-life.de 2,5 5 www.vitalusmedical.de 1 3
docinsider.de 4 3 www.ms-world.de 4 5 www.vitanet.de 1 3
www.docmed.tv 1 3 my-cure.de 4,5 4,5 www.vivantes.de 1 3
www.gesundheits-
lexikon.com
2 3 www.my-hammer.de 5 1 www.weisse-liste.de 1 3
www.doktor.ch 2 3 www.nakos.de 1 2 www.wellness.de 1 2
www.doktor.de 1 2 www.netdoktor.de 1,5 3 www.wellnessfinder.com 1 2
doktorlar24.de 2,5 3 www.pflegebegleiter.de 2,5 4 www.wellness-heaven.net 1 2
www.drk.de 1 1,5 www.nai.de 1 2,5 www.wellness-united.de 1 2
www.ebay.de 5 1 www.neuroonkologie.de 1 5 www.wellness.at 1,5 2
Web Portal X Y Web Portal X Y Web Portal X Y
www.elternimnetz.de 1 1 www.lpfa-nrw.de 1 4 www.wellness.info 1 2
www.eltern.de 2,5 1 www.onmeda.de 2,5 3 www.w-h-d.de 1 2
elternpflege-forum.de 4,5 4 www.optikur.de 2,5 2 www.wellness-lebensart.de 1 2
www.seelsorge-im-alter.de 1,5 2 www.otto.de 1,5 1 www.das-wellness-lexikon.de 1 2
www.exchange-me.de 5 1 www.paradisi.de 2,5 2 www.wellness-shop.de 1 2
www.feierabend.de 2,5 2 www.patient-zu-patient.de 4,5 3 www.wellness.ch 2 2
www.fitforfun.de 1,5 2 www.patienteninitiative.de 1 3 www.wikipedia.de 5 1
www.forum-demenz.net 1 4,5 www.patienten.com 1 3 www.wir-pflegen.net 2,5 4
www.forum-fuer-senioren.de 4 2 www.patienten-erfahrungen.de 4,5 3 www.wissen.de 1 1
www.forum-
gesundheitspolitik.de
1 3 patienten-information.de 1 3 www.wohlfahrtswerk.de 1 4
www.geroweb.de 1 4 www.patientenleitlinien.de 1 3 www.wohnen-im-alter.de 1,5 3,5
gesundheit-regional.de 2,5 2 www.patienten-scout.de 1 3 www.wohnforumplus.de 1 3,5
gesundheitsprechstunde.ch 1 3 www.patientenverfuegung.de 1 3,5 www.pflegeheim.de 1 4
www.gesundheit-lifestyle.de 1 2 www.patient-informiert-sich.de 1 3 groups.yahoo.de 4,5 1
www.gesundheit.ch 1 2 www.pflege-nachbarschaft.de 2 4 www.yourfirstmedicus.de 2,5 3
www.gesundheit.de 2,5 2 www.pflege.de 1,5 4 www.zukunftsforum-demenz.de 1 4,5
www.gesundheit-aktuell.de 1 2 www.pflege.net 1,5 4

In Figure 1 the distribution of the 246 individually assessed web portals is visualized. While determining
each portals characteristic degree of health care specialization as well as the utilization of web 2.0
technologies, it became evident that from a user perspective the offered services and social network
components are difficult to compare. Therefore, the identified web portals are clustered according to their
individual characteristics into 23 exploratively identified clusters, which is illustrated in Figure 2. Since every
web portal can be appointed to a definite cluster, a complete analysis of each individual web portal can be
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avoided by thoroughly analyzing representatives of the clusters. Furthermore, the cumbersome individual
differentiation can be replaced by a sophisticated delineation of the identified clusters characterization.

Figure 1. The distribution of the 246 classified German health care web portals
The 23 identified clusters can be separated into two major groups, whose division is illustrated by the
horizontal line in Figure 2. The 7 clusters below this line contain e-shops, information portals or wikis that
only partly deal with health care, but are rather general. The clusters above the line have at least the key issue
health care. These higher 16 Clusters are roughly divided into 4 categories on each of the two dimensions.
There are pure information websites or e-shops that do not grant users permission to add content at all.
Another group consists of web portals that offer content, which is generated by the operator, but can be
commented by users directly or through an affiliated forum, in which users can freely post content. If the
web portal is completely user-centered and its main focus is the user generated input in a forum, it is in a
community cluster, and if the portal only consists of freely generated user content, it is in a wiki cluster. The
rough division in the health care specialization dimension yields the following four groups: focus on wellness
or senior citizens, which have a high proportion of health care subjects; focus is generally health care,
medicine or physician; focus on one health care aspect or disease groups, e.g. care giving or cancer; focus on
certain health care issues or particular disease, e.g. dementia or multiple sclerosis.
53

Figure 2. The identified 23 clusters of the German health care portals
There are numerous examples for information portals that do not allow any user content: for example
www.ernaehrung.de or www.altersportal.de in the wellness and senior cluster; www.arztverzeichnis.de for a
physician search engine; www.patienten-verband.de for health information; www.pflegebedarf24.de is an
health-related e-shop; www.pflegedienst.de for care information; and www.copd-aktuell.de for information
on the particular disease COPD. Except for e-shops the business models of most of these information portals
are based on providing health-care-related information while being cross-financed or financed through
banner ads.
The afore mentioned clusters also exist with some user involvement in the form of possible comments or
associated forums. Because of stronger user integration, most of the portals in this group of clusters
incorporate different ways of generating revenue in their business model. Apart from banner ads they also
have more tailored sources of revenue. For example www.doccheck.de is a portal for physicians and medical
employees offering an e-shop, a forum, videos and medical information. There are also additional services,
which are subject to fees like access to medical literature, further education, software and videos.
Furthermore, third parties offer supplementary services like CRM-systems. Thus, the portal has a wide array
of revenue sources, ranging from simple sale and premium accounts to individual services.
Even though in the United States there are several business models that are based on virtual communities
and their user-generated content, for example www.patientslikeme.com, www.23andme.com,
www.wegohealth.com and www.medpedia.com, German community-centered health care portals are rather
scarce. Their number even decreases with increasing specialization in health care. There are only two portals
that have an innovative business model: www.betreut.de/pflege and www.ms-gateway.de. They are in the
clusters care community and patient community, respectively. The care community portal Betreut is an
intermediary for family services. People can offer their service, e.g. taking care of the children, on the portal
and others can search for it. The service seeking person has to pay a fee to establish the contact and can then
rate the received service. Additionally, the portal operator sells licenses to companies for using the platform
commercially. This care community portal combines online and offline contacts while assessing the quality
of the services through user feedback. The patient community MS-Gateway is a portal sponsored by
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BayerHealthCare and only deals with the disease multiple sclerosis. It offers various information, studies and
literature on multiple sclerosis and allows the users to exchange details of their personal health record and to
enter a personal health therapy sponsored by Bayer. The portal is supposedly financially supported by Bayer,
but its business model might be self-sustaining due to the offered personal health therapy.
4.2 Determining Design Option
In addition to the health portal review, a catalogue of 70 design options for virtual community portals in
health care was created. The initial options were iteratively refined by determining their value for exemplary
websites out of the 16 more closely considered clusters. The final set of design options that have an
enormous influence on the business model for health care virtual communities is divided into the four
categories strategy, products and services, actors and revenue. The main aspects covered by the design
options are
- strategic questions, such as the legal form of the portal, its language and regional or national
orientation, the used technology and the decision between commercial or non commercial;
- questions concerning the products and services, i.e. what is offered, how much user generated
content is allowed, is the portal specialized in a certain healthcare domain, how to ensure credibility and what
is the actual added value for the future customers;
- involved participants and their communication, i.e. is communication between users allowed, are
offline contacts between users desirable, how much are users involved in the community as well as the portal
und do I want to incorporate third party content;
- possible revenue, such as connections between the offered services and products, transaction
dependent as well as transaction independent sources of revenue and the question of whether the user or third
party members have to pay.
5. CONCLUSION
One striking aspect distilled from the conducted review of German health care web portals is that most of the
found portals are predominantly web 1.0, for which the operator provides and controls all the information
that is published. In contrast to the possibilities user generated content offers, only a fraction of the
investigated portals tries to live on these potentials by applying health 2.0. Furthermore, there are many
different concepts of user generated content, ranging from simply rating the professionally created content up
to creating all the content available on a website. Particularly, portals that deal with specialized health care or
diseases, for example multiple sclerosis or regional care giving support groups, try to employ the most user-
centered designs and interactive information sharing. Thus, a common definition of health 2.0 cannot be
derived.
This reviews design options for developing health care community portals offer support for the creation
of a new health care web portal. However, the portals have only been analyzed from the users point of view.
Certain options cannot be defined exactly, because data either from the operator or from other reliable
sources is necessary. Therefore, an interesting future approach would be to interview the stakeholders of
particular health care web portals.
Despite its drawbacks the accumulated and reviewed health care portals as well as the created design
options are a unique snapshot of contemporary German health care portals and a valuable instrument,
respectively. In a further step either specific health care portals that incorporate user generated content need
to be investigated further by obtaining data from the operators or a newly designed web portal will be
prototyped and evaluated.

55
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Wilkins, A. S. 1999. Expanding Internet access for health care consumers. Health Care Management Review, 24, 30-41.

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AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ACCESS AND USAGE OF
THE INTERNET IN KENYA
Ruth Diko Wario and Theo McDonald
Department of Computer Science
University of Free State
ABSTRACT
Previous studies on Internet activity in Kenya were mostly concerned with numbers: how many hosts, how many users or
subscribers and how much bandwidth. Little is known about what Kenya users actually do on the Internet, their usage
patterns, and interaction between Internet governing frameworks and policies, services and usage demographics and
behaviours. This study is intended to answer these questions and to lay a foundation for future studies in terms of access
technologies and behaviour patterns of the Kenya Internet population. It provides a basic understanding of the Kenya
Internet market to institutions involved in the development of the Internet market. It thus facilitates the development of
sound policies that will drive Kenyas information economy. As an outcome of the study a profile of the characteristics of
a typical Internet user in Kenya will be provided.
KEYWORDS
Internet access technologies, Internet usage patterns, Internet user profile, Kenya
1. INTRODUCTION
The use of the Internet was first initiated by the military and academics. It has now, in a short while,
progressed from being a scientific means of communication to the main method of exchanging information
for almost everyone (Attaran and Vanlaar, 2000). As a growing and rapidly diffusing technology, the Internet
is an innovation that promises to become the economic reinforcement for all successful countries in the new
global economy (National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 2006). Understanding who
is connected to the Internet and how it is being used is critical to the development of sound policies in this
area (National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 2006). What is currently facing
governments and non-governmental organisations alike is the challenge to expand the connectivity of the
Internet in their different countries to even grassroots level.
Previous studies (Centre for Democracy and Technology, 2000; Oyelaran-Oyeyinka and Adeya, 2002),
however, revealed that several factors contribute heavily to this challenge. These include the poor state of the
underlying telecommunications infrastructure, high telephone call charges, high Internet Service Providers
(ISP) charges, advances in access technologies, policies and regulations around Internet market development,
and income and socio-economic status. The majority of African countries do not possess basic infrastructure.
In some cases, efforts have been made, but proved to be insufficient. In others, technological infrastructure is
obsolete as a result of the rapid developments of digital technologies (Oyelaran-Oyeyinka and Adeya, 2002).
The objective of this study was to investigate the Internet access technologies available in Kenya and the
Internet usage patterns among Kenyan users. The goal was to establish a profile of a typical user, his/her
perception of the Internet and what the future holds for the Internet in Kenya. This study is intended to lay a
foundation for future studies in terms of access technologies and behaviour patterns of the Kenya Internet
population. It provides a basic understanding of the Kenya Internet market to institutions involved in the
development of the Internet market. It thus facilitates the development of sound policies that will drive
Kenyas information economy.
The rest of the paper will be structured as follows. In the next section background information of how the
Internet developed in Kenya will be provided. That will be followed by the methodology used in conducting
the research. Consequently the results of the study will be provided and discussed.
57
2. BACKGROUND
2.1 History of the Internet in Kenya
Mweu (2000) asserts that the Internet first became available in Kenya in 1993. As with many other African
states, Internet development in Kenya was primarily led by Kenyans returning from overseas studies,
Western expatriates and personnel of Inter-governmental Organizations (IGOs) and Non-Governmental
Organization (NGOs). Individuals in these groups had been exposed to the Internet and upon their return to
Kenya demanded Internet access (Centre for International Development and Conflict Management, 1998).
Initially, access to the Internet was achieved through a Gopher service, which was text-based. The
connectivity was made possible through either international leased lines or X.25 connections (Mweu, 2000).
The African Regional Centre for Computing (ARCC), an NGO based in Nairobi, became the first provider of
Web-based Internet services, based on the Mosaic browser. The connection to the global Internet backbone
was via an analogue leased line. The first commercial ISP, Form-net, began operating in 1995, and with the
entry of three other ISPs, competition soon increased. Today, there are over 50 ISPs operational in Kenya
offering different services (Communications Commission of Kenya, 2008a).
2.2 Regulation of the Internet Service in Kenya
The Kenya Communications Act KCA (No. 2 of 1998) provides the framework for regulating the
communications sector in Kenya (Waema, 2007). The Act was enacted by Parliament in 1998, to give
legislative teeth to the Postal and Telecommunications Sector Policy Statement, issued by the Ministry of
Transport and Communications in January 1997 and updated both in 1999 and 2001.
The Policy Statement defines the policy for the telecommunications operation and provides a framework
for the introduction of structural changes in the sector. The Policy Statement was set out against a deliberate
move by the government to optimise the sectors contribution to national development by ensuring the
availability of efficient, reliable and affordable communication services throughout the country.
The Act unbundled Kenya Post and Telecommunication into five separate entities including Telkom, the
fixed line operator; the Postal Corporation of Kenya (Postal); the Communications Commission of Kenya
(CCK) and the National Communications Secretariat (NCS). It also created an Appeals Tribunal for the
purpose of arbitration in cases where disputes arise between parties under the KCA. The national regulator,
CCK, issued a statement in September 2004 containing/introducing a new licensing framework. The general
goal of this framework was to ensure that the regulatory environment in the sector is friendly to investment
in and conducive to the provision of modern communication services - Internet (Waema, 2007).
The specific objectives of the new licensing framework were to ensure that Kenya has a more dynamic
and competitive Internet environment, improved access to Internet infrastructure and services and choice in
the provision of communication services to meet the socio-economic needs of the society.
2.3 Available Technology Choices for Internet Access
Access to the Internet service in Kenya is not widely spread as compared to other services e.g. mobile
phones, despite the liberalization of the sector (Communications Commission of Kenya, 2008b). This is
brought about by among other things, high costs of bandwidth. Kenyans have the option of accessing the
Internet using either modems with dial-up connections or leased lines. Dial-up connections are available
through both fixed telephone lines as well as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology introduced
in Kenya in late 2005.
Three operators provide CDMA wireless access technology: Telkom Kenya, Popote Wireless and
Flashcom. Other operators plan to offer a wireless option as a business strategy to remain competitive in the
increasingly liberalized telecommunications market. By some estimates 400,000 new Internet users will rely
on the wireless option in the first half of the year 2008 (Kinyanjui, 2009). Many Kenyans opt for CDMA as
equipment costs drop and coverage extends throughout the country. Currently, the coverage by Telkom is
limited to 50 kilometres of the major urban centres of Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret, Mombasa, and
Nyeri.
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58
Internet access is available through either 64/128/256 Kbps leased lines or through 64 Kbps dial-up
accounts (Ochara, et al, 2008). Home users in Kenya mainly choose either the dial-up accounts option or the
wireless option because they are less expensive than leased lines. The leased line market is dominated by four
Internet Gateway and Backbone Operators (IBGOs). Data collected from the IBGOs indicate that they have
7,637 customers on leased lines while 17,737 customers are on dial-up accounts (Ochara, et al, 2008). This
proportion of users on dial-up accounts, as an indicator of customers using modems, represents
approximately 70 percent of the total Internet user population. While there are a number of corporate
customers on more than 64Kbs bandwidth, the larger proportion of customers have connections of 32Kbs and
64Kbs.
Other technologies that can be used for access include XDSL, fixed wireless and Fibre access. At present,
only Telkom Kenya Limited (TKL) has a fibre optic installation. The fibre optic installation provides
junction circuits between digital exchanges replacing the old copper pair junction routes. Demand for
broadband services is increasing and the TKL plans to install fibre optical cable networks to customers
countrywide. The coming of high-speed fibre optic cables, and at least two more expected to go live by 2010
(BharatBook, 2009), will result in costs reduction and rise in connection speed, thus making technology
affordable and accessible to larger segments of the population.
3. METHODOLOGY
The research design used in this study is a descriptive survey that seeks to explore Internet usage and its
motives. The methodology employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The findings
were based on the results of questionnaires and interviews from the Kenya Internet service providers (ISPs),
communication commission of Kenya (CCK) and general users.
Several factors influenced the sample selection. For instance, only the people living in urban areas are
connected to electricity as compared to those living in rural areas. Therefore, users are highly concentrated in
Nairobi and are estimated to account for 80% of the countrys Internet subscriptions (Lilech, 2008). Nairobi,
the national capital, is also known for its cosmopolitan nature, and is the commercial hub of the region. It
consists of a large portion of the literate population, and is the main terminus of the regions communication
infrastructure, particularly the Internet. This city can, therefore, be seen as representing the country as a
whole in terms of Internet access and usage, and will be the main focus of this exploratory survey.
In order to obtain a truly random sample representative of Internet users in Nairobi, a complete list with
contact details of every Internet user was required. Such a list was not available and alternative methods had
to be followed. The following two methods of questionnaire distribution were, consequently, used: e-mail
distribution of questionnaires and usual handing out of printed questionnaires. The e-mailed questionnaires
were sent to individuals at homes, companies, schools, and government departments. Their email addresses
were extracted from the personal address books of several colleagues. The printed questionnaires were
delivered by hand to various Internet cafes for customers to complete on a voluntary basis. In this way 500
questionnaires were distributed. It is acknowledged that this was not a scientific way to obtain the sample,
but giving a lack of sufficient resources and no access to required information, it was most suitable at the
time.
Out of 500 questionnaires that were distributed, only 148 were returned, constituting a response rate of
30%. Even though this return rate is low, it is similar to that conducted in other studies (Rivard, 2000).
Although the scenarios obtained from this survey may be sufficiently accurate to describe general levels of
Internet usage by the respondents, the low sample size and the way the sampling was conducted require
caution when using the data for strategic decision making and should, therefore, only be used as an indicative
guide for the industry in general.
The questionnaires served to gather information relating to the access and use of the Internet in Kenya. It
aimed to determine the penetration of the Internet and the characteristics of a typical user in Kenya by
investigating methods of accessing the Internet, reasons why people use the Internet, as well as how often
and from where they access the Internet. Two separate questionnaires were designed, one to collect
information from general users and one to collect data from the ISPs. Data collection took place during
December 2009.
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4. RESULTS
4.1 ISPs
A list of 50 registered ISPs with contact details were obtained from CCK and they were all contacted for
interviews. Twenty nine of them could not be reached even after visiting their physical addresses. Sixteen
were reached and questionnaires were sent, but even after several attempts to retrieve the questionnaires no
response was achieved. Two ISPs responded positively and provided the required information. Five other
ISPs responded, but were only willing to provide the date of establishment. Attempts to ensure
confidentiality of the information failed to convince these ISPs to provide the information required. The
information used in this analysis is, therefore, from the two ISPs who responded Wananchi online Ltd and
IwayAfrica.
The consumer base is mostly made up of businesses and private consumers, and the market is mostly for
both email and browsing customers. The popularity of cyber-cafes is increasing, as signified by the large
number of users who subscribe to them. Other services provided by the ISPs include domain registration,
web design and hosting, web security, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and Virtual Satellite Aperture
Terminals (VSATs).
According to the report obtained from the Communications Commission of Kenya (2008a), the total
number of Internet users was 3.3 million, compared to 2.8 million of the previous year, representing a 9%
increase. The number of dial-up customers was higher (7,846) as compared to leased lines (1,809) and
wireless connectivity (5,226). There was a decline in the number of leased line customers and dial-up
customers by 6.7% and 1.9% in 2008 compared to 29% and 32% in 2007. The decline has been characterized
by the demand for wireless connections that has grown by 0.97%. The 2 ISPs reported that www.google.com
and www.yahoo.com are the most visited sites respectively.
4.2 The Users
4.2.1 Demographic Information
With more and more people becoming Internet users, the demographic composition of the users are
continually changing. Currently in Kenya the proportion of males (64%) is higher than that of females (36%).
The average age of Internet users is one of the most significant indicators of Internet penetration in a country.
In Kenya the prevalent age group, which is approximately 57% of the total number, is between 16 - 25 years
as presented by Figure 1

Figure 1. The Age of Internet Users
In terms of educational level the results indicated that 94% of the respondents are people who have
studied either at university or college. Students represent the most numerous group, about 48% while
professions /professionals (working class) represent 45% of the Internet users.
The results further indicated that the higher an individuals income is, the more likely he/she is to have
access to the Internet. About 47% of adults with an income of more than Ksh10, 000 reported that they use

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the Internet. This is significantly higher compared to those who earn between Ksh5000 10,000, and those
earning below Ksh5000 as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Monthly Income of Internet Users
Regarding PC ownership, 68% of the respondents have a PC at home, while 32% of the respondents did
not own a PC at all. For those who have PCs at home, 41% of the respondents could access the Internet at
home. This suggests that Internet services still remain out of reach for the majority of Kenyans as compared
to other countries, especially the USA where more than 80% of Americans have computers at home. Almost
92% of the Americans who own PCs have access to the Internet (Nielsen Online, 2009).
The frequency at which respondents access the Internet is shown in Figure 3. Among the respondents,
about 59% of the respondents use the Internet daily, 30% weekly and 7% monthly.

Figure 3. Internet Usage Frequency of Access
In terms of the question on purpose of Internet use, the results indicated that about 54% of the
respondents use the Internet for email purposes and 46% use it for World Wide Web applications such as
Facebook, news, Google and sports. The most popular types of information searched for are information
relating to education (37%), followed by culture/sport/entertainment (26%), news (16%) and
economic/finance (14%).
It is clear from the results that the opportunity of online shopping is not widely used. About 65% of the
respondents reported lack of interest in e-commerce or buying online. About 27% were interested in e-

61
commerce while 8% were not sure. The common reasons given for not using e-commerce on the Internet
were security reasons, lack of credit cards and poor financial resources.
The general experience of those who have purchased goods online shows that they were satisfied with the
practice. Nearly 20% of the respondents reported the practice to be good, 33% reported that they were not
interested, 40% reported satisfaction, while 7% were not sure whether they would use it again. The most
popular search engine among Internet users in Kenya is Google (62%), followed by Yahoo (27%) and other
search engines (6%).
Generally, the respondents expressed the desire to use the Internet service more. However, the cost and
convenience of access has limited Internet use. Consequently, access times are short. Another factor is the
slow access speed. This is due to the poor quality of telecommunication links, partially attributed to
congestion. This frustrates many potential users and discourages Internet surfing. According to the
questionnaire survey, 52% of the respondents regarded slow page download time as their biggest problem,
37% reported cost to be their biggest problem, 5% failure to find the information on the web and 6% constant
error pages.
5. DISCUSSION
5.1 Internet Access Technologies Available in Kenya
In Kenya, Internet access is provided through dial-up or leased lines. Recently, broadband has been
introduced in the form of ADSL, fixed wireless, fibre access and cable modem. The government is currently
supporting several projects aimed at boosting the countrys broadband infrastructure with the most high-
profile projects being the fiber optic international submarine cable to the countrys shores, East Africa
Marine Systems (EAMS) and the East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSYs). These initiatives will
connect the countries of Eastern Africa via a high bandwidth fiber optic cable system with the rest of the
world. TEAMS, a multi-million dollar fibre optic cable link from Mombasa (Kenya) to Fujaira in the United
Arab Emirates, is expected to link East Africa to the rest of the world (Kenya Business, 2008).
5.2 Profile of a Typical Kenyan Internet User
A user of the Internet in Kenya is typically a single male aged between 16 and 25 years of age with a
university/college degree and earning a monthly salary of less than Kshs 5000
1
. Although he owns a PC at
home, he is accessing the Internet from his workplace and using it on a daily basis. The most common uses of
the Internet include e-mail and searching for information on education, sport, news and entertainment. The
preferred search engines are Google and Yahoo among others. He is not yet ready for e-commerce and
Internet banking.
5.3 Internet Usage Pattern among Kenyan Users
This study is the first report on Internet usage patterns of the Internet population in Kenya. Although Internet
usage in Kenya is low and lags behind other telecommunication services, for example mobile phones
(Communications Commission of Kenya, 2008b), it still remains beyond the capability of many Kenyan
households. Quite a number of people have expressed a desire to use the Internet more, mainly because of its
economical, political, social and cultural development and possibilities.
From this research it appears that a considerable number of the Kenyan population gets access to the
Internet from their workplaces rather than any other source. The arrival of the fibre optic international
submarine cable to the country will lower the rates of international bandwidth which will finally increase the
number of Internet connections (Electronics Newsweekly, 2009).
The results of this study clearly indicate that the exploitation of the Internet for commercial transactions is
still in its infancy. This is due to the absence of enabling legislation (Information and Communication

1
US$1 is about Kshs 77
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Technology Kenya, 2005). As it is evident that there is potential for usage of e-commerce in Kenya, it is
interesting to note that some people still feel they are not yet ready for e-commerce or Internet banking. The
most popular reason is that the Internet is not secure for monetary transactions. Credit cards are also not so
popular in Kenya and this is another reason why there isnt much activity in e-commerce. A substantial
number of people still prefer physically going shopping.
5.4 The Future of the Internet in Kenya
For Internet uptake to be enhanced in the country there is a need for infrastructure improvement to improve
accessibility. Wider Internet connectivity can enhance Kenyas economic growth. Wider access to the
Internet will result in more people spending more time on the Internet. In future, many organizations are
likely to use the Internet to do business and create many jobs related to the technology. As the Internet
continues to expand tremendous potential exists for its use.
The future outlook of the Internet in Kenya is positive as commissions embark on the implementation of
the Kenya Communications Amendment Act of 2008. Telecommunication infrastructure will have a major
boost with the completion of the National Optic Fibre Backbone infrastructure. This key infrastructure is
expected to increase bandwidth capacity in most parts of the country. This should have a positive impact on
Internet diffusion in rural and remote areas. For example, the arrival of the first ever fibre optic international
submarine cable to the countrys shores in mid-2009, with at least two more expected to go live by 2010, will
lower the rates of international bandwidth which will finally take the Internet to the mass market.
6. CONCLUSION
The investigations of this study revealed that access technologies such as dial-up or leased lines are
commonly used while broadband technologies have only recently been introduced. The findings also showed
that in Kenya access and usage of the Internet are mainly associated with age, education, income and socio-
economic status, and that the market is occupied mainly by young people who are the frequent users of the
Internet and who would also like to try doing online business transactions in the near future.
Kenyas Internet market looks positive and the governments awareness of the advantages can increase its
usage. The much-anticipated undersea fibre optic cable and the improved competition regulatory framework
will boost Internet penetration. The introduction of broadband services by mobile operators is expected to
further boost Internet penetration and use.
This study has shown that, with the rate at which the number of Internet users is increasing, the Internet is
becoming more familiar to the Kenyan. This is especially true for the younger generation (26-35 years) that
regards it as a revolutionary technology that in the near future will permanently change the nature of data
collection, storage, processing, transmittal, and presentation. Information technologies have become essential
to enhancing the economic, social, and educational development of the country.
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Electronic Newsweekly(2009). Kenya-Convergence, Broadband & Internet Markets. URL
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TtoQxXgqAN5KOrfI26F7fUSfIFRfqyQeKUROJVwXZvsAIq6SjDUjkbkW8WqqYKNSzbgOrssmassj
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[Accessed 30th November 2009]
Mweu, F., 2000. Overview of the Internet in Kenya. URL
http://www.itu.int/africainternet2000/countryreports/ken_e.htm [Accessed 26th November 2009]
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the Net: Part II Internet Access and Usage. URL http://www.ntia.doc.gov/NTIAHOME/FTTN99/part2.html
[Accessed 30th November 2009]
Nielsen Online, 2009. Home Internet Access: Continuing to Grow, But Big Differences Among Demographics. URL
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/home-internet-access-continuing-to-grow-but-big-differences-
among-demographics/ [Accessed 5th September 2009]
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Longitudinal Analysis. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Vol.23, No.7, pp 123 - 150.
Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, B., Adeya, C. (2002). Internet access in Africa: Empirical evidence from Kenya and Nigeria. URL
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2&_user=736898&_coverDate=02%2F29%2F2004&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&v
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Rivard, H., 2000. A survey on the impact of information Technology on the Canadian Architecture, Engineering and
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ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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SOFTWARE-BASED PROTECTION FOR CONTENT
MEDIA DISTRIBUTION
Malek Barhoush and J . William Atwood
Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Concordia University
1455 de Maisonneuve Boulevard, West, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8
ABSTRACT
Software-based protection for digital content is a promising and flexible solution for the content provider whose
distribution is to a community in which the majority of clients are computer and laptop users. In this paper, we explore an
example of software-based copy protection for temporal media distribution that has been published by Grimen, et al. We
evaluated the security protocols provided in the example and found two security attacks. We provide the solution to
overcome the discovered attacks.
KEYWORDS
DRM, Tamper Resistant Software, Formal Validation.
1. INTRODUCTION
Watching movies and TV channels through the Internet gives the client the flexibility to explore for
interesting programming, and then start viewing. The content provider (CP) on the other side has the
motivation to use the Internet to deliver the content media because the cost of distributing the information is
low. However, the problem is that the Internet does not facilitate access control for electronic goods.
Digital rights management (DRM) is an application framework introduced to help a CP to control the
access to electronic products and to enforce the usage according to the permissions and constraints stated by
the CP or the owner of the electronic product. The central component of a DRM system is a tamper resistant
entity; this entity may be implemented in hardware or software. The whole security protection and
enforcement mechanism of a DRM system depends on the fact that the tamper resistant element is guaranteed
to be unbreakable [Stamp_digital].
Tamperproof hardware provides physical protection and tries to hide the protection technologies used to
secure the content media. Because the end user may have hacking tools and the time to compromise
tamperproof hardware, hiding protection technologies does not provide a permanent solution. It is typically
more effective than a software solution, but it is harder to recover when the hardware is compromised. A
dongle provides hardware copy protection and should be connected on one of the computer ports in order to
use dongle-based software. Dongle-based software checks the presence of a token issued by the dongle. If
the software discovers that the dongle is not connected then it does not give the necessary signal to execute or
to run the full version of the software. The security of this methodology depends on the difficulty of cloning
dongles. The protection provided by a dongle is susceptible to reverse engineering and code modification
[Maa-Framework].
The Open Mobile Alliance DRM2.1 (OMA-DRM2.1) is a framework solution to control the access to
mobile ringtones, pictures or songs. OMA-DRM2.1 enabled devices have tamper resistant hardware that
contains a unique id for identification purposes and a unique private/public key pair as well as a certificate.
This feature allows the operator or the rights issuer to easily authenticate the OMA-DRM2.1 enabled devices.
Each right object issued to a specific device is cryptographically bound to that device. The whole security of
OMA depends on hiding the private key [Ntzel-DRM, OMA-DRM2.1]. Hardware tamper resistant devices
are difficult to deploy, especially when the majority of viewers is using a personal computer or a laptop. If
the solution provided by tamper resistant hardware is compromised, then replacing the failed hardware is not
65
simple. A fast solution is to revoke the compromised device [Grimen-DRM1], but this may not be very
satisfying to the end user.
The software-based protection task touches on many aspects: intellectual property protection,
preventing a software hacker from extracting sensitive information via reverse engineering or static and
behavior analysis, and controlling the use of digital media. All protection mechanisms provide short-term
protection [Maa-Framework].
Apple's DRM solution is built on a software-based tamper resistant approach; it depends on hiding a
repository key in a secret algorithm embedded in the iTunes application. This repository key is needed to
decrypt a user key stored in the user side, the user key is needed to decrypt a master key, which is needed to
decrypt the corresponding protected media file. The whole idea of the protection mechanism depends on
making this secret algorithm hard to expose. This called security via obscurity. This method did not survive
because an attacker was able to reverse engineer the iTunes application and extract hidden secrets such as the
secret algorithm. For more details see [Grimen-DRM1, WWW-FairPlay].
Microsoft DRM is another example of a software-based controller used to control protected media. It
depends on keeping a blackbox file hidden from the end user. This blackbox contains the client key, which is
generated in the individualization of the user's blackbox. This key is stored in a scrambled form and
theoretically is hard to extract. This key used to cryptographically bind the license file with the users DRM-
enabled application. The license contains the content key that is used to encrypt the content media. This
solution also did not survive, because it depends on keeping the secret hidden from the end user. The end
user has the ability, with sufficient time and tools such as memory dumping and reverse engineering, to
extract this information, for more details see [Grimen-DRM1, Req-DRM].
A DRM system works in the customer environment. Thus the customer has full control to analyze and
reverse engineer the DRM workflow. One way to make the attackers work more difficult is to integrate
hardware tamper resistance with DRM workflow, such hardware is used to embed some protection
components. An example of hardware tamper resistance is using smart cards for authentication purposes or
using set-top-boxes for protecting electronic media. The main problem with hardware tamper resistance is
that it is expensive to integrate with the majority of end-user laptops and personal computers, which are not
prepared for DRM purposes. Another way is to integrate software tamper resistance with a renewability
mechanism. Renewability is a mechanism used to periodically modify the software protection component. It
is hoped that this will be done before the protection component has been compromised. Software-based
protection is flexible, inexpensive to transfer within a public network and works on different platforms
[Grimen-DRM, Grimen-DRM1, Req-DRM 1].
Bar-El claims that no security technology can predict or prevent future attacks. Renewing protection
technology prevents an attacker from taking advantage of the defects discovered in current protection
technology. Bar-El suggests that for a renewable protection scheme, the scheme at least needs to be divided
into two pieces: a permanent component such as the viewer application and a modifiable component such as
plug-in components [Bar-El]. Renewability in the context of the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG-4)
Intellectual Property Management and Protection (IPMP) extension is accomplished by renewing
compromised tools that are used for authentication, decryption and watermarking of content media [MPEG-
4_IPMP, MPEG-4_IPMP2, MPEG_Eval]. As far as we have been able to discover, MPEG does not prevent
a reverse engineering attack. J onker et al. suggests that all security systems need to adapt protection system
measures to compensate for any attack [Jonker-CoreSec]. Grimen et al. suggest that changing the viewer
software that is responsible for rendering the content media is equivalent to reconfiguring that viewer, this
kind of reconfiguring of viewer software may be able to detect and prevent any hacker attacks [Grimen-
DRM2].
Grimen et al. [Grimen-DRM2] proposed a software solution based on periodic renewal of the protection
scheme that is used to control the access to content media. The software-based solution they proposed
appeared to be a promising solution, but we have found two attacks against the protocol that they use to
control the access to protected media. We will discuss their solution and the attacks in section 2. In Section
3, we will give a formal model of the attack. In Section 4, we give a solution to the attack, and demonstrate
its security. In Section 5, we offer our conclusions.

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2. GRIMEN PROTECTION MODEL LIFE CYCLE
Grimen et al. [Grimen-DRM2] proposed an architecture for software-based secure content distribution that
consists of four players: the content provider (CP), the stream server, which we are going to call the content
server (CS), the viewer software (VS) and the security server (SS). The CP encodes the content media, and
divides it into many pieces. It then produces as many symmetric keys as there are media pieces, in order to
protect each piece with one unique symmetric key. This process results in what they called an encrypted
encoded media document (EEMD) and makes it ready for distribution. See Figure 1. The authors called the
time period for each piece a trust interval.
The CS is in charge of distributing the EEMD piece by piece. The VS player is running within the user
environment. It is responsible for decrypting and decoding the EEMD and then rendering the content media
and making it available for viewing. The SS is responsible for generating and delivering a piece of code
called a Mobile Guard (MG), which is able to execute in the user environment. The MG needs to be plugged
into the VS. The MG needs to be sent to the VS in order to configure the VS to maintain security states of
the media document. The MG is responsible for checking the integrity of the VS components, including the
MG itself, and then after successful integrity checking, the SS is going to deliver a corresponding media key
for a current delivered piece of the EEMD. The authors claim that the MG is hard to compromise; if
successful software modifications happens, it will be detected and the system will have break once break
everywhere resistance [Grimen-DRM2].

Figure 1. Dividing the media content [Grimen-DRM2].
As the encoded media document is being split into multiple pieces, each piece is encrypted with a
different key. The SS is going to provide the decryption key for each piece only at the start of its particular
trust interval, upon request and after checking the integrity of VS; the VS needs to prove its good intention
before delivery of the new decryption key. This good intention is achieved when the VS receives and
executes a new generated MG, which means that for every decryption key there is a new MG. Each MG is
distinct from the others, and each one is responsible for reconfiguring and securing the VS. The MG needs to
be obfuscated to prevent the software hacker from predicting the internal logic of the MG [Grimen-DRM2].
The MG is replaced for each trust interval, in order to prevent the software attacker from predicting the
VS configuration when he has the time to gain the knowledge. Each instance of the MG is responsible for
protecting the access control mechanism used by the VS for the duration of the trust interval. Each MG
instance is going to check the integrity of the VS every new trust interval. The VS is going to request the
corresponding decryption key at the end of each trust interval. The SS is responsible for receiving the
checksum for the VS for each trust interval. Then, upon verifying the correctness of each checksum, it is
going to send the next decryption key that corresponds to the new media piece. Figure 2 shows the Grimen
et al. proposed architecture. The details of the process of receiving the decryption key for each trust interval
(as proposed by Grimen et al. [Grimen-DRM2]) are as follows:
The VS generates a random unpredictable transport key.
The MG executes and determines the integrity checksum of the VS along with the MG itself.
The integrity checksum is determined by computing a one-way hash function across the VS
instructions, the MG instructions, MGs public key and the generated transport key. See Figure 5.
The VS encrypts the transport key with the SS public key.
The VS sends the encrypted transport key to the SS along with the integrity checksum.
The SS verifies the checksum. Since the SS can extract the transport key, and since it knows the VS
instructions, the MG instructions, MGs public key and the generated transport key, the SS can then generate
67
the checksum. The SS verifies the calculated checksum against the received checksum. If the verification is
successful, the SS encrypts the corresponding trust interval's media key with the transport key and sends it to
the VS.
The VS now can decrypt the corresponding piece of the EEMD. See Figure 3.

Figure 2. Grimen et al. proposed systemarchitecture [Grimen-DRM2].

Figure 3. Key exchange protocol [Grimen-DRM2].
We analyzed the presented protocol and found two security attacks. The first attack happens because
there is nothing that can prevent the software attacker from forwarding the MG to another VS, and then the
forwarded MG produces a new transport key and sends that key to the SS. There is nothing to tell the SS that
the MG is a copy, not the original. In this case the server will respond with the media key encrypted with the
new generated transport key provided by the pirated MG. Another attack appears because the generation of
the transport key is done by the VS, because the VS executable file is stored in the client environment. Thus
the client has the chance to statically or dynamically analyze the code and learn the memory address of the
transport key.
The main problem with this key exchange protocol comes from the fact that there is nothing to distinguish
any instances of MG. All of them have the same features and no individualization technique has been
attached to them. The secondary problem is due to the fact that the client has enough time to statically or
dynamically analyze the VS. One way to prevent the previous attacks is to individualize the MG for each
client and to store the transport key in an unpredictable place. In the next Section we will discuss how to
achieve both goals.
3. ATTACK ANALYSIS
Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) is a tool used for formal
modeling and analyzing of Internet security protocols. The model is specified in high level protocol
specification language (HLPSL), which represents the message exchanged between participants. Those
participants represent roles that send messages and receive messages, these messages may contain the
necessary keys needed to establish secure sessions and convey authentication actions between roles
[AVISPA-Manual]. We translated the Grimen et al. key exchange proposal into the following messages:
1- MG ->S: {Nm|Tki|MG}_Ks | hash(MG|VS|Nm|Tki)
Where MG: The identity of the mobile guard
S: The identity of the security server
Nm: nonce generated by MG for authentication purposes.
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Tki: transport key for session i, a generated symmetric key randomly generated by MG, used to transport
the media key for the ith trust interval session.
Hash: one way hash function.
Ks: public key for S.
VS: is the instructions of the viewer software along with MGs instructions, see Figure 5.
|: concatenation.
2- S->MG: {Nm|Ns|S}_Km
Where Km: public key for MG.
3- MG->S: {Ns|MG}_Ks
4- S->MG: {Mki|S}_Tki
Where Mki: media key for the trust interval ith session.
Figure 4 depicts the protocol exchanged between the two roles.

Figure 4. Protocol Simulation. Figure 5. Input of hash function calculation [Grimen-DRM2].

Figure 6. Attack trace for key exchange protocol proposed by Grimen et al.
We translated the previous message exchanges into HLPSL and simulated the attack. Figure 6 shows the
attack simulation. i represents the intruder entity who is trying to gain access to the media key for all
sessions. An intruder is a forwarded MG, i.e., an illegal copy of MG, who knows MGs public key.
The first message shows that the intruder generates a transport key and a new nonce, and encrypts them
with SSs public key. Then, the intruder generates a checksum that is a result of applying code instructions
into a hash function, these instructions are: fixed parts of the binary code of the VS and MG, transport key
and nonce. Then the intruder sends the result to SS. SS extracts the transport key and nonce, and then
calculates the checksum code, since the VS has all inputs for the hash function, and then compare the result
with received information. Upon successful verification, the SS creates a nonce and then sends the SSs
nonce along with MGs nonce all encrypted with MGs public key. The intruder who has the MGs public
key can extract the SSs nonce and then encrypt it with SSs public key and then send it to SS. The SS
believes that he is talking to a legal MG, and then encrypts the media key for ith session with the transport
key. This leads to an attack since the intruder can extract that media key. We assume that forwarding the
Mobile Guard to an illegal user is a DRM attack, which means that the illegal user uses indirectly the MG
public key or at least the pirated MG can decrypt any messages that have been encrypted with MG's public
key.
The problem with the Grimen et al. solution is that generating a new transport key from any MG instance
does not correspond to the validity of any MG instance, thus any message from a pirated MG is accepted. A
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solution to prevent the previous attack is to give the ability for the SS to distinguish each MG instance. We
can achieve this distinction by individualizing all legal MG copies.
4. INDIVIDUALIZATION PROCESS
Apple's DRM solution used three keys to protect its products: master key, repository key and client key. The
product media is encrypted with the master key, the master key is encrypted with the client key, and the
encrypted master key is attached to the protected content. When the user asks for a license to use the product
media, the server that locally stores the client key sends the requesting user a license that includes the client
key encrypted with the repository key. The application that presents the product media at the client side has
the repository key and is attached with a secret algorithm embedded in the presentation software. The
protection mechanism is dependent on keeping the secret algorithm hidden from the user. Each user has a
distinct client key and repository, which simplifies the license individualization process. The client key is
randomly created by the server and saved in the server's database for further use. The repository key is
calculated from serial number of the first hard disk, BIOS version, CPU name and windows ID, which is
assumed to be unique [Grimen-DRM1].
In the Microsoft DRM solution the product media are encrypted with a content key and the content key is
encrypted with client keys. When the user asks for a license to use the product media, the license server sends
the license that contains the encrypted content key to the user. In the client side, there is a blackbox file that
contains the client key. Each client has an individualized blackbox, which means each instance of a blackbox
can only work for a specific machine. The protection mechanism relies on keeping the blackbox hidden from
the user access, which simplifies license individualization process [Grimen-DRM1].
OMA DRM standard encrypts the product media with a content encryption key (CEK), the CEK is
encrypted with a DRM agents public key and then inserted into a right object (RO). This process
cryptography binds an RO into DRM agent. Each DRM agent has a unique public and private user key; when
a DRM agent asks for right object to use a specific product, the server, who is responsible for creating right
objects, can obtain the DRM agent's public key, and create a unique right object for each DA that includes
the CEK key, which is encrypted with a DAs public key. Only the DA who has the corresponding private
key can use that RO and get the CEK [OMA-DRM2.1].
From the previous solutions we have two software solutions and one hardware solution for the end-user
individualization process. The case that we are working with needs to prevent an end user from forwarding
the MG to another user. To do this, we need to individualize each MG and make MG code not to work on
any other user. We suggest that the SS, which is responsible for generating an MG, needs to authenticate
each user and then embed a unique identity (Ticket) in the MG. The security server is going to accept only
one request for media decryption key from each legal MG instance per trust interval. Due to the fact that the
generation of transport key is unpredictable to both SS and user, the ticket value along with generated
transport key will be the unique identifier for each MG per trust interval. When the SS receives two requests
for the same MG that have the same ticket and a different transport key, the second key request will not
receive any response. This will prevent a pirated MG instance from successfully attacking the business model
previously discussed. Here is the modified protocol:
1- MG ->S: _{Nm|Tki|MG|Ticket}_Ks}_Km | hash(MG|VS|Nm|Tki|Ticket)
2- S->MG: {Nm|Ns|S}_Km
3- MG->S: {Ns|MG}_Ks
4- S->MG: {Mki|S}_Tki
Where Km here is a symmetric shared key between the MG and the SS, and the Ticket is the unique value
for each generated MG.
Before SS delivers an MG to a valid VS, it embeds a symmetric key Km into the generated MG. If a
legitimate user receives a valid MG, and then forwards that received MG to his friend, both MGs will have
the same identity (ticket). Each MG is going to run and generate a unique transport key at the client host; this
makes a checksum calculation unique since the transport key is one of the hash function inputs. We will call
the result of the hash function a checksum. When both MGs send the first message, which contains: nonce,
random generated transport key, mobile guard identity and ticket all encrypted with the SSs public key and
then again encrypted with shared key (Ks), the second part of the massage is the checksum. The SS can
extract the ticket value and the transport key and use them to calculate the checksum. The SS compares the
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received checksum with the one it calculates, if both match then the MG has sent correct information. The SS
checks the ticket value, if it receives it for the first time, then the MG is legal, so it will respond with the
second message. If it receives the ticket for the second time, and if the checksum is the same, then it can
safely reply to the second message, assuming that its previous response was lost in the network. If the SS
receives the same ticket with a different checksum, this means that illegal MG sends the second request, in
this case the SS will not reply to the request. The second message contains a generated nonce from the SS
side, MGs nonce and the SS identity all encrypted with the shared key Km. The third message is from the
MG side and contains: SSs nonce and MGs identity all encrypted with SSs public key. Now the SS and
MG are mutually authenticated, the forth message is from SS side and contains the media key for the ith
session and the SSs identity all encrypted with the transport key for ith session.
To prevent the software hacker from discovering the transport key in the VS space by using static or
dynamic analysis, the MG needs to create a random Transport Key and store it in a random place in the VS,
or keep it in MG space; the VS should implement a way to call the transport key generation from the plug-in
MG instance. This will prevent the end user from knowing the location of the transport key for a short time.

Figure 7. Message exchange for revised protocol.
In the solution we provide, the SS only accepts the first media key request for each unique ticket, and
rejects any subsequent request for the same ticket with different checksum. Figure 7 shows the protocol
simulation. We ran the new protocol on AVISPA and did not find any attack. We therefore believe that our
protocol is correct and helps the SS to authenticate valid instances of MG.
5. CONCLUSION
Software based protection is a promising solution for CP to deploy especially when the clients are general
purpose computers or laptops. We studied the software based solution introduced by Grimen et al. to protect
any content media at a client machine. We found two attacks, one in the key exchange protocol and the other
in their architecture design. We used AVISPA to simulate the attack for first flow. We proposed a modified
protocol that removes the first attack, and changed a little bit in the architecture design to remove the second
attack. We demonstrated its correctness using AVISPA.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Malek Barhoush acknowledges the support of Concordia University and of Yarmouk University.
J . William Atwood acknowledges the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
of Canada, through its Discovery Grants program.

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REFERENCES
[AVISPA-Manual] 2006. Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications-AVISPA v1.1 User
Manual Document Version: 1.1. http://www.avispa-project.org/package/user-manual.pdf.
[Bar-El] Hagai Bar-El, 2005. Challenges of Standardizing Renewable Broadcast Security, White paper,
www.hbarel.com/publications/Challenges_of_Standardizing_Renewable_Broadcast_Security.pdf
[Grimen-DRM1] Gisle Grimen et al., 2006. Building Secure Software-based DRM systems, NIK-2006 conference,
http://www.nik.no/.
[Grimen-DRM2] Gisle Grimen et al., 2005, Software-based copy protection for temporal media during dissemination and
playback. In the 8
th
international conference on Information Security and Cryptology - ICISC 2005. Springer-Verlag,
Berlin Heidelberg, volume 3935 of LCNS, pp 62-377.
[J onker-CoreSec] H.L. J onker and S. Mauw, 2007. Core Security Requirements of DRM Systems, Digital Rights
Management -- An Introduction. ICFAI University Press, pp 73-90.
[Maa-Framework] Antonio Maa et al., 2004. A framework for secure execution of software. In International Journal
of Information Security, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg. pp 99-112.
[MPEG-4_IPMP] Ming J i, SM Shen and Wenjun Zeng, 2004. MPEG-4 IPMP Extension- For Interoperable Protection of
Multimedia Content, EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing, Special Issue on Multimedia Security and
Rights Management, pp. 2201-2213.
[MPEG-4_IPMP-2] MPEG-4 IPMP Extension, Frequently Asked question, http://mpeg.chiariglione.org/faq/mp4-sys/sys-
faq-ipmp-x.htm.
[MPEG_Eval] HweeHwa Pang and Yongdong Wu, 2005. Evaluation of MPEG-4 IPMP extension, Acoustics, Speech,
and Signal Processing,. Proceedings. (ICASSP '05). IEEE International Conference, vol.2, no., pp. 18-23.
[Ntzel-DRM] J rgen Ntzel and Anja Beyer, 2006. How to Increase the Security of Digital Rights Management
Systems Without Affecting Consumer's Security, ETRICS 2006, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, LNCS 3995, pp.
368 - 380.
[OMA-DRM2.1] OMA, 2008. DRM Architecture Approved Version 2.1 14 Oct 2008, pp 1-28.
http://www.openmobilealliance.org/technical/release_program/docs/DRM/V2_1-20081106-A/OMA-AD-DRM-
V2_1-20081014-A.pdf
[Req-DRM] Barhoush, Malek and Atwood, J, 2010. Requirements for enforcing digital rights management in multicast
content distribution, Telecommunication Systems, Springer Netherlands, volume 45, pp 3-20.
[Stamp_digital] Mark Stamp, 2003, Stamp: Digital Rights Management: The Technology Behind The Hype, Journal of
Electronic Commerce Research, VOL. 4, NO. 3, pp 102-112.
[WWW-FairPlay] sdebswrbh, FairPlay, In Art & Entertainment, http://articleleader.info/fairplay/, Accessed Sep 24,
2010.
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HOTLINK VISUALIZER: ADDING HOTLINKS ON THE
SPOT VISUALIZING THE OUTCOME
Gregory Triantafillidis and John Garofalakis
University of Patras, Computer Engineering and Informatics Department
26500, Patras, Greece
ABSTRACT
Hotlink assignment is a constantly growing field of research addressing the problem of low information access rates in
the World Wide Web. In this paper we attempt a more practical approach to the problem, by proposing an administrative
tool, the HotLink Visualizer, which implements hotlink additions to stored instances of the web site in question, in a
user friendly way. Our tool obtains and stores all the necessary information concerning the web sites connectivity using
a modified and specially configured web crawler. The outcome is a series of stored web site instances, produced by
applying different sets of hotlinks (generated by specific hotlink assignment algorithms) to the initially stored instance,
which can be edited and visualized by the user. HotLink Visualizer aims to bridge the gap between the several
theoretical hotlink assignment methods proposed by researchers and the need to put their results into use.
KEYWORDS
Hotlinks Assignment, Software Tools, Algorithms.
1. INTRODUCTION
The World Wide Web has become established as the most popular source of information retrieval. As
expected, the older it gets the more information it contains and thus the number of the web sites with gigantic
growth and bad information access rates are constantly increased within it. The efforts to optimize these
access rates are continuous and towards those, several fields of research have developed, such as the
improvement of web design, clustering and caching. Obviously, although a web site is only a cell of the
World Wide Web, a well designed and organized site contributes to the improvement of the information
access rates in the web. Good structure for a web site means less traffic on the Internet, as the user gets the
piece of information required without wandering unnecessarily in it. Furthermore, a properly organized site
constitutes a more appealing choice for the users.
During the last years the matter is being addressed with the development of several hotlink assignment
algorithms for web sites. The idea behind those algorithms is to spot the most popular or more likely to be
accessed data and provide better access to it by assigning additional links (hotlinks) pointing to the web
pages containing it. These algorithms are not applied to the actual representations of these web sites but
usually to their corresponding direct acyclic graphs (DAGs) or to other even more strict structures. However,
it is widely known that a web site in its true form is not a DAG, since there can be found many links pointing
to just one page, thus forming circles and repeated nodes within the graph. Hence, there is a gap between the
theoretical determination of a set of hotlinks and the actual application of this set to a real web site.
In this paper we first address the issue of acquiring and storing the exact map of a web site with its full
connectivity, which can be considered as a first step towards the assignment of hotlinks in real web sites. By
storing we mean keeping an offline, viewable and -for our purposes- editable instance of the web sites
map. To do so, we first clarify theoretically what a web sites map with the complete connectivity
information should be and we determine the subsequent prerequisites that our crawler must have. We then
proceed with the appropriate specification and modification of an existing web crawler, with functionality
suited to our specific needs. Finally we propose an administrative tool, the Hotlink Visualizer, which, after
storing in tabular data all the necessary information to capture a web sites real map, it visualizes the outcome
and implements hotlink additions by adding with an automated procedure the generated hotlinks in the web
73
pages of the site. Thus we have the ability to maintain in row data, different forms and versions of the
originally parsed web site, as they can be formed from the assignment of different hotlink sets to the original
site. Our tool aims at being user friendly from a web masters point of view and oriented towards the easy
optimization of the web sites information access rates.
2. RELATED WORK
Related work in this field of research includes algorithmic methods for hotlink assignment and tools that aim
to improve the design and the information access rate of a web site. Also all relative research that is oriented
towards a practical implementation of its results.
Garofalakis, Kapos and Mourloukos put forward an interesting proposal in [1], where an algorithm for
reorganizing the link structure of a web site was presented. The algorithm was based on data extracted from
the log files. The main criterion was the page popularity extracted by the pages depth and hit count. The
study assumed a binary tree structure for the site. However, in spite of the strict representation, there was
consideration for reentering the links initially removed in order to achieve the binary tree structure, thus
minimizing the loss of information of the sites link structure.
Miguel Vargas Martin in [5], presented metrics, detailed methods and algorithms targeting the Hotlink
Assignment problem. He targeted different aspects of the problem and provided measurements solidifying his
results. He also provided the NP-completeness proof of the Hotlink Assignment problem.
In [9], D. Antoniou et al, presented the hotlink assignment problem in a context-similarity based manner.
They proposed a direct acyclic graph model for the studied site, new metrics and an algorithm for the
process. Their context similarity approach takes interest in avoiding misplacement of the hotlinks.
In the field of web site optimization tools, Garofalakis, Giannakoudi and Sakkopoulos presented some
work in [3]. They noticed that there are no integrated tools presented for web site semantic log analysis that
could be delivered as end-user applications to help the web site administrator, so they proposed and
implemented a new information acquisition system that aims to enhance and ease log analysis by use of
semantic knowledge. Their tool takes into consideration both the site content semantics and the web site page
visits. It also extracts information about the user preferences and in general can be considered as a valuable
application for the administrators decision-making about the web site reorganization.
However, apart from the work mentioned above, in general it is fair to say that researchers have put more
effort in specifying and theoretically proving their web site optimization proposals, as opposed to putting
them more into use and making them accessible to the end user.
3. A LINK ORIENTED CRAWLER
3.1 The Notion of a Link Oriented Crawler
Crawlers are software that traverse the Web automatically, access and download pages mainly for use in
search engines. In general, a web crawler takes as input a list of URLs. Then it downloads the web content
that the URLs point to and by discovering new URLs the procedure continues retroactively [7]. In our case
we implemented a web site crawler. The obvious difference is that a web site crawler takes as an input one
URL, the home page. During the crawling procedure, every new URL discovered is compared to that base
URL and the crawler adds it to its queue only if the base URL is part of the new URL. Apart from this
difference, a web site crawler doesnt need to be built around the need to download and process huge amount
of data, or keep the gathered content fresh, by revisiting the web sites. Such issues concern web crawlers that
are built around the notion of the node - web page and in our research are not taken into consideration.
Our main goal is to acquire all the information of the sites link structure. Thus we are not concerned with
the content of each web page. In other words we want to obtain the real map of the web site and store it in a
suitable formation, in order to perform hotlink additions on it. This provides us with a totally different
context in terms of choosing a crawler to work with and configuring its algorithm and overall operation.
Firstly, we need to clarify what we mean by real map. The first step in every research proposal for
hotlink assignment is to come up with a model for the web sites representation. According to the
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researchers goals, a web site is usually represented as a full binary tree, a direct acyclic graph, or as some
other restrictive structure. It is common ground that most of the link structure information is lost in that first
step and whats more, it is never retrieved. So to say we have extracted and stored the real map of a web
site, it means we make sure that no possible link will be passed over by the crawling process and all possible
pairs of {father node, child node} will be recorded.
With this last concession alone, it becomes transparent that we build the algorithm of our crawler around
the notion of the link between two nodes web pages of the site, contrary to what applies to most -web page
oriented- crawlers. Or as we said before, we implement a link oriented, web site crawler.
3.2 The Notion of a Link Oriented Crawler
Our specific crawling needs as described above, infer several other matters that we need to consider in
specifying the crawling algorithm. Firstly, it is common ground that in actual web sites, a user can be lead to
a web page from more than one parent pages. It is important however for our study to be able to record the
distance of each web page from the root, because this information will provide a measure of the access cost
of the page, which can be exploited later on. In particular we take special interest in identifying the first
appearance of a web page, which is the page with the minimum depth from the root. Recording this
information means that our crawling algorithm must be able to identify that first appearance, process it in a
different manner and of course store that information. To succeed in that, we request that our crawler follows
breadth first search. The reason is better depicted in the two following figures. In the first we see how the
web site would be traversed by a depth first algorithm and in the second by a breadth first algorithm.

Figure 1. a) Depth first. The numbers next to the nodes depict the order in which the crawler visits the nodes. In this tree-
like representation we see that each page occurs more than once, since in real sites each page can emerge from many
different parents. With depth first search, Node E would first occur at a depth of d=2.
b) Breadth first. This time node E is rightly recorded as having its first appearance with depth: d=1.
In the case of recording the web sites real map, the mistake described above would be significant. For
instance, if we miscalculate the depth of the first appearance of a web page, this would result in the
miscalculation of all depths of its children pages and so on. In the end we would not be able to regenerate the
correct map from the stored data. We could seek the first appearance of a web page by just looking for the
minimum depth (since the depth is retrieved anyway). However we want to store all the appearances of a web
page in the site and also store them in the order that they actually occur. The downloading and parsing of the
page is performed only once and only in its first appearance (the following appearances are simply recorded).
So the correct determination of that first appearance is a necessary step for the correct mapping of the site.
Since we need to know all the transitions between the nodes of the site, we must record all possible
parents that a child node can occur from. This means that crawling only once for each page-node is not
enough. When a common crawler opens a new page, it looks for links. If those links have already been
found, or lead to pages that have already been crawled, they are ignored since they are treated as old pages
that have no new information to provide. In our case however we record the link structure and are not
interested in storing the content of the pages. Consequently, our crawler does not ignore links that lead to
pages that have already been traversed. Instead we check if those links occur for the first time, considering of
course the current father node. In other words, if the current pair {father_node, child_node} occurs for the
first time, this to us is new information and therefore needs to be recorded. For instance, consider the case
that while the crawler parses a page A, finds a link to a page B that has not appeared before. Page B, will be
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added to the queue for future expansion. Later when the crawler parses another page C, finds again a link to
page B. We dont ignore this link. We record its appearance as new information for the sites link structure.
However we do not send again page B to the queue for downloading and expansion. The following table
sums up how we deal with all possible cases.
Table 1. The behavior of the crawler depending on the found links
During page parsing: Check Action
Found link to new
page
-
Submit new page to
queue
Record link
Found link to an
already queued or
parsed page

Check if the link:
{father_node, child_node}
is unique
Record link if yes
Ignore link if no
Found other links, not
considered as proper
links (files etc.), or
disallowed by web
master
- Ignore link

There were several other issues concerning the crawling algorithm that we had to deal with. We provided
flexibility regarding the ability of the web master to block certain types of files or even whole directories of
his site from the crawling process. Consider for example the case where a web site supports more than one
language. Some of those sites implement multilingual services by repeating the whole site with the same
structure, under another directory (www.website.com/index.html - .website.com/gr/index.html). Such a design
would be mapped by our crawler as repeating the whole link structure one level below the home page, since
the URLs of the pages would appear different for each language and normally the links would not be
identified as already parsed. Cases like the following example would need to be treated specially. We provide
such options for the web masters.
Table 2. Data Retrieved by the Crawler
URL The URL of the link currently parsed.
Father URL The URL of the father node
Title The title of the web page as retrieved from the <title> tag.
Depth The minimum number of steps required to get to this page from the homepage.
Page file The filename of the webpage in the server.
Parent code The html code of the link that lead to this page. Useful for automatic hotlink application.
Directory URL The URL of the pages parent directory in the web server.
Appearance The order of appearance of this specific page, contrast to the appearance of the same page
from other father pages. The greatest Appearance of each page, equals to the number of
different parent pages this page can occur from.
In other equally important issues, we only allow one thread to undertake the crawling, in synchronous
mode, since we noticed rare but existing anomalies in the sequence of the parsed pages when operating in
multi threading mode. Also there was a lot to consider due to the embedment of the crawler to a web
environment in terms of usability and security concerns. In addition, the crawling algorithm underwent
several changes in order to support our need to store several extra data during the crawl. In two different,
intervened stages of the crawling process we collect for each page the data shown in table 2. Finally some
more interventions were made, concerning the parsing of the pages, pages pointing to themselves, URL
normalization and the storing of the collected information in the database.
3.3 Configuring the WebSPHINX Crawler
All the specifications and needs previously described constitute a very different web crawler. Obviously we
needed to start our work on a highly dynamic and configurable machine. The link oriented character
combined with the web environment in which the crawler is embedded, led us to choose a light weight, java
?
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web crawler named WebSPHINX (Website-Specific Processors for HTML INformation eXtraction) [6]. Java
through its object oriented nature provided us with the perfect base for altering the functionality of the
crawling algorithm as needed. The fact that WebSPHINX is designed for crawling small parts of the web, is
not a problem since our targets are web sites. With careful memory handling, we managed to increase the
crawl capacity up to a few tenths of thousands of pages which is more than enough for our needs.
As aforementioned, our main effort was to make the crawler operate around the notion of the link instead
of the web page - node. In figure 3, we see a small flow chart depicting how our crawler handles the links as
they occur during the parsing of a web page. Notice that each time a link pointing to an already found page
occurs, we increment a counter and attach it to that link. This way we store in the correct order and count all
the appearances of each page. The use of this information will become apparent later on when we present the
Hotlink Visualizer tool. After we check whether the link points to a valid page according to the web
masters criteria, we proceed as described in the first table.

Figure 3. Flowchart that shows the handling of each new link found in a currently parsed page by the crawler.
4. EXPERIMENTS VERIFYING THE CRAWLERS FUNCTIONALITY
The crawlers functionality underwent testing both with dummy web sites in the lab and with real, large web
sites on the web. Testing with dummy sites provided answers for targeted algorithmic and functionality
issues and was continuous throughout the specification and development phase. Testing with real web sites
provided feedback concerning size, data storage and memory handling issues and also concluded the
crawlers algorithmic tenability. We also tested with all possible forms of links.
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Figure 4. A dummy web site on the left and the link-structure information that our crawler extracts for it.
(N: Page-node, Fn: Father page-node, D: Depth, #: Counter and order of nodes appearance)
5. THE WEB MASTER TOOL HOTLINK VISUALIZER
In this section we describe the proposed web, administrative tool Hotlink Visualizer. In short, it is a web
based tool that embeds the crawler described previously and stores in a database all the web sites
connectivity information. It provides a visual representation of the sites structure in a tree-like (expand-
collapse) formation. After storing this map, it gives to the user the ability to add hotlinks to the sites map
with an automated procedure then visualize the outcome and finally make permanent the changes of the link
structure to the site. The option of maintaining different versions of the web sites map is also available. Our
proposed tool guides the user in a step by step process to optimize his site as he or she sees best.
The tool is programmed in Java/JSP which ensures better interoperability with our java crawler,
flexibility and greater functionality in the web context of our study. It is supported by an Oracle 10g Express
Edition database for the data storage, which provides adequate database capacity and scalability when
working with large amount of data. The web server used is an Apache Tomcat 6.0.

Figure 5. The Hotlink Visualizer tool. The web crawlers page for initiating new crawling processes.
The home page of the tool welcomes the user and asks whether he or she would like to start a new crawl,
or work on an already stored instance of the web site of interest. The user beforehand has specified some
information concerning his file system. The paths of the web server and the web applications source files are
required in order to enable the automated hotlink addition. Additional editing paths for the web applications
source code can be specified. In case the user opts for a new crawl, he or she will fill in some information and
N Fn D #
1 A 0 1
2 B A 1 1
3 C A 1 1
4 A B 2 2
5 A C 2 3
6 D C 2 1
7 A D 3 4
8 B D 3 3
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proceed to the next screen that can be seen in figure 5. Here we embed in an applet form the web site crawler
described earlier. The crawler is simplified to the basics however the user still has a number Advanced
options. All the adjustments necessary are set by default, thus all the user has to do is to provide the starting
URL of the web site. Instructions are provided in case the user wants to eliminate parts of his site from the
crawl, or specify unwanted pages or files. The crawler by default looks for pages within the server and only
under the specified homepage. The user during the crawl can see real time statistics for the ongoing crawl.
After the crawling is finished the data is stored to the database and the user can move on to the next step.
The user can get to this next intermediate page of the Available Crawls also from the homepage, if he or
she selects to work on an existing crawl. From this page the web master can see a table containing
information for all the web site instances stored during previous sessions and can also edit basic, descriptive
information about these instances or delete them completely. Whats important is to select from this page the
crawl to work with (from hereon referred to as active crawl), by clicking on the corresponding radio button.
This action activates a specific web site - instance and allows the user to begin interacting with it. A new,
relevant sub menu appears on the right part of the tool titled: Active Crawl: crawl_name, with two options
specific for the selected active crawl. The first option reads Visualize and the second Hotlinks Home.

Figure 6. A small part of a tree-like representation of a dummy web site, crawled by our tool.
By clicking the Visualize link the user progresses to the web sites map visualization page. The
connectivity data stored by the crawler is properly fetched and a tree-like structure is created, depicting the
web site. At first only the home page appears awaiting the expansion, by clicking on the corresponding +
button. Each page, if it has children, can be expanded or collapsed. Some of the web pages-nodes depending
on whether they are hotlinks or whether they belong to the sites direct acyclic graph (consisted of all of the
first appearances of each page) can have appropriate symbols accompanying them. In figure 6 we can see a
small part of a web sites map as generated by our tool. Each page is shown in the sites map is by its <title>
tag, as it is retrieved during the parsing phase. If the title for any reason in not successfully retrieved, the
complete URL is shown instead. The title or URL shown is a physical link to the web page that opens in a
new tab or browser, in order for the user to have immediate views of each page. By clicking on the arrow
next to the title or link of the page, the user is transferred to the Node Details page. The index in figure 6
explains the icons that can be seen in a sites map.
In the detailed page of each link-node the web master can view a full connectivity status concerning the
specific page. Apart from the standard information retrieved during the crawl, such as the URL, depth etc. the
web master can see by a click of a corresponding button a detailed table with all of the other appearances of
the node in the site, another table with all the possible father nodes and also all the children nodes. Finally
from this page the web master can initiate the procedure for a hotlink addition that has as a father page the
current node and as a target a page that he or she will specify next. The addition is completed with the help of
a new side menu that appears when the procedure begins and that guides the user through this quick process.
The Hotlinks Home page is one where the web master can view the hotlinks and their status that have
already been added for the active crawl and perform the automated addition of those already specified but not
yet physically added to the site. The automatic addition uses information about the physical path of the web
sites files in the web server that the user has already specified. The source code of the links that was
retrieved and stored during the crawl is also used in order to provide better formatted links. The links are
appended to the bottom of the father page and though this does not produce the desired result, it usually
simply requires the transfer of the link to the suitable place, thus making the completion of the changes that
the web master aims to be easy, fast and straightforward.
To better illustrate the functionality of the Hotlink Visualizer we present bellow the steps required for a
web master to acquire the exact map of a site, perform the optimizations that he sees best, make them
effective and also maintain the older image of the web site for his own reference and comparison purposes.
1. The user begins by acquiring the initial map of the web site. He does that by choosing to start a
new crawl and then using the embedded crawler as aforementioned.
ICON INDEX

: Pages 1
st
appearance (sites DAG)

: Hotlink added by the user

: View pages details
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2. The hotlink assignment procedure is repeated until all the desirable changes are completed.
3. From the Hotlinks Home page the web master automatically inserts those of the suggested
hotlinks approved. The user has the option to specify hotlinks just for visualization and
comparison without adding them. The transformation of the site is completed with this step.
4. Now the user can duplicate the stored instance of his site either automatically or by repeating
step 1 (crawl the altered site and acquire the sites map with the hotlink additions).
5. Finally the web master can activate the first crawl and delete the hotlinks added in step 2.
The above procedure will leave the user with both the new and old versions of the web site. Of course
only the last version exists live on the server. By following the same steps the web master can enrich the
instances-versions of his web site that are stored by Hotlink Visualizer thus providing an archive of site
versions which he or she will be able to edit, compare and apply at any time.
6. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
In this paper we attempted an approach on the hotlink assignment problem from a more practical perspective.
We proposed a new administrative tool that aims to help the user exploit this field of research which being so
important, remains relatively unapplied.
The Hotlink Visualizer leaves numerous options open for expansion and future research. First of all, as a
tool oriented towards the World Wide Web, its specifications must constantly evolve accordingly in order to
avoid any limitations in its use. An interesting prospect for future expansion is the crawling in the hidden
parts of the site or the deep Web as discussed in [8]. The potential of embedding invisible crawl functionality
in a web, administrative tool such as the Hotlink Visualizer would broaden massively its perspective and
generality of use. Strictly from a usability point of view, there could be additions, statistic enhancements and
optimizations, depending on the use and acceptance of the tool and of course the feedback. There are already
ideas for a more unambiguous grouping of each crawls hotlinks. What is even more exciting as a prospect
though is to develop a library of hotlink assignment algorithms, suitably specified as to be applicable to the
model of the web site instances that are acquired by our crawler. Research in this direction would require
considerable effort in embedding other hotlink assignment methods in such a library, but will provide the
community with a complete hotlink assignment tool that could be a frame of reference for future web site
optimization research attempts.
REFERENCES
1. John Garofalakis, Panagiotis Kappos and Dimitris Mourloukos, 1999. Web Site Optimization Using Page Popularity.
IEEE Internet Computing, July-August 1999.
2. John Garofalakis, Panagiotis Kappos and Christos Makris, 2002. Improving the performance of Web access by
bridging global ranking with local page popularity metrics. Internet Research Westport then Bradford, volume 12,
part 1, pp. 43-54.
3. John Garofalakis, Theodoula Giannakoudi, Evangelos Sakkopoulos, 2007. An Integrated Technique for Web Site
Usage Semantic Analysis: The ORGAN System, Journal of Web Engineering, (JWE), Rinton Press, Vol. 6, No 3, pp.
261-280.
4. Fuhrmann S., Krumke S.O., Wirth H.C., 2001. Multiple hotlink assignment. Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh
International Workshop on Graph- Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science.
5. Miguel Vargas Martin, 2002. Enhancing Hyperlink Structure for Improving Web Performance, PhD thesis, Charleton
University.
6. The WebSPHINX crawler main site: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rcm/websphinx. Carnegie Mellon University.
7. Junghoo Cho and Hector Garcia-Molina, 2002. Parallel crawlers. In Proceedings of the eleventh international
conference on World Wide Web, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, pp 124135. ACM Press.
8. He, Bin et al, 2007. Accessing the Deep Web: A Survey. Communications of the ACM (CACM) 50, pp 94101.
9. D. Antoniou et al, 2009. Context-similarity based hotlinks assignment: Model, metrics and algorithm. In press for
journal Data & Knowledge Engineering.
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CRITICAL FACTORS IN ELECTRONIC LIBRARY
ACCEPTANCE: EMPIRICAL VALIDATION OF
NATIONALITY BASED UTAUT USING SEM
Rita Oluchi Orji*, Yasemin Yardimci Cetin** and Sevgi Ozkan**
*Computer Science Department, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
**Informatics Institute, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
ABSTRACT
While millions of dollars are spent building digital libraries, research findings indicate that millions of potential users
may still be ignoring them. Researchers have applied different Technology Acceptance Models to determine the
acceptance of Information System (IS). In this research, we recognized the existence of different groups of users of
Electronic Library System (ELS) with different usage behavior and, therefore, developed and validated a Nationality
based Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (NUTAUT) model adapted from UTAUT model to account
for each group of users acceptance. Nationality was introduced based on the assumption that the UTAUT independent
variables will impact the acceptance and usage differently when moderated by nationality. The result from 116 (58
international and 58 national) student participants provides support for NUTAUT by showing that the various UTAUT
constructs exert varying degree of effects. It not only confirms the NUTAUT robustness in predicting acceptance of both
National and International Students (91% and 98% respectively) but also determines the importance of each independent
construct to each group in determining acceptance. Performance Expectancy (EE) and Social Influence (SI) are
significant factors for International students while Effort Expectancy (EE) and Facilitating Conditions (FC) have the
same effect for the two groups. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used as the main technique for data analysis.
This study is useful to school managers, bank managers and other Information Science designers that make decision
about IS that are used by people of different nationalities. The NUTAUT model can also be applied in cross-cultural
acceptance and so we provide more insight into the understanding of Technology Acceptance through this study.
KEYWORDS
Digital Library, Information Retrieval, Technology Acceptance, Structural Equation Modeling
1. INTRODUCTION
Real world libraries are hard to use. Attempts to reduce the accessibility problems associated with real world
libraries led to the concept of Electronic Library Systems (ELS) (also referred to as, Digital Library). ELS
have become an inevitable part of todays educational systems. ELS aims to acquire, store, organize and
preserve information for easy access. Leedy [16] found that information seekers often need the assistance of
a librarian, especially when the catalogue and guides are difficult to use. In recognition of this, many attempts
have been made towards the establishment and improvement of the structure of a library to achieve both a
high degree of usefulness and easier access to information.
Consequently, many universities have digitized their library systems. However, while many resources
have been devoted to developing these systems, library researchers have observed that digital libraries remain
underutilized [28] and if these systems are not widely utilized, it will be difficult to obtain corresponding
return on investments. Therefore, there is a clear need to identify and compare factors that can influence ELS
acceptance and use by people from different nations so that information system designers, school managers,
library managers and others can formulate strategies to design systems that can be acceptable by all
(international and national). In this regard, Tibenderana and Patrick [23] found that relevance moderated by
awareness plays a major role in acceptance of ELS services. In addition, James et al [13] developed a model
of digital library user acceptance based on the technology acceptance model and concluded that acceptance is
preceded by a users perception of a systems usability and this is directly dependent on interface
81
characteristics, organizational contexts, and individual differences. However, no study has recognized the
existence of different group of users of ELS and the factors that affects the acceptance of each group.
In this paper, we argue that national and international users will exhibit different usage behaviors. We
thus, developed a NUTAUT Model to account for the moderating effect of nationality on the UTAUT model.
This was motivated by the observation that different groups of users (national and international students)
exhibit different use behavior towards ELS. Our research model not only predicts the varying degrees of
acceptance for each user groups but also shows the degree of importance of each independent construct
(Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE), Social Influence (SI), Facilitating Condition (FC))
in determining acceptance for each group. The study contributes significantly towards understanding of the
acceptance of ELS in academic environments and can also be useful to school managers, bank managers and
other IS designers that make decisions about IS that are used by people of different nationalities.
This paper is organized as follows: In Section 2, we discuss the theoretical background of the study and
present our NUTAUT model in Section 3. Section 4 highlights methods employed in our research and
Section 5 presents the analysis of the result and discussion. Section 6 concludes by presenting our findings
followed by limitations and recommendations for future work.
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK
2.1 Digital Library Systems
There have been significant advances in the technical development of digital libraries in areas such as
information storage, information retrieval, and system integration, resulting in dramatic improvements in
their performance. While many resources have been devoted to developing these systems, library researchers
have observed that ELS remain underutilized [28]. ELS have received a lot of attention from researchers.
Neuman [20] in her naturalistic inquiry detailed some of the difficulties 92 high school freshmen and
sophomore displayed as they interacted with ELS. Her data revealed the basic differences between structures
inherent in database and the conceptual structure that students bring to searching. These differences are so
compelling that they seriously hamper students independent use of these resources (p.74). The students lack
of understanding of the organization of information hampered their access of appropriate information for
their research. The study demonstrated that information search has not become easier with the advent of
technology.
2.2 Technology Acceptance Theories
It is a common belief that introducing a new technology automatically results in its acceptance and use.
However, several research findings dispute this claim, showing that there are several other factors that affect
technology acceptance and use [5]. Many IS researcher have published on various theories that could explain
the acceptance of information systems. These theories include the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by
Davis et al [7]; the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) by Fishbein and Ajzen [9]; the Theory of Planned
Behavior (TPB) by Ajzen, [1] and the UTAUT by Vakentash [26] which is the most recent of all the
technology acceptance theories. The TAM model is the most widely used and has perceived usefulness and
perceived ease of use as its main elements. The model suggests that when users are presented with
technology, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use influence their decisions about how and
when they will use the technology. The perceived usefulness is defined as the degree to which a person
believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance, while perceived ease of
use is defined as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of
effort [7].
Since the development of UTAUT model, it has attracted attention of many scholars in IS research
because of its predictive performance of 70% [26]. This is a major improvement over the widely used TAM
model with predictive capacity of 35% [18, 25]. Various researchers [2, 17] validated the model and others
[6, 12, 19, 23] extended it in different contexts, including multicultural studies [21], and all found its
constructs highly predictive [19]. This, in addition to the fact that the moderating variables offer flexibility to
allow the introduction of new dimensions into the model, was the major motivation for the use of UTAUT
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model in the current investigation. We approached the adoption and discovery of critical factors that affect
adoption of ELS from the perspective of technology acceptance.
3. MODEL FORMULATION
3.1 Nationality based UTAUT (NUTAUT)
NUTAUT was adapted from UTAUT by introducing a new modulating variable nationality. The definition
of the NUTAUT constructs is as given in Table 1 and Table 2 and the model is shown in Figure 1.
Nationality was introduced based on the assumption that the UTAUT independent variables PE, EE, SI and
FC will impact on behavior intention (BI) differently and BI with FC will also impact on use behavior (UB)
differently when moderated by nationality.
Table 1. NUTAUT Components
Determinant Description
Performance expectancy (PE) Degree to which an individual believes that using the system will help attain gains in job
performance
Effort expectancy (EE) The degree of ease associated with the use of the system
Social influence (SI) The degree to which an individual perceives that important others believe he or she should
use the new system
Facilitating conditions FC) The degree to which an individual believes that an organizational and technical
infrastructure exists to support use of the system
Behavioral Intention (BI) The measure of the likelihood of an individual to employ the system.
Use Behavior (UB) This measures the acceptance of the system.
Table 2. NUTAUT Moderators
Moderator Description
Gender Gender roles have a strong psychological basis and are enduring.
Age Age has an effect on attitudes.
Experience Deals with how long the user has used the system.
Voluntariness of use If usage is voluntary or mandated
Nationality Whether the user is in the national or international students category

3.2 Hypotheses
The expectations are that there are varying degrees of acceptance by international and national students. Four
hypotheses have been postulated to guide this study:

PE
Gender Experience Voluntariness Nationality
FC
SI
E
BI UB
Age
Figure 1. Nationality Based UTAUT (NUTAUT)
83
H1: UTAUT moderated by Nationality will demonstrate varying degrees of acceptance by these groups
H2: Social Influence will be an important predictor for international students when moderated by
nationality
H3: Facilitating Condition mediated by Nationality will demonstrate more effect on Use Behavior for
international students
H4: Effort Expectancy impacts behavioral intention more than performance expectancy when moderated
by nationality
4. METHODOLOGY
The data-gathering instrument used for this study was a self-administered online questionnaire. The
questionnaire was based on the pre-existing tool developed by Venkatesh [25] and has been used by
Anderson and Schwager [2], Moran [19], and Tibenderana & Ogao [23]. The research question was divided
into three sections. Section 1 contained 18 close questions which collected the participant demographic
information and their experience with computers and ELS. Section 2 contains a total of 21 questions about
ELS hardware and services provided by Middle East Technical University (METU) library. These questions
collected the students awareness of these facilities and services. The respondents chose either a Yes, No
or Not Sure answer in response to each ELS services and facilities indicated. Section 3 contained 25
questions with a 5-point Likert scale where a 1 represented strongly agree and a 5 represented strongly
disagree. There were a total of 116 participants: 58 International and 58 National graduate students.
Moreover, the number of male and female participants was fairly evenly distributed across the disciplines. A
pilot study was carried out on 10 participants to reassure absence of ambiguity in the questions.
5. RESULT ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
5.1 Validation of the Survey Instrument and Nutaut
The data analysis was done using SPSS and Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) structural equation
modeling tool. SPSS was adopted to conduct Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and to assess the
validity of the scale. The Cronbachs Alpha was calculated to examine the reliability of each factor. The
Alpha values of the questionnaire exceeded 0.8 (Table 3, column 4), demonstrating the good reliability.
Before conducting PCA, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett sphericity test was checked to measure for
the sampling adequacy [14]. The KMO were all >0.700 and the result of Bartlett sphericity test was
significant at <0.001 (Table 3, column 2 and 3). Thus data were suitable to conduct factor analysis [11]. The
factor loadings and the corresponding factor scores (weights) for each variable were generated. Each factor
has larger loading on its corresponding factor (>0.7) than cross-loadings on other factors (<0.4). Thus these
items could effectively reflect factors since they had good validity including convergent validity and
discriminant validity [10].
Structural Equation Model software LISREL was employed to estimate the path coefficients and to
validate and test model hypotheses. We used Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to test for the model
fitness on the data. The results show that the hypothesized model is recursive, uni-directional (Table 3 & 4).
Also as shown in the Figure 2 and 3, all the standardized loadings of items on their corresponding factor were
larger than 0.7, further proving good convergent validity [4]. The fit indices of the model are listed in Table 4
and Table 5. The tables list the recommended value and actual value of each fit index; the actual value was
better than the recommended value. Thus the model was a good fit to the data. Table 5 summarizes the
results of the t-test analysis which further confirms the validity of the models.

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Table 3. Construct validity and reliability measures

Table 4. Goodness-of-Fit Results of the LISREL models
GFI AGFI CFI NFI
Recommended >0.90 >0.80 >0.90 >0.90
International
0.951 0.851 0.946 0.950
National
0.935 0.901 0.995 0.943

(Note: x2/df the ratio between Chi-square and degrees of freedom, GFI is Goodness of Fit Index, AGFI is Adjusted Goodness of Fit
Index, CFI is Comparative Fit Index, NFI is Normed Fit Index, RMSEA is Root Mean Square Error of Approximation)
5.2 International versus National Students
The two groups result estimations using LISREL are shown in Figures 3 and 4 and the comparison of the
results from the two analyses is summarized in Table 6 and 7. The contributions of the various independent
construct PE, EE, FC and SI for both International and National students are shown in Table 7 column 2 and
3. It shows that FC condition is the most important predictor of acceptance for the two groups. The National
students model shows predictive efficiency of 25% and 73% for the dependent construct of behavioral intent
and use behavior (a total predictive capability of 91% for the dependent variable) and the International
students model shows predictive efficiency of 25% and 66% (a total predictive capability of 98% for the
dependent variable) as shown in Table 7. This means that the two groups accept ELS. This study reveals a
rich set of pattern and results. Due to space limitations, we will only highlight the most important points.

H1: UTAUT moderated by Nationality will demonstrate varying degree of Acceptance by these groups
This hypothesis is supported. There is a significant difference between international and national groups.
National students exhibit a use behavior of 73% and international students exhibit use behavior of 66%. This
shows that national students accept and use the library more than the international students. Though the two
groups demonstrate the same degree of behavioral intent, their results suggest that appropriate facilitating
Group Comparison KMO Bartlett
Sphericity
Cronbachs
Alpha
P-Value
2
/df
RAMSEA
Recommended >0.5 <0.05 0.7 <0.05 <3 0.08
International 0.758 000 0.879 0.00005 1.31 0.081
National 0.702 000 0.921 0.00007 1.45 0.069
Dependent
Variable
T-test P-Value
Behavioral
Intention
National 2.49 <0.001
International 3.20 <0.001
Use
Behavioral
National 4.37 <0.001
International 5.40 <0.001
Table 5. T Test and P Values for participant
groups
Figure 2. National students results estimate Figure 3. International students results estimate
85
condition and reduction in the amount of effort expectancy for ELS user enhances the acceptance and use of
technology. This agrees with the finding of Tibenderana & Ogao [23] that library end-users in the university
accept and use electronic library system. The difference in acceptance between the two is mostly attributed to
facilitating condition which is the most important construct for the two groups. A plausible explanation is
that the facilitating condition includes the generality of all the assistance and supports that foster usage rather
than just external controls related to the environment; therefore, use behavior cannot occur if objective
conditions in the environment prevent it [24] or if the facilitating conditions make the behavior difficult. This
is consistent with the empirical studies of Thompson et al [22] and others [25, 26] who found the direct effect
of facilitating condition on usage behavior. International students need to be provided with some additional
assistance which national students might require. This assistance includes training and librarian assistance,
especially at the early stages of their enrolment. This was explained by Neuman [20] statement which states
that there is a basic difference between structures inherent in ELS and conceptual structures that students
bring to searching: these differences are so compelling that they seriously hamper students. Most of the
national participants of this research also did their undergraduate degrees in the university and therefore have
working knowledge of the ELS.
Table 6. Comparison of national and international model contributions
Constructs International(N=58) National(N=58) No. of Questions
Asked
No. of Questions
Retained
PE 0.50 0.30 4 4
EE 0.52 0.52 6 5
SI 0.12 0.02 3 2
FC 0.78 0.76 6 2
BI 0.25 0.25 3 2
UB 3 2
Table 7. Comparison international student and national students models
Model Behavioral Intention Use Behavior Total
International 25% 66% 91%
National 25% 73% 98%

H2: Social Influence will be an important predictor for international students when moderated by
nationality
This hypothesis is also supported; social influence shows a more significant effect on behavioral intent for
international students than national students with a prediction of 12% and 2% respectively. This is expected
since international students are likely to move in groups and therefore are easily influenced to use this system
by people that matter to them in the environment. This can, to an extent, be likened to the effect of
facilitating condition; the groups function as a motivator and can provide necessary assistance especially for
those that are new to the system. Practically, the results of this study suggest that organizations should use
different strategies in motivating the use of a new technology for different situations/groups. For some
information systems whose usage is mandatory, those factors contributing to Social Influence such as the
instructors/supervisor's prodding might work. However, when the usage is voluntary, like the case of ELS,
the managers might want to think of better ways to promote usage. Though social influence is a factor for all
students but show stronger effect for international students, the effect is greatly reduced when moderated by
experience and training, and therefore should not be used as a strong motivator. This is consistent with
previous studies (e.g., Venkatesh & Davis [25]); the effect of SI to BI is significant under mandatory and
inexperienced use situations
H3: Facilitating condition mediated by Nationality will demonstrate more effect on Use behavior for
international students
This is only partially supported with 78% and 76% prediction for international and national students
respectively. This shows that irrespective of nationality, facilitating condition is still crucial. Our initial
assertion that facilitating condition will not be as important for national students owing to the availability of
alternatives including resources from friends and families seems to be wrong. This can possibly be explained
by the fact that the University invests considerable amount of resources to provide both online, offline and
remote access to the ELS, so international students as well as national students still exhibit use behavior on
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the ELS despite availability of alternatives. This is consistent with the empirical studies of Thompson et al
[22] who found the direct effect of facilitating condition on usage behavior
H4: Effort expectancy impacts on behavioral intention more than Performance expectancy when
moderated by nationality
This is partially supported by the model. EE contributed 52% compared to 30% of PE for national
students which support the hypothesis but there is no significant difference between the two for international
student with PE of 50% and EE of 52%. This means that for national students, acceptance is more dependent
on EE than PE, while international students attached similar degrees of importance to both. In other words
national students are unlikely to use the system if it is difficult to use even if it is useful. This can also be
explained by the fact that the availability of alternatives or competition generates a negative effect, affecting
perceived EE. The national students have other sources of getting materials for their research, more easily
than international students, and might not afford to spend a lot of time and energy searching through complex
ELS, while international students value both ease of use and useful systems alike. This could also mean that
in the absence of alternatives, PE becomes as important as EE. This agrees with Andrea and Virili [3]:
Technology acceptance is basically a choice among different alternative technologies/tools to accomplish
user tasks.
The results suggest that Nationality is a significant moderator that affects the acceptance of ELS and that
effect exerted by UTAUT constructs on individual group (international and national students) vary
considerably. Facilitating condition significantly influences the acceptance and use of ELS.
In general, the NUTAUT does predict the successful acceptance of ELS by graduate students. The
participants showed higher inclination to use ELS by showing higher percentage of use behavior. We believe
that this is a result of the role played by readily available access and easy to use library facility on-campus
compared to off-campus, since the majority of the participants stay on-campus and can easily and
conveniently access the ELS as compared to students living off-campus. To increase acceptance of ELS, this
research suggests that the universities working towards increasing acceptance of ELS should make
accessibility (facilitating conditions and effort expectancy) of the ELS to both outside and inside the campus
easy.
This study shows that the variables, facilitating condition, effort expectancy, performance expectancy and
social influence (listed in decreasing order of relevance), are the critical components that affect students
acceptance and use of ELS. However, these factors are shown to have varying effect on different groups. For
the two groups (international and national students), facilitating condition and effort expectancy remains the
most critical factors that contribute to acceptance, while performance expectancy and social influences were
fairly insignificant (30% and 2% respectively) for national graduate students.
Finally, though this research focused on the acceptance of ELS in educational institutions, the findings
can be applied to other context like in Government to Citizen (G2C) Systems or websites used for electronic
commerce. These findings can be applicable to any systems where the use and acceptance of the system may
differ by international and national users. The study has contributed to the development of NUTAUT and by
identified the critical factors, in order of importance, that affect acceptance when UTAUT is moderated by
nationality. We also showed that nationality is an important moderator that determines the factors affecting
acceptance.
In conclusion, for a successful implementation of ELS that will be accepted, more emphasis should be
placed on facilitating conditions and effort expectancy but at the same time, performance expectancy and
social influence should not be overlooked.
This research was carried out in a university environment and may not reflect ELS acceptance outside the
university environment, although we plan to validate NUTAUT elsewhere as future work. The number of
participants (116) may indeed be a limitation of this study, and so we want to conduct another study with a
larger number of participants and in another environment to confirm the results shown in this research.

87
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XLPATH: A XML LINKING PATH LANGUAGE
Paulo Caetano da Silva*, Marcelo Mendona dos Santos** and Valria Cesrio Times**
*Federal University of Pernambuco - Center for Informatics, PO BOX 7851, Brazil
**rea 1 Science and Technology Faculty, Salvador, Brazil
ABSTRACT
XLink are XML elements used for describing relationships and semantic information contained in valid XML documents.
Thus, the structure of XLink can be navigated and their components (arcs, locators, resources and title) can be retrieved
through a path language, like XPath. However, it was not specified to retrieve information from specific elements of
Xlink, which can contain semantic information. This paper proposes XLPath, a path language turned to navigation on
XLink, which allows performing queries on the elements that compose the links between XML documents. Aiming to
demonstrate the use of XLPath, a processor prototype for this language was developed, which was evaluated in a case
study based on XBRL documents, since XBRL is a technology that makes extensive use of XLink.
KEYWORDS
XLPath, XLink, Navigational Language, XML.
1. INTRODUCTION
Current software applications usually have to deal with multiple data sources and data formats. In order to
minimize this problem, XML has been adopted as a way to integrate data in a standard format. As a result of
the increasing need of data integration and data exchange, XML documents are turning into very huge and
rather interlinked files. Often, these documents have complex link networks pointing to all kinds of
resources. These resources should be used only combined with the XML document, since their semantics are
defined by the link networks. The XML Linking Language (XLink) [XLink, 2001] is used to describe
relationships among resources included in XML documents and referenced by links. By the use of XLink, it
is possible to create association rules among the link resources, as well as to define the semantics needed for
traversing a given link according to the specific meaning of this relationship. Processing documents with link
networks has become a challenging task, because query languages usually do not support link traversing
techniques.
One of the mechanisms used on data structures based on XML are the extended links provided by XLink.
The extended links allow the establishment of more complex link structures, capable of relating an arbitrary
number of resources [Lowe et.al, 2001]. An extended link basically consists of an XML element that contains
other elements, where a namespace [Namespace, 2009] is used for declaring attributes specified by XLink,
assigning to these sub-elements functionalities. Due to the functionalities offered by these mechanisms, in
some situations the extended links have been used to represent the data semantic, modeling relationships
between elements structured on XML or on XML Schema [Schema, 2004]. An example of how the data
semantic is represented on XLink is XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) [XBRL, 2003], an
international standard for represent and publish financial reports that uses extended links for modeling
financial concepts
However, despite of the functionalities provided by XLink, the maintenance and manipulation of
structures that are based on extended links becomes a costly and inefficient task when a solution to automate
the navigation through these interconnected data structures is not available, making difficult the execution of
data retrievals from the extended links. In this scenario, a process that demands the identification of remote
information, from an extended link, implies in a need of users performing a detailed analysis of the XML
document structure, navigating visually through the references established by the links until they reach the
desired information. Obviously, as the volume of data stored in the database increases, this navigation task
89
may become prohibitive. A possible solution would be the use of XQuery [XQuery, 2007] or XPath [XPath,
1999] for recovering information structured on XML. The first one consists of a query language for XML
data, just like SQL is for relational data, while the second one allows exploring the nodes of the tree based
structure of XML documents. According to [Harold et. al., 2004], XPath is a language to capture nodes and
nodes groups of this tree. However, as we will discuss in Section 2, these languages appear to be insufficient
when interconnected XML data are queried. It demands, therefore, a language whose properties are
specialized on the treatment of this link network. In Section 6, we will investigate the solutions created with
this purpose. Nevertheless, we will show that the deficiencies and restrictions presented by them justify the
creation of the language proposed in this paper.
In this paper, we propose XLPath (XML Linking Path Language), a language that is based on query
expressions, is similar to XPath, and has been designed for navigating in an extended link network of XML
documents. This language allows the elements that compose the networks to be accessed according to
refining criteria defined by users. This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, the concepts about
extended links and the limitations of XQuery and XPath to manipulate these links are presented. The
specification of XLPath language is presented in Section 3 and its processor is detailed in Section 4. A case
study based on a XBRL document is discussed in Section 5. In Section 6, corelated studies are evaluated
regarding their limitations and advantages. At last, this paper conclusion is in Section 7.
2. EXTENDED LINKS AND ACTUAL BOTTLENECKS
In this section, we will discuss concepts inherent to extended links, showing an example, Figure 1, which will
be used through the whole paper to explain XLPath. It will also be discussed the restrictions that happen in
current W3C [W3C, 2010] standard languages to the navigation and query in XML documents.
XLink provides two types of links. The first one, the simple type, may be considered as a simplification
of the extended link. A simple link associates exactly two resources, one local and one remote, with an arc
going from the former to the latter. The second type corresponds to the extended links, which allow the
connections creation: (i) outbound in which the source resource is local and the destiny resource is remote;
(ii) inbound when the source resource is remote and the destiny resource is local; and, (iii) third-party
when both, source and destiny, are remote. In this case, separated documents are created, called linkbases, in
which the links are grouped. Using extended links it is possible to associate an arbitrary number of resources.
In order to provide such flexibility, the structure of extended links contains elements that: (1) point to remote
resources through an URI xlink:type=locator; (2) consist of local resources - xlink:type=resource, used
for encapsulating information inside the link; (3) define arc traversing rules - xlink:type=arc. An arc
connects two resources and provides information about the link traversing, such as the navigation direction
and the application behavior regarding the traversing; and (4) provides descriptive information regarding the
link - xlink:type=title. In this paper, the terms locator, resource, arc and title refer to the homonym type
sub-elements.
Figure 1 illustrates a code excerpt for an extended link of the type third-party. This code was extracted
from the XBRL taxonomy of project COREP [COREP, 2005], an initiative of CEBS (Committe of European
Banking Supervisors) to provide a framework of financial reports for some institutions from European Union.
In this code, locators were declared to refer the elements d-ba_BankingActivitiesDomain, d-
ba_TotalBankingActivities and d-ba_TotalBankingActivitiesSubjectBIA, found in the scheme d-ba-2006-07-
01.xsd. In addition, arcs are used to establish relationships of the type domain-member between these
elements. In virtue of the increasing usage of XML as a mean for storing data, query languages carry out a
base role, allowing access to data and metadata that compose the semi-structured data files. However many
languages with this purpose exist, as XQL [Robie et al., 1999] and XML-QL [Deutsch et al., 1998], the
languages constructed by W3C, XQuery and XPath, attend the main needs of access to databases and XML
documents. The main use of XQuery is the performance of queries to data stored in native XML data bases.
The XPath use query expressions called location path, which determine a navigation path between the
document parts, called nodes, exploring the relationships characteristic of the tree formed by these nodes (e.
g. parent, child, sibling). In extended links case, once they are XML base data, it is possible to explore them
under the nodes tree perspective through XPath. Figure 2 shows a simplified nodes tree (without the
attributes) that characterizes the extended link of Figure 1.
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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Figure 1. Example of an extended link.
Figure 2. Extended link nodes tree.

As an example of XPath expression, the following location path may be used to find, from the XML
document root, the element locator whose label is BankingActivitiesDomain:
/descendantorself::link:definitionLink/child::link:loc[@xlink:label=BankingActivitiesDomain]. The query resulting from
the computation of this expression is performed in stages called location steps (isolated by /), whose
general form is: axis::nodeSpecification[Predicate].
The axis indicates in each direction from one reference node called context node the query must be
performed, placed that in majority of cases this direction regards to one of the relationships of the XML tree.
The node specification determines which nodes in this direction must be selected. Besides that, it is possible
to filter the result using a predicate (optional), which consists in a boolean test applied to the selected node:
when the result is true, the node is maintained; otherwise, it is discarded. The expression organization in
successive location steps allows any node in the tree to be accessed, making XPath an ideal tool for
navigating in this type of structure. XPath has been seen as a de facto standard in the XML query research
area. However, it does not provide a means of navigating through XLink links. As a result, both the
semantics and the processing issues concerning link data are compromised.
When the interest is exploring the information according to the extended links perspective, this solution
appears to be insufficient. For example, to formulate a query whose purpose is to select all the destiny
elements of arcs, whose source is the element d-ba_TotalBankingActivities, two important issues must be
considered: (i) differently from a traditional XML tree, the data structure resulting from references
established by the links characterize a network; and (ii) there is no restriction regarding the location of a
referred resource, which may be in any part of the XML document or, yet, in a distinct document. Thus,
exploring the information related by the extended link using XPath, when it is not possible (in the case of
refreences between distinct XML documents), demands a formulation of complex queries. With XQuery the
situation is not different, since mechanisms as FLWOR clauses are not proper for navigation in links. It is
evident, therefore, the need for a query language specialized in the extended links mechanism. However, it is
important to ponder that the development of a language based on a completely new syntax would cause a
bigger difficult assimilation from the users who are already familiar with XPath syntax. To minimize this
impact, it is desirable the existence of a proximity between these syntaxes. The language proposed in this
paper, XLPath, is based on location path expressions of XPath, in which new axis, node tests and predicates
were developed aiming the navigation through the networks formed by extended links.
<link:definitionLinkxlink:type="extended"xlink:role="http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/link">
<link:locxlink:type="locator"xlink:label="BankingActivitiesDomain"
xlink:href="dba20060701.xsd#dba_BankingActivitiesDomain"xlink:title="BankingActivitiesDomain"/>
<link:locxlink:type="locator"xlink:label="TotalBankingActivities"
xlink:href="dba20060701.xsd#dba_TotalBankingActivities"xlink:title="TotalBankingActivities"/>
<link:definitionArcxlink:type="arc"xlink:arcrole="http://xbrl.org/int/dim/arcrole/domainmember"
xlink:from="BankingActivitiesDomain"xlink:to="TotalBankingActivities"
xlink:title="definition:BankingActivitiesDomaintoTotalBankingActivities"order="1.0"/>
<link:locxlink:type="locator"xlink:label="TotalBankingActivitiesSubjectBIA"
xlink:href="dba20060701.xsd#dba_TotalBankingActivitiesSubjectBIA"xlink:title="TotalBankingActivitiesSubjectBIA"/>
<link:definitionArcxlink:type="arc"xlink:arcrole="http://xbrl.org/int/dim/arcrole/domainmember"
xlink:from="TotalBankingActivities"xlink:to="TotalBankingActivitiesSubjectBIA"
xlink:title="definition:TotalBankingActivitiestoTotalBankingActivitiesSubjectBIA"use="optional"order="1.0"/>
...
</link:definitionLink>
link:
definition
Link
link:
definition
Arc
link:
definition
Arc
link:
loc
link:
loc
link:
loc
sibling
child parent
91
3. XLPATH SPECIFICATION
In this section, the language proposed will be presented. In Section 3.1, the requirements identified as a guide
to XLPath specification are given. In Section 3.2, we will discuss two approaches to perform queries used in
XLPath. In Section 3.3 the language syntax and semantic are detailed.
3.1 XLPath requirements
From the need verified regarding the navigation over links, as well as XLink conceptual approaches, it is
possible to compile a series of requirements have guided the XLPath construction: i) Conceptual distinction
between arcs and connections, and the elements that define them From XLPath point of view, an arc or
a connection must be taken as an act of an element refer another, through a label present in the attributes
from and to of XLink, or through an URI in the href attribute. Thus, it is correct to affirm that, when
regarding queries based on this language, an arc may start from an element locator to an element arc, or vice-
versa.; (ii) Navigation in different levels of abstraction The main purpose of a query language over links
is allowing the navigation through the network formed by the existing references between distinct elements.
However, references through URI (href) constitute the only possible path between two elements that refer
themselves in this way. Thus, XLPath must provide the option of abstracting these connections, decreasing
the quantity of steps necessary to reach the query final purpose; (iii) Approach for simple links as their
extended equivalents Aiming to avoid a very long syntax, XLPath must be capable of navigating over
simple links based on the same syntax used for extended links. To do so, this language must start from an
approach that assimilates the simple links as their extended equivalents; (iv) Identification of implicit arcs
In situations in which links are declared without the occurrence of arcs, or that, in the occurrence of them, the
attributes from and/or to have been omitted, XLPath must be capable of identifying the occurrence of implicit
arcs, maintaining, thus, the conformity with the XLink specification; (v) Similarity with the XPath syntax
The language proposed here for navigation over links must have the maximum possible number of
similarities with the XPath syntax, in order to facilitate the assimilation for the users. (vi) Conditions for
queries refinement Placed that may exist an arbitrary number of links referring a given element, XLPath
must enable refinement conditions to be applied to the query, in order to allow the distinction among the
different elements that constitute these links, starting from their names or values of attributes; and (vii)
Absolute and relative path, and query performed in steps J ust like it happens in XPath, XLPath follows
the concept of query in steps, where each step selects a list of nodes that is passed as an input parameter for
the next step until the execution of the last step and obtainment of the final result. The initial step may start
from a document root (absolute path), or from a specific node in its interior (relative path).
3.2 Graphical view
One way of analyzing how the structure formed by extended links may be explored by a query language is
representing it graphically. We suggest two different approaches to represent the links, Low Level Approach
and High Level Approach. These approaches are exemplified through a link illustrated in Figure 1, adopting
the symbolism presented in Table 1.
Low Level Approach: The low level approach offers a detailed view of the link, considering all the
elements involved in the existing references, which includes locators, arcs and resources. The advantage of
this approach for a query language is to allow the access to all these elements. Figure 3 shows the link of
Figure 1 represented in low level. To differentiate elements of the same kind and with the same name,
numbers corresponding to the order in which each element appears in Figure 1 are used as labels.
High Level Approach: In an extended link, a type locator element has the function of being the local
representation of certain remote resource. Due to it, for each remote resource there will be only one locator
referring it. The high level approach offers a simplified vision of the link, where the locators are omitted and
the arcs make direct reference to the correspondent remote resource. For a query language, it would result in
the formulation of simpler queries to do a link crossing (when we navigate from one resource to another
passing by the link). Figure 4 shows the representation in high level for the link shown in Figure 1.
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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Table 1. Simbology for extended links.
Simbol Representation
Elementofextendedlink
Remoteresource
subelementarc
subelementlocator
referencethroughURI
referencethroughlabel

Figure 3. Low level representation of an extended link. Figure 4. High level representation of an extended link.
3.3 Syntax and semantic
This section presents the XLPath sintactic mechanisms, accompanied of examples that demonstrate their
interpretation. The basic structure of an XLPath query expression is similar to the location path of XPath,
including the axis elements, element specification analogue to the node specification of XPath and
predicate. Besides those, to enjoy the advantages of the two navigation approaches suggested in Sections 3.2,
the XLPath query expressions make use of a mechanism that indicates the level of abstraction. Thus,
expressions preceded by LL navigate through the extended links structures according to the low level
approach, while expressions preceded by HL navigate in high level.
Axis Specification: The basic blocks of an expression location path of XPath are the location steps, which
determine the paths that conduct to the desired information in an XML document. These paths are directed by
the axis, which, in XPath, correspond mainly to the traditional relationships between nodes of XML
documents trees. In XLPath, the same principle is used, however with the difference of the paths, in this case,
are determined by the references among the elements that compose the links networks. Graphically, these
references correspond to the lines and arrows that connect the elements as given in Figure 3 and in Figure 4.
It is possible to realize that elements of the type arc are always associated to two link references: one
through the attribute xlink:from and another through the attribute xlink:to, each one of them represented by
an arrow, which identifies the directional character of this type of association. An important detail is that,
from XLPath perspective, each one of these arrows is considered an arc. It means that there is a distinction
between arcs and elements of the arc type. This distinction is made to allow that XLPath access elements of
the arc type like nodes of the links networks, navigating until them through arcs, i.e. references originating
from elements of the arc type. Thus, XLPath axes are used to specify the type of existing association between
the context element equivalent to the context node of XPath and the elements connected to it. These axes
are:
linked axis directs the query to all the elements that refer or are referred by context element,
including references by label and by URI;
arc-source axis directs the query to all the elements that are target nodes of arcs whose context
element is the source;
1
Schema
Linkbase
dba_Banking
Activities
Domain
dba_Total
Banking
Activities
dba_Total
Banking
Activities
SubjectBIA
4
6
from
to
to
from
d
ba_Banking
Activities
dba_Total
Banking
Activities
dba_Total
Banking
Activities
SubjectBIA
2
3
5
4 6
Schem
Linkbase
1
href
from
from
to
to
href
href
93
arc-destination axis directs the query to all the elements that are source nodes of arcs whose context
element is the target.
The first axis, linked, is the most generic. Graphically, the result of its application is equivalent to
propagate the query through all the lines and arrows connected to the context element. The other axes, arc-
source and arc-destination propagate the query through arrows whose context element is source or target,
respectively. Table 2 exemplifies the axes application, in different levels of abstraction, to the elements of
Figure 1. To differentiate elements with repeated names, the same numeration used as labels in Figures 3 and
4 were superscribed on them.
Table 2. Examples of abstraction levels and axis. Table 3. Examples of element specification.
Contextelement LevelandAxis IdentifiedElements Contextelement ElementSpecification SelectedElements
dba_Total
BankingActivities
LL::linked
link:loc
3
,
link:definitionArc
4
,
link:definitionArc
6
dba_Total
BankingActivities,
link:loc
3
locator() link:loc
3
dba_Total
BankingActivities
HL::linked
link:definitionArc
4
,
link:definitionArc
6
link:loc
3
,
link:definitionArc
4
,
link:definitionArc
6
arc()
link:definitionArc
4
,
link:definitionArc
6
link:loc
3
LL::arcsource link:definitionArc
6 link:definitionArc
4
,
link:definitionArc
6
arc(link:definitionArc)
link:definitionArc
4
,
link:definitionArc
6
dba_Banking
ActivitiesDomain
HL::arcsource link:definitionArc
4
dba_Total
BankingActivities,
dba_Banking
ActivitiesDomain
remote(dba_Total
BankingActivities)
dba_Total
BankingActivities
link:definitionArc
6 LL::arc
destination
link:loc
5
link:loc
3
,
link:definitionArc
4
,
dba_Banking
ActivitiesDomain
element()
link:loc
3
,
link:definitionArc
4
,
dba_Banking
ActivitiesDomain
Element Specification: The element specification determines which elements in the axis direction will be
selected. The selection criteria may be the type and the name of each element, determined, respectively, by
the parameter of the function elementType(elementName). XLPath provides the following element
specification:
locator(elementName) selects elements of locator type with the name elementName;
arc(elementName) selects elements of arc type with the name elementName;
resource(elementName) selects elements of resource type with the name elementName;
remote(elementName) selects remote resources with the name elementName;
element(elementName) selects elements of any type with the name elementName.
When the parameter elementName is not provided, the filtering is made based only on the type of
element. Thus, the function element() may be used to put all the elements back in the direction of an axis,
regardless the name and the type. Table 3 shows examples of element specification applied to elements
showed on Figure 1.
Predicate: In the examples of Table 3, in some situations, even specifying the element name and type, the
result is an element list. To filter this result, one may use predicates, which consist in conditions tested on
each element on the list. J ust like in XPath, the usage of predicates is not mandatory. Table 4 exemplifies the
predicates to filter the list of elements extracted from Figure 1. XLPath provides the following conditions:
attribute(attributeName)=attributeValue tests if the element has an attribute attributeName with
the value attributeValue;
text()=textValue tests if the text content of the element equals textValue;
link(linkName) tests if the element belongs to the link linkName.
Table 4. Examples of predicates
Contextelement Predicate FilteredElements
link:definitionArc
4
,
link:definitionArc
6
attribute(title)=definition:BankingActivitiesDomaintoTotalBankingActivities
link:definitionArc
4
link:loc
3
link(link:definitionLink) link:loc
3

The XLPath grammar is illustrated in Figure 5, described through representation based on an EBNF [37].
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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Figure 5. XLPath EBNF.
4. XLPATH PROCESSOR
This section presents the definitions of an XLPath language processor, whose architecture is based on MVC
(Model-View-Controller) pattern. This architecture and the processing algorithm are described follow.
4.1 Architecture
Following MVC pattern, the Model layer of XLPath processor is formed by the components: (i) Expression
maintain XLPath query expressions; (ii) Step sub-divide XLPath expressions in steps to be sequentially
processed; and (iii) Element Store store the elements resulting from each step processing.
The layer View has the components: (i) Console provides the user with an interface for the entrance of
query expressions and documents, as well as with the presentation of the obtained results; and (ii) Formatter
format the results for visualization by the user.
The layer Controller is composed by the modules: (i) Executor generate a representation of the input
documents in the memory, based on DOM (Document Object Model) technology [Hgaret et al., 2005], and
conducts it to the processing together with XLPath expression; and (ii) Processor processes the XLPath
expression steps sequence and stores the result in an Element Store.
Figure 6 brings a representation of XLPath processor containing the components described here.
4.2 Algorithm
XLPath processing algorithm is based on the functions xlpathExecutor and xlpathProcessor. At first,
xlpathExecutor receives as a parameter an XLPath expression and a representation in DOM of an XML
document. From them, it identifies the initial context element and invokes xlpathProcessor, passing as a
parameter the context element identified and the query expression. Next, xlpathProcessor interprets each step
of XLPath expression, going through the links network to identify the interest referentiations that involve
each context element. Figure 7 illustrates this algorithm.
5. SAMPLES OF XLPATH USE
The query used as an example in Section 2.2, besides other examples, is solved bellow through XLPath:
Select all arcs destiny elements whose element d-ba_TotalBankingActivities is the origin.
/dba_TotalBankingActivities::HL::arcsource::arc()/HL::arcsource::element()
Select the locator belonging to the link:definitionLink that connects itself to the element d-
ba_BankingActivitiesDomain.
/dba_BankingActivitiesDomain::LL::linked::locator()[link(link:definitionLink)]
XLPathExpr ::= AbsLocationPath|RelLocationPath
AbsLocationPath ::= /RelLocationPath
RelLocationPath ::= Step|RelLocationPath/Step
Step ::= LevelSpecAxisSpecElementSpecPredicate*
LevelSpec ::= (HL|LL)::
AxisSpec ::= (arcdestination|arcsource|linked|linkpartchild|linkpartdescendant)::
ElementSpec ::= ElementName(QName?)
ElementName ::= arc|element|locator|remote|resource
Predicate ::= [OperatorSpec]
OperatorSpec ::= AttributeSpec|LinkSpec|TextSpec
AttributeSpec ::= attribute(QName)=Value
LinkSpec ::= link(QName)
TextSpec ::= text()=Value
95
Select the remote resource that attend the following conditions: (i) be connected to the locator whose
label is TotalBankingActivities; and (ii) be the origin of the arc whose element db-
a_TotalBankingActivitiesSubjectBIA is destiny.
/dba_TotalBankingActivitiesSubjectBIA::HL::arcdestination::arc()/LL::arcdestination::locator()
[attribute(xlink:label)=TotalBankingActivities]/LL::linked::remote()
Execute the link crossing from the element d-ba_BankingActivitiesDomain to the element d-
ba_TotalBankingActivities.
/dba_BankingActivitiesDomain::HL::arcsource::arc()/HL::arcsource::
remote(da_TotalBankingActivities)

Figure 6. XLPath processor architecture. Figure 7. XLPath algorithm.
These examples show how XLPath perform queries in XML documents interconnected by XLink. To
demonstrate its usage in a real application, a prototype for XLPath processor was developed in J ava
language, based on the architecture and algorithm defined in Sections 4.1 and 4.2. Each component of this
architecture was modeled in a J ava class, and these classes were grouped in packages named Model, View
and Controller, according to MVC approach. Figure 8 shows the XLPath processor console. This prototype is
composed by two input data parameters one for the query expression and another for the document to be
queried , besides a field for data output, where the query results are exhibited. Figure 8 illustrates a query
performed in the document d-ba-2006-07-01.xsd, Figure 1. This document contains elements referred by the
link link:definitionLink, which is in a linkbase. During the query execution, the XLPath expression identifies
these references and, automatically, identifies the corresponding linkbase. This type of query cannot be
performed by the languages XPath, XQuery, or by the proposals discussed in Section 6. Thus, of the main
contribution of XLPath is the ability to perform queries in XML documents interconnected by extended links.
The output data of an XLPath query is organized by the XLPathFormatter class, which shows the steps
sequency of the XLPath expression submitted and the respective resulting elements of its processing by the
XLPathProcessor class. Figure 9 illustrates XLPath query based on the document illustrated in Figure 1and
the complete result extracted from the console. In this example, XLPath expression submitted was composed
by five steps, to combine low and high level approaches, and, in some cases, making use of predicate
operators to refine the query. Thus, all the mechanisms provided by XLPath could be tested: the specification
of abstraction level, of axis and of element, and the predicate operators.
6. LANGUAGES FOR NAVIGATION IN XML DATA WITH LINKS
XLPath comes from XPath+language [Silva et al., 2008 and 2009], which main characteristic is allowing
queries fulfillment over the arcs that compose the links. This language is capable of locating arcs, whether
they are in an instance, in an XML Schema data scheme, or in a linkbases. The main mechanisms provided
by XPath+are the link-source and link-destination axis. The first selects a list of nodes that has context node
as a source resource, while the second selects a list of nodes that has the context node as a destiny resource.
This semantic is reproduced in XLPath through the arc-source and arc-destination axis, however combined
with other mechanisms that allow the filtering of the elements obtained as a result of its application.
Console Expression
Processor
View

Controller Model
Step
DOM
Result
Query
and
Documents
Executor
Formatter Element
Store
functionxlpathExecutor(expression,document)
begin
elementStore.setContextElement(expression,document)
returnxlpathProcessor(expression,elementStore)
end
functionxlpathProcessor(expression,elementStore)
begin
foreachstep:expression.getSteps
foreachelement:elementStore.getElements
searchelementreferences
endfor
endfor
elementStore.setElements(references)
returnelementStore
end
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Figure 8. XLPath processor console.

Figure 9. XLPath processor exit.
May and Malheiro [2001 and 2002] propose an extension for the namespace xlink, dbxlink, which
enables links behavior specification in the moment of the query. Through the inclusion of namespace
dbxlink, it is possible to choose how the linkbase elements are added to the original XML document.
However, to do so, the XML document must be changed, including at least, the standard setting
dbxlink:transparent. This is not very practical in real applications and it is not applicable in documents whose
relationship semantic is important. Because of this semantic in the linkbases, what is expected is the recovery
of the meanings without changing the documents. May et al. [2008] propose an implementation to perform
queries in XML based on dbxlink. The links are not seen as explicit connections, in which the users must be
aware of the links and explicitly cross them in their queries. This proposal extends the XML native data base
system eXist [eXist, 2009]. Different from XLPath, which proposes itself to be a language for navigation and
query to XML documents interconnected by XLink, this solution is included in the category of XML data
base system. Besides, the XLPath proposal is based on following the links explicitly when consulting and
declaring them explicitly in its operators.
XLPathQuery
/dba_BankingActivitiesDomain::HL::arcsource::
arc(link:definitionArc)/LL::linked::locator()[attribute(label)='TotalBankingActivities']/LL::linked::remote()/HL::arcsource::arc(link:definitionArc)/
HL::arcsource::remote(dba_TotalBankingActivitiesSubjectBIA)
XLPathResult
Step(1):/dba_BankingActivitiesDomain::HL::arcsource::arc(link:definitionArc)
Locators={}
Arcs={definition:BankingActivitiesDomaintoTotalBankingActivities}
Resources={}
Remotes={}
Step(2):/LL::linked::locator()[attribute(label)='TotalBankingActivities']
Locators={TotalBankingActivities}
Arcs={}
Resources={}
Remotes={}
Step(3):/LL::linked::remote()
Locators={}
Arcs={}
Resources={}
Remotes={TotalBankingActivities}
Step(4):/HL::arcsource::arc(link:definitionArc)
Locators={}
Arcs={definition:TotalBankingActivitiestoTotalBankingActivitiesSubjectBIA,definition:TotalBankingActivitiesto
TotalBankingActivitiesSubjectSTAAlternative,definition:TotalBankingActivitiestoTotalBankingActivitiesSubjectAMA}
Resources={}
Remotes={}
Step(5):/HL::arcsource::remote(dba_TotalBankingActivitiesSubjectBIA)
Locators={}
Arcs={}
Resources={}
Remotes={TotalBankingActivitiesSubjectBIA}
97
Bry and Eckert [2005] also propose and extension of XLink for linkbases processing in the Web. They
introduce the concept of interface for links structure and a linkbases management mechanism. This proposal
is different from XLPath in the purposes, because, while XLPath is proposed as a navigation language for
links based on elements and attributes defined in XLink, Bry and Eckert proposal suggests a way of
managing linkbases in the Web. The proposal described by Lizorkim [Lizorkim et al., 2003 and 2005, and S-
exp, 2009] suggests an extension of XPath. Despite of this solution be similar to XLPath, because it is an
extension of XPath, its implementation is performed based on expressions S, a native type in the functional
language Scheme. This requires the conversion of XML files to the SXML format, a representation of XML
Information Set in S-expression form. The SXPath proposal refers to the implementation of the XPath
language to manipulate links in the functional language Scheme. Thus, in the SXPath approach, there is
initially the conversion of the XML document to SXML. Like occurs in XLPath, it is possible to highlight the
coherence that exists between the data structuring form (DOM and S-expressions) and their manipulation
(J ava and Scheme). However, to reach this coherence, SXPath needs to convert the XML format in SXML,
which, in spite of being similar, results in an additional effort. Ahmedi [2001 and 2005] proposal was based
on the protocol LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) to make a query, through XPath expressions,
XML documents interconnected with links of the type XLink. As LDAP has a data model different from
XML, XML documents with the links need to be mapped for this model. A similar solution, proposed by
Ahmedi and Arifaj [2008], there is no need for mapping for a data model different from XML. However,
XPath queries, in this proposals, are based on the xlink:href attribute, not exploring all the power of semantic
expression of XLink, i.e., the queries processing do not consider the semantics attributes of XLink (title, role
e arcrole), the behavior attributes (show e actuate), or the values for the xlink:type attribute (resouce, locator,
arc and title).
XLink Processor (XLiP) is a Fujitsu implementation [XLip, 2005] to extract XLink and XPointer
information in XML documents. Based on Java and DOM, enables the use of all types of links expressed by
XLink. However, diferently from XLPath, it is owner. Other commercial solution to deal with XLink, based
on J ava and DOM, it is Batavia XBRL J ava Library (BXJ L) [Batavia, 2009], it is however specific to
manipulate only XBRL documents. J ava XBRL API Implementation [XBRLAPI, 2008] is an open code
project that provides an XLink processor for XBRL documents. This processor is a solution based on SAX,
manipulating XLink events. Another approach based on SAX is XLink Filter [Laurent, 1998], which creates
a links collection that may attend to applications requires to identify which elements contain links, as well as
their purposes and behaviors. SAX usage has the advantage of being more efficient regarding memory use,
but is not a solution standardized by W3C. XLinkit [Nentwich et al., 2000] is a tool to generate links
according to rules and verify the documents consistence. As an entrance, the tool receives a group of XML
documents and a group of potential rules that connect these documents contents. The rules represent
consistence restrictions among the resources. XLinkit conduct back a linkbase with a group of links XLink,
which allow the navigation among the resources elements.
In XSPath [Cavalieri et al., 2008], the notion of queries performed through steps, present on XPath
expressions, is extended in order to allow the navigation through the connections contained in the scheme
that associates the elements, specified in XML Schema documents, to their data types, being also possible to
navigate inside data complex types [W3, 2010]. However, there is not always the interest in explore a data
complex structure. Therefore, XSPath offers two different navigation approaches: low level expressions,
which analyze complex types intern structures, and high level expressions, which steps do not depend on how
the element are combined to form complex types.
According to the study of these proposals, to attend the navigation in XML documents interconnected by
links, some solutions require a transformation in the XML document, as the proposals based on SXML, the
LoPiX, and the one which defines three navigation modes in linkbases (transient, temporary and permanent),
others are limited to specific solutions, such as the ones for XBRL and the XLinkit. J ava XBRL API
Implementation and XLink Filter are funded by the use of SAX, what restricts its application, since SAX is
not a W3C pattern. Besides, none of these solutions are specified as language for navigation in links of the
XLink type. XSPath is a proposal of language for navigating in XML Schema documents, which served as a
base of the high and low level approaches for XLPath queries proposed in this paper. Table 5 presents some
results derived from the comparison among the proposals discussed in this section and XLPath. This analysis
is made considering the capacity for links manipulation. It is settled that XLPath manipulates any type of link
based on XLink and that it does not require any change on the original XML documents. Besides, XLPath is
an open code solution and based on patterns W3C (DOM, XPath, XML Schema and XLink.) and it is a
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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navigation language for XLink. These characteristics may be considered as advantages of XLPath compared
to other approaches.
Table 5. Comparison among XLPath and other proposals.
Proposals ChangestheXML
document
BasedonW3C
patterns
Manipulates
XLinktypelinks
Opencodesolution Languagefornavigation
inXLink
dblink Yes No Yes Yes No
SXML/SXPath Yes No Yes Yes Yes
XlinkFilter No No Yes Notinformed No
XLiP No Yes Yes No No
BataviaXBRL No Yes No No No
JavaXBRLAPI No No No No No
Xlinkit Yes Yes Donotapply Notinformed No
ManagementofLinkbases Yes No Donotapply Yes No
XLPath No Yes Yes Yes Yes
7. CONCLUSION
The language for navigating over links proposed in this paper allows the performance of queries with
expressions that are similar to XPath, then the paths formed among the elements that compose the links are
gone through, and these elements accessed. Besides that, the language provides means to establish criteria
according with the navigation will happen, enabling this way that users and/or applications reach specific
elements that compose the extended links networks. XLPath uses mechanisms based on XPath, such as axis,
element specification and predicate. XLPath uses axes that guide the navigation according to the context
element condition, as arcs source or destiny. This semantic is based on the axes originating from XPath+
language. In XLPath, the mentioned mechanisms are used to compose navigation expressions, whose
arrangement is similar to the location path expressions, from XPath. Thus, its syntax assimilation is
facilitated, above all for those users who are already familiar with XPath. In order to continue this project, it
is intended to develop a new version for XLPath processor, which would allow the navigation through links
present in distributed data sources. The addition of an optimizer module in the XLPath processor is seen as
another indication of future work.
REFERENCES
Ahmedi, L. and Arifaj, M., 2008. Processing XPath/XQuery to be aware of XLink hyperlinks. 2nd European Computing
Conference (ECC08), Malta, pp. 217-221.
Ahmedi, L. and Arifaj, M., 2008. Querying XML documents with XPath/XQuery in presence of XLink hyperlinks.
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Ahmedi, L., 2001. Global access to interlinked XML data using LDAP and ontologies. PhD dissertation fromAlbert-
Ludwigs, Freiburg.
Ahmedi, L., 2005. Making XPath reach for the web-wide links. ACM Symposium on Applied Computing. Santa Fe, US,
pp. 1714-1721.
Batavia Business Reporting. Batavia XBRL Java Library (BXJ L). Retrieved J anuary, 2009, from SourceForge:
http://batavia-xbrl.sourceforge.net/.
Bry, F. and Eckert, M., 2005. Processing link structures and linkbases in the webs open world linking. Proceedings of
sixteenth ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia, Salzburg, AT.
CavalieriI, F., Guerrini, G. and Mesiti, M., 2008. Navigational path expressions on XML schema. 19th International
Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications DEXA, Turin, IT.
COREP XBRL Project, 2005. Retrieved J uly 10, 2010, from Eurofiling: http://www.eurofiling.info/index.html.
Deutsch, A., Fernandez, M., Florescu, D., Levy, A. and Suciu, D., 1998. XML-QL: a query language for XML.
Retrieved J uly, 2010, from: http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-xml-ql/.
Exist. eXist-db Open Source Native XML Database. Retrieved September, 2009, from SourceForge:
http://exist.sourceforge.net/.
Harold, E.R. and Means, W.S. 2004. XML in a nutshell. O'Reilly, Sebastopol, US.
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Hgaret, P.L., Withmer, R. and Wood, L., 2005. Document object model (DOM), 2005. Retrieved August, 2010, from:
http://www.w3.org/DOM/.
Laurent, S.S., 1998. XLinkFilter: An open source J ava XLink SAX parser filter. Retrieved J anuary, 2009, from:
http://www.simonstl.com/projects/xlinkfilter/.
Lizorkim, D. and Lisovsky, K., 2005. Implementation of the XML linking language XLink by functional methods.
Programming and Computer Software, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 34-46.
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Vol. 6, No. 2.
Lizorkim, D. and Lisovsky, K., 2003. XML Path Language (XPath) and its functional implementation SXPath. Russian
Digital Libraries Journal, Vol. 6, No. 4.
Lizorkim, D. and Lisovsky, K. XSLT and XLink and their implementation with functional techniques. Russian Digital
Libraries Journal, Vol. 6, No. 5.
Lizorkim, D., 2005. The query language to XML documents connected by XLink links. Programming and Computer
Software. Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 133-148.
Lowe, D. and Wilde, E., 2001. Improving web linking using xlink. Open Publish, Sydney, AU.
May, W. and Malheiro, D., 2003. A logical, transparent model for querying linked XML documents. GI-Fachtagung
Datenbanksysteme fur Business, Technologie und Web.
May, W. and Malheiro, D., 2001. LoPiX: A systemfor XML data integration and manipulation. Proceedings of the 27th
VLDB Conference, Roma, IT.
May, W. and Malheiro, D., 2002. Querying linked XML document networks in the web. Proceedings of the 11th
International World Wide Web Conference, Honolulu, US.
May, W., Behrends, E. and Fritzen, O., 2008. Integrating and querying distributed XML data via XLink. Information
Systems, Vol. 33, No. 6, pp. 508-566.
Nentwich, C., Capra, L., Emmerich, W. and Finkelstein, A., 2000. Xlinkit: a consistency checking and smart link
generation service. ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 151-185.
Robie, J., 1999. XQL (XML Query Language). Retrieved J uly, 2010, from: http://www.ibiblio.org/xql/xql-proposal.html.
S-exp based XML parsing/query/conversion. Retrieved J anuary, 2009, fromSourceForge: http://ssax.sourceforge.net/.
Silva, P.C. and Times, V. C., 2009. XPath+: A tool for linked XML documents navigation. XSym 2009 - Sixth
International XML Database Symposium at VLDB'09, Lyon, FR.
Silva, P.C., Aquino, I. J . S. and Times, V. C., 2008. A query language for navigation over links. XIV Simpsio Brasileiro
de Sistemas Multimdia e Web, Vitria, BR.
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XBRL. Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) 2.1. Recommendation, 2003.
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xwand/activity/xbrltools/xlip/index.html.

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ONTOMO: WEB SERVICE FOR ONTOLOGY BUILDING -
EVALUATION OF ONTOLOGY RECOMMENDATION
USING NAMED ENTITY EXTRACTION
Takahiro Kawamura, I Shin, Hiroyuki Nakagawa, Yasuyuki Tahara and Akihiko Ohsuga
Graduate School of Information Systems, University of Electro-Communications
1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu-shi, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan
ABSTRACT
Internet services using ontology in its background are rapidly increasing in the web. Those are sort of "lighter" ontologies
compared with ontologies which have been used in design and diagnosis. So, this paper proposes ONTOMO that is an
ontology building service specialized for lightweight ontologies. ONTOMO is also designed not for ontology experts, but
for users and/or developers of public web services. Here, we focused on ease of use, no installation, cooperative work
environment, and providing sample applications to help the users' ontology building. Especially, it has a function which
recommends instances and properties which belong to a certain ontology class in order to help the users to register them.
In the recommendation function, we developed our own Named Entity Extraction mechanism based on bootstrapping
method. In this paper, after the ONTOMO overview, we present the instance and property recommendation with
experimental evaluations.
KEYWORDS
Ontology, Named Entity Extraction, Web Service
1. INTRODUCTION
Recently, web services using ontology has increased. Most of ontologies for those services are definitions of
metadata, and have simpler structures in comparison with conventional ontologies for design and diagnosis.
Faltings (2007) says that "is-a" relation makes up 80-90 % of all the relations in such lightweight ontologies.
However, ontology building tools proposed and developed so far are mainly for ontology experts, and few of
them are focusing on public developers and users of Internet services. Therefore, we have developed
ONTOMO, an ontology building service aiming at offering an environment in which those people are able to
easily make necessary ontologies for their purpose. So the main target of ONTOMO is the people who have
little expertise about what are an ontology, its schema, organization, and technical terms. Or, the people who
have some knowledge about the ontology, but no experiment of ontology building are also its targets.
ONTOMO has been trying to clear the following three hurdles that the target people may have in the
conventional ontology tools, which has been retrieved from interviews to non-ontology developers and
programmers around.
1. Necessary tool preparation and its usage are unclear, because of rich technical terms and functions.
2. It's hard to know what term should be input as classes, instances, and properties, because they have
never thought about things according to ontology own scheme.
3. Difficult to register a large amount of the terms (this point are relatively common regardless of the
non-expert or not).
To solve these problems, ONTOMO takes the following approaches.
A. Easy preparation for introduction
ONTOMO has no installation of any tools, and can be used by web browsers.
B. Improvement of usability (design of user interface)
It uses the public words without the technical terms, and narrows the functions down to ones only for
browse and edit the lightweight ontology. Also, it keeps visibility and operability even in the browser.
101
C. Support of term registration
It would be almost impossible that a single person can think of every instances and properties in a large
domain. So, ONTOMO estimates candidates of instances and properties referring the registered terms, and
then recommends them to the user.
D. Keeping of motivation
To introduce the user's incentive, ONTOMO prepared sample applications to show what services can be
made by using ontologies. Also, it opens web service APIs to the ontologies to be used by any external
services.
E. Support of collaboration work
Multiple accesses are possible for an ontology on ONTOMO, then the ontology can be built by a team.
The above three problems would not be solved by any single approach, and have 1-to-n relations to the
five approaches. Fig.1 shows the relations between the problems and approaches we have assumed.
Furthermore, their effect measurement for each problem would not be necessarily verified quantitatively,
because of the large dependency of user's feeling and sensitivity. Therefore, this paper firstly describes
overview of ONTOMO system, and then we would like to focus on the approach C. Support of term
registration with details of implementation and evaluation of the instance and property recommendation
function. Although the approach C is corresponding to the problem 3 and 2, we believe that an accuracy of
recommended terms can be regarded as a metric to measure the degree of the user support for these
problems.
1. Necessary tool
preparation and its usage
are unclear
2. hard to know what term
should be input as classes,
instances, and properties
3. Difficult to register a
large amount of the
terms
Problem Approach
AEasy preparation for
introduction
BImprovement of usability
(design of user interface)
CSupport of term registration
DKeeping of motivation
ESupport of collaboration work
1. Necessary tool
preparation and its usage
are unclear
2. hard to know what term
should be input as classes,
instances, and properties
3. Difficult to register a
large amount of the
terms
Problem Approach
AEasy preparation for
introduction
BImprovement of usability
(design of user interface)
CSupport of term registration
DKeeping of motivation
ESupport of collaboration work

Figure 1. Problems and approaches
The outline of this paper is as follows. We first describe the overview of ONTOMO with its interface and
functionality in section 2. Then section 3 shows the instance recommendation function and its evaluation,
where we compare the function with manual intervention to register the terms and show that it reduces the
users strain. Also, section 4 shows the properly recommendation and its evaluation. In section 5, we discuss
our limitation and improvement. Finally, we show the related works in section 6, and mention the future
issues in section 7.
2. ONTOMO OVERVIEW
ONTOMO logically consists of a front-end (Flash web site) and a back-end (web services) (Fig.2). The front-
end has an ontology edit function, the recommendation function, and two search applications as the samples.
Then, the back-end provides the APIs to access the ontologies built by ONTOMO so that other systems can
use the ontologies. We connected the front- and back-end by Asynchronous Flash, and realized high
responsibility and operability as a whole. This section describes the edit function, the search applications and
implementation issues of ONTOMO.
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Ontology
Developer
Resource Layer
DB
XML file
Client Layer
(Front-end)
Web Browser
RPC Component
Edit func.
Flex
Server Layer
(Back-end)
Server
RPC Component
Ontology Processing Engine
Jena
XML
Engine
Service
Developer
Web Service
Recommen-
dation func.
Search Application
request
response
Ontology
Developer
Resource Layer
DB
XML file
Client Layer
(Front-end)
Web Browser
RPC Component
Edit func.
Flex
Server Layer
(Back-end)
Server
RPC Component
Ontology Processing Engine
Jena
XML
Engine
Service
Developer
Web Service
Recommen-
dation func.
Search Application
request
response

Figure 2. ONTOMO architecture
2.1 Edit Function
instance class
Graph XML List Search
Selected node
Distance of nodes
Spring Graph pane
Tree pane
instance class
Graph XML List Search
Selected node
Distance of nodes
Spring Graph pane
Tree pane

Recommended instances
Nissan
Honda
Toyota
Matsuda
Suzuki
Subaru
Daihatsu
Mitsubishi
BWM
Isuzu
Porsche
VW
Cancel
Recommended instances
Nissan
Honda
Toyota
Matsuda
Suzuki
Subaru
Daihatsu
Mitsubishi
BWM
Isuzu
Porsche
VW
Cancel

Class list Property list Instance list Class list Property list Instance list

Figure 3. ONTOMO Interface
103
The edit function is for the lightweight ontology, and has two roles: browsing major components of an
ontology such as the classes, instances and properties, and basic functions like new addition, edit, and delete
of them.
We provide three ways of the ontology browsing. The first one is Graph view to intuitively figure out the
ontology structure. Fig.3 top shows that Flash and Spring Graph which is an automatic graph allocation
library based on a spring model, visualize a hierarchical structure composed of the classes, subclasses and
instances. It can adjust, for example, a distance of an instance and a class with a focus on operability and
visibility. In addition, if the user moves a class, then instances of the class automatically follows and are re-
arranged with the pre-defined distance. Also, if the user double-clicks a class, the instances will hide, and
vice versa (unfortunately, we only have Japanese interface right now).
On the other hand, Graph view is unsuited to read through a list of the instances, and check the details of
their definitions. Therefore, we added List view and XML view. List view (Fig.3 bottom right) has three lists
for the classes, properties, and instances. XML view shows OWL (2004) data of the ontology as follows.

<rdf:RDF xmlns:mobilephone=http://www.myontology.co.jp/mobilephone/#
xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:xsd=http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#
xmlns:rdfs=http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#
xmlns:owl=http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#
xmlns:daml="http://www.daml.org/2001/03/daml+oil#">
<owl:Ontology>
<rdfs:comment>MobilePhone OWL Ontology</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Ontology>
<owl:Class rdf:about="http://www.myontology.co.jp/mobilephone/#softbank">
<rdfs:subClassOf>
<owl:Class rdf:about="http://www.myontology.co.jp/mobilephone/#mobile phone"/>
</rdfs:subClassOf>
</owl:Class>
</rdf:RDF>

Ontology editing is started with a popup menu which will appear by a right click on Graph view (the right
click is realized by Flash). If the user right-clicks a class or instance, the popup menu with "addition", "edit",
and "delete" will appear. Furthermore, the ontology built by ONTOMO is stored in DB in the back-end, and
can be exported in an OWL file, or accessed by the web services.
2.2 Search Application
ONTOMO also has a product search application, where the user can find products with key properties.
ONTOMO prepared the product ontologies of three domains in advance: mobile phones, digital cameras, and
media player like iPod. If the user searches any products with a common property like "SD card", the
products match that property will be found across the three domains. It's also possible to search with multiple
properties like hours of continuous operation and TV function, and then the ontologies of the mobile phones
and the media players will be searched.
Moreover, a blog search application shows the related blogs to the product found by the above using
Google blog search. The latest information about the product will be useful for the user and to update the
product ontology.
2.3 ONTOMO Implementation
ONTOMO is a 3-tier system (Fig.2), where a client layer provides a flexible user interface using Flex (2010).
Then, a server layer has an ontology processing engine with Jena (2009), and a resource layer stores the
ontology data in XML form with MySQL. Asynchronous call between the client layer and the server layer is
realized by Flex components like Flex Remote ObjectFlex Data Service. When the user operates the views
with Flash, the client layer sends a request to the server layer, and the Flex component calls corresponding
APIs. The result is returned in XML form for the graph or the list to the client layer, and then XML engine
transforms it to show on the Flash view.
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3. INSTANCE RECOMMENDATION
In the practical work of the instance addition, it would be difficult to register every term without any help.
Especially, consumer electronics, CD/DVDs, package software, etc. are increasing on a daily basis, so their
quick registration with a manual work would be impossible. Thus, we developed the function to recommend
candidates for the instances based on records of the user's registration. This function estimates the instances
which belong to the same class with the registered instances as seeds using Named Entity Extraction (NEE).
But, the user finally selects and adds some of them as new correct instances. For example, if the user registers
"Nissan" and "Honda" as the instances, and added "Toyota" as the third instance, then the function takes the
latest three instances {"Nissan", "Honda", "Toyota"} as the seeds for the NEE, and recommends other
candidates for the instances to the user after exclusion of the already-registered ones (Fig.3 bottom left).
3.1 Named Entity Extraction with Bootstrapping
There already exist free Named Entity Extraction services such as Google Sets (2007) and SEAL (2008) on
the web. However, our investigation found that those have maintenance difficulty for the quick registration of
the latest information. Therefore, we developed our own Named Entity Extraction engine using bootstrapping
method (Brin 1998). The bootstrapping firstly generates patterns from documents using a small number of
the seed terms, and extracts other terms from the documents using the patterns. Then, it generates new
patterns using the extracted terms as the new seeds again. This repeated process can extract a large number of
terms from a few seeds. The following describes our bootstrapping process with four steps.
(1) Selection of seeds
We first need some seeds to execute the NEE. Selection of the seeds greatly effects on the extracted terms.
We prepare a seed list which includes at least three instances in advance. At the first time, it's random
selection and the bootstrapping is executed, and the extracted terms are added to the seed list. At the second
time, we take also randomly two old instances used before and new one extracted as the seeds, because newly
extracted instances may not be necessarily correct. So we take old two and new one after the second time for
extending the terms and keeping the accuracy.
(2) Collection of Web pages
We collect the top 100 web pages using search engines like Google and Yahoo!, where the query is a
combination of three instances.
(3) Pattern generation
Then, we find HTML tags which surround all three seeds from collected web pages. For example, if the
seeds are {"Nissan", "Honda", "Toyota"}, the surrounding tag is as follows.

<td>Nissan</td>
<td>Honda</td>
<td>Toyota</td>
<td>Matsuda</td>
<td>Suzuki</td>

Here <td> tag surrounds all three tags, then <td>term</td> is taken as a pattern. The reason we find the
tag surrounding all three seeds is to keep the accuracy. The stricter the condition is, the higher the accuracy
becomes. Our preliminary experiences for some kinds of product showed that in case of two seeds the huge
numbers of irrelevant terms were extracted. But, more than four seeds greatly reduced the extracted terms.
Therefore, this number of seed is our experimental setting, and should be revised at least for other domain.
(4) Extraction of terms
Finallywe extract other terms from the same document using the generated patterns. Although web
pages have several styles according to their authors, it seems that the same style (pattern) would be used at
least within the same document. In the example of (3), we can take "Matsuda" and "Suzuki" from this
document, and add them to the seed list.
However, we still have a possibility to extract the irrelevant terms in the above process. So we set
threshold for the number of patterns which can be generated in a document. In our experience, we have been
able to extract the terms most effectively in case that the number is more than two. Therefore, if the
generated patterns are more than two kinds, we add them to the list. If not, they are discarded.
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3.2 Instance Recommendation with named Entity Extraction
The set of terms extracted by the above process is not necessarily the same as the one the user expects as the
instances for a certain class. Naive recommendation may put a heavy strain on the user for proper selection of
a large number of terms. This paper, therefore, proposes an adaptation filter, which combines the NEE and
the hierarchical structure of the ontology to raise the accuracy of extraction.
If the intended set Si of the user is equal to the extracted set Se, then all members of Se are registered to
the list. This is an ideal case. However, if not, we have two cases.
3.2.1 Improvement of Recall
If only a few terms of Si are included in Se (Fig.4 left), recall will be low because of few correct terms in Se.
So we add some terms of Si, which are not included in Se, and try to extend Se to Se' (experiment 1).
Se
Recommended
terms
Si
Need to add
Honda
Suzuki
Toyota
Daihatsu
Matsuda
Daikin
Sony
Nissan
Mitsubishi
GM
Cadillac
Ford
Chrysler
Se
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Need to add
Honda
Suzuki
Toyota
Daihatsu
Matsuda
Daikin
Sony
Nissan
Mitsubishi
GM
Cadillac
Ford
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Nissan
Se
Recommended terms
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Toyota
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Figure 4. |SeSi|<<|Si| and |SeSi|<<|Se|
3.2.2 Improvement of Precision
If a number of the irrelevant terms are included in Se (Fig.4 right), precision will be low because of many
incorrect terms in Se. So we apply the adaptation filter to eliminate the irrelevant terms Sx, and raise the
precision (experiment 2). The following adaptation filter is a mechanism to eliminate the terms which might
be irrelevant from the instance set returned by the NEE.
First, eliminate overlapping terms comparing with the already-registered instances which belong to
the same class as one of the seed instances.
Next, execute the NEE again with the new seeds which belong to a different class than one of the
original seeds. Then, eliminate overlapping terms comparing with the newly retrieved set.
For example, Fig.4 right shows a case that we have a car ontology like Fig.5, and want to add some new
instances to Japan car class (Si). The result set Se has the irrelevant terms like "Daikin", "Ford", "GM",
"Sony", and the precision is low. Then, the adaptation filter first eliminate the overlapping terms comparing
with the already-registered instances, which belong to the same class (Japan car) as one of the seed {"Nissan",
"Honda", "Toyota"}. Secondly, it executes the NEE with the seeds from another class, that is, {"GM", "Ford",
"Chrysler"} of US car in Fig.5. The result set Sx has high possibility to include US car instances, so that the
overlapping terms in Se with Sx are eliminated. But, we should note here that if Sx has Japan car instances,
then those are also eliminated and may lower the recall.

Car
Japan
car
Toyota Nissan Honda
US
car
GM Chrysler Ford
Car
Japan
car
Toyota Nissan Honda
US
car
GM Chrysler Ford

Figure 5. Example of car ontology
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3.3 Evaluation
As mentioned above, the instance recommendation is mainly to stay up-to-date in a domain with dynamic
nature. However, we took a relatively static domain for this experiment in order to accurately measure the
precision and the recall. Here, we focused a world ranking of car manufacturers (2007), and took the top 50
car manufacturers (and their spin-off brands) in total 76 as the correct set in the experiment 1, excluding
china and OTHER manufacturers. It's because the current china manufacturers, that is, the correct set seem to
have been changed from the above data in 2007, and have fluctuation of description and many spin-off
brands that we could not investigate. In the experiment 2, total 16 of Japan manufacturers and their brands
are taken as the correct set. Also, in the experiments we regarded other descriptions than ones in the correct
set as incorrect. In the original use, the instance recommendation leaves the final selection for the addition of
the extracted terms to the ontology to the user. But, in the experiment the function automatically adds every
extracted term expect for the overlaps in order to confirm the accuracy. In the following sections, we evaluate
how we can raise the precision and the recall using the NEE and the adaptation filter.

Recall = Registered correct instances / All the correct instances
Precision = Registered correct instances / All the registered instances (including irrelevant ones)
3.3.1 Experiment 1 (Named Entity Extraction)
In the experiment 1, we evaluated how we can effectively increase the instances in contrast to the number of
operations using the NEE for the 76 world car manufacturers. As the first seeds we registered {"Nissan",
"Honda"} to Car class, then take the next instance "Toyota" according to the listed order of the correct set
except for the overlaps. So, the NEE is executed with the latest registered seeds {"Nissan", "Honda",
"Toyota"}, and gets the candidates for the instances Se. Then, it registers all of them to the class except for
the overlaps. When all the correct instances are registered by repeating the above, this experiment is
terminated. Evaluation metrics are as follows.

Recall = (3 + ) / 76
Precision = (3 + ) / (3 + + irrelevant instances), where is the registered correct instances

The result is shown in Fig.6. In terms of the recall, because simple input means to manually register the
correct instance one by one, the recall moved up in proportion to the number of operation, and achieved
100 % at the 73rd time. On the other hand, because the NEE extracted a number of instance candidates at the
early stage, the recall moved up quickly, and achieved 71.1 % at the second time. After that, however, the
extracted terms began to overlap with the registered ones and the move became slowly, then finally it
achieved 100 % at the 24th time. As a consequence, we confirmed the NEE increases the instances
effectively with a small number of operations.
In terms of the precision, it remained 60.3 % even at the last time due to the irrelevant terms extracted in
Named Entity Extraction, although the simple input always kept 100 %.
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3.3.2 Experiment 2 (Adaptation Filter)
In the experiment 2, we evaluated how we can keep the precision using the adaptation filter for the 16
Japanese car manufacturers. Because the adaptation filter uses the hierarchical structure of ontology as
mentioned above, we assumed here that Japan car is a subclass of Car and US car is also a subclass of Car in
the same level as Japan car like Fig.5. As the first seeds we registered {"Nissan", "Honda"} and {"GM",
"Ford", "Chrysler"} to Japan and US car respectively. Then, we repeated the procedure of the experiment 1
with the adaptation filter to eliminate the instances which seems to belong to a different class (US car).
Evaluation metrics are as follows.

Recall = (3 + ) / 16
Precision = (3 + ) / (3 + + irrelevant instances), where is the registered correct instances

The result is shown in Fig.7 (note that 0 time of the precision is omitted here). In terms of the precision,
the NEE was 19.5 % at the 7th time due to US and European manufacturers included in the instances. But,
the NEE with the adaptation filter got 26.1 %, and the gap was extending over time. As a consequence, we
confirmed the adaptation filter has effect to raise the precision.
However, in terms of the recall, the adaptation filter remained 66.7 % at the 7th time, although Named
Entity Extraction achieved 100 % at that time. It's because some Japan car instances were also eliminated
together with the irrelevant terms.
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4. PROPERTY RECOMMENDATION
4.1 Property Recommendation with Named Entity Extraction
As well as for the instances, it would be difficult to register every property without any help. Property
recommendation collects the properties using the NEE for the bootstrapping as well. But, in case of the
property, we use three properties belonging to a class and an instance of the class as the query to collect the
web pages. This is because adding the instances would be useful to collect the related web pages like product
specification pages. The seeds for the NEE also include three properties and an instance. For example, if the
user puts "optical zoom", "digital zoom" and "pixels" to a camera class, then the property recommendation
takes those three properties and an instances of the camera, and extracts other properties like "focal length",
"sensitivity", and "shutter speed" to recommend for the user. After that, the seeds are changed to two old
properties, one new property, and one new instance. In essence, the NEE using the bootstrapping is to extract
terms written in the same style. So, we can expect that the seeds in different levels, that is, the property and
the instance do not work well. But, most of the product specification pages have a product name at the
beginning, then its specs (properties) later, so that we considered this seed combination would not affect so
much for the property extraction.
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4.2 Evaluation
A property belongs not only to a certain product domain, but also to multiple ones. For example, "screen
size" is for a digital camera, and also for a laptop PC. Therefore, it is difficult to explicitly classify the
properties to each class unlike the instances, and the adaptation filter has a possibility to greatly reduce the
recall. So, the experiment uses the NEE without the adaptation filter. We selected the target product domains
(classes) which relatively have many properties: camera, lens, TV, PC, LCD, Blu-ray player, and made the
correct properties set. A flow of the experiment in case of the camera is as follows. We first register the
properties {"optical zoom", "digital zoom", "pixels"} as the seeds to the camera class in advance, and get an
instance of the camera using the instances recommendation. Then, we execute the NEE with the seeds {a
camera instance, "optical zoom", "digital zoom", "pixels"}, and extract the candidates of the properties.
The result is shown in Fig.8. We confirmed the recall achieved 70-80 %, and almost all the properties of
the class were extracted. However, the precision remained 50-60 % on the whole. Although it's ideal to
extract all the properties from pages such as the product specification of the manufacturers, this experiment
has not selected the page to be extracted. As a consequence, it extracted a number of the irrelevant terms
from the pages like explanation of the property meanings, and they lowered the precision.

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5. DISCUSSION
In terms of C. Support of term registration in section 1, we presented that the instance and property
recommendation reduces the user's strain. The instance recommendation also introduced the adaptation filter
due to insufficient precision of the Named Entity Extraction. As the result, it raised the precision though it
lowers the recall. However, the reason we rather emphasize the precision is that it would be more difficult for
the target users of ONTOMO who are not experts of the ontology to pick the correct terms from a large set
with many irrelevant terms (Of course, it depends on the domain knowledge). On the other hand, in case of
the low recall the user needs only to repeat the process of the recommendation, which would be a relatively
simple task (if the precision keeps high). Furthermore, the property recommendation could not use the
adaptation filter, so that to improve the precision we are now considering introduction of a process to select
the pages to be extracted by looking at hit count of search, and so forth.
However, the ontology which can use this recommendation function is limited to ones, where a class is
corresponding to the already-existing category like a product domain. This is a kind of limitation of the NEE
from the web, which means that it can not collect the terms of a classification unless someone classified it in
advance. Moreover, the current procedure of the instance recommendation can not classify the classes which
are not determined by just three terms. For example, the instances {"Tokyo", "Shinagawa", "Shinjuku"} are
for Tokyo City class, and also for Train Station class, and then those are not determined automatically. But,
as the property recommendation we can add a typical keyword like "City" or "Station" when searching the
pages, and specify the classes to some extent. In the future, we will discuss this improvement with our pattern
extraction method.
In terms of other approaches: A. Easy preparation for the introduction and B. Improvement of usability
(design of user interface), as mentioned in section 1 we skipped the tool install by using the web browser, and
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realized operability of a desktop application using Flex. Also, Spring Graph realized visibility of the whole
ontology and the details of the definitions. In terms of D. Keeping of motivation, we are trying to motivate
the user by providing sample applications and open web APIs, and for E. Support of collaboration work an
exclusive access control of ontology DB enabled multiple developers to build an ontology at once. For those
approaches, however, there are some other ways like improvement of documents, innovative user interface,
and point system to registration, etc. In the future, we will compare several ways and discuss their effect
measurement.
6. RELATED WORKS
This section shows comparisons with other ontology building tools and Named Entity Extraction methods.
As the famous ontology building tools, we compare with Protg, Hozo, and KiWi. Protg (2010) is the
most popular ontology editor mainly used by ontology researchers for more than ten years, and has several
advanced features like inference. Also, it opens plug-in specification, and now has 72 plug-ins in its official
site such as data import from RDB, term extractions by text mining, etc. Hozo (2010) is a tool which has a
unique feature to handle Role concept. It also has a distributed development environment which can keep
data consistency by checking difference of ontologies edited by multiple users. However, those are the
heavyweight ontology tools mainly for the ontology experts, thus different from ONTOMO in its target user
and problems to be solved. In the future, we will consult them with their ontology visualization plug-in and
mechanism to keep the consistency of data, and so forth.
On the other hand, KiWi (Knowledge in A Wiki) (2010) focused on the lightweight ontology, and
extended Wiki by semantic web technology. It enables the user to edit its content through the same interface
as Wiki, so the user can register the instances and properties without any special knowledge of ontology. It's
a different way than ONTOMO, but for the same purpose in easy introduction for non-expert, improvement
of usability, and collaborative work. In the future, ONTOMO would also like to take Wiki-based change
history and difference management.
They all do not have any recommendation function for the instances and the properties, so that we could
also distinguish ONTOMO by this function. But, we next compare this function with DIPRE and Snowball,
which are the famous Named Entity Extraction methods for structured documents. DIPRE (Brin 1998) is a
pioneer of the bootstrapping from the web pages. First, it prepares a list of pairs of an author name and a
book title, and searches them by a search engine. Then, if it finds a regular expression like "URL, prefix
string, book title, middle string, author name, suffix string" from the result, it adds the pairs of the author
name and the book title which match the regular expression. Snowball (Agichtein 2000) is an extension of
DIPRE, and tried to extract named entities in comparison with the string pairs of DIPRE. In contrast, we tried
to extract the terms (instance, property) which belong to a certain set, and has a feature that the adaptation
filter eliminates the irrelevant terms using the hierarchical structure of the ontology, in addition to setting the
threshold to the number of patterns based on the experiment, and so forth. In the future, we consider any
performance evaluation with the above-mentioned Google Sets and SEAL managing to make the same
condition for them.
7. CONCLUSION
This paper presented development of an ontology building service, ONTOMO. In addition to the above
future issues, we will consider an automated construction of ontology itself in the future. Web pages which
have relatively high credibility of its content like Wikipedia would be a good source of the ontology. There
are already some researches to build the ontology from part of Wikipedia content, but a point in the future
would be how we merge the information from a variety of sources accurately. We will continue to offer the
ontology tool for the public developers and users of the Internet services incorporating a diverse range of
their opinions.

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REFERENCES
Adobe Flex, < http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/>.
B. Faltings, V. Schickel-Zuber, 2007. Oss: A semantic similarity function based on hierarchical ontologies. Proceedings
of 20th Int. Joint Conf. on Artifical Intelligence (IJCAI 2007), pp.551-556.
Boo!Wa! - A List Extractor for Many Languages (former Seal), <http://boowa.com/>.
E. Agichtein, L. Gravano, 2000. Snowball: Extracting relations from large plain-text collections. Proceedings of 5th
ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conf. on Digital Libraries (JCDL 2000), pp.85-94.
Google Sets, <http://labs.google.com/sets>.
Hozo, <http://www.hozo.jp/ >.
Jena - A Semantic Web Framework for Java, <http://jena.sourceforge.net/>.
KiWi - Knowledge In A Wiki, <http://www.kiwi-project.eu/>.
OWL Web Ontology Language, <http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/>.
S. Brin, 1998. Extracting patterns and relations from the world wide web. WebDB Workshop at 6th International
Conference on Extended Database Technology, pp.172-183.
Spring Graph, <http://mark-shepherd.com/blog/springgraph-flex-component/>.
The Protg Ontology Editor and Knowledge Acquisition System, <http://protege.stanford.edu/>.
World Ranking of Manufacturers Year 2007, <http://oica.net/wp-content/uploads/world-ranking-2007.pdf>.
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FROM THE PROBLEM SPACE TO THE WEB SPACE:
A MODEL FOR DESIGNING LOCALIZED WEB SYSTEMS
Claudia Iacob and Li Zhu
Dipartimento di Informatica e Comunicazione, Universit degli Studi di Milano
Via Comelico 39, 20139 Milano (Italy)
ABSTRACT
Web systems provide solutions for real world problems from various domains. Defining a problem space and
materializing its solution within a web space brings a set of challenges that come from both the diversity of end users
facing the problem and the diversity of technologies available today. This paper addresses the design of Web systems
seen as web spaces which provide their end users with tools tailored to their domain, their role in the domain, their
culture and the platform they are using. These tools help end users develop their exploration of the problem at hand
without being lost in the space. We propose an abstraction model able to support the design of localized web systems and
which preserves software quality measures like maintainability, reuse and consistency. The method for applying this
model together with a concrete example of its application is presented.
KEYWORDS
Abstraction, languages, software design, Web.
1. INTRODUCTION
In the Web 2.0, there is an increasing need of allowing end users i.e. people who are not computer science
experts, but are supported by software systems in performing their everyday work activities (Brancheau,
1993) to access applications and information in a seamless way, using different platforms (Lin, 2008) or
acting different roles (Carrara, 2002). Many of these end users often develop creative activities, such as
design (Xu, 2009), medical diagnosis (Costabile, 2007) or artistic creation (Treadaway, 2009). The goals of
these activities are not sharply defined at the beginning of each activity, but emerge progressively by the
exploration of the problem space. The end users develop their creative processes as unfolding processes, in
which their problem space is progressively differentiated to create a complex solution (Borchers, 2001).
End users therefore need to access a web space, which is a space of opportunities (Alexander, 1977) where
they find tools which allow them to develop their exploration without being lost in this space and converging
to their final results. In their activities, end users of different cultures and working in different domains often
face a common problem and collaborate to reach its solutions. They need to work in teams, share tools as
well as knowledge and wisdom about the problems solutions; moreover, they need to access all resources
according to different styles of interaction, which respect different cultural conventions. Hence, they use
different communication and reasoning tools in their collaboration, giving rise to a set of issues and
difficulties to be faced.
Based on the study of previously designed web systems addressing various problem domains such as
medicine (Costabile 2006), engineering (Valtolina, 2009), geology (Carrara, 2000) - we argue that end users
need to be supported in their daily work activities by being allowed to interact with tools tailored to their
domain, role, culture and platform in use. These tools must reflect the problem domain and need to be
materialized and managed in the Web. Moreover, as experts in their own domains, end users should be
supported to freely express their knowledge of the domain and intentions by using the tools they are
accustomed with. Therefore, we aim to design web interactive systems (WIS) which support end users in
their work by: i). allowing them to reason in their own system of signs and to exploit their skills and
knowledge, ii). mitigating - on the side of the users - the process of changing the flow of reasoning from one
problem domain to another and iii). allowing the materialization of a WIS on diverse digital platforms.
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Research in modeling WISs is being done on several levels. Of interest to our work is the modeling of
WISs in ways that allow the shaping of the system to the user and the platform in use while preserving the
quality standards of software design. For example, in (Lin, 2008) the materialization of a web system is
abstracted by a set of design patterns. These patterns can be applied as a starting point of the design of the
specific system, considering that they provide a solution to a common and usually broadly met problem. The
major disadvantage of this kind of approach is that the collection of generic design patterns is limited and
may not address all the problems of design. In (Calvary, 2003), a framework Cameleon Reference
Framework for describing multi-target user interfaces is presented. The framework follows an object-
oriented approach, modeling at an abstract level the domain of the problem in terms of objects and the
relationships between them. Moreover, the behavior of the system is modeled at the level of task comprising
the description of a set of inter-related tasks. UsiXML (Molina, 2005) is a language used to describe abstract
user interfaces which are independent from the hardware and software platform in use, the physical
environment where the interaction takes place and the users abilities.
The model presented by this paper follows a different approach in that it models the dynamics of each
individual entity in the system separately. The behavior of the overall system is never modeled as a whole,
but decided by the end user during her/his interaction with the system on the basis of the possible actions s/he
can perform on each entity. Moreover, the model allows the localization of a WIS on four levels: problem
domain, end users role and culture and the platform in use.
2. THE DESIGN MODEL PROPOSED
The section proposes an abstraction model to be used for designing WISs localized to the problem domain
the system is a solution for, to the end users profiles (in terms of their role and culture) and to the platform in
use. The model is defined by a hierarchy of levels of abstraction (Figure 1). Each level is described by one or
more XML-based languages which make possible the definition and localization of the virtual systems to the
end users profiles (domain, role, culture and platform). The hierarchy of levels is organized using a top-
down approach, following the description of the web system from the most abstract level of definition to its
concrete instantiation.

Figure 1. The hierarchy of abstraction levels of the design model proposed
1). The top level the meta-model level describes the rules for defining domain-specific languages able
to define WISs, seen as web spaces in which tools to support domain knowledge-related activities are made
available to the end users. This level prescribes how to define the common structure of WISs, describing
them as web spaces and abstracting from their end users roles and cultures and the platforms in use. The
meta-model level is defined by a meta-language Interaction Multimodal Markup Language (IM
2
L). IM
2
L is
used for defining domain-specific object languages at the domain level.
2). The domain level localizes the WISs to a specific domain. In each domain, end users may have
different roles. At the domain level, the common characteristics of the web space defined for end users
113
having different roles in a specific domain are described. These common characteristics are related to the
knowledge-related activities specific to the domain and to the structure of the web space associated to the
WIS. From the definition of IM
2
L, domain-specific object languages called G-IM
2
L - can be derived. Each
such language is tailored to be highly productive in defining web spaces for a specific problem domain.
Therefore, for each application domain, one G-IM
2
L language can be derived. A set of documents written in
G-IM
2
L describes a web space for a particular domain and a specific role in the domain
3). The configuration level comprises two sublevels: the culture localization and platform materialization
sublevels. End users having the same role in the same domain may belong to different cultures and may use
different platforms to interact with the WIS. The configuration level localizes the web space defined at the
domain level to the culture of the end user and to the platform s/he is using. The configuration level is
supported by the definition of two languages Localization Markup Language (LML) that addresses the
culture and Template Language (TL) which addresses the platform.
4). The instance level comprises instances of a WIS defined at the domain and configuration level and
materialized on a specific platform. At this level, the end user can access the WIS, explore it as a web space
and interact with the tools offered within it to perform the activities of interest to him/her.
5). The system level comprises the family of WISs addressing the same domain, but diverse end users
(with different roles and cultures) and platforms.
2.1 Meta-model Level
IM
2
L is a XML-based meta-language whose specification allows the derivation of domain-specific languages
which describe WISs as web spaces localized to a domain. Within a web space, the end user can live some
experiences and make events happen (Borchers, 2001) by performing knowledge-related activities which
allow the externalization of implicit knowledge. IM
2
L describes the rules for defining the characteristics and
the refined structure of web spaces (Alexander, 1977). IM
2
L meta-language prescribes how to define domain-
specific languages which allow the description of WISs abstracting from the end users roles, cultures and
platforms in use. In this way, IM
2
L defines an abstraction model which allows the design and the
implementation of personalized instances of WISs which allow their localization to a domain, and end users
role and culture and a platform. To express the model, we unify and group together the common
characteristics of different knowledge activities based on a knowledge base which must be created,
maintained and updated. The activity of managing the knowledge base is the annotation, which allows end
users to update it by adding comments next to data in order to highlight this datas meaning (Costabile,
2007). Therefore, annotation supports and enhances the communication, as well as the knowledge
production.
IM
2
L defines a web space as superimposing a set of specialized subspaces: infoSpace, workspace,
operatorSpace, messageSpace and transparentSpace. An entity (Costabile, 2007) e
2
in this case, a
specialized subspace - is superimposed to another entity e
1
in this case, the spaces - when e
2
belongs to e1
and every action on both the entities is only handled by e
2
and does not reach e
1
(Bottoni, 1997). The
classification of spaces is made on the basis of the pattern of events made available by each space. An
infoSpace allows the end user to get directions on how to navigate through the space and understand it.
Examples of entities superimposed to an infoSpace are labels and titleBars. A workSpace is the working area
of the system, in which the end user develops activities of interest to her/him, including annotating the
knowledge base. As example, the workSpace in an application like Google Maps is the entity on the screen
containing the map. The operatorSpace permits the end user to interact with the system. A toolbar is a
concrete example of operatorSpace, met in a large variety of web systems. The messageSpace allows the end
user to receive feedback from the system s/he interacts with. As concrete example, a warning message is
superimposed to a messageSpace.
Each type of space superimposes entities possibly other spaces which define it and allow the end user
to perform activities within it. Each entity is defined by a set of characteristics, N = {ID, DESC, T, D, IS, C,
S} where:
a). ID uniquely identifies the entity.
b). DESC shortly describes the entity.
c). T denotes the type of the entity.
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d). D denotes the dynamics of the entity. The dynamics of an entity describes its behavior in response to
the end users actions. This behavior is identified by a set of states an entity could have and a set of
interaction steps through which the entity moves from one state to another.
D := <State>+ <Step>*
Any state must be identifiable and may express at least one property like gravity, emotion, complexity.
State := <ID> <PROPERTY>+; PROPERTY = {Emotion, Complexity, Gravity}
For example, an operator could express an alarming emotion providing that some condition is met.
An interaction step specifies the fact that an entity which is in a state, statePre, moves into a new state,
statePost, under an action from the end user and a possible additional condition. The actions that an end user
can perform on an entity are classified as Selection, Indication and Activation. As example, moving the
mouse over a button triggers an Indication action.
Step := <ACTION> <statePre> <cond> <statePost> <Effect>*
ACTION = {Selection, Indication, Activation}
statePre, statePost are of type State
cond is the condition under which the transition (statePre, ACTION) -> statePost (1) occurs
Moreover, this transition may trigger several effects on other entities.
Effect := <ID> < effectEntity> <newState>
ID identifies the effect uniquely
effectEntity is the ID of an entity defined in the system which is affected by the transition (1)
newState is the ID of a defined state for the entity effectEntity. Following the transition (1), effectEntity
will change its state into state newState
e). IS is the representation of the initial state of the entity. The initial state follows the definition of a
generic state, but identifies the representation of the entity at the start-up of the system.
f). C is the context of the entity, that is the set of entities to which this entity can be superimposed.
g). S is the structure of the entity, which is the set of entities which can be superimposed to it.
The tree structure of the IM
2
L language makes it feasible for the overall definition of IM
2
L to be specified
by a XML Schema. Hence, each entity: i). is being defined by the set N = {ID, DESC, T, D, IS, C, S} and ii).
is identified by its position in the XML Schema.
2.2 Model Level
Each WIS is associated with a domain-specific web space. From the definition of the IM
2
L meta-language, a
set of domain-specific object languages called G-IM
2
L languages can be derived. Each G- IM
2
L language
allows the description of web spaces designed for a particular domain. A G-IM
2
L language localizes a WIS
to a specific domain, describing the knowledge activities to be performed in that domain by end users playing
various roles in different cultural contexts. A set of documents written in G-IM
2
L defines a web space for a
specific role in a particular domain, describing the domain-specific activities allowed to end users with a
particular role in the domain. Moreover, it abstracts this definition from cultural details and from
materialization specific technicalities.
Respecting the definition rules provided by the IM
2
L meta-language, any G-IM
2
L language defines the
web space, a set (or all) of the specialized subspaces and a set (or all) of the entities superimposed to them in
terms of:
a). ID: Any G-IM
2
L must define a unique ID for each entity. The rules for defining the ID are domain
dependent, so each domain specific object language defines them independently. For example, a specific G-
IM
2
L language may define an ID as a string of characters containing at least one digit.
b). DESC: An entity defined in a G-IM
2
L language may be described by a significant name in the domain
of the language.
c). T: Entities defined in G-IM
2
L languages may have a type attribute. Each domain defines its specific
types for each entity defined. For example, the admissible types for a workshopSpace may be ordered and
unordered: T = {ordered, unordered}. For an ordered space, one would assume that the order of the entities
superimposed to the workshopSpace matters, while for an unordered workshopSpace this order does not
matter.
d). D: Conform to the IM
2
L definition of a state, each domain defines the structure of the states of an
entity within the domain together with the possible actions an end user can perform on the entities defined for
115
the domain. For example, a particular domain-specific G-IM
2
L language may define a state as being
identifiable and expressing an emotion.
State := <ID> <Emotion>; Emotion = {appreciation, surprise, disappointment, sense of danger}
Moreover, each G-IM
2
L language defines the possible actions specific to the domain associated to the
G-IM
2
L language.
e). IS: The initial state is a particular state which follows the same definition as a generic state. Any entity
defined in a domain specific G-IM
2
L must have an initial state associated to it.
f). C and S: The definition of a G-IM
2
L is given by an XML Schema, hence the context and the structure
for each entity is embedded within the tree structure of this schema. The entities described by the children of
a node represent the structure, S, of the entity described by the node. The context, C, of an entity is
represented by the entities described by the nodes in the path from the root node of the tree to the node
representing the entity.
The entities defined by a G-IM
2
L language provide means of defining abstractly web spaces tailored to a
specific domain and providing the end user having a specific role only with the tools required for
performing the specific domain related knowledge activities.
2.3 Configuration Level
Tailoring WISs to the end user and the platform in use requires the localization of the domain-specific web
space (associated to the system) to the culture of a certain end user, and to the platform s/he uses.
Consequently, we define two mark-up languages Localization Markup Language and Template Language
able to: i). enhance the abstraction model defined by IM
2
L ii). progressively shape an instance of the WIS
abstractly described by G-IM
2
L documents (and defined for a domain and a role within the domain) to a
specific end user by describing localization and materialization details about the instance.
Localization Markup Language (LML)
LML localizes a web space to a specific culture. The goal of LML is to describe the culture-related
properties of the domain-specific web space associated with an instance of a WIS. These properties are: color
representation, shapes, text alignment, language, and topology (Wright, 1997). LML is a mark-up language,
its elements being documents respecting the LML definition given by a XML Schema (Barricelli, 2009b).
Each targeted culture is associated with a LML document. Text alignment is a culture related property which
specifies the order in which text is displayed for one particular entity or for the overall web space. The
possible values for this property are: left-to-right or right-to-left.
Color representation is a culture-dependent property which is described in LML by functions associating
each G-IM
2
L defined value for each property of a state to a color embedding the meaning of the propertys
value. For example, for a state transmitting an emotion, each possible emotion transmitted is associated to a
color which embeds the meaning of the specific emotion in a particular culture. Table 2 provides a mapping
between the color associated to emotions for the Italian and the Japanese cultures.
Table 1. Italian and Japanese color-emotion mapping
Emotion Italian Japanese
appreciation
surprise
disappointment
sense of danger

The instance of the system for the Italian culture will use yellow for representing the states expressing
appreciation, while the instance for the Japanese culture will use green to represent the same states.
Language is addressed in LML by a language dictionary repository which assigns to each G-IM
2
L defined
entity the translation of the text associated with it in the language of the culture targeted. Topology specifies
the order in which entities will be represented for a specific culture. The shapes property associates each
entity with a set of shapes that may be used for representing it for a specific culture.
Template Language (TL)
TL localizes a web space to a specific platform. TL provides means to describe the way each instance of
the WIS will be materialized on the platform in use. TL describes the platform specific properties of the
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instances of WISs and the way their structure is affected by these properties. Examples of materialization
properties are relocatable geometry, and graphical properties (such as the lines thickness). As example, an
instance of a WIS materialized on a laptop will address the specificities of the display of the laptop, while an
instance of the same system designed for a mobile device will respect different properties of materialization
accordingly to the platforms specification (memory, input/output devices, display size, resolution and so on).
The elements of TL are documents which respect the schema definition of TL (Barricelli, 2009b).
A TL document describes a set of templates to be applied for a specific platform. Each template
associates a G-IM
2
L defined state of an entity with the parameterized snippet of SVG or HTML code to be
used for its materialization on a specific platform. As example, describing the materialization of an
information type entity, its initial state may be associated to a snippet of code which will describe a label and
will replace the text and the color of the label with parameters whose values will be decided at run-time
based on the culture of the end user.
3. THE MODEL APPLIED
This section describes a step-wise design method for reaching concrete instances of WISs applying the
aforementioned model. The method follows a top-down approach and progressively shapes personalized
instances of WISs. The sequence of steps to be followed during the instantiation of the system has as starting
point the existing definition of the IM
2
L meta-language (Meta-Model Level in Figure 2), based on which
domain-specific G-IM
2
L languages can be defined. A set of G-IM
2
L documents (Domain Model Level in
Figure 2) abstractly describes an instance of a WIS, seen as a web space localized to a domain and addressing
end users having a specific role in the context. The G-IM
2
L definition of the domain-specific web space is
being augmented at the configuration level by the culture localization (Culture Configuration sublevel in
Figure 2) and the platform materialization (Platform Configuration sublevel in Figure 2). The culture
localization phase adds to the web space the culture-related properties described by the LML documents,
while the platform materialization phase binds it to a specific platform, by applying to it the properties
described by the TL documents.

Figure 2. The flow of reasoning in reaching families of interactive virtual systems from IM
2
L
Culture localization and platform materialization properties are merged with the abstract description
defined by the G-IM
2
L documents, reaching an instance of the WIS (Instance Level in Figure 2). Any
instance of a WIS addresses a specific domain, an end users culture and role in the context and a platform.
The set of all instances of a WIS defined for a specific domain and for end users having different roles,
cultures and using different platform form a family of system (System Level in Figure 2).
The flow of execution for reaching a particular instance of a WIS starts with checking the profiles of the
end user who accesses an instance of the WIS, in terms of her/his role in the context, her/his cultures, and the
platform in use. The G-IM
2
L documents are then loaded together with the culture localization (LML) and
117
platform materialization (TL) documents according to the end users profiles. The LML and the TL
documents become the input for a XSLT processor. The XSLT processor merges the LML and TL
documents, creating a localized template for the instance. The localized template is further on merged with
the G-IM
2
L documents. The result of the XSLT processor is a full tree representing the initial state of the
entire instance of the WIS, which is then materialized on the screen and ready to react to the end users
actions. The end users actions are captured as events and are treated according to the dynamics rules
embedded in the G-IM
2
L documents.
3.1 A Concrete Example
The design method proposed by this paper follows an iterative approach in that it allows, at each step of its
definition, the design and the implementation of concrete examples of WISs. The example presented in this
subsection the Valchiavenna Portal - is one iteration of the method (Barricelli, 2009). The portal addresses
the tourists and domain experts interested in a valley situated in the northern part of Italy, called
Valchiavenna.
The design of the portal initiates with deriving from IM
2
L a G-IM
2
L object language addressing the
touristic domain. This domain-specific language provides means of defining touristic web systems which
allow viewing and annotating points of interest on a map of the Valchiavenna region. The abstract
characteristics and the structure of these spaces are described by two sets of documents written in the
touristic-specific G-IM
2
L object language: i). one set describes the touristic web space for tourists and ii). the
second set describes the touristic web space for domain experts (such as historians, geologists). The common
activity for both types of end users of the portal is the annotation they are all allowed to annotate points on
the map. However, for each role, different annotation means are described. Tourists are allowed to associate
points on the map with visual links (emoticons) to the personal comments on their visit of the place. On the
other hand, domain experts are provided with tools to associate points on the map with star operators ( )
which are linked to certified specialized multimedia descriptions of the place. Two LML documents are
defined for describing the culture related characteristics for the Italian and the Japanese cultures. Moreover,
two TL documents describe the materialization characteristics of the system for two different platforms: PDA
and laptop.

Figure 4. Valchiavenna portal for Japanese tourists (A) and Italian domain experts (B) using laptops
Figure 4 shows the representation of two possible final instances of the portal, both being part of the same
family of systems. The first one addresses Japanese tourists using a laptop; it: i). respects the cultural
conventions of the Japanese culture (like language, color and shape representations) and ii). provides the end
user with the specific tools needed for a tourist (annotating points on the map by providing the personal
feedback on the visit of the place). A localized instance of the system may be materialized also for Italian
tourists using different types of devices. The second instance addresses Italian domain experts; it: i). respects
the Italian cultural conventions and ii). provides the end user with the specific tools needed by domain
experts (annotating places on the map providing specialized multimedia descriptions of the place). Similarly,
Japanese domain experts may be provided with an instance of the system localized to their culture and
possibly other platforms.
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4. CONCLUSION
We argue that nowadays, end users should be supported in the exploration of the problem space they are
facing by web spaces addressing each end users profile. The paper considers as part of end users profile
his/her culture, his/her role in a domain and the platform s/he is using in interacting with the web space. We
describe an abstraction model for designing web interactive systems, seen as web spaces and which can be
localized to the end users profiles, allowing him/her to interact with the system using systems of signs
familiar to him/her. The paper also describes the method to be used in applying the model together with a
concrete example of the model applied.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank Piero Mussio for the useful and insightful discussions. This work was
supported by the Initial Training Network "Marie Curie Actions.
REFERENCES
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Barricelli, B. R., Iacob, C., Zhu, L. 2009. Map-based Wikis as Contextual and Cultural Mediators, Community Practices
and Locative Media workshop at Mobile HCI09. Bonn, Germany. Available online: http://www.uni-
siegen.de/locatingmedia/workshops/mobilehci/barricelli_map-
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Design for the Future Experience, Vol. 5, No. 6, pp. 23-30.
Borchers, J., 2001. A Pattern Approach to Interaction Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, New Jersey.
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creation, recording and improvement in collaborative design. Proc. of KES IIMSS 09, Venice, Italy, pp. 31-41.
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Berkeley, USA, pp. 443-444.
119
A FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING CONTEXT-BASED
BLOG CRAWLERS
Rafael Ferreira
1
, Rinaldo J . Lima
1
, Ig Ibert Bittencourt
2
, Dimas Melo Filho
3
, Olavo Holanda
2
,
Evandro Costa
2
, Fred Freitas
1
and Ldia Melo
1

1
Informatics Center, Federal University of Pernambuco - Av. Professor Lus Freire, 50740-540, Recife Brazil
2
Web Optimization Group, Federal University of Alagoas - Av. Lourival Melo Mota, 57072-970 Macei, Brazil
3
College of computers and technology of Pernambuco - Rua do Progresso 441, 50070-020 Recife, Brazil
ABSTRACT
The development of the Web brought an interactive environment in which an increasing number of users are sharing their
knowledge and opinions. Blogs are a growing part of this environment. Considering the rate at which knowledge is
created daily in the blogosphere, such an amount of information could be used by several applications. However, the
infeasibility of manual information extraction fromblogs demands the development of new computational approaches.
This context is the rationale for the blog crawlers, software programs capable of searching and extracting information
fromblogs. This paper proposes a framework that helps the user in the task of building blog crawlers. The proposed
framework provides further access to several tools, simplifying the overall development of new applications. We also
present an algorithm for locating the textual content within blogs. Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility of our
framework by means of an instantiation of it that achieved a precision and recall of 73.46% and 71.92%, respectively.
KEYWORDS
Blog Crawler, Framework, Blog, Information Retrieval, Blogosphere.
1. INTRODUCTION
Over recent years, the evolution of the Web changed the way users interact with information. This evolution
allowed them to become an active part of the Web through new interfaces that permit the creation and
management of textual content in a collaborative way. This phenomenon is known as Web 2.0 [Isotani et al.,
2009]. With the Web 2.0, several collaborative tools were implemented and made available to the public, i.e.,
wikis, forums and blogs.
According to a Technoratis report in 2008 [White and Winn, 2008], there were more than 133 million
blogs. Furthermore, this same report showed that the activity on blogs doubled every two hundred days. Each
blog consists essentially of publications regarding authors thoughts and opinions. The growing number of
interconnected blogs constitutes what is known as the blogosphere. In other words, the blogosphere is the
entire community of blogs on the Web.
Given the amount of knowledge and information being created everyday in the blogosphere, ones could
envisage it as a potential source of knowledge for numerous applications. For instance, it could be used to
analyze users opinions or personal preferences concerning a specific product or trademark. On the other
hand, in order to make a profitable use of this information, it is necessary to properly retrieve and process it
[Chau et al., 2009]. However, with the increasing number of blogs available on the Internet, it is infeasible to
extract all this information manually, thus there is a need of computational approaches for information
extraction from blogs.
Much research has being developed to automate the blog extraction process. There are approaches using
techniques from natural language processing [Berwick et al., 1991], information retrieval [Manning et al.,
2008] and information extraction [Mooney and Bunescu, 2005]. For the document acquisition task, the field
of information retrieval (IR) stands out [Hotho et al., 2005], since it is mainly concerned with identifying
relevant texts for a particular purpose within a huge text collection. However, these IR techniques alone are
not so effective when applied on the blogosphere. A more feasible alternative is to contextualize the posts of
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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the blogs. This approach is used by blog indexing services like Technorati, Icerocket and Blogcatalog
1
.These
companies maintain tagging services for Internet sites and blogs, considerably increasing the semantic level
associated to them [Mathes, 2004]. For instance, if a blog post related to a math class is marked with an
education tag, it is inserted into the educational context, hence facilitating the search process and providing
better search results to the user.
In this light, in order to enable users to perform their searches, the text and information related to each
blog need to be properly indexed and stored. Such a task is performed by blog crawlers [Arasu et al., 2001].
In order to build a blog crawler, we should consider many aspects related to blogs itself, such as language
used by them, blog indexing service, preprocessing tasks, and indexing techniques. In addition, the blog
crawler should be easily extendable, due to the dynamic nature of the Web.
Thus, a good framework for constructing blog crawlers should attend to all these issues [Johnson and
Foote, 1988]. With a framework that could be easily extendable for different applications, the users would
create specific blog crawlers with little effort.
Accordingly, we propose a framework for building context-based blog crawlers. The framework uses tags
to increase the semantic level of the blogs and provides many services, such as preprocessing, indexing and
general text extraction from HTML. We also present an instantiation of the framework based on Technoratis
tagging system.
This article is structured as follows: Section 2 details the frameworks architecture components. An
example of how to instantiate the proposed framework, as well as first results and discussion are shown in
Section 3. Related work is presented in Section 4. Finally, in Section 5, we present our conclusions and future
work.
2. THE FRAMEWORKS ARCHITECTURE
The proposed system architecture consists of a white-box framework which allows the development of
context-based blog crawlers. This framework provides application services such as text preprocessing, blog
indexing, text extraction from HTML pages, and an API allowing the user to easily implement data
persistence. The general architecture is shown on Figure 1. The aforementioned services are explained in
more detail below.
2.1 The Crawler Module
This is the main module of the framework. The Application and TagParser classes from this module are
directly connected to the frameworks core. In order to create an application with it, the user must extend
these two classes. The user can configure some aspects of the application by initializing a few attributes when
extending the Application class. For example, she can define the language that will be used by the crawler,
the preprocessing algorithm, and the text extraction method, just to mention a few. Concerning the TagParser
class, the only requirement for using it, is to define the tagSearch() method, which executes a search and
returns a list of blogs matching a given tag. This will be further discussed in the Section 3.1.
2.2 The Application and General Services Modules
The Application Services Module provides many services that are used in the crawling process. These
services allow users to create several applications, i.e., in other scenarios, the framework is not limited to the
creation of blog crawlers. It follows a short description of all these services:
Preprocessing: This service removes the information considered irrelevant to the blog analysis. The
current version of the framework can perform four types of preprocessing: i) CleanHTML [Hotho et al.,
2005], which is responsible for cleaning all HTML tags; ii) EnglishFiltering [Frakes and Baeza-Yates, 1992]
which can filter just English text; iii) EnglishStemming [Porter, 1980], performing a classical stemming
technique, reducing the word to its lemma; and iv) WhiteSpace, which removes extra whitespaces;

1
http://technorati.com, http://www.icerocket.comand http://www.blogcatalog.com, respectively.
121
Indexing: We delegated the implementation of this service to the Lucene
2
tool. The service is in
charge of indexing texts for the search process.
Text Extraction from HTML pages: This service extracts the textual content of blog posts. It is
based on the SummaryStrategy algorithm that will be discussed in Section 2.4;
Persistent storage API: This API is responsible for saving, retrieving and updating instances in
either a MySQL
3
database or in a RDF schema-based repository as Sesame
4
.
The General services module implements basic services which are used in the crawling process. It
provides file manipulation, HTTP requests, XML file manipulation, and language detection. All web
connections are handled by the HTTP service provided by this module.

Figure 1. The framework's architecture
2.3 The toolkit and Persistence Modules
The Toolkit Module has several interfaces to the following set of APIs and tools: i) Lucene and Lingpipe
5
,
for extraction and text retrieval; ii) Hibernate and Elmo, which handle data persistence transparently; iii)
HttpClient, for HTTP page retrieval; iv) Google Language Detection, to detect the language of the blogs text.
The Toolkit module makes transparent the use of each one of these tools, providing an effortless access to
them which decreases the learning time. For instance, the user does not to go deeper in details about Lucene
API in order to build an application that actually uses it. Instead, she could delegate to the Lucenes functions
of the framework.
The Persistence Module is responsible for the storage. It supports MySQL databases and Sesame, which
is an open source J ava framework for storage and querying of RDF data. Particularly, if the user chooses to
use Sesame, she has to define the ontology which will be used as the database schema.

2
http://lucene.apache.org
3
http://www.mysql.com
4
http:// www.openrdf.org
5
Lingpipe is a toolkit for processing text using computational linguistics: http://alias-i.com/lingpipe/
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2.4 The Summarystrategy Algorithm
During the implementation of this framework, we have faced the task of extracting the textual content of
blogs posts. In order to do that, we had to find the delimiters indicating both the beginning and the ending of
the posts within a blog page. Furthermore, the fact that each blog has its own HTML structure makes this
task more difficult. Therefore, we propose the SummaryStrategy algorithm which uses both the link of the
original blog to retrieve it and a brief summary of the post to find its text within a blog page. Since we rely on
blog indexing services like Technoratis to retrieve the summaries of the blogs, their acquisition was a minor
issue. Being the summary text and the text inside the blog exactly the same, the algorithm can make use of
the former as a reference to find the latter inside the blog page. However, the blog summary is seldom written
in plain text (without any formatting markup), contrasting with the text inside the blog and this fact can
prevent the algorithm to locate the summary within a blog page. To overcome that difficulty, if the algorithm
was not able to find the beginning of the posts text content, it tries to use smaller fragments of the summary
as a reference, until it finds it.
The algorithm also has to detect the posts endings. By analyzing the layout tags used by different blog
pages, we noticed that we could use the block-delimiting HTML tags (i.e. </div>) as delimiters of the textual
content of blogs posts. The Figure 2 shows the pseudocode of the SummaryStrategy algorithm, where
Summary and blogHTML are strings, and possibleEndings is a list of strings.

1 while (length of Summary > 0) do:
2 if (Summary is found within blogHTML) then:
3 textStart position of Summary within blogHTML
4 for each ending in possibleEndings do:
5 if (ending is found within blogHTML, after textStart) then:
6 textEnd ending position within blogHTML, after textStart
7 return text between textStart and textEnd
8 end if
9 end for
10 return not found
11 end if
12 delete the last character of Summary
13 end while
14 return not found
Figure 2. Pseudocode of the summarystrategy algorithm.
The algorithm is fast and has low processing requirements. The downside of the algorithm is that it relies
on a summary and on hardcoded delimiters (i.e. the div tag) to extract the full text from blogs posts.
In a future version of our framework, we could implement webpage template-detection techniques such as
proposed by [Wang et al., 2008]. The template-detection algorithms are able to infer the layout template of a
web site, generally by counting block frequencies. Thus, these algorithms can be used to determine the blogs
posts.
3. THE FRAMEWORKS INSTANTIATION
This section briefly describes the development of an application using the proposed framework, and
discusses an analysis of the developed application.
3.1 Developing an Application with the Framework
As previously stated, the only requirement to create an application using our framework is to extend the
Application and TagParser classes.
When extending the Application class, the user can configure some aspects of the application by setting
attributes of the class. The user can define features as the desired language of blogs, the type of persistence,
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the preprocessing and indexing techniques, and the tags to search for. This gives a lot of flexibility to the
application.
In order to extend the TagParser class, the user only needs to implement the tagSearch() method. This
method is responsible for finding blogs with a specific tag. At first this may seem a difficult task, however it
gets a lot simpler by making use of tagging services as the one provided by Technoratis. Nevertheless, its
worth mentioning that we do not recommend the use of multiple data sources, i.e., using several blog
indexing services at the same time, because this can cause information inconsistency.
In our instantiation we used five categories (tags): education, economy, entertainment, sports and movies.
We have chosen to use a limited number of categories to simplify our analysis. For the tagSearch() method
we used Technoratis search service because it provides a wide range of tags (both general and specific ones).
For instance, there are general tags in politics context and specific tags related to political personalities, as
Barak Obama. In addition, even though the framework allowed us to work with blogs in many languages, for
the sake of simplicity, we preferred just to deal with blogs in English. The SummaryStrategy algorithm was
used for the text extraction from blogs posts.
3.2 Results and Discussion
We evaluated one frameworks instantiation and the results are discussed below. The evaluation was based in
two common metrics of information retrieval systems: precision and recall [Baeza-Yates and Ribeiro-Neto,
1999]. The precision allowed us to know how many of the retrieved posts were relevant. In our context, a
post was considered relevant only if it was complete and written in English. The recall indicates how many
relevant posts were retrieved, considering the total set of relevant posts.
For this first simple analysis, we selected twenty blogs from each of the five aforementioned categories.
The crawling results were inspected manually. Table 1 shows the results.
Table 1. Results by category
Category Precision Recall
Education 61.5% 65%
Economy
Entertainment
Sports
Movies
83.3%
60%
87.5%
75%
66.6%
60%
80%
88%
Average 73.46% 71.92%

As we could notice, some categories performed better in this evaluation than others. For instance, the
sports category got a precision of 87.5% and a recall of 80%, while the entertainment category scored 60%
for both the precision and recall. This variability in the results occurred due to differences in the level of
language in which the blogs are written in. Sports blogs tends to be more formal and better structured,
because they tend to have connections with larger organizations. On the other hand, blogs about
entertainment subjects are mainly written by the general public, they tend to be less formal and contain slang
language that affects the text extraction process.
The algorithm managed to achieve an average precision and recall of 73.46% and 71.92%, respectively.
4. RELATED WORK
[Glance et al., 2004] proposed an application for analyzing collections of blog using machine learning and
natural language processing techniques to select the most quoted phrases and accessed blogs.
In [Hurst and Maykov, 2009], the authors proposed a blog crawler that was concerned with specific issues
such as performance, scalability and fast update. Their crawler takes in account low latency, high scalability
and data quality, and appropriate network politeness. The distributed crawler architecture is composed of
scheduling, fetching, and list creation subsystems, as well as a natural language parser.
More recently, [Wei-jiang et al., 2009] tried to increase the quality and accuracy of searches in blogs.
The authors proposed a blog-oriented crawler, and compared it to a topical crawler using their specific
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features. For the development of this blog crawler, it was considered three algorithms for recognizing blog
pages, for blog crawling, and for links extraction.
Despite the fact that all works described above explored important and interesting features of the
Blogosphere, they are not directly concerned with the blog retrieval and blog description issue. For Glance et
al. the blog retrieval is important, however they use metrics that do not increase the description level of the
blogs. Wei-jiang et al. focused on blog searching, considering some aspects of the extraction and information
retrieval issues. Finally, Hurst and Maykov just considered the blogs searching task as the more important
requirement of their system.
In our frameworks instantiation, we used tagging systems to enhance the semantic level of retrieved
blogs, improving the search process. Indeed, all the cited works are focused on one specific domain.
Contrarily, our proposal is more open and general in which the user will have little effort to extend our
framework for creating new applications. In other words, our proposed framework is at a higher level of
abstraction which facilitates the customization of blog crawlers in the context of any greater application.
The main purpose of this work was to propose a framework for building context-based blog crawlers. The
proposed framework comprises a large set of tools and keeps a high level of abstraction for the developer,
providing an easy access to its tools and APIs. Many of its aspects were detailed. The potential of our
framework was evidenced by an instantiation on a typical blog extraction task that achieved satisfactory
results: an average precision of 73.46% and average recall of 71.92%.
The framework presents many expected features suggested by the software engineering field, such as:
reliability, risk reduction, rapid prototype development, and easy maintenance, among others. Furthermore,
our framework provides access to many tools and is able to deal with multiple languages.
As future work, we intend to: (1) perform a deeper evaluation of an improved version of the
SummaryStrategy algorithm (with some more heuristics). In addition, we would like to compare it with other
layout template-detection algorithms; (2) add an information extraction module for enabling further blogs
analysis; and finally, (3) provide a component for combining the tags suggested by several blog indexing
services, based on a fine-grained information extraction performed by the aforementioned module. Moreover,
this same component would be able to classify new untagged retrieved blog pages improving in this way the
robustness of our framework.
REFERENCES
Arasu, A. et al., 2001. Searching the web. ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, 1(1), pp. 243.
Berwick, R. C. Abney, S. P. and Tenny, C., 1991. Principle-Based Parsing. Computation and Psycholinguistics. SIGART
Bull, 3 (2), pp. 26-28.
Baeza-Yates, R. A. and Ribeiro-Neto, B., 1999. Modern Information Retrieval.: Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing.
Boston.
Chau M., LamP. , Shiu B., Xu J. and Cao J . 2009. A Blog Mining Framework. Social Network Applications. IEEE
Computer Society.
Frakes, W. B. and Baeza-Yates, R. A., 1992. Information Retrieval: Data Structures & Algorithms. Upper Saddle River:
Prentice-Hall.
Glance, N.S. Hurst, M. and Tomokiyo, T., 2004. Blogpulse: Automated trend discovery for weblogs. In: WWW2004,
workshop on the weblogging ecosystem: aggregation, analysis and dynamics. New York City, USA, 17-22.
Hotho, A. et al., 2005. A Brief Survey of Text Mining. GLDV Journal for Computational Linguistics and Language
Technology, 20 (1), pp.19-62.
Hurst, M. and Maykov, A., 2009. Social streams blog crawler. In: Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International
Conference on Data Engineering, Shanghai, China.
Isotani, S. et al., 2009. Estado da arte emweb semntica e web 2.0: Potencialidades e tendncias da nova gerao de
ambientes de ensino na internet. Revista Brasileira de Informtica na Educao, 17 (1), pp.30-42.
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J ohnson, R. E. and Foote, B., 1988. Designing reusable classes. Journal of Object-Oriented Programming, 1 (2), pp.22
35.
Manning, C. D. et al., 2008. Introduction to Information Retrieval. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mathes, A., 2004. Folksonomies-cooperative classification and communication through shared metadata. Computer
Mediated Communication.
Mooney, R. J. and Bunescu, R. C. 2005. Mining knowledge from text using information extraction. SIGKDD
Explorations, 7 (1), pp.3-10.
Porter, M. F., 1980. An algorithmfor suffix stripping. Program, 14 (3), pp.130-137.
Wang, Y. Fang, B. Xeng, C. Guo, L. Xu, H., 2008. Incremental Web Page Template Detection. In: WWW2008: 17
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International World Wide Web Conference. Beijing, China 21-25.
Wei-jiang, L., Hua-suo R., Kun H., J ia L., 2009. A New Algorithm of Blog-oriented Crawler. In: International Forum on
Computer Science-Technology and Applications, IFCSTA.
White, D. and Winn, P., 2008. State of the Blogosphere [online] Available at:
<http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2008/>[Accessed 29 August 2010].
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ENFORCEMENT OF NORMS IN SELF-ORGANIZING
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES
Juliana de Melo Bezerra and Celso Massaki Hirata
Computer Science Department, ITA
S.J.Campos, Brazil
ABSTRACT
In virtual communities, norms are established in order to discipline and organize their members. The community is called
self-organizing virtual community when members are responsible to define and update the norms. Cooperation is
required both in the execution of the community activities and in the definition of norms. As consequence of cooperation,
conflicts may arise, and as consequence of conflicts, norm infractions may occur. Norm infractions can be also
consequence of vandalism and misunderstanding of norms. Dealing with norm infractions is essential to keep the order in
the community. An effective way to deal with norm infractions is provide approaches of enforcement of norms. This
article presents an extension of self-organizing virtual community model and a process for enforcing the norms. The
model considers malicious members, enforcement norms, and enforcement procedures. The process takes into account
norm infractions detection and analysis, sanctions, and damages. The proposed model can be used as a guideline for
designing and constructing self-organizing virtual communities.
KEYWORDS
Self-organizing, virtual community, enforcement, norm, sanction, damage.
1. INTRODUCTION
A community is an association of people, called members who are oriented by individual motivations and
cooperate in order to achieve a common objective (Lenhard, 1988). When the relationship among members
and the cooperation itself takes place over the Internet, the community is known as virtual community
(Rheingold, 1998). The term virtual is applied because the members are not in contact personally, but they are
connected through the Internet.
Norms are established in order to discipline and organize the members in communities. A norm is a type of
principle or rule that states obligation, permission, power attribution or competence attribution (Palaia, 2005)
(Lyons, 1984). As members interests and demands change over time, virtual communities are not fixed and
consequently norms evolve. Virtual communities that promote their own evolution are called self-organizing
virtual communities because they create, increment and adapt the norms that govern their relations and
processes. The self-organization stimulates the participation and involvement of members, contributing to the
persistence of the community over time (Moe et al., 2008).
Examples of self-organizing virtual communities are LinuxQuestions.org (Lattemann, 2005), Wikipedia
(Goldspink et al., 2008) (Beschastnikh et al., 2008), NetBeans.org (Jensen and Scacchi, 2005) and Apache.org
(Lattemann, 2005). In these communities members can change the norms by participating on their
enhancements. According to the above definition, virtual communities as Linkedin and Orkut are not self-
organizing ones, because norms are established by a board (that maintain the community) and not by
members.
The norms definition is essential for the community organization and the enforcement of such norms shall
be also addressed. As explained by Palaia (2005), a norm shall contain a coercion element in order to force the
members to follow it: if a member disregards a norm, he/she suffers a sanction effect, which is a punishment
for the violation. It is important to mention that a sanction is not always a punishment. The punishment is a
negative sanction. There can be also positive sanctions, as rewards (Palaia, 2005). The positive sanctions are
useful to instigate the effort of members in some direction, for example a reputation scheme to congratulate
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members that make relevant contributions to the community. In order to ease the understanding of the text, we
use the term sanction as a synonym of punishment.
The enforcement of norms in self-organizing virtual communities has attracted interest. Nahon and
Neumann (2005) study how virtual communities that share messages, specifically forums, regulate themselves.
They explain that some members called managers are responsible to detect and disregard messages that
infringe norms. Geiger and Ribes (2010) relate a case of banning a vandal in Wikipedia. They explain how
some members, the vandal fighters, work assisted by tools called bots (Geiger, 2009) in order to keep the
community harmonious by enforcing the norms. The article gives an overview about how Wikipedia enforces
its norms by combining people and bots. Forte and Bruckman (2008) identify in Wikipedia the design
principles for self-organizing communities studied by Ostrom (2000) for physical communities that manage
natural resources. The principles include concepts of monitoring, sanction, and enforcement. Other articles
Flynn (2001), Moe et al. (2008), and Lattemann and Stieglitz (2005) report on how the enforcement of norms
is used in some specific communities. However the articles do not provide a general model for the
enforcement of norms in self-organizing virtual communities.
The enforcement of norms helps to assure that the norms are obeyed by members, contributing to keep the
order in the community. Keeping the order, members cooperate harmoniously and they are more confident on
the community ability to handle undesired situations. Therefore, community credibility and members
motivation increase. In this article, we propose an extended model of self-organizing virtual communities
addressing the enforcement of norms with specific norms and procedures. In order to accomplish the
enforcement, we also propose an enforcement process taking into account norm infractions, sanctions and
damages.
In Section 2 we discuss some aspects that lead to the existence of norm infractions and we address the
concepts related to a norm infraction. In Section 3, we propose the extended model to deal with enforcement in
virtual communities. We identify the enforcement process and then we include it in the model of self-
organizing virtual communities. Section 4 provides some discussions with respect to the model. The last
section concludes our work.
2. NORM INFRACTIONS AND RELATED CONCEPTS
In this section, we discuss the cooperation and competition forces in communities and norm infractions.
Besides we describe some concepts associated to a norm infraction.
2.1 Norm Infractions
In all communities, physical or virtual, there are forces that join and dissipate members. A force is called
cooperation, when members work together aiming a common objective. In virtual communities cooperation is
aided by tools of computer supported cooperative work. In order to organize the cooperation, members are
assigned to roles that define permissions on activities that they are allowed to perform (Lenhard, 1988). So the
operational norms are established in the community.
Cooperation is a motivation for the existence of a community; however it is not the unique force in the
community. There is the competition motivated by opposite views between members. A competition is not just
for obtaining a scarce good or the best of the goods, but it may happen to conquer power, fame, status and
partners (Ogburg and Nimkoff, 1972).
Competition sometimes contributes to incentive members in their activities. However, when competition
amplifies and the objective of a member becomes to win the other, a conflict arises (Lenhard, 1988). Norm
infractions can appear during a conflict, because the opponents are involved in the dispute and may ignore the
established norms that govern behaviors and relations. In this case, norm infractions are related to insult and
personal attacks. In some virtual communities the possibility of occurrence of conflicts is reduced by the lack
of cooperation, for example in communities whose objective is the social networking, such as Orkut and
Linkedin. In this kind of community, a member maintains his goods and shares them only with desired
members. Members do not develop an activity together, so cooperation is almost inexistent as well as conflict.
Other virtual communities can reduce conflicts even with the presence of active cooperation. It is the case
of JEMS (Journal and Event Management System), a community of researchers that submit and review papers
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for technical conferences. In JEMS the profiles of some members (reviewers) are kept in anonymity during
discussions, which may contribute to the reduction of personal attacks and offenses.
Self-organizing virtual communities are more prone to conflicts, because the cooperation is required both
in the accomplishments of the community activities and in the definition of norms. In both cases, norm
infraction may occur as consequence of conflicts, so the community has to resort to the enforcement of norms
so that the order can be maintained.
Norm infractions may arise during conflicts; nonetheless conflicts are not something that should be
avoided in communities. Conflicts are useful because they generate distinct points of view, which can help
members to better analyze the topics being discussed. It should be noted that norms infractions are not only
consequence of conflicts, they can be caused by either vandalism (when a member intentionally desires to
corrupt community resources) or some misunderstanding during the interpretation of norms.
2.2 Concepts related to Norm Infraction
Sanctions guide the behavior of the members so that norms established by the community are obeyed. Clear
and unambiguous norms must be provided in order to reduce misunderstandings. We identify three concepts
related to norm infraction: sanction, damage and impact. Figure 1 shows the concepts and some of the
relations.
A norm infraction causes damages in the community, for example misuse of a page editor makes available
contents with offenses. Damages have impact, such as the undesirable exposition and loss of members, and the
decrease of community credibility. A sanction, applied to a transgressor, should depend on the impact of the
caused damage, for example a sanction for writing nonsense phrases in content should be less severe than a
sanction for writing offenses. A sanction may also depend on the history of the transgressor, for instance a
member that insists on vandalism has to be punished in a harder way in order to change his/her behavior.

Figure 1. Concepts related to a norm infraction
The damages have to be recovered in order to minimize their impacts. In virtual communities based on
forums, the damage is recovered by disregarding messages. Examples of damages in forums are: irrelevant
messages (the messages are not related to the community objective), messages that infringe community culture
(offenses to members) or that contain commercial information (spam) (Nahon and Neumann, 2005).
Priedhorsky et al. (2007) study types of damages in Wikipedia and their impact. Some reported damages
are misinformation (or false information), mass and partial delete (to delete articles content), offenses (to
write text with obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks), spam, and nonsense (text that is meaningless to
the readers). Some impacts of the damages are to confuse, offend or mislead readers. Besides, the impacts may
include the loss of members and the reduction of articles quality. A common technique to recover the
damages is the reversion of the contents to a valid version.
Lattemann and Stieglitz (2005) explain that in open source communities the sanctions are not limited to the
exclusion of the transgressor and the loss of reputation. Transgressors may be flamed, meaning they are
publicly named and judged by other community members. In this kind of community, the damages are mainly
concerned about misconduct in the developed codes. The authors also comment that the threat of the sanctions
may help to achieve quality assurance.
Flynn (2001) relates the case of an adult-oriented forum that had norms stating that it was forbidden to
share child pornography and to practice spam. The community only recovered the damages caused by
transgressors by removing the inadequate messages. However no sanction was applied to the transgressors, so
there were no means to block them, because the members did not use login and password to access the system.
As the number of vandals increased and the community did not find a way to stop them, the forum was closed.
This case illustrates the need of sanctions to enforce norms in virtual communities.
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3. THE ENFORCEMENT OF NORMS
In this section, we extend the model of self-organizing virtual communities with the enforcement of norms.
We also propose an enforcement process, detailing its activities and relations.
3.1 Enforcement in the Community Model
Bezerra and Hirata (2010) propose a model for self-organizing virtual communities. The model is composed
by three main elements: Members, Norms and System. The Members belong to the community motivated by
their personal goals. They define and improve Norms that possibly change how they work by imposing
discipline. The System, by implementing the norms, provides the means for the members to work, interact, and
achieve their goals. The System comprises Resources, Access Control policy model and Procedures.
Resources encompasses all the goods developed in the community, such as messages in forums, articles in
Wikipedia, and documents and codes in open source communities. The permissions over the Resources are
handled by an Access Control policy model. Procedures are driven by the norms and detail the operational
participation of the members, for example a procedure to invite a member for the community, and a procedure
to revise an article or code.
In this article we extend the previous model with elements related to the enforcements of norms as shown
in Figure 2. The norms and procedures related to the cooperation of members to develop their Resources are
now called, respectively, Work Norms and Work Procedures. There can be distinct kind of Work Norms, for
example in Wikipedia they are mainly divided in content-related and behavior-related norms (Geiger and
Ribes, 2010). The way that the enforcement is performed has to be also established using additional norms we
call Enforcement Norms. The Enforcement Norms regulate how the community detects violations in norms
and deals with the concepts of sanctions and damages. Besides, the Enforcement Norms have associated
procedures called Enforcement Procedures.

Figure 2. Self-organizing virtual community model with enforcement of norms
The extended model also includes a new relation called references between system and norms, because
during the enforcement activities, the Enforcement Norms may be referenced to. Another consideration is that
the Access Control can be seen as the primary mean of enforcement, because it assigns permissions to
members manipulate resources according to the rights and duties established by norms.
The model shown in Figure 2 divides the members into two classes: non-malicious members and malicious
members. In the former model proposed by Bezerra and Hirata (2010), all the members are considered non-
malicious. The non-malicious members use the system correctly obeying the defined norms. The malicious
members misuse the system by infracting the established norms. As a consequence of the malicious behavior,
the mechanisms to enforce norms may make use of the system to restrict the transgressor activities.
In order to know what the Enforcement Norms and Procedures should address, the next section identifies
some activities related to the enforcement of norms. In this article, the term activity is used to indicate an
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abstract task or set of tasks. The term procedure is a concrete and detailed way to accomplish the activity, i.e.
its task or set of tasks, considering the specificities of the community established in norms.
3.2 A Process for the Enforcement of Norms
In Figure 3 we propose a process for the enforcement of norms in self-organizing virtual communities. The
process is quite general and it is based on the Incident Response Life Cycle proposed by NIST (2008) to
handle computer security incidents. Besides, the process considers the concepts of sanction and damage. The
process identifies the following activities: Monitoring, Analyses, Sanction Application, Damage Recovery, and
Unexpected Event Handling.
In order to explain the activities we make use of a case study, reported by Geiger and Ribes (2010) that
discusses the banning of a vandal in Wikipedia. In the case study, a user committed several norm infractions
by vandalizing articles (music albums), such as Before we Self Destruct, The Mirror and 808 &
Heartbreak. The editors that are responsible for the enforcement of norms in Wikipedia are called vandal
fighters.

Figure 3. Process for the enforcement of norms in self-organizing virtual communities
The Monitoring activity allows identifying events over the Resources in order to detect norms infractions.
It is related to some Work Norms. For example, assuming a Work Norm that forbids content with attacks and
offenses to members, one can define a list of insulting words to be searched during the Monitoring.
In Wikipedia, the Resources are articles, while the monitored events are the suspicious editions made in
articles. In the case study, the transgressor made an offending edition (for instance, using improper words) to
the album Before we Self Destruct. The edition triggered various vandalism-detection algorithms, for
example Huggle. Huggle is tool or bot that monitors automatically articles in Wikipedia. Other tools include
the popular Twinkle, and the less known, ClueBot and Lupin (that search obscene words and commonly
misspelled words). Although in the case study the monitoring was made automatically, members may be
involved in the identification and reporting of a vandal.
The purpose of Analyses activity is to examine the incident considering the community norms in order to
classify the incident as a norm infraction or not. In Wikipedia Huggle also helps in this phase, because the
provided rank of incidents already includes some decision criteria such as: the kind of the user who made the
edit, if the user had already an edit reverted, and if the user has any warning about norm infraction.
If the incident is a norm infraction, the Enforcement Norms may be used to determine the sanctions to be
applied to the transgressor, as well the recovery of the damages. In the case study, the incident was clearly a
norm infraction, because of the use of obscenity words. The damage was undone by an editor who reverted the
article using Huggle tool. No sanction was applied.
Later the same transgressor vandalized The Mirror album which generated an incident. At that time, an
editor using Twinkle tool both reverted the article and sent a warning message to the transgressor. The warning
mechanism makes use of user talk pages, which are public wiki pages created by the system for each user. The
user talk pages have become a kind of database of norm infractions for particular users, which is useful during
the Analysis phase.
Regarding the warnings in Wikipedia, there are some templates specifically to inform the transgressor that
the edit in question was not encyclopedic. They are divided into four levels of severity. For example, in the
case study the first warning was One of your recent edits, such as the one you made to The Mirror (album)
did not appear to be constructive and has been reverted. The fourth-level warning sent to the same
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transgressor was: You will be blocked from editing the next time you vandalize a page, as you did with this
edit to 808s & Heartbreak.
In Wikipedia, the hardest sanction is the block of the transgressor. This sanction is only applied by the
administrators who have the technical and social authority to issue temporary blocks. However the editors that
analyze the incidents have the possibility to make formal ban requests to administrators using the AIV
(Wikipedia: Administrator intervention against vandalism) page. In the case study, the transgressor was
indicated to AIV and, after one more vandalism, he was blocked by an administrator.
Tools, as Huggle and Twinkle, aid the vandal fighters during the enforcement process in Wikipedia. The
tools both monitor events and help to analyze the incidents considering the profile and history of transgressors.
They also support the damage recovery and may suggest sanctions to be applied to the transgressor based on
predetermined list; however the decision is always made by the editors who operate the tools.
Not always an incident characterizes a norm infraction. An incident can be generated due to an error or
wrong configuration of some automatic components, for example components that support the Monitoring
activity. An incident can occur because a norm is ambiguous and a member did not understand it.
Furthermore, an incident can occur because the subject is not addressed by any norm. In these cases, an
incident is called an unexpected event and has to be managed. The Unexpected Event Handling activity deals
with unexpected events, for example, the procedure may include the correction of the faulty component and
the proposition or update of norms.
In order to perform the enforcement activities, some roles in the Access Control of the community system
can be identified. The Monitoring can be performed by resource administrators that are responsible to
guarantee the integrity of the community resources. A committee of resource administrators can conduct the
Analyses activity. The Sanction Application activity can be executed by user administrators that configure the
permissions of the users over the resources. The Damage Recovery activity can be performed by resource
administrators that recover the resource to a valid version. Depending on the damage severity, such as denial
of service, the support of technical analysts can be needed to recover the corruption. Due to the unforeseen
nature of the Unexpected Event Handling activity, all the mentioned roles can participate: a resource
administrator can update a resource configuration, a user administrator can correct a wrong member profile,
and a technical analyst can improve an automatic component. Besides, in the Unexpected Event Handling
activity, norm administrators can be necessary to coordinate the suggestions of new norms and the corrections
of established norms, by guaranteeing the community consensus.
With respect to access control, for example, Wikipedia defines some roles related to enforcement:
administrators, bureaucrats and stewards. There are specific permissions regarding sanction application, such
as block (to block an IP address, user name or range of IPS from editing) and userrights (to change the user
groups of a user). There are also permissions related to damage recovery, such as purge (to purge a page) and
rollback (to revert a bad editing).
4. DISCUSSIONS
The enforcement activities are regulated by the Enforcement Norms and are implemented as detailed
operations using the Enforcement Procedures. The procedures are performed by members of the community
assigned to specific roles in the Access Control, in general known as managers or administrators. The
Enforcement Procedures can make use of tools to assist the managers. So, managers and tools work together
to accomplish the whole enforcement process. In general managers are volunteers as all members in self-
organizing virtual communities. These managers use the system to perform the enforcement operations;
therefore, they must be seen as non-malicious members in Figure 2. The process to become a manager can be
very rigorous, as occurs in Wikipedia (Forte and Bruckman, 2008).
The Monitoring can be made manually by members of the community or it can be made automatically
using bots, as Wikipedia does in some articles editions (Geiger, 2009). The choice between humans or bots
depends basically on the possibility of an automatic detection and its development cost. Priedhorsky et al.
(2007) comment about the difficult to detect automatically some infractions in Wikipedia, for instance the
detection of misinformation (article with false information) is almost impossible, because it requires
understanding the article content.
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In both cases, manual or automatic Monitoring, an important concern is to not discriminate any kind of
members, avoiding the predisposition to suspect of the newcomers in community, for example by only
monitoring the events made by the newcomers and not the ones made by the administrators. If a manager
abuses of the power conferred to him/her, it configures a norm infraction and has to be submitted to the
enforcement process too. In this case, the manager must be seen a malicious member in Figure 2.
In some communities the Monitoring can be performed in a subset of events, and not in all events, for
example in LinuxQuestions.org the managers relate the impossibility to review all messages. In order to help
the Monitoring, self-organizing virtual communities may specify a norm that confers all members the right to
report violations and abuses, so all the members become guards of the community.
In open source communities, the code development process has embedded a test phase that is a kind of
Monitoring. During the test phase, the detected malfunctions in general are not consequence of norm
infractions. It may occur because only authorized members have access to codes and the process to receive
such an authorization can be much elaborated. For example, Apache.org uses meritocracy, which means that
the member has first to be an active contributor, so he/she can be indicated by other member for assuming a
role and finally submitted to community voting. Comparing to Wikipedia, where every member can alter the
articles, the possibility of article corruptions can be higher than code corruptions in open source communities.
Due to its nature of decision making, the Analysis activity is mainly made by authorized members and not
only by bots. If it is required by the Enforcement Norms, the Analysis activity may also take into account the
history of the incidents. In Wikipedia, for example, the history of a member is registered in his/her public user
talk page (Geiger and Ribes, 2010). Apache.org uses the called books and records to keep all the accounts and
proceedings of the members, so any member has the right to examine its information.
In virtual communities the kind of sanction may range from a simple warning to the expulsion of the
community. The warning is seen as an educative sanction, considering that transgressor is a member learning
how to work in the community. However, if the transgressor continues to violate the norms repeatedly, harder
sanctions can be applied as the access denial to resources, which is implemented using the Access Control of
the community system.
The damages in the community resources can be in majority recovered: messages are removed from
forums, articles are reverted in Wikipedia and codes are fixed in open source communities. However damages
caused to other members, for example offenses, are more difficult to deal with and can require the definition of
compensations, such as apologies.
The proposed enforcement process shows the main enforcement activities in an ordered flux; however
some feedbacks can occur in the activities execution. For instance, during the execution of the Analysis
activity, some specific information may be needed, so additional data may be required to be collected in the
Monitoring activity.
In general, the existing self-organizing virtual communities include some sort of enforcement procedures.
However, the procedures are not organized and there is no model to place them, so it is not clear how to
consider the procedures and the relations in the context of members, norms, procedures, access control and
resources.
5. CONCLUSION
As competition is an active force in communities, conflicts may arise between members or between a
member and the whole community. In a self-organizing virtual community conflicts are more likely, because
members do not only cooperate to accomplish their work activities, but they cooperate to define and maintain
the norms that regulate the community. Conflicts may result in some norm infractions, when the involved
members do not obey the established norms that govern behavior and relations in community. Norm
infractions can be also consequence of vandalism. Therefore the enforcement of norms is of relevance to be
addressed.
In self-organizing virtual communities, norms have first to be well defined. The community shall also
define norms specifically to govern the enforcement, the Enforcement Norms. The Enforcement Norms are
implemented in the system using Access Control and Enforcement Procedures that detail the operational
tasks. So the procedures are performed by members assigned to administrative roles and possibly assisted by
tools in the system.
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In this article, we propose an extended model in order to guide self-organizing virtual communities to
address the enforcement of norms. We also propose a process with enforcement activities. With the activities
of the enforcement process, Monitoring, Analyses, Unexpected Event Handling, Sanction Application and
Damage Recovery, the community is able to detect an incident and classify it as a norm infraction. In case of a
norm infraction, a sanction is applied to the transgressor and the damage can be recovered. The occurrence of
an unexpected event is also dealt, which allows the enhancement of the enforcement process itself, by updating
tools, procedures, and norms.
The proposed model can be used to analyze the enforcement performed by existing virtual communities, in
order to guarantee that norms are being followed and possibly suggest new directions to it. The proposed
model can also be used to address enforcement of new communities, because its process outlines the basic
activities that help the definition of specific norms and procedures to achieve the desired enforcement.
As future work, we intend to investigate how conflicts can be managed in self-organizing virtual
communities, i.e. how they emerge and can be detected, and how to address them.
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LinuxQuestions.org. LQ Rules. http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/rules.html.
Lyons, D., 1984. Ethics and the rule of law. Cambridge University Press.
Moe, N. B., Dingsyr, T. and Dyb T. 2008. Understanding Self-organizing Teams in Agile Software Development.
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Nahon K. B. and Neumann, S. , 2005. Bounded in Cyberspace: As Empirical Model of Self-Regulation in Virtual
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NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), 2008. Scarfone, K., Grance, T. and Masone, K. Computer
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No 3, pp 137-158.
Palaia, N., 2005. Essential Notions of Law. Saraiva Publisher.
Priedhorsky R. et al., 2007. Creating, Destroying, and Restoring Value in Wikipedia. Proceedings of Conference on
Supporting Group Work (GROUP). ACM.
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Wikipedia Rules. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:Rules.
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ORGANIZATIONAL WIKIPEDIA
Diogo Arantes Fonseca Gonalves da Cunha
*
, Prof. Artur Ferreira da Silva
*

and Prof. Jos Figueiredo
**
*Instituto Superior Tcnico Taguspark - Av. Prof. Dr. Anbal Cavaco Silva 2744-016 Porto Salvo, Portugal
**Instituto Superior Tcnico - CEG-IST
ABSTRACT
In this paper we explore a strategy to implement an organizational wiki, using a Wikipedia model. We address models to
cope with organizational change and organizational learning within a knowledge management strategy. The results were
positive as our wiki model is now integrated in the day-to-day routines of the company.
KEYWORDS
Wiki, Wikipedia, knowledge management, organizational change, organizational learning.
1. INTRODUCTION
As the world evolves into a crescent connected space, where the virtual context is integrated with the
physical reality, organizations need to develop skills to take advantage of this evolution.
On the organizational reality the issue of knowledge management is becoming more important, as
managers try to retain the knowledge of the workers and these workers feel the need to continually improve
their skills (Drucker, 1999). On the public social reality, knowledge sharing and knowledge creation evolved
tremendously in the last years and models have been created that can, and should, be used in other contexts.
The Web 2.0 revolution brought new ways of communicating and working collaboratively, and the results of
this revolution should be harvested to improve organizations.
One of the most popular examples of a public model of knowledge sharing is Wikipedia. But its success
on the public domain doesnt necessarily imply that it would succeed on the much smaller and controlled
organizational environment; probably some adaptations would need to be made to the model and to the
organization.
Having that in mind, we set out to investigate if an organization with highly literate workers in IT
technologies would be capable of assimilating a wiki model. More than that, would an internal Wikipedia
available only to the workers, add value to the organization? Although this seems a simple question, the
implementation of such a task entails a considerable amount of unpredictability because the overall process is
heavily dependent on human behaviour. A wiki is a voluntary system of content creation and, even though
Wikipedia quality standards apply to the organizational context, an organization is a complex set of many
different wants and participative patterns that cannot be assured by regulations, and maintaining Wikipedia
quality needs investment in time and resources from the organization that wants to adopt it.
2. ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
According to Morgan (2006), our perception of an organization is a key factor in its functioning processes.
He says we use metaphors to help our understanding and to better manage our companies, and that
representation is a fundamental topic for an organization to thrive in the market.
Lets consider the metaphor of the living organism applied to the organization entity. A living organism
needs to adapt to its environment in order to survive and is composed of subsystems that interact together to
sustain the survival of the larger system. True evolution is only possible with a correct alignment of all the
subsystems and the environment.
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Following this perspective, we present the Learning Organization integrated architecture of systems
thinking as explained by Senge (Senge, 1990). This concept doesnt define the company that is just able to
learn, it defines the company that has learning processes as the foundation of its development, investing in
areas like innovation, communication and colaboration. Nowadays, the organizational context changes very
quickly and agressively, and companies need to invest in these capabilities so they can keep up with market
evolution and the competition.
After describing the five disciplines that need to be taken in consideration for an organization to become a
Learning Organization (Mental Models, Personal Mastery, Team Learning, Shared Vision and Systems
Thinking), Peter Senge also details which kind of learning disabilities may be causing difficulties in the
change process. These disabilities should be investigated carefully and attentiously, as they may be the
reason why a transformation process takes more time than it should, or doesnt happen at all. Usually these
disabilities are associated with cultural characteristics of the organization, the department or group, as they
are referenced to human behaviour. But, althought identifying some of these disabilites may help, there are
other disabilities that may not be listed and explained.
Some time later, Peter Senge and other coleagues took a different approach to the same problem in
(Senge et al, 1999). They kept standing with the systems thinking model but, instead of focusing on the
intrinsic disabilities that could prevent an organization from changing they focused on the reinforcing
processes that need to be adressed in order to sustain the emergence of change. These processes seem
obvious after understanting their nature and are bound to the ideological perspective of the change, the
deepth of structural innovation needed and the methods and theories used to achieve the intended change.
There are three reinforcing processes to a change model: the process of personal results, that refers to the
passion that a person puts into his job when he loves what hes doing resulting in a positive impact in his life;
the process of networking of commited people, which is aligned with the concept of CoPs (Communities of
Practice) as it refers to the ability that any individual has to transcend himself when genuinely integrated in a
colective; and the process of businness results, that is simply the fact that, good businness results boost up
morale and improve ongoing businness processes.
Nonetheless, althought these reinforcing processes have the objective of sustaining change, they arent
very simple to sustain themselves. According to the author (Senge et al, 1999), there are many challenges that
probably will appear when a change of this nature occurs, and he divides them into three type of challenges:
initiating challenges, sustaining challenges and re-designing challenges. For example, the first challenge of
initiating change is called Not Enough Time and it adresses the problem of the lack of time that most of the
workers have to create, participate or to develop change initiatives. In this project we found some of these
challenges.
2.1 Leadership
Leadership is a concept that in a colective perspective only started being used recently. It is not a single
characteristic of a person that makes him able to lead others. Certain characteristics, like confidence,
adaptability, and practic inteligence seem to be valuable for this function. But, and more important,
leadership is now seen as the fruit of an entaglement between context and the characteristics of a person. A
person in a particular situation and for a certain group can be the best leader, in a different situation or group
may be not good at all (Mann, 1959).
As such, we need to change our perspective. We need put aside the mith of the hero CEO that saves the
company and brings peace to the workplace (Senge et al, 1999) and embrace a more distributed and emergent
approach to the issue, where communities are made of several leaders, each one with its own situational
ability in the group.
Leadership drives organizational change processes and, organizational change only occurs when there is
leadership supporting and sustaining the iniciatives. Thus, leaders are indispensable for a solid transformation
within an organization.
A functional evaluation of types of leaders is described in (Senge et al, 1999) three types of functional
leaders can be found on the organizational context:
Local line leader, refers to the leader that has the power, position or informal leadership to put
change in action in its practical sense and, that has the ability to assess its results on the making.
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Network leader, also known as internal networker or community builder, is the leader that through
his mobility within informal networks can help create new relationships, aliances or ideas, and help
disseminate new mentalities and attitudes.
Executive leader, is the leader in charge of the administrative and strategic actions within an
organization, assuming the bottom-line responsability for its performance and development that can support
and leverage the change process when acting consistently as "champion" of it.
There are three types of leader behaviours described by (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939):
Authoritarian behaviour, when all decisions are centered on the leader in charge with little or no
regard to group suggestions.
Democratic behavior, when decisions are made considering the thoughts and suggestions of the
group.
Laissez-Faire behavior, which relates to the leader that doesnt impose no control or protocol,
leaving group members to individually decide upon their actions.
We cannot say that a type of behavior is better than the other, but we can find a more suited beahavior to
a specific environment or goal.
3. ENTERPRISE 2.0
The concept of Enterprise 2.0 relates to a use of Web 2.0 systems, such as social networks, wikis, blogs or
other collaborative tools or platforms, within the organizational environment, focusing on the integration of
technical and social facets of the organizational life.
A company that doesnt invest on Enterprise 2.0 systems risks becoming outdated and less competitive
(McAfee, 2006). To support this view we need to clarify that Web 2.0 tools in order to work correctly must
be considered as sociotechnical systems and not just as "tools". There are many types of 2.0 systems that may
be used and they serve different purposes, so there is a need to evaluate the system according to its
functionalities and assess if it is aligned with the company objectives.
The SLATES mnemonic was coined by Prof. McAfee to help on acquisition or development of these
types of systems. Hinchcliffe (2007) wrote a blog post where he added a few characteristics to SLATES,
transforming the mnemonic into FLATNESSES:
Free-form the system must have a dynamic way of organizing content;
Links content has to be linkable;
Authoring user actions must be traceable;
Tags content should be categorized using folksonomy;
Network-Oriented the system must be oriented to a network environment;
Extensions new information about the user needs should be achievable by crossing data;
Search content must be searchable;
Signals the system must provide a notification system, such as RSS or ATOM;
Emergence the system architecture must make content emerge depending on users needs;
Social the system must provide a way to create social relations between users.
Although there are these specifications on Enterprise 2.0 system functionalities, implementing such a
system is not simple. These systems have a voluntary nature, so users are not forced to adopt them. This way,
implementation should be accompanied by a cultural adaptation to the new ways communicating.
Communication, collaboration and integration are the keywords in Enterprise 2.0 initiatives, as workers
have to develop these skills in order to fully align themselves with the philosophy of Enterprise 2.0 and
generate organizational value.
3.1 Wikis
The wiki is a Web 2.0 system that suites the needs of collective authoring of content in a simple, straight
forward process of edition and creation of html pages. The most common functions associated with wikis are:
editing and creating html pages; internal linking between content; future linking to pages that havent been
created; markup language to easily format html pages; version control system; and permission system.
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Although these functionalities may be common to most of the wiki platforms, there are other functionalities
that are also often used, like the discussion page or file galleries, extending the services the system provides.
Consequently, the flexibility that a wiki provides is also a critical point in its usage because it can be like
a Swiss army knife with many different services that can be applied to many different situations. So every
wiki needs a metaphor in order to focus its users to defined ways within which to use the system. The most
popular example is the Wikipedia model that is based on the encyclopedia metaphor to instill quality to
created content.
According to Mader (2008), the Wikipedia model is not the most used model within organizations, and it
is also not the best. This view seems to be a consequence of the work that needs to be done in order to
cultivate a community that cares for the content that is created and actively participates in its evaluation and
maintenance, like the one supporting Wikipedia. The Wikipedian community is the only reason Wikipedia
developed the way it did and keeps on evolving.
Analyzing the wikipatterns community, initiated by the author, where anyone may contribute with what
he calls Wiki Patterns, which may sooth the usage curve of a wiki, and Wiki Anti-Patterns, which may
contradict that goal. We concluded that some of the patterns and anti-patterns he presented are applicable to
organizational wikis using a Wikipedia model, although the author doesnt give much credit to
organizational wikipedias.
4. SAFIRAPEDIA
In September 2009 project Safirapedia was initiated in a company called Safira, which supplies information
technology consulting services. The main purpose of this project is to have a concept repository with all the
relevant information regarding processes, practices, services, etc.
The project is a part of a plan called Safira 2.0 to turn Safira into a more Enterprise 2.0 organization,
through a series of projects that face different objectives. The projects thought and proposed by Safiras CEO
were: Safirapedia, an enterprise Wikipedia; Google Safira, a google search engine for Safira internal
information; iSafira, a homepage for Safira workers similar to iGoogle; Safira News, a corporate social news
platform; Safirabook, a social network like Facebook for Safira workers; and Knowledge and Collaboration
Platform, which is just what the name suggests.
Using an Action Research methodology, we intended to discover if the use of an organizational
Wikipedia is valuable to a company based on this wiki instance. Through different actions we tried to
achieve practical results for Safira while validating our academic findings, thus, as it usually happens in
Action Research, the researcher was also an actor in the process.
4.1 Contextual Analysis
During the entire life cycle of the project, there were several different analyses to understand what would be
the bigger issues that would arise from the change that was going to happen.
Using Senges Limits to Change perspective we defined the change frontiers: ideologically Safirapedia is
a project that intends to help Safira becoming more close to an Enterprise 2.0; changes were made to
protocols and processes to increase Safirapedians participation; and the methods or tools used are the ones
that will be presented up front in conjunction with the actions taken.
Safiras culture was analyzed through Edgar Schein framework (Schein, 2004) in three levels: (1)
assumptions, the inner desires and needs of the company workers, which were inferred from questionnaires
driven by the researcher; (2) espoused values, the company explicit values; (3) artifacts, the objects that
make up Safira, like chairs, computers or information systems. After this analysis we found that Safira was
indeed prepared for the transformation that had to be done, so we needed to focus on the changes that would
have most impact.
Kurt Lewins Force Field analysis (Lewin K. , 1943) focuses on the forces that support or oppose a change
process. We built a table to help discover what where the main forces influencing participation on
Safirapedia, and it showed that the forces opposing were more powerful than the forces supporting. The main
forces opposing were the lack of time and personal lack of confidence; as for the supporting forces they were
the centralization of knowledge and professional recognition. So we knew that time and confidence were two
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main issues to be improved and centralization of knowledge and professional recognition were two forces
that needed to be motivated and increased.
4.2 Cultivating Change
Using a narrative approach to validate our findings (Figueiredo, 2010) the detail of the description of these
actions is proportional to the level of impact they had on the process. The researcher initiated these actions
while he was searching for results. As the researcher became an integral part of Safira working at the
headquarters, it was based on direct observation and reflection that certain actions were taken.
4.2.1 Selecting the Wiki
In total alignment with the CEO we made a list of the functionalities the wiki needed to accomodate. This
was the first thing to be done in the project and it gave us the parameters that defined our search for the right
platform. They had to be cross-browser compatible, to have robust enough a permissions system, to be easy
to use and to insert contents, to have a space to discuss the articles, to have a friendly interface, to support
several languages, and finally to have integration with Safiras Active Directory. This permanent weekly
alignment with the CEO resulted in a critical analysis of the choices, improving the validation process.
Therefore a comparison was made between several platforms, for instance MediaWiki, Drupal,
Confluence, DokuWiki, that were found using Google search, a web site called Wikimatrix and a Gartner
report (Drakos, Rozwell, Bradley, & Mann, 2009). The choice was made after experimenting the platforms
and comparing, not only the functionalities and interface, but also the price, technical support and longevity.
The platform chosen was Tiki-Wiki because it fits all the requirements listed above, has more built-in
functionalities than all the others, is open-source, and consequently, free of charge, has an active supporting
community and, finally, it has a very friendly configuration panel.
4.2.2 Integrating the Wiki
When integrating a system like this one needs to consider two perspectives: the technical and the social.
On the technical side we integrated it with other systems that already existed, in order to extend
functionalities and avoid turning Safirapedia into an island. The first integration was with Safiras Active
Directory, so we could maintain a concept of single sign on, so workers wouldnt need to know a different
username and password to access Safirapedia, which means less barrieriers. This integration also implies a
more tight security, consequently all logins from outside Safira's internal network were provided through
HTTPS protocol. The second technical integration was with Google Safira, which allows the contents
produced on Safirapedia to be searchable through a Google internal search engine.
On the other hand, the social integration meant that Safirapedia needed to be a part of the workers day-to-
day routine. This was a difficult process: first, there was an initial injection of content that was considered
relevant by the CEO so that Safirapedia wouldnt go online like a blank sheet of paper. This way, the
pressure of being the first content creator and the distance between thinking about writing and actually
writing was diminished.
With a little creativity and some luck with timing, an opportunity appeared in a form of another process
that already existed at Safira the Global Communications Plan (GCP). The GCP was a way to motivate
Safiras different levels of workers to, individually, share their knowledge in different forms. Through written
reports and slideshows, managers, software engineers and software developers could choose what the subject
they would focus on, and every month artifacts had to be created by each function (for instance, managers
and software developers dont create the same reports on a content level).
The partnership created with the GCP was only for software developers. The objective was to make
articles called Programming Tips&Tricks, with a specific focus on a technical issue, and this partnership
made it possible, and motivated the writing of these GCP articles in Safirapedia. Consequently there was a
boost on content creation, with 1 article created per week.
Also on the social side of the integration, we created the Safirapedia Experience to motivate content
creation in group. This initiative was a sort of framework that a group of workers with a common interest and
some shared knowledge could follow. The Safirapedia Experiences had the following conditions:
1. Create a group of 7 people with knowledge about a certain relevant subject;
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2. An expert on the subject must be a part of the group participating in the creation of content or as an
analyst for the content created;
3. Each member must give 1 hour of his week to participate in the Experience and can manage his time
the way that best suits him;
4. Every participant must have information available to connect to the others members.
Each Safirapedia Experience should follow the following steps:
1) Define the subject to talk about and a time span to write it;
2) Get voluntaries to join the group;
3) Organize a list with topics and subtopics. The expert should give his praise to the list;
4) Create teams to write contents. Each participant should choose at least 3 different topics or
subtopics, so teams can emerge from common interests;
5) Create pages.
This framework originated two Experiences: one dedicated to a beginners guide for a Safira technology
named Quartz; and the other dedicated to Project Management at Safira. Unfortunately none of these
accomplished 100% of their initial intent. The beginners guide group created about 40% and the Project
Management group created 0%. Anyhow, there was a good acceptance for the initiative and we believe that,
with practice, people will start adopting the framework.
4.2.3 Promoting the Wiki
Since the beginning of the project Safirapedia that a blog was kept by the researcher under the name of
Safirapedia Blog, with notifications and news about the on going process of implementation of Safirapedia
and with information that would help the readers reflect on their habits regarding knowledge sharing, team
working and collective production. This way we would increase the visibility of the updates that were being
done and contents that were created, motivating people to be a part of the process in their own ways.
Each of the posts done in the blog would then be automatically put on Safiras News that had a voting
system. This way every post could result in a feedback from the users, in terms of liking or disliking what
was written, and pushing others to have a look at the post or referred wiki content. Consequently, there was a
better awareness of the existence of Safirapedia, eventually resulting in more visits.
Promoting the wiki and its usage is a continuum process taking advantage of every opportunity that
appears. In February 2010 there was one more edition of Safiras kickoff meeting to start Safiras new
financial year. This is a social event with some presentations about what was done that year, what would be
done next year and integrates the Safira awards for workers and projects in different areas. There was an
initial intention to do a presentation about Safirapedia and its use, but it didnt happen because there was no
time; nonetheless in a presentation about Accessibility at Safira there was made a huge reference to
Safirapedia, motivating its use. This happened for two reasons: the first, because a wiki is in fact a good tool
to enhance accessibility; the second, because the person that made the presentation was a person with whom
the researcher talked for the most various reasons. This reflects the importance of promotion in every chance
we get, even the slight reference to the tool on a football game, on a water cooler conversation or at lunch can
make a difference.
Another important way of promoting the wiki is doing publicity to the content creators. If they
appreciate that publicity this increases the authors morale and, this motivates them to write more content.
The most asked question was if the page visits were counted and if these values were publicly available, thus
showing the interest in statistical results that authors have, probably to evaluate the impact and visibility of
the content they created.
4.2.4 Supporting the Wiki
The supporting actions that were taken to help Safirapedia were constant along the project and they evolved
with the tool and the community building process.
The researcher provided technical support to the users. When help was needed regarding any functionality
an explanation was given, but if the question indicated something in the tool was going to be a problem, it
triggered a concern to fix it and to improve its effectiveness. These requests for help were dealt through e-
mail or in direct conversations, and usually they were more focused on behavioral attitudes, like how to
correctly format a page or where to link it. The FAQ section on the wiki was also an important part of the
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support given to the community, as not only did it listed the answer to the most common questions asked, but
it also had a functionality that permitted users to suggest new entries.
Guidelines helping the users to interact with each other were also posted, where the process and templates
to create a page on the wiki were detailed, giving the wiki more stability as the creation of new pages was
standardized. This kind of support was much more focused on the communitarian aspects of Safirapedia
because it was intended to solidify the community behaviors and attitudes without imposing rules. As
referred, templates for pages existed so that users didnt need to start from scratch every time they wanted to
write an article. This also prevented the users from worrying about formatting and gave them an idea about
the type of content that was expected.
Regarding another kind of support, in one meeting the CEO confronted the researcher with his low
morale about the project and the results the project was presenting. The results were appearing slowly and in
an unpredictable rhythm justifying the feeling of the CEO, but any disbelief from the top could weaken the
overall projects success. The researcher had to vehemently reaffirm to the CEO, who was the father of the
project, his own confidence on the success of the project, but that this success would only be visible in due
time, as it was an emergent process that was being cultivated, and if rigid time frames were imposed they
could kill the process.
5. CONCLUSION
We found in this investigation that a wiki can be useful to an organization. However it has to be accompanied
by a great deal of cultural adaptations and driven by a strong leadership.
Strategic leadership was important for the success of the project. The acts of planning and directing were
done by the CEO when he made Safira 2.0 plan and when he chose someone to take care of it. The project
had strategic leadership and formal support from the administration. The weekly meetings that took place
through the life cycle of the project were a clear sign of interest shown to the project. The CEO was always
present giving advice and revealing information that would, otherwise, never be used.
On another level, the local line leadership integrating the researchers work also made a difference in the
process. First, the fact that the researcher was integrated on the daily Safira life with the workers had a
significant impact on the observation and quality of analysis of the environment. Second, the promotion and
support given to the community has to be a part of any process of implementation of this sort, because people
need to be warned about the existence of new tools that may help their job and on the best way in which they
can use those tools. Although theres a myth about the possible survival of these systems on a pure
communitarian good will, this wasnt verified on this project; if there wasnt a true investment on the project
by the leaders, it wouldnt have enough strength to survive the first months.
The small number of workers of the organization was also a barrier to the process of content creation.
Although the results showed that workers were using Safirapedia the amount of created pages and page views
is always a percentage of the number of users. Safira population is approximately 150 people which means
the number of content creators and content viewers would be limited to a percentage of that. In the course of
this project we only found two people that repeatedly added new content to the wiki, one started willingly to
write about the Information Systems Department processes and the other one wrote because he was a part of
a Safirapedia Experience. All other content that was created by the users was produced either by the
Programming Tips&Tricks initiative or, in a small scale, independent voluntary articles. Quantity is just as
important as quality in this model, because the amount of content creation is directly related to the size and
degree of activity of the community that supports it.
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FOLKSONOMY: USING THE USERS FREEDOM TO
ORGANIZE TODAYS WEB INFORMATION OVERLOAD
Roberto Pereira*, M. Ceclia C. Baranauskas*, Sergio Roberto P. da Silva**,
Jos Valderlei da Silva** and Filipe Roseiro Cgo**
*Institute of Computing (IC), University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Av. Albert Einstein, 1251, Campinas-SP, Brazil
**Departament of Informatics (DIN), State University of Maring (UEM), Av. Colombo, 5790, Maring PR, Brazil
ABSTRACT
The folksonomy technique represents an initiative for the organization of the information available on the Web. However,
even systems that apply this technique suffer with problems of lack of quality and information overload when the number
of their users grows. Regardless of these problems, a wide range of systems became available allowing the categorization
of several distinct kinds of objects, but without any level of integration among them. In this paper, we present a critical
analysis about the folksonomy technique, their nature, advantages, problems and challenges. We also propose two
approaches for improving the results obtained with folksonomy. Indeed, we argue that the question now is how and when
assisting users when they are interacting with folksonomy-based systems, in order to make the use of folksonomy more
useful in information organization and retrieval on the Web.
KEYWORDS
Folksonomy, social tagging, social categorization, folkauthority.
1. INTRODUCTION
The Web is suffering a quite big evolution, changing from a network that connects webpages, documents,
and resources to a network that connects people, organizations and concepts (da Silva and Pereira, 2008;
Freyne et al., 2007). It is becoming what is now called a Social Web. This new Web is characterized by
facilities for cooperation in contents production and sharing, and by facilities for communication and spread
of ideas among people. Due to the huge amount of contents available on the Web, technical difficulties and
high execution costs make unviable the existence of qualified professionals controlling and evaluating
everything that is produced and published on it. This lack of mechanisms, or measures, to assure the quality
of the information and to organize them, results in a problem now called information overload (Himma,
2007; Levy, 2008). This overload is directly related to the fact that the amount of data, contents and
information is very superior to the humans capacity to absorb, interpret and manage it in a productive way.
The folksonomy technique represents an initiative for helping in the process of organization and
attribution of meaning to the contents available on the Web (Mathes, 2005). In systems that apply
folksonomy, these processes are not restricted to professional editors. These systems adopt the principle that,
if someone is producing and publishing contents, s/he can also be apt to organize and to attribute meaning to
it, labeling it with keywords (tags) in the way they judge more adequate. As a result, folksonomy becomes an
interesting and viable alternative for the open and highly changeable environment that is the Web.
In folksonomy-based systems, the set of tags and objects of a user composes its personomy (da Silva and
da Silva, 2008). This personomy reflects the users vocabularies, preferences, interests, and knowledge.
When the individual personomies are made available and shared among all users of a system, we get the
folksonomy. Thus, a folksonomy is the structure that results from the sharing of all the users personomies
(Mathes, 2005). The sharing and social aspects of folksonomy allow for the interaction among users, what
contributes to the emergence and discovery of interesting knowledge and to the definition of a common
language among them. However, despite these benefits, as the number of users in a folksonomy-based system
increases and, thus, the information being categorized by them also increases, the problem of information
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overload starts to undermine the system usefulness, as in the individual as in the collective (i.e., social) point
of view.
In this paper we are concerned about what should be done for obtaining better results with the application
of the folksonomy technique. We argue that it is necessary to focus on the three pivots of the folksonomy
process (the object, the tag and the user) simultaneously with different views if we want to offer a better
assistance to users of folksonomy-based systems. Also, we should take into account the four tension points in
folksonomy pointed by Smith (2008): i) the individual vs. collective; ii) control vs. freedom; iii) idiosyncratic
vs. standardized and iv) amateurs vs. experts. To achieve this goal, we discuss the folksonomy technique
trying to explain its operation. We give special attention to the four tension points presenting two main
approaches. In the first one, a tag-focused approach, we present a system for centralizing and managing the
users vocabularies and for searching over a set of folksonomy-based systems at once. This system
corresponds to a partial solution to the problem of users having to deal simultaneously with several systems.
In the second one, a users-focused approach, we explain the folkauthority technique, a partial solution for the
problem of the information retrieval quality. Finally, we present some additional minor approaches for
reinforcing our researches and expose our conclusions.
2. THE FOLKSONOMY TECHNIQUE
Starting from the middle of 2002, labels of texts grew a lot in popularity as many websites started allowing
their users to accomplish annotations or to use simple words (i.e., tags) in the form of a non-structured text in
a process called tagging (Smith, 2008). Initially these annotations were individual, allowing people to ascribe
some meaning to the website contents by means of classifying its URLs, photos, blogs posts or any other
resource (i.e., object) susceptible to be referenced. The use of this technique creates a personomya set of
tags created by a person to organize resources of his/her interest only. When personomies are made available
and shared among users of a system, we get what is called a folksonomy. Thus, a folksonomy is the structure
that results from the sharing of all the users personomies (Mathes, 2005), i.e., the collective/collaborative
tagging. The whole folksonomy process is essentially based on three pivots (see Figure 1): the userwho
does the categorization, the objectwhich is categorized, and the tagwhich makes the categorization
labeling the object (Mathes, 2005; Riddle, 2005).

Figure 1. The three pivots of Folksonomy.
The usefulness of a tag is very wide (Riddle, 2005). When they are applied to the organization of
information on the Web, tags can aid in the personal information retrieval process, describing and structuring
this information and attributing order and meaning. Among the advantages of allowing users to do the
categorization process are the reductions of costs in time and with investments in specialized services
(Mathes, 2005). To users, the costs are in the cognitive effort to carry out the categorization process and in
the time needed to do it. These costs, however, becomes small when compared to the investment necessary to
maintain an organization done by professionals or specialists, which is impracticable in an open and evolving
environment like the Web.
Russell (2005) argues that folksonomy-based systems allow information to be found on which users
probably would never be presented in another way. Mathes (2005) and Sturtz (2004) characterize this as
serendipity. They assert that folksonomy favors the discovery of knowledge and of useful and interesting
information. Moreover, according to them, perhaps, the most important benefit of the folksonomy technique
is its capacity to reflect the users vocabulary. These systems reflect directly the actions executed by the
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users, their choices, terminologies, i.e., users build and choose the vocabulary that they will use. Mathes
(2005) sustains that, with this non-controlled nature and an organic growth, a folksonomy has the capacity to
adapt very quickly to the changes in the vocabulary and to the users needs, which does not happen in any
other kind of system.
In a folksonomy-based system, there are no formally pre-defined hierarchies for the vocabulary of tags
used in the categorizations. Thus, there is no direct specification of descendants or of a brotherhood
relationship among the terms. The tags applied for the categorization are automatically related by co-
occurrence and group themselves into sets of tags based in common objects. In this way, the folksonomy
process is very different from a formal taxonomy and from other classification schemes in which there are
multiple types of explicit relationships among terms.
One important characteristic of the folksonomy technique, at least from the theoretical point of view, is
the freedom of choice in the quantity and type of words that can be applied to accomplish a categorization.
This process is completely free, in other words, there is no control or scheme to be followed or respected in
such a way that users attribute the tags they want for categorizing an object. This freedom has serious
implications over users cognitive effort to do the organization task, since this effort will be very inferior
when compared to the effort they need to do while selecting a specific classification in a hierarchical
structure like a taxonomy. This is the main reason why such systems are easy to use. Regarding the
information retrieval on the Web, traditional search engines (e.g., Google) uses complex algorithms for the
indexation of Web contents, aiming to present better results for the users queries. Folksonomy-based
systems have the advantage of representing exactly the users opinion, that is, it is not an algorithm
attributing tags to objects, it is the users that are doing thatusers with different opinions and views, in
different contexts and with different goals.
It is important to differentiate two main stages in the process of the folksonomy technique use: the
categorization and the retrieval stages. In the first one, the lack of control results in a great easiness for the
categorization process and provides the benefits previously mentioned. However, the choice of the tags (i.e.,
the category a resource should belong) that best represents an object is not a trivial process. When
categorizing a new object, users will attribute terms they judge more adequate at the categorization time and
in a specific context, but there is no way to foresee or to know if those terms will also be adequate at the time
when users will retrieve the information previously categorized by them. Previous knowledge and even
recent activities accomplished by the users can exercise a lot of influence during the categorization process,
so that users can end up choosing terms that are not frequently used in their vocabulary, that are ambiguous
or that do not have a great meaning in a long time. Moreover, in general, users do not have effective
resources to help them recalling or identifying terms previously used for the categorization of similar objects,
which makes difficult the maintenance of an organized, coherent and well-structured vocabulary. These
questions are stressed when we take into account the existence of several different systems that a user could
interact with.
In the second stage, the information retrieval process suffers with problems of ambiguities, polysemy,
noises and lack of standardization of the terms used for the categorization. These problems are consequences
of the freedom that folksonomy-based systems offer and affect the information retrieval negatively, once
with a chaotic vocabulary, users will have difficulties in finding the content categorized by them before.
These problems are stressed when considered from the collective point of view, since the tags idiosyncrasy
collaborates to found rarities, i.e., for the serendipity, but it also harms the users work in trying to identify an
appropriate term for doing a search. Further, it is necessary to question what the limits of the folksonomy
usefulness are. The chaos originated from the lack of control provides interesting contributions to its easiness
of use and allows the emergency of a bottom-up organization but, currently, it is not possible to determine the
point from which the benefits of this disorganization are neutralized by its problems.
Despite the problems generated by the heterogeneity of users tags, it does not mean the users are wrong
or they are not categorizing information correctly. What users are categorizing is adequate to them or to a
small group, but it will not always bring contributions to the collective or to everyone. There are areas in
which users are more, or less, recommended as information sources and it depends on their capacity, on the
basis and competences on the subjects they are categorizing, i.e., in their cognitive authority (Wilson, 1983;
Pereira and da Silva, 2008)we will explore more on this subject latter in our user-focused approach.
Ohmukai et al. (2005) discuss about the possibility of using a controlled folksonomy. However, as
Mathes (2005) and Riddle (2005) argue, a controlled vocabulary seems to be practically unviable in the case
of applications such as Delicious. On the other hand, several authors (da Silva and Pereira, 2008; Halpin,
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2007; Sturtz, 2004; Wu, 2006) defend the research and development of resources that allow a better use of
the benefits provided by a folksonomy and that could contribute to the quality of the information produced in
folksonomy-based systems. They argue that the main cause of the success of systems like Delicious and
Flickr is the immediate feedback they can provide to users. Moreover, these systems make it visible the
individual and collective aspects related to the users behavior in the information organization process,
something that cannot be obtained with such wealth of details in a system that apply a controlled vocabulary.
The authors show the need of investments in additional resources for the improvement of folksonomy-based
systems, because as we also believe, trying to control a folksonomy is the same as disfiguring it or passing to
adopt a more liberal taxonomy.
In his discussions about tagging, Smith (2008) put focus in four tension points: i) Personal vs. Social, ii)
Idiosyncratic vs. Standard, iii) Freedom vs. Control, and iv) Amateur vs. Expert, that exist in systems that
apply folksonomy.
In Personal vs. Social: the issues here lead to questions like: What is the main goal behind the objects
categorization in tagging-based systems? What is the social nature of tagging? And, what is its great
contribution: selfishness or altruism? Do users make categorizations for their own benefit or are they
motivated by the desire of sharing information, opinions, and knowledge, or to be seen as knowledgeable in a
certain subject, or by other social factors?
In Idiosyncratic vs. Standard: the issues here are related to information organization and retrieval process,
leading to questions like: Should the tags used be unique and idiosyncratic or should they be standardized?
The tags located in the long tail of the users vocabulary are noises or are useful details about users and their
subjectivity? Can these tags be used for disambiguation or context identification, or any other process? Our
tag-focused approach concerns this tension point through the centralization and management of the users
vocabularies.
In Freedom vs. Control: the issues here are related to how systems induce users activities, leading to
questions like: Do systems give users complete freedom or do they influence or control the users tags?
When the system offers suggestions, is it changing the behavior that the users would have if no suggestions
were made? Moreover, what can bring more contributions in both information categorization and retrieval: to
control tagging or to keep its freedom nature? Both our approaches (user and tag-focused) keep this freedom
reinforcing our arguments about the need of resources for assist the users instead of controlling the process.
In Amateur vs. Expert: the issues here are related to the quality of the information made available by
these systems leading to questions: How qualified are the people tagging objects? Should the tags created and
the categorizations made by amateurs count as much as the ones made by experts? How does the system
reconcile popular opinion with experts opinions when they disagree? And, How can it be known who are
experts and who are amateurs? Our user-focused approach addresses this question and, together with the
management and centralization of the users vocabulary, aims at improving the quality of the information
retrieved in folksonomy-based systems.
It must be pointed out that all questions raised in this section are emphasized when we consider that users
have to deal with different systems for categorizing different objects. In this context, in the next sections we
present an approach focused on the tags used for categorizing objects, aiming at centralizing and managing
the users vocabularies, and another approach focused on users and directed at the question of the quality of
the information retrieved through the folksonomy technique, preserving its open and evolving nature.
2.1 Managing Personomies
The popularity of the folksonomy technique led to the existence of a wide range of systems. Usually, these
systems focus on a specific kind of object, we can cite as examples: the Youtube, focusing on videos; the
Delicious, focusing on bookmarks; the Flickr focusing on photos; the CiteULike, focusing on papers, etc. The
main goal of these systems is the organization and sharing of their specific objects, in a way that users can
build a personomy and share it with other usersgenerating a folksonomy.
However, once users have created an account in a folksonomy-based system, they do not have any
resource for reusing the vocabulary of tags applied in their categorizations when using another system. It
means that, for each system, users will have to create a different and independent personomy. This situation
contributes to several difficulties and problems in using folksonomy-based systems. To make it clear,
consider the following example: a teacher giving a lecture in a conference desires to categorize and share
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with her/his students the slides of the lecture, the video of the presentation, the pictures that s/he took during
the event, and the blog posts of other participants about the same conference. To do it, the teacher will have
to possess accounts in, at least, four different systems and, consequently, to deal with four different interfaces
and to manage four distinct personomies. We highlight four points regarding this context:
1) The complexity of learning how to use several different systems: As these systems have the objective
of organize resources, it is natural that they have common similarity in terms of features available to the
users. However, the way the interface is designed affects users behavior, expectative and productivity,
because they will have to apply some effort and spend some time in being familiarized with the system and in
understanding it. 2) The categorizations coherence: Because users have to use a different system for doing
the categorization of different objects, it is very difficult for them remembering the tags previously selected
when categorizing objects in other systems. Therefore, the coherence of the tags used to categorize objects
concerning the same context can be compromised. Users can easily forget what tags they ascribed before;
they also can be induced by the system interface (e.g., tags recommendation) or by their previous activities.
3) The management of the users vocabularies: Having different personomies spread over multiple systems
increases the chances of occurring problems in the users vocabularies, such as noises, unmeaning terms,
synonym, polysemy, etc. Furthermore, the management of the vocabulary of tags is a complex activity. If
users need to rename, add, or remove a tag from a set of objects, they have to execute this task manually in
each categorization accomplished with that tag in each system, what is a tedious and easy to fail process. This
situation contributes for the augment of the long tail in the users vocabulary (da Silva and da Silva, 2008).
Tags belonging to the long tail can represent users particularity, knowledge, preferences, etc., but difficulties
in managing users vocabulary harms the benefits that could be obtained from this long tail by inserting
noises terms that will not be useful even to the user who created it. 4) The loss of the knowledge
emergence: A personomy can provide rich information about its creators representing the way they see the
information, how they think about the world and create organizational schemes, what their preferences and
interests are, and so on. However, as the whole is quite different from the sum of its parts, we are losing the
opportunity of studying the users behavior and identifying the users knowledge in a more complete way.
Because their personomies are spread over several systems, we cannot analyze the users when they are
categorizing and retrieving information despite the object and system in use. Consequently, we do not know
if the information obtained when putting all these pieces together would be the same obtained when
analyzing the whole as a unique personomy.
According to our discussions, there are many problems and difficulties in using tags to categorize
information due to its lack of control and structures for the organization, and these problems and difficulties
are emphasized when we consider multiple systems and multiple personomies. The points we explained
above show how this situation harms the maintenance of a consistent personomy and make it difficult for
taking advantages of folksonomy benefits even at the user-level (individual). Following, we present and
discuss an approach for centralizing and managing the users vocabulary and for searching over a set of
tagging-based systems. This approach is being implemented in a system called TagManager.
3. TAGMANAGER: A TAG-FOCUSED APPROACH
The TagManager system (TM) is an initiative for allowing users to centralize and manage their vocabularies
and to retrieve information spread over a set of folksonomy-based systems (da Silva and da Silva, 2008). Its
main idea is to provide an environment in which users can manage all their personomies without dealing with
different interfaces and using different vocabularies. Currently, the TM system allows users to synchronize
and manipulate data over four different systems: Delicious, SlideShare, YouTube and Flickr and are available
just for testing. The system aims at reducing the impact caused by the lack of integration among folksonomy-
based systems, which is done by centralizing users vocabulary and by offering resources to organize and
maintain these vocabularies. On the other side, TM also makes it possible to retrieve information over
multiple systems. Thus, when users search for a certain tag, it is possible to retrieve objects categorized with
that tag in each one of these four systems according to the users preference, reducing users workload in
accessing and retrieving information in each one separately.
The important difference between the TM system and other tagging/folksonomy-based systems is its
central pivot. Usually, the central pivot of a tagging-based system is the object being labeled with tags by
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the users. In the TM there is a paradigm shift where the central pivot is the tagi.e., the system centralizes,
organizes and manages tags, regardless of what the objects are and regardless the system in which they were
categorized. Our proposal for the TM system is to build a high-level layer of tags for the users, turning the
management of their tags independent of the folksonomy-based systems and their objects. In agreement with
several authors (Mathes, 2005; Riddle, 2005; Sturtz, 2004), we think that if the users maintain a more
coherent and organized vocabulary, they tend to do a more coherent and organized categorization. Hence,
TM may improve tags usefulness for the organization of personal information, reducing the problems found
when a controlled vocabulary is not applied. Moreover, if users are creating better personomies in the
individual point of view, then a better folksonomy will be obtained when these personomies are shared across
the system, collaborating to the collective/social point of view.
The centralization and management of the users personomies is a keystone for obtaining better results
with the application of the folksonomy technique. Indeed, we argue that it is the first step in developing
resources for assisting users and emerging the social knowledge generated in these systems. Centralizing the
users vocabulary and the personomy makes the reuse, correction and management of tags, as well as the
information recommendation more effectively.
There is another system, called MyTag (http://mytag.uni-koblenz.de), which offers resources for searching
over folksonomy-based systems (for the moment over Flickr, YouTube, Delicious, Connotea, BibSonomy and
BibTex). However, this system has no features for centralizing the users vocabularies and for helping in their
maintenance and organization, which is the main goal of the TM. The focus of the MyTag system is on
searching over other systems (i.e. information retrieval), while TM focuses in the centralization and
management of the users vocabulary and offers information retrieval.
The problem of lack of quality in the information retrieval stage of folksonomy-based systems is partially
because those systems judge with equal importance categorizations done by any user. Consequently, they
will retrieve every object categorized with certain tag by every user that categorized it. There is no way of
filtering or prioritizing categorizations done by people that really understand about the subjects which they
are categorizing (Pereira and da Silva, 2008). The tagging tension point of Amateurs vs. Experts is strong
in folksonomy-based systems due to their intrinsic social nature (i.e., sharing and interaction) and results in a
great amount of irrelevant information whose quality cannot be easily verified.
Wilson (1983) coined the term cognitive authority to explain the kind of authority that influences peoples
thoughts and what they believe. The theory of the cognitive authority put up two important subjects: 1) what
does people resort to second-hand knowledge (coming from others)? And 2) do they resort to whom? The
answer to the first question can be summarized in a word need; and for the second in the following way
people resort to whom they judge to know something that themselves do not know.
Therefore, given that we normally use second-hand knowledge in our lives, it is reasonable to think that
we can also use it to improve the quality of the information retrieved on the Web. We propose to do it using
recommendation about a subject/area from who knows about the subject. Folkauthority (folk + authority) is a
neologism we proposed in (Pereira and da Silva, 2008) designating the authority granted through folksonomy
to the entities that are sources of information on the Web. This concept represents our user-focused approach
for reducing the problems of information overload we explained in previous sections.
To apply the folkauthority concept corresponds to allow users of a folksonomy-based system to ascribe
cognitive authority to the information sources with which the system works. This authority ascription is
accomplished through the attribution of tags that represent the competences, abilities or areas in which
information sources are considered references (i.e., an authority) by their categorizers (i.e., the authority
assigners). Russell (2005) was the first to mention the use of folksonomy for the cognitive authority
ascription with the intention of identifying authorities in a community of users.
The use of the folkauthority process in a folksonomy-based system is adequate for four reasons. First, a
folksonomy is characterized by the freedom of users expression, and that is what users need, since nobody
can say who is a cognitive authority for other person: the person should conclude that. Second, an authority
possesses peculiar characteristics (e.g., sphere of interest, values, etc.) which tags are capable of representing
properly. Third, in folksonomy-based systems categorizations of information are done by their own users,
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this facilitates the process of authority ascription since users are the more recommended ones to evaluate the
categorizers (because they already know them) and are already familiarized with the use of tags and with the
folksonomy technique operation. Fourth, a folksonomy allows to identify more of the context in which the
authority was granted than any other evaluation scheme could provide (a reputation scheme, for instance).
Authorities are not identified based in a single weight/value determined by an algorithm with pre-defined
criteria; instead, they are identified based in peoples subjective opinion, in the diversity and in the
unpredictability of those opinions.
The fact that folksonomy-based systems have their users as categorizers of information makes them a
favorable environment for the application of the folkauthority concept, because the authority ascription starts
to happen over the group of users itself, spreading the authority from its users to their categorizations.
Applying this concept in the TM system is still more suitable, because unifying our two approaches (the tag-
focused and the user-focused) allows recognizing/identifying authorities in different systems, as well as their
informationthe authority ascribed in the TM system worth for all systems with which it synchronizes.
Besides, the authority ascription can also take advantage of the more organized vocabularies that the TM can
provide. We can see a symbiosis relation here, where the folkauthority approach can improve the information
retrieval quality in the TM system, while the benefits generated from the centralization and management of
our tag-focused approach can improve the quality of the generated personomy and by consequence of the
authority definition.
Using the folksonomy technique for the cognitive authority ascription in folksonomy-based systems is
what can be called a meta-categorization. Since, unlike the conventional categorization process in which
users attribute tags describing the content or meaning of an object, in the folkauthority process users attribute
tags to others users of the system (i.e., the source of information) describing their competences, abilities,
knowledge or the areas in which those users are considered as reference. In this way, in a first level there is a
categorization over the objects (information), and in a second level the categorization happens over the
user/sources; a categorization of the categorizers by the categorizers. Therefore, our approach of applying the
folkauthority concept in the TM system represents an initiative of using folksonomy to improve the process
of information organization and retrieval in systems that already apply it.
In this paper, we discuss about the folksonomy technique presenting their main benefits and disadvantages,
and taking into account their two stages of use from the users interaction point of view: the information
categorization and the information retrieval.
Seeing folksonomy through the lenses of the three pivots (the tag, the object and the user) allows
researches and designers to focus their attention in specific challenges while considering the whole dynamic
of tags usage. It is possible to observe this in our two approaches: the TM system and the Folkauthority. The
discussions exposed in this paper about folksonomy become even more critical when they are considered
over multiple systems simultaneously (both challenges and opportunities are emphasized). The approach
implemented by the TM system is focused on the tag pivot (for the centralization and management of the
users vocabulary) aiming at building a better personomy and, consequently, a more structured and organized
folksonomy without controlling the used vocabulary. On the other hand, the folkauthority approach is
focused on the user pivot aiming at identifying users that are cognitive authorities for improving the quality
and relevance in the information retrieval. This approach represents a distinct strategy in which we propose a
meta-categorization that uses the own folksonomy technique to the reduction of problems found in systems
that already apply it.
Both the tag and the user-focused approaches can help in obtaining better results in a
tagging/folksonomy-based system. However, great advantages are only obtained if these approaches are
employed together, once they can create a symbiotic relation in assisting users during the use of a system. For
instance, with the management of users vocabularies we could assist users when they are categorizing
objects as well as ascribing cognitive authority, and with the centralization of users personomies we can
identify every piece of information categorized by the users who are authorities in a certain subject. Hence,
when we apply these two approaches together we are also directing efforts to the object pivot, helping in
questions of information quality, relevance, organization and findability. Indeed, we argue that it is only
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possible to make the use of the tagging/folksonomy technique more effective and more productive if we
consider the three pivots simultaneously.
During the development of our research, we understood folksonomy as a technique that has a lot to
contribute to the information organization on the Web and to social and behavioral studies about users. There
is still a lack of analyses and results about the behavior of folksonomy-based systems and about social
software in general. There are no defined metrics allowing us to affirm whether a social software (especially
the folksonomy-based ones) will obtain success and reach their objective. We are normally induced to such a
conclusion based on the number of users and on the volume of information produced in such systems, but we
cannot say that this is enough. Moreover, there is also a lack of basis for the designers to understand and to
know how to design social software. The complexity of this activity is high due to the users heterogeneity,
and current methods do not support this task efficiently.
As future researches, we see as a challenge the development of approaches and resources for
recommending tags, users and objects. In addition, the development of new schemes of interaction and data
visualization is key for involving and encouraging the users participation, besides allowing them to be more
productive in front the information overload on the Web
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to express their gratitude to FAPESP (#2009/11888-7), Proesp/CAPES and IC-
UNICAMP for partially supporting this research, and to colleagues from InterHad and GSII.
REFERENCES
da Silva, J.V. and da Silva, S.R.P., 2008. Gerenciamento do Vocabulrio das Tags dos Usurios de Sistemas Baseados
em Folksonomia. Proc. of the Workshop de Teses e Dissertaes Webmedia'08, Vitria, ES, Brazil, pp. 201-204.
da Silva, S.R.P. and Pereira, R., 2008. Aspectos da Interao Humano-Computador na Web Social. Proc. of the VIII
Simpsio Brasileiro de Fatores Humanos em Sistemas Computacionais. Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil, pp. 350-351.
Freyne, J. et al., 2007. Collecting Community Wisdom: Integrating Social Search & Social Navigation. Proc. of the
International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces. Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, pp. 52-61.
Halpin, H., Robu, V. & Sheperd, Hana. The Complex Dynamics of Collaborative Tagging. WWW2007. Alberta.
IW3C2-ACM. 2007.
Himma, K. E., 2007. The Concept of Information Overload: A Preliminary Step in Understanding the Nature of a
Harmful Information-Related Condition. In Ethics and Information Technology, pp. 259-272.
Levy, D. M., 2008. To Grow in Wisdom: Vannevar Bush, Information Overload, and the Life of Leisure. Proc. of the
JCDL05, Denver, CO, USA, pp. 281-286.
Mathes, A., 2005. Folksonomies - Cooperative Classification and Communication through Shared Metadata. Technical
Report available on http://blog.namics.com/archives/2005/ Folksonomies_Cooperative_Classification.pdf, 2005.
Ohmukai, I., Hamasaki, M. and Takeda, H., 2005. A Proposal of Community-based Folksonomy with RDF Metadata.
Proc. of the Workshop on End User Semantic Web Interaction, Galway, Ireland.
Pereira, R. and da Silva, S.R.P., 2008a. The Use of Cognitive Authority for Information Retrieval in Folksonomy-Based
Systems. Proc. of the International Conference of Web Engineering (ICWE08), New York, USA, pp. 327-331..
Riddle, P., 2005. Tags: What are They Good For? School of Information Technical Report available on
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~i385q/archive/riddle_p/riddle-2005-tags.pdf, 2005.
Russell, T., 2005. Contextual Authority Tagging: Cognitive Authority Through Folksonomy. Technical Report available
on http://www.terrellrussell.com/projects/ contextualauthority tagging/conauthtag200505.pdf, 2005.
Smith, G., 2008. Tagging: People-Powered Metadata for the Social Web. New Riders, Berkeley.
Sturtz, D. N., 2004. Communal Categorization: The Folksonomy. Proc. INFO622: Content Representation, 1-8, 2004.
Wilson, P., 1983. Second-hand Knowledge: An Inquiry into Cognitive Authority, Greenwood Press, 1983.
Wu, Harris. Harvesting Social Knowledge from Folksonomies. 17th conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia. 2006.
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CREATING DECOMPOSABLE WEB APPLICATIONS
ON HIGH-RESOLUTION TILED DISPLAY WALLS
Shohei Yokoyama and Hiroshi Ishikawa
Shizuoka University
3-5-1 Johoku Naka-ku Hamamatsu 432-8011, Japan
ABSTRACT
As described in this paper, we explain how to implement ultra-high-resolution Web applications executed on the tiled
display walls. Although tiled display walls can accommodate contents of various types, they cannot easily handle
standard web contents. Using our new web application design, supporting high-resolution web contents decomposition
for distributed rendering on a tiled display wall. We also describe a design for low-cost tiled display wall using a
"Nettop" computer, and demonstrate our middleware for creating decomposable web applications.
KEYWORDS
Tiled Display Wall, High-resolution, Web Application, Mashups.
1. INTRODUCTION
Recently, much high-resolution data exists around us. For example, Google Maps provides various resolution
satellite images of the whole Earth's surface and atmosphere. Flickr provides high-resolution image hosting
for users to share and embed personal photographs. Such services are provided via the Web; users access
them using a web browser.
However, the scope of information that a user can browse depends on the number of pixels of the user's
screen, irrespective of the data resolution. That is, Google Maps' satellite images might display clearly the car
in front of your house, but the neighbor's car is probably off of the screen. On the other hand, if one zooms
out on the map, then both cars become too "small" to see.
Photographs taken using 1 megapixel digital camera have 3680 pixel width and 2735 pixel height (E-3;
Olympus Corp.), but the consumer display monitor resolutions are insufficient to show all pixels of the
photographs. Therefore, we can view only a small fraction of available data.
Generally speaking, for visualization of ultra-high-resolution data, a "tiled display wall" is used. The tiled
display wall is a technique to build a virtual ultra-high-resolution display comprising multiple display
monitors. Many studies have investigated high-resolution display, but the aims of most proposals are for
scientific and medical visualization (Ni et. al., 2006). Therefore, these show high performance but very high
cost. Moreover, standard middleware for tiled display walls does not exist: developers must have deep
knowledge of programming and networking.
As described in this paper, we present a design of a low-cost tiled display wall based only on web
technologies and propose middleware to develop high-resolution web contents to display on the tiled display
wall. The population of web developers is growing at a tremendous pace. Web browsers are used on various
operating systems and involve many standards. Many web services such as Google Maps API and Flickr API
are available nowadays on the internet. We propose a method to use a high-resolution web application that is
executed on a tiled display wall based on the web standards that include HTML, J avaScript, PHP, and so on.
We also present designs of low-cost tiled display walls.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the design of our tiled display wall
and Section 3 explains our "Decomposable Web Application" concept. Examples of an application are
discussed in Section 4. Middleware for the web-based tiled display wall is also presented in Section 5.
Section 6 describes related works. Finally, Section 7 concludes the paper.
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2. DESIGN OF LOW-COST WEB BASED TILED DISPLAY WALL
2.1 Overview
Figure 1 presents our tiled display wall named Wall Display in Mosaic (WDiM). The WDiM system consists
of 16 Full HD (1920 1080) LCD monitors and 16 Nettop PCs(The Player) which have Atom (Intel
Corp.) processors. Consequently, the system is very simple because one PC connects to one LCD monitor. In
addition, WDiM has a game console (The Conductor, Wii; Nintendo Co. Ltd.) as the user interface for web
application on the WDiM, and a web server (The Coordinator) to conduct monitor synchronization
1
. That is,
WDiM is a distributed model-view-controller model that consists of the Coordinator, the Players, and the
Conductor.
An overview of WDiM is presented in Figure 2. Each Player, Coordinator, and Conductor is connected
via LAN and connects to the internet through the gate-way. Therefore, WDiM can access to the third party
web services and contents on the internet. An external machine, e.g. a cellular telephone, can access to
WDiM via the internet.
The feature of WDiM is in comparison with the existing tiled display walls that the rendering engine is
built on a web browser. The Players display web browser, which is Kiosk Mode. Kiosk Mode is
fundamentally a full screen mode with no toolbars. For example, Internet Explorer in the Kiosk Mode is
available with -k as a command line argument when starting up Internet Explorer.
The Players are fundamentally computers with simple factory settings be-cause a web browser is pre-
installed on a new computer; no extra program is necessary to build WDiM, the tiled display wall system.
The Players must be equal to the number of LCD Panels. Consequently, the installation cost of the
Players might be the single largest component of the WDiM construction cost. For that reason, we must
specifically examine reduction of the installation cost of Players. In fact, no application aside from a web
browser is needed for Players
The Conductor is a web browser too. For this implementation, we choose Wii (Nintendo), which has an
Opera web browser (Opera Software ASA) as Conductor. The Wii is a home video game console; an
intuitive control is available -- the Wii Remote.
The Coordinator is a simple web server; we use Apache2 HTTP daemon on Fedora Linux distribution
(Red Hat Inc.).
2.2 Hardware
The WDiM system consists of low-end consumer-grade computers. Players are Aspire Revo (Acer Inc.)
which has Atom processors (Intel Corp.) and NVIDIA Ion graphics processors (NVIDIA Corp.). The Aspire
Revo performance is worse than that of ordinary computers because the Atom processor (Intel) is designed

1
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYGCTgrySIc

Figure 1. Wall Display in Mosaic Figure 2. Overview of WDiM
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for low-end PCs. However, the Aspire Revo is sufficient to browse the Web and process mail. Therefore, it is
called a Nettop computer. Browsing the web is the one and only one task for each Player. For that reason,
we chose Nettop computers as WDiMs Players.
Coordinator is a middle range computer. The specifications for the Coordinator are the following: CPU,
Core2Duo T9300 (Intel Corp.); Memory, 2 GB; HDD, 250 GB/ 5400 rpm.
Generally speaking, tiled display walls such as WDiM are bottlenecked by the performance of the
Coordinator computer because Coordinator must orchestrate all Players. Although network traffic and the
load average are directly related to the number of Players and LCD panels, they do not present an important
problem because the WDiM system described herein has only 16 LCD panels. In addition, much knowledge
and technology of load balancing exists, e.g., web server clustering, web proxy, and so on. The measurement
of scalability remains as a subject for future work.
The four vertical LCD panels and four Player PCs are installed to the same aluminum frames with VESA
LCD monitor arms. Each frame has casters; thereby, WDiM is movable.
As explained herein, WDiM consists of low-cost electronics. We spent less than fifteen thousand dollars
to build WDiM, although it has more than 16 LCDs tiled on a display wall.
2.3 Network
All of the Coordinator, Player, Conductor, and a gateway components connect to the network, which
supports Gigabit Ethernet; the WDiM is connected to the internet via the gateway. Therefore, internal devices
of the WDiM cannot access only the external web services; external devices can also access to the internal
devices of the WDiM. In other words, an iPhone and laptop computer can control a web application on the
WDiM.
In actuality, WDiM, which is based only on web technology, uses no network protocol except HTTP,
which is an application-layer protocol. Consequently, Players cannot send and receive data to each other and
the Coordinator cannot call Players. The web browsers from (Players and the Conductor) send requests to
the web server (Coordinator) and receive responses. This is an HTTP specification.
Consequently, all Players and the Conductor poll the web server on the Coordinator using Ajax behind
web application on WDiM. The flow described above is hidden from WDiM application developers because
WDiM middle-ware provides an overlay network and its access methods over the troublesome HTTP/Ajax
messaging (Figure 3).
3. WEB, COMPOSABLE WEB, AND DECOMPOSABLE WEB
Once it was believed that web browsers were useful merely to display static pages that web servers would
provide one after another. However, web pages are no longer static; a good example is Google Maps, which

Figure 3. WDiM messaging Figure 4. Model-View-Controller (MVC) of WDiM
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uses dynamic HTML and Asynchronous J avaScript +XML (Ajax). Using J avaScript, web pages can access
third party web services, download data, and update pages independently Therefore, web applications are
implemented to compose multiple external data resources. In other words, recent data resources, e.g.
RESTful Web services and Web APIs, must be composable.
We return now to a consideration of the tiled display wall. The tiled display wall renders high-resolution
contents in parallel. That is, web applications on WDiM must be decomposable. WDiM is intended to
provide a method that decomposes high-resolution web applications that are implemented to compose
distributed web services and APIs.
Let us consider drawing high-resolution images to multiple web browsers on monitors of the WDiM
system. For example, if the high-resolution image is a 5 MB digital photograph taken by a megapixel digital
camera, then six Full HD monitors are necessary to display every pixel of the image. In this case, at least six
Players send HTTP request and fetch the same 5 MB file. Consequently, 30 MB data are sent for visualizing
a 5 MB image, which is plainly not efficient.
Although multicasting or broadcasting modes that are not supported by web browser might solve this
problem, our challenge in this research is drawing a high-resolution web application based only on web
browsers. Therefore, the Players must each draw a fragment of the high-resolution image on a web browser.
Such a technique is well known. It is a web mapping service application. For example, Google Maps
draws a fragment of the huge satellite image on a web browser. In this case, it is apparent that the image
shown on the web browser consists of many small images (256 pixels256 pixels). Therefore, Google Maps
need not request images that are outside the bounds of the desired image. Actually, WDiM uses such a tiling
method to draw raster images.
A question that remains is whether each Player can draw correct bounds of a big image. The
Coordinator and WDiM middleware help WDiM application developers to resolve this issue. Put simply,
WDiM middleware manages messaging between application logic on the Coordinator and web browsers on
all Players. The WDiM middleware and messaging are described in section 5.
Next, distributed character strings are not supported in this version of WDiM. If a developer does not
declare a bounding box, then strings are sent to all Players whether it draws the string on the monitor or not.
Lastly, drawing a vector image is a subject for future work. We tackle distributed rendering using Adobe
Flash. In this way, distributed rendering on multiple monitors is realized using a combination of existing
technologies.
4. HIGH-RESOLUTION WEB APPLICATIONS ON WDIM
To sum up the salient characteristics, The WDiM system consists of a Coordinator(httpd), multiple
Players(Nettop computer), and Conductor(Nintendo Wii). A Coordinator is responsible for the messaging
and application logic, Players draw high-resolution web application to monitors, and the Conductor receive
user interaction. Therefore, the WDiM is logically a kind of Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture
(Figure 4).
Before describing WDiM middleware, we present two high-resolution web applications of WDiM in this
section to provide an overview of decomposable web application as a mashup of composable web services.
4.1 PhotoMosaic: Using Flickr API
Photomosaic (Silvers R. and Hawley M., 1997 and Finkelstein A. and Range M., 1998) is a technique which
transforms an input image into a rectangular grid of thumbnail images. WDiM PhotoMosaic application
creates Photomosaic images using the large image set of Flickr, the public image hosting service. A
photographic mosaic is a photograph that has been divided into small sections, each of which is replaced with
another photograph having the appropriate average color of the section. While viewing a photographic
mosaic from a distance, it appears as a large photograph, but small photographs can be observed if one
approaches the photographic mosaic. This application aims to demonstrate WDiM, which is not merely a
large display, but also a high-resolution display.
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PhotoMosaic (Figure 5) creates a photographic mosaic consisting of many small photographs from a
photograph that a user gives voluntarily. A large-scale photograph repository is necessary for creation of
photographic mosaic, but PhotoMosaic does not prepare such a repository. PhotoMosaic uses an image
hosting service, Flickr, instead of local photographs, downloading photographs which have average color of a
small section of a given photograph. The PhotoMosaic system is shown in Figure 6. PhotoMosaic uses 75
75 pixels thumbnail images which Flickr generates. No Flickr service exists to search photographs by color;
we extract feature values of color from crawled Flickr images. PhotoMosaic divides the thumbnail into nine
sections, calculates the average color of each section, then saves the feature vector to a metadata database
with thumbnails URL.
An original photograph is given via e-mail by a user along with a notice to PhotoMosaic. The original
photograph is divided and compared in each section with feature vectors of metadata database and get a URL
of closest image. That is to say, PhotoMosaic generates a list of URLs from a given photograph and creates a
photographic mosaic. Then the photograph is appended to list on the Conductors display. The photographic
mosaic that is displayed on WDiM is pointed by Wii remote. A user tilts the Wii remote and scrolls the list of
original photographs, then chooses one photograph from the list. If a user chooses one from list, then the
photographic mosaic is shown in WDiM.
When a photograph is chosen, Coordinator divides the URL list for each Players and sends a subset of
the URLs to corresponding Players. Then each Player downloads thumbnail images in parallel and draws a
corresponding part of the photographic mosaic
2
.

2
See also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9vJ -umQLok

Figure 5. PhotoMosaic Figure 6. PhotoMosaic System

Figure 7. PhotoMap Figure 8. PhotoMap System
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4.2 PhotoMap: Using Google Maps API
Figure 7 portrays PhotoMap, a WDiM application, which shows high-resolution Google Maps and posts the
geotagged photographs on the map. Geotags are location metadata assigned to the photograph. They
represent a set of latitude and longitude. Geotagging is supported on most cellular telephones and handy GPS
systems.
Services showing geotagged images on the map are not novel: Google Maps and Flickr provide such
services. We must emphasize distributed parallel rendering on web browsers on 16 Players. Each Player
draws a different part of the high-resolution map, constituting part of the image of the composite large-scale
map.
The PhotoMap system is portrayed in Figure 8. PhotoMap hosts geotagged photographs; one is shown in
WDiM with a vicinity map of shooting location. A user can change the displayed photograph from the hosted
photographs using a Wii remote and scroll to a new location in which the next photograph is taken coincident
with changing photographs. PhotoMap, in short, is a high-resolution digital photograph frame application.
Registration of photographs to PhotoMap is to upload to Coordinator via FTP and e-mail.
Visualization of earth science data, especially high-resolution satellite images, is a major part of
applications of expensive existing tiled display wall. PhotoMaps shows WDiM, which consists of low-end
consumer machines and which is based only on web technologies, can apply to visualization for earth science.
5. MIDDLEWARE FOR WDIM
5.1 Components
In this section, we describe middleware that draws a high-resolution web application with user interaction.
The middleware components are depicted in Figure 9. The middleware consists of a distributed web-
application rendering engine and some third-party J avaScript library components including Ext.J s and
FREDDY (Yokoyama et. al. 2009). The TileCongifuration file includes the number of monitors, size of the
display, and other useful information. WrapperCommander and WrapperReceiver are simple wrapper
programs of PHP; they load TileConfiguration and call Commander and Receiver of a user-developed WDiM
application. The WDiM application consists of Commander, which is executed on the Conductor (Nintendo
Wii/Opera), and Receiver which is executed on the Players. In addition, RESTful Web Services and Ajax
Proxy are placed on Coordinator as necessary.
Commander is an HTML file that includes J avaScript code for Conductor and draws GUI on the monitor,
receives user interaction using Wii Remote and sends commands to Receiver on Players. Receivers has
command handlers, which are defined by the application developer and which await commands from
Commander. When Receivers receive a command from Commander, the corresponding handler is called
with arguments.
We provide abstract classes of Commander and Receiver to application developer. To develop WDiM
applications, the developer writes the subclasses of both Commander and Receiver and extends the abstract
classes to define the application logic.

Figure 9. WDiM middleware components Figure 10. Messaging Mechanism of WDiM
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The WDiM application start-up procedure is the following:
1. Conductor and Players respectively send HTTP requests to the URL of WrapperCommander and
WrapperReceiver.
2. Both Wrappers load the TileConfiguration of the WDiM.
3. WrapperCommander sends Commander to Conductor and Wrapper-Receiver sends Receiver to all
Players.
4. Commander is a web application displayed on the web browser of the Conductor;
Receivers is a web application displayed on the web browser of the Players.
5. Finally, Commander and distributed Receivers is executed cooperatively and shows high-resolution
web application on the tiled displays of WDiM.
5.2 Messaging
The messaging between Commander and Receiver is based on Ajax over HTTP. However, as described
above, Commander on the Coordinator can not communicate directly to Receiver on the Players because
HTTP does not allow browser-to-browser connection. Therefore, all Players and the Conductor poll the web
server on the Coordinator. Actually, WDiM has messaging of two kinds: Command and SyncData (Figure
10). SyncData is a method used to synchronize data between Commander and all Receivers. If a J SON object
that is declared as SyncData is changed on the Commander, then the object is sent immediately to all Players
to inform Receivers. Command is a method to sending J SON object from Commander to Receivers on
specified Players. The Commander publishes Command and SyncData via methods of WDiM middleware
and the Receiver receives Command and SyncData via a handler for which the user is defined. The WDiM
middleware manages the exchange information between Commander and Receivers.
5.3 Tile Configuration
Commander and Receiver get the TileConguration when starting a WDiM application. Figure 11 shows
properties for our 16-monitor WDiM tiled display wall. User only defines the width and height of LCD
monitor and its bezel and Number of LCD monitors of the Tiled Display Wall. In addition, some useful
properties, e.g. distance from the center and bounds of the LCD monitor draw, calculated. The WDiM
application can use the properties to draw the high-resolution contents.
The WDiM middleware and applications can correspond to various sizes of tiled display walls by
changing the TileConguration. For example, it is possible to build a tiled display wall made of two laptop
computers arranged side-by-side on the desk.

Figure 11. Tile configuration
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6. RELATED WORKS
Many proposed approaches are used for building tiled display wall systems. NASAs Hyperwall (Sandstrom
et. al., 2003) has a 64-megapixel Tiled Display Wall comprising 49 monitors (7 monitors horizontal 7
monitors vertical). LambdaVision uses 55 monitors (11 monitors horizontal 5 monitors vertical) and builds
a 100 megapixel high-resolution tiled display wall system. They also propose middleware for tiled display
walls called SAGE (Renambot et. al., 2003) An extremely large tiled display wall is HIPerSpace (DeFanti
et.al. 2009) used at the University of California, San Diego. Altogether, it has a 225-megapixel display.
Details of existing tiled display wall systems were surveyed by Ni et. al.(2006).
Those systems aim at performance and resolution for application to scientific visualization for life science
data and ultra-high-resolution satellite images. Apparently, research issues related to tiled display wall have
bypassed consumer applications in favor of improving scientific high-performance computing. Consequently,
such applications require the use of expensive high-end machines, complex settings and elaborate
programming. However, in explosive growth of web technologies, ultra-high-resolution satellite images, e.g.
Google Maps, via web browser are becoming increasingly available, and are valued by many users.
In other words, high-resolution visualization is no longer for scientists only: ordinary people can have
access to it. For that reason, we propose a low-cost tiled display wall, WDiM, which consists of low-end
machines and which is based solely on web technologies.
Additionally, we must point out that WDiM uses only web programming language. Numerous skillful
web developers and programmers are working today who can create WDiM applications.
7. CONCLUSIONS
As described in this paper, we propose WDiM, a method to display high-resolution web applications on a
tiled display wall. We also express the design of low-cost tiled display wall made of low-end consumer
devices. Additionally, we presented an example of a high-resolution web application which renders to the
tiled display wall. This paper explained how to decompose high-resolution web applications implemented to
compose distributed web services and APIs.
Future research in this area will be undertaken to attempt browser-to-browser communication using a new
version of the Opera browser and vector rendering using HTML5. We believe that decomposable high-
resolution web applications are a novel model of next-generation web usage.
REFERENCES
DeFanti T. et al, 2009. The optip1ortal, a scalable visualization, storage, and computing interface device for the optiputer.
Future Generation Computer Systems, The International Journal of Grid Computing and eScience. 25(2), pp.114-123.
Finkelstein A. and Range M., 1998. Image Mosaics. In Roger D. Hersch, Jacquesl Andr, and Heather Brown, Ed.,
Artistic Imaging and Digital Typography. LNCS, No. 1375, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
Ni T. et al, 2006. A survey on large high-resolution display technologies, techniques, and applications. In Proceedings of
Virtual Reality Conference. pp. 223-236.
Renambot L. et al, 2004. Sage: the scalable adaptive graphics environment. In Workshop on AdvancedCollaborative
Environments (WACE04).
Sandstrom T. A. et al, 2003. The hyperwall. In Proceedings of International Conference on Coordinated and Multiple
Views in Exploratory Visualization. pp. 124-133.
Silvers R. and Hawley M., 1997. Photomosaics. Henry Holt, New York.
Yokoyama S. et al, 2009. Freddy: A web browser-friendly lightweight data-interchange method suitable for composing
continuous data streams. In Proceedings of First International Workshop on Lightweight Integration on the Web
(ComposableWeb'09). In conjunction with ICWE 2009, pp. 39-50.
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WIKLANG A DEFINITION ENVIRONMENT FOR
MONOLINGUAL AND BILINGUAL DICTIONARIES TO
SHALLOW-TRANSFER MACHINE TRANSLATION

Alssio Miranda J nior and Laura S. Garca
C3SL, Computer Department, Federal University of Paran UFPR, Curitiba-Pr, Brazil
ABSTRACT
In a time when the most successful development efforts in Machines Translation (MT) are based on closed software,
Apertiumhas become an alternative mature, interesting and open source. However, one of the main obstacles for the
improvement of its results and popularization is the absence of a specific interface to manage its linguistic knowledge,
which, because of the imposed difficulty, reduces the number of potential collaborators to the development of the
language pairs. In the present paper, we propose an interaction-interface environment that can abstract the concepts of the
system and the textual process available for the development of bi or monolingual dictionaries. In addition to that, it has
the ability to capture and organize knowledge in a simple manner for non-experts in Computing, leading to the growth
and development of new language pairs for the MT.
KEYWORDS
Apertium, Machine Translation Systems, WiKLaTS, interfaces, knowledge management, WiKLang.
1. INTRODUCTION
Machine Translation (MT) (Hutchins, 1992) is the traditional term used to refer to the semi or fully-
automated process whereby a text or utterance in a natural language (so-called source-language) is translated
into another natural language (so-called target-language), resulting in an intelligible text which, in turn,
preserves certain features of the source-text, such as style, cohesion and meaning.
In recent years, we can see that the successful instances of Machines Translation (MT) are always a set of
closed software and knowledge base, distributed as static products and with a commercial purpose. This
model comes with a big disadvantage, namely the difficulty imposed to the architecture and technique
improvement studies and even to the development of language pairs without a financial incentive.
This situation hinders the development of open-source software able to transform this technology in
something open and democratic. In this sense, creating opportunities for the community to contribute even
more to the evolution and the development of this interdisciplinary area that involves Computer Science and
Linguistic has become a relevant challenge.
Among the different types of MT software that have appeared following the open-source software model
and focusing on the abovementioned objectives, we have chosen the Opentrad Apertium Project
(Apertium) (Forcada, 2008) as a consolidated free/open-source MT platform which is in constant evolution
and with expressive results in literature (Tyers, 2009 and Forcada, 2006).
Apertium is a shallow-transfer Machine Translator based on superficial syntactic rules that use its own
knowledge (data) base, with an open and flexible structure in XML standard. It provides an engine and
toolbox that allow users to build their own machine translation systems by writing only the data. The data
consists, on a basic level, of three dictionaries and transfer rules.
Shallow transfer systems, such as Apertium, based on superficial syntactic rules, use superficial
information based on the structure of the sentence, avoiding the in-depth semantic details within that
structure. In general, this type of MT is more efficient and can substitute a complete syntactic analysis with
satisfactory results.
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Although Apertium has technical advantages widely recognized and praised by the international scientific
community, and despite its structured and open knowledge base, its popularization has been facing a number
of obstacles. The development of language pairs for Apertium is perceived as complex, based on lengthy
XML files without interface alternatives that allow for the development and maintenance of linguistic
knowledge bases. Therefore, all efforts are based on textual tools.
This fact is a hindrance to the evolution of the available language pairs precisely because the number of
users able to develop knowledge for the tool is strictly limited to experts and/or trained users.
2. OBJECTIVES
When new users are interested in contributing to the development of a given language pair, they must go
through a period of identification and learning about structures, command line tools and processes, which
might be extremely complex for a layman in Computing. Indeed, this learning period may become rather
long and complicated due to the lack of formalization and tools, thus discouraging countless potential
collaborators. In this light, the main objective of the present work is to minimize this negative factor.
Among the aspects that must be lightened and simplified within the interaction-interface environment, we
would like to mention the following: the marking of XML files, the compilation of XML bases in Apertium,
as well as the organization, the acronyms and the internal structure of the knowledge base. Furthermore, with
the ever-growing knowledge about language pairs, the direct manipulation of these files has also become
intricate from a human point of view.
In the present paper, we present a formalization proposal of a part of the process of a language pair
creation and development for translation, which we describe through interfaces and stages of knowledge
specification. This study has allowed for the dissemination of a set of interfaces which, in turn, make up a
more adequate and efficient alternative to the current process. We named this set WiKLang, and its main
objectives are the following:
Standardize both the understanding and the process, and make them less dependent on textual
scripts;
Reduce to a minimum the Computing knowledge needed for a new collaborator to understand how
to create and develop language pairs;
Allow for the manipulation of the knowledge bases in a reliable, generic fashion, including
management functions;
Stimulate both translation improvement between existing language pairs and the development of
new pairs, thus making MTs, such as Apertium, more reliable and with a bulkier knowledge base.
3. METHODOLOGY
In order to achieve the previously mentioned objectives, we have followed the steps described below:
Interaction with the Apertium team so as to understand the interface and its architecture;
Identification of problems and aspects that could be improved in the interaction with Apertium
developer-users;
Formalization of the knowledge specification process used in Apertium;
Creation of a project of an interaction-interface environment (WiKLang) using concepts similar to
Apertiums, as a more adequate alternative to the linguistic knowledge specification needed to translate
language pairs;
Development of a non-functional prototype to be assessed by the Apertium team.
4. DATA DEVELOPMENT ON THE APERTIUM PROJECT
Apertium is an open-source platform for creating rule-based machine translation systems. It was initially
designed for closely-related languages, but has also been adapted to work better for less related languages.
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The original shallow-transfer Apertium system consists of a de-formatter, a morphological analyzer, a
categorical disambiguator, a structural and lexical transfer module, a morphological generator, a post
generator and a reformatter (Tyers, 2009).
Inserting a new language pair to be translated by Apertium is a challenging task that requires advanced
knowledge of Linguistics in addition to specific Computing knowledge. A researcher or user that may wish
to develop translation pairs for Apertium relies on non-specific tools and very few interface resources and
scripts, which in turn are fully textual and detail parts of the process only.
The architecture of Apertium consists of a generic translation machine that may be used in association
with different knowledge bases, such as dictionaries and rules of shallow-transfer between languages. It is the
combination of these elements that does the translation of text through a process of shallow-transfer, whose
main distinctive feature is the fact that it does not carry out a full syntactic analysis, but rather operates over
lexical units.
Therefore, one must master certain key concepts so as to understand both the knowledge model and the
basic structure of the XML files to be created.
Some of these key concepts are lexemes, symbols and paradigms. A lexeme is the fundamental unit of
the lexicon of a language (word). A symbol refers to a classifying tag, which may be either grammatical or
linked to the execution stages of the machine. A paradigm is a script containing morphological flexions for
a given group of words.
Moreover, there are three stages one must go through in order to insert new language pairs into Apertium,
stages which, in turn, give rise to XML files. It is important to stress that the entire process is based on
textual files, and that the references among the tags, for example, must be kept correctly and manually
(human).
Table 1 shows these three defining stages, namely the development of a monolingual dictionary, a
bilingual dictionary and translation rules. We have developed solutions for the first two stages.
In order to create and manage the files that make up the dictionaries and rules, one must necessarily know
and understand the syntax, the labels, the internal structure and the tagging hierarchy. Typical monolingual
dictionaries, for example, currently comprise more than 10 thousand lexemes spread through 150 thousand
lines of XML information, which makes knowledge management a task too complex to be carried out
manually and without specific techniques and support tools.
In order to make terminology clear, in the present paper we will refer to fixed XML Apertium tags as
elements, leaving the concept of tag to flexible language features. We will present below examples of
excerpts of Apertium files, including the meanings of the elements mentioned whenever necessary. The
information presented here is largely based on tutorials provided by the platform.
Table 1. Data for the apertium platform: development stages
Development Stage Content
Monolingual Dictionary of language xx and yy Contains the rules of how words in language are inflected.
Bilingual Dictionary for each direction xx to yy
and yy to xx
Contains correspondences between words and symbols in the two
languages in the direction defined.
Transfer Rules for each direction Contains rules for how language xx will be changed into language
yy.
4.1 Dictionary Format
Both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries share the same XML specifications. We shall now present an
overview of the standard structure of these files.
The element dictionary comprises the entire content of the file and is basically divided into four parts
isolated by tags and their respective content, as follows:
alphabet: set of characters used to perform tokenization;
sdefs: markings that can be applied to structures during the process;
pardefs: flexion paradigms applied to the lexemes;
section: lexeme definition and special symbols belonging to the language, possibly involving
paradigms.
Example of the Basic Schema of an XML Dictionary:
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<?xml ver si on=" 1. 0" >
<di ct i onar y>
<al phabet ><! Char act er s used i n t he di ct i onar y - - ></ al phabet >
<sdef s><! - - Symbol s t hat can be appl i ed dur i ng t he pr ocess; - - ></ sdef s>
<par def s><! - - Fl exi on par adi gms appl i ed t o t he l exemes; - - ></ par def s>
<sect i on i d=" mai n" t ype=" st andar d" >
<! - Sect i ons l exeme def i ni t i on and speci al symbol s
bel ongi ng t o t he l anguage, possi bl y i nvol vi ng par adi gms. - - >
</ sect i on>
</ di ct i onar y>
4.2 Monolingual Dictionary
Monolingual dictionaries contain lexemes, flexions and all other elements needed to morphologically classify
a sentence, expression or word in the language in question. There may even be ambiguities in this
classification, but they are cleared in subsequent translation steps, which we will not discuss here. The
platform works with parts of the language, hence the need to work with two morphological dictionaries in
order to carry out translations.
Say we wish to translate the noun livro, in Portuguese, which corresponds to book in English. In
order to do so, we need to create a monolingual dictionary in English as well as one in Portuguese. We will
now describe the development of a small monolingual Portuguese dictionary. Figure 1 shows the result of the
analysis process of the word livro.

Figure 1. Analysis process of the word livro.
The first stage is the definition of the alphabet, i.e. the set of characters used in given language (expressed
by the equally named element alphabet).
Example of alphabet tag
<al phabet > ABCDEFGHI J KLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZa
bcdef ghi j kl mnopqr st uvwxyz</ al phabet >
After that, all symbols that may be used in the translation process must be registered, and they may either
have grammatical semantics or be part of the internal treatment of the process. The element sdefs
comprises this content.
Example of sdefs tag.
<sdef s>
<sdef n="subs" c=Noum/ > <sdef n=" adj " c=Adj et i v/ >
<sdef n="sg" c=Si ngl e/ > <sdef n=" pl " c=Pl ur al / >
<sdef n="m" c=Masc/ > <sdef n=" f " c=Femal e/ >
<sdef n="mf " c=Undef Gender / >
</ sdef s>
Next, one must define a section of paradigms comprised by the element pardefs, to which the paradigm
used by nouns as livro is added. In Portuguese, the lexeme for nouns is always male and singular. The
singular form of this noun is livro and the plural is livros.
Example of paradefs tag:
<par def n="l i vr o__subs">
<e><p>
<l / >
<r ><s n=" subs" / ><s n="sg"/ ></ r >
</ p></ e>
<e><p>
<l >s</ l >
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<r ><s n=" subs/ ><s n="pl "/ ></ r >
</ p></ e>
</ par def >
Table 3 shows a few XML elements used in Apertium. The attribute n of the <pardef>element simply
defines a name of reference for the paradigm. In order to make its identification easier, this name follows a
terminological standard first defined by the Apertium pioneers.
Within the pair of directions, knowledge is built from left to right, conceptually representing the direction
of the generation process. This is necessary because the knowledge bases, dictionaries and rules are compiled
for a finite machine. In the case of a dictionary, the movement from left to right corresponds to the process of
word analysis, whereas the movement from right to left corresponds to the construction of words, as shown
in Table 2.
Table 2. Description of XML pardef process
In Direction Out Process
livros LefttoRight Livros<subs><pl> Analysis
livros<subs><pl> RighttoLeft Livro Generation

The element that succeeds paradefs, entitled section, refers to sections of lexical content. An
important attribute of <section>is type, which in turn defines the kind of section and may be classified as
standard (indicating that the content consists basically of lexemes) or unconditional (indicating
punctuation and other symbols we will not discuss in the present paper).
Table 3. Description of XML elements
Element Description Element Description
E EntryineitheraParadigmoraSection LM Lema
P PairofaElement I Radicaltobeused
L LeftDirection PAR ParadigmName

The link between lexemes and their respective (previously defined) paradigm is established within the
element section. Table 3 shows the description of the XML elements.
Below is the definition of the lexeme livro:
<e l m=" l i vr o" >
<i >l i vr o</ i ><par n="l i vr o__subs"/ >
</ e>
In order to show how the basic structure of a monolingual dictionary works, we have developed this very
simple version of a Portuguese dictionary using the word livro.
4.3 Bilingual Dictionary
Bilingual dictionaries make correspondences between lexemes and symbols of both languages involved, with
their content being the knowledge needed for translation in both ways. Indeed, their main content consists of
the word-for-word relation of correspondence between the languages in question.
The structure of a bilingual dictionary is the same as that of a monolingual dictionary, but its objective is
to register and map lexemes across two different monolingual dictionaries. Nevertheless, even though the two
kinds of dictionaries share the same structure, their descriptive forms are different.
The alphabet element is unused in bilingual dictionaries: as mentioned earlier, it's only used for
tokenization.
The element sdef must contain the union of the elements present in the two monolingual dictionaries
involved. The element pardef may contain advanced paradigms for bilingual definition, and therefore
cannot be applied to our example.
The element section is the one to hold the relations between lexemes, and its function is to manage the
standard exchange between words. These standards play the role of the word-for-word translator, though
with a more thorough analysis of the results. When there are ambiguities (such as the definition of undefined
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genders), different resources are used in different translation stages which, in turn, we will not discuss in
the present paper.
Example Fragment of word mapping in a bilingual dictionary.
<sect i on i d=" mai n"t ype="st andar d">
<e><p>
<l >l i vr o<s n=subs" / ></ l >
<r >book<s n=subs"/ ></ r >
</ p></ e>
</ sect i on>
4.4 Translation Process
Figure 2 depicts the translation process of the source word livro, in Portuguese, and its correspondent in
English, book. Firstly, the input element is analyzed taking the respective monolingual dictionary into
account. Next, possible manipulations of the translation rules may take place. Finally, the bilingual dictionary
generates the new concept in the target language.

Figure 2. Simple translation process.
5. WIKLANG
The main objective of WiKLang is to import and export the XML files of monolingual and bilingual
dictionaries, allowing for their management to take place through an interaction-interface environment
which, in turn, makes the process more objective and transparent. This way, our aim is to offer an alternative
to the current Apertium process of file creation in the stages of mono and bilingual dictionary development.
The fact that the proposed interface must be generic enough to allow for the creation of mono and bilingual
dictionaries in any pair of languages is what we find particularly challenging in our project.
The strategy we adopted in the present study consisted of the development of a prototype, which was then
submitted to the assessment of potential users. Finally, we analyzed the feedback obtained, aiming at
improving the environment. Indeed, it was an interactive process of assessment and improvement. We would
like to mention that, even though we have paid special attention to the requirements of interface design, we
did not begin the initial stages of prototype development by revising HCI literature.
5.1 The Environment
Figure 4 shows the five main elements of the interface, as follows:
1. A tab bar displaying the three functions, namely monolingual dictionary, bilingual dictionary and
transfer rules;
2. A context bar showing important information about the current status of the process underway;
3. A bar showing the contextualized sub-processes according to the process chosen;
4. An action panel, or the main work point of the user, where the actions of system orientation and
information input takes place;
5. An instruction panel, or guidelines to support users during the process.
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Figure 4. WikLang Statistics and information
5.2 Monolingual Dictionary
We divided the development of the monolingual dictionary into four sub-processes, which in turn refer to the
structural distribution of the resulting XML files.
The first of such sub-processes is the definition of the monolingual dictionary in terms of basic attributes
and statistics. Attributes such as the universal language code, description and version are merely informative,
but the alphabet, on the other hand, influences the translator platform. The environment also counts on basic
statistics to help control the development of knowledge about the language (see Figure 4).
5.3 Symbol Definition
The symbols must manage all tags that may be used to identify lexemes. In Apertium there is no hierarchy
among the tags of monolingual dictionaries. However, such hierarchical classification is an important tool for
the linguist-user. Therefore, we have decided to include this kind of symbol classification even though it is
not used by the MT, being useful only for the orientation in knowledge construction.
For each symbol, we propose a code definition, as well as a description in the source language. In
addition to that, we present statistics about the relation among the symbols in the category in question.
Therefore, the interface allows for the hierarchical association among symbols based on the grammatical
classification or concept groups (see Figure 5).
5.4 Paradigm Definition
The definition of paradigms is certainly one of the most complex parts of the management process of
bilingual dictionaries.
Users may either choose an existing paradigm or create a new one. Next, they must name the paradigm
and choose an example word having its radical highlighted, using the standard Apertium terminology.
This sub-process was subdivided into two smaller stages. The objective of the first is analysis, displaying
all flexions provided by the paradigm and interacting with dynamically inserted lexemes, so that users can
have a good overview of their behavior and flexions.
The second stage, on the other hand, aims at editing elements of the paradigm. Among the support tools,
we have an expression editor that may take the right-hand side of the element, as well as word definitions and
symbol chains that define the classification in question. These chains, in turn, are built through drag and
drop resources in searchable lists, eliminating typos and making rules clearer (Figure 6).

Figure 5. Symbol Definition Interface Figure 6. Paradigmdefinition
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5.5 Lexeme Definition
One of the most common tasks in lexeme definition consists of consistently connecting lexemes to the
paradigms that generate their flexions. In order to make this process easier, we have created a wizard to
locate lexemes and establish these connections, as well as to choose the most adequate paradigm.
To define a lexeme, users must enter a word and highlight its radical, and provide four example flexions.
An initial analysis phase checks the available paradigms and suggests those that suit the flexions given. It is
then up to users to choose the most adequate options, and they are also free to complement or create new
paradigms. For those lexemes that have a specific flexion, such as compound nouns, one can create an
embedded paradigm, exclusive to that lexeme (Figure 7).
5.6 Bilingual Dictionary
We divided the present stage into two sub-processes, namely: definition and management of correspondences
between lexemes and expressions.
In the first sub-process, users select two monolingual dictionaries to be related, and the system prepares
the definitions of the bilingual dictionary automatically, with the alphabet and a grid of symbols derived from
the relation between the languages. Additionally, both statistics about the monolingual dictionaries and
information about the relations are available.
A grid of the unified symbols displays the following information in columns: the code, the description
and the morphological dictionary to which the symbol belongs. These pieces of information are important for
the orientation within the interface, and must also be included in the resulting XML file.
The second sub-process manages the relations between lexemes and expressions, and indentifies the
relations that truly define the bilingual dictionary. Building these relations is a rather peculiar task, since the
process takes place on lexeme level, simulating relations word by word; in other words, the system builds
relations based on the partial interlingua generated.
Figure 8 shows the interface and the existing relations for a given lexeme. In the lateral bar, users may
choose options to filter and search definitions related to a certain lexeme both in the A language (i.e. the
source language) and in the B language (i.e. the target language). Once they have chosen a lexeme, they
have two grids with information about it.

Figure 7. Lexeme definitions

Figure 8. Bilingual dictionary and the relations between
lexemes and expressions
The first of such grids contains all the possible flexions of the lexeme chosen, as well as its
correspondences from the analysis phase based on the morphological dictionary. The second grid, on the
other hand, displays the rules associated to the lexeme, which in turn are organized in three columns, as
follows: the first column displays the standard accepted by rule; the second displays the output to be
generated; and the third shows the valid orientation for that rule.
The definition displayed in the first column follows the principle of pattern matching with the most
specific rule or the most complete standard. It refers to the root of the lexeme, followed by its morphological
classification generated by analysis.
The content of the second column will substitute the standard found, so as to prepare the phase of
generation into the target language. Finally, the third column displays the direction into which the rule is
valid considering that certain rules are valid solely in one direction within the language pair.
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6. CONCLUSIONS
We believe that the Apertium platform is an important open-source initiative within MT; nevertheless, it still
needs bulkier tools to support it in its ambitious task of matching traditional commercial software.
By analyzing one part of the process, namely the development of both mono and bilingual dictionaries,
we noticed that there is a lot of difficulty due to the lack of tools to assist in knowledge input and
management. For this reason, we proposed an interaction-interface environment, named WikLang, to make
this process of knowledge specification easier.
We feel that the WikLang interface and cycles proposed here indeed help in the development of larger,
bulkier dictionaries for the Apertium platform. Without special systems as the one introduced here and from
a strictly human point of view, this task would be rather difficult
As far as future works are concerned, we would like to suggest the following:
A thorough analysis of the HCI concepts related to the environment;
The implementation of new requirements pointed out by users after their first trial of the functional
prototype;
The extension of the interface so as to contemplate relations between translation rules as well;
The analysis of the generalities of the interfaces, so that they allow for the development of any
dictionary;
The reflection about other modules to be integrated seeing as WikLang is the first implemented
module from the WiKLaTS project.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq/Brazil)
and National Council for the Improvement of Higher Education (CAPES/Brazil).
REFERENCES
Forcada, M. L. 2006. Open-source machine translation: an opportunity for minor languages. Strategies for developing
machine translation for minority languages. 5th SALTMIL workshop on Minority Languages.pp. 17
Forcada, M. L. and B. Ivanov Bonev and S. Ortiz Rojas and J. A. Prez Ortiz and G. Ramrez Snchez and F. Snchez
Martnez and C. Armentano-Oller and M. A. Montava and F. M. Tyers. 2008. Documentation of the Open- Source
Shallow-Transfer Machine Translation Platform Apertium. http://xixona.dlsi.ua.es/~fran/apertium2-
documentation.pdf
Hutchins, W. J ohn, and Harold L. Somers. 1992. An Introduction to Machine Translation. London, Academic Press.
ISBN 0-12-362830-X. http://www.hutchinsweb.me.uk/IntroMT-TOC.htm.
Ramrez-Snchez, G., F. Snchez-Martnez, S. Ortiz-Rojas, J . A. Prez-Ortiz, M. L. Forcada, 2006. "Opentrad Apertium
open-source machine translation system: an opportunity for business and research", in Proceedings of Translating
and the Computer 28 Conference, London.
Tyers, F. M., L. Wiechetek and T. Trosterud. 2009 "Developing prototypes for machine translation between two Smi
languages". Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference of the European Association of Machine Translation,
EAMT09.
167
E- COMMERCE CUSTOMISED GUIDELINES VS.
GENERAL HEURISTIC EVALUATION: A COMPARATIVE
STUDY ON EVALUATING E-COMMERCE WEBSITES
Mrs. Ghada Aldehim
*
, Dr. Pam Mayhew
*
and Mr. Majed Alshamari
*

School of Computing Sciences in the University of East Anglia - Norwich- United Kingdom
ABSTRACT
Recently, the growth of the Internet has led to an explosion of website content, and therefore research into usability is
extremely important. The heuristic evaluation method is one of the usability inspection methods that is employed to
evaluate Internet websites in order to assess and improve their usability. However, heuristic evaluation suffers from a
number of drawbacks; therefore, we are exploring a customised guidelines method designed especially for e-shops. This
method is compared with the traditional heuristic evaluation method by employing both methods to compare which
method is able to offer more efficient support to the evaluators, and hence to generate effective feedback. In order to
achieve this aim, two electronic shops are chosen and used to carry out the evaluation process. Eight expert evaluators are
engaged in this study, divided into two groups of four. Each group evaluates two electronic websites. The analysis and
findings of this study clearly show that the customised guidelines method is able to offer better results than the traditional
heuristic evaluation method.
KEYWORDS
Heuristic evaluation, evaluators, usability, customised guidelines, website evaluation.
1. INTRODUCTION
Researchers need to focus on the usability of Internet websites as it is one of the fastest-growing areas. This
can be clearly reasoned because of a number of critical factors such as the number of the Internet users, the
number of websites, the efforts of designers and developers, and the services offered via the Internet (Scott
Henninger, 2001). Several evaluation methods can be applied and used in order to measure website usability;
one of these methods is the inspection method, which includes: heuristic evaluation, cognitive walkthrough,
and feature inspection (Jacobsen Nielsen, 1992). Among these techniques, heuristic evaluation is
recommended as the fastest, cheapest, most flexible and effective way for identifying usability problems in a
user interface (Saul Greenberg et al., 2000). This form of evaluation is a method for finding usability
problems in a user interface design by having a small set of evaluators examine the interface and judge its
compliance with recognized usability principles (the 'heuristics') (Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich, 1990).
This paper starts by exploring the current literature on heuristic evaluation, its pros and cons, and then how
the customised guidelines method was derived. This is followed by the papers objectives and the approach
taken in order to achieve the papers aim. It concludes with data analysis.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
This section discusses the heuristic evaluation method, how it is employed and the number of evaluators
needed. It also explores its advantages and disadvantages. It then presents the need for a customised method
and how it was proposed.

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2.1 Heuristic Evaluation Method
Heuristic evaluation involves having a small set of evaluators examine an interface and judge its compliance
with recognized usability principles (the 'heuristics'). This method was developed by Nielsen and his
colleagues in 1990, guided by a set of usability principles, to evaluate whether a user interface conforms to
these principles (Jacobsen Nielsen, 1992) (Hix et al., 2004). These principles or criteria are referred to as
guidelines or general rules that can guide a design decision or be used to critique a decision that has already
been made. In general, heuristic evaluation is difficult for a single individual to do because one person will
never be able to find all the usability problems in an interface. Moreover, many different projects have shown
that different people find different usability problems (Morten Hertzum and Nielsen Jacobsen, 2001). As a
result, to improve the effectiveness of the method significantly, it should involve multiple evaluators.
According to a number of researchers, such as Jakob Nielsen, a single evaluator is able to identify only 35%
of all the usability problems in an interface, which is the result of averaging more than six of his projects.
However, since different evaluators tend to find different problems, it is possible to achieve a better
performance by increasing the number of evaluators. Figure 1, clearly shows that there is profit from
involving many evaluators. Nevertheless, there is no agreement about the number of evaluators that are
enough to identify a sufficient number of usability problems. According to Jakob Nielsen (1994), three to
five evaluators typically identify about 75-80% of all usability problems. Koyani (2003) asserted that two to
five is enough.

Figure 1. The relationship between the number of evaluators and the number of the found problems (Jakob Nielsen,
2005).
2.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Heuristic Evaluation
Heuristic evaluation is recommended as the fastest, cheapest, most flexible and effective way for identifying
usability problems (Saul Greenberg et al., 2000). Also, heuristic evaluation is especially valuable when time
and resources are short (Laurie Kantner and Stephanie Rosenbaum, 1997). Jeffries and his colleagues
compared four different techniques used to evaluate a user interface. These were heuristic evaluation,
software guidelines, cognitive walkthroughs and user testing. Overall, the heuristic evaluation technique
identified the most usability problems (Jeffries, 1991). In addition, heuristic evaluation has a number of other
more specific advantages, such as low cost relative to other evaluation methods, advanced planning not
required, can be used early in the development process, may be used throughout the development process,
effective identification of major and minor problems, during a short session, a small number of experts can
identify a range of usability problems, and because of their experience with many system interfaces, it is easy
for evaluators to suggest solutions to the usability problems (Nielsen, 1990) (Holzinger, 2005) (Jenny Preece
et al., 1993).
In contrast, there are a number of major drawbacks to heuristic evaluation, such as: it is highly dependent
on the skills and experience of the evaluators, the evaluators only emulate users (they are not actually users
themselves), user feedback can only be obtained from laboratory testing, and it does not essentially evaluate
the whole design because there is no mechanism to ensure the whole design is explored (evaluators can focus
too much on one section). Also, it does not include end users, and thus is unable to specifically identify users
needs. Furthermore, it produces a large number of false positives that are not usability problems, which
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requires evaluators to spent extra time in elimination, and it has also been criticised as being too abstract
(Laurie Kantner and Stephanie Rosenbaum, 1997) (Holzinger, 2005) (Jacob Nielsen, 1992) (Jeffries, 1991).
Therefore, there have been a number of attempts to avoid these heuristic evaluation weaknesses, and these
will be discussed in the following section.
2.3 The Need for a Customised Guidelines Method
The need for customised guidelines appeared when a number of studies, such as Chen and Gavriel or Chen
and Macredie, extended the traditional heuristic evaluation method, in different ways, to match their
evaluation needs for different computing systems (as some systems may have more priorities for some
usability criteria than other systems), and to avoid the drawbacks of the heuristic evaluation method. The
modifications occurred in one of three ways: extending the heuristic set, extending the heuristic evaluation
method by modifying the evaluation procedure, and extending the heuristic evaluation method with a
conformance rating scale (Chen and Gavriel, 2005) (Chen and Macredie, 2005).
2.4 Proposing the Customised Guidelines
The customised guidelines method is a combination of two methods; heuristic evaluation method plus plus
(HE++) and heuristic evaluation plus (HE+). HE++ is one of the proven methods of extending the heuristic
set. A number of studies have shown that HE++, an emerging variant of the original HE, outperforms HE in
both effectiveness and reliability (Jarinee and Gitte, 2008) (Jarinee and Jaqueline, 2004). HE+ includes an
extra feature for aiding the evaluation process, called a usability problem profile (Jarinee and Jaqueline,
2004) (Jarinee and Gitte, 2008), which is designed to address the fact that many of the problems found by
evaluators are common to certain types of products or applications. The proposed method targets commercial
websites, although it will employ the same technique of heuristic evaluation in terms of using guidelines and
evaluators only, and does not involve any extra resources. Thus, it can be now stated that the customised
guidelines method consists of combination of the HE++ and HE+; the first component is the HE++, which
has the following criteria derived from Jarinee and Gitte (2008):
1. Visibility, distinguishability, and timeliness
2. Match between system and the real world
3. User control and freedom
4. Consistency and standards
5. Error prevention and recovery
6. Recognition rather than recall
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
9. Supports user tasks and avoids difficult concepts
10. Supports modification and progress evaluation
11. Relevant, correct, and adequate information (Jarinee and Gitte, 2008).
The second component is the HE+ method, which includes a usability problem profile that can be
fruitfully used in many instances. Moreover, several researchers have discussed the components that should
be included in the usability problem profile for e-commerce websites. Chattratichart and Lindgaard reported
that the most recent profile now consists of seven problem areas: content, navigation, graphics, system
efficiency and functionality, formatting and layout, wording, and help and error messages (Jarinee and Gitte,
2008). However, Chattratichart and Brodie state that e-commerce websites should include only six problem
areas: content, graphics, navigation, layout, terminology, and matches with users tasks (Chattratichart and
Brodie, 2002) (Chattratichart and Brodie, 2004). In addition, Van der Merwe and Bekker said that when an
evaluator evaluates an e-commerce website, the criteria or areas should include: content, graphics,
navigation, reliability, and security and privacy (Rian Van der Merwe and James Bekker, 2003). After
studying all of these, the researchers here decided to choose the components for the usability problem profile
(in e-commerce websites) based on those criteria that are present in the majority of these studies. The final
usability problem profile in this research contains Content, Graphics, Navigation, Layout and Formatting,
Reliability, and Privacy and Security.
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3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND THE APPROACH TAKEN:
The primary aim of this research is to compare specific customised guidelines with the more traditional
heuristic method; the Nielsen heuristic set is chosen to establish which method can offer better results. In
order to achieve this aim, there are some objectives that need to be achieved as well. The following is a
description of the research objectives.
1. To propose a customised guidelines method for measuring the usability of commercial websites.
2. To apply the customised guidelines and the Nielsen heuristic set to targeted websites.
3. To compare the customised guidelines vs. heuristic evaluation for commercial websites in order to
reveal each methods performance.
Two main experiments were undertaken in order to achieve the research objectives. The first experiment
was to apply heuristic evaluation on two commercial website by using two different groups of evaluators;
each group performed HE on a website. The second experiment was to apply the new customised guidelines
method upon the same two commercial websites by the same two groups. The group G1 performed HE first
on Website A, and then performed the customised guidelines on Website B. The group G2 performed the
customised guidelines on Website A, and then performed HE on Website B. In more detail, each group
started with a different website in order to further control the experiment, rather than performing one method
at the beginning of both studies. Each evaluator had a questionnaire at the end of each evaluation to answer
some questions with regard to the method he had used.
3.1 Website Selection
The targeted websites should be live, dynamic, have a number of features, and be of reasonable content size.
This selection has only targeted commercial websites because of the limitation of the study. Therefore, the
researchers decided to choose two electronic shopping websites to be the targeted websites that meet the
above conditions.
3.2 Number of Evaluators
Section 2.1 discussed the number of evaluators needed to conduct a usability study. In this research, 8
evaluators were needed, where each group had 4 evaluators and they were divided evenly in terms of
experience and other factors. Therefore, each website has been evaluated by the 8 evaluators but each four
used a different method.
3.3 Severity Assessment
Usability evaluation methods depend on evaluators judgment when they rate a usability problem. Here in
this study, the rating of usability problems was based on the average rating of all the evaluators. Their
assessment is based on three factors, which are the problem impact upon business goal, its frequency and its
persistence. This should eliminate any deviation or personal judgment, and it is suggested by several studies,
such as (Chen and Macredie, 2005) and (Morten Hertzum, 2006).
4. DATA ANALYSIS
This section presents the data analysis from this experiment. It discusses how well the two groups performed
while they were evaluating Website A. It then also discusses the results from the second website (B) after it
was evaluated by both groups.

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4.1 Website A Evaluation Results and Analysis
Group G1 used the Nielsen heuristic set whereas group G2 used the customised guidelines. Each evaluator in
G1 found a number of problems in Website A by using HE. The final list consists of 10 problems, which are
summarised in Table 1; the Total Problems by group G1 column refers to the total number of problems
identified by the four evaluators together. They were able to identify 5 major problems and the remaining
problems were minor or superficial problems. In general, group G1 was able to reveal less than a quarter of
the identified usability problems by both groups in this study. The evaluators agreed from their questionnaire
responses that the website is highly usable and has taken into account usability guidelines.
Table 1. Number and percentage of usability problems uncovered on Website A by group G1.
HE Evaluator
1
Evaluator
2
Evaluator
3
Evaluator
4
Total Problems
by group G1
Total problems
discovered by both
groups (G1, G2)
Total 10 2 5 3 10 42
% of
Total
Problems
23.80% 4.76% 11.90% 7.14% 23.80% 100%

Group G2, who performed the customised guidelines method, were able to identify 40 usability problems
(summarised in Table 2), which was significantly more than the number of the problems identified by group
G1. The results from Table 2 show the percentages of the identified problems, which range from 35.71% to
61.90%. As a result, this evaluation, which is based on the customised guidelines, obtained percentages that
are in line with findings of similar studies (Jakob Nielsen, 1994, 1990), which show that a single evaluator
usually finds 20% to 50% of the problems in a system. All the evaluators in group G2 were pleased to be
using the customised guidelines method as this method reminds them of a number of usability aspects they
might have forgotten to think about during the evaluation. Also, according to the evaluators answers in the
questionnaire, they believe that the customised guidelines method encourages them to be thorough in the
evaluation, which is seen as a drawback of HE, providing more opportunities for finding usability issues. The
evaluators answers in group G1 state that HE did not help much as it is so general, does not cover all the
usability aspects, and does not offer any clues for the evaluation. Although, the website was claimed to be a
highly usable, group G2 was able to uncover different usability problems, including 8 major problems and 25
minor problems.
Table 2. Number and percentage of usability problems uncovered on Website A by group G2.
Customised
Guidelines
Evaluator
5
Evaluator
6
Evaluator
7
Evaluator
8
Total Problems
by group G2
Total problems
discovered by both
groups (G1, G2)
Total 21 26 15 19 40 42
% of Total
Problems
50% 61.90% 35.71% 45.23% 95.23% 100%
4.2 Website B Evaluation Results and Analysis
Group G1, who used the Nielsen heuristics in the first study, used the customised guidelines method in this
study to offer more validity to the study. Each evaluator in group G1 found a number of problems in Website
B. The final list of the identified usability problems consists of 38 problems, which are summarised in Table
3. The results from Table 3 show the percentages of the identified problems, which range from 39.47% to
74.47%. As a result, this evaluation, which is based on the customised guidelines, obtained percentages
which are in line with and even higher than the findings of similar studies (Nielsen, 1990), which show that a
single evaluator usually finds 20% to 50% of the problems in a system. They discovered 5 major usability
problems and 20 minor usability problems. The evaluators attributed this to the usage of the customised
guidelines method as they preferred to use it rather than to use the HE method. They justified this as the
former method clearly specifies what should be evaluated and it is also a useful technique of building a
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checklist; they also liked the idea of the usability problem profile as it seems to work as a double-check for
the identified usability problems.
Table 3. Number and percentage of usability problems uncovered on Website B by group G1.

Group G2, who used the customised guidelines in the first study, then used the HE method to evaluate
Website B. Each evaluator in this group was able to reveal a number of problems in Website B. The results
are summarised in Table4. They were able to reveal more than 21% of the total of the identified usability
problems. The results ranged from 10% to 21% of the total number of the problems. Comparing these results
to group G1 using the same tool in the previous results, there is not a huge difference as both of them were
not able to identify more than 23% of total number of the identified usability problems.
Table 4. Number and percentage of usability problems uncovered on Website B by group G2.

In addition, 7 out of the 8 evaluators stated that they would prefer to use the customised guidelines
method in future evaluations rather than the HE method. The given reasons for this were that the customised
guidelines method is easier to understand and use than HE. They also stated that the customised method
seems to encourage them to be more through. On the other hand, evaluators spent less time when they used
HE for both websites, they spent 40 and 37.5 minutes for A and B websites respectively. The time spent on A
and B websites by the evaluators while they used the customised method were 72.5 and 50 minutes
respectively. Therefore HE seems to be faster than the customised guidelines method. Both of the methods
performed well in discovering major problems. HE has been criticised as being an abstract method, which
does not provide guidelines for a specific domain, for example education or government websites.
Generally, it can be seen that specific guidelines are preferred to the general guidelines as they can help
evaluators to focus on those criteria that are important to a particular type of a website in order to integrate all
the most suitable usability considerations. For instance, in this research, the customised guidelines for
electronic shopping emphasise graphics and security, which may be less important in, for example,
educational websites. Moreover, using a checklist in the guidelines maximises the number of usability
problems that can be identified for each interface. Furthermore, the use of specific guidelines can break down
the usability problems identified to the lowest level of detail. Also, specific guidelines can provide a more
comprehensive analysis of the interface usability problems.
5. CONCLUSIONS
It can be seen clearly from the literature and from the findings of this paper that there is a clear need to have
customised guidelines for specific domains such as commercial, education or government websites. In this
paper, the customised guidelines for commercial websites performed better and were preferred by most of the
evaluators. There are a number of advantages to the customised guidelines method: it is a comprehensive and
detailed method at the same time, and it seems to work as a checklist for the usability guidelines. However, it
has a number of drawbacks: it is limited to commercial websites, and it seems to lead the evaluators to the
website aspects rather than leaving them to look over the site in general and think out of the box.
Customised
Guidelines
Evaluator
1
Evaluator
2
Evaluator
3
Evaluator
4
Total Problems
by group G1
Total problems discovered
by both groups (G1, G2)
Total 28 22 15 20 34 38
% of Total
Problems
74.47% 57.89% 39.47% 52.63% 89.47% 100%
HE Evaluator
5
Evaluator
6
Evaluator
7
Evaluator
8
Total Problems
by group G2
Total problems discovered
by both groups (G1, G2)
Total 5 8 4 5 12 38
% of Total
Problems
13.15% 21.05% 10.52% 13.15% 31.57% 100%
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REFERENCES
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usability guidelines.
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A DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE FOR USER INTERFACE
SERVICES
Gerald Hbsch, Christian Liebing, Josef Spillner and Alexander Schill
Technische Universitt Dresden, Institute for Systems Architecture, Chair of Computer Networks
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we present the User Interface Service Description Language (UISDL) for the description of UI Services. UI
Services allow UI component implementations to be globally distributed, flexibly integrated and dynamically bound into
interactive applications including, but not limited to, Rich Internet Applications. We present abstraction concepts,
motivate design decisions, and discuss analogies between UISDL and WSDL as a classical service description language.
KEYWORDS
UI component, UISDL, user interface services, WSDL, XML Schema
1. INTRODUCTION
While the service-based provisioning of business logic and data has reached a high degree of maturity and
acceptance in the industry, the advantages of service-orientation for other building blocks of Rich Internet
applications (RIAs), especially their user interface (UI), have not yet been sufficiently addressed. Application
developers are today confronted with the need to choose one out of a large number of UI framework
providers, which in many cases may be already compromise. Due to a lack of standardization, they then face
a 'vendor lock-in' which makes it difficult to flexibly integrate or exchange complex user interface
components like maps, tables, calendars, or chart viewers, from third parties. Equally, providers of UI
components face difficulties in providing them 'as-a-service' i.e. in a standardized self-descriptive way that
enables their flexible integration, distribution and retrieval. We therefore believe that novel concepts are
necessary that make UI components available as UI Services. These concepts must address challenges that
relate to the self-description of UI components that abstract from vendor- and implementation-specific
details, mechanisms for their flexible integration into RIAs and their distribution on a global scale.
The CRUISe project (Composition of Rich User Interface Services) addresses the challenges named
above. The key idea is to enable UI components to be described and distributed as UI Services that can be
flexibly composed into user interfaces for RIAs. The main benefit of UI Services is that UIs of RIAs can
dynamically bind the most suitable UI component implementation at runtime based on context, e.g. the
platform type or user preferences. In this paper, we present the User Interface Service Description Language
(UISDL) as a central technological result of the project. UISDL is an XML format for describing UI
components as a set of abstract events, operations, and properties that define UI component interfaces in an
implementation- and platform-independent way. UISDL supports the binding of these abstract interface
definitions to alternative component implementations provided by different vendors and for multiple
platforms, e.g. special versions for desktops and mobile phones. UISDL includes metadata for the
management and distribution of UISDL descriptions through a UI Service repository. This paper is structured
as follows. Section 2 discusses related work. Section 3 presents UISDL together with the related concepts.
Our runtime architecture for UI Services based on UISDL and sample applications built on top of UI
Services are presented in section 4. We conclude our work and outline future work in section 5. To facilitate
understanding, we will use an electronic map as an exemplary UI component throughout this paper.

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2. RELATED WORK
The analysis of related approaches shows that little research has been done to facilitate service-based
provision and dynamic integration of UI components using description languages like UISDL. The Mixup
approach (Yu et al. 2007) introduces a development and runtime environment to compose web applications at
the presentation layer based on existing UI components. The abstract UI-only component model enables
integration into existing composite applications and defines the presentation state, properties to represent the
appearance, events to signal state changes and operations to react to state changes triggered by other UI
components. To describe UI components, the approach uses XPIL (Extensible Presentation Integration
Language) as a declarative description language that solely contains a small set of elements describing the
abstract component model similar to WSDL. Unlike UISDL, XPIL solely describes the interface of UI
components and does not distinguish between an abstract and concrete part to enable the distribution and
flexible integration of different component implementations. Furthermore, component metadata is not
described, making the registration and discovery in a repository complicated. We will show that especially
the consideration of these two aspects is vital for the realization of UI Services.
Since the Mixup approach only provides a UI-only component model, the authors introduced a platform
for universal composition called mashArt (Daniel et al. 2009). The universal component model extends the
model presented in (Yu et al. 2007) and encapsulates UI, application and data components by defining their
state, properties, events and operations. The specification of a component has the form of an abstract
component descriptor as a main part of the mashArt Description Language (MDL), which has a very similar
structure to XPIL, but aims at a universal component description. However, MDL does not provide metadata
to enable its registration and discovery in a repository. Furthermore, it lacks a separation into abstract and
concrete parts, leading to the above-mentioned drawback.
The Service-Oriented User Interface Modelling and Composition (SOAUI) approach (Tsai et al. 2008)
proposes the discovery and dynamic integration of UI components into a system design process of service-
oriented applications at runtime. The specification is based on proprietary Microsoft XAML (Microsoft
2010) and describes the offered functionality of a UI component. The authors intend to establish a unified UI
specification standard to share components between heterogeneous systems and platforms. They mainly
focus on the management and retrieval of UI components, while our work explicitly includes their service-
based provision and dynamic integration. Widgets (Cceres 2009) or gadgets (Google 2008) are artifacts that
statically combine a piece of application logic with a UI component to a small application. They could
benefit from UI Services described with UISDL, since the choice of the concrete UI component
implementation to be used for the widget can be left open until runtime, leaving it up to personal preferences
of the user or the technical context in which the widget/gadget is used.
In summary, only very few approaches exist that use a declarative description language for UI
components. Unlike UISDL, these approaches do not sufficiently address the service-based provision and
dynamic integration of UI components through UI Service regarding the separation of concrete and abstract
parts, explicit support for metadata, and for dynamic integration at runtime.
3. USER INTERFACE SERVICE DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE
This section presents the UISDL in detail. Starting with the introduction of our UI component model and a
discussion of requirements for the language, design decisions and language concepts are presented. We also
mention language concepts that are inherited from WSDL as a classical service description language.
3.1 UI Component Model
The basis for UI Services, and thereby for UISDL, is the specification of a generic UI component model. Our
UI component model abstracts from implementation details by defining UI components as a set of abstract
properties, events, and operations.
Properties represent the externally visible UI component state. Common properties of an electronic map
are, for example, the geographic coordinate of its center or its type (normal, satellite, hybrid). Events are
triggered by UI components to publish state changes to other components, usually in response to user
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interaction. In the electronic map, a centerChange event is triggered in response to the respective action of
the user. The functionality of a UI component is represented by operations that consume input parameters
and produce at most one return parameter. A sample operation of the electronic map is addSimpleMarker. It
adds a Point-of-Interest marker at the geo-coordinate supplied as an input parameter.
3.2 Requirements
The purpose of UISDL is to define an XML-based description language for UI Services. UISDL therefore
has to provide means to describe the interfaces of UI components that follow the UI component model
presented in section 3.1, including the data types they use to communicate with the application that integrates
them in an abstract, i.e. implementation- and programming language independent, way.
To distribute component implementations, UISDL must support the binding of component
implementations to an abstract interface description. Implementation bindings must (a) enable the life cycle
management of UI components, (b) provide access to properties, (c) enable the invocation of component
operations, and (d) allow the (de-)registration of event listeners. Furthermore, libraries that must be included
to use the component implementation must be specified as part of the implementation binding.
To fully exploit the flexibility offered by UI Services, it must be possible to implement runtime
mechanisms on top of the implementation bindings that support a dynamic binding of UI Services. Dynamic
binding enables the selection and exchange of a concrete UI service implementation at runtime, for example
based on the context of use, including user preferences and platform properties. For the same reason, abstract
interface definitions and implementation bindings must be separated since multiple UI component
implementations, e.g. Google Map, Yahoo Map, OpenStreetMap, offered by different providers can exist for
one abstract Map interface. It is clear that their common abstract interface can only cover the common set of
functionalities offered by the implementations. However, we have found that existing component
implementations often extend this common set with additional functionalities. For example, some existing
implementations of the abstract Map interface, like Google Maps, allow to drag-and-drop of Point-of-Interest
markers and produce a corresponding event in response. This requires the specification of an abstract
interface specifically for these implementations that extends the Map interface with the additional event.
Otherwise, the additional functionality would either not be accessible or applications using the Map UI
Service could not detect the compatibility of the extended interface with Map UI. UISDL must therefore
support the declaration of functional extensions between abstract interfaces.
Finally, we have found inline metadata in the form of keywords, screenshots of UI component
implementations, license information, pricing, suitability, and human-readable documentation to be necessary
for the management of UISDL descriptions in a UI Service repository (see sect. 4) and their integration in
composition tools.
3.3 Language Concepts and Design Decisions
The language concepts and design decisions for UISDL are guided by the requirements in sect. 3.2.
Interestingly, the requirements that have to be fulfilled by UISDL regarding abstraction, binding and
integration into applications are quite similar to those addressed by WSDL. The major difference seems to be
that web services are executed remotely on a server, while UI components provided by UI Services are
executed locally in the scope of the application that integrates them. For UI Services, the need to provide an
execution environment on the client that manages the UI components' life-cycle replaces the need for remote
service invocation mechanisms required for web service integration. As we will show in the following,
concepts developed for classical web services that have shown to be reusable for our approach.
WSDL is structured into an abstract part and a concrete part. Its abstract part specifies the web service
interface, i.e. the operations offered by the service, and the data type definitions they use in a platform-,
protocol- and programming language independent way against which applications can be developed. Its
concrete part contains protocol binding information and endpoint definitions that allow applications to invoke
a specific implementation of the web service. UISDL adopts these abstraction and structuring concepts by
defining two different document types, namely UISDL-Class (UISDL-C) for the abstract part and UISDL-
Binding (UISDL-B) for the concrete part. By defining two different document types for both parts, we go one
step beyond WSDL. Their physical separation was chosen to provide the organizational means for a central
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management and distribution of abstract UI component interface definitions that can be referenced by
providers of compatible UI component implementations. It thereby allows providers of UI component
implementations as well as developers that integrate UI Services to ensure compatibility on a global scale.
UISDL-C is used to define abstract UI component interfaces: properties, operations, events, and data
types in an implementation- and programming language independent way similar to WSDL. It fully reflects
our UI component model. Syntax details are presented in sect. 3.4. Applications that use UI Services are
programmed against the abstract interfaces defined with UISDL-C.
UISDL-C also adopts the data type definition based on XML Schema as an abstraction concept from
WSDL. XML Schema was chosen due to its programming language independence. Like in WSDL, XML
Schema definitions are utilized to specify the data types required for the abstract interface definition, i.e.
properties, invocation and result parameters of operations, and events. Furthermore, instances of XML
Schema data types can easily be serialized in XML. We have therefore decided to use XML as a common
and implementation-independent data exchange format between UI component implementations to maintain
implementation independence at runtime. This is the prerequisite that UI component implementations must
fulfill to be distributable as UI Services. It is the responsibility of each component implementation to convert
between the XML representation and internal data representations. Since the data exchange with web
services via SOAP uses the same strategy, our approach also simplifies the integration between UI Services
and web services, since UI component data can be directly wrapped in SOAP messages.
With UISDL-B, implementation bindings for concrete UI component implementations are specified and
distributed. They are created by UI component providers and bind the abstract interface defined in UISDL-C
to implementation-specific component operations for life cycle management (constructor, destructor), for
showing and hiding the UI component, accessors for properties, component operations, and for
(un)registering event handlers. Analogous to WSDL, references from UISDL-B to constituents of the abstract
interface being bound are based on names. Also, UISDL-B includes elements to specify the libraries to be
included before the component can be instantiated. Syntax details and realizations for bindings are presented
in sect. 3.5. The abstract interface implemented by a UISDL-B description is denoted by a reference the
corresponding UISDL-C. Inverse references from UISDL-C descriptions to UISDL-B implementation
bindings are avoided since the number of component providers that can vary over time, which imposes the
risk of invalid references and would require frequent updates of UISDL-C descriptions. Instead, the UI
Service repository (sect. 4) stores and updates these references.
The possibility to dynamically select, bind, and even exchange component implementations delivered by
UI Services does not require them to be compatible on the technical interface level, which is ensured by the
abstract interface definitions. However, interface compatibility alone does mean that all implementations
provide the same functionality. Therefore, also the functional equivalence of different component
implementations for one abstract interface must additionally be considered. Since this is hardly possible to
guarantee from a technical point of view, UISDL-C supports an organizational model based on a functional
classification which allows component providers to express functional equivalence. A detailed discussion of
our functional classification approach and their definition goes beyond the focus of this paper. Briefly, we
define one class per abstract interface definition, i.e. UISDL-C document that specifies the functionality to be
provided by its implementations. UISDL-C supports this classification through a mandatory reference to its
class. For the same reason, the name of the abstract part of UISDL was chosen to be UISDL-Class.
As motivated in the requirements, it is also necessary to provide means to declare functional extension
relationships between two abstract interfaces as part of UISDL-C descriptions. In the drag-and-drop
extension example, it is obvious that the Google Map implementation (which supports drag-and-drop), is
functionally equivalent to the Yahoo Map (which does not feature drag-and-drop support) in applications
implemented against the abstract Map UI interface. The presence of a functional extension is based on two
criteria: interface compatibility and functional equivalence of the extending interface's class to the class of
the extended interface. Informally, by declaring an abstract component interface B to be a functional
extension of an abstract UI component interface A, it is expressed that B adds at least one element to the set
I
A
of operations, properties, events, or data types defined in A, without redefining other elements in I
A
. I.e. B
technically remains interface compatible with A. The second criterion of functional extension requires
implementations of B to implement equivalent functionality for all elements in I
A
, i.e. to adhere to A's class,
its superclass. Through this concept, we can specify that any implementation of B can be used as an
alternative for an implementation of A, thereby increasing the number of alternatives for the dynamic
binding. UISDL-C therefore features an optional superclass reference.
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Metadata for management, retrieval and documentation purposes can be added to UISDL-C and UISDL-
B descriptions. Both support a keyword list for keyword-based indexing in the UI Service repository and
global documentation. UISDL-C descriptions additionally allow documentation of each constituent of the
abstract interface. UISDL-B supports hyperlinks to screenshots of the UI component, e.g. for its presentation
by a UI Service repository browser, a list of devices that are supported by the component implementation
including a suitability value to simplify context-aware UI Service selection. Furthermore, basic service
pricing information and a license text can be added for commercial purposes.
3.4 UISDL-class
The syntax of UISDL-C is presented by the Map abstract interface description example in listing 1. For
reasons of brevity, only one example per element is shown. The attribute class of the root element denotes the
functional classification of the abstract interface description. Furthermore, global documentation (line 2),
metadata (lines 3-5), XML Schema data type definitions (lines 6-17), and the interface (lines 18-30)
specifying the properties (lines 19-22), events (lines 23-25), and operations (lines 27-29) are defined in the
UISDL-C. Properties, events, operations, and parameters are identified by unique names (name attributes).
Properties and parameters are typed by XML Schema data type. When used as child elements of operation,
parameter elements specify the operation's invocation and result parameters. As child elements of event, they
specify data belonging to the event, e.g. the map center's geographic coordinate after its adjustment by the
user (centerChange event).
3.5 UISDL-binding
The syntax of UISDL-B is presented by a UI component implementation that uses the Google Map API to
implement the Map abstract interface description presented in sect. 3.4 in listing 2. The document is
composed of global documentation (line 2), a reference to the implemented class (line 3, cp. sect. 3.4),
metadata (lines 4-18): component screenshots, device classes the implementation supports, including s
1 <uisdlc class="/geo/map" xmlns="http://rn.inf.tu-dresden.de/uisdlc">
2 <documentation>A UI Service class for map components</documentation>
3 <metadata>
4 <keywords>map, maps, geo, orientation, directions, POI</keywords>
5 </metadata>
6 <datatypes>
7 <xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
8 xmlns:def="http://example.google" targetNamespace="http://example.google">
9 ...
10 <xs:complexType name="GeoCoordinate">
11 <xs:sequence>
12 <xs:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" name="lat" type="def:latitude.type"/>
13 <xs:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" name="long" type="def:longitude.type"/>
14 </xs:sequence>
15 </xs:complexType>
16 </xs:schema>
17 </datatypes>
18 <interface xmlns:def="http://example.google">
19 <property type="def:GeoCoordinate" name="property.center">
20 <documentation>The GeoCoordinates of the center of the map.</documentation>
21 </property>
22 ...
23 <event name="event.centerChange">
24 <parameter type="def:GeoCoordinate" name="center"/>
25 </event>
26 ...
27 <operation name="op.addSimpleMarker">
28 <parameter type="def:GeoCoordinate" direction="in" name="markerPos"/>
29 </operation>
30 </interface>
31 </uisdlc>
Listing 1. UISDL-class example
179
suitability attribute to support the selection process for dynamic binding at runtime, keywords, license
information, and pricing. The interface binding element (lines 19-49) specifies information necessary to
integrate, access, and manage the component life cycle at runtime for the specific implementation being
bound. The language attribute holds the programming language of the component implementation. The
binding type attribute denotes the type of implementation binding used.
The dependencies element (lines 20-23) specifies the libraries that must be included to use the
component. The elements constructor and destructor are utilized for component life-cycle management, the
rendering element specfies how the component is set visible. An accessor element exists for each component
property specified in the UISDL-C and specifies read and write access. For each event element in UISDL-C,
the eventsink element specifies how event listeners are registered and unregistered. For each operation in the
UISDL-C, the invocation element specifies how the operation is invoked. The attributes property, event, and
operation are references from UISDL-B to UISDL-C. They are generally based on the interface element
names specified in the corresponding UISDL-C. Therefore, applications can be implemented against the
abstract interface specification.
By now, we have identified the two binding types code template and convention as being suitable for
UISDL-B. The example in listing 2 uses code templates, which are applicable for script languages like
Javascript that support execution of code generated at runtime. Briefly, in the code templates, placeholders
enclosed by '@' symbols represent application-specific parts that must be replaced with application-specific
values (constants, variables, pointers) before the code can be executed. Placeholder types to refer to events,
properties, and parameters specified in the UISDL-C (e.g. @paramater:center@), or to the component
instance (@:instance@) have been defined. This enables an application to pass these values to a code
template processor using the names in the UISDL-C. We have found these placeholder types to be sufficient.
Code templates are enclosed in code elements (cp. fig. 2). The convention binding type directly maps the
abstract interface specified in UISDL-C to a concrete implementation skeleton, e.g. through XSLT. The
component implementation can in this case be managed and accessed with knowledge about the mapping
rules. The mapping rules used must therefore be identifiable from the interface binding's binding type
attribute.
4. RUNTIME ENVIRONMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION
A client-side thin server runtime (TSR) that provides the runtime mechanisms required to support integration
and dynamic binding of UI Services has been implemented for web browsers (Pietschmann et al. 2010). It
provides RIAs with the necessary runtime mechanisms to dynamically bind UI component implementations
described in UISDL-B, to manage their life-cycle, and to access them from client-side business logic. The
TSR supports the binding types code templates and convention. Furthermore, we realized a repository to
register, manage and retrieve UI components and to enable their global distribution.
For UI component implementations described in UISDL-B, the TSR provides means to create, render,
and destroy UI component instances, to access their properties, to add and remove event handlers, and to
invoke their operations in a uniform way. The selection of the UI Service to be bound is either done by
passing a UISDL-C class name or the URL of a UISDL-B to the TSR. It queries the repository to retrieve a
UISDL-B document using AJAX. If a class name is used, the selection of an appropriate UISDL-B is
delegated to the repository and performed based on information about requesting device that is passed with
the query, including an option to preselect a concrete component implementation. Upon receiving the
UISDL-B, the TSR creates the UI component instance.
Application-specific information required by the Integration Manager, i.e. variables, constants, and
pointers to event handler functions, are passed from the business logic via API calls programmed against the
abstract UISDL-C interface specification, e.g. the name of the property to be set together with the new value,
and an identifier by which the component instance is registered by the Integration Manager.
To conveniently integrate and initialize UI component implementations, we have defined UI component
placeholders that allow service selection information together with application-specific information be
specified as part of HTML documents which we term composition documents. The TSR is able to process
composition documents, making the integration of UI Services without programming particularly easy.
Details of the composition document are beyond the scope of this paper.
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The UIS repository is implemented as a Web Service that offers operations to register, search, and
distribute UISDL-C and UISDL-B descriptions. UISDL-C descriptions are registered based on their meta
information and classification, including the class/subclass relationship (cp. sect. 3). The repository also
stores UISDL-B descriptions. In the repository, they are associated with registered UISDL-C descriptions
based on the class references they contain. When queried by the Integration Manager using a UISDL-C class
name and device information, the repository is able to the select and return an appropriate UISDL-B
document in response, or an error if no appropriate implementation binding was found.
Another possibility is to use the repository to find UISDL-C or UISDL-B descriptions during the
implementation of RIAs that use UI Services. In this case, the possibility for a keyword-based search and the
integration of screenshots in UISDL-B have shown to be useful for browsing the repository.

To validate our approach, two RIAs have been successfully implemented based on UISDL and the TSR: a
travel planner application for public transport that retrieves timetable information from a web service back
end and a real estate management application. Their UIs are built using UI Services that deliver tables, maps,
1 <uisdlb xmlns="http://rn.inf.tu-dresden.de/uisdlb">
2 <documentation>Google Map UI Service implementation</documentation>
3 <uisdlclasses>/geo/map</uisdlclasses>
4 <metadata>
5 <screenshots>
6 <screenshot>
7 <documentation>Google Map Component Preview</documentation>
8 <uri>http://uisprovider.org/maps/screenshots/Googlemap.png</uri>
9 </screenshot>
10 </screenshots>
11 <devices>
12 <deviceclass name="pda" suitability="0.6"/>
13 ...
14 </devices>
15 <keywords>map, maps, geo, orientation, directions, Google</keywords>
16 <license>Text of the license agreement.</license>
17 <pricing unit="USD" price="0.00"/>
18 </metadata>
19 <interfacebinding language="javascript" bindingtype="codetemplates">
20 <dependencies>
21 <dependency uri="http://www.google.com/jsapi?key=ABC" language="javascript"/>
22 <dependency uri="http://uisprovider.org/GMap.js" language="javascript"/>
23 </dependencies>
24 <constructor><code>
25 @:instance@ = new GMap({width: @property:property.width@, height:
26 @property:property.height@, title: @property:property.title@, center:
27 @property:property.center@, zoomLevel: @property:property.zoomLevel@,
28 mapType:@property:property.mapType@})</code>
29 </constructor>
30 <destructor><code>@:instance@.destruct()</code></destructor>
31 <rendering>
32 <code>@:instance@.render(@property:property.rendertargetid@)</code>
33 </rendering>
34 <accessor property="property.width" type="get">
35 <code>@:instance@.getWidth()</code>
36 </accessor>
37 ...
38 <eventsink event="event.centerChange">
39 <register><code>
40 @:instance@.on('centerChange', @event:event.centerChange@)
41 </code></register>
42 <unregister><code>
43 @:instance@.un('centerChange', @event:event.centerChange@)
44 </code></unregister>
45 </eventsink>
46 <invocation operation="op.addSimpleMarker"><code>
47 @:instance@.addCustomMarker(@parameter:gLatLong@, @parameter:image@,
48 @parameter:imageSize@, @parameter:shadow@)</code></invocation>
49 </interfacebinding>
50 </uisdlb>
Listing 2. UISDL-binding example
181
chart viewers, and timetable query input UI components. Their application logic is implemented in
JavaScript. Code templates and convention-based bindings are utilized in the UISDL-B documents of the UI
Services. The implementation of these applications has shown that our concepts and design decisions for
UISDL are sound and applicable for the description and distribution of the complex UI components used in
the prototypes. Also, we were able to verify that complex user interfaces for RIAs can be built based on UI
Services and that UI Services can be easily integrated with client-side logic implemented in JavaScript as
well as web service based on the mechanisms provided by the TSR. Open issues are discussed in the next
section.
In this paper, we presented UISDL as a building block for UI Services. Furthermore, a runtime environment
has been implemented that supports the proposed approach. The presented abstraction concepts and design
decisions, specifically the physical separation of abstract and concrete parts, have shown to be sound, suitable
and complete for the description of UI Services. The binding concepts based on code templates and
conventions have shown to work in practice. The data exchange between UI component implementations
based on XML Schema instances allows for a maximum of programming language independence, but causes
processing overhead and additional effort for data adapters, especially when existing UI components are
made available as UI service implementations. JSON may be an alternative as soon as schemata for JSON
have reached a level of maturity.
Performance tests, semantic annotations, and details of the context-dependent selection of UI Services
will be subject to future work. Furthermore, the generalization of UISDL towards a unified language for logic
components and context access are under discussion in the CRUISe project.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The CRUISe project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research under
promotional reference number 01IS08034.
REFERENCES
Daniel, F. et al., 2009. Hosted Universal Composition: Models, Languages and Infrastructure in mashArt. In Laender,
A.H.F., Castano, S., Dayal, U., Casati, F. & Oliverira, J.P.M. (eds), Conceptual Modeling - ER. Volume 5829/2009 of
LNCS. Berlin: Springer, pp. 428-443.
Tsai, W.T. et al., 2008, Service-oriented user interface modeling and composition. Proceedings of the IEEE International
Conference on e-Business Engineering (ICBE '08). Xian, China, pp. 21-28.
Yu, J. et al., 2007, Mixup: A development and runtime environment for integration at the presentation layer.
Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Web Engineering (ICWE'07). Como, Italy, pp. 479-484.
Pietschmann, S. et al., 2010, A Thin-Server Runtime Platform for Composite Web Applications. Proceedings of the 5th
International Conference on Internet and Web Applications and Services (ICIW 2010). Barcelona, Spain, pp. 390-
395.
Google, 2008, Google Gadgets Specification. Google Inc. [online] available at http://code.google.com/intl/en-
EN/apis/gadgets/docs/spec.html.
Microsoft, 2010, XAML in WPF. Microsoft Corporation [online] available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/ms747122.aspx.
Cceres, M., 2009, Widget Packaging and Configuration. W3C [online] available at http://www.w3.org/TR/widgets/.
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
182
MAKING SENSE OF THE AFFORDANCE CONCEPT IN
THE 3
RD
HCI PARADIGM
Lara Schibelsky Godoy Piccolo* and Maria Ceclia Calani Baranauskas**
*Fundao CPqD / IC - UNICAMP
**IC/NIED - UNICAMP
ABSTRACT
Since Normans appropriation of Gibsons conception of affordance to explain the design of products and technologies,
this mainstream HCI concept has changed to reflect the evolution in the artifacts we interact with. This paper sheds light
on how the concept of affordance has been transformed in keeping with the changes in the HCI field. An observational
study was conducted aiming at identifying physical, perceived, social, and motivational affordances of the iPad
and of a
Tablet-PC. The study clarified how the different types of affordances can explain the relation between human and
technology in this new technical and social scenario named 3
rd
HCI paradigm.
KEYWORDS
Physical affordances, social affordances, Human-Computer Interaction, HCI paradigms.
1. INTRODUCTION
The field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) has developed along its last 30 years motivated by the need
of understanding our relationship with computers and artifacts of technology in general. This relationship has
changed dramatically along that time, as a consequence of the technology design, which extrapolated the
limits of work environments, now being part of our life in almost all aspects of it. As a consequence,
mainstream concepts should be rethought, as user and technology are part of a larger system - or set of
systems. This movement of understanding design as a systemic issue has raised several debates with
implications on the fundamentals, methods and goals both for research and practice in the discipline.
As Sellen et al. (2009) suggest in redefining the H, the C, and the I in face of the transformations
the field has passed through, several levels of interaction should be taken into account: interactions on and in
the body, among people, between people and objects in the spaces of kiosks, rooms, buildings, streets and
other public areas. Central to the understanding of interaction in all these levels are the physical and social
affordances that technology can potentially enable.
Since that Norman (1988) appropriated the concept of affordance from Gibsons (1979) definition and
applied it to the design of products and technologies, this concept has been transformed and has fed a debate
about its meaning and use. This discussion originated a number of publications that explore the differences
between approaches, such as McGrenere & Ho (2000) which compared Gibsons and Normans concepts and
expanded it in a framework, and ONeill (2008) which elucidated how Gibsons affordance works, aiming at
emphasizing what he considered some authors misappropriation of the original definition.
The purpose of this paper is not to create a new comparison, but to shed light on how this term has been
transformed in keeping with the evolution in the way the human has been related to technology and the
changes in the HCI field. It is organized as follows: Section 2 presents a panorama of HCI evolution through
the three paradigms and relates it to the transformations of the concept of affordance. Section 3 discusses four
different categories of affordance considered in an observational study, described in Section 4. Discussion on
results is presented in Section 5, and, Section 6 concludes and points out future works.

183
2. A PANORAMA OF HCI EVOLUTION
The HCI history has been reviewed through three main dominant paradigms built in continuous transitions,
motivated by the technology available at the time, the influence from related science fields and models and
theories used to explain those realities.
The relation between humans and computers started in the 60s, within the scenario provided by
mainframes. As the computer graphics emerged, some usability requirements were recognized as necessary
to improve the relationship of the computer with its many users (Harper et al., 2008). This technical scenario
had hardly changed in the 80s, when the Personal Computer was launched, bringing to HCI aspects of
engineering associated with human factors. All this period constituted what Harrison et al. (2007) named the
HCI 1
st
paradigm, whose main goal was to optimize the fit between humans and machines, developing
pragmatic solutions in coupling them.
In the 90s, computer networks and mobility were part of the technological domain, moving the focus to
groups working together, which constituted the focus of a 2
nd
paradigm. Theory focused on work settings
and interaction within well-established communities of practice. Situated action, distributed cognition and
activity theory were important sources of theoretical reflection, and concepts like context came into focus of
the analysis and design of HCI. Rigid guidelines, formal methods, and systematic testing were mostly
abandoned for proactive methods such as a variety of participatory design workshops, prototyping and
contextual inquiries. (Bdker, 2006).
Many questions related to the 2
nd
paradigm, as well as its models and theories are still current issues in
the HCI field, as Bdker (2006) argues, while a 3
rd
paradigm started to emerge: technology spreads from
the workplace to our homes and everyday life and culture. (Harper et al., 2008).
Current phenomena related to the use of technology are transforming the society: the hyper-connectivity
by keeping people closer to the others, it may mobilize crowds in a global way; the techno-dependency in
any kind of activity; the desire to be in touch and capture information about everything; and the creative
engagement, building a society where everybody can be a content producer. People are increasingly
appropriating new digital tools, including illiterate and impaired users (Harper et. al, 2008).
Towards 2020, the technology will also be changing, according to ITEA (2009): proliferation of
embedding technology in multiple devices; sensors as input; 3D or 4D as output; augmented (AR) and virtual
reality (VR) applications; and physical machines sometimes replacing humans in interaction and decision
making. Some consequences of these changes are that new elements of human life will be included in the
human-computer interactions such as culture, emotion and experience. (Bdker, 2006) (Harrison et al.,
2007). Emotions are going to be part of context or input (ITEA, 2009); meaning is already constructed
collaboratively and interaction is influenced or perhaps even constructed by its varying physical and social
situations (Harrison et al., 2007).
In a different scientific research scenario, by the end of the 70s, the concept of affordance was created by
Gibson (1979), in his ecological theory of perception. Once it was applied to HCI, it has been transformed
following the main trends represented by the three paradigms. Nowadays, the concept of affordance has been
applied to other domains such as cognitive robotics, supporting strategies when robots are interacting with
objects (Tekkotsu, 2010). This evolution in the concept is represented in Table 1, which summarizes the main
changes in HCI field from the 70s to what has been expected by the year of 2020 in terms of technology
available, construction of meaning, predominant influence from other fields, the main question that directs
HCI researches, predominant models and theories.
Starting from the original definition of affordance, the next section describes some of the main authors
views of the concept to improve our understanding on the relationship between humans and computers.
3. TRANSFORMATIONS ON THE AFFORDANCE DEFINITION
Gibson (1979) defined the concept of affordances in the ecological context to mean [] a direct result of
the relationship between the objective physical properties of the environment and the subjective experience of
the perceiving actor within that environment. What we usually pay attention to is what an object affords us.
Based upon Gestalt theories, Gibson states that affordances are perceived with no cognitive processing, and it
is the highlight of his definition when comparing it to derived approaches.
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
184

According to Gibson (1979), an affordance is unique for one person or animal, which makes it different
from a simple physical measure that is an object property. Affordances are objective, real and physical in a
way that "the affordance of something does not change as the need of the observer changes"; we do not need
to classify and label things in order to perceive what they afford.
To ONeill (2008), Gibson is attempting to describe an affordance as an emergent property of the
perceptual process consisting of the properties of the object itself and the perceptual capacities of the
perceiver. Different layouts afford different behaviors for different animals; a terrestrial surface, for
example, is climb-on-able, fall-off-able, get-underneath-able or bump-into-able relative to a specific animal.
Gibson also defined the term social significance to describe what one person affords to other: what
other persons afford comprises the whole realm of social significance for human beings. We pay the closest
attention to the optical and acoustic information that specifies what the other person is, invites, threatens,
and does." (Gibson, 1979).
Many authors appropriated Gibsons original term for their own uses with significant differences in the
conceptualization. The next section briefly explains some different authors perspectives on the concept.
3.1 Affordances in Design
When Norman first applied the concept of affordance in design, he stated that his conceptualization refers to
the perceived and actual properties of the thing (Norman, 1988). Those properties determine how the thing
could possibly be used. Taking advantage of it, no labels or instructions are needed. Norman (2004) proposed
a distinction between real affordances, those related to the physical properties of the world which is close
to Gibsons definition and perceived affordances which are subjective representations in the mind.
To Norman, the computer system, with its keyboard, display screen, pointing device affords pointing,
touching, looking, and clicking on every pixel of the display screen that is the real or physical affordance.
E.g.: Figure 1a: a portable computer by Sony that suggests movement and to handling with both hands.
All that the user interface designer has available in graphical, screen-based interfaces are related to
perceived affordances (Neris & Baranauskas, 2010). Affordance is not the simple presence of an element on
screen, but a suggestion or a clue about how to use it. Figure 1b illustrates a perceived affordance
highlighting a donation button in a web interface. As Norman (2008) explains: [] To Gibson, affordances
did not have to be perceivable or even knowable they simply existed. When I introduced the term into
Table 1. Synthesis of the evolution of HCI field and the concept of affordance

60-70s 80s 90s 2000s 2010s ...
HCI Paradigm
1
1
st
2
nd
3
rd

Technology
2,3,4
Mainframes Personal computers Network

Mobility
Ubiquitous computing,
Web 2.0, VR, AR,
Interaction based on
gestures, sensors, 3D
Construction of
meaning
1

Users were
professionals
Pragmatic approach.
Ignore it unless it
causes a problem
Meaning interpretation in terms
of information flows
It is the focus,
constructed on the fly,
collaboratively, different
contexts. Machines
replacing humans
Predominant
influence
1

Non-functional
requirements (e.g.
usability)
Engineering
Human Factors
Cognitive science
Embodied interaction,
Meaning making
Main question
Computer graphics
emerged
How to optimize users
interaction with the
machine?
1,5

How users might interact
with each other?
2

How to address human
values into research and
design?
2

Models and
Theories
1

Systematic methods of testing
Situated action, Distributed Cognition,
Activity Theory, Ethno methodology,
Qualitative approach, Action Theory
Emotion, Aesthetics,
Pragmatic/cultural
focus on experience
Concept of
affordance
Ecological approach,
independent of cognition
(Gibson, 1977)
Applied to
design, part of
perception
(Norman,1988)
Can be associated
with perception
(Gaver, 1991)
Social affordance,
cultural context
(Stamper, 2001)
Social signifier
(Norman,2008)
Motivational affordance
(Zhang, 2008)
1
(Harrison et al., 2007);
2
(Harper et al., 2008);
3
(Bdker, 2006);
4
(ITEA, 2009);
5
(Sellen, 2009);
185
design in 1988 I was referring to perceivable affordances. [].. Other distinctions between these
approaches are listed in Table 2 (McGrenere & Ho, 2009).
Norman brought the concept to HCI in the
transition of the 1
st
and 2
nd
paradigms, when the
influence of human factors (and cognitive
psychology) and the goal to fit the relationship
between the human and computer were dominant.
The example of Figure 1c shows that in the 3
rd

paradigm, when technologies such as augmented and
virtual reality are present, the distinction between
physical and perceived affordances is not so clear
anymore. In this example, an interface may be
projected anywhere, but the affordance to touch the
dial with one finger is preserved.
Since Normans view, Hartson (2003), Vyas et al. (2006), Gaver (1991), Stamper (2001), Zhang (2006)
among others considered cognitive aspects in their understanding of affordance and continued to expand the
concept including human aspects such as experience, knowledge, culture, and the social characteristic.
Gaver (1991), for instance, proposes that a combination of affordance with the perceptual information a
person has about it suggests potentials for action, making interaction easy to learn and use. According to him,
affordances are properties of the world that are compatible with and relevant for the actors interaction,
which, when perceptible, offer a link between the actors perception and action.. Figure 1d is an example of
an affordance oriented by a particular situation: a washing machine was used to build a dog house, an
unusual application that would hardly be afforded without an external motivation. Gavers proposal is also in
the transition between the 1
st
and 2
nd
paradigms, still applied to optimize the humancomputer interaction.
After years of confusion and misuse of the term by designers as Norman himself states (Norman, 1999),
in 2008 he suggested replacing affordance with the term signifier. He argues that the perceivable part of an
affordance is a signifier, and if deliberately placed by a designer, it is a social signifier and asks to forget
the term affordances: what people need, and what design must provide, are signifiers. Because most actions
we do are social, the most important class of these are social signifiers. [] Social signifiers replace
affordances, for they are broader and richer, allowing for accidental signifiers as well as deliberate ones,
and even for items that signify by their absence.. To exemplify, Norman (2008) describes the situation
where the absence of people on a train platform may be a social signifier indicating that the train has already
left. The social signifier includes culture and experiences, similarly to Stampers social affordance idea.

3.2 Stampers Social Affordance
To Stamper (2004), All organisms, including human agents construct their perceptions of the only world
they can know through their actions; they have to discover (or be taught, or inherit by instinct) what
invariant repertoires of behaviour the world affords them (= the affordances); then they populate their
reality with those affordances that help them to survive. Stamper associates the physical affordances with
Gibson's definition linked to properties of the physical environment. They are social in nature, because they
are dependent on the knowledge that has been built up and handed down from generation to generation in a
society. Social affordances are repertories of behavior tuned to the social environment, valid for a certain
community, with a start and finish time, and a starting and finishing authority (Gazendam & Liu, 2005).
Table 2. Comparison of Gibsons x Normans affordances
Gibsons Affordance Normans Affordance
Offerings or action possibilities in
the environment in relation to the
action capabilities of an actor
Perceived properties that may
or may not actually exist
Suggestions or clues as to
how to use the properties
Independent of the actors
experience, knowledge, culture,
or ability to perceive
Can be dependent on the
experience, knowledge, or
culture of the actor
Existence is binary it exists or it
does not exist
Can make an action difficult
or easy
Figure 1a. Physical
affordance of a portable
computer
Figure 1b. Perceived
affordance: highlight of a
button (www.paypal.com)
Figure 1c. Ex. of a gesture and
augmented reality UI (MIT
Media Lab, 2010)
Figure 1d. Example of
specific perceived
affordance (Street use,
2010)
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The photos in Figure 2 illustrate the idea of a social affordance. Once a
person is seen pointing to a map as in Fig 2a, it is clear that this person is
localizing himself/herself or indicating to someone else a specific point in
the map; on the other hand, when a person is pointing to a map with an
electronic device (Fig 2b), it is not clear what the social affordance is
while this behavior is not part of the repertory of the community yet. In
this specific situation, one could guess that he is taking a picture, but he
could be (actually is) using an augmented reality application on the map.
Social affordance is also related to the idea of how an artifact can
stimulate individual or group usage. Figure 3 is a picture of people using an
augmented reality application, which displays on the mobile overlaid information related to the printed map.
Morisson et al. (2009) compared this solution based on the physical map with another application running
strictly on the electronic device and verified that the physical solution had a great potential to group people
and to engage a collaborative work due to the social affordance of the big printed
map.
Stampers Social Affordance and Normans Social signifiers appeared at
different times, but both under the 2
nd
paradigm influence, when culture,
context, experience and life in society started to be taken into consideration by
HCI.
3.3 Affordance and Motivation
Motivation is an important aspect of human being, when analyzing perception and action; it explains what
causes behavior and why behavior varies in its intensity (Zhang, 2008). Considering that, Zhang (2008)
suggested the term motivational affordance that comprises the properties of an object that determine whether
and how it can support ones motivational needs. She classified some of the most important humans
motivational sources and needs to be considered in design to evoke motivational affordances: a)
Psychological and social needs: autonomy and the self, which refers to the representation of self-identity;
relatedness, leadership and followship, considering social and community life. b) Cognitive motives (beliefs
and expectations): in respect to the users competence and opportunities for achievement. c) Affects and
emotions, which orchestrate human reaction.
The Piano Stair (Volkswagem, 2009) shown in Figure 4 is an example
of exploring humans motivation to stimulate a behavior. By playing
sounds like piano keys, people feel invited to create their own song, which
involves challenge, identity and also social interaction. These features
attract people to choose this stair instead of the escalator most of the
times.
Involving social, cultural and personal aspects together with affect on
interaction, Zhangs definition of affordance goes beyond the 2
nd

paradigm, and may be important to address concepts related to the 3
rd
paradigm.
3.4 Relating Different Approaches
Gibson (1979) first defined affordance as a property of the relationship between the actor and the object.
Gaver (1991) concurs with it, but he disconnects affordances from the perceptual information the person has
about them. Both Norman (1988), with his concept of physical and perceived affordance, and Zhang (2008),
consider affordances as properties of the object. To Stamper (2001) and Norman, with his concept of social
signifier (2008), the social affordances are part of the culture of a society.
Aiming at understanding how these different concepts may be useful in design and taking into account the
current HCI needs and paradigms, an observational study was conducted as described in the next section.
Figure 2a. and 2b. Social affordance
in pointing to a map
Figure 3. Collaborative
use of an AR application
Figure 4. Motivational affordances
in the Piano stair
187
4. AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON AFFORDANCES
As part of an activity in an HCI class, 26 subjects were invited to identify the affordances of two different
artifacts: a Tablet-PC (in tablet mode) and the Apple iPad,
both known but still uncommon artifacts. The study happened
few days after the launch day of the iPad in the United States,
providing a single opportunity to observe the first time
interaction with the device. The students were already familiar
with Normans and Gibsons concept of affordance.
The classroom was split into 2 groups: the first one with 14
students analyzed the iPad first; and the second group with 12
students analyzed first the Tablet-PC.
Both groups first explored individually the artifact, passing
it to each other in the same group; then they were asked to
write down an adjective that expressed their first impression
about the artifact. The first impressions were collected only for
the first analyzed device to avoid a comparative opinion. After exploring the first device they interact with,
they were asked to identify affordances classifying them according to the criteria described in Table 3. In the
second moment, they changed the devices to repeat the analysis and to identify affordances of the second
artifact.
4.1 Preliminary Results
The identified affordances of both groups were compiled according to its category. A summary of the most
frequent mentions is presented in Table 4 ordered by number of occurrence and illustrated in Figure 5.
Negative aspects are preceded by the symbol (-).
Clearly, the students considered other devices as reference in their first interaction. Both artifacts were
compared with a traditional Laptop ou PC (
1
) and the iPad with a mobile phone (
2
) referred to as a big
iPhone by some students on identifyind affordances and also on declaring their first impressions (i.e., big,
light and agile for the iPad and heavy, malleable, and flexible for the Tablet-PC).
The interaction with the iPad created expectations and curiosity. It may explain why the iPad had a
stronger influence in the Tablet PC analysis than the opposite (
3
). Some affordances of the Tablet-PC were
observed to be more frequent when the iPad was analyzed first. This fact, in addition to the number of
identified affordances of the Tablet-PC that explicitly compared it with the iPad, was not noticed on the iPad
analysis when the Tablet-PC was analyzed first.
Table 3. Criteria to observe the four types
of affordances
Type of
affordance
Criteria to observe
Physical Physical properties of the object
Perceived Mental representation, design
Social Related to life in society
Motivational
Satisfaction of motivational needs:
autonomy, identity, challenge,
feedback, social relations, to influence
and to be influenced by someone,
emotions.
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The novelty aspect of iPad was predominant in declaring the first impressions of it, and most adjectives
could be classified as motivational or social (strange, stylish, fresh, modern, discovery, motivating, funny). It
is interesting to notice that the novelty sometimes was referred to as strangeness, which can be explained
by the fact that both artifacts were taken as a working tool by some participants(
4
).
4.2 Discussion
Although they have some similarities, such as the multi-touch mechanism, these artifacts have completely
different purpose: the tablet-PC is a laptop with some drawing functionality, while the iPad is neither a laptop
nor a mobile phone, it has a new concept originally designed for ebook reading and experiencing the Web.

Figure 5. Examples of identified affordances in the exploratory study
This physical affordance of the iPad clearly influenced the identification of the perceived and
motivational affordances (which includes expectations): because it is bigger than the iPhone, people tend to
expect more features on it considered a motivational affordance in a negative way. On the other hand, the
aesthetic of iPad was the first most present positive motivational affordance and the natural interaction
(feedback of moviment) observed in the perceived affordances also influenced the motivational aspects.
The Tablet PC was more associated to their pen based experience (from drawing and writing on paper).
Seen as a working tool, it was referred to as a laptop with something else. Although considered heavy also
on first impressions declarations, aspects of fragility appeared as physical affordances. Physical aspects
Table 4. Summary of identified affordances
Affordance iPAD Tablet PC
P
h
y
s
i
c
a
l

Touch screen (Fig 5a), hold with both hands (Fig 5b),
fragile, weight that suggests strength/value/complexity,
look for buttons
1
, handwriting
5
, big
2
, button sensor or
press? (Fig 5c), different
1,2
.
Pen, on table using
3
(Fig 5d), heavy
3
, swivel screen, like a
laptop
1
, excessive number of buttons
3
, drawing (Fig 5e), less
light and practical than iPad
3
, save space hiding the keyboard
1
,
cannot be used like a book or notebook
3
.
P
e
r
c
e
i
v
e
d
Apples mental model, unique button (Fig 5c), inviting
icons (Fig 5f), lack of information
1
, more options than
iPhone
because it is bigger
5
,

missing references or
interaction standards
1,2
, feedback of movements, look for
a keyboard
1,
photos (Fig 5g).
Keyboard/touchpad
1
(Fig 5e),

size of icons does not suggest
touch screen
1
, notes in presentations
4
, screen swivel only to one
side (Fig 5h), work
4
, cannot be touched with another objects
(Fig 5i), less strange compared with PCs
3
.
S
o
c
i
a
l

Multiple users, symbol of social status (and segregation),
more powerful than iPhone
2
and more restrictive than a
PC
1
, inhibitor to be used on public (fear of being stolen),
screen rotation to share content (like a paper) (Fig 5b),
share personal stuff (Fig 5g).
Using in classroom
4
, its physical aspects do not invite to a
shared interaction - although it is bigger than iPad
3
, swivel
screen allows to share information (Fig 5h), experience with
pen and touch screen, can be touched by multiple users
(Fig 5j), work/study
4
, photos/videos/music like iPad
3
.
M
o
t
i
v
a
t
i
o
n
a
l

(-)indifference, portable
1
, toy, novelty, Apples prestige,
(-)missing control of applications and operating
system
1,4
,

challenging when discovering its
functionalities, motivates touch screen (Fig 5f), showing
personal stuff (Fig 5g), (-)limited to some tasks
1
, (-)no
software to communicate
2
.
Good to draw (Fig 5e), work activities
4
, (-)artificial writing, (-)
frustration: its not possible to use on the table as a tablet
because the angle of view, a little bit more than a laptop
1
, touch
screen makes it different
1
, pen attracts curiosity
1
, fragile, (-)
no-Linux friendly
1
, good to avoid repetitive stress injury
1,4
.
189
created limitations on social affordances: even being bigger than the iPad, it does not suggest sharing
interaction, mainly because of the angle of screen viewing that is restrictive. The size of icons suggested the
use of the pen in the laptop mode (instead of tablet mode) on perceived affordances. The subjects also
considered it less strange than the iPad taking into account its similarity with a tradicional laptop.
The social affordance of iPad was mostly associated with the brand and social status. Some physical
aspects reinforce the idea of a valuable device. Recent phenomena like hyper-connectivity and techno-
dependency, which can be still more present into the group of participants Computer Science students ,
were taken into account on social affordance and, once again, reflected on motivational affordances.
Besides drawing, the tablets social and motivational affordances are repeatedly related to its formal and
work-related uses in classrooms, presentations and in taking notes. Relating it with the declared first
impressions, the device can be seen as a more versatile laptop.
The identified motivational affordances suggested that this concept should not be taken in isolation; it
may have direct consequences of the other three concepts of affordance, as exemplified below:
Physical: related to attractiveness and affection. Aesthetic, flexibility, portability (weight and size);
Perceived: associated to challenging, feedback: Invitation to use touch screen (or the pen), natural
interaction, friendly user interface.
Social: related to identity, autonomy and social relations: prestige associated to the device or the
brand, identification of being a technical or digital arts working tool, sharing or not information.
The current trends like using portable devices and ubiquitous technologies highlights the importance of
physical affordances that the desktops do not have. Aspects like how to handle, carry or manipulate artifacts
are critical to the technology acceptation and appropriation. The iPhone 4
is an example of the importance

to consider the physical affordance on design process. Holding the iPhone at the bottom left-hand corner
causes signal reception problem. This constraint frustrated users and compelled Apple to offer a special case
and to advise users to hold it in a different way.
According to this analysis, the four different views of affordances were seen as important and
complementary to understand and evaluate the first impression a person may have on exploring a new
technology. Physical and social affordances are central to understand the main aspects that were noticed and
perceived by the person, and as Sellen (2009) states, to understand several levels of interactions. The
perceived affordance is a warranty of understandability of the user interface. And the motivational
affordances can help aggregating them, making it possible to understand how these affordances can
contribute to interaction being part of each persons motivations and social interaction in the 3
rd
paradigm .
The 3
rd
HCI paradigm brings a set of new challenges to the field, such as aggregating human values to the
user interface, but some aspects of the 1
st
and 2
nd
paradigms still need to be considered when designing
interactions. The perceived affordance is strongly related to some aspects of the 1
st
and 2
nd
HCI paradigms
that must be preserved in designing interaction that makes sense to its target audience, creating technologies
that are easy to use and easy to learn. The concept of motivational affordance seems to be suitable to the 3
rd
HCI paradigm, once it is associated with human values and their desires and concerns, in a social, economic,
and political ecology (Sellen, 2009).
The concept of affordance has been applied to the interaction design in different ways since Normans
first appropriation, and it has been transformed according to the technical and social contexts of using
technology in daily life. The observational study made it clear that different views of affordance may co-
exist, such as physical, perceived, social, and motivational affordances, and their correlation can be
especially useful to understand how the main aspects of a technology can be associated to each humans
motivation, an important mechanisms that drives humans choices.
In continuity to this work, we intend to focus on motivational affordances, the way they correlate to the
others, how they might explain humans affective reactions, impacting on interface design and evaluation.

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REFERENCES
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McGrenere, J., Ho, W. 2000. Affordances: Clarifying and Evolving a Concept. Proc. of Graphics Interface 2000.
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interface-augment-our-world. Accessed in 31/08/2010.
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Tekkotsu. 2010. Cognitive Robotics. http://www.tekkotsu.org/education.html. Accessed in 10/08/2010.
Volkswagen .2009. The fun theory. http://www.thefuntheory.com/piano-staircase. Accessed in 10/08/2010.
Vyas, D., et al. 2006. Affordance in interaction. Proc. of the 13th European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics: Trust
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Technology. Designing Information and Organizations with a Positive Lens. Elsevier.
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DEVELOPING A MODEL TO FACILITATE SEARCH
ENGINE OPTIMIZATION OF WEBSITES BY
NON-IT PROFESSIONALS
Daniel Kappler* and Paul Darbyshire**
*University of Liverpool, Laureate Online Education
*Laureate Online Education, B.V., De Entree 59-67 1101 BH Amsterdam Z.O, The Netherlands
**School of Management and Information Systems, Victoria University
**PO. Box 14428 Melbourne City MC, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 8001
ABSTRACT
Search Engine optimization attempts to optimize website content in order to get to the top position of the Search Engine
Results Page (SERP). Over the years search engine algorithms have had to be changed as spamming attempts such as
keyword stuffing, or the use of link farms eroded the importance of relevant content to favor the content offered by
individuals using these procedures. For enterprises which are operating websites, the promotion of their presence is a
vital part of successful marketing. For the average website owner or manager it seems very difficult to decide what
procedures have to be applied to make a websites presence more successful. Out-dated procedures are still widely used,
so enterprises have a very low chance to reach the Internet users through standard searches who are looking for the
products or services they offer. This paper discusses the development of a model to facilitate non-IT professionals (in
particular SME's), in gaining an understanding of the details of Search Engine Optimization and equip them with the
skills for performing these tasks. The model is constructed with feedback loops to allow for the ongoing optimization
required in a continual changing environment. We evaluate the model with three company websites which will be
analyzed and recommendations will be given to improve the content and source code of selected pages. The website
owners or managers will be given instructions to implement the recommended optimization over a specific period. The
feedback loops will help show if the suggested procedures have been implemented, and how these were handled.
KEYWORDS
Search Engine Optimization, Model, SME's. Keyword Search
1. INTRODUCTION
Within the last decade the way that consumers have been searching for products and services has changed
profoundly. For a typical online shop, operating a website has been always essential, but not for enterprises
which have been used to acquiring new customers in the traditional way (Georgiou.and Stefaneas 2002). In
highly developed technology areas of the world the PC is the main instrument for finding information. The
big players have learned to cope with the changing search engine algorithms and made their websites visible,
but smaller enterprises are often left behind. Yet, he average website owner believe that having an online
presence is enough to attract new customers. There is still a common misconception that it is sufficient to
have a few Meta tags in the source code which describe the companys products and services., however, that
there are still an alarming number of web pages which do not even have a title.
For companies who want to improve their websites it is often difficult to know where to start. Often
dubious Search Engine Optimization(SEO) providers take advantage of the website owners lack of basic
knowledge. There have been cases where enterprises bought an SEO package, hoping to get a top ranking on
the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) of the major search engines. This might only work for a short period,
until search engine algorithms recognize the spamming attempts, and then punish the site by downgrading its
rank, or in worst case banning the site from the indexes at all (Ross 2008). Generally, the website owners or
managers who are non-IT professional need to be provided with clear step by step instructions how to
optimize their web presence. An enterprise which has neglected the optimization of its website first needs to
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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recognize the necessity of improvement. Once the enterprise is aware of the potentials it needs to be
instructed how SEO best practices have to be implemented.
In the following sections we discuss the development of a model to aid in the facilitation of non-IT
professionals (in particular SME's), in gaining an understanding of the details of Search Engine Optimization
and equip them with the skills for performing these tasks. This will help improve the overall penetration of
their Web sites. The model is constructed with feedback loops to allow for the ongoing optimization required
in a continual changing environment. We evaluate the model by applying its techniques to three selected
cases where an optimization promises to improve a website's ranking, and therefore increase the website's
traffic. Evaluating the results will show if the implemented improvements will lead to a more successful web
presence of these selected enterprises. It is equally important to find out if procedures for optimizing websites
can be reproduced, and if they can be applied the same way in the near future. These evolving technologies
will be also critically evaluated.
2. BRIEF LITERATURE REVIEW
Webmasters, developers, programmers and SEO experts have been learning to live with the way search
engines absorb and present the available information on Internet, but the website owner often remains
disoriented. Usually website owners and webmasters have to work together to make an enterprise's website
visible. Scanlan (2008) clearly demonstrates that when someone searches for products or services and your
site does not appear on the first page of search results, than your site is considered to be invisible. This is a
harsh reality as usually there are only 10 places available per page. Ghose and Yang (2008) declare that
SEO refers to the process of tailoring a website to optimize its unpaid (or organic) ranking for a given set
of keywords or phrases. Organic optimization means that no advertisement campaigns have been used. The
success depends fully on the optimization of the content, site structure, and external and inbound links.
Generally, non-organic optimization falls under the definition of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Search
Engine Optimization is all about making the pages of a website visible for search engine spiders. To start
with the optimization the actual performance of the website has to be analyzed. Important factors are the
number of indexed pages, inbound links and PageRank. The latter factor depends on the popularity and age
of the pages. Scanlan (2008) recommended that the goal of the optimization is to be at least two units ahead
of the PageRank of your closest competitor. According to Brin and Page (1998) PageRank was a new
approach how the web pages were ranked.
Much of Search Engine Optimization is centered on the selection of popular keywords and phrases.
Usually the web page content already provides keywords which can be used for optimization. Once a list of
keyword has been created it can be expanded by brainstorming. King (2008, p.13) recommended
benchmarking competitors websites to see which keywords they use, and also to include plurals, splits,
stems, synonyms and common misspellings. For the website owner or manager there are various free online
tools available for the keyword research. King (2008) mentions that these free tools are limited compared to
paid services like Wordtracker. For ambitious website operators and SEO professionals he recommended
using Wordtracker for streamlining the process of key phrase discovery. The ultimate goal in SEO is to
discover the primary key phrase that accurately describes the overall business, product, or service but which
still has adequate search demand (King 2008, p.15).
Keywords which are placed in the URL and title of a web page have the highest impact on search engine
spiders. Also keywords should be also included in the Meta section of the source code. Experience has shown
that keywords placed in Meta description have more value then those in the Meta keywords. The reason for
this is that in recent years many webmasters were abusing this section of the source code by keyword
stuffing. Therefore search engine algorithms had to be changed to disregard such spamming attempts. Search
engines today don't put too much emphasis on the keyword Meta tag, as it is largely ignored. Therefore
critical keywords and phrases should embedded within bold tags and heading tags. Also the use of keywords
is recommended in anchor text and hyperlinks. Using these tags puts more emphasizes on the selected
keywords and phrases, and improves the chance to be indexed by search engines.(Rognerud 2008)
While, SEO is largely focused on the selection of keywords, and link building, any gains in these areas
can be degraded by an unfavorable site design, and overloaded source code. A site design which is user
friendly is not always search engine robot friendly. Graphical enhanced websites using JavaScript or Flash
193
technology can be a barrier for search engine spiders. In such cases challenge is then to change the source
code to make the site more discoverable (Walter 2008).. The optimization of the source code is usually
difficult to understand by a website owner or manager who is not an IT professional. One way to check if a
site structure does not oppose any barriers to search engines is by disabling the JavaScript and CSS functions
to see if all content is still available. When designing or optimizing a website a progressive enhancement is
recommended. By keeping the structure (HTML), presentation (CSS), and behavior (JavaScript) separate the
content remains accessible to search engine spiders (Walter 2008).
If an enterprise hires a SEO specialist for optimizing its Web presences, or tries to get the job done by
itself, then it is vital to specify Web metrics. To assist in analyzing online traffic, indexed pages, link
popularity and PageRank, various software packages and online tools are available. With their standardized
reports typically user sessions and details, and the quality of the websites source code can be determined.
For marketing strategies it is important to know how users access the pages, and from where they come. But
some limitations have to be taken into account when interpreting data from server log files. Among these
limitations are cached pages which are not logged by the server, search engine robots requests or the true
location of the visitors. (Weischedel and Huizingh 2006). Even though the website owner has to anticipate
imprecise results, the general trend of the performance should be observed. Some pages might perform better
than others. By monitoring the entering and the exit pages, and keeping an eye how long visitors spend on
each page will give an idea what keeps the visitors interested, and what might cause them to leave your site
(Rognerud 2008).
3. MODEL FOR SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
The model for Search Engine Optimization was developed from the literature and involves the stepwise
process of search engine optimization, to be undertaken by following a number of stages. The actual model
itself consists of five stages which have been adapted from the classic 'Waterfall Model' of software
development (Royce 1970). The classic stages have been renamed somewhat to reflect their roles in the
context of the model, see Figure 1, with descriptions below. The selection of the modified waterfall model
seemed natural as a framework for an SEO model due to the iterative, sequential and compartmentalized
nature of the task. The iterative nature of Search Engine Optimization is very well represented by the
feedback loop contained in the modified waterfall model to that originally proposed by Royce.

Requirements data needs to be collected to find out how SEO has been handled by SMEs, and how
search engines in general weight online content. Here it will be also described what tools and
software will be required to achieve the objectives.
Specification the competition and the actual current state of the website performance will be
analyzed before the objectives can be specified. Here the keywords matching the content will be
specified which will be the basis for a successful implementation.

Figure 1. Adapted Waterfall Model for SEO
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Source Code Optimization This stage incorporates the implementation of the defined keywords
and phrases from the previous stage, and the widely neglected optimization of the source code
effectiveness. The same program which was used for defining the enterprises market position will
be also useful for analyzing the website performance with regard to source code effectiveness and
eliminating errors
Offsite Optimization At this stage of the optimization the persons involved in the process will be
asked to actively popularize the presence oft their website. This will be achieved by bookmarking
the web pages in various social bookmark services, registering the site to online indexes, and
requests to webmasters of partner-sites to place back links.
Testing To measure the effectiveness of the suggested implementation website operators need to
be provided with tools. To facilitate the introduction of testing the performance, these tools need to
be readily obtainable. In this case it is recommend using the Web CEO program, and selected online
services. Before and after the optimization the same tools will be used to receive results which will
be based on the same measurement.
The data required to start the optimization process will be provided by a preliminary questionnaire which
is supplied to company owners and managers who are interested in optimizing their websites. This data will
be necessary to analyze how the Search Engine Optimization has been handled in the past, if any, and if the
website operators are aware of the importance of their online presence and competition. To measure the
effectiveness of the suggested implementation website operators need to be provided with tools. To facilitate
the introduction of testing the performance, these tools need to be readily obtainable. In this case it is
recommend using the Web CEO program, and selected online services. Before and after the optimization the
same tools will be used to receive results which will be based on the same measurement.

Figure 2 Shows the high-level flow of the steps in application of the the model, indicating that the model
is an iterative one which reflects the nature of the SEO process. Thus optimization may need to be performed
again over time. The feedback loop in Figure 2 from the final stages of acceptance testing and evaluation of
the recent optimizations, feed back into the initial performance testing before optimization.
4. TESTING THE MODEL
The model was tested against three SME websites which showed a possibility for improvement during the
optimization phase. The SME's chosen were similar companies in that they all dealt in language training.
Keyword research
and selection
SEO Inventory
Performance test
Optimizing source
code
Acceptance test
and evaluation
Analyse
competition
R
e
s
t
a
r
t

p
r
o
c
e
s
s
Off-site
optimization

Figure 2. Iterative nature of the Model and Optimization Process
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FSTS Sprachreisen (Language Trip Courses). The website, www.fsts.at had been online since May
2000. The website already had a Google PageRank of 5.
Deutschinstitut (German Language Institute). The company website is www.deutschinstitut.at which
has been online since May January 2004. The website had a Google PageRank of 4.
SALT Pro Skills and Language Training. The companys website is at website www.salt-pro.com
and has been online for 2 years. The website had a Google PageRank of 3
All three companies had a potential for improvement by applying optimization techniques. The detailed
steps taken during the optimization process, by applying the Model discussed in the previous section were:
Installation of the Tools: The website owners were instructed how to install Google Analytics and Web
CEO. At the end of the SEO Inventory stage, the website operators were required to answer questions
regarding the installation process. These questions were be included in the SEO Inventory feedback.
SEO Inventory: For monitoring the progress of the optimization and noting changes in the website
performance, basic data was be required: number of visitors per day; average time visitors spend to look at
pages; percentage of new accesses; percentage of visits through search engines; number of indexed pages;
number of inbound links; PageRank.
SEO Inventory Feedback: It was important to learn if website owners or managers were able to install the
required programs and tools to benchmark their website, and compare the performance to their competitors.
Additionally, it was a learning process in how to deal with the SEO process.
Keyword Research: The website operators were instructed how to research for suitable keywords. The
first step was to select the appropriate tools which gave valuable information about a website's current state
regarding the keyword selection. For the 3 case studies different online services and the program Web CEO
were used. One important factor of a successful optimization is the density of keywords used on a web page.
Among web designers and SEO experts a value of 2 to 5 percent is accepted. If the density of a keyword is
below 2 percent of the content, then web page does not seem relevant enough to be listed on a Search Engine
Results Page (SERP). A value over 5 percent can be already classified as spam attempt, and be downgraded
by search engines.
Analyzing Competitors: After popular keywords and phrases have been defined, the website operators
have to define their closest competitors. Here the enterprises will be confronted with the reality. It is
important that popular keyword combinations will be tested for determining the web pages ranking on the
Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Selecting and Placing the Keywords: Website owners or managers learned the importance of selecting
and placing the appropriate keyword in the pages content. In some cases the website operator was not be able
to edit the page source code which was necessary to optimize the title and Meta tags. In such cases the task
was given to an IT professional who was instructed to edit the section of the page(s).
Finalizing the Keyword Research and Implementation Stage : The process will be evaluated after
recommendations were given to the website owners or managers how to use appropriate keywords to
improve the SERP. The participants will have to answer questions like:
what were the prominent keywords on the main page
what online tools were used to find popular keywords and phrases
what programs and tools were used to benchmark their competitors websites
what pages of their website were optimized
what keywords and phrase were used for optimization
how keywords were emphasized in the pages source code
how many pages were optimized
who participated in the keyword research
who implemented the keyword optimization
Optimizing Source Code: An optimized source code is one of the major preconditions for being indexed
by search engine spiders, and to get a good ranking on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). For the non-IT
professional not familiar with (X)HTML it can be difficult to identify source code which could be optimized.
The selection and placing of the keywords might be already challenging for the average website owner or
manager. For that reason the cooperation with IT professionals is needed. The person who designed and
programmed the website has to analyse, and if necessary optimize the source code.
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The website owner can use a check-list to verify everything possible has been done to make sure
that all the pages have been made visible for search engine spiders, and load faster. [20] This
will include that:
everything unnecessary has been removed like gif, java or flash animations
that there are no nested tables (browsers need more time to parse them and search engine robots
are limited to find relevant information)
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are used to separate the content from the presentation
images are optimized by reducing their file size, and inform the browser about their dimensions
the code has be cleaned up by removing unnecessary spaces between tags, empty tags and
comments in the source code
the cleaned-up code has been validated to meet W3C recommendations
There are programs and online tools available, so the website owner can compare his or her website to
competitor websites. The following programs and online tools will be incorporated in the optimization
process: Web CEO, linkvendor.com, selfseo.com and http://validator.w3.org.
Locating further Sources of Errors: It is important that further errors can be located. To achieve this it is
recommended to use a computer program like Web CEO which shows more details rather than an online
service. According to Web CEO Auditor function the code optimization will be focused on:
errors: problem pages; broken internal links; broken external links; broken anchors
usability: page size; slow pages; deep pages
maintenance: redirects; missing / invalid titles and meta data; new pages ; old pages; small pages;
missing ALT attributes or images; missing WIDTH / HEIGHT attributes of images; orphaned files
The website owner and his or her webmaster should be able to get a report about the site quality. The
objective of this procedure will be that the criticized points need to be fixed by the person who has the
appropriate knowledge and access to the source code, either the website owner or webmaster. For
benchmarking the website and those of the closest competitors, online tools can be used.
Finalizing the Source Code Optimization Stage: The participants will be provided with an online
questionnaire where these questions will be answered:
on how many pages broken links were fixed
on how many pages the file size was reduced
how many pages do still have missing Meta descriptions
if website source code was validated with the W3C.org validator
if CSS were applied and optimized
what persons were involved in the source code optimization
Link Building: At this stage the optimization of the keywords and source code should to be completed.
The website owner will be instructed to place links of his or her web pages on social bookmark services, and
online indexes like dmoz.at. Also the website owner can start to investigate if partner sites will be willing to
place links on their sites.
Link Building Feedback: Website owners or managers might not enough emphasize the link building
process. One reason can be that the process of finding link partners or registering the web pages to social
bookmark services and indexes is considered time consuming, and not delivering the expected results. In
practise it has been experienced that the chance of being registered to dmoz.at is very small, and that only a
few social bookmark services show a link. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to learn how website owner or
managers implement the link building. In an online questionnaire the following questions were requested:
Which social bookmark services did you use?
Did you submit your website to dmoz.at?
Did you try to find link partners?
Has your request for placing a link at a partner site been accepted or refused?
Outcome: At the end of the first optimization cycle all answers and analysis reports will be summarized,
and critically evaluated. At this stage the participants can explain if the implemented procedures have led to a
better website performance. Even more important is to learn how companies complied with the
recommended procedures, and if they will continue SEO for their websites.
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5. BRIEF SUMMARY OF RESULTS
While there are a number of indicators of improvement to look at after the application of the model, the
participants were focused on the more quantifiable metrics of: maximum number of visitors per day; average
time visitors spend to look at the pages; percentage of new accesses; percentage of visits through search
engines.
The changes in the values of these metrics can be seen in the tables below. Table 1 Shows the summary
of the Google Analytics report which details a number of metrics, including the Total Visitors, Time spent
looking at pages, New accesses, and percentage of visits through search engines.
Table 1. Summary of the Google Analytics Report
Web Site First report Second Report
Total visitors
FSTS 2244 3235
Deutschinstutut 1167 1194
SALT Pro 89 80
Max. number of visitors per day
FSTS 194 305
Deutschinstitut 129 92
SALT Pro 13 18
Average time visitors spend to look at the pages (in minutes)
FSTS 02:52 02:18
Deutschinstitut 01:14 01:22
SALT Pro 05:04 02.58
Percentage of new accesses
FSTS 87.45 83.31
Deutschinstitut 65.16 62.07
SALT Pro 46.05 60.36
Percentage of visits through search engines
FSTS 64.26 43.97
Deutschinstitut 36.58 39.96
SALT Pro 28.95 15.32

As can be seen in Table 1, the results were mixed, though the figures alone don't tell the entire story. The
results in Table 2 show the increase/ decrease in the number of index page links. These numbers were taken
from the Web CEO report and alternatively the results were verified by Google directly. On 04 May 2009
FSTS had 783, Deutschinstitut had 695, and SALT Pro had 70. The differences indicate that the results are
not very accurate. To diagnose a trend the number of indexed pages should be monitored over a longer period
by using the same measurement tools. The number of links from external web pages depend on the website
owners or managers efforts to popularize their website.
Table 2. Increase/decrease of indexed pages by Google
February/March 2009 April 2009
FSTS 751 745
SALT Pro 63 77

The number of indexed pages and link popularity helps to increase the PageRank. The link popularity
changes are shown in Table 3. In the first and third case the link popularity has not changed. The difference
could be caused by inaccuracy. Deutschinstitut showed a distinctive raise. To verify the numbers it was
recommended to use the Google link:domain.com command. On 04 May 2009 FSTS had 41,
Deutschinstitut had 52, and SALT Pro had 0.

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Table 3. Link popularity of the tested websites by Google
February/March April
FSTS 40 41
SALT Pro 1 -

In the preliminary questionnaire the website operators were asked about their websites PageRank. It can
be regarded as common criteria for an overall improvement of a particular page, and has to be considered as
one factor which is widely accepted. Gaining on 1 unit of 10 available can be regarded as a positive trend.
The differences after optimization were:
FSTS: from 5 to 6
Deutschinstitut: from 5 to 5
SALT Pro: stayed at 3
6. CONCLUSION
The results of the research indicated that there is a great potential of facilitating search engine optimizations
of website by non-IT professionals. Working together with 3 selected enterprises shed some light on the
problems which exist. In a perfect world a website owner or manager would search the Internet for all
available information about SEO, and tell their web master to implement it. But we live in a world where
only a very small fraction of website operators know what SEO stands for, and how it is implemented in the
web design and editing process. It should be the duty of every IT professional involved in web design and
programming to educate the sponsors. But even the professionals often forget the most important part of the
design, making the website visible for search engines and users. This responsibly is left to the enterprise
running the website. How to address all of them is a question which can not be easily answered.
In the beginning of the project it was important to motivate the website owners, and not to give tasks that
would overwhelm the persons involved in the process. The preliminary questionnaire had questions that were
difficult to answer. It was too early to ask the participants to find out the SERP of a certain keyword
combination. Making the introduction to SEO as easy as possible would increase the quality of the feedback,
and facilitate the access for the participants. The use of website analyzing programs like Web CEO gives the
tester a variety of testing and benchmarking options. For the average website owner installing and
configuring such a tool seemed difficult. To further test and benchmark websites, the use of online tools
without sophisticated configuration would be preferable.
The time available for implementing the recommend procedures was very short. To be able to quantify a
distinct improvement in website performance it would be necessary to monitor the website performance
beyond the scheduled period allowed by this research. In the results section above, while there were gains in
some areas, others lost ground. Thus, overall performance of the tested websites did not significantly change.
The positive aspects of the project were that the basic SEO procedures were very well implemented, and the
website operators indicated that they will continue the application of the model. This in itself is a positive
result.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research project was undertaken as part of a Master of Science degree with University of Liverpool and
Laureate Online Education.

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REFERENCES
Brin, S.and Page, L. 1998, The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,. [Online] Available from:
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html (Accessed: 19 March 2009)
Dawson, C. 2005, Projects in Computing and Information Systems: A Student's Guide,. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd
Georgiou, C.and Stefaneas, P. 2002, Strategies for Accelerating the Worldwide Adoption of E-commerce, [Online]
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/505248.506003 (Accessed: 16 March 2009)
Ghose, A and Yang, S. 2008, Comparing Performance Metrics in Organic Search with Sponsored Search Advertising,
[Online] Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1517472.1517475 (Accessed: 21 March 2009)
King, A. 2008, Website Optimization: Speed Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets. Ten Steps to Higher Search
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Rognerud, J. 2008, Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Optimization,. Madison: CWL Publishing Enterprises, Inc.
Ross, M. 2008, Worst Practices in Search Engine Optimization,. [Online] Available from:
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1409360.1409388 (Accessed: 21 March 2009)
Royce, W. W. 1970, Managing the development of large software systems. In Proceedings of IEEE WESCON, pp. 19.
Scanlan, L. 2008, The 12 Habits of Highly Effective Websites: A Primer on Search Engine Optimization for non-technical
Executives,. Seatlle: Liam Scanlan.
Walter, A. 2008, Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO and Beyond,. Berkeley: New Riders.
Weischedel, B.and Huizingh, E. 2006, Website optimization with web metrics: a case study,. [Online] Available from:
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1151454.1151525 (Accessed: 19 March 2009)

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A HIERARCHICAL ARCHITECTURE FOR ON-LINE
CONTROL OF PRIVATE CLOUD-BASED SYSTEMS
Mauro Andreolini, Sara Casolari and Stefania Tosi
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
Via Vignolese, 905/b 41100 Modena, Italy
ABSTRACT
Several enterprise data centers are adopting the private cloud computing paradigmas a scalable, cost-effective, robust
way to provide services to their end users. The management and control of the underlying hw/sw infrastructure pose
several interesting problems. In this paper we are interested to evidence that the monitoring process needs to scale to
thousands of heterogeneous resources at different levels (system, network, storage, application) and at different time
scales; it has to cope with missing data and detect anomalies in the performance samples; it has to transform all data into
meaningful information and pass it to the decision process (possibly through different, ad-hoc algorithms for different
resources). In most cases of interest for this paper, the control management system must operate under real-time
constraints.
We propose a hierarchical architecture that is able to support the efficient orchestration of an on-line management
mechanismfor a private cloud-based infrastructure. This architecture integrates a framework that collects samples from
monitors, validates and aggregates them. We motivate the choice of a hierarchical scheme and show some data
manipulation, orchestration and control strategies at different time scales. We then focus on a specific context referring to
mid-term management objectives.
We have applied the proposed hierarchical architecture successfully to data centers made of a large number of nodes that
require short to mid-termcontrol and in our experience we can conclude that it is a viable approach for the control of
private cloud-based systems.
KEYWORDS
Cloud computing, architecture, design, statistical models, anomaly detection, hierarchical.
1. INTRODUCTION
The design of a data center has come at an evolutionary crossroad. The increasing variety and complexity of
end-user applications, the massive data growth, the challenging economic conditions, and the physical
limitations of power, heat, and space are all issues which must be accounted for modern hardware and
software infrastructure. Finding architectures that can take cost, complexity, and associated risk out of the
data center while improving service levels has become a major objective for most enterprises (Armbrust, S. et
al, 2009; Wood, T. et al, 2009; Meisner, D. and Gold, B. T. and Wenisch, T., 2009). In this scenario, the
private cloud computing model is starting to be seen as an ideal paradigm for a service hosting platform. A
private cloud applies the main concepts of cloud computing, such as on-demand resources, accounting,
service oriented architectures, and the appearance of infinite scalability (Vaquero, L. M. et al, 2009;
Armbrust, S. et al, 2009) to resources owned by the enterprise. Enhancing existing infrastructure with cloud
computing capabilities leads to a reduction in operating costs, provides a scalable and robust execution
environment and, ultimately, allows the adoption of an economy of scale through the Software-As-A-Service
paradigm.
The adoption of a private cloud paradigm opens several issues at the level of system governance at real-
time and off-line. In this paper, we focus on the former context. Enterprise data centers based on private
clouds are characterized by a high number of heterogeneous hardware and software components (processors,
memories, storage elements, virtual machines, applications, business enforcement modules) that operate at
different time scales (spanning from seconds to entire weeks), interact in possibly unpredictable ways, can be
subject to prompt reconfiguration due to changes in system, security, and business policies. In these
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conditions, it is impossible to take critical decisions by simply looking at the output of the performance and
utilization measures provided by the cloud infrastructure monitors. There are too many distinct data flows
(literally, thousands per second) to analyze; many of them may contain missing or faulty measures; often, in
order to gain a meaningful insight into the state of a system, it is necessary to correlate and aggregate several
flows. All these decisions must be taken in real-time. To make matters worse, the same algorithm that
operates well at a given time scale may fail at a different one. Thus it is not immediately clear which
algorithms are more appropriate at different time scales. For these reasons, we are witnessing a shift from
basic resource monitoring and management (allocation, activation, deactivation based on direct performance
measures) to service orchestration, which shares the following goals:
extract from a multitude of available raw performance measures those that are really relevant for a
given business, security, or system objective;
correlate and aggregate (both temporally and spatially that is, across different components) the most
relevant time series in order to acquire an information about the internal system state.
In this paper, we propose a hierarchical architecture that supports models and methodologies for the
efficient resource management of an on-line control enforcement mechanism operating on a private cloud-
based infrastructure. Our design addresses the scalability challenge (related to the huge number of monitored
information available from monitors) in several ways. The system is logically divided into several
subsystems according to the different management time spans (short, medium, long term). A significant
subset of the data processed by the monitoring framework at shorter time spans is made available to the
runtime management modules operating at longer time spans. In this way, the duplication of preliminary
operations such as data filtering is avoided. Furthermore, the modules operating at longer time scales identify
from the myriad of available measures those that are really critical for the system. The goal is avoid the
unnecessary and often computationally infeasible of storing, monitoring and processing all the measures
available from shorter time spans. Hierarchical architectures for distributed monitoring of large systems have
already proposed in literature (Newman, H.B. et al, 2003; Massie, M. L. and Chun, B. N. and Culler, D. E,
2004). However, these architectures are not capable of enforcing service orchestration. Our proposal
represent a further step in this direction.
In the final part of the paper, we show an example of the difficulties behind on-line control enforcement
at medium-term time scales.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 details the reference architecture based on private clouds,
explains the available measurements and the control enforcement operations, and formalizes the problem of
service orchestration. Section 3 introduces the on-line analysis framework and its main components. Section
4 provides an analysis of different linear and non linear models to resources operating at medium-term time
scales. Finally, Section 5 concludes the paper with some final remarks.
2. ARCHITECTURE
Figure 1 describes our model of an enterprise data center driven by business and system policies. The system
is split into several layers, whose components (technologies, mechanisms and algorithms) are typically
spread across the private cloud infrastructure. The System Infrastructure Layer is responsible for the fruition
of the information stored in the data center. This information may have different origins; for example, it may
pertain to user applications, or it may refer to system resources performance data. All the components are
monitored and tested continuously; a control enforcement module makes sure that the proper system policies
are operated correctly. The Business Layer hosts all the components responsible for the enforcement of
proper business policies, such as ERP, supply chain management, Finance, Sales. The Governance Layer is
responsible for the orchestration of the entire infrastructure at the system and business level. In this layer, the
information coming from the system and the business layers is processed in order to detect policy violations
or anomalies. The Governance Layer also produces reports and dashboards which the corporate management
uses to define the business, system and security policies (Kaliski, B. S., 2010).
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Figure 1. High level architecture of a private cloud-based data center
In this paper, we focus on the architectural supports operating at the System infrastructure layer. These
models support the on-line management tasks that are executed at different temporal scales (ranging from
seconds up to a few hours). In a private cloud-based architecture, these management tasks use several control
actions available to the underlying architecture to enforce control, including: admission control, dispatching
and scheduling, load (re)balancing, addition and removal of a physical host from the pool of available
resources, (live) migration of virtual machines, resource limitation through traffic shaping and container-
based techniques, resource reallocation (to accommodate high priority tasks, to reduce power consumption).
The control actions are executed as a reaction to different events at different time scales. For example, a
request enters the system, or an anomaly has been detected in the last hour, or a daily forecasting analysis
suggests the re-configuration of a whole subsystem. To enforce control, the management tasks require some
measurement from performance monitoring tools operating at different levels (physical hosts, virtual
machines, applications), including CPU utilization, memory utilization, network throughput, power
consumption, storage-related metrics such as read and write throughput and disk utilization, application-level
data (application throughput, response times, failure rates). We can assume that these performance
monitoring samples are available periodically. Previous literature (Andreolini, M. and Casolari, S. and
Colajanni, M., 2008), shows how the collection of several performance samples in distinct time series can
provide the basis for efficient monitoring and prediction of system resource behavior. Thus, we will also
assume to have a reasonably small amount of past sample history, in the form of fixed-window time series.
Unfortunately, choosing the right sampling interval is a challenging task, because different management tasks
run at different time scales and may not need (or, worse, not operate properly in presence of) frequent
monitored data streams. It is therefore also necessary to place the management tasks at the right time scale.
In this paper, we distinguish three different time scales:
short time scale;
medium (mid-term) time scale;
long time scale.
Tasks operating at short time scales must take decisions and enforce them in the range of seconds,
typically under a minute. These decisions allow the system to serve user requests in a best-effort fashion,
given the actual configuration. Common control actions include admission control, resource reallocation due
to the execution of some high priority application, dispatching of a request to the proper subsystem or server.
Short time scales are critical for two reasons. First, there is typically no time for complex analyses on the
monitoring data obtained from the probes. Experience shows that only data filtering is viable. As a
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consequence, the decisions taken by a short time task must be taken using the data as-is, cannot be optimal,
and must focus on avoiding disasters rather than on achieving optimal performance. Second, the volume of
monitoring data can be very high. Thus, even the storage of the performance samples in a database for later
analysis can be a problem due to the high computational overhead and to the disk space consumption
involved (Ousterhout, J . et al, 2010). Algorithms operating at short time spans must often treat the monitoring
data as a stream of numbers.
Tasks operating at mid-term time scale must take decisions and enforce them in the minute range
(typically, under a hour). These decisions aim to adapt and improve the configuration of the system according
to changed operating conditions. Common control actions include dynamic load balancing, virtual machine
migration, node activation, dynamic resource allocation. These tasks have the time to process the monitored
data, but, in order to optimize the execution of short-time tasks, they often have to aggregate different pieces
of information both in time (through time series smoothing techniques) and in space (across different system
components).
Tasks operating at long time scale must take decisions and enforce them in the hours range. These
decisions share the goal of optimizing the system at real-time but in a longer horizon. Common control
actions include resource reallocation due to some optimization (a typical goal is to pack the applications into
the smallest number of nodes to minimize power consumption), and capacity planning activities. At this time
scale, tasks have the time to fully analyze their raw data, produce reports and store the relevant results (since
the required disk space is not an issue). However, the complexity of the decision process increases as, besides
time and space aggregations, these tasks also need to compute predictions, analyze what-if scenarios,
encompassing the whole system.
Any infrastructure for the on-line control enforcement of a private cloud-based architecture must support
these operations in a scalable way. Scalability can be achieved by reducing the number of nodes handled by
each management task and by reducing the overhead due to storage and processing to a minimum. This
translates to the following architectural requirements:
make sure that any task (in particular, a short-time task) is responsible for a reasonable number of
system components;
support persistent storage only at longer time scales;
make the results of shorter analyses available as a starting point for longer analyses
support more sophisticated aggregation techniques (time and space) only at longer time scales.
In the next section, we propose a hierarchical architecture that can integrate solutions for most real-time
management problems.
3. A HIERARCHICAL ARCHITECTURE FOR RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
In Figure 2 we propose our hierarchical architecture for the support of on-line management tasks. (We note
that the hierarchy is logical, but each layer can be implemented through several servers and databases). In
this scheme, the system consists of different, smaller, manageable subsystems, each of which is controlled by
a set of management tasks operating at different time spans. At the lowest level, we have subsets of hardware
and software resources which can be associated to subnets, racks, distinct production areas, and the like. Each
subset is governed through the control actions operated by a control enforcement module. Every control
enforcement module is driven by an orchestration module, which is at the heart of every management task.
The main purpose of the orchestration module is to take the right decisions based on some measure of the
subsystem's internal state. Depending on the chosen time scale, the nature of the monitored data varies. At
short time scales, a task has at most grossly filtered performance measures available (to avoid out-of-scale
values, outliers and missing data). At longer time scales, tasks usually perform more sophisticated statistical
operations based on time and space aggregations, anomaly detection, predictions. In these architectures,
scalability represents a crucial issue. We address it through a combination of solutions:
architectural solutions , oriented to avoid single points of failure;
data management solutions, oriented to the efficient storage and manipulation of measures
(including data compression and the use of lightweight database to shorten data access times);
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algorithmic solutions, oriented to the efficient extraction of server status information from many
servers.
In our experience, scalability at the network traffic level is not an issue comparable to the aforementioned
problems. In order to keep the control enforcement process scalable, each management task must orchestrate
the control using the least amount of resources available. This implies the monitoring and control of only a
limited subset of the entire system (this holds particularly true for short-time tasks). We decide not to
permanently store each raw performance measure obtained from the subset, since this would be unfeasible,
given the literally hundreds of time series that would need to be monitored. Instead, we treat each monitor as
a stream of data which is filtered in a basic fashion and made directly available to the orchestrator. This
operation is straightforward, since low-level system monitors such vmstat and sar can be easily instrumented
to pipe their output to different processes. For some proprietary systems, it is possible to exploit the SNMP
querying capabilities offered by more sophisticated tools such as Cacti, Nagios, Zenoss, to extract the same
information from several system components.
Since longer tasks tend often to use the results of shorter tasks, we instrument the orchestrator to extract
proper subsets of the filtered data (typically, the last n performance measures coming from the most
important monitor probes) and to store them in a lightweight database. In this way, we reduce considerably
the set of monitored data available to the mid-term and long-term tasks, and we provide a persistent data
storage which is necessary to hold data spanning in longer ranges. A RAM database such as Firebird would
fit perfectly, since it provides excellent performance over a moderately high volume of stored data. Our
experience shows that this approach allows to monitor tens of hardware and software resources per node, in a
subsystem consisting of a few hundreds nodes.
The mid-term management tasks take the filtered data, aggregate it, detect (and possibly correct)
anomalies, and produce a meaningful representation of a subsystem's internal state, which is used to enforce
control decisions aimed at improving the performance and optimizing the present behavior relevant
subsystems. These operations can be implemented through any standard math environment (Matlab, R
Octave) or through mathematical libraries available for the most popular general purpose languages (Scipy,
Numpy in Python). With respect to the whole set of time series available from the monitors, the
representations produced by mid-term management tasks are much more compact in terms of size and are
computed less often; thus, they can be stored into a DBMS, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle.
Finally, the long-term management tasks also perform more sophisticated tasks oriented improve the
performance and optimize the behavior of the whole system in the future. To this purpose, they retrieve the
state representations computed by the mid-term management tasks and perform sophisticated computations
involving long-term predictions, what-if analysis, capacity planning. The resulting models drive the decisions
of the orchestration modules.
Our architecture is designed in such a way that the control actions can be implemented through off-the-
shelf hardware and software components. For example, request dispatching and load balancing can be
operated through standard setups based on Apache2 (through the mod_rewrite and mod_proxy modules),
Tomcat (through AJ P connectors in a clustered setup) and, more recently, on nginx. There are several viable
alternatives for the virtualization of services; the most popular are Xen (version 3.0 and above) and KVM
(the hypervisor officially adopted by the Linux community). All these solutions support (live) migrations,
dynamic resource re-allocation, ballooning, paravirtualized device drivers for close-to-native performance.
Another alternative is the use of resource containers (OpenVZ), which provide native performance at the
expense of executing a shared operating system kernel for all running services.
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Figure 2. A hierarchical architecture for on-line management of cloud-based systems
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4. MID-TERM ANALYSIS
In this section, we show several examples pointing out different problems related to on-line management of
cloud-based architectures. Due to space constraints, we focus on the mid-term temporal scale. At this level,
control enforcement is pursued through some very specific control actions, such as virtual machine
migrations, load balancing, resource reallocation, node activation. The decisions leading to these actions are
taken by the proper orchestration module, which has at its disposal a subset of the data filtered by shorter-
term management tasks and available efficiently through RAM databases. Unfortunately, the monitored data
available to the orchestrator cannot be used to fulfill the management goals; it must be first transformed into
a higher level representation of a subsystem through data manipulation and anomaly detection techniques.
For example, let us consider a set performance metrics commonly available through off-the-shelf monitoring
tools. Figure 3 shows the behavior of CPU utilization performance samples (obtained at intervals of 5
minutes) of a server node. The samples have been filtered to exclude outliers and out-of-scale values.

A first problem with this data set is its marked oscillatory behavior, which makes it very difficult (if not
impossible) to deduct a clear representation of the server load conditions. If this data were to be used by the
orchestrator module to enforce load balancing across different servers, the result would likely be an unstable
subsystem where the load balancer constantly bounces process from one server node to another, in an endless
effort to even the load. Hence, at the mid-term level our architecture must support the extraction of a more
clean trend from the available data. This is possible through the adoption of time aggregation models. If we
consider the subset of performance data as a fixed-window time series, we can apply aggregation models to it
in order to retrieve a synthetic representation of the resource behavior. In the considered mid-term context,
time aggregation is generally pursued through the adoption of linear smoothing that is, moving-average
techniques, such as exponential moving average (D. J . Lilja, 2000), through regression and auto-regressive
models (P. Dinda et al, 2000), and through interpolation techniques, such as the cubic spline (D. J . Poirier,
1973). These models have been shown to provide a good level of precision at reasonable computational costs
and in reasonable time (Andreolini, M. and Casolari, S. and Colajanni, M., 2008, Dinda, P. et al, 2000),
compatible with the constraints imposed by mid-term management (usually, under one hour). Our experience
shows that the majority of time aggregation functions require a CPU processing time well below 1 ms. This
implies that, in one minute, a mid-term management task can aggregate at least 60000 time series. Our
hierarchical architecture is capable of handling up to 300000 aggregations per minute by adopting a simple
Exponential Weighted Movie Average (EWMA) model based on short, fixed windows. Figure 4 shows a
time aggregation of the CPU utilization shown in Figure 3, based on the Exponential Weighed Moving
Average of the last 30 measures. The smoothing effect of the EWMA makes it easier to detect an oscillating
server load and lowers the risk of unnecessary control enforcement.
In a complex system made up of several thousands of hardware and software components, even
identifying the failing nodes may become a computationally intensive task. Thus, a scalable monitoring
framework needs to reduce the number of relevant system state information made available to the
orchestration module. This goal can be achieved by distinguishing the components that are critical for the
performance of the entire systems from those that are not. To make matters worse, it is very difficult if not
Figure 3. Available monitored data
Figure 4. Time aggregation (EWMA)
207
impossible to infer the internal conditions of a subsystem from several, distinct internal state representations
of (albeit relevant)a single components. We may not understand the reasons behind the failure, and we could
simply not tell whether that failure is about to cause further misbehavior in the system. Hence, our
monitoring framework must also aggregate different, heterogeneous, time-aggregated series in order to
produce a higher level view of a subsystem, which allows to tell whether a subsystem is performing
suboptimally and why. To these purposes, spatial aggregation models are often used to analyze and combine
multiple heterogeneous data sources into a single, coherent view of a system. Techniques such as the multi-
variate analysis (K.V. Mardia et al, 1979) and the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) (H. Hotelling, 1933)
are effective in capturing the salient features of a subsystem's internal state, thus drastically cutting the
amount of data used to perform decisions. Our experience shows that the PCA fits well in a hierarchical
architecture where each subsystem can be efficiently handled by a subset of tasks and can provide
meaningful insight to the longer-term tasks. We have handled the reduction of more than one million samples
pertaining to 1050 different components (21 hardware and software resources of 50 nodes) to a subset of 12
principal components in less than a minute. A simple weighted aggregation model applied on the selected
principal features allows to estimate a reliable representation of the system's internal state. Figure 5 shows,
on the left, 2 out of the 12 principal components characterizing an entire subsystem. The 12 principal
components are aggregated through a weighed regression model, shown on the right of Figure 5. Ultimately,
the status of an entire subsystem can be represented through a single time series, available to the mid-term
orchestrator and to the longer-term management tasks. Spatial aggregation of different resources in an the
context of an on-line management system for distributed systems is still an open research problem, due to the
the high number of time series available and to the heterogeneity of business-level and system-level measures
(Zhu, X. et al, 2009).
Control enforcement is applied as a reaction to events that perturb the normal operating conditions of the
system: anomalies in the workloads, changes in the offered load, events that normally do not occur. The
orchestrator must be able to detect these events timely through the adoption of on-line anomaly detection,
state change detection and event detection models. We have evaluated and integrate several on-line detectors
in our hierarchical architecture. The models relying on a prior knowledge of all the possible states of a
process (Lu, D. et al. 2004) are completely inadequate both statistically due to the non deterministic behavior
of the resource measures and for their unfeasible computational costs. Other widely adopted methods that use
one or more load thresholds for detecting relevant state changes (Ramanathan, P. 1999.) seem unsuitable to
the highly variable context of interest for this paper. In the private cloud-based architectures that are
characterized by high variability of the measures, by non stationary and by unpredictable behavior, a good
state change detection model that is able to guarantee adequate solutions while respecting the time constraints
of the mid-term management, is based on the Cumulative Sum (Cusum) statistics (Montgomery, D. C., 2008;
Basseville, M. et al, 1993). Figure 6 and Figure 7 illustrate the behavior of the threshold-based and the
Cusum-based state change detection models, respectively. Filtered and non-filtered data is overlaid point out

Figure 5. Spatial aggregation
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relevant state changes; true and false positives are depicted with crosses and circles at the bottom of the
figures.

For our evaluation purposes we consider the data aggregation generated by the data manipulation of the
CPU utilization of the subsystem nodes. An off-line analysis allows us to determine that relevant state change
to be signaled to the control-enforcement management system occurs at times 50, 125, 200, 275, 350, 400,
475, and 550, as shown by the horizontal/vertical lines in the figures. This scenario characterized by multiple
state changes can be considered a good benchmark for on-line detection models. Traditional threshold-based
detection models are capable of detecting all state changes, but their precision decreases, resulting in a high
number of false detections during the stable states. This is a consequence of the inability of threshold-based
models to guarantee reliable detections in highly variable contexts. On the other hand, the Cusum-based
detection model exhibits a high detection quality. The proposed model detects timely the state change and it
is affected by just one false detection at sample 540. Because of the computational cost of the considered
model is able to provide reliable detections in the range of milliseconds it can be completely integrate in our
hierarchical architecture.
The private cloud computing model is a viable paradigm for a service hosting platform, capable of keeping
up with the challenging requirements behind complex end-user applications, massive data growth,
sophisticated business models and the physical limitations of power, heat, and space. In this paper, we have
proposed an architecture that supports models and methodologies for the efficient resource management of an
on-line control enforcement mechanism operating on a private cloud-based infrastructure. The design of the
architecture addresses several interesting challenges:
it is modular, easy expandable through off-the-shelf hardware and software components;
it integrates an on-line monitor and analyzer, suitable for run-time decisional tasks at different
temporal scales (short, mid-term, long);
it is hierarchical, allowing for scalable monitoring and control enforcement of subsystems made
of up to hundreds of components.
We have also outlined the difficulties of on-line management and control enforcement at a given temporal
scale (mid-term). In particular, the monitored time series available to the orchestrator must be subject to time
and spatial aggregations (in order to derive a clear view of the controlled subsystem). Furthermore, on-line
detection algorithms are necessary to identify anomalies in an otherwise normally operating subsystem.
Control enforcement is typically pursued as a reaction to these anomalies. Our experience shows that
management can happen efficiently even at different time scales. In particular, in the time span of one minute
our architecture can seamlessly aggregate several tens of thousands time series over time (producing a clear
view for every component) and identify the most relevant components of a system made up of one thousand
components.
As a next step, we plan to enrich our on-line management task with supports oriented to power
consumption (Raghavendra, R. et al, 2008), for example to place the incoming workload in areas at lower

Figure 7. Cusum-based model

Figure 6. Threshold-based model
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temperature or with higher cooling capacity. We will also try to scale our testbed to larger sizes to evaluate
the scalability limits of the proposed architecture.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors acknowledge the support of the MIUR-PRIN project AUTOSEC Autonomic Security.
REFERENCES
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Distributed Systems Laboratory.
Wood, T. et al, 2009. The Case for Enterprise-Ready Virtual Private Clouds. Proceedings of the Workshop on Hot Topics
in Cloud Computing. San Diego, CA, pp. 10-15.
Zhu, X. et al, 2009. 1000 islands: An integrated approach to resource management for virtualized data centers. Cluster
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Clark, C. et al, 2005. Live migration of virtual machines. Proceedings of the 2nd Symposium on Networked Systems
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Andreolini, M. and Casolari, S. and Colajanni, M., 2008. M. Models and framework for supporting run-time decisions in
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Lu, D. et al. 2004. Change detection techniques. In Int. Journal of Remote Sensing. Vol. 25, Number 12, pp. 2365-2347.
Ramanathan, P. 1999. Overload management in real-time control applications using (m,k)-firmguarantee. Performance
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(ASPLOS'08). New York, NY, pp. 48-59.
Newman, H.B. et al, 2003. MonALISA: A distributed monitoring service architecture. In Proceedings of the Conference
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A PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF DCCP, CTCP, AND
CUBIC, USING VOIP AND CBR TRAFFIC PATTERNS
Priscila Doria and Marco Aurlio Spohn
Federal University of Campina Grande
Av. Aprgio Veloso, 882, Bodocong, Campina Grande-PB, Brazil
ABSTRACT
DCCP is a prominent transport protocol that has attracted the attention of the scientific community for its rapid progress
and good results. Previous works have compared the performance of DCCP with standard transport protocols, mostly
through simulation, assuming a single protocol per link and only using the constant bit rate traffic pattern. In this paper,
we evaluate the performance of two DCCP variants with highly representative TCP variants: CTCP and CUBIC. The first
one is the TCP variant adopted in the Microsoft Windows Server 2008, and the second one is the TCP variant adopted in
the Linux kernel. In the proposed scenarios, the protocols fight for the same link in contention. Results show that DCCP
CCID2 performs better than DCCP CCID3 in scenarios with contention, due to the significantly better fairness of DCCP
CCID3. In addition to that, even though CUBIC has been shown to have an aggressive congestion control performing
better with CBR traffic, results show that CUBIC suffers with the on/off traffic pattern of VoIP applications. Meanwhile,
CTCP is outperformed by DCCP and CUBIC in most scenarios.
KEYWORDS
DCCP, CTCP, CUBIC, Congestion Control, Internet, VoIP.
1. INTRODUCTION
Multimedia streaming (e.g., audio streaming, video streaming, VoIP, interactive video) is being considered
an important service in modern networks. This requires that the network protocols used to transmit
multimedia cooperate in harmony with the protocols used for data services. Many real time multimedia
applications prefer UDP as their transport protocol instead of TCP when they need to favor performance over
reliability. However, UDP transmissions flow in a fixed rate regardless of the available link bandwidth. The
impact of the congestion caused by multimedia transmissions that adopt UDP has motivated the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF) to propose a new Internet standard: the Datagram Congestion Control
Protocol (DCCP). The novelty of DCCP is to prioritize performance, like UDP, but also being able to
perform congestion control, like TCP. DCCP is a prominent protocol, gaining the attention of the scientific
community, due to its fast development and good results (Kohler et al., 2006).
The standard TCP congestion avoidance algorithm employs an additive increase and multiplicative
decrease (AIMD) scheme, which follows a conservative linear growth function for increasing the congestion
window and multiplicative decrease function in case of packet losses. For a high-speed and long delay
network, it takes standard TCP an unreasonably long time to recover the sending rate after a single packet
loss event. One straightforward way to overcome this limitation is to modify TCP's increase/decrease rule in
its congestion avoidance mechanism, so that the sender increases congestion window more quickly and
decreases it more gently upon a packet loss. This aggressive behavior of such an approach may severely
degrade the performance of regular TCP flows whenever the network path is already highly utilized.
However, when an aggressive high-speed variant flow traverses the bottleneck link with other standard TCP
flows, it may increase its own share of bandwidth by reducing the throughput of other competing TCP flows.
While the delay-based flows respond to increases in RTT, reducing its sending rate, the loss-based flows
continue to increase their sending rate. Hence, a delay-based flow obtains less bandwidth than its fair share.
To circumvent the low utilization problem on high-speed and long delay networks, two novel variants of
TCP were recently proposed: Compound TCP (CTCP) (Tan et al., 2006) and CUBIC (Ha et al., 2005).
211
CTCP is a novel TCP congestion control algorithm proposed by Microsoft to optimize TCP for use with
connections with large congestion windows. The main idea behind CTCP is to add a scalable delay-based
component to the standard TCP's loss-based congestion control. The sending rate of CTCP is controlled by
both loss and delay components. It has become a highly relevant protocol due to its worldwide adoption, as
part of Windows 2008 Server and Windows Vista. CTCP is a relatively new proposal and, to the best of our
knowledge, there is no extensive evaluation of this protocol. The most relevant performance evaluation of
CTCP was carried out by the authors on their test-bed. CUBIC is a novel TCP congestion control algorithm
that adopts a cubic function for congestion window increase in the senders side, with the inflection point set
to the window prior to the congestion event, instead of a linear function. The authors of CUBIC argue that it
improves scalability and stability under fast and long distance networks. CUBIC has become a highly
relevant protocol due to its adoption worldwide as the current Linux kernel TCP stack implementation.
Prior works (Mattsson, 2004) have compared DCCP with standard transport protocols, using discrete
event simulations. However, such works have drawbacks, so that they have measured a single protocol per
link, using errorless links and constant bit rate traffic. Through simulations, Takeuchi et al. (2005) have
compared the fairness of UDP, DCCP CCID2, TCP SACK, TCP Reno, and TCP New Reno. Similarly,
Bhatti et al. (2008) have compared the fairness of TCP New Reno, BIC-TCP, CUBIC, and DCCP CCID2.
Sales et al. (2008) have conducted experiments on a wireless network to measure performance, delay, and
fairness of multimedia traffic on UDP, DCCP CCID2, DCCP CCID3, and CUBIC.
This paper belongs to a line of research that attempts to evaluate DCCP protocol in an effort to measure
how the congestion control mechanisms perform in several scenarios using distinct traffic patterns. In this
paper, we compare the performance of DCCP variants CCID2 (Floyd & Kohler, 2006) and CCID3 (Floyd et
al., 2006), CTCP, and CUBIC, based on VoIP and CBR traffic patterns. We consider a topology where the
protocols are grouped in pairs and contention occurs as data packets traverse bottleneck links, so that each
pair of protocols must fight for the link bandwidth. Hence, in addition to performance, it is possible to
measure the fairness of the protocols along the simulations.
The remainder of this paper is organizes as follows. Section 2 presents a brief description of the protocols
that we consider in this work. Section 3 details the methodology to carry out the performance comparison,
and presents the simulation results. Finally, Section 4 presents our conclusions.
2. PROTOCOL DESCRIPTION
2.1 DCCP
The Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) (Kohler, et al., 2006) is a transport protocol that
provides bidirectional unicast connections of congestion-controlled unreliable datagrams. DCCP is suitable
for applications that transfer fairly large amounts of data and that can benefit from control over the tradeoff
between timeliness and reliability. DCCP is easily extensible to other forms of unicast congestion control.
Two congestion control mechanisms are currently specified: TCP-like Congestion Control (CCID2) (Floyd
& Kohler, 2006) and TCP-Friendly Rate Control (TFRC) (CCID3) (Floyd et al., 2006). TCP-like Congestion
Control CCID2 sends data using a close variant of TCP's congestion control mechanisms, incorporating
selective acknowledgements (SACK). CCID 2 is suitable for senders which can adapt to the abrupt changes
in congestion window typical of TCP's Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease (AIMD) congestion
control and particularly useful for senders which would like to take advantage of the available bandwidth in
an environment with rapidly changing conditions. CCID3 is a receiver-based congestion control mechanism
that provides a TCP-friendly sending rate while minimizing the abrupt rate changes characteristic of TCP or
of TCP-like congestion control. The sender's allowed sending rate is set in response to the loss event rate,
which is typically reported by the receiver to the sender. TCP-Friendly Rate Control for Small Packets
(TFRC-SP) (CCID4) (Floyd & Kohler, 2009) is currently specified, but still incipient and it is not included in
this work.
To support timeliness packet delivery, DCCP has a feature called late data choice, where the application
can change what's sent very late in the process, even if the application data is downwards in the network
stack. This feature is advantageous depending on the contention, because some late packets may be irrelevant
after a deadline.
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2.2 Compound TCP
Microsoft has proposed a new variant of TCP called Compound TCP (CTCP). CTCP is part of Windows
Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server and modifies standard TCP's loss-based congestion avoidance
algorithm, incorporating a scalable delay-based component (Tan et al., 2006). To do so, a new state variable
is introduced in current TCP Control Block (TCB), namely dwnd (Delay Window), which controls the
delay-based component in CTCP. The conventional congestion window ( cwnd ) remains untouched, which
controls the loss-based component. Thus, the CTCP sending window now is controlled by
both cwnd and dwnd . Specifically, the TCP sending window ( wnd ) is now calculated as follows:
dwnd cwnd
cwnd cwnd
+
+ =
1
(1)

( ) awnd dwnd cwnd wnd , min + = (2)

CTCP increments the congestion window upon receiving an ACK, using Equation 1. Using Equation 2,
CTCP computes the transmission window ( wnd ) based on the Delay Window ( dwnd ), the congestion
window ( cwnd ), and the reported receiver window ( awnd ).
2.3 CUBIC
CUBIC is a modification to the congestion control mechanism of standard TCP, in particular, to the window
increase function of standard TCP senders, to remedy the low utilization problem of TCP in fast long-
distance networks. It uses a cubic increase function in terms of the elapsed time from the last congestion
event. Unlike most TCP variants use a convex increase function after a packet loss event, CUBIC uses both
the concave and convex profiles of a cubic function for window growth. After a window reduction following
a loss event, CUBIC records the window size where it got the loss event as max _ W and performs a
multiplicative decrease of congestion window, and following the standard fast recovery and retransmit of
TCP. Once it enters congestion avoidance after fast recovery, it starts to increase the transmission window
using the concave profile of the cubic function. The cubic function is set to have its plateau at max _ W , so
that the concave growth continues until the window size becomes max _ W . After that, the cubic function
turns into a convex profile and the convex window growth begins. This style of window adjustment
(concave and then convex) improves protocol and network stability while maintaining high network
utilization. This is because the window size remains almost constant, forming a plateau
around max _ W where network utilization is deemed highest. Under steady state, most CUBIC window size
samples are close to max _ W ; thus promoting high network utilization and protocol stability. The TCP
sending window ( W ) is now calculated as shown in Equation 3, where C is a CUBIC parameter, t is the
elapsed time from the last window reduction, and K is the time period that the above function takes to
increaseW to max _ W when there is no further loss event and it is calculated by Equation 4, where is the
multiplication decrease factor:
max _ ) ( ) ( W K t C t W + = (3)

3
max _
C
W
K

= (4)
3. COMPARING DCCP, CTCP, AND CUBIC WITH VOIP TRAFFIC
We perform discrete event simulations on Network Simulator 2 (Fall & Varadhan, 2007) to carry
performance comparisons of the following transport protocols: (i) DCCP CCID2, (ii) DCCP CCID3, (iii)
CTCP, and (iv) CUBIC using VoIP traffic patterns. Additionally, we include CBR traffic in the comparison
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for better understanding the impact caused by traffic pattern. The topology is detailed in the Section 0. The
protocols are grouped in distinct pairs for the simulation turns, for a better perception of the fairness property
of each protocol, as follows: (i) CTCP versus DCCP CCID2, (ii) CTCP versus DCCP CCID3, (iii) CUBIC
versus DCCP CCID2, (iv) CUBIC versus DCCP CCID3, (v) CUVIC versus CTCP, and (vi) DCCP CCID2
versus DCCP CCID3.
3.1 Simulation Scenarios
We consider a topology (see Figure 1) in which 4 local area networks (LAN) are interconnected by their
respective routers { } 4 3 2 1 , , , R R R R R = and adjacent links { } 4 3 2 1 , , , L L L L L = , in a typical corporative scenario
of a set of subsidiaries. In each local area network, we dispose sending nodes, { } 48 2 1 ,..., , : S S S S N i i = and
target (i.e., receiving) nodes, { } 48 2 1 ,..., , : T T T T i i = in sufficient quantity and individual throughput so
that the links 4 3 2 1 , , , L L L L are saturated, and contention occurs forthwith. Hence, for each simulation turn,
the respective protocol pair fights for the shared link bandwidth.

Figure 1. Simulation topology
LANs are configured with internal bandwidth links of 10 Mbps with a latency of 1 ms. 4 3 2 1 , , , L L L L have
1 Mbps of bandwidth with a latency of 20 ms. VoIP transmissions occupy a small amount of bandwidth,
therefore we place 96 nodes uniformly spread over the 4 LANs, with 12 sending nodes and 12 target nodes
per local area network. Each sending node in a LAN has a corresponding target node in the opposite LAN.
Let 1 S be the sender node 1 of the LAN connected to 1 R , 1 S will send packets towards 1 T in the LAN
connected to R3 (i.e., opposite LAN). Similarly, as 48 S is placed in the LAN connected to 4 R , 48 T is placed
in the LAN connected to 2 R . As a result, packets generated in a LAN must traverse two links and an
intermediate router to reach the target LAN. The packet queues among routers have the sizes adjusted to 300
packets and DropTail policy. The protocols are arranged in pairs for each simulation turn, as follows: (a)
CTCP versus DCCP CCID2, (b) CTCP versus DCCP CCID3, (c) CUBIC versus DCCP CCID2, (d) CUBIC
versus DCCP CCID3, (e) CUBIC versus CTCP, and (f) DCCP CCID2 versus DCCP CCID3.
VoIP traffic is simulated by the Exponential Traffic Application (NS-2). As recommended by ITU-T
(1993) and Bouras et al. (2007) for a simulated VoIP traffic, the mean ON-time (i.e., talking time) of 1.004 s,
the mean OFF-time (i.e., silence time) of 1.587 s, sending rate of 80 Kbps, and packet size of 160 bytes. The
VoIP ON/OFF time ratio is relevant because we have spread many sender nodes among LANs. The expected
behavior is that not all the senders are talking at same time. CBR packet size is configured to 1,000 bytes and
the sending rate of 800 Kbps, for each sender. CBR senders may generate data packets in a configurable
sending rate, therefore in the simulations with traffic pattern CBR we employ only 8 nodes, with 1 sending
node and 1 target node per LAN. To avoid the phase effect, CBR senders start at time
75 0 , 0 : , + = t t , where is random. The adopted simulation time for a turn is 900 s.
3.2 Simulation Results
Plotted results represent the mean value of 10 rounds of simulation. The values in parenthesis represent the
confidence interval, with confidence of 95%. Metrics are represented by a mean value of the transmissions
for a simulation turn.
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A main characteristic that distinguishes a VoIP sender of a CBR sender is not occupying the link all the
time, due to silence periods. Hence, different protocols have different responses to this variation. Table 1
presents CUBIC versus DCCP CCID 2, with VoIP traffic. DCCP CCID2 achieves better average throughput
and delivery rate, with less dropped packets. As the congestion control of CUBIC is more aggressive, it is
expected that CUBIC achieve better throughput values. However, with VoIP traffic CUBIC suffers with the
constant interruptions in the packet generation, due to the poor growth of the max _ W , forcing the major use
of the convex (i.e., slow) part of the growing cubic function. As a result, the opponent protocol can grab a
bigger share of link bandwidth. Average delay differences are negligible (i.e., % 6 ).

Table 1. CUBIC versus DCCP CCID2 with VoIP Traffic
Delivery Rate
(%)
Sent Packets
(packets)
Dropped Packets
(packets)
Average
Throughput (Kbps)
Average End to
End Delay (s)
CUBIC 90.76 (0.00) 21892.20 (105.01) 2015.24 (55.88) 28.26 (0.15) 0.48 (0.00)
DCCP CCID2 98.19 (0.00) 21372.10 (105.67) 379.69 (5.26) 29.85 (0.15) 0.50 (0.00)

Similarly, in this scenario, CTCP outperforms CUBIC, as shown in Table 2:
Table 2. CUBIC versus Compound TCP with VoIP Traffic
Delivery Rate
(%)
Sent Packets
(packets)
Dropped Packets
(packets)
Average
Throughput (Kbps)
Average End to
End Delay (s)
CUBIC 91.22 (0.00) 19966.50 (186.72) 1748.96 (44.02) 25.91 (0.22) 0.46 (0.00)
CTCP 97.12 (0.00) 20638.80 (143.09) 573.55 (8.18) 28.53 (0.20) 0.49 (0.00)

As shown in Table 3 and Table 4, when using VoIP traffic, DCCP CCID2 outperforms CTCP and DCCP
CCID3. DCCP CCID2 achieves better average throughput, delivery rate, and dropping less packets. Average
delay differences are negligible (i.e., % 6 ).
Table 3. Compound TCP versus DCCP CCID2 with VoIP Traffic
Delivery Rate
(%)
Sent Packets
(packets)
Dropped Packets
(packets)
Average
Throughput (Kbps)
Average End to
End Delay (s)
CTCP 95.11 (0.00) 19467.70 (144.10) 919.43 (12.22) 26.37 (0.21) 0.46 (0.00)
DCCP CCID2 98.70 (0.00) 21608.80 (199.82) 277.87 (4.02) 30.33 (0.28) 0.47 (0.00)
Table 4. DCCP CCID2 versus DCCP CCID3 with VoIP Traffic
Delivery Rate
(%)
Sent Packets
(packets)
Dropped Packets
(packets)
Average
Throughput (Kbps)
Average End to
End Delay (s)
DCCP CCID2 99.98 (0.00) 21807.90 (80.80) 2.51 (0.42) 31.01 (0.12) 0.12 (0.00)
DCCP CCID3 99.89 (0.00) 7698.68 (376.15) 0.37 (0.06) 10.95 (0.54) 0.12 (0.00)

In simulations with DCCP CCID3 there are low delay values and low dropped packets, independently of
the opponent protocol. This fact is due to the very precise CCID3 congestion control mechanism, where to
the slightest sign of congestion, a rigorous reduction of the sending rate is performed. As a result, the
opponent protocol may expand its share of the link bandwidth, and the fair equilibrium is never reached. This
is clear also in Table 5 and Table 6, where DCCP CCID3 is compared to CTCP and CUBIC, respectively.
Table 5. Compound TCP versus DCCP CCID3 with VoIP Traffic
Delivery Rate
(%)
Sent Packets
(packets)
Dropped Packets
(packets)
Average
Throughput (Kbps)
Average End to
End Delay (s)
CTCP 99.97 (0.00) 21878.70 (143.95) 5.21 (1.00) 31.11 (0.20) 0.13 (0.00)
DCCP CCID3 99.89 (0.00) 7391.94 (207.49) 0.33 (0.04) 10.51 (0.30) 0.12 (0.00)
Table 6. CUBIC versus DCCP CCID3 with VoIP Traffic
Delivery Rate
(%)
Sent Packets
(packets)
Dropped Packets
(packets)
Average Throughput
(Kbps)
Average End to
End Delay (s)
CUBIC 99.96 (0.00) 21910.50 (148.36) 6.49 (1.08) 31.15 (0.21) 0.13 (0.00)
DCCP CCID3 99.89 (0.00) 6635.50 (259.73) 0.42 (0.04) 9.44 (0.37) 0.12 (0.00)
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3.2.1 CBR Traffic Pattern
In the CBR scenarios, DCCP CCID2 has achieved good results when compared with protocols with more
responsive and accurate congestion control, like DCCP CCID3 and CTCP, which reduce their sending rates
at the slightest sign of congestion. As shown in Figure 2, sender 37 (DCCP CCID3) has suffered with the
congestion, reducing its sending rate. Also, one may note a slow resumption of throughput, due to a
conservative increase function in DCCP CCID3. However, in simulations with DCCP CCID3, sender nodes
have demonstrated high throughput stability, low delay and all the transmissions have fewer dropped packets,
due to the rigorous congestion control. In contrast, it is possible to see in Figure 3 many oscillations in the
instant throughput, what denotes a low stability of the congestion control of CTCP when fighting with DCCP
CCID2 in a network scenario with contention. Also, the congestion controls of both protocols are more
aggressive than DCCP CCID3, what is evidenced with sender25 (DCCP CCID2) in the time interval of 180s-
220s and with sender13 (CTCP) in time interval of 20s-110s.

Figure 2. Instant throughput.

Table 7, Table 8 and Table 9 present results showing that DCCP CCID2 has achieved better throughput
than DCCP CCID3 and CTCP, but with worse stability (see Figure 2 and Figure 3), and longer delay than
DCCP CCID3. In addition to that, CTCP has dropped more packets, achieving lower throughput than DCCP
CCID2.
Table 7. DCCP CCID2 versus DCCP CCID3 with CBR Traffic
Delivery Rate (%) Sent Packets
(packets)
Dropped Packets
(packets)
Average
Throughput (Kbps)
Average End to
End Delay
DCCP CCID2 99.84 (0.00) 53694.30 (1654.49) 28.70 (11.86) 476.50 (14.72) 0.18 (0.01)
DCCP CCID3 99.86 (0.00) 40449.00 (2813.26) 6.45 (1.79) 358.94 (25.03) 0.19 (0.01)
Table 8. Compound TCP versus DCCP CCID2 with CBR Traffic
(packets)
Dropped Packets
(packets)
Average
Throughput (Kbps)
Average End to
End Delay (s)
DCCP CCID2 99.75 (0.00) 51609.80 (3108.63) 74.75 (9.38) 457.62 (27.64) 0.17 (0.00)
CTCP 99.24 (0.00) 32270.00 (1807.87) 208.10 (27.16) 284.68 (16.08) 0.15 (0.01)
Table 9. Compound TCP versus DCCP CCID3 with Application CBR
(packets)
Dropped Packets
(packets)
Average
Throughput (Kbps)
Average End to
End Delay (s)
CTCP 99.41 (0.00) 54090.80 (2770.72) 241.70 (13.80) 478.25 (24.58) 0.15 (0.01)
DCCP CCID3 99.60 (0.00) 40856.20 (4057.67) 113.00 (9.95) 361.73 (36.06) 0.15 (0.00)

DCCP variants have also been compared with CUBIC and the results point to a better performance of
CUBIC, due to its more aggressive congestion control. Specifically, CUBIC has shown much faster reaction
to dropped packet events, what is evidenced in Figure 4 and Figure 5. Queue Size chart presents a high link
occupation, with the queue size achieving 300 packets many times. Window Size chart presents a high
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predominance of CUBIC protocol throughout the simulation time. As a result, CUBIC has a high
predominance in the instant throughput chart. Note that DCCP CCID3 has no window mechanism.

Figure 4. Queue size x window size.

However, as presented in the Table 10, Table 11, and Table 12, CUBIC has dropped much more packets
than DCCP variants, what reflects negatively in the delivery rate. Note that CUBIC needs to ensure reliability
with packet retransmissions. Such a situation may not be suitable for some streaming applications.
Table 10. CUBIC versus DCCP CCID2 with CBR Traffic
Delivery Rate
(%)
Sent Packets
(packets)
Dropped Packets
(packets)
Average
Throughput (Kbps)
Average End to
End Delay (s)
CUBIC 85.57 (0.03) 91769.80 (4288.40) 13224.00 (3994.18) 697.56 (10.39) 0.15 (0.00)
DCCP CCID2 98.48 (0.00) 12749.00 (1338.22) 181.95 (7.32) 111.64 (11.89) 0.15 (0.01)
Table 11. CUBIC versus DCCP CCID3 with CBR Traffic
Delivery Rate
(%)
Sent Packets
(packets)
Dropped Packets
(packets)
Average
Throughput (Kbps)
Average End to
End Delay (s)
CUBIC 85.53 (0.04) 98492.90 (3724.37) 14512.50 (3124.35) 745.78 (13.61) 0.14 (0.00)
DCCP CCID3 97.84 (0.01) 11841.60 (1655.01) 230.00 (19.51) 103.17 (14.80) 0.14 (0.01)
Table 12. CUBIC versus Compound TCP with CBR Traffic
Delivery Rate
(%)
Sent Packets
(packets)
Dropped Packets
(packets)
Average
Throughput (Kbps)
Average End to
End Delay (s)
CUBIC 92.07 (0.03) 57587.80 (9011.43) 4621.80 (1546.94) 470.43 (74.31) 0.15 (0.01)
CTCP 99.32 (0.00) 29643.80 (4752.92) 138.30 (30.26) 261.93 (42.20) 0.18 (0.02)

Figure 6. Queue size x window size.

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Although CUBIC has also achieved better results when compared with CTCP, the predominance of
CUBIC was inconstant, as shown in Figure 6 and Figure 7. Window size chart shows a significant alternation
among protocols, with CTCP window growth performing better in the end of simulation time. Similarly, after
450 s, CTCP senders perform better throughput and, specifically for sender37, with higher instant throughput
then CUBIC sender nodes, in the end of simulation time.
4. CONCLUSION
In this work, we have conducted a performance comparison of two variants of DCCP (CCID2 and CCID3),
CTCP and CUBIC with VoIP and CBR traffic patterns. The four protocols have different approaches for
congestion control, and both traffic patterns impact protocols behavior in a different way.
The results have pointed to a much better throughput of CUBIC in mostly CBR simulations and to a
better delay, fairness and throughput stability of DCCP CCID3, using both traffic patterns. Results have
shown that DCCP CCID3 adopts a conservative window increase algorithm.
The throughput performance of CUBIC was dramatically reduced when using VoIP traffic, due to the
characteristics of ON/OFF intervals which impact in the packet transmission pattern. DCCP CCID2 and
CTCP have achieved intermediate results and they were less susceptible to the adopted traffic pattern. DCCP
CCID2 has achieved better results when using CBR and CTCP has achieved better results when using VoIP.
This work points to new investigation paths, as follows. The traffic pattern has shown a significant impact
in the protocol behavior, hence new patterns may be tested (e.g., real-time multimedia streaming, interactive
video). The impact of constant disconnections, as in mobile ad hoc networks, should be investigated. Finally,
we intend to investigate the impact of network infrastructures with large delays, as satellite networks.
REFERENCES
Bhatti, S. and Bateman, M., 2009. Transport Protocol Throughput Fairness. Journal of Networks, Vol. 4, No. 9, 881-894.
Bhatti, S. et al, 2008. Revisiting inter-flow fairness. Proceedings of International Conference on Broadband
Communications, Networks and Systems. London, United Kingdom, pp 585-592.
Bouras, C. et al 2007. Enhancing ns-2 with DiffServ QoS features. Spring Simulaiton Multiconference - Volume 1. Spring
Simulation Multiconference. Society for Computer Simulation International, San Diego, CA, 117-124.
Fall, K. and Varadhan, K., 2007. The network simulator ns-2: Documentation. Available at
http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/ns-documentation.html.
Floyd, S. and Kohler, E., 2006. Profile for Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) Congestion Control ID 2:
TCP-like Congestion Control. RFC 4341. Available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4341.txt.
Floyd, S., Kohler, E., Padhye, J., 2006. Profile for Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) Congestion ID 3:
TCP-Friendly Rate Control (TFRC). RFC 4342. Available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4342.txt.
Floyd, S. and Kohler, E., 2009. Profile for Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) Congestion ID 4: TCP-
Friendly Rate Control for Small Packets (TFRC-SP). RFC 5622. Available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5622.txt.
Ha, S., Rhee, I., Xu, L., 2005. CUBIC: A new TCP-Friendly high-speed TCP variant. In Third International Workshop
on Protocols for Fast Long-Distance Networks.
ITU-T Recommendation P.59, 1993. Telephone Transmission Quality Objective Measuring Apparatus: Artificial.
Available in http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-P.59-199303-I
Kohler, E., Handley, M., Floyd, S., 2006. Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP). RFC 4340. Available in
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4340.txt, updated by RFCs 5595, 5596.
Mattsson, N.-E. 2004. A dccp module for ns-2. Masters thesis, Lule Tekniska Universitet.
Sridharan, M., Bansal, D., Thaler, D. 2006. Compound TCP: A New TCP Congestion Control for High-Speed and Long
Distance Networks. Internet Draft, version 02. URL http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-sridharan-tcpm-ctcp-02.
Tan, K. et al, 2006. A Compound TCP approach for high-speed and long distance networks. Proceedings IEEE
INFOCOM 2006, Barcelona, Spain.
Xu, L. et al, 2004. Binary increase congestion control for fast long-distance networks. In Proceedings of IEEE
INFOCOM, Hong Kong, Korea.
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DISCOURAGING ROGUE PEERS IN A MULTICAST
CONTENT DISTRIBUTION PROTOCOL FOR MANETS
Sidney Doria and Marco Aurlio Spohn
Federal University of Campina Grande
Av. Aprgio Veloso, 882, Bodocong, Paraba-PB, Brazil
ABSTRACT
Rogue peers are a concern because they decrease the utility of the resource-sharing systems, potentially towards to the
system collapse. We are currently deploying Peer-to-MANET, a multicast peer-to-peer approach to distribute contents on
mobile ad hoc networks. This work presents our efforts to improve trust and fairness, avoiding rogue and selfish peers, in
Peer-to-MANET. We employ a modified version of the Network of Favors as a decentralized reputation system to punish
rogue peers activities. Through simulations in NS-2, we show that our solution minimizes download success rate by
rogue peers and avoid that maliciously peers cause resource depletion of other peers.
KEYWORDS
Internet, Peer-to-Peer Networks, MANETs, BitTorrent, multicast, Reputation Systems.
1. INTRODUCTION
Internet is currently defined as a global group of interconnected networks (e.g., domestic, corporative).
Recently, users are become more empowered by mobile technology advances and increasing availability of
mobile services, in such a way that the usage pattern is varying and some might envision a future where
Internet will be ubiquitous by the interconnection of many mobile networks. In this path, cellular systems and
mobile networks are supposed to be the future of infrastructure (Stuckmann & Zimmermann, 2009).
A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) consists on a set of peers which want to get connected wirelessly but
without relying on any fixed communication infrastructure. The mobile nature of nodes imply that they might
act as routers to others when communicating peers are two or more hops distant from each other. One can say
that most applications running on a MANET are essentially peer-to-peer (P2P) by nature. Probably the most
targeted problem in P2P networks concerns the content distribution among peers. Recent works show efforts
to adapt popular P2P protocols, especially BitTorrent (Cohen, 2003), to share data on MANETs. Although
BitTorrent and other protocols are known for their efficiency and popularity on the Internet, they have a set
of drawbacks when running on MANETs. P2P protocols usually work in the application layer, applying
unicast transmissions, with no concerns to node mobility. On the other hand, MANETs usually make use of
unreliable broadcasts over a shared radio channel, while nodes are let to move freely. These contrasts have
challenged the research on optimizing P2P networks over MANETs.
We are currently deploying Peer-to-MANET (P2MAN) (Doria & Spohn, 2009), a multicast P2P protocol
for content distribution on MANETs. The novelty of P2MAN is its holistic approach, addressing many
MANETs problems (e.g., dynamic environment, unreliable transmissions, multi-hop packet forwarding,
content localization) and at the same time trying to profit from MANETs peculiarities (e.g., multicast mesh
routing, shared radio transmissions). We have found that P2MAN is scalable and efficient on MANETs and
the preliminary performance results are encouraging.
Despite the potential benefits of P2P systems like P2MAN, rogue peers are a concern because they
decrease the system utility, potentially towards to the collapse. This paper addresses the problem of
discouraging rogue peers activities that slow down the data distribution process by: (a) flooding other peers
with bogus data, (b) performing free riding. We propose a variant of the Network of Favors (NoF) (Andrade
et al., 2004), which was originally designed to P2P CPU-sharing grids, as a decentralized reputation scheme
219
for P2MAN. Through simulations in NS-2 (Fall & Varadhan), we show that our solution minimizes rogue
peers activities.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we confront the state of the art with our
approach. In Section 3 we detail our solution. In Section 4 we describe our simulation-based study and
present our results. We conclude this work in Section 5, where we also point out future work.
2. RELATED WORKS
2.1 P2P Content Distribution on MANETs
Distribute contents on MANETs is a difficult problem and some proposals employ a sort of peer-to-peer
protocols to accomplish content distribution. Prior works are basically adaptations of standard P2P
algorithms to MANETs (Kortuem et al., 2001; Klemm et al., 2003; Androutsellis-Theotokis & Spinellis,
2004). We highlight the recent efforts to deal with BitTorrent on MANETs (Rajagopalan et al, 2006; Sbai &
Barakat, 2009; Krifa, et al., 2009). Implement a popular protocol like BitTorrent on MANETs may result in
immediate acceptance and there would be fewer efforts to educate users. However, many P2P content
distribution protocols present known drawbacks when running on MANETs, as follows.
Popular P2P protocols have the Internet as their native habitat, contrasting with a MANET scale of just
dozens to hundreds nodes. Regarding the scale, some works (Ding & Bhargava, 2004; Pucha et al., 2004)
have adapted the Distributed Hash Table and other P2P location technologies to MANETs. Also, MANETs
have intrinsic infrastructure problems that those P2P systems are not concerned with. For instance, BitTorrent
employ unicast, which is costly in MANETs due to the handshake efforts, disregards potential security issues
due to a shared radio channel infrastructure, and assumes that if a node can achieve a good throughput with
its neighbor, there is no other metric cost to be considered. In a MANET, due to the mobility and the
cooperative hop by hop nature, a peer transmission may cost too much (i.e., excessive collision, contention)
for the entire network, since each P2P transmission may have an undesired impact in neighboring
transmissions. Due to the dynamic nature of a MANET, P2P content distribution protocols need to be
adapted to be trackerless.
Moreover, it has been shown that TCP like protocols (Holland & Vaidya, 1999) perform poorly in
multihop wireless networks (i.e., packet losses due to link failures are misunderstood as congestion). In
efforts to solve that problem, Anastasi et al. (2009) have developed a new cross-layer transport protocol (i.e.,
TPA) to be an efficient reliable protocol for MANETs. In fact, recent P2P solutions to distribute contents on
MANETs leverage mostly on cross-layer approaches, which are basically protocols of one layer exchanging
information with a protocol from another layer. For instance, there are some works that employ cross-
layering on overlay unicast and multicast routing at the application layer (Lee et al., 2006; Passarela et al.,
2006; Yi et al., 2008). This practice is becoming usual, but it violates the OSI standard model. This is the
main reason why we have not developed P2MAN as a cross-layer approach.
2.1.1 Peer-to-MANET
Peer-to-MANET (P2MAN) is a multicast based content distribution protocol for mobile ad hoc networks.
P2MAN is designed to mitigate MANETs constraints, achieving good performance by taking advantage of
P2P concepts and MANETs capabilities. Since MANETs usually employ unreliable broadcasts on a shared
radio channel, in P2MAN we propose the application of unreliable multicast transmissions instead of reliable
unicast transmissions to distribute contents on MANETs. Likewise, we have not considered a reliable
transport protocol. Instead, we adopted UDP as transport protocol. P2MAN uses multicast groups to deliver
contents, and a special multicast group, called Public Channel (PC), to accomplish all control functions.
When a P2MAN node starts, it joins the PC for exchanging control messages. All nodes willing to share
any content are PC members. Content location is not cached at any node. Instead, to search for any content, a
node queries the PC without the need for a network-wide flooding of control messages. In case any active
peer has the content, the peer is reachable through the PC group, and a reply is propagated back through the
PC group. The reply also carries metadata generated by the content owner, having detailed information about
the file.
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Like in most P2P networks, P2MAN slices content for delivery. The owner user decides how the object
will be splitted in pieces. The owner represents a file using a bitmap (where each bit represents a file slice).
The owner also decides which multicast group will be used for transmitting the object. The metadata is
created by the owner, containing the necessary information for guiding the requesting nodes. After receiving
the reply, the requesting node reads the metadata, joins the respective multicast group and sends an
authorization message to the PC. By receiving the authorization message, the content owner can initiate the
object transmission. Considering that we assume an unreliable routing multicast protocol (i.e., with no
transport layer multicast protocol), reliability is granted at the application layer by employing a
retransmission mechanism provided by the Repair Mode. On Repair Mode, a receiver node can claim for
pieces not received yet. The owner then retries the transmission of the remaining pieces. While there are
missing pieces, new claims and retransmissions will take place until the receiver gets all the pieces. In this
work, security issues are not addressed at any layer. Table I summarizes our choices, confronting them with
the common approaches in the literature and showing the advantages.
Table 1. P2MAN design choices
Literature P2MAN Advantages
Adapted DHT Public Channel Native, lightweight, well suited to the scale
Unicast with an incentive mechanism Multicast Native Simple, low need for incentive, low handshake overhead
TCP UDP Less overhead, low transport performance degradation
TCP retransmissions Repair Mode Less overhead, opportunistic reliability repairing
2.2 P2P Reputation Schemes
Reputation scheme for a peer-to-peer system is a way of recording information about past behavior of peers,
for use as a guide to other peers. A challenging issue that a retrieval protocol must deal with is guaranteeing
that the information gathered about peers is reliable, as malicious peers may tamper with the information they
store. Aberer and Despodovi (2001) early presented their reputation scheme specifically designed for P2P
networks. Eigen algorithm (Kamvar et al., 2003) maintains a global score for each peer i computed of the
score of i given by all other peers weighted by their own global score. Some replicated mother peers compute
and store a global reputation value for a peer. The mother peers find the peers they must keep track of, and
are found by peers who need information, through a distributed hash table. However, collusion attacks may
occur, where rogue peers collude in order to reduce the reputation of honest peers. Chun et al. (2003)
proposed architecture for secure resource peering based on ticket exchange. This architecture, however,
assumes a shared cryptographic infrastructure and the establishment of relations of trust between peers to
allow resource access. In P2PRep (Cornelli et. al., 2002), each peer stores information about their own
interactions with other peers. To assure the reliability of this information, P2PRep relies on voting for
gathering opinions about a peer, heuristics to find clusters of potential malicious voters, and on a shared
cryptographic infrastructure to verify the identities of the peers involved in a transaction.
2.2.1 The Network of Favors
The central idea of the Network of Favors is that the users who are greater net contributors of resources
should get higher priority access to the spare resources. This principle acts as a guide to the balanced
distribution of the available resources among the users and, thus, as an incentive for collaboration. It
circumvents the need to provide the reliability of the collected information by not aggregating a global
reputation value for a peer. Instead, peers only use reputation information involving peer-to-peer interactions
in which they themselves have participated. This information is stored locally by the peer. Malicious
strategies based on lying about the behavior of third parties (e.g., collusion attacks) cannot be applied.
In the Network of Favors, allocating a resource to a peer that requests it is a favor, and the value of that
favor is the value of the work done for the requesting peer. Each peer keeps a local record of the total value
of favors it has given to and received from each known peer in the past. Every time it does a favor or receives
one, it updates the appropriate number. The peer calculates a local reputation for each peer based on these
numbers, such that a peer who has given many favors and received few will have a high reputation. The peer
uses the current reputations to decide to whom to offer a favor when it has to arbitrate between more than one
requester. Thus, whenever there is a resource contention, requesters with higher reputation get priority.
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Let ( ) A,B v be the total value of the resources donated from peer A to peer B over the past history of the
system, peer A calculates ) (B rA , the reputation of peer B , using the following Equation:

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) { } , v B A v A B ,v ( r log , , 0 max ) + = (1)

Using (1), a peer A calculates the reputation of peer B with the value of favors that A has received
fromB , decreased by the value of favors that B has received from A . Using a non-negative reputation
function makes it possible to avoid prioritizing malicious ID-changing peers over collaborating peers who
have consumed more resources than they have contributed. The sub linear term ( ) ( ) A B v , log has been
introduced in the equation to distinguish between a malicious ID-changing peer who never donates any
resources and a collaborating peer B that has donated resources to A in the past, but consumed at least the
same amount of resources from A . Also, it is possible to identify a collaborator even if the collaborator has
consumed more resources than it has donated, provided that it has donated enough in the past.
3. IMPROVING TRUST IN PEER-TO-MANET
We adopt a variant of the Network of Favors to compute reputation scores, based on interaction among peers
to identify and discourage rogue peers activities in a P2MAN system. We combine the NoF score mechanism
with a new blacklist feature, and the sending node selection mechanism of P2MAN to improve robustness,
systematically avoiding that rogue peers receive content pieces from their neighbors. As previous works, we
assume that if the system has some mechanism by which it can identify collaborators with sufficient
accuracy, and known collaborators get priority in resources, it pays to be a collaborator. As an expected
consequence, nodes will change their strategy to collaborating and the system evolves to a state where there
are no rogue peers. Our approach works as follows.
3.1 Adapting Network of Favors to P2MAN
Similarly to the NoF, a P2MAN node assigns a score to each neighbor node it interacts with, and stores
locally the information, according to the favors it receives and gives. In P2MAN, transmitting a content piece
to a node that requests it is a favor. However, a P2MAN owner node must decide if it will reply content
requests or not. This decision is based on its health. Health is a P2MAN metaphor which represents the
intuitive notion of the availability of the combined node resources. For instance, as a wireless mobile node is
constrained by a limited power source, it must save energy, and so the transmissions are costly. A node with
a full energy source is more suitable to transmit contents than a node with an exhausted power source.
Let 1 0 : be the probability of which a P2MAN owner node A will share contents when requested,
A be the health threshold of node A and (max) A r the maximum node reputation recorded in A . We
define in the Equation (2), as follows.

1 0 : ))
(max)
) (
. ( , 1 min( + =
A
A
A A
r
B r
(2)

Hence, when a P2MAN node A is healthy, A will be 1. Otherwise, when A has exhausted all of its
resources, A will be 0. The second term in the Equation is to compare the reputation of a requesting node
with the best reputation recorded in the node A . The aim of this term is to improve the probability of a good
collaborator receiving pieces. Hence, when a newcomer (i.e., with reputation zero) requests a content for the
node A , the probability of node A replying depends only from the health threshold of A (i.e., A ). If at some
point node A is fully healthy, it will share contents, even to newcomers. However, when the best collaborator
(i.e., (max) A r ) requests a content for the node A , the probability of the node A replying is twice of a
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newcomer (i.e., ) 2 , 1 max( A ). This approach captures the idea of a node effort to reciprocate favors of the best
collaborators.
The original NoF do not address malicious attacks by rogue peers that desire to slow down the system by
sending bogus pieces of data to their neighbors. Furthermore, we highlight the impact of transmitting a bogus
piece to peers of a P2P content distribution system might be orders of magnitude worse, if the P2P system
relies on a MANET, due to the hop by hop nature of a MANET. As the bogus piece traverses a MANET,
many nodes may be requested to forward the t from the sender node to the receiver node. In case of a
collusion attack, a few rogue nodes can saturate the entire network sending bogus pieces to diametrically
opposed nodes.
To circumvent this problem, we modify the original NoF, adding a blacklist feature. The aim of the
blacklist is punishing immediately any P2MAN sending node that sends a bogus piece to the requesting node.
Hence, as soon as a bogus piece is downloaded by P2MAN requesting nodes, they lay the sending node in
blacklist, avoiding answer its requests (e.g., reply to content requests, send pieces) for a penalty period. The
penalty period can be tuned appropriately by system user. In order to calculate ) (B rA , we assume that a
P2MAN node has reliable information about ( ) A B v , and ( ) A,B v , the value of favors received from and
provided to another P2MAN node. Specifically, we assume that a generic P2MAN node can both: (i)
measure the value of a favor done by another P2MAN node, and (ii) verify that the favor delivered was valid
or not, (i.e. that the sent data was not bogus). These assumptions are no stronger than the assumptions made
for another decentralized reputation schemes.
3.2 Avoiding Rogue Peer Activities
As a multicast-based P2P content distribution protocol designed for MANETs, one strategy of P2MAN is
avoiding multiple one-to-one peer traffic of content distribution, reducing network transmission saturation.
Instead, P2MAN enforces the selection of a single sending node for each content transmission by a process
named owner node selection. Recall that, as part of P2MAN design, a requesting node which desires a
specific content must asking for it by sending a message to the Public Channel (i.e., a special multicast
group). By receiving a requesting message, owner nodes can reply to the Public Channel, if they want to do
so, informing that possesses the content and giving metadata having detailed information about the content
(e.g., how it is divided in pieces, multicast group to be used in the transmission). All owner nodes can reply a
request in the Public Channel, if they own the requested content. After analyze the possible multiple replies,
the requesting node choose a unique sending node to be authorized in the Public Channel, by sending an
authorization message. In particular, the owner node selection and authorization procedures are relevant to
avoid the rogue peer activities in P2MAN, as following explained.
Suppose that a rogue peer wants to send bogus pieces for dishonestly profiting favors, or to slowing down
the system. Hence, the rogue node may respond to any content request, as an owner node. To complete the
attack, a rogue node must wait for an authorization, because if a requesting node receives a piece from an
unauthorized owner node, it rejects (i.e., discards) the piece. When a rogue node is authorized, it may
complete the attack, sending bogus pieces in a specific multicast address. As the first bogus piece is
downloaded by the receiving nodes in the target multicast group, the sending node is inserted in the blacklist
of each receiving node, that will leave that multicast group immediately. For the penalty period, the attacked
receiving nodes will ignore further replies, pieces and requests from the blacklisted nodes. We argue that this
approach is sufficient to minimize rogue peer activities, by avoiding that rogue peers receive pieces they
request, and receive authorization messages. Free riding is also minimized, due to the low reputation of non
collaborators, as follows.
Suppose now that a rogue peer desires to be a free rider, not replying to any content requests. Hence, its
reputation will not increase in the course of time. Even in the event of an ID-changing attack, the rogue peer
stays in the zero favors landing, just as any newcomer.
3.3 Limitations
We assume that P2MAN is intended to distribute digital contents in a MANET, which by definition, is
assembled for a known beneficial purpose. Hence, this work does not address the possibility of byzantine
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attacks, where radio interference attacks may happen to confuse transmissions or malicious colluded nodes
can attack the entire network by indefinitely flooding useless broadcasts.
This work focuses on the possibility of system nodes which can eventually be used selfishly to profit
more network resources without collaborating with its own resources.
We assume that a P2MAN node knows how to measure its internal state and so its health.
4. EVALUATION
In this Section we assess the performance of our approach, describing the results of simulations that show
that our variant of Network of Favors avoid that rogue peers lead the P2MAN system to collapse.
4.1 Simulation Scenario
We have performed simulations using MANET typical scenarios, in the Network Simulator 2.34. We model
a network with 100 homogeneous mobile nodes. In our model, it is possible to tuning the penalty period, the
number of rogue peers which try to send bogus pieces, and the number of free riders. For each scenario and
configuration, results are represented by the average over ten rounds, considering a 95% confidence interval.
Nodes are randomly spread over the terrain and they move around according to Random Waypoint mobility
model (excluding minimum speed of zero). Shared contents are sliced into pieces of 1000 Bytes, following
the recommendations of Lee et al. (2002) regarding packet sizes. The content size is 100 KBytes.
We have considered 70 downloading nodes. 25 nodes as free riders, 25 nodes are rogue peers and 20 are
honest nodes. Table shows the configured P2MAN parameters. We have set to be high, since a low value
may disturb the effective download rate from honest peers and difficult the results interpretation.
Table 2. P2MAN Simulation parameters
Parameter Description
Simulator NS-2 Release 2.34
Number of Rounds 10
Terrain Size 1000x1000
Mobility Model Random Waypoint
Pause Time 0 s
Radio Range 250 m
Bandwidth 2 Mbps
MAC Protocol 802.11 DCF Mode
Mobility Maximum Speed 5 m/s
Content Piece Size 1000 Bytes
Content Size 100 KBytes
Penalty Period 300 s
Number of Nodes 100
Number of Owner Nodes 30
Number of Requesting Nodes 70
Number of Free Riders (i.e., which do not collaborate) 25
Number of Rogue Peers (i.e., which send bogus data) 25
Number of Honest Nodes (i.e., collaborators) 20
Health Threshold ( ) 0.8

When the simulation begins all nodes have zero favors and, at some point, requesting nodes (i.e., honest,
free riders, and rogue peers) start the content discovery process. When the first honest nodes perform content
requests, owner nodes respond with replies, if their healths are sufficient. Hence, healthy and authorized
owner nodes start to send pieces to the requesting nodes. By receiving pieces, each request node increment its
respective owner nodes reputation entry in table.
Similarly, when the first free riders perform content requests, healthy owner nodes also respond with
replies, due to the impossibility to determine which nodes are free rider, before a set of interactions. Hence,
the expected result is which both honest peers and free riders get content pieces in the first interactions, and
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after a period of time, collaborators will achieve better reputation with owner nodes and free riders will stay
with reputation zero.
When rogue peers start to reply content requests and send bogus pieces, all involved requesting nodes
must blacklist the rogue nodes. Hence, the expected result is that after a short time, rogue peers are unable to
send bogus pieces and their reputation must stay zero for all the system, since they do not collaborate.
The simulation rounds run for 5000 s. A requesting node asks for contents one by one and when it
finishes a download, a new download is engaged immediately, such that the system is in constant activity.
Figure 1 shows the results of the simulations, with the download success rate of honest peers, rogue peers and
free riders collected every 500 s of simulation. We assume that, in our simulations, nodes do not change their
strategies, such that an honest peer remains honest for the entire simulation.

Figure 1. Successful download rate of honest peers, rogue peers, and free riders
Note that, even with honest peers, there is no full download success rate, since some pieces fail to be
downloaded, due to the link failures caused by node mobility and collisions.
Figure 1 shows a substantial reduction on the success of rogue peers download rate. Also free riding is
minimized, after a period. In the simulations, we have used a small content to be downloaded. Recall that
when a content download finishes, a new download starts. Hence, for new contents, potentially new owners
are requested and so free riders keep receiving some pieces, which explain the smoothly declined chart, until
finally be detected by a sufficient quantity of nodes to be fully restrained.
5. CONCLUSION
In this paper we have addressed the problem of discouraging rogue peers in P2MAN, which is a multicast
P2P content distribution for MANETs. We have adopted a modified version of the Network of Favors to
P2MAN, as a lightweight decentralized reputation scheme. In the modified version we have incorporated a
blacklist feature to help NoF fighting against rogue peers in P2MAN. Also, we have defined the concept of
P2MAN node health, in efforts to model resource constraints of mobile wireless nodes in the context of
content distribution on MANETs. Through simulations using NS-2, we have shown that our approach is
sufficient to minimize rogue peer activities, reducing the success rate of rogue peers to almost zero.
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We intend to extend this work, to include node energy information and other constrained resources in the
simulations and performing extensive analysis to measure the impact of node health in the P2MAN ability to
distribute contents in MANETs.
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ORDINARY WEB PAGES AS A SOURCE FOR METADATA
ACQUISITION FOR OPEN CORPUS USER MODELING
Michal Barla and Mria Bielikov
Institute of Informatics and Software Engineering, Faculty of Informatics
and Information Technologies, Slovak University of Technology
Ilkoviova 3, 842 16 Bratislava, Slovakia
ABSTRACT
Personalization and adaptivity of the Web as we know of today is often closed within a particular web-based system.
As a result there are only a few personalized islands within the whole Web. Spreading the personalization to the whole
Web either via an enhanced proxy server or using an agent residing on a client-side brings a challenge how to determine
metadata within an open corpus Web domain, which would allow for an efficient creation of overlayed user model. In
this paper we present our approach to metadata acquisition for open corpus user modeling applicable on the wild Web,
where we decided to take into account metadata in the form of keywords representing the visited web pages. We present
the user modeling process (which is thus keyword-based) built on the top of an enhanced proxy server, capable of
personalizing user browsing sessions via pluggable modules. The paper focuses on comparison of algorithms and third-
party services which allow for extraction of required keywords from ordinary web pages, which is a crucial step of our
user modeling approach.
KEYWORDS
Keyword extraction, user modeling, proxy.
1. INTRODUCTION
The field of adaptive web-based systems is nowadays well established and pretty mature
(Brusilovsky, et al., 2007). However, most of the proposed approaches are concentrating on personalization
of one particular system, either by incorporating user modeling and adaptive features into a web application
or by creating an adaptive layer on the top of an existing application. As a result, there are only a few
personalized islands within the whole Web, where majority of content and information services are
provided using a failing one-size-fits-all paradigm.
The reason why the majority of adaptive approaches is built on the top of a closed corpus domain is that
every adaptive system must track user's attitudes (such as knowledge or interest) towards domain elements
often realized in the form of an overlayed user model. Closed corpus domain can provide a detailed, often
manually prepared and non-changing conceptualization, which is easily used for user modeling purposes. In
the case of an open corpus or vast and dynamic domain, we cannot track user's relations to all documents or
other pieces of information which exist within the domain. The solution is to incorporate and use external
models that exist beyond the hyperspace of interlinked documents and provide a meaningful abstraction of
the domain (Brusilovsky & Henze, 2007), i.e., to provide a metadata model and a mapping between domain
items and this metadata model, which serves also as a bottom layer for an overlayed user model. An example
of such an approach, which maps user's interests to a set of metadata, can be seen in (Barla, et al., 2009).
When considering the whole Web as our domain of interest, it seems that we can leverage the Semantic
Web as both a source of metadata and mapping inherently present within it. However, when considering
findings from (Sabou, et al., 2008; Fernandez, et al., 2008) that
existing semantic systems are restricted to a limited set of domains they use a set of a priori
defined ontologies covering one specific domain without proper linking to other ontologies,
the overall Semantic Web does not adequately cover specific terminology and
227
many online ontologies have a weak internal structure few online ontologies contain synonyms or
non-taxonomic relations,
we come to conclusions that we must find additional sources of metadata, which would provide good-
enough results for user modeling purposes.
In this paper we present our approach to metadata acquisition for open corpus user modeling applicable
on the wild Web, where we decided to take into account metadata in the form of keywords representing the
visited web pages. We present briefly the user modeling process (which is thus keyword-based) and focus on
comparison of algorithms and third-party services which allows for extraction of required keywords from
ordinary web pages.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses related works, in section 3 we present briefly our
approach to user modeling using a proxy server. In section 4 we describe algorithms and services currently
employed for metadata acquisition. In section 5 we present an evaluation of selected algorithms' behavior on
different web pages in terms of content language and writing style. Finally we give our conclusions.
2. RELATED WORKS
The related works can be seen either from the point of view of keyword- (or tag-) based user modeling or of
the actual extraction of keywords from the plain text (i.e., content of web pages).
Tags and keywords gained interest of user modeling community very quickly. Already in 2001,
the (Shepherd, et al., 2001) proposed an approach, which was combining keywords extracted from web pages
with user's explicit rating of the page in order to build a keyword-based user profile.
An approach to user interest recognition applicable in open information space was presented
in (Badi, et al., 2006). The authors defined user interest as either a term, document or their abstractions such
as term vector and metadata. Next, they focused on implicit interest indicators and their mutual comparison.
The real boom came with the rise of Web 2.0, when users started to tag and organize content on the Web
to alleviate themselves its later retrieval. In (Schwarzkopf, et al., 2007) as well as in (Zhang & Feng, 2008),
the authors proposed a user model resulting in analysis of user's tag space within a web-based tagging system
and thus a closed information space. Approach proposed in (Carmagnola, et al., 2007) does not rely only on
reasoning of specific tags semantics but considers also user dimensions which could be inferred from the
action of tagging, such as user's interactivity level or interest. It seems that majority of research oriented on
keyword-based user models are built in a manner that it is the user herself who provides the keywords to her
model by annotating web content with tags. In our approach, we acquire keywords automatically from the
visited pages, similarly to (Shepherd, et al., 2001).
The actual extraction of keywords or terms from the plain text (called also ATR automatic term
recognition) has evolved from pure research task into a mature application domain, with various available
services and libraries devoted to this task, serving for various purposes in various domain from information
retrieval to automated domain model construction for personalized systems (imko & Bielikov,2009). They
are based on linguistic processing (e.g., part-of-speech tagging) and statistical models used to select relevant
terms from the text (Zhang, et al., 2008).
However, the main drawback of linguistic and statistical approaches is that they often require a corpus
including all documents of the domain and are thus applicable only on closed and not-ever-changing
information spaces. If we want to extract relevant keywords from ordinary web pages, we need to employ
and combine other techniques such as named-entity recognition leveraging linked data and other semantic
knowledge.
3. KEYWORD-BASED USER MODELING FOR THE WEB SEARCH
DOMAIN
A keyword-based user modeling, albeit being a rather simple approach is giving satisfactory results and
seems to be good enough for capturing user interests (Kramr, et al., 2010). If we want to employ such model
for the purpose of wild web personalization, we need an ability to acquire keywords from documents
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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visited by the users. Because the Web is an open information space, we need to track down and process every
page a user has visited in order to update her model appropriately.
To achieve this, we developed an enhanced proxy server, which allows for realization of advanced
operations on the top of requests flowing from user and responses coming back from the web servers all over
the Internet (Barla & Bielikov, 2009). Figure 1 depicts the user modeling flow supported by our platform.
When a web server returns a web page as a response for a user's request, the proxy injects a specialized
tracking javascript into it and passes the page to the client user agent. At the same time, it initializes a process
of metadata extraction from the acquired page.

Figure 1. User Modeling process based on an enhanced proxy platform.
First, HTML page is processed by a readability module
1
which strips-off the HTML markup and leaves
only a main textual content, omitting navigational parts, banners etc. Second, the text is translated into
English (if it is not already in this language) using Google's translate service. This step is required as majority
of metadata extraction algorithms and services (which are fired after the translation) work correctly only with
English language. Extracted metadata are stored in a user model altogether with corresponding URL and
timestamp. The tracking javascript, which was inserted to the response and passed to the user, supplies
additional information about the user's activity within the page and thus adds an implicit feedback which
determines a weight of contribution of just-discovered metadata to the whole user model.
The aforementioned process gathers metadata for every requested web page and creates a basic
(evidence) layer of a user model. Naturally, as the time flows, the keywords which represent long-term user
interests occur more often than the others. Therefore, by considering only top K most occurring keywords,
we get a user model which can be further analyzed and serves as a basis for adaptation and personalization.
4. SERVICES FOR KEYWORD EXTRACTION
In order to allow for combination of different approaches to keyword extraction, we developed an extensible
software library JKeyExtractor, which wraps several different metadata extractors and is able to provide
results, which are composed of different extractors. These extractors could be either online web services
available through different kinds of API (usually REST-based) or locally invoked algorithms and libraries.
Our platform is currently able to use several following metadata extractors.

1
reimplemented solution available at http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/
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JATR library
Java Automatic Term Recognition Toolkit
2
is a Java implementation of several term extraction algorithms
(e.g., CValue, TermEx, GlossEx, Weirdness, TF-IDF their comparison can be found in
(Zhang, et al., 2008). The library comes with a simple corpus for determining term frequency and a pack of
NLP resources from OpenNLP
3
which serves as a basis for sentence detection, tokenization, pos-tagging,
chunking and parsing.
Delicious
We are taking advantage of Delicious API and its tag suggestion feature to determine tags for the given
page (if any). Advantage of this metadata extractor (or rather provider) is that it provides metadata (tags)
filled-in by humans, which might bring an added value, as not all of the acquired tags must be present in the
text itself.
OpenCalais
OpenCalais
4
is a web service which automatically creates rich semantic metadata for the submitted
content. It resolves named entities (such as persons, companies, cities, countries etc.), facts and events. While
ATR-based approaches do not distinguish between a name and any other noun within the text and might
easily declare a name as non-relevant, OpenCalais does recognize them, so we can use them to statistically
track user's interest.
tagthe.net
tagthe.net is a simple REST web service that returns a set of tags based on a posted textual content.
Similarly to OpenCalais, it tries to distinguish retrieved tags into categories such as topics, persons or
locations.
Alchemy
Alchemy
5
is yet another web-based API which provides named entity extraction, term extraction, topic
categorization and automatic language identification services. Apart from the language identification service,
the three remaining services are highly relevant to our work as they provide different kinds of metadata
extracted from the given text.
dmoz
dmoz
6
is an open directory project the largest human-edited directory of the Web maintained by
volunteers from all over the world. Visitors having interest in a particular category can find pages relevant to
this category by navigating through the created hierarchy. However, dmoz provide also RDF dump of their
database, which can be easily used for an inverse search (page category). Similarly to delicious, if we find
a page in dmoz, we get an added-value of man-made categorization (which, in this case is even hierarchically
organized) ideal for modeling of user interests.
5. EVALUATION
We have conducted an experiment on a small dataset of English and other language (slovak and czech) web-
pages (having a representative of technical and non-technical texts and different writing styles) to evaluate
efficiency of some of aforementioned extractors. We compared the extracted metadata with those which were
defined manually prior to the automated extraction. In order to distinguish between closely related results
and those which were totally different, we compared the results (each term from manually prepared set
against each term from automatically acquired set) using Wordnet-based similarity provided by
Wordnet::Similarity module
7
. Only in case when we have found that one term is a substring of another we
did not employ the wordnet similarity measure. In such a case, we declared them as similar. When
comparing the terms, we penalized those terms, which had similarity of 0 (no similarity at all) with all terms
from the other set.

2
JATR, available at http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~ziqizhang/#tool
3
OpenNLP Models, http://opennlp.sourceforge.net/models.html
4
Open Calais, http://www.opencalais.com
5
Alchemy, http://www.alchemyapi.com/
6
dmoz, http://www.dmoz.org
7
Wordnet::Similarity project, http://wn-similarity.sourceforge.net
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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Apart from comparison of automatically extracted keywords against manually prepared ones, we also
compared (following the same principles) two sets of manually prepared keywords, each coming from a
different evaluator, in order to acquire a natural baseline for further interpretation of our apriori evaluation.
The results (Table 1) show us that algorithms and services were able to find an overlap with human
annotator in every case, even if the achieved similarity was very low in quite a few cases. However, by
examining the results for different types of web pages, we can identify the strengths and weaknesses of used
algorithms and services.
Table 1. Comparison of selected metadata extractors against manually chosen metadata by normalized wordnet similarity
Domain JATR OpenCalais tagthe.net alchemy Another human
evaluator
institution homepage in Slovak (fiit.stuba.sk) 0.26 0.24 0.32 0.15 0.17
institution homepage in English (l3s.de) 0.09 0.14 0.12 0.08 0.03
news article in Slovak (sme.sk) 0.03 0.09 0.07 0.03 0.15
news article in English (bbc.co.uk) 0.02 0.16 0.15 0.02 0.22
technically-oriented text in Czech (root.cz) 0.25 0.21 0.41 0.46 0.35
technically-oriented blog in English (railstips.org) 0.13 0.0 0.17 0.003 0.17

The most accurate results (according to human annotator) were achieved on technical texts, the best one
on the case of a tutorial-like article on root.cz, which was very specialized in particular technology and
contained many acronyms relevant to that technology. The second technical text which was in English gained
worse results, where, for instance, OpenCalais did not manage to get any meaningful term. We can explain
this by the fact that the article was devoted to very new technologies and their usage, which were probably
hard to distinguish in the text.
The worst results were achieved on complex news articles, especially the one which was translated
automatically from Slovak to English. In the one coming from bbc.co.uk, at least OpenCalais and tagthe.net
were able to achieve a similarity of more than 10%. In addition, news articles were the only case, where two
human annotators achieved significantly higher level of agreement on keywords than a human annotator with
any other algorithmic approach. The biggest difference is in the case of the text, which was machine-
translated into English prior to further processing.
There is no clear winner among the evaluated approaches and it seems that they are, in effect, mutually
eliminating their weakness, which means that they could be effectively used in a combination. For instance,
when pure NLP oriented JATR fails, the semantically-enhanced services such as OpenCalais or tagthe.net are
able to achieve fair results and vice versa.
Apart from the mentioned experiment, we also deployed the combination of OpenCalais and tagthe.net
extractors to the enhanced proxy platform described in Section 3 to determine the efficiency of the solution in
real-world usage. As the proxy solution can be, apart from logging, easily used to improve user experience
with ordinary web sites, we used the on-the-fly created keyword-based user models to optimize and
disambiguate queries given to a web search engine and to improve navigation within our faculty website.
More, we provided users with a wordle-based
8
visualization of their user profiles and collected a precious
feedback, which helped us to determine web stop-words, i.e., words which occur often on web pages but
do not make any sense from the user's interests point of view. An example of such a user profile is displayed
in Figure 1.

8
Wordle tag cloud generator, http://www.wordle.net/
231

Figure 2. A wordle visualization of a keyword-based user profile collected by our enhanced proxy platform
The already mentioned improvement of navigation is based on combining behavioral analysis for deriving
users interest in a web page he currently visits with collaborative filtering used for actual content
recommendation (Holub & Bielikov, 2010). User's interest is derived from data acquired by tracking
javascript inserted by the proxy server. An experiment with visitors of our faculty website proved that we are
able to estimate correctly user's interest in a particular page by considering time spent actively on page along
with additional implicit feedback indicators (i.e., scrolling, clipboard usage) and their comparison against
values coming from other users.
User's of proxy server also benefited from an enhanced googling experience, as our proxy server was
proposing (apart from ordinary search results) also results coming from optimized and disambiguated
queries. This time, we used metadata acquired from visited web pages to automatically construct user
models, which served as a basis for construction of social networks and virtual communities within them.
These communities, along with user's current context (metadata acquired from web pages visited in current
session), are used to infer new keywords which would optimize and disambiguate search queries
(Kramr, et al., 2010). We observed that users clicked and stayed on the results coming out from the
extended queries in 54.7% of cases, which is a significant improvement against normal googling pattern of
our users without any recommendations, where they stayed only on 27.4% of all clicked results, which mean
that our recommendations were meaningful. As the whole search optimization was driven by automatically
constructed open corpus user model using metadata extracted from the visited web-pages, we can conclude
that our approach is able to extract useful metadata from the web pages and to produce a good enough user
models.
6. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, we presented an approach to metadata extraction based on a combination of various methods.
Key advantage and contribution is a move towards the wild web where personalization based on manually
created domain models is impossible. Presented metadata extraction is a base for our new approach to open
corpus user modeling. Experiments show that a user model constructed in this way can perform similarly to
tag-based models constructed from user's tag space within a particular tagging system.
We described our platform of an enhanced proxy server, focusing on a way how it supports our user
modeling process, which itself is highly dependent on extraction of metadata. The enhanced proxy server is
an ideal way of experimenting with web applications, as we can log all relevant data along with overall
browsing context (i.e., what was a user browsing in parallel to using our web application) without forcing the
user to change his or her browsing behavior (such as using a proprietary browser). The basic evaluation of
few of such services against a manually annotated dataset did not show a clear success (the best achieved
score was 46%). However, we must emphasize that we were performing a strict apriori evaluation with
strong penalization of any mismatched terms. Manual posteriori inspection of acquired results showed that
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
232
most of the extracted keywords are meaningful and would definitely yield (after a proper statistical
processing) a suitable user model.
However, only the usage within retrieval, recommendation or adaptation engines can really prove
viability of this approach. We deployed our solution to automatic user model construction based on available
metadata to our proxy platform, used for everyday web browsing and built different personalization services
on the top of it (site-specific navigation recommendation and search query disambiguation). Both
personalization services were evaluated as successful, which means that the underlying user modeling part is
able to collect adequate information related to interests of particular users.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of SR, grant No. VG1/0508/09, the Cultural and
Educational Grant Agency of SR, grant No. 345-032STU-4/2010, and it is a partial result of the Research &
Development Operational Program for the project Support of Center of Excellence for Smart Technologies,
Systems and Services II, ITMS 25240120029, co-funded by ERDF.
REFERENCES
Badi, R. et al., 2006. Recognizing User Interest and Document Value from Reading and Organizing Activities in
Document Triage. Int. Conf on Intelligent User Interfaces IUI 2006. ACM, pp. 218225.
Brusilovsky, P. et al., 2007. The Adaptive Web, LNCS 4321. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Brusilovsky, P. & Henze, N., 2007, Open Corpus Adaptive Educational Hypermedia. The Adaptive Web, LNCS 4321.
Springer, pp.671696.
Barla, M et al, 2009. Rule-Based User Characteristics Acquisition from Logs With Semantics for Personalized Web-
based Systems. Computing and Informatics, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 399427.
Barla, M. and Bielikov, M., 2009. Wild Web Personalization: Adaptive Proxy Server, Workshop on Intelligent and
Knowledge oriented Technologies, WIKT 2009. Equilibria, Koice, pp. 4851, (in Slovak).
Carmagnola, F. et al., 2007. Towards a Tag-Based User Model: How Can User Model Benefit from Tags? User Modeling
2007, LNCS 4511.Springer, pp. 445449.
Fernandez, M. et al., 2008. Semantic Search Meets the Web, Int. Conf. on Semantic Computing, pp. 253260.
Holub, M.. and Bielikov, M., 2010. Estimation of User Interest in Visited Web Page, WWW 2010. ACM, pp. 1111-1112.
Kramr, T. et al, 2010, Disambiguating Search by Leveraging the Social Network Context. User Modeling, Adaptation
and Personalization, UMAP 2010, LNCS 6075, Springer, pp. 387-392
Sabou, M. et al., 2008. Evaluating the Semantic Web: A Task-Based Approach. The Semantic Web, LNCS 4825.
Springer, pp. 423437.
Schwarzkopf, D. et al., 2007. Mining the Structure of Tag Spaces for User Modeling. Data Mining for User Modeling
On-line Proceedings of Workshop held at the Int. Conf. on User Modeling UM2007, Corfu, Greece, pp. 6375.
Shepherd, M. et al., 2001. Browsing and Keyword-based Profiles: A Cautionary Tale. Int. Conf. on System Sciences
HICSS 2001, Volume 4. IEEE Computer Society, pp. 4011.
imko, M. and Bielikov, M., 2009. Automated Educational Course Metadata Generation Based on Semantics
Discovery. Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2009, LNCS 5794. Springer, pp. 99-105.
Zhang, Y. and Feng, B., 2008. Tag-based User Modeling Using Formal Concept Analysis, Int. Conf. on Computer and
Information Technology. IEEE, pp. 485490.
Zhang, Z: et al. 2008, A Comparative Evaluation of Term Recognition Algorithms, Int. Conf. on Language Resources
and Evaluation LREC 2008. pp. 21082113.
233
QUERYCLOUD: AUTOMATICALLY LINKING RELATED
DOCUMENTS VIA SEARCH QUERY (TAG) CLOUDS
Christoph Trattner
Institute for Information Systems and Computer Media
Graz University of Technology
Inffeldgasse 16c, 8010 Graz, Austria
ABSTRACT
In this paper we presented a tool called QueryCloud for exploring related resources in Web encyclopedias. Typically,
users come to an encyclopedia from a search engine such as Google, Yahoo! or Bing and upon reading the first page on
the site they leave it immediately thereafter. To tackle this problem in systems such as Web shops, additional browsing
tools for easy finding of related content are provided. Thus, in this paper, we present a novel tool called QueryCloud that
links related content in an encyclopedia in a usable and visually appealing manner. The tool combines two promising
approaches tag clouds and historic search queries into a new single one. Hence, each document in the system is
enriched with a tag cloud containing collections of related concepts populated from historic search queries. To test the
idea, a prototypical implementation tool has been implemented and integrated within a Web encyclopedia called Austria-
Forum. To evaluate the system, a theoretical framework was invented to conduct the potentials and limitations of the tool.
KEYWORDS
Search query tag clouds, tag clouds, query tags, tags, linking, web encyclopedia
1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, content in Web encyclopedias such as Wikipedia are mainly accessed through search engines
(Wikimedia 2010). Typically, users with a certain interest in mind go to a search engine such as Google,
Yahoo! or Bing, define a search query there and click on a link from the result list from which they are
referred to an article within Wikipedia. Upon reading the document they decide to either go back to the
search engine to refine their search, or close their browser if they have already found the information they
needed. Such a user behavior on encyclopedia sites is traceable through a typical high bounce rate (Alexa
2010, Gleich et al. 2010). Essentially, users do not really browse in online encyclopedia systems such as
Wikipedia to find further relevant documents (Gleich et al. 2010) - they rather use search engines such as
Google, Yahoo! or Bing for that purpose. It is our opinion that Web encyclopedias simply lack usable tools
that support users in explorative browsing or searching. For example, in Web based systems such as Web
shops, different approaches have been applied to tackle this situation. Amazon for instance offers the user
related information through collaborative filtering techniques for each product. Google or Yahoo! apply a
similar approach by offering related content (e.g. sponsored links) to the user by taking the users search
query history into account (Mehta et al. 2007).
On the other hand, social bookmarking systems such as Delicious, CiteULike or BibSonomy have
emerged as an interesting alternative to find relevant content in the Web (Heymann et al. 2010). These
systems apply the concept of social navigation (Millen and Feinberg 2006) i.e. users browse by means of tag
clouds, which are collections of keywords assigned to different online resources by different users (Heymann
et al. 2010) driven by different motivations (Nov and Ye 2010, Ames and Naaman 2007).
In this paper we introduce a novel tool called QueryCloud to offer related content to users of Web
encyclopedias. Essentially, the tool is based on the simple idea of integrating a tagging system into a Web
encyclopedia and offering related content to users via the so-called resource specific tag clouds by
automatically linking related documents over the users search query tags/terms. In this way two promising
approaches are successfully combined into a new single one - tag clouds and historic search queries.
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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To test the idea a prototypical implementation tool has been implemented and integrated within a Web
encyclopedia called Austria-Forum. To evaluate the system, a theoretical framework was invented to conduct
the tools potentials and limitations.
Thus, the paper is structured as follows: Section 2 presents the basic idea of this new approach. Section 3
shortly discusses the implementation of the idea. Section 4 provides an analysis of the potentials and
limitations of this novel tool by integrating it into a large Web based encyclopedia system called Austria-
Forum and by evaluating it with a theoretical framework. Finally, Section 5 concludes the paper and provides
an outlook for future work in this area.
2. APPROACH
The basic idea of QueryCloud is to offer related content to users via the so-called resource-specific tag cloud
by automatically linking related documents via the search query terms of the users. On the one hand, tag
clouds represent an interesting alternative navigation tool in modern Web-based systems (Helic et al. 2010,
Trattner et al. 2010b). Moreover, they are very close to the idea of explorative browsing (Sinclair and
Cardew-Hall 2008), i.e. they capture nicely the intent of users coming to a system from a search engine -
users have searched in e.g. Google, Yahoo! or Bing and now they click on a concept in a tag cloud that
reflects their original search intent. On the other hand, search query history, i.e. queries that are referrers to
found documents are an invaluable source of information for refining user search in the system. It is our
belief that an integration of such a tool online encyclopedia systems would greatly contribute to leading users
to related documents.
In order to make the idea work the users search query history needs to be obtained in a resource specific
way. This is achieved by collecting the HTTP-Referrer information from a user coming from a search engine
to a particular website (resource) within a Web based encyclopedia system such as Austria-Forum.
Austria-Forum
1
(Trattner et al. 2010) is basically a wiki-based online encyclopedia containing articles
related to Austria. The system comprises a very large repository of articles, where new articles are easily
published, edited, checked, assessed, and certified, and where the correctness and quality of each of these
articles is assured by a person that is accepted as an expert in a particular field. Currently, the system contains
nearly more than 130,000 information items.

Figure 1. Example of resource-specific query term/tag cloud and resource list of a tag within Austria-Forum rendered by
QueryCloud system.
For example, suppose users go to Google and search for Elfride Jellinek Biographie and select the link
<http://www.austria-lexikon.at/af/Wissenssammlungen/Biographien/Jelinek%2C_Elfriede> from the results

1
http://www.austria-lexikon.at/
235
list. QueryCloud is then able to obtain the users search query terms Elfride, Jellinek, Biographien for
the particular website <http://www.austria-lexikon.at/af/Wissenssammlungen/Biographien/Jelinek%2C_
Elfriede> by extracting the terms simply from HTTP-Referrer information of the users. Thus, in order to
calculate the resource-specific tags clouds of the system QueryCloud aggregates all obtained query terms for
a particular site to the so-called resource-specific term/tag clouds (see Figure 1).
Thus, two pages (or even more) are linked with each other by this approach, if they have the same query
tag in common. Upon clicking on a particular query tag in a resource-specific tag cloud the user is provided
with a list of links of the resources which have this query tag in common (see Figure 1). By clicking on a
particular link in the resource list the user is then forwarded to the resource she was searching for (see Figure
2).

Figure 2. Example of tag cloud driven navigation within Austria-Forum using QueryCloud system.
3. IMPLEMENTATION
The first prototypical implementation (cf. Trattner and Helic 2010) consists basically of four independent
different modules (cf. Figure 1 and Figure 2).
Tag Collection Module: The tag collection module is the first module within QueryCloud system.
Basically, this module consists of a simple client part module which retrieves HTTP-Referrer information,
time information and target page of a user coming from a search engine such as Google, Yahoo! or Bing to a
website. The tag collection module is implemented in JavaScript and can easily be integrated into any
website with only one line of code:
<script src=http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/ref.js type=text/javascript></script>

where the ref.js file contains the following code (cf. Antonellis 2009):

document.write('<scr' + 'ipt src="http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/getReferrer.jsp?referrer=' +
encodeURIComponent(document.referrer) + '&url=' + encodeURIComponent(document.URL) +
'&time=' + (new Date()).getTime() + '" type="text/javascript"></scr' + 'ipt>');
Tag Storage Module: This module is the actual heart peace of QueryCloud system. It provides a
couple of interface routines for storing and deleting data from the database back-end module which is
actually implemented by using Apache Lucene
2
search engine. Due to reasons of performance two index files
are generated: One for expressing the tag resource-relations (t
n
|r
i
,,r
j
) and one for expressing the resource-
tag relations (r
n
|t
i
,,t
j
). With such a database design it is also possible to search resources and tags

2
http://lucene.apache.org/
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
236
independently. Furthermore it allows to profit from the MoreLikeThis-similarity
3
function provided by
Apache Lucene.
Tag (Cloud) Generation Module: To provide the access to related documents a resource-specific
search query term/tag cloud is calculated by this module. This tag cloud is of the form TC
r
= (t
1
,..., t
n
, r
1
,...,
r
m
), where r
1
,..., r
m
are the resources which have any of the query tags t
1
,..., t
n
in common. The calculated
resource-specific query tag clouds are serialized to disk on the server-side to improve the performance of the
system. For retrieving the query tags and the corresponding resources (cf. Figure 1), this module provides a
simple HTTP interface using the following two functions:
o GetTagCloud(<URL>,<max tag cloud size>) generates a XML representation of a query tag cloud
o GetResources(<URL>,<tag>,<max resource list length>) generates a XML representation of the
resource list for a particular query tag.
Tag Cloud Presentation Module: This module is a client-side AJAX module implemented in
JavaScript. It retrieves the XML representation of a query term/tag cloud or an XML representation of a
resource list of a particular query term/tag from the tag cloud generation module and renders a tag cloud in a
visually appealing fashion (cf. Trattner and Helic 2009).

Figure 3. QueryCloud system - structural diagram.
4. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND EVALUATION FRAMEWORK
To investigate the feasibility of the tool before actually deploying it we integrated the QueryCloud tag
collection module into Austria-Forum life system and collected the search queries of the users coming from a
search engine such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing to Austria-Forum for a period of 6 months.
In order to evaluate the potentials and limitations of the tool we implemented a theoretical framework that
measures tag quantity, link quality, network quality and information retrieval quality of the system. Tag
quality by means of tag semantic is not investigated since we assume that the approach produces good
quality tags as shown by (Antonellis et al. 2009, Carman et al. 2009). Since Austria-Forum offers a built-in
tagging system, we used this human generated tag corpus (further referred as AF dataset) as our almost
golden standard to compare it with the tags collected by QueryCloud system within Austria-Forum in our
theoretical framework.

3
http://lucene.apache.org/java/3_0_1/api/all/org/apache/lucene/search/Similarity.html
237
4.1 Measuring Tag Quantity
Since the success of the whole concept depends on automatically applying tags to the resources of a Web
based encyclopedia system we first conducted an experiment measuring tag quantity, i.e. we measured: The
number of tagged resources (#r) over time, the number of newly tagged resources over time (#r
new
), the
number of generated tags (#t) over time and the number of newly generated tags over time (#t
new
).
Essentially, we could observe that QueryCloud annotates in general nearly 150 resources every day which
is actually 3 times as many resources as the human taggers do annotate within Austria-Forum in the same
period of time. Regarding the number of generated tags, we could observe that QueryCloud produces in
average nearly 4 times as many tags as the human taggers do (see Figure 4) which is at least 266 generated
tags a day.

Figure 4. Number of tagged resources and number of generated tags over time for Austria-Forum: QC dataset (blue lines)
vs. AF dataset (red lines).
4.2 Measuring Link Quality
After measuring the quantity of the tags produced by QueryCloud system we had a closer look at the actual
link quality of the produced tags by QueryCloud system. Since the success of the whole concepts is
depended on linking related documents over tags that share more than one resource with each other, we
conducted an experiment measuring the number orphan tags produced by QueryCloud system. Orphan tags
(cf. Krner et al. 2010) are basically tags which are applied to only one resource within a tagging system, i.e.
they do not connect any resources with each other. Again, we could observe that QueryCloud system
performs really well by actually producing 7% less orphan tags than the human taggers (AF) do within
Austria-Forum (see Table 1).
Table1. Number of tags (#tags) and number of orphan tags (#orphans): QC dataset vs. AF dataset
#tags #orphans
QC dataset 49,416 34,962 (70%)
AF dataset 11,479 8,845 (77%)
4.3 Measuring Network Quality
Another metric we were interested in was the so-called network quality of QueryCloud system. In order to
measure this property we first modeled QueryCloud resource-specific tag cloud network as a simple tag-
resource bipartite graph system of the form V = RT, where R is the resource set and T is the query tag set
(Helic et al. 2010). Since the link quality experiment only showed us how many actual useful tags the
systems generates (by means of connecting two or more resources) we conducted an additional experiment to
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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measure the number of connected resources over the resource-specific query tag clouds generated by
QueryCloud system.
To measure this metric, we calculated the (strongly) connected components (Levine 1965) for the whole
QueryCloud resource-specific tag cloud network (cf. Strohmaier et al. 2010). Essentially, we could observe
that 98.58% of all resources within Austria-Forum are reachable via a resource-specific query tag cloud
generated by QueryCloud system (cf. Trattner et al. 2010c). Contrary to this, the Austria-Forum taggers
generate a resource-specific tag cloud network which is to 93.97% connected (cf. Trattner et al. 2010c).
Figure 5. Number of network components: QC dataset
(blue line) vs. AF dataset (red line).
Figure 6. Distribution of shortest path pair lengths: QC
dataset (blue line) vs. AF dataset (red line).
4.4 Measuring Retrieval Quality
Last but not least we measured the retrieval quality of QueryCloud system, i.e. we examined the
effectiveness of the tool to navigate related documents within a Web based encyclopedia system (cf. Helic et
al. 2010). In (Helic et al. 2010) we have shown that navigable tag cloud networks have certain properties. Cf.
Kleinberg (Kleinberg 2000a, Kleinberg 200b and Kleinberg 2001) a navigable network can be formally
defined as network with a low diameter (Newman 2003) bounded polylogarithmically, i.e. by a polynomial in
log(N), where N is the number of nodes in the network, and an existing giant component, i.e. a strongly
connected component containing almost all nodes. Additionally, Kleinberg defined an efficiently navigable
network as a network possessing certain structural properties so that it is possible to design efficient
decentralized search algorithms (algorithms that only have local knowledge of the network) (Kleinberg
2000a, Kleinberg 200b and Kleinberg 2001). The delivery time (the expected number of steps to reach an
arbitrary target node) of such algorithms is polylogarithmic or at most sub-linear in N.
Thus, as a first step, we examined the structural properties defined by the resource-specific tag cloud
network of QueryCloud system. First, we investigated the tag cloud networks connected component
distribution. As shown in Figure 5 QueryCloud generates a resource-specific tag cloud network whose largest
connected component contains almost all nodes (99%) of the network. Contrary to this, the AF dataset
generates a resource-specific tag cloud network which is only connected to 93.97%.
Thereafter, we calculated the number of short path pairs within QueryClouds resource-specific tag cloud
network. As Figure 6 shows, QueryCloud generates a resource-specific tag cloud network whose effective
diameter is around 6.3 hops while the AF dataset generates a resource-specific tag cloud network with an
effective diameter of around 9.9 hops. Putting the results of these two experiments together we can say that
QueryCloud produces a navigable tag cloud network (Helic et al. 2010, Kleinberg 2000a, Kleinberg 2000b,
Kleinberg 2001).
Now, since we have shown that the resource-specific tag cloud network of QueryCloud system is
navigable (cf. Kleinberg 2001), we implemented a decentralized searcher (see Algorithm 1) based on the
239
ideas of (Adamic and Adar 2005) to evaluate the actual efficiency of the system to retrieve related documents
using tag cloud driven navigation. In order to support efficient search, the searcher uses a hierarchical
concept model as background knowledge (in our case a tag taxonomy = tagonomy) to find related content
within a tag cloud network (see Algorithm 1).

Searcher(<tag-resource graph G>, <start node START>,<target node TARGET>)
T GetTagonomy(, G)
currentNode START
while currentNode != TARGET do
neighbors get all adjacent nodes G from currentNode
// finds closest node according to dist = min, where dist(A,B) = h(A)+h(B)-2h(A,B)-1
currentNode findClosestNode (neighbors, T)
end while
// generates a tag Taxonomy using cosine similarity
GetTagonomy(<braching factor>, <tag-resource graph G>)
tagonomy null
tags GetMostImportantTags(G) //returns a tag list sorted in desc. order using tag frequency
root tags[0]
visitedList root
for each parent tags and not contained in visitedList do
childTags getSimTags(<parent>) // returns a list of similar tags using cosine similarity measures
visitedList childTags
for each child childTags <= branching factor do
tagonomy.add(parent,child)
end for
end for
return tagonomy
Algorithm 1. Decentralized hierarchical searcher (cf. Adamic and Adar 2005)
To find a certain resource A (e.g. tagged as sptromantik) from a certain node (e.g. tagged as schlo)
within the network (see Figure 7), the searcher first selects all adjacent nodes for the start node and then
selects the node from the network (kirche) which has the shortest distance dist(A,B) = h(A)+h(B)-2h(A,B)-
1 to target node B in the tagonomy, with h(A), h(B) being the heights of the two nodes A,B in the hierarchy
and with h(A,B) being the height of the least common ancestor of the two nodes A,B in the hierarchy
(Adamic and Adar 2005). This process is continued until node B is reached.
In order to get statistically significant results we simulated one million user-search-requests randomly
requesting for a resource B within the system and starting randomly at a resource A within the tag cloud
network. As shown in Figure 8 we can observe that with the help of QueryCloud system a user is able to find
a resource within Austria-Forum in an efficient way in 80% of all cases. Contrary to this, the AF tag dataset
provides successful finding of related resources within Austria-Forum in 66% of all cases. Furthermore, we
can ascertain that the average path length to find a resource within Austria-Forum is much shorter with
QueryCloud system than tags generated by humans (see AF tag dataset).

ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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(a)

(b)

Figure 7. Figure (a) shows an example of a tag taxonomy (=tagonomy) generated for AF dataset. In Figure (b) an
example of a resource-specific tag cloud network and a search through it for the same dataset is provided.

Figure 8. Hops distribution for hierarchical decentralized searcher: QC dataset (blue line) vs. AF dataset (red line).
In this paper we presented a novel tool called QueryCloud for exploring related resources in Web
encyclopedias. The tool aims at offering additional navigational paths to related resources for users of such
systems in general, and for users who come to these systems from a search engine such as Google, Yahoo! or
Bing. Furthermore we introduced a theoretical framework to evaluate potentials and limitations of the tool
from a network perspective. As the experiments showed, QueryCloud system provides a great alternative
to traditional forms of tagging to automatically linking related documents via resource-specific query tag
clouds in Web cyclopedia systems. The approach showed that the system is able to produce a good amount of
tags which are of good link quality and tag cloud networks with are of good network quality. Moreover,
the tool showed that the tag cloud network produced by QueryCloud system is efficiently navigable, i.e.
related document are retrievable in an efficient way.
Future work will include evaluation of QueryCloud system with real users. Thus, we plan to deploy
QueryCloud system on Austria-Forum life server to track and evaluate the users click paths to compare it
241
with the simulated data. Furthermore, we are working on a test plan to evaluate the usability of the system in
supporting the users to find related content in Web encyclopedia systems.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank Univ.-Doz. Dr. DI Denis Helic for supporting us with discussions, valuable inputs,
and comments during this work. The research is funded by Institute for Information Systems and Computer
Media (IICM) - Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria.
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PREDICTING SELF DISCLOSURE ON PUBLIC BLOGS
Chyng-Yang Jang* and Michael A. Stefanone**
*Department of Communication, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA
**Department of Communication, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, USA
ABSTRACT
The majority of blogs are personal in nature and open to the public. While self disclosure is essential for relationship
development, people who publicly post intimate information may incur privacy risks. This study aims to explore how
personality traits and communication context influence the level of self disclosure on personal blogs. The analyses of
survey data from 148 bloggers suggest that offline self disclosure tendencies persist online in the blogosphere. In
addition, extraverted bloggers, surprisingly, disclosed less personal information than their introverted peers. Finally,
contrary to the prediction of social disinhibition theory, bloggers who thought they could be identified by their readers
reported higher levels of self disclosure.
KEYWORDS
Blog, Self disclosure, Computer-mediated communication.
1. INTRODUCTION
Reading and authoring blogs have become increasingly popular activities among Internet users (PEW, 2006).
Previous studies found that the majority of blogs are personal in nature as they document bloggers daily
events, thoughts and experiences. (Herring et al., 2005; PEW, 2006; Schiano et al., 2004; Vigas, 2005). For
these personal-journal style bloggers, Web blogs have been adopted as a channel for often intimate self
disclosure to audiences of close friends and family.
Self disclosure is the "process of making the self known to others" (Jourard and Lasakow, 1958, p. 91) by
revealing personal feelings, reflections, and/or needs (Archer, 1980; Johnson, 1981). It has been recognized
as an important communication practice that facilitates personal growth (Jourard, 1971), relationship
development (Fehr, 2004), group acceptance (Galegher et al., 1998), and social integration (Pennebaker,
1997). However, revealing intimate, personal information to others may present risks as well. Serious and
negative outcomes such as embarrassment, disapproval, rejection, or even discrimination can result from self
disclosure (Derlega et al., 1993). This range of possible personal and interpersonal consequences make
disclosers potentially vulnerable and require them to carefully choose message recipients, the information to
disclose, and the appropriate level of intimacy.
While self disclosure is a delicate communication act on its own, engaging in such sharing behavior via
blogs forces people to consider additional variables. Web blogs present a very different medium for self
disclosure opposed to conventional contexts like face-to-face or telephone conversations. On the one hand,
posting private matters publicly online can subject the disclosers to greater danger because this information
can be accessed by potentially global audiences. For example, when personal reflections on friends or
colleagues are read by unintended others, it can lead to severe consequences including damaging
interpersonal relationships and even job loss (Vigas, 2005). In addition, unlike in face-to-face gatherings,
there is no real-time correspondence between bloggers and their readers. Bloggers are not able to adjust the
content of their disclosure in real time based on receivers responses. In face-to-face communication, these
kinds of adjustments are made to avoid some of the unpleasant responses.
On the other hand, the broadcast and asynchronous nature of blogs may provide distinct advantages that
are not available in traditional interpersonal communication channels. By allowing large numbers of readers
to access the content of bloggers self disclosure at their own convenience, Web blogs can be an efficient
way to disseminate personal information for a variety of goals including initiating new relationships (Baker
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& Moore, 2008) and maintaining existing social networks (Stefanone & Jang, 2007). Indeed, self disclosure
via blogs was found to directly contribute to bloggers subjective psychological well-being (Ko & Kuo,
2009).
With their increasing popularity, blogs have been gathering more attention from researchers as well.
Prior studies on diary-style blogs have reported on the topics of blogs, motivations of bloggers, and
consequences of blogging as mentioned above. In this study, we aim to contribute to the understanding of
peoples blogging behavior by exploring factors across demographical, personal trait, and contextual
dimensions. Specifically, we examined the relationships between gender, self disclosure tendency,
extraversion, perceived identifiability, and perceived vulnerability. The relationships between these factors
with online self disclosure via blogs are discussed below to formulate formal research questions and
hypotheses presented herein.
2.1 Gender and Self Disclosure
Prior research suggests men and women communicate in different styles and for different social objectives
(Eakins & Eakins, 1978, Tannen, 1990). Gender differences have long been observed particularly in terms of
self disclosure (Dindia & Allen, 1992, Morgan, 1976). Females were found to have a higher tendency to
disclose their emotions than males, particularly to their spouses and loved ones (Snell et al., 1988). Dindia
and Allen's (1992) meta analyses concluded that females talked about themselves with their close social
networks more than males did. These differences suggest that gender should be taken into consideration
when studying diary-style blogging.
Recent research on self disclosure via computer-mediated channels, however, has mixed findings. In
comparison between paper and computer-mediated communication, Weisband and Kiesler (1996) did not
find statistically significant differences between men and women. Similarly, Barak and Gluck-Ofris (2007)
study in online forums reported that overall there was no gender disparity in self disclosure level, although
female respondents were more reciprocal than their male counterparts. In the context of blogs, the effects of
gender are also inconclusive overall. For example, Chiou and Wan (2006) reported gender differences
among Taiwanese teenage bloggers when discussing sex-related topics. A content analysis by Herring et al.
(2005) also found that women were more likely to create personal blogs. However, Huffaker and Calvert
(2005) reported same percentages of bloggers of both genders to discuss romantic relationships in their blogs.
Given the range of gender differences in communications offline and in computer-mediated media discussed
above, the following research question is proposed:
RQ1: Is there a gender difference in perceived level of self disclosure on blogs?
2.2 Personal Traits and Self Disclosure
One central issue in studying self disclose is the effect of individual differences, or the actor (discloser)
effect. (Berger & Derlega, 1987). The actor effect has been documented by various studies (Miller & Kenny,
1986). For example, Levesque et al. (2002) reported in their study of college students that some individuals
consistently disclose more than others across partners and topics. This actor effect has been observed across
online and offline worlds, too. Chiou and Wans (2006) study on adolescents showed that real-life self
disclosure tendency persisted in cyberspace. Accordingly, we propose a general actor effect such that
H1: Face-to-face self disclosure tendencies are positively related to perceived levels of self disclosure on
blogs.
In addition, we explore whether or not personality plays a role in bloggers decisions to post personal
information online. Personality is a widely studied aspect of individual differences along which people vary
systematically. In particular, we focus on the trait of extraversion, which is one of the most widely studied
personality dimensions and is included in many measures of personality (Watson & Clark, 1997).
Extraverted persons are typically characterized by sociability, gregariousness, and assertion (Barrick &
Mount, 1991). They are enthusiastic about establishing social connections. Following the discussion above
245
related to self disclosure and relationship development, extraverted people should be more comfortable
initiating self disclosure for the purpose of developing relationships. Accordingly, extraverted people should
have increasingly relaxed boundaries of privacy and may be more willing to offer personal information
online. By contrast, as past studies suggest, introverted individuals tend to have greater concerns for personal
privacy (Webster, 1998, Zweig & Webster, 2003). Past studies have also demonstrated a positive association
between extraversion and self disclosure (Archer, 1979, Levesque et al., 2002) and we expected this
relationship will be manifested in the blogosphere, too. Thus,
H2: Extraversion is positively related to perceived levels of self disclosure on blogs.
2.3 Perceived Context and Self Disclosure
In addition to individual traits, the decision to reveal personal thoughts and feelings is also affected by
contextual factors, such as the intended audience and the intimacy level of particular relationships (Berger &
Derlega, 1987), as well as characteristics of the media in which disclosure occurs (Joinson & Paine, 2007).
As more and more human communication is conducted on the Internet, self-disclosure in cyberspace has
become a focal point of research. Prior studies have found high levels of self disclosure using computer-
mediated channels (Rosson, 1999, Ben-Ze'ev, 2003; Tidwell & Walther, 2002). This phenomenon is often
linked to the anonymity, or the lack of identifiability, afforded by the communication media (McKenna,
2007). When Internet users withhold information regarding who they are in the real world, their online
behaviors are detached from their offline identity. The result is an disinhibition effect (Suler, 2004) in that
social norms and expectations that embedded in real-world identities and relationships no longer inhibit
people from revealing their important inner or true aspects of self(McKenna, 2007, p. 205). At the same
time, if bloggers cannot be identified by their readers, it reduces the likelihood of suffering from the negative
consequences discussed above since the content of the disclosure cannot be associated with bloggers real-
life identities. In the context of blogs, blog authors in general are in control regarding how much identity-
related information they would like to provide on their profile pages or blog posts. Accordingly, they should
have a pretty good idea regarding the degree to which they can be recognized by their readers. This
perception of identifiability should then play a role in their decisions to reveal personal or intimate
information about themselves online. In light of the evidence summarized above, the following hypothesis is
proposed:
H3: Perceived identifiability is negatively related to perceived levels of self disclosure on blogs.
As discussed above, there are a variety of psychological and relational risks associated with interpersonal
self disclosure. The perception of these risks typically functions to restrain people from revealing too much
personal information. For diary-style bloggers who give public access to their posts, these risks are
heightened. Due to the potentially enormous size of audiences, the authors of public blogs are more likely to
be exploited than those bloggers who restrict access. Although prior studies suggest that bloggers are aware
of the sensitive nature of posting intimate personal information online, they also pondered about whether or
not the topics were too intimate (Vigas, 2005) and adjusted their writing styles to suit their audience.
(Schiano et al., 2004). Similarly, bloggers should also respond to privacy concerns and vulnerability issues
they perceive. The more conscious bloggers are regarding the hazards of disclosing online, the less likely
they should be to post intimate personal information on their blogs. Thus,
H4: Perceived vulnerability is negatively related to perceived levels of self disclosure on blogs.
3. METHOD
3.1 Data Collection
To address the research question and hypotheses presented above, we conducted an online survey of an
international sample of bloggers. The sample was produced by first examining several major blog hosting
service sites, including blogger.com and livejournal.com. At the time of this study, only blogger.com offered
a working random blog selection feature. This was determined by personal correspondence with the blog
hosting sites. Using the random blog pointer on blogger.com, a list of one thousand unique blogs was
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generated. The authors then examined the list to select blogs appropriate for this study. Due to the focus of
this project on active personal blogs by individual bloggers, the following types of blogs were excluded from
the study: blogs with multiple authors, blogs containing pictures only, blogs with less than three posts on two
different dates in the last three months, and blogs used strictly for commercial or organizational purposes
(i.e., marketing particular products or office coordination services). In addition, blogs with authors younger
than 18 years old were eliminated.
After the above restrictions, 700 qualified blogs remained. The authors then delivered a survey invitation
to 622 of the 700 selected bloggers via emails or comments posted on their blogs. The other 78 bloggers did
not provide their email address or the comment option on their blogs and therefore did not receive the
invitation. Qualified blogs were not visually inspected by the researchers.
Six weeks after the invitations were sent out, 148 completed surveys were received, yielding a 23.8%
response rate. Among the respondents, 53.4% were male. The education level distribution of the
respondents was as follows: about 10% had finished high school, 20% had taken some college classes, about
39% held a bachelors degree, and 31% held a graduate-level degree. The respondents came from 32
countries. About one third came from the USA, about 30% came from Europe, 25% came from Asia and
Australia, and the rest (about 12%) came from a variety of other regions.
3.2 Measurements
Blog self-disclosure. To measure self-disclosure on blogs, three items were adapted from the generalized self-
disclosure scale developed by (Wheeless & Grotz, 1976). These three items are the general subset of the
original 16-item scale. Participants were asked to base their answers to the following questions on their own
blog content: "I usually talk about myself in fairly lengthy blog posts," "Once I get started, I intimately and
fully reveal myself on my blog," and "I often disclose intimate, personal things about myself without
hesitation on my blog." All items were measured on a 7-point scale (where 7=strongly agree), and Cronbach's
alpha was .85.
Face-to-face self disclosure. Three similar questions were used to measure the tendency to disclose
during face-to-face interaction. Participants were asked to imagine that they were talking to someone face-
to-face when answering these questions: "I usually talk about myself for fairly long periods of time," "Once I
get started, I intimately and fully reveal myself," and "I often disclose intimate, personal things about myself
without hesitation." All items were measured on a 7-point scale (where 7=strongly agree). This scale yielded
a Cronbach's alpha of .81.
Perceived identifiability. These items measured blog authors' perception of how easily their readers could
tell who they were from their blog content. Three 7-point Likert scale items were developed to measure
identifiability: "It is easy for my readers to tell who I am from my blog posts," "I think people who know me
would be able to determine my identity from the contents of my blog," and "I think if a stranger read my
blog, he or she could determine my identity." Cronbach's alpha for this scale was .76.
Perceived vulnerability. Two 7-point Likert scale questions were included to assess bloggers' perceived
vulnerability when posting personal information online. Participants were asked to report the degree to
which they agreed or disagreed with the following statements: "It is dangerous to post personal contact
information online" and "Personal information available online is easily exploited". These two items were
combined to measure perceived vulnerability (Cronbach's alpha = .91).
Extraversion. Following previous research (McCrae & Costa, 1996), four items were used as a general
measure of extraversion. Participants were asked to rate the extent to which they agree or disagree with each
of the following statements on a 7-point scale, where 7=strongly agree: "I like to have a lot of people around
me," "I really enjoy talking to people," "I like to be where the action is," and "I usually prefer to do things
alone" (reverse coded). Cronbach's alpha for this scale was .70.
Participants also supplied their gender, age, and education information in the survey. For gender, male
and female were coded as 1 and 2 respectively. Education was divided to five levels from high school (1) to
Ph.D. (5).

247
4. RESULTS
Bivariate correlations, means, and standard deviations were reported in Table 1. A number of statistically
significant correlations were observed. Participants' perceived self-disclosure on blogs was positively
associated with face-to-face self-disclosure (r=.54, p<.001) and perceived identifiability on their blogs (r=.28,
p<.001). Both relationships were in line with our hypotheses. Among the three demographic variables, age
was consistently correlated with both face-to-face (r=-.17, p=<.05) and blog (r=-.22, p<.01) self-disclosure.
Older participants were less inclined to talk about themselves in either face-to-face conversation or on blogs
than their younger counterparts. Gender was only significantly related to blog SD (r=.23, p<.01). Female
bloggers tended to disclose more about themselves on blogs than their male counterparts. Additionally, the
correlation analyses also showed that extraversion was positively correlated with face-to-face SD (r=.29,
p<.001) as the literature suggested. However, no statistically significant correlation was observed between
extraversion and self disclosure via blogs.
Table 1. Descriptive statistics and zero-order correlations.
Age Gend Edu FtF SD Extrav Ident Vulner Blog SD
Age 31.76
(10.6)
-.15 .22** -.17* -.07 .11 .08 -.22**
Gender - .02 .08

-.02 -.10 .10 .23**
Education

- -.13

-.07 .14 -.10 -.15
Face-to-face Self-disclosure

3.20
(1.46)
.29*** .22* -.06 .54***
Extraversion

3.09
(1.69)
.07 .07 .01
Identifiability

4.58
(1.12)
-.09 .28***
Vulnerability

5.30
(1.73)
-.14
Blog Self-disclosure

3.11
(1.67)
Note: Means and standard deviations on diagonal.
* p<0.05; ** p<0.01; *** p<0.001

To test the hypotheses and answer research questions, ordinary least squares hierarchical regression
analyses were performed. Using hierarchical regression analysis allows us to observe the independent
contribution of groups of variables to the model. In this kind of regression, variables were grouped together
based on their conceptual relevance, and then each group of variables was entered based on its assumed
causal order. Using blocks of variables allows one to estimate the influence of one block of variables above
and beyond the group of variables entered in an earlier block. Distributions for all variables were checked for
normality, and tests for homogeneity of variances were within acceptable limits. Further, to test the
independence assumption in regression, tolerance statistics were examined for each variable to test for
multicollinearity, and those values were within acceptable limits (Menard, 1995).

ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
248
Table 2. Regression analysis of blog self-disclosure
Model 1 2 3
Demographics
Age -.19* -.10 -.13*
Gender .20* .17* .19**
Education -.08 -.08 -.09
Personal Traits
FtF Self-disclosure .55*** .49***
Extraversion -.15* -.14*
Perceived Context
Identifiability .22**
Vulnerability -.10

F 5.09** 16.24*** 14.46***
R
2
.10** .36*** .42***
Adjusted R
2
.08 .34 .39
Incremental R
2
.26 .07
* p<0.05; ** p<0.01; *** p<0.001

In our analyses, three blocks of variables were entered in the following order: demographics, personal
traits, and perceived context. The demographics block included age, gender, and education. The block of
personal traits included face-to-face self-disclosure and extraversion. Finally, perceived identifiability and
perceived vulnerability constituted the perceived context group. The results were reported in Table 2. Model
1 included only the demographical variables. Both age ( = -.19, p<.05) and gender ( = .20, p<.05) were
significant items in this model. This baseline demographical model was statistically significant (F=5.09,
p<.01) and explained about 10% of the variance in participants' self-reported level of self disclosure on their
blogs (R
2
=.10).
Personal traits, including face-to-face self disclosure tendency and extraversion, were entered in the next
block (Model 2). Both personal trait items were statistically significant contributors in this model. As
expected, participants' tendency of self-disclosure in traditional face-to-face context was a positive predictor
to their self disclosure on blogs ( = .55, p<.001). On the other hand, extraversion contributed negatively in
the model ( = -.15, p<.05). Overall, Model 2 was significant (F=16.24, p<.001). The addition of personal
trait variables brought a substantial increase in R square and this model explained about 36% of the variance
(R
2
=.36).
Finally, the perceived context block including perceived identifiability and perceived vulnerability, was
entered. The results are reported in Model 3. Perceived identifiability was a significant and positive
predictor to participants' blog self-disclosure ( = .24, p<.01). Perceived vulnerability, on the other hand,
contributed negatively to the model. However, the coefficient of perceived vulnerability was not statistically
significant. Together, variables in the perceived context block accounted for additional 7% of the variance.
In summary, the final model explained 42% of the total variance predicating participants' self disclosure
on their blogs. All three blocks of variables made significant contribution in the model. Among the
demographic items, both age ( = -.14, p<.05) and gender ( = .21, p<.01) remained significant predictors in
the final model. The results indicated that female blog authors were more likely to post personal issues than
their male counterparts. The results also suggested that younger bloggers were more likely to reveal
information about themselves on their blogs. Personal traits accounted for a sizable increase in the variance
in the model assessing self disclosure on blogs. Participants' face-to-face disclosure tendency was a strong
predictor of self disclosure on blogs ( = .48, p<.001). H1 was supported. However, the proposed positive
relationship between extraversion and self-disclosure via blogs (H2) was not supported. Extraversion was a
significant factor in the final model, but the direction of the relationship was opposite to what we proposed (
= -.14, p<.05). The data showed that extraverted bloggers reported a lesser degree of self disclosure in blogs
than introverted bloggers. This unexpected result prompted further analyses reported below. Finally, the
influences of perceived identifiability and perceived vulnerability were assessed. The analyses found that the
more bloggers thought they could be recognized by their audiences, the more they posted about themselves
on their blogs. This finding was the opposite of what we proposed. H3 was not supported. The effect of
249
perceived vulnerability was, however, inconclusive. While the coefficient of perceived vulnerability was
negative, as proposed in H4, it was not statistically significant. H4 was not supported.
As discussed above, extraversion has long been reported in the literature to be positively associated with
self disclosure. Correlation analyses on our data confirmed this relationship between extraversion and face-
to-face self disclosure with a positive correlation coefficient of .29 (p<.001). In light of this, the negative
influence of extraversion on self disclosure via blogs found in the above regression analyses was intriguing.
It suggested that, compared to self disclosure in face-to-face situations, extraverted participants became more
conservative when revealing information about themselves on blogs while their introverted peers opened up
more. To explore this change in perceived self disclosure between face-to-face and blog contexts, the score
of blog self disclosure was subtracted by the face-to-face self disclosure score for each participant to
calculate the difference between these two scores. The mean of self disclosure differences was -0.15 and the
standard deviation was 1.51. This difference was then regressed on the same set of independent variables
excepting for face-to-face self disclosure. Again, multicollinearity tests had been performed and the
independence assumption of regression analyses was assured. The results of this post-hoc regression analysis
were reported in Table 3. The findings showed that extraversion and gender were significant predictors of
the self disclosure differences between face-to-face and blog contexts. Confirming earlier analysis,
extraverted people scaled back their SD when moving to an online medium than their introverted peers. At
the same time, female participants had greater increase of self disclosure when using blogs than their male
counterparts.
Table 3. Regression analysis of disclosure differences between face-to-face and blogs.
Model 1 2 3
Demographics
Age -.03 -.05 -.06
Gender .17* .16* .18*
Education -.08 -.09 -.10
Personal Traits
Extraversion -.26** -.27**
Perceived Context
Identifiability .14
Vulnerability -.10

F 1.91 4.29** 3.79**
R
2
.04 .11 .14
Adjusted R
2
.02 .08 .10
Incremental R
2
.07 .03
* p<0.05; ** p<0.01; *** p<0.001
5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
This study examined factors affecting perceived levels of self disclosure on blogs. Proposed effects as well
as unexpected influences of demographic variables, personality traits, and perceived contexts were found via
regression analyses. These results are interpreted and discussed below.
Prior research results regarding gender differences in computer-mediated self disclosure were
inconsistent. Our findings, however, provide evidence supporting a gender effect. Female bloggers reported
a higher degree of self disclosure on their blog posts than male bloggers did. Although this gender difference
was not dominate, explaining about 4% of the variance in blog self disclosure, it was consistently a
significant contributor in all regression models. This indicates that gender was an independent factor that
predicted self disclosure via blogs after the effects of personality traits and contextual factors were accounted
for. Additionally, based on the correlation analyses, no gender differences were found for face-to-face self
disclosure tendency in this sample of bloggers. It further suggests that for people who chose to publish
personal matters online, blogs were a more comfortable channel for women than men.
The strongest predictor in our model was face-to-face self disclosure tendency. People who tend to reveal
about themselves offline also disclosed more on their blogs. This finding clearly supports the actor effect. It
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also suggests that there was a strong tendency for people to apply familiar communication practices after
adopting new media.
The negative relationship between extraversion and online self disclosure was not expected. This finding
suggests that introverted participants disclosed more intimate personal experience on their blogs than their
extraverted peers. This trend may indicate a social compensation effect in that writing on blogs allows
introverted people to overcome barriers that had prevented them from talking about themselves. Specifically,
the lack of social presence of the receivers and the asynchronous nature of blogs may help some bloggers
reveal more online. When posting on blogs, authors do not have direct exchange with their readers. The low
level of audience social presence should reduce social anxiety for introverted bloggers and allow them to feel
more comfortable writing about personal matters. In addition, blog communication is asynchronous. Unlike
in face-to-face conversations, bloggers do not immediately face possible negative feedback such as rejection
or disapproval. As a result, disclosing on blogs allows for extra time to handle unpleasant responses and
reduces the demand for sophisticated social and communication skills. Together, the unique media
characteristics of blogs create a compensating environment for introverted bloggers and facilitate their self
disclosure.
However, it should be noted that this negative relationship between extraversion and blog self disclosure
was not observed in the bivariate correlation analyses. This association only occurred in the regression
model after controlling for demographic variables and face-to-face self disclosure tendency. It suggests that
only when comparing their extraverted counterparts in the same demographic groups and with similar levels
of face-to-face self-disclosure, introverted bloggers reported relatively higher levels of online self disclosure.
Another unexpected finding was the positive association between perceived identifiability and self
disclosure on blogs. As discussed in the literature review, past research suggested that due to the lack of
association with real-life identity, people are more comfortable revealing things about themselves online.
However, the findings presented herein suggest the opposite. The more bloggers thought they could be
indentified by their audience, the more they disclosed. Considering bloggers control over their identity-
related information via the profile page or blog posts, identifiability functioned as an indicator of self
disclosure tendency. This finding cannot be explained by the social disinhibition effect which is dominant in
the literature. Rather, it can be better understood from an interpersonal relationship perspective.
In recent years, Web 2.0 applications designed to facilitate social relationships have been gaining
tremendous popularity (Lenhart, 2009). Previous studies confirmed that people expanded and maintained
their existing social networks using social networking applications (Ellison et al., 2007) as well as blogs
(Stefanone & Jang, 2007). A large body of literature supports the notion that self disclosure is essential to
relationship development. As relationships become more intimate, so too does the exchange of personal
information between partners (Altman & Taylor, 1973). From this perspective, posting personal thoughts
and feelings on blogs can be viewed as an effort to enhance social relationships. Also based on this view,
offering identity-related information is necessary to receive relationship gains within existing social
networks. Following this logic, bloggers decisions to make themselves known to their readers signal a
relational motivation and this relational motivation drives the bloggers to write more about themselves.
Similarly, this relational motivation may also help us understand the lack of a significant effect of
perceived vulnerability. While participants reported a moderately high level of perceived vulnerability
(M=5.30, SD=1.73), this concern did not produce a statistically significant influence on bloggers online
disclosure behavior. One possible explanation is that diary-style bloggers have to make a strategic choice
between protecting privacy and enhancing relationships when posting on their blogs. A strong motivation to
maintain or develop existing social ties may lead bloggers to weigh prospective relational gains against
potential privacy risks. As a result, no significant effect of perceived vulnerability was observed.
Finally, the post-hoc regression analyses shed some light on within-subject differences between perceived
self disclosure levels on- and offline. The results indicate that female and introverted bloggers tended to
open up themselves more on their blogs than in conversations. These findings support the main analyses.
They also suggest that the media effect on self disclosure was systematically different across different
individual characteristics.
In conclusion, the findings provide a number of insights regarding the factors associated with self
disclosure on public blogs. Demographic factors, personal traits, and perceived context all made independent
contributions to predicting self disclosure on blogs. Specifically, the survey data supported a gender effect as
well as an actor effect of self disclosure tendency. In addition, the negative relationship between extraversion
and self disclosure on blogs suggests the media attributes of blogs may contribute by compensating for a lack
251
of social and communication skills. Further research is necessary to verify this proposition. Moreover, the
positive relationship between identifiability and self disclosure on blogs cannot be explained by social
disinhibition but, rather, suggests a relational motivation of blogging. This finding may also shed light on
peoples online privacy management behavior. These results contribute to the ongoing discussion regarding
antecedents and consequences of online self disclosure.
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253

Short Papers

PARALLEL PROGRAMMING FOR EDUCATION AND ITS
TRIAL EVALUATION
Keiichi Shiraishi*, Yoshiro Imai** and Yukio Hori**
*Kagawa National College of Technology, Koda551 Takuma-cho Mitoyo city Kagawa Pref. 769-1192 Japan
**Faculty of Engineering, Kagawa University, 2217-20 Hayashi-cho Takamatsu city Kagawa Pref. 761-0396 Japan
ABSTRACT
Internet and Cloud computing will provide several kinds of services including parallel computing. Parallel computing can
be achieved through a computer cluster (Internet itself) and special multiple computer/ processor systems. Users of
Internet may be more familiar to obtain such parallel computing services in consequences. This paper focuses on parallel
computing, evaluation of its performance and two kinds pf parallel programming examples based on master-worker
paradigm. Such programming can be realized and executed on CPUs with multiple processor cores. We have compared
two types of parallel programming. One is programming for a), which is executed on a personal computer of the specific
CPU with 4 processor cores. Another is for Cell B.E. with SPE library on Sony-produced PLAYSTATION3. Through
real experiment and simple evaluation, the following evidences have been confirmed. Both of two cases are good
practices for parallel calculation and expected performance. And the former is suitable for symbolic and/or algebraic
computation, while the latter is efficient for numerical calculation.
KEYWORDS
Parallel computing, CPUs with multiple processor cores, Amdahl's law, Master-worker paradigm.
1. INTRODUCTION
Parallel computing becomes more and more popular as various kinds of multiple computer/processor system
are available in several engineering fields. Especially, there are rapid and drastic changes even for end users
to utilize a computer cluster, multiple processor cores and other multiple computer systems through the
Internet. Cloud computing will allow such users to have frequent opportunities to challenge for parallel
computing and programming. Computers have made revolutionary progress by means of memory technology,
large-capacity magnetic Disks, and especially powerful microprocessor architecture. And several kinds of
computers are considered to be a set of commodity hardware components so that network technologies can
easily bring them into the next stage of cluster computing. Some people say that it must become an important
task to utilize multiple processors effectively and ecologically in order to obtain fruitful results from the
Internet and Cloud computing.
In a focus of microprocessors themselves, there were some complicated limitations for speedup based on
uniprocessor architecture. The latest trends of speedup mechanism can be shifted into the architecture of
multiple processor cores for high performance computing, namely parallel computing. Such architecture
becomes a great idea and break-through to improve computing capability. But there are some problems to be
resolved in order to achieve efficient programming for parallel computing environment. In other words, it is
necessary for users to combine effectively multiple levels of parallel programming, namely not only cluster
computing for multiple severs bust also parallel programming for multiple processor cores. Education must
play an important role to provide a good practice to teach even beginners to obtain useful skills in a short
period. In higher education for engineering, it will be much more important than past to educate parallel
computing, especially, parallel programming paradigm and its applicable examples for some specific
computers with multiple processor cores.
This paper will focus on providing such a good practice for parallel programming by means of multiple
processor cores. In order to show a simple but useful example or methodology for parallel programming
education, the paper describes the following four sections. The next section introduces background of parallel
257
computing and its formulations. The third one explains and compares two practical examples for parallel
programming with different architectures for multiple processor cores. The fourth one illustrates computing
performance for such different programming styles. And the last section summarizes our conclusions.
2. BACKGROUND OF PARALLEL COMPUTING
There are several types of parallel computers, such as a computer cluster, a vector computer, multiple
processor cores and so on. For example, Flynn's Classical Taxonomy classifies that a vector computer is
classified as SIMD computer's category while a computer cluster is done as MIMD one [1]. The former
computes vector data, and the latter binds many computers by means of network.
Amdahl's law has focused on description of performance for not only vector computers but also parallel
computers. And it clearly shows that speed up ratio will be larger if the size of parallelized implementations
(namely portion of program to be processed in parallel) becomes more. Its characteristics and behaviour are
simply expressed in the approximate relationship described below [2][1].
It is assumed that Ts is the computing time to run the program on a scalar computer (uniprocessor),
while Tp is the computing time to run on a parallel computer (multiple processor cores). is the
parallelization ratio, i.e. the ratio of parallelizable section to program. And finally n is the number of
processors. In the Amdahl's law, coefficient P for speed up can be expressed in the following equation (1)
shown below.
} / ) 1 {(
1
n Tp
Ts
P
+
= = -- (1)
Such a law is well known as a famous formula for determining the maximum expected speedup of an
overall system when only part of such a system is improved. It is often used in parallel computing in order to
predict the theoretical maximum speedup using multiple processors. But it has been discussed whether it
must be treated as an impulsive force or as a regulative rule; namely optimistic view or pessimistic one [3][4].
Users of parallel computing need more fruitful methodologies in order to perform efficient parallel
calculation instead of the above discussion. Master-worker paradigm can play an important role for parallel
programming practices. It is known as master-slave approach. And it is a kind of parallel programming
model, consists of a master process and worker ones. The master process controls all of tasks and throws the
according tasks to its worker processes under command of it. It also receives the results of the tasks from its
workers, combines such results and then produces the final result for the given problem [5].
Each worker receives its assigned task from its above master and runs (i.e. computes) such a task. The
worker finishes its own task and returns its result to its master individually and asynchronously. In master-
worker paradigm, if the processing times allocated to all the workers are the same size i.e. the identical time-
length, an expected speed up might obey the Amdahl's law. It is one of the most ideal cases for parallel
computing. By the way, if such processing times are different one another, the speed up might depend on the
order of tasks to be processed. In the other words, it is necessary to discuss how such a suitable schedule is
carried out through parallel computing. If there is a smarter scheduling available, parallel computing becomes
scalable, more efficient and asynchronously executable in more expected status for parallelization.
3. PRACTICAL PARALLEL PROGRAMMING AND ITS EXAMPLES
It is very much difficult to realize so-called optimal scheduling. So there cannot be a general-purpose
scheduling algorithm to build the most suitable procedure to assign the equivalent processing time to each
processing unit. There must be no royal road to get semi-optimal algorithm without time-consuming trial-
and-error methods. But we have an experience to utilize and evaluate some special scheduling algorithm that
excludes any conscious idle periods in parallel calculation [6]. The scheduling only lets the according
processors be idling whenever there are no jobs to be executed. Our heuristic results taught that such a
scheduling algorithm could do users a favor of fairly shortest processing time, i.e. the algorithm allows us to
achieve semi-optimal scheduling. The theorem below illustrates how such a schedule works correctly [7].
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
258
It is assumed that the set of jobs is given, is the total elapsed time to finish the jobs, the order of
running jobs obeys the schedule and
0
is the shortest time which is running and also obeying the optimal
schedule. The schedule has been realized by means of a trial-and-error method. The slowness, namely the
ratio of to
0
, can be expressed in the following inequality (2) shown below,
n
1
2
0

-- (2)
where n denotes the number of processors. It seems that the right side expression of inequality (2) can also
give the upper bound of the above ratio, namely the left side of the inequality.
Therefore, if the jobs are allocated to the workers in the order of the job raised, the total elapsed time is at
most double of the time by optimal schedule. Generally speaking, it is necessary to consider some overhead
that includes communication and synchronization between master and each worker. It is assumed that such
an overhead can be neglected in this subsection. Of course, some overheads may control performance and
efficiency. So targets for parallel computing are very important. The next subsection will illustrate a detail of
practical parallel programming.
This subsection illustrates two types of parallel programming examples. One is a programming example
for Risa/Asir on the CPU with 4 processor cores. And another is for CELL B.E. of PLAYSTATION 3. In the
former case, programs must be written in a special programming language for Risa/Asir. It is an open source
general computer algebra system. OpenXM committers have been developing its Kobe distribution. The
original Risa/Asir was developed at Fujitsu Labs LTD during Japan national project of the fifth generation
computer [8]. In the latter case, programs are to be written in the C programming language for the Cell
Multiprocessor [9]. These are explained in detail as follows.
3.1 Case(I): a Programming Example for Risa/Asir
Parallel programs for the computer algebra system called Risa/Asir are to be described as follows:
1) Invoke an "asir" process and assign it to one of workers.
2) Load a program code to the according worker process.
3) Execute such a program on the process.
4) Wait for termination of each worker's program and receive the computing result.
Process assignment is automatically performed by means of load balancing facility of the operating
system. Namely users do not need to be aware of such a complicated operation. The computer algebra system
Risa/Asir does not request users to revoke (destroy) each worker process. A master process can investigate
whether an according worker process terminate or not, so it is very efficient for users to write a good parallel
program to reassign a next task onto vacant (idling) worker.
3.2 Case(II): a Programming Example for Cell Multiprocessor
Parallel programs for Cell B.E. with SPE library (ver2) on Sony-produced PLAYSTATION3 are to be
described as follows:
1) Load a program code for worker process onto memory.
2) Allocate each code onto the according SPE(Synergistic Processor Element)
3) Invoke a thread and give an instruction to execute a program for worker in the thread.
4) Wait for termination of each thread which finishes when the according worker program is terminated.
5) Revoke each worker process.
Users must utilize each worker by means of an invocation of thread. This is why a function gives an
instruction to execute programs for workers but it does not send back its return values until programs for
workers terminate. In the Cell Multiprocessor, SPE can play a role to perform data passing by means of
DMA transfer. So programs for workers, which are running in SPEs, can move several kinds of data from the
main memory to local storage by means of DMA operation. After they has processed those data, they can
restore data in reverse, namely from their local storages to the main memory, through DMA channel.
259
4. PRACTICAL PARALLEL CALCULATION AND EVALUATION
This section describes our practical parallel programming and shows a real result for execution of parallel
programs based on master-worker paradigm. We know that a value of the circle ratio can be computed by
means of the following definite integration (3) shown below.
dx
x
+
=
1
0
2
1
4
-- (3)
The real numerical value will be obtained through calculation of the equation (3) by the way of numerical
integration based on the following approximation (4) shown below,
=
+ +
1
0
2
) / ) 5 . 0 (( 1
4 1
N
i
N i N

-- (4)
where N is a division number for integration interval ] 1 , 0 [ of the equation (3). Users had better choose a
larger number as N in order to obtain a more precise result for the above numerical integration.
Such a calculation can be realized with description of i related loop operation, namely iteration
procedure about control variable of i. We can achieve practical parallel programming by means of
application of each loop operation into the worker process which has been explained in the previous section.
In the other words, such a situation is suitable enough to satisfy Amdahl's law with efficient parallelization
ratio. We will expect to achieve good speedup-improvement for parallelization in the case of parallel
calculation for numerical integration of circle ratio based on master-worker paradigm.
In order to make certain of speedup improvement for calculation through parallel programming, we have
applied 000 , 000 , 50 = N to numerical integration of circle ratio expressed in the approximation (4). At
first, we have computed it with the computer algebra system Risa/Asir. Our test-bed PC has a CPU chip with
4 processor cores so that we can select parallel programming with the master-worker based parallel
calculation from one worker process to four. Table 1 shows result of elapsed time for the above parallel
calculation.
Table 1. Elapsed time for parallel calculation by the computer algebra system (Risa/Asir)
Numbers of worker process
Elapsed time for calculation
(second)
Speedup (Improvement) for
only one worker's case
1 37.902 1.000
2
3
4
19.627
13.787
11.056
1.931
2.749
3.428

Secondly, we have computed the approximation (4) with PLAYSTATION3. The Cell B.E. of
PLAYSTATION3 has seven sets of SPEs, but SPE library of it can handle only six sets of SPEs. So we can
select the same (but not identical) way of parallel programming from one worker to six. Table 2 shows
another result of elapsed time for such parallel calculation.
Table 2. Elapsed time for parallel calculation by Cell B.E. with SPE library on Sony-produced PLAYSTATION3
Numbers of worker process
Elapsed time for calculation
(second)
Speedup (Improvement) for
only one worker's case
1 6.037 1.000
2
3
4
5
6
3.023
2.019
1.518
1.217
1.017
1.997
2.990
3.977
4.961
5.936

From comparison of Table 1 and 2, it is confirmed that elapsed times of calculation by the computer
algebra system Risa/Asir are fairly larger than ones by the Cell B.E. with SPE library on PLAYSTATION3.
So the former is suitable for symbolic and/or algebraic computation, while the latter is efficient for numerical
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
260
calculation. Additionally, we have another important evidence from both tables of our experiment. It is also
confirmed that speedup improvement has been approximately achieved in proportion of the numbers of
worker process. Our experiment did demonstrate that our two cases of parallel programming are suitable
enough to explain validity of Amdahl's law. These are considered to be practical and important examples for
beginners to understand introductory parallel programming in the real educational environment.
5. CONCLUSION
This paper has described some samples of parallel programming based on Master-worker Paradigm and their
evaluation. We have compared the computer algebra system Risa/Asir to Cell B.E. with SPE library through
practical experience. This is why education about parallel programming becomes important as several kinds
of multiple computer and processors are available for users by means of the Internet and Cloud computing.
An advantage of Risa/Asir is to utilize the same program on multi-core processor as well as clustered
computers. SPE library is a special one for using SPE of Cell B.E. and users need POSIX thread libraries in
order to execute multiples of SPEs as "workers" simultaneously. So it is indispensable to realize some kinds
of TCP/IP-based communication between each machine in PLAYSTATION3-based cluster system.
With regard to numerical analysis, Risa/Asir cannot be compared to Cell B.E. with SPE library, because it
is not designed as an efficient software for numerical computation. It is confirmed that Risa/Asir is suitable
for symbolic and/or algebraic computation and is not good at high-speed computation. By the way, we have
also ascertained the qualitative capability of Risa/Asir to describe parallel programming based on Master-
worker Paradigm through our experiment.
In the future works, we will try to utilize high-speed computation with 128-bit Vector/ SIMD processing
units of SPEs. We have some problems to improve computation performance. Through a real experiment, it
is confirmed that one of them is related to realize a smart DMA (Direct Memory Access) between the main
memory of Cell B.E. and local memories of SPEs. If such a DMA procedure is less complicated, users will
be able to achieve parallel programming more powerfully and effectively.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are thankful to Professor Hitoshi Inomo, and Professor Wataru Shiraki of Kagawa University for
their continuous supports. This study was partly supported by the Special Science Fund from Cmicro
incorporated in Japan and also partly supported by Research for Promoting Technological Seeds from Japan
Science and Technology Agency (JST).
REFERENCES
[1] Hennessy, J.L. and Patterson, D.A. 2003, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach (third Edition). Morgan
Kaufmann.
[2] Amdahl, G.M., 1967. Validity of the Single-Processor Approach to Achieving Large Scale Computing Capabilities.
Validity of the Single-Processor Approach to Achieving Large Scale Computing Capabilities. In AFIPS Conference
Proceedings, pp. 483485.
[3] Hill,M. and Marty, M.R. 2008, Amdahl's law in the multicore era, IEEE Computer, vol. 41, no. 7, pp.33-38.
[4] Sun,X-H. And Chen,Y. 2010, Reevaluating Amdahl's law in the multicore era, Journal of Parallel and Distributed
Computing. Vol.70, pp.183-188.
[5] Wilkinson, B. and Allen, M., 1999. Parallel Programming, Prentice-Hall.
[6] Shiraishi,K., et.al., 2001. On Load Balancing based on Parallelization of Wu's method, Report of Research Institute
for Mathematical Sciences, Kyoto University, Vol.1199, pp. 10-19 (in Japanese).
[7] Liu, C.L., 1985. Elements of Discrete Mathematics (second Edition), McGraw-Hill.
[8] Risa/Asir http://www.math.kobe-u.ac.jp/Asir/asir.html
[9] Kahl, J.A., Day, M.N., Hofstee, H.P., Johns, C.R., Maeurer, T.R. and Shippy, D., 2005, Introduction to the Cell
Multiprocessor. IBM Journal of Research and Development, vol. 49, no. 4, pp.589-604.
261
SENSE OF COMMUNITY FEELING IN A BLENDED
LEARNING ENVIRONMENT:
EFFECT OF DEMOGRAPHICS
Hale Ilgaz* and Petek Akar**
*Ankara University
** Hacettepe University
Ankara, Turkiye
ABSTRACT
In distance education in which online communication technologies have played an important role, the communications
between students and teachers, development of community feeling are crucial for sociality. The satisfaction of a student
who feels himself/herself as isolated from the system, will tend to decrease through program and this affects his/her
learning. This situation may result with the student dropping out the program. Providing interaction with information
communication technologies come into prominence as a result of increasing importance of these technologies in distance
education. Although this situation has positive contributions, it may have negative effects on decrement of the
motivation, achievement, satisfaction or learning of student such as social isolation, aprosexia, and feeling of alienation.
The aim of this study is to analyze the development status of community feelings of students who have enrolled in a
distance education program which is configured on a blended learning model, in terms of age, gender, access to
computer, access to Internet and period of computer usage. The analyses were carried on the data obtained from the scale
which administered to 676 freshman student. Results showed that students community feelings have significant
differences in terms of gender, access to computers and access to Internet. However there is no significant difference in
terms of age and period of computer usage.
KEYWORDS
Community feeling, blended learning, distance education
1. INTRODUCTION
By the increases in demand to the education, information and communication technologies had a very
important position in peoples life. According to the annual analyze reports which were prepared by NCES
(1999), Internet technologies were confirmed as the most rapid developing communication tools in distance
education after high school. The distance education which is performed due to information and
communication technologies has become an opportunity for people who can not take education due to
barriers related to time or place.
The communications between student and teachers and the ability of developing of community feeling are
socially essentials in distance education in which individuals are separated physically. The satisfaction of a
student who feels himself/herself as isolated from the system, will decrease through program and he/she can
not obtain sufficient learning. This situation may end up with the student dropping the program.
Researches have shown that drop-out rates tend to be higher in distance education programs than in
traditional face-to-face programs (Rovai, 2001). Although the distance education intends to correspond to the
needs of individuals and has a lot of advantages, it became necessary to analyze the increase in the drop-out
rates. Despite a lot of advantages of distance education, intended to correspond to peoples needs, reasons of
drop out must be searched. The research results showed that the factors like expectations are unfulfilled,
dissatisfaction, loss of motivation, inadequacy of interaction affect the drop-out rates.
According to Brown and Duguid (1996) when enrolled in distance education programs, student
participation in institutional life is often limited and may consist of infrequent residencies with little face-to-
face contact with other students, professors, and administrators, thus limiting the true involvement of distance
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students in institutional life. Consequently, there is a concern among some educators that distance education
does not promote community.
The rationale was that a combination of face-to-face and online learning environments provides a greater
range of opportunities for students to interact with each other and with their professor. These interactions
should result in increased socialization, a stronger sense of being connected to each other, and increased
construction of knowledge through discourse, thus providing stronger feelings that educational goals were
being satisfied by community membership (Rovai & Jordan, 2004).
According to McMillan and Chavis (1986) there are 4 basic components of community feeling. The first
component is the membership and defined as sense of belonging. The second component, influence means
making a difference to the group and group mattering to its members. Reinforcement, the third component, is
integration and fulfillment the needs. In another expression reinforcement is meeting the needs of group
members by resources. The fourth component, shared emotional connection, the commitment and belief that
members have shared and will share history, common places, time together, and similar experiences.
Rovai (2001) defined the components of classroom community feeling based on these four components
which were constituted by McMillan and Chavis. These components are spirit, trust, interaction, and
learning.
Spirit: The first component, spirit, denotes recognition of membership in a community and the feelings of
friendship, cohesion, and bonding that develop among learners as they enjoy one another and look forward to
time spent together (Rovai, 2001).
Trust: The second of classroom community components. Trust is the feeling that the community can be
trusted and feedback will be forthcoming and constructive. When people are accepted as part of a nourishing
learning community, they feel safe and trust the community. With safety and trust comes the willingness of
community members to speak openly. This candor is important to a learning community because with trust
comes the likelihood that members will expose gaps in their learning and feel that other members of the
community will respond in supportive ways (Rovai, 2001).
Influence: A feeling that closeness and mutual benefit result between individuals. Interaction could be
both task driven and socio-emotional. Task-driven interaction is directed toward the completion of assigned
tasks while socio-emotional interaction is directed toward relationships among learners. There are researches
about importance about effective interaction for effective learning. For this reason interaction is an important
factor that supports either the community-building process or learning (Rovai, 2001).
Learning: A feeling that knowledge and meaning are actively constructed within the community, that the
community enhances the acquisition of knowledge and understanding. For community to flourish, members
must not only identify with the group but must also internalize at least partial acceptance of the groups
purpose and values (Rovai, 2001).
Rovai and Jordan (2004b) have aimed to analyzing the relationship between traditional, blended and fully
online higher education environments and community feeling. Sample group of the research was taken from
who is master student and teachers in primary schools and also registered 24 persons traditional, 23 persons
blended and 21 persons online education program. According to the results blended course has been a higher
and significant relationship on connectedness than either the traditional or online courses with a larger effect
size.
As there are many factors influencing the quality of interaction, this situation influences the community
feeling in distance education. In the research of Rovai (2002b) about the factors influencing the community
feeling, 7 components were defined as transactional distance, social presence, social equality, small group
activities, group facilitation, teaching style and learning stage, and community size.
The aim of this study is to analyze community feelings of students in terms of age, gender, access to
computer, access to Internet and period of computer usage in a distance education program which is
configured on a blended learning model.

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2. METHODOLGY
2.1 Participants
676 freshmen who have enrolled to a blended learning program of the Divinity College of Ankara University
administered by Ankara University Distance Education Center participated in the research.
The distance education program has a blended learning model in which learners could take an online
orientation program, printed course books, video courses, discussion board, synchronous chat via LMS, 48
hours face to face interaction in every term and face to face exams. The demographic profiles of the students
are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Participant demographics
2.2 Instrumentation
In this research Community Feeling Scale which was developed by Ilgaz (2008) was used. The scale was
developed to determine the community feeling of students in distance education based on Rovai, Wighting
and Luckings (2004a) studies. The scale composed of 6 items as a 7 point likert scale. Analysis had been
executed with remained 571 data. A confirmatory analysis was performed. Confirmatory factor analysis
(CFA) is a statistical technique used to verify the factor structure of a set of observed variables. CFA allows
the researcher to test the hypothesis that a relationship between observed variables and their underlying latent
constructs exists (Suhr, 2006). The scale has been designed as a two dimension scale- action and affection-
by considering the expression types of the items in community feeling scale. The CFA results were; [
2
(7,
N=571) = 24.76, p<.000, RMSEA= 0.067, S-RMR= 0.034, GFI= 0.99, AGFI= 0.96, CFI= 0.99, NNFI= 0.98,
IFI= 0.99]. The goodness of fit indices showed that the model is good and the instrument could be used for
the adult population. The internal consistency coefficient (Cronbach ) of the scale was found as 0.80.
2.3 Design and Data Analysis
This research is designed as a descriptive research model. Descriptive statistics, one way ANOVA and
independent samples t-test were used in data analyses. Analysis were executed by SPSS 15 statistical analyze
program.
3. FINDINGS
Demographic data was analyzed to identify the community feelings in this blended learning environment.
Independent samples t-test was conducted to determine if community feeling differed by gender.
According to the t-test results, there were significant differences in the community feeling across genders, t
(674) = 2.57, p >,05. This result showed that male participants have a stronger community feeling (
X
=
25.66) than female participants (
X
= 24.11). The t-test results are presented in the Table 2.

Variables Frequency Percent Variables Frequency Percent
Female 237 25.1 Regular 236 34.9
Gender
Male 439 64.9 Partially 191 28.3
25 and under 261 38.6
Access to
Internet
Irregular 245 36.2
26-35 280 41.4 3 years and less 364 53.8
36-45 129 19.1 3-7 years 231 34.2
Age
45 and older 6 0.9 8-12 years 65 9.6
Regular 189 28.1 13-17 years 6 0.9
Partially 198 29.4 More than 17 3 0.4
Access to
computer
Irregular 286 42.5
Period of
computer
usage

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Table 2. T-test results by gender
Variable Group N
X

S df t p
Female 237 24.11 7.23
Community feeling
Male 439 25.66 7.59
674 2.57 0.01*

A one way ANOVA was carried out in order to determine whether there is a significant difference in the
community feeling in terms of students ages. Results showed that there is no significant difference in
community feeling in terms of age. The results of one way ANOVA analysis are presented in Table 3.
Table 3. One way ANOVA results by age
Source of
Variance
Sum of
Squares
df
Mean
Square
F p
Significant
difference
Between groups 308.98 3 102.993 1.839 -
Within groups 37643.53 672 56.017
Total 37952.51 675
0.139

When the community feelings were analyzed in terms of students access to the computer, it was
determined that there is significant difference in the results of one way ANOVA analysis [F
(2-670)
= 5.583,
p<.05]. Participants community feeling vary according to the access levels to computers. As a result of
Bonferroni test, it was found that students who have a regular access (
X
=25.77) and partially regular access
(
X
= 25.60) have a stronger community feeling than the ones who have irregular access (
X
= 23.56). The
results of one way ANOVA analysis are presented in Table 4.
Table 4. One way ANOVA results by access to computers
Source of
Variance
Sum of
Squares
df
Mean
Square
F p
Significant
difference
Between groups
620.441 2 310.220 5.583 Irregular-Partially,
Regular-Irregular
Within groups 37229.509 670 55.566
Total 37849.95 672
0.004

When the community feelings were analyzed in terms of students access to the Internet, it was
determined that there is significant difference [F
(2-669)
= 8.743, p<.05]. Participants community feelings
could be change according to access to Internet. Further Bonferroni test results showed that students who
have a regular access (
X
= 26.09) and partially regular access (
X
= 25.87) have a stronger community
feeling than irregular access (
X
= 23.49). The results of one way ANOVA analysis are presented in Table 5.
Table 5. One way ANOVA results by access to Internet
Source of
Variance
Sum of
Squares
df
Mean
Square
F p
Significant
difference
Between groups
964.431 2 482.215 8.743 Partially-Irregular,
Regular-Irregular
Within groups 36899.247 669 55.156
Total 37863.677 671
0.000

One way ANOVA analysis was conducted to determine if community feeling differed according to the
period of computer usage. It was found that there were no significant differences in the community feeling in
terms of students computer usage periods. The results of one way ANOVA analysis are presented in Table 6.
Table 6. One way ANOVA results by period of computer usage
Source of
Variance
Sum of
Squares
df
Mean
Square
F p
Significant
difference
Between groups 493.496 4 123.374 2.216 -
Within groups 36971.130 664 55.679
Total 37464.627 668
0.066

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4. CONCLUSION
It is important to develop community feeling in distance education in which students and teachers are
physically separated. In this study, community feelings of students who have enrolled in a distance education
program which is configured on a blended learning model, in online environments, were analyzed in terms of
demographic variables such as age, gender, access to computer, access to Internet and period of computer
usage. Results showed that while there was a significant difference in the community feelings of students in
terms of gender, access to computers and access to Internet, there was no significant difference in terms of
age and period of computer usage. This study has revealed out that males have a stronger community feeling
than females. However in contrast to this study; previous studies showed that females have a stronger
community feeling than males (Rovai, 2002a; Rovai & Barnaum, 2003).
The students who have regular access to computer and Internet were found to have stronger community
feeling than others. In addition, students who use online communication tools found to feeling themselves
belong to the program as they are in touch with friends and teachers by synchronous and asynchronous. It
was determined that conversation and face to face interaction help community feeling development more
than electronic discussion boards. The students stated that discussion boards did not influence their feeling of
belonging in the same rate when it is compared to the other tools (Lord & Lomicka, 2008).
In a research Swan and Shih (2005) found that younger students were significantly more comfortable with
online discussion than older students. In contrast to this study, according to the analysis there is no difference
in the community feeling development of different aged groups. This finding may show that older students
could attend to the online communications and tend to be an active participant, too.
In the same way, as there are no differences between who were using computer for a long time and short
time, it shows that their adaptations to online communication technologies are effective.
Further studies should analyze the effect of attending frequency to the face to face interactions on
community feeling.
REFERENCES
Brown, J. S. et al, 1996. Universities in the digital age. Change, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp 1119.
Ilgaz, H., 2008, Uzaktan eitimde teknoloji kabulnn ve topluluk hissinin renen memnuniyetine katks, Ms thesis,
Hacettepe University, Turkiye.
Lord, G. et al, 2008. Blended learning in teacher education: An investigation of classroom community across media.
Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp 158-174.
McMillan, D. W. et al, 1986. Sense of community: A definition and theory. Journal of Community Psychology, Vol. 14,
No. 1, pp 6-23.
National Center for Education Statistics, Distance education at postsecondary education institutions: 1997-98. Available
from: <http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/2000013.pdf>. [26 June 2009].
Rovai, A. P. et al, 2004a. The classroom and school community inventory: Development, refinement, and validation of a
self-report measure for educational research. The Internet and Higher Education, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp 263-280.
Rovai, A. P. et al, 2004b. Blended Learning and Sense of Community: A comparative analysis with traditional and fully
online graduate courses. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol. 5, No. 2.
Rovai, A. P. et al, 2003. On-line course effectiveness: An analysis of student Interactions and Perceptions of Learning.
Journal of Distance Education, Vol. 18, No 1, pp 57-73
Rovai, A. P., 2002a. Sense of community, perceived cognitive learning, and persistence in asynchronous learning
networks. The Internet and Higher Education, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp 319-332.
Rovai, A.P., 2002b. Building Sense of Community at a Distance. The International Review of Research in Open and
Distance Learning, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp 1-12.
Rovai, A. P., 2001. Building Classroom Community at a Distance: A Case Study. Educational Technology Research and
Development, Vol. 49, No. 4, pp 33-48.
Suhr, D.D. 2006. Exploratory or Confirmatory Factor Analysis. SAS Users Group International (SUGI) 31 Proceedings.
San Francisco, USA.
Swan, K. et al, 2005. On the Nature and Development of Social Presence in Online Course Discussions. Journal of
Asynchronous Learning Networks, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp 115-136.
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TECHNOLOGICAL ARTIFACTS FOR SOCIAL
INCLUSION: STRUCTURE OF THE BRAZILIAN SIGN
LANGUAGE (LIBRAS), GESTURES FOR CITIZENSHIP
Cayley Guimares, Diego R. Antunes, Daniela F. G. Trindade, Rafaella A. L. Silva,
Sueli Fernandes, Alssio M. Jr. and Laura Snchez Garca
Universidade Federal do Paran UFPR
ABSTRACT
The Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) is the language used by the members of the deaf community, academia and related
communities for access to information, citizenship, literacy, among others. The lack of adequate tools in Libras plays a
major role in social exclusion and lack of citizenship of the deaf. In order to aid social inclusion of the deaf, taken here to
mean a real access to full citizenship, the significant gap of technological artifacts must be filled. This paper presents a
model of the computational description of the phonetic structure of Libras that will serve as the foundation stone of a vast
set of tools to be constructed. This model will be used to create a sample of representative signs to aid the recording of a
base of videos whose aim is to support the development of tools to support genuine social inclusion of the deaf.
KEYWORDS
Libras, Accessibility, Citizenship, Computational Model.
1. INTRODUCTION
Historically, deaf people were treated as having deficiencies, which set them apart from normality, ensuing
exclusion and prejudices. Nowadays, the deaf are finally starting to be regarded as members of a minority
whose inclusion aggregates social, political and citizenship dimensions, which include access to information,
education, literacy, aid tools etc. Bearers of an identity, culture and other elements that constitute a
community, the deaf need tools to help them to communicate among each other and with other members of
the society as a whole. A pillar of such is the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). Libras is a legitimate
linguistic system, with rules and structure (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics) that
makes it a suitable candidate for computational representation.
This article presents a computational model of the structure of signs in Libras, based on phonological
models of the sign languages. The model presented in this article will be used to generate a representative
sample set of signs to be recorded in videos, and described computationally according to the proposed model
(that may be represented in many data structures, but will be exemplified here by XML).
2. A WORLD OF GESTURES
For Skliar (1999) the deaf communication issue should not be approached only as a medical problem;
instead, deaf peoples issues demand social, political and citizenship dimensions. Linguistic conceptions
should be used, thus removing the deaf persons from the deficiency realm and bringing them to a status of
belonging to a minority outside orality. Fernandes (2006) advocates that the use of the sign language by a
deaf person implies a specific relationship of the deaf with her own world, a different way of the deaf being
herself. The historical abandonment and lack of research implies directly in the exclusion of the deaf from the
oral society.
Santos (2002) conclaims science to not only describe the world, but to understand it intimately and to
unveil the human possibilities, turning the knowledge into practical, thus leading to inclusion. In this sense,
267
the deaf community must be respected in its culture, its identity, its own language. The communities
particular form of communication and understanding of the world must be a part in exercising citizenship.
According to Pinsky & Pinsky (2003), to exercise the right of citizenship is a necessity and it is visibly
present on civil, social-economical and political rights. Citizens must have access to information so that they
may develop critical sense. At this point, it is clear to us that deaf people need adequate technological
artefacts that would aid them access information, and, consequently, aid them to exercise their citizenship.
Sign languages are a legitimate linguistic system, of spacial-gestual-visual manner, capable of providing
the deaf an adequate means to realize all of their linguistic potentialities. Sign languages are not universal,
and, just like any oral language, it is different in various countries, and some may vary even within the same
country or regions or among deaf communities [Stumpf, 2005].
To Fernandes (2006:2), Libras is an autonomous, organized lexically (vocabulary), grammatically (rules)
and functionally (usages), and is used only in existing groups that are present in agglutinating centers.
Approximately 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, and, therefore, are not necessarily exposed
to the gestual universe that would allow them to acquire sign language naturally. In this context, it is
necessary the use of Libras as a mediator in tools and materials geared towards citizenship of the deaf. In
Brazil there are 5.7 million people with some degree of hearing deficiency, with around 3% of this total
considered as deaf, according to the census IBGE (www.ibge.org.br). In 2003s school census it was shown
that only 344 deaf persons attended brazilian universities, demonstrating a high degree of exclusion and the
inability of brazilian high education institutions to cope with the demands of the deaf communities.
3. RELATED GESTURES
Adamo et al (2007) introduce SMILE, a CAVE application for fifth-grade students to learn arithmetic
concepts and the corresponding signs from the American Sign Language (ASL), but fail to deliver content in
ASL. Furthermore, the system is complex in terms of usability, requiring sophisticated and hard to use
equipaments. From Piper et al (2008) comes a Shared Speech Interface that consists of a multitouch table-
screen. The tool advances the state of the art by providing a shared experience of communication between the
deaf and a hearing doctor, in a constructed, cooperative way. However, there remain problems related to the
unconfortable necessary presence of an interpreter during the medical appointment, and the fact that the deaf
person wasnt an active participant in the conversation. A future tool that would address these problems
should be independent of the presence of the interpreter, for example.
Turof (1975) investigates how cooperative environments such as instant messages could facilitate the
communication between the deaf and the hearing. Some of these ideas have been commercially implemented,
but they require state-of-the-art, expensive technology if and when fully implemented.
Some tools that mediate face-to-face communication are scarce. But, above all, such tools lack the
cultural aspect to be used in Brazil. For example, in Brazil, a Congress initiative developed Ryben
(www.rybena.org.br) that hasnt, as yet, been fully adopted by the community due to its lack of context (it
does not represent the correct syntax, and some signs are spelled).
Some studies also focused on the communication for individuals by means of gestual recognition.
However, most of the works dont help the deaf to communicate properly, or even to become an active
participant in the conversation. Several authors [Morris et al (2004); Izad et al (2003)] presented incomplete
tools: either because there lacked solid theoretical base, or because the real needs of the users were not taken
into account, or due to technological limitations (e.g. availability, cost etc.).
4. COMPUTATIONAL STRUCTURE FOR LIBRAS
In Brazil, Libras became the official language of the deaf by law decree number 10.436/2002, that guaranteed
rights such as information access in education institutions, the communication in government job selection
and the mandatory teaching of Libras as a subject in teaching under-graduate courses.
The following methodology was followed to elaborate the current proposal: A)Literature Review;
B)Meeting with community representative; C)Additional conferences with specialists;D)Proposal of the
Computational Model;E) Review and Evaluation of the Proposal.
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The phonology is the structure used in the literature to represent the components of a given sign. The
basic phonological characteristics were demonstrated by Stokoe (1960), that showed that sign languages
possess all the linguistic aspects of a language, be it in the lexical, syntax or in its ability to generate infinite
sets of sentences. Additionally, Stokoe showed that, just like the words from oral languages, signs are
composed by segments, and stated that signs are complex and abstract symbols that can be studied by its
many parts (as opposed to mere spelling or mimic, signs are complex structures).
Stokoe said ASL had a limited number of combinations: location; hand configuration and movement.
Then, the 70s wittenessed an increase of deeper studies in the ASL: linguists such as Battison (1974) and
Klima & Bellugi (1979) described a fourth parameter: the orientation of the palm of the hand. Additionally,
the literature shows that signs have other elements that can be used to describe them, such as: structure for
the use of both hands, movement repetitions, non-manual expressions, signs that have two or more hand
configurations, among others.
The model proposed in this article is based on the compilation and adaptation of the phonological models
described by Liddell & Johnson (1989), Quadros & Karnopp (2004), Ferreira-Brito (1995), among others.
From Stokoe, we have that the majority of the signs are composed by minimal set of arrangements that are
executed simultaneously, and Liddell & Johnson state that the signs must be defined also by their
sequenciality. Liddell & Johnson observed that in the ASL there are signs performed with more than a hand
configuration, more than a moviment and/or more than a location.
Liddel & Johnson proposed the Movement-Hodel model: Hold (signs characterized by the lack of
movement and stability of their composing parameters during articulation), and the Movements (signs
characterized by the alteration of at least one of their composing parameters), in addition to having the
presence of a movement. Thus, a model was developed based on the parameters hand configuration, location,
movement, orientation (of the palm of the hand) and non-manual expressions, including several traits to
describe, in detail, the manner in wich signs are formed. Figure 1 shows the basic structure of this proposed
model:

Figure 1. Sign structure
In addition to the existing models, the proposed model adopts two extra segments for the Hold and for the
Movement: Dominant hand and Non-dominant hand. The signs in Libras are the same whether one performs
using the right or the left hand, although the literature specifies the use of the right hand when describing a
sign. The supporting hand have the same segments as the main hand, with its own attributes. In the proposed
model, Hold is composed by Handshapes (pre-defined, the alphabet, spelling and numbers. Fingers
placement enrich the model); Location (place in the body, in space or on supporting hand where the sign is
articulated); Orientation of the Palm (up, down, left, right etc.) and local movements (placed in Hold because
there are signs which are characterized more by oscillations, better described here than in the Movement
segment [Ferreira-Brito, 1995, p.41].
The Non-Manual Expressions include movements of the face, eyes, head and dorsal. The Non-Manual
Expression have, among others, the goal of pointing out some syntactic constructions (interrogative, relative
sentences etc.) and the differentiation of lexical items (specific and pronominal references, negative particle,
adverb, etc.), and may convey joy, sadness, angriness etc. They may also be used to represent desguised
signs. For instance, instead of signalizing theaft in its entirety, one can use only the facial expression, thus
being more discreet.
Movement is defined as the actions of the hand in space and around the enunciator. Quadros & Karnopp
(2004) show the views of several authors describing the complexity of Movement, which can be
characterized in many ways and directions, and, most importantly, they must be taken into account because
such variations may have different meanings in the grammar of the sign language. The type deals with
aspects of movements, interaction and contact. The Quality of the movement contains temporal, non-
temporal aspects (related to the extension and the tension with which the movement is executed) and velocity
269
(e.g. continous, restrained etc.). As for the Directionality, the sign may be unidirectional or bidirectional,
according to Ferreira-Brito.
The Plane XYZ [Capovilla & Sutton (2009)] is utterly suitable for computational treatment. The
Frequency refers to whether there is or there isnt repetition of the movement that forms the sign. The
number of repetitions may or may not be specified, but its presence indicates several meanings for that sign,
such as the intensity. The values for the parameters are considered in reference to whom is executing the
sign.
The proposed model may be used in different representations, such as XML, Data Base or other data
structures deemed necessary for additional computational work. The Figure 2 shows the sign and table 1
shows the XML for the sign pagar vista to pay in cash. The Code shows its description based on the
proposed model.

Figure 2. Visual example of sign pagar vista payment in cash
The sign pagar vista is pictured here for example purposes only. Its XML code can be seen in table 1.
Table 1. Example of sign pagar vista (payment in cash)
<sign name=pagar a vista(1)>
<hold id=1>
<dominantHand>
<handshape preDefined=C />
<palmOrientation palm=up />
<location>
<space>
<proximity distance=proximal />
<spatialRelationship>
<ipsilateral local=parallel chest />
<centralLocation local=chest/>
</spatialRelationship>
</space>
</location>
</dominantHand>
<nonDominantHand>
<handShape preDefined=B />
<palmOrientation palm=up />

<location>
<space>
<proximity distance=distal />
<spatialRelationship>
<clateral local=parallel shouder />
<centralLocation local=abdomen />
</spatialRelationship>
</space>
</location>
</nonDominantHand>
</hold>
<movement id=1>
<dominantHand>
<directionality type=no-dominant hand />
<type outline=semicircular />
<tension type=beat node of the fingers />
</dominantHand>
</movement>
</sign>
5. ANALYSYS, CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORKS
This research uses phonological models described in the literature, used and known by the communities of
deaf people, as basis for the proposal of a computational representation of signs in Libras, aggregating a high
degree of details that allow for addition of new parameters, sequentially of signs, dynamics of signs, among
others. This completudeness is important for the processing (use of the knowledge as described by the model
for image recognition, translation etc.) and for the execution (e.g. to generate 3D avatars).The descriptive
power of the model is evidenced by the correctness of the description of the exemplifying sign.
A sample set of signs in Libras will be constructed (a step that is necessary and sufficient for video
pattern recognition). Once each sign is properly recognized in its segments predicted by the model, then most
signs in Libras will be indentifiable and describable automatically, for future works in different directions,
such as the automatic generation of the writing of the signs, using SignWriting, for example.
Unlike the literature, that approaches the structure of sign languages as mere spelling, or as static signs,
and that doesnt take into account the real needs of the deaf community, this article advances precisely on
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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these aspects, which were responsible for limitations in related works. Therefore, the proposed model
contemplates elements such as: real needs of the deaf, solid theoretical basis, interdisciplinarity between
linguistics and computer science, the validation from specialists and natural users of Libras, a robust
approach to the description of the signs both socially and academically.
As can be seen, the proposed structure is an initial step to a series of applications: Support environments
for teaching/learning: of Libras; of Portuguese mediated by Libras and any discipline of knowledge with
mediation by Libras and the possibility of access by demand of translations in Libras; Virtual environments
of communication and collaborative knowledge construction for the deaf community that incorporate and/or
simulate real situations of social use of the language, thus contributing to changes in prejudicial social
practices originated from the communite itself and from the oral society.
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Brasil, 2002 Lei n. 10436, de 24 de abril de 2002. Dispe sobre a Libras - Lngua Brasileira de Sinais e d outras
providncias. Dirio Oficial da Repblica Federativa do Brasil, Abril de 2002.
Capovilla, F. C., et al. 2009 Dicionrio enciclopdico ilustrado trilnge da Lngua de Sinais Brasileira. So Paulo:
Edusp, 2009.
Fernandes, S., 2006. Avaliao em Lngua Portuguesa para Alunos Surdos: Algumas Consideraes. SEED/SUED/DEE,
Curitiba.
Izadi, S., et al., 2003 Dynamo: A Public Interactive Surface Supporting the Cooperative Sharing and Exchange of Media.
UIST 2003, 159-168.
Klima, E.; Bellugi, U., 1979. The signs of language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
Liddell, S.K.; Johnson, R.E., 1989. American Sign Language: the Phonological Base. Sign Language Studies, v. 64.p.95-
278.
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Proceedings of CSCW 2004, 262-265.
Pinsky, J., Pinsky, C. (orgs) 2003. Histria da Cidadania. Editora Contexto.
Quadros, R. M.; Karnopp, L.B., 2004. Lngua de Sinais Brasileira Estudos Lingsticos. Porto Alegre: Artmed.
Santos, B.de S., 2002. Um discurso sobre as cincias. Porto: Afrontamento, 2002.
Skliar, C., 1999. A Surdez: Um Olhar Sobre a Diferena 1a. ed. Porto Alegre: Mediao.
Stokoe, W. C., 1960/1978. Sign Language Structure Silver Spring: Linstok Press. (Revisto em 1978, Silver Spring,
M.D., Linstok Press).
Stumpf, M.R., 2005. Aprendizagem de escrita de lngua de sinais pelo sistema signwriting: lnguas de sinais no papel e
no computador. Tese de Doutorado. UFRGS
Turoff, M., 1975. Computerized Conferencing for the Deaf and Handicapped. ACM SIGCAPH Newsletter, Number 16,
1975, pp. 4-11.
271
MULTI-AGENT ARCHITECTURE FOR THE VIRTUAL
HEALTH RECORD
Luca Dan Serbanati and Andrei Vasilateanu
Faculty of Engineering in Foreign Languages
Splaiul Independetei 313, Bucuresti, Romania
ABSTRACT
The Electronic Health Record is a central, unifying component in an eHealth infrastructure. In our paper we present a
model for the EHR called Virtual Health Record (Sebanati et al, 2008) (VHCR) together with its services of discovery
and cooperation implemented using software agents. Having an open, decentralized architecture in mind we provide the
VHCR the connection to a dynamic, non-deterministic world composed of different stakeholder working together in the
care process. We also want to integrate seamlessly medical devices supporting the continuity of care in our e-Health
solution, correctly including the readings for a constant monitoring of the patient`s health status. The agent-oriented
architecture and the interactions between components are presented.
KEYWORDS
e-health, multi agent system, ehr
1. INTRODUCTION
The healthcare is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and
physical well being through the services offered by medical and third parties professionals.
An important step towards efficiency improvement and cost cutting in health care is the use of the
Electronic Health Record (EHR); that is an individual patient's medical record in digital format. It enables a
doctor to keep better track of his patients, to issue documents that can be interpreted by other doctors and
other EHRs. EHR systems can reduce medical errors, increase physician efficiency and reduce costs, as well
as promote standardization of care.
We are building a prototype of a patient centric software platform called VHCR (Virtual HealthCare
Record) comprised of a longitudinal EHR and a population of software agents to support the continuity of
care.
Our application deals with the following issues:
1) Information Integration: The system is tasked with interpreting and integrating information
extracted from medical documents originated from various sources and updating a unique and coherent
entity, the VHCR. The original documents are preserved in distributed repositories.
2) Semantic interoperability: The agents are not restricted to interpreting messages in a single standard
but they are also tasked with translating from various standards with the help of a terminology conversion
server.
3) Device integration: Already many medical device components have standard software interfaces
allowing their data to be collected by corresponding applications. By wrapping these devices using intelligent
agents capable of communicating to VHCR we can enable the seamless integration of incoming data in real-
time.
4) Longitudinal Record: The record of a citizen keeps track on the progress of the patient along a
lifelong period of time. Healthcare is seen as a process extended in time.
5) Clinical workflows: A workflow agent monitors the treatment during an episode of care over a long
period of time.
6) Patient awareness: Multiple human-interaction devices can be registered in the system to receive
notifications.
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2. VHCR
Virtual HealthCare Record (VHCR) is the central part of our application. VHCR is not a document
repository; instead it is a healthcare service provider. It holds data extracted from medical documents in a
finer grained model than the documental model permits. The medical document from where VHCR extracted
its information to populate the data structure is not lost. Integration is done by analyzing the document in its
medical context (Episode Of Care, Health Issue) and making the necessary updates in the record. (Chronaki,
2003).In effect integration and interpretation transforms the information received from the PoS from a
document based-model into our model, based on an ontology derived from HL7 RIM v3,(HL7, 2007) see
Fig. 1. Documenting the health status of a patient is done by using health issues. A health issue is a single
health problem like asthma, a broken leg etc
A health issue has a life cycle of its own spanning across a time period. In this period we can have more
episodes of care, for example a patient with asthma has this health issue all his life.
An episode of care is a workspace which logically groups relevant data from an instance of the treatment.
This way a doctor can download from the VHCR only the information from the current episode. Also we use
episodes of care for a finer grained access to information, the patient can give privacy rights based on the
association (<episode>,<role>).
Episodes of care can be active, suspended or closed at a moment in time. Closed episodes are archived for
future reference.
An episode of care consists of more
contacts. A contact is an encounter
between a patient and a health care
provider. Each contact has as an
outcome a document, stored in a
repository and interpreted by the
VHCR.
During a contact the health care
provider offers a number of services to
the patient. These services include
prescription of medicine, referrals for
further analysis or specialized
procedures. These care services can be
atomic or can be grouped in a care
plan, a workflow of services to be
executed and monitored locally.
Results of medical analyses are also
available in the health record. They can
range from blood readings to x-ray
images.

3. VHCR IN THE HEALTHCARE ECOSYSTEM
We envision the healthcare context as a complex business digital ecosystem comprising agencies, national
and international regulations, business processes, models and contractual framework. The stakeholders are
parties with a permanent or temporary interest in the healthcare process who are represented by unique,
customized avatars, implemented by software agents. (Serbanati et al, 2005) In this complex virtual world the
VHCR is itself an organization of agents (Wooldridge, 2002 & Grossi et al, 2006), able to communicate with
other digital components and to participate in business processes. (Huhns, 2008 & Zambonelli et al, 2001).
The focus of this paper is to describe the multi-agent system of VHCR, called VHCR Agency. (see Fig. 2)

Figure 1. VHCR Information Model
273
3.1 VHCR Agency
In the followings the agents living in VHCR Agency are introduced:
Specialized agent of the VHCR
VHCR exposes its services using a specialized agent that interacts with its care record. The VHCR
AGENT is responsible for integrating data from other agents into the VHCR and also for answering queries
regarding the patients health current status, history, and ongoing treatments. VHCR agent is the only agent
aware of the internal structure of the health record.
Synthesis agent
Synthesis Agent is responsible with synthesizing specialized health summaries. In a scenario a patient is
referred to perform a procedure in a private clinic. This clinic requires the medical situation of the patient and
is able to process electronic documents sent in Continuity of Care Document format, in Continuity of Care
Record (Ferranti et al, 2006) format or in a proprietary format. In this case the agent will extract a summary
in the required format. For translating data in an unknown format the agent interacts with the translation
agent, described below.
Device Agents
Each medical device will be represented in the virtual space by an agent responsible for getting data from
the device and sending it to the VHCR AGENT. The device agent can also be used to send
configuration requests to the medical device. To install such an agent the medical device must be registered
in the system, by using the patient portal. If the manufacturer of the device provides the software agent it will
simply be downloaded and started in the agent container. If the manufacturer provides a non-agent software
then an adaptor agent will have to be configured to work with the available software.
Agents that interact with agents from general practitioners and clinics
Most medical data to be incorporated in the VHCR comes from patient encounters with healthcare
providers. Healthcare providers will use different software applications that need to interact with VHCR
either to receive data or to send medical documents for integration. To each such collaboration an agent will
be assigned HCP Agent that will be responsible for receiving signed document, sending them to VHCR-
incoming agents and forwarding queries to VHCR-outcoming agents.
Clinical workflow agents
Once the patients health issue is found out, a health care provider can devise a care plan to be carried out
by the subject of care and his/her care providers. The care plan is a workflow including activities that range
from observations and future appointments to procedures and medication. The care plan is derived from a
clinical guideline and tailored to the patient peculiarities. A patient can have more than one active care plan,
saved in VHCR, corresponding to a specific health issue and episode of care. To each active care plan a
workflow agent is assigned which monitors the realization of the care plan. For example it can send
notifications before a scheduled procedure. When deriving the care plan, the health care professional can
mark which activity realizations are required
to be acknowledged. For example it is critical
for the patient to take a medication once a
day. When the medication is taken the patient
marks this fact on his PDA or in the patient
portal and the event is sent to the VHCR
where it is extracted by the workflow agent. If
the event is not received in the required
interval, the workflow agent sends a
notification.
Health monitoring agents
With the appearance of integrated medical
measurement devices that provide a real-time
monitoring of the life signs of a patient there
is a need to interpret this data as soon as it is
integrated in VHCR and raise an
alarm if the measurements are off the scale.
For this we introduce a monitoring agent
Figure 2. Local Agents of VHCR interact with the world
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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which is an reactive agent with a set of rules <situation>.<action>. The agent is notified whenever a new
measurement is added to VHCR. It extracts it and compares it to admissible limits. When the agent is first
installed this limits are the default ones, based on the age, sex and health issues of the patient. However the
healthcare professional can customize the admissible limits to others tailored to the patient treatment. The
actions can be customized by the patient and consist in notification either of the patient or the general
practitioner. An important issue here is the use of the monitoring agents in preventing the spread of
epidemics. For example they can receive updates from national authorities when a new strain of flu appears,
the symptoms being added to the agent knowledge base. Suppose the symptoms consist of fever, coughing
and headaches. When the patient measures his/her temperature the data is received by the agent which
prompts the patient to answer a query regarding his condition. If the patient confirms the symptoms, he is
informed he may be suffering from the flu and is invited to make an appointment to a health care provider.
The agents themselves rely on low-level services to accomplish their tasks. These services are provided
by the supporting agents as described below:
Broker agent
It acts as a registry for the agents supporting their discovery and communication. When a new agent is
plugged in, it registers to the broker agent, publishing its services.
Agent lifecycle manager
It is responsible for creating new instances of agents, for activating and passivating agents when needed.
It also acts as a garbage collector, removing unnecessary instances.
Agent`s ontology translation agent
In case our local agents communicate with agents and applications using a different medical terminology
we need a set of mappings between different vocabularies to achieve semantic interoperability. This is done
by creating and maintaining a registry of mappings, which falls under the responsibility of the agent`s
ontology translation agent. Whenever an agent encounters an unknown term it queries the translation agent
for a synonym. The translation agent either has the mapping in its knowledge base; either makes a query to
an UMLS terminology server. The Unified Medical Language System (UMLS, 2010) is a compendium of
many controlled vocabularies in the biomedical sciences. It provides a mapping structure among these
vocabularies and thus allows one to translate among the various terminology systems; it may also be viewed
as a comprehensive thesaurus and ontology of biomedical concepts.
4. VHCR IMPLEMENTATION
Currently VHCR is a proof-of-concept prototype, and work has been carried out on extracting use cases from
current medical practice, national regulations, published clinical pathways and also HL7 functional
requirements for EHRs. Another point of interest was designing a message ontology to support agent
communication.
We have chosen JADE (JADE, 2010) as a platform for our software agents since it complies with FIPA
specifications (FIPA, 2005). JADE offers a seamless integration of rules written in JESS (JESS, 2008), a Java
implementation of the RETE algorithm. Currently we are evaluating the possibility of implementing our
workflow agents in WADE, a JADE extension that allows agents to execute tasks defined according to the
workflow metaphor.
Our VHCR project is in design phase. We are analyzing the infrastructure supporting VHCR, a middleware
providing authentification, authorization and encryption services. An open topic is complying with ebXML
standards, acquiring a better interoperability and also integrating health services in broader business
processes.

275
REFERENCES
Chronaki, C.E. et al, 2003. An eHealth platform for instant interaction among health professionals, S.C. Computers in
Cardiology.
Ferranti, J. et al, 2006, The Clinical Document Architecture and the Continuity of Care Record. British Medical Journal,
13(3):245.
FIPA, 2005. [Online], Available: http://www.fipa.org/ [26 Jul 2010].
Grossi, D. et al, 2006. Ontological aspects of the implementation of norms in agent-based electronic institutions,
Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory, 12(2):251275.
HL7 Continuity of Care Document, 2007. [Online], Available: www.hl7.org [26 Jul 2010].
Huhns, M. and Stephens, L., 2008. Multiagent Systems and Societies of Agents.
JADE, 2010. [Online], Available: http://jade.tilab.com/ [26 Jul 2010].
JESS, 2008. [Online], Available: http://www.jessrules.com/. [26 Jul 2010].
Serbanati, L. et al, 2005. Modelling medical research processes in humans to set up a standard for clinical trial
management system. Innovation and the Knowledge Economy: Issues, Applications, Case Studies.
Serbanati, L.D. et al, 2008. Supporting Continuity of Care with a Virtual Electronic Health Record, Romania 9th
International HL7, Interoperability Conference, Bucharest, Romania.
Unified Medical Language System, 2010. [Online], Available: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/ [26 Jul 2010].
Wooldridge, M., 2002. An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems. John Wiley & Sons.
Zambonelli, F. et al, 2001. Organizational abstractions for the analysis and design of multi-agent systems. In Agent-
Oriented Software Engineering, pages 407422.
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
276
ENHANCING FAIRNESS: A NOVEL C2C E-COMMERCE
COMMUNITY MEMBER REPUTATION ALGORITHM
BASED ON TRANSACTION SOCIAL NETWORKS
Wangsen Feng
1
, Bei Zhang
1
, Yunni Xia
2
, Jiajing Li
3
and Tao Meng
4

1
Key Laboratory of Network and Software Security Assurance of Ministry of Education (Peking University)
1
Computing Center, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
2
College of Computer Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
3
School of Mechanical Electronic and Information Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology
3
Beijing 100083, China
4
Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
ABSTRACT
Today, almost all the C2C e-commerce community member reputation evaluating algorithms are time sensitive. The
reputation of a community member is accumulated after transactions and the increment of reputation after a successful
transaction is computed based on the score given by his or her transaction partner. Since people always tend to do
business with those with high reputation value, the reputation of members joined in C2C community at different time will
vary greatly although they may provide the same commodity quality and service. It is unfair to new comers. In this paper,
we propose a novel algorithm to overcome the shortcoming. Based on the transaction social network, our algorithm
employs the random walk strategy to compute member reputation and enhance system fairness.
KEYWORDS
C2C e-commerce community; reputation; fairness; social network
1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, Internet reputation systems can be divided into two main classes generally. One derives reputation
based on the evaluation of application principals. Electronic commerce reputation system and web page
ranking system of Web search engine are representative examples. The other derives reputation by
applications based on the behavior of application principals. BBS reputation system and P2P file sharing
reputation system are representative examples.
Electronic commerce reputation systems compute member reputation based on the mutual rating between
sellers and buyers. A large transaction social network is formed among members of e-commerce web sites
based on the transaction relationship. Honest vendors and customers occupy central positions in the social
network. The reputation of web pages is computed based on the web link structure. It makes use of the fact
that the links among web pages are established by professionals who design these pages. Web pages win links
from other pages by their content and interface. BBS reputation systems rate users based on user behavior,
including posting articles, replying articles, login times etc. P2P file sharing reputation systems rate users
based on their online time, upload data volume and download data volume.
In this paper, we focus our attention on C2C electronic commerce reputation systems, studying how to
fairly evaluate member reputation in C2C electronic commerce communities. Nowadays, almost all the C2C
electronic commerce systems adopt reputation systems to keep electronic market order. The reputation of a
community member is accumulated after transactions and the increment of reputation after a successful
transaction is computed based on the score given by his or her transaction partner [Paul Resnick et al, 2000].
Such reputation evaluating algorithm is time sensitive. Since people always tend to do business with those
with high reputation value, the reputation of members joined in C2C community at different time will vary
greatly although they may provide the same commodity quality and service. In real market, those pioneers
who catch the business opportunity always occupy maximum market share and even monopolize the market. It
277
is difficult for new comers to find a foothold, even if those own the same technology and service. They can
only wait for next revolutionary opportunity. It is unfair and is not good news for competing, progress of
technology and customers. However, in the virtual network community, it is possible to improve the situation.
Although there is already lots of literature on reputation research [Paul Resnick et al, 2000; Bin Yu and
Munindar P. Singh, 2003; Gayatri Swamynathan et al, 2008; Ebrahim Bagheri et al, 2009], no one has
concerned the fairness issue of online reputation systems.
In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm to enhance C2C e-commerce reputation system fairness.
Based on the transaction social network, our algorithm employs the random walk strategy to compute
member reputation.
2. C2C COMMUNITY MEMBER REPUTATION INCREMENT
EVALUATION FORMULA
A non-trivial C2C e-commerce community member reputation increment evaluation formula is proposed in
this section, where reputation increment means the increment of member reputation after a successful
transaction. We believe the formula for evaluating increment of member reputation after a successful
transaction should consider the following factors: the score given by ones transaction partner, the reputation
of the transaction partner, the transaction value and the encouragement-punishment factor.
The score given by ones transaction partner reflects whether the members behavior satisfies his or her
partner, for example, whether the commodity quality or service is as promised, whether the payment is in time.
Transaction value is an important factor for evaluating members reputation. In general, the larger the
transaction value is, the bigger the transaction risk will exist. If a member can still keep honest in transactions
of high value, then he deserves trust relatively. If transaction value is not considered in reputation increment
evaluating formula and the increment of reputation has nothing to do with transaction value, then gamblers
will accumulate their reputation in transactions of small value and cheat in transactions of large value.
Encouragement or punishment factor is used to encourage a member to keep transaction contract or punish a
member for breaking transaction contract. In human society, trust increases slowly and decreases quickly.
Therefore, encouragement factor should be much smaller than punishment factor.
In this paper, {1, 0, -1} is taken as the score rate set. Score rate 1, -1 reflect that a member is satisfactory or
unsatisfactory with his transaction partners behavior, respectively. Score rate 0 is neutral between 1 and -1.
Since the feedback of members is usually based on intuition, we believe that it is reasonable to set only three
rates. Some large electronic commerce sites also adopt {1, 0, -1} as the score rate set, like eBay.
Denote by m, R(m) a member in C2C e-commerce community and ms reputation value, respectively. Let s
be the score given by ones transaction partner after a successful transaction and w be the transaction value.
After a successful transaction, the increment of a participators reputation has much to do with the reputation
of his or her transaction partner, the score given by the partner and the transaction value. We use the following
formula to calculate the increment of a member ms reputation after a successful transaction.
1
2
( ) 1
( ) 0 0
( ) 1
c R w p s
R m s
c R w p s
+ =
= =
+ =

Here, p
1
and p
2
are the encouragement factor and punishment factor, respectively, and R is the reputation
value of the transaction partner, c is a small reputation constant (c<<1). The initial reputation value of a
member is always set to be zero.
3. ENHANCING FAIRNESS: A NOVEL ALGORITHM BASED ON
TRANSACTION SOCIAL NETWORKS
A novel member reputation evaluating algorithm is proposed in this section to enhance e-commerce reputation
system fairness.
Use vertices and edges to represent members and transactions between two members, respectively. If
member A and B conduct a successful transaction, then there is a directed edge from A to B and from B to A,
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
278
respectively. The transaction value and the score given by ones transaction partner are also associated with
the corresponding edge. The induced graph is called transaction social network. It is easy to draw the
conclusion: directed edges appear in pairs. For any vertex, the income degree is equal to the outcome degree.
Almost all the C2C community member reputation computing methods are based on transaction time. It is
unfair to new comers. A natural idea is that sort transactions randomly and update ones reputation based on
the new transaction sequence. However, this simple strategy will bring new unfairness. In this paper, we
iteratively select a transaction employing the random walk strategy on the transaction social network and
update ones reputation until the reputation value of all nodes in the network are stable.
The algorithm first induces the transaction social network topology from C2C e-commerce transaction data.
Then it divides the network into several blocks using a social network analysis algorithm. After completing the
above preliminary work, it randomly selects one node from each block as seeds and applies random walk
strategy on the network with each seed as a starting point. The algorithm iteratively performs above procedure
until the reputation of all nodes converges. The exact algorithm lists as follows.
v
1
v
v
2 v
3
getNextNode(v)->v
1
getNextNode(v
1
)->v
2
getNextNode(v
2
)->v
3
getNextNode(v
3
)->NULL

Figure 1. Random walk path example (bold path), where v is the seed, the path extends from v and ends at v
3
.
Algorithm: computing reputation based on transaction social network random walk
Step 1: induce transaction social network N based on the transaction data;
Step 2: compute a community set C={c
1
,c
2
,,c
k
} (k 1) of network N using the
community analysis algorithm based on maximum modularity;
Step 3: do {
Step 4: random select one node from each community in C, and get k nodes:
n
1
,n
2
,,n
k
;
Step 5: for ( int i=1; i<k+1; i++ ) {
Step 6: updateReputation(n
i
);
Step 7: n=getNextNode(n
i
);
Step 8: while ( n!=NULL ) {
Step 9: updateReputation(n);
Step 10: n=getNextNode(n);
Step 11: }//while
Step 12: }//for
Step 13: } while (repuConverge(N))

Here the community analysis algorithm based on maximum modularity mentioned in the above algorithm
is designed by Mark Newman [M.E.J. Newman, 2004; Aaron Clauset et al, 2004].

n
1
n
2
n
3
n
4
n
k
....

Figure 2. Random walks on transaction social networks, where n
1
,n
2
,,n
k
are the seeds of each community in the network.
Function updateReputation(n) randomly selects one transaction among those transactions which n has
participated in, computes the increment of ns reputation after the transaction, and update reputation value of n.
279
In order to control the growth of reputation, the function also introduces a control factor T, where T is the sum
of reputation value of every node in the network and evaluated when repuConverge(N) is called. The initial
value of T is set to be 1.

Function: updateReputation(n)
Step 1: Denote by d the income degree of node n. Select one edge e pointing to n
uniformly.
Step 2: Update ns reputation value based on the transaction data corresponding to
the selected edge e using
( )
( )
R n
R n
T
+ =
, where R(n) can be computed with the formula
introduced in section II.

Function getNextNode(n) determines whether the random walk path will terminate. If it returns NULL, the
path terminates. If it returns a node n
i
which is pointed by n, the path continues and the destination of this jump
is n
i
. It is easy to see that the more the number of out edges is, the larger the jumping probability is. If a node
has already been chosen in this loop before, the function should also return NULL.

Function: getNextNode(n)
Step 1: Denote by d the outcome degree of node n, and let n
1
,,n
d
be the nodes
pointed by n. Select one element from the set {n
1
,,n
d
,NULL} uniformly.
Step 2: if ( a node is selected and the node has not been chosen in this loop
before )
Step 3: return the node
Step 4: else return NULL.

Function repuConverge(N) is used to test whether the algorithm has converged and also to update the
control factor T. Clearly the increment of reputation tends to 0 because of the control factor T.

Function: repuConverge(N)
Step 1: if (the increment of every nodes reputation < )
Step 2: return true;
Step 3: else return false.

Here is a constant threshold value.

Clearly, the algorithm needs enough transaction data to induce the transaction social network. Therefore,
when applying the algorithm into C2C electronic commerce reputation system, one had better use the
algorithm to modify reputation periodically. First, compute member reputation with the traditional algorithm.
After a period, for example one month, compute member reputation using our algorithm based on the
transaction data of this period. Then one can average the reputation increment of this period computed by our
algorithm and the reputation increment of this period computed by the traditional algorithm, and derive the
modified member reputation value using this average value together with the reputation value at the beginning
of this period.
4. CONCLUSION
This paper discusses a new issue of C2C e-commerce reputation systems: fairness. A novel member
reputation evaluating algorithm is proposed to enhance reputation system fairness. The algorithm employs
the random walk strategy on the transaction social network and effectively reduces the computing complexity.
We expect online e-commerce service providers can adopt the algorithm.

ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
280
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work is fully supported by the National Grand Fundamental Research Program of China under Grant No.
2009CB320505 and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China under
Grant No. 2008AA01Z203.
REFERENCES
Paul Resnick et al, 2000. Reputation Systems. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 43, No. 12, pp. 45-48.
Bin Yu and Munindar P. Singh, 2003. Detecting deception in reputation management. Proceedings of International Joint
Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems. Melbourne, Australia, pp. 73-80.
Gayatri Swamynathan et al, 2008. Towards Reliable Reputations for Dynamic Networked Systems. Proceedings of IEEE
Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems. Napoli, Italy, pp. 195-204.
Ebrahim Bagheri et al, 2009. Can reputation migrate? On the propagation of reputation in multi-context communities.
Knowledge Based Systems, Vol. 22, No. 6, pp. 410-420.
M.E.J. Newman, 2004. Fast algorithm for detecting community structure in networks. Physical Review E, Vol. 69,
066133.
Aaron Clauset et al, 2004. Finding community structure in very large networks. Physical Review E, Vol. 70, 066111.
281
(SEMI-)AUTOMATIC NEGOTIATION
OF SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS
Anne Kmpel, Iris Braun, Josef Spillner and Alexander Schill
Chair of Computer Networks
Technische Universitt Dresden
Dresden, Germany
ABSTRACT
The paper presents an approach to simplify and shorten the negotiation process towards a Service Level Agreement
(SLA) between a web service provider and a service consumer. While interests of contract partners may differ in various
aspects, the negotiation phase can take a long time even without finding an optimal result. We propose an approach how
the negotiation phase can be shortened by using the decision matrices of the negotiation partners in a central component,
which finds a quasi-optimal allocation for the negotiable parameters.
KEYWORDS
SOA, Web Service, Negotiation, SLA
1. INTRODUCTION
In the Internet of Services, where services become composable and tradable entities, contracts to describe the
service functionality and interfaces but also the obligations of service consumers and providers are an
essential need. The negotiation phase of such contracts can be a complex and time consuming step in the life
cycle of service usage [Braun08]. Negotiations in general can be competitive or cooperative. While in
competitive negotiations every negotiator tries to maximize their own gain which implies several message
exchanges between all partners, the cooperative negotiation approach is interested in finding a global solution
for all involved parties, which can be best reached through a mediator. The need of automating the
negotiation process especially in the service-oriented world has been discussed for more than ten years
[Sierra97]. The approaches mainly are competitive, agent-based and follow an offer-counteroffer process. A
cooperative approach, which uses a central component, is presented in [Comuzzi09]. They provide a price-
driven concept, whereas the generic concept presented in this paper is independent of monetary aspects. The
price for a service can be subject of the negotiation process but also be negotiated or calculated afterwards.
This approach can also be used for in-house service contracts or long term cross-service contracts.
In the same context, researchers developed different mostly XML-based representations for service
contracts. Prominent examples are WS-Agreement (WSAG) [wsag] and WSLA [wsla]. In the Internet of
Services, contracts, known as Service Level Agreements (SLA), exist between companies as well as between
service providers and end-users, who might have small knowledge of using agents or even of the creation
process of SLAs. An SLA establishes agreements not only on the quality of a service (QoS) but also on all
relevant aspects of service usage between a service provider and a service consumer. A contract consists of
different parts. While some of them are informative (e.g. provider address) and/or fixed (e.g. functional
aspects), others are variable and negotiable (e.g. support level, price or QoS parameters). To shorten the SLA
negotiation process, SLA templates, or QoS-profiles [Mulugeta07], are used to offer different profiles to the
service consumer. When there is no template that meets all consumers needs, they have to accept a
compromise or must cancel the negotiation process. On the other hand if service providers often violate
against the SLA, they have to delete or modify the templates to avoid violations in the future [Spillner09].
The needs or business values for using or providing services normally differ between consumer and provider.
While a consumer wants to have a short response time, the provider prefers to delay the guaranteed response
time to save their resources. If only few parameters with little alternatives are negotiable, the easiest way is to
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
282
rank all possible combinations and to come to an agreement on one of them. Raising the amount of
parameters and parameter values raises the possibilities and the amount of proposals becomes unmanageable.
An example: If 5 parameters and 3 alternatives per parameter are given to negotiate, already 3
5
= 243
proposals are possible. For such a multi-criteria decision problem a decision matrix can be used to find the
best choice. As already mentioned these decision matrices can differ for the negotiation partners. In this
paper we present an approach to specify the preferences on service quality parameters or other negotiable
parameters and introduce a component which, based on the given decision matrixes, creates a nearly optimal
proposal for a contract, which can be finished by the partners with a chosen protocol. The advantage of this
cooperative approach is to simplify the negotiation process for service consumers and providers by
introducing a way to model their preferences.
Section 2 gives a brief architecture overview, followed by the description of the representation model for
the decision matrix. The process of finding the proposal is explained in Section 4 and the article finishes with
a conclusion and outlook to future work.
2. ARCHITECTURE AND NEGOTIATION PROTOCOL
Figure 1 gives an overview of the architecture of the negotiation module. It provides two web service
interfaces for the negotiation process. One is to initiate the calculation process and the other is to poll the
result.

Figure 1. Architecture of the negotiation module
With the initiation call a negotiation initiator introduces their constraints (preferences for different
parameters) for a specific service and receives an identifier for polling the result afterwards. The negotiation
module will fetch the constraints for the corresponding service provider from a central component, the SLA
manager, which administrates the SLA templates. For a detailed view on an SLA-based infrastructure see
[Winkler09]. The two given constraint sets are matched by the calculation module and the best proposal is
calculated. The initiator polls the proposal and converts it to their favored SLA format. In WSAG protocol
for example the proposal will be sent by the wsag:CreateAgreement(AgreementOffer) operation.
3. REPRESENTATION OF USER PREFERENCES
In this section we present our model to represent the negotiations partners needs. For multi-criteria decision
problems, a decision matrix can be used to find the best combination for several values of parameters.
We define all negotiable parameters as p
1
,...,p
n
. For each parameter p
i
a meta-information tuple Ip
i
=
{name, metric, guarantor, kov, tov, info} and a set of values v
pi
= {v
1
,..,v
k
} is given. The information tuple
identifies this parameter and gives all needed information. Name and metric are self-evident, the guarantor
means the partner who is responsible to keep the specific value that may be the consumer or the provider.
KindOfValue (kov) indicates whether the values v
pi
are discrete or continuous values. If they are continuous
values, the value set consists of only two values, the maximum and the minimum. An example: for the
parameter responseTime normally a range will be defined (continuous) while for the parameter
283
encryption specific provided encryption standards are given as a value set (discrete). TypeOfValue (tov)
gives the data type of the values like String, Integer or Boolean. Additional information or extensions can be
defined in info. For assembling the decision matrix a parameter priority and value preference are introduced
according to [Chun03]. The priority prio(p
i
) of the parameter p
i
defines the weighting of p
i
in relation to the
other parameters p
1
,...,p
n
. The preference pref(v
pi
) defines the degree of importance for v
pi
compared to the
other possible values for p
i.
Figure 2 illustrates the representation of parameter constraints. The ConstraintList
contains a list of all parameters (constraints) with its appropriate priority, the meta-information tuple and the
value set with the preferences.

Figure 2. Overview of the representation model for user preferences
This representation (Figure 2) of the user preferences is defined as an XML schema and can extend or be
embedded into different SLA languages. WS-Agreement e.g. defines in wsag:Template a
wsag:CreationConstraints section with the free form element wsag:Constraint. This can be used to embed the
provider preferences. In the drafted extension of WSAG, WS-Agreement Negotiation [wsag-neg], a wsag-
neg:NegotiationConstraints section with the same type as wsag:CreationConstraint will be defined and gives
the consumer a possibility to provide their constraints to the negotiation partner.
shows an example, where two parameters Response_Time and Support_Language are defined in a
WSAG-Template.

The parameter Support_Language gives three alternatives, whereas en (English) is the most preferred.
Listing 1. Excerpt of a WS-Agreement Template with embedded user preferences
<wsag:Template TemplateId="">
...
<wsag:CreationConstraints>
<wsag:Constraint Priority="0.7">
<dm:MetaInfo>
<dm:Name>Response_Time</dm:Name>
<dm:Metric>sec</dm:Metric/>
<dm:Guarantor>PROVIDER</dm:Guarantor>
<dm:KoV>CONTINUOUS</dm:KoV>
<dm:ToV>INTEGER</dm:ToV>
<dm:MetaInfo>
<dm:C_Values>
<dm:C_Value Preference="0.9">10</dm:C_Value>
<dm:C_Value Preference="0.1">1</dm:C_Value>
</dm:C_Values>
</wsag:Constraint>

<wsag:Constraint Priority="0.3">
<dm:MetaInfo>
<dm:Name>Support_Language</dm:Name>
<dm:Metric>ISO639-1</dm:Metric>
<dm:Guarantor>PROVIDER</dm:Guarantor>
<dm:KoV>DISCRETE</dm:KoV>
<dm:ToV>STRING</dm:ToV>
<dm:MetaInfo>
<dm:C_Values>
<dm:C_Value Preference="0.5">en</dm:C_Value>
<dm:C_Value Preference="0.3">de</dm:C_Value>
<dm:C_Value Preference="0.2">fr</dm:C_Value>
</dm:C_Values>
</wsag:Constraint>
</wsag:CreationConstraints>
</wsag:Template>
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For Response_Time a range for the minimum and maximum deliverable or acceptable value is given.
The negotiated range in the final agreement has to be inside this range.
4. DECISION MAKING PROCESS
The decision making process proceeds in five steps:
1. Collect the constraint sets of consumer and provider. While the consumer gives their set together with
the order, the constraint set of the provider has to be fetched at the SLA Manager.
2. Match the constraint lists. As the parameters in the constraint list of the consumer and provider may
differ, they must be matched to a subset, which represents the intersection of the two lists.
3. Match the value sets. Also the given alternatives for a parameter may differ in the provider and the
consumer lists. Especially for continuous values the ranges have to be matched and the preferences for the
modified ranges have to be calculated.
4. Normalize the priorities and preferences. To ensure that the given priority and preference values are
comparable and fairly used, they have to be normalized.
5. Finally the best configuration (proposal) has to be found.
To find the best proposal, an optimal solution for a defined objective function Z has to be found.
If the parameter values are ranges, i.e. KindOfValue in the meta-information is continuous, we have to
find an agreement within a common range. As previously described, for ranges the value set consists of only
two values. In the third step we have to match the two given ranges (one for every partner), so we have to
find the intersection of the two ranges. Than we have to map the found common range to one preference
value for every partner. This is simply done by calculating the mean of the two preferences, which can be
obtained from a linear function.
With the given priorities and preferences we can calculate the utility function U(P) for a proposal P with n
parameters by summarizing the utilities for every parameter:
U(P) = U(v
pi
) where U(v
pi
) = prio(p
i
) * pref(v
pi
) and P = { v
p1
,...,v
pn
}

For every partner the best allocation for parameter p
i
is the value v
pi
where U(v
pi
) has a maximum. For
determining the best allocation for a parameter, which maximizes the utility function for both negotiation
partner 1 and 2, we define an objective function Z as:
Z(v
pi
) = U1(v
pi
) + U2(v
pi
) - |U1(v
pi
) - U2(v
pi
)| 2 * min( U1(v
pi
), U2(v
pi
) )
The best allocation v
best
for a parameter p
i
is where the objective function Z has a maximum. If we find
more than one allocation, we choose the v as v
best
, for which the sum U1(v
pi
) + U2(v
pi
) is highest. If we have
still more than one v we choose one randomly.
After finding an allocation for all common parameters, the proposal can be offered to the initiator of the
negotiation.
5. CONCLUSION
In this paper we presented an approach for finding a proposal for a SLA, which fits nearly optimal the needs
of the service consumer and the service provider as well. According to Arrows-Theorem [Arrow50] we
cannot claim that the found proposal is the best, but it is one of the Pareto-optimal solutions (win-win). The
provided approach gives the service consumer the possibility to initiate a negotiation independently from the
provided SLA templates. Of course the best fitting values can only be found for parameters which are
evaluated by both partners, but the non-matching parameters can be offered to the initiator and be used for
further (human-based) negotiations as well. We have implemented the decision making process and will
evaluate it in collaboration with project partners in the TEXO use case of THESEUS project [Theseus]. In
future work we have to extend the decision making process to find not only one Pareto-optimal solution but
more or even all to give the partners a choice. While this approach reflects interdependencies between the
negotiable parameters only in building the decision matrix but not in calculating the proposal, we have to
build up and maximize an objective function Z(P) for a proposal as a whole, instead of maximizing the
objective function for the parameters separately. This will result in a typical constraint satisfaction problem.
285
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The presented work is part of the research project THESEUS and will be evaluated in the use case TEXO.
The project was funded by means of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology under the
promotional reference 01MQ07012.
REFERENCES
[Arrow50] K. J. Arrow (1950). `A Difficulty in the Concept of Social Welfare'. The Journal of Political Economy
58(4):328-346.
[Braun08] Braun I. et al, 2008. Zusicherung nichtfunktionaler Eigenschaften und Dienstgte im Future Internet of
Services. In PIK - Praxis der Informationsverarbeitung und Kommunikation, Vol. 31(04), pp 225231.
[Chun03] H.W. Chun and R.Y.M. Wong, (2003). N
*
an agent-based negotiation algorithm for dynamic scheduling and
rescheduling, Adv. Eng. Inform. 17 (1), pp. 122
[Comuzzi09] M. Comuzzi and B. Pernici (2009). A framework for QoS-based Web service contracting. ACM Trans.
Web 3(3):1-52.
[Mulugeta07] M. Mulugeta and A. Schill (2007). An Approach for QoS Contract Negotiation in Distributed Component-
Based Software. Proceedings of 10th Intl. ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on Component-Based Software Engineering,
Medford, Massachusetts, USA
[Sierra97] C. Sierra, et al. (1997). `A Service-Oriented Negotiation Model between Autonomous Agents'. In Proceedings
of the 8th European Workshop on Modelling Autonomous Agents in a Multi-Agent World, pp. 17-35, London, UK.
Springer-Verlag.
[Spillner09] Josef Spillner and Alexander Schill (2009) Dynamic SLA Template Adjustments based on Service Property
Monitoring Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing - CLOUD; 183-189;
[Theuseus] THESEUS programme website: http://www.theseus-programm.de
[Winkler09] Matthias Winkler and Thomas Springer (2009). SLA Management for the Internet of Services INSTICC
Press; ICSOFT 2009 - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Software and Data Technologies, Volume
2, Sofia, Bulgaria, July 26-29, 2009; 384-391
[wsag] A. Andrieux et al. (2005).Web Services Agreement Specification., www.ogf.org/documents/GFD.107.pdf
[wsag-neg] O.Waeldrich, 2010, WS-Agreement Version Negotiation 1.0, draft of WS-Agreement Negotiation
Specification, https://forge.gridforum.org/sf/projects/graap-wg
[wsla] A. Keller and H. Ludwig (2003). `The WSLA Framework: Specifying and Monitoring Service Level Agreements
for Web Services'. Journal of Network and Systems Management 11(1):57-81.
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286
REQUIREMENTS ORIENTED PROGRAMMING IN A
WEB-SERVICE ARCHITECTURE
Vinicius Miana Bezerra and Selma Melnikoff*
USP/Mackenzie
*USP
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a technique to facilitate requirements reverse engineering, increase requirements traceability and
reduce requirements maintenance costs by documenting requirements directly in the source code. To accomplish that a
mapping between a requirements meta-model and web-service oriented architecture was developed using a set of JAVA
annotations to indicate those architectural elements in the source code. Finally, this paper presents a case study where this
process was used to recover requirements of a legacy system for a big Internet service provider with no formal
requirement record.
KEYWORDS
Requirements Engineering, Web-Services, SOA
1. INTRODUCTION
Software Evolution consists in adapting software. Software is adapted to satisfy either: a new or updated
requirement or to prevent and fix errors (Robbes, 2007). These requirement changes are either due to changes
in the software environment or change in the user needs. Bennett (2000) reports a survey that shows that 75%
of the software evolution is due to new or updated requirements.
Requirements Engineering has emerged as an discipline that deals with the objectives, functionalities,
qualities and constraints of a software system. Requirements engineering is concerned with elicitation,
evaluation, specification, consolidation, traceability and evolution of such system requirements
(Lamsweerde, 2008). Managing requirements evolution is an fundamental activity of any software system
(Rui, 2007). It is crucial to manage this evolution to have requirements written in a format , so that they are
readable and traceable. Traceability is particularly important as a changing requirement calls for finding out
the code fragments where this requirement is implemented in order to correctly perform the change in the
software (Schwarz, 2008). As times passes by and the software evolves and adapts to ever-changing user
requirements and operating environment, the knowledge of the developed system held by the team starts to
reduce either as an effect of the changes in the software or by people leaving the development team. Without
a good knowledge of the software, maintaining the architecture coherent becomes harder which increases the
software degradation process (Bennett, 2000)(Weber, 2005)(Yang, 2007)(Fahmi, 2007). Keeping good
record of requirements and how they are implemented becomes very important to reduce the software
degradation and maintenance costs (Schwarz, 2008)(Fahmi, 2007). It is specially important to know what
parts of the code are implementing each requirement. This knowledge make it easier to perform changes as it
is easier to know what parts of source code need to be changed and what will be the impact of those changes
(Lamsweerde, 2008)(Fahmi, 2007)(Daneva, 2006).
This paper presents an approach to manage and document requirements when maintaining a JAVA
software system by placing annotations in the source-code. The requirements might not necessarily be
formally documented in order to use this technique. In order to present this technique, we organized this
paper as follows:
In the next section, we present related work done in this field and how they related to our work.
On section 3, we present our use case meta-model, which was developed based on Rui (2007) and
altered so that it can be mapped into source code.
287
On section 4, we present JAVA annotations and the annotations we proposed for the use case meta-
model we developed.
On section 5, we show how this technique can fit into a software development and maintenance
process and a case study and the results we obtained using this technique.
Finally, on section 6, we present this paper's conclusions and future work.
2. RELATED WORK
Lagrein (Jermakovics, 2008) is a tool that allows visualizing software evolution and links requirements to
code expected to implement them. In order to map requirements into code it uses algorithms for Latent
Semantic Indexing (LSI) (De Lucia, 2005). In our approach requirements are manually mapped by
developers, which require a bigger effort to obtain such visualization, but on the order hand, the result is
more precise.
Rui (2007) developed a use case meta-model which, we use in our work, a process algebra to make
changes in use case that do not affect its semantics, a set of use case refactorings and a use case refactoring
tool which is quite helpful in evolving software requirements. However, it does not deal with mapping
requirements to code.
Canfora and Di Penta (2007) wrote a paper on the frontiers of reverse engineering where they present the
main developments in the area and highlighted key open research issues for the future. They showed that
modern languages while allowing to get information from the code without the need to instrument it (using
JAVA reflection for example), they make it harder to analyze the program as the static view can not be used
to infer the dynamic view, requiring both kinds of analysis.
Fahmi and Choi (2007) presented the importance of reverse engineering in the software evolution as a
key element to manage with the requirements changes and proposed a process model where reverse
engineering is a fundamental part of it.
Schwarz (2008) presents how traceability is key to successful software evolution reinforcing what
Canfora, Di Penta (2007), Fahmi and Choi (2007) predicted in their research and presents a meta-model that
represent software development artifacts which can be used to query change impact.
Liu (2005) presents a technique for reengineering requirements of legacy systems which relies on a top-
down black-box approach that involves using the system and interviewing users. It assumes that no
documentation or source-code is reliable.
3. USE CASE META-MODEL
Use cases are used in many different ways. Although OMG has attempted to formalize use cases in UML,
there is still a lot of room for subjectivity (Rui, 2007). Our Use Case meta-model was largely based on Rui
(2007) Use Case meta-model, which was changed and simplified to fit the limitations on annotation
modeling and to reify entities, which could be explicitly represented in the source code. Rui (2007) defines 3
levels from where the use case can be viewed:
Environment Level where the use case is related to entities external to the system;
Structure Level where the internal structure of the use case is defined;
Event Level represents a lower abstraction level with individual events.
In our model the environment level is represented by the following entities:
Use Case, which models a usage situation where one or more services of the target system are used
by one or more users with one or more goals in mind. As an use case represents an interaction between the
user and the system it is spread in several different parts of the source code. For that reason, we inverted the
dependency and the use case is represented in our model as an attribute of the system service;
Actor, which is a role played by a system user which is also represented as an attribute of the system
service;
System Service is a system functionality and the policies controlling its usage.
The structure level is represented the following entities:
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Scenario: which is a use case realization and comprises of an order sequence of finite events, which
may trigger episodes. In our model, we make no distinction between the Scenario and Use Case as in the
source code the use case is already realized.
Context: which defines use case preconditions and post conditions. In our model the context was
connected to the System Service and the Use Case Context is the union of all System Service's Contexts;
Episode, which represents a part of the use case behavior and can be a primitive episode or
composite episode that contains other episodes.
The event level is represented by events and as the only distinction to an episode is that it takes no
duration, we decided to leave it out of the model for simplicity purposes. The diagram in figure 1 represents
the resulting model.
Figure 1. Use case meta-model
4. ANNOTATIONS
A source-code has a very low-level of abstraction, which makes it hard to read high-level information. In our
proposal to use source-code to document requirements, which we are actually doing is requesting
programmers to document and instrument their code with which part of a requirement they are implementing.
To make that requirement readable, it is very important that it must be easily extracted from the source
code, generating a higher-level model. Such need made annotations the ideal choice for such idea.
Annotations allow indicating whether your methods are dependent on other methods, whether they are
incomplete, whether classes have references to other classes creating a higher-level view of the source-code.
Annotations were introduced in the JAVA platform with the release of version 5 (Taylor, 2008).
Annotations are like meta-tags that you can add to the source code and applied to package declarations, type
declarations, constructors, methods, fields, parameters, and variables. Annotations provide data about a
program that is not part of the program itself. They have no direct effect on the operation of the code they
annotate (Ernst, 2010). Annotations can be used giving information in 3 distinct levels (Ernst, 2010):
Compiler to detect errors or suppress warnings;
Compiler-time and deployment-time processing - where tools can process annotation information to
generate code, XML files, etc;
Runtime processing to be examined at runtime.
The annotations we defined in this work are compiler time annotations since they are used to generate
requirements documentation from source-code. In order to make this possible each annotation that represents
an entity in our use case meta-model should be mapped to the existing software architecture.
An annotation type can be defined using an @ sign, followed by the interface keyword plus the
annotation name and a data structure can be defined for the annotation. This data structure, however, is
restricted to primitives, String, Class, enums, annotations, and arrays of the preceding types (Ernst, 2010).
Even though, a Use Case could be defined as a complex type attribute of the SystemService type, since the
Use Case is not represented by a single fragment, all its attributes must be repeated in all services, creating
another maintenance problem. To deal with this problem, we made a few changes to the model described in
the section III bringing Use Case attributes to the SystemService. The final annotations were defined as
follows:

289
public @interface SystemService {
String[] implementedUseCases();
String[] actors();
String description();
String[] preConditions();
String[] postConditions();
}
public @interface Episode {
String name();
boolean primitive() default true;
}

Both SystemService and Episode annotations are to be placed on methods. With those annotations we are
able to reconstruct our Use Case model by recursively inspecting all methods that are called in a System
Service method we are able to find those annotated as Episodes. If the episode is primitive, the search on that
branch may stop. Episodes composed of other Episodes can be found by search further in the method call
stack.
Use Case can be recovered by finding all SystemService methods that have that Use Case name in their
implementedUseCases attribute array. The context will be the union of all contexts and so does the
description. The actors, on the other hand, will be defined the intersection of all actors attribute array in all
SystemService methods that implemented the given Use Case.
5. USING THE TECHNIQUE IN A WEB-SERVICE ARCHITECTURE
Web-Services architectures are quite suitable for wrapping-up legacy systems where mosts of the problems
of missing requirements documentation happen. Each Web-Service is a strong candidate for the
SystemService annotation, mapping other elements of the architecture must be done. This should occur after
the architecture is determined by recovering legacy documentation or reverse engineering it. When
programming new functionalities, changing existing functionalities or reading the code to understand it,
developers should identify the architectural elements that should be annotated and place annotations on them
with information as accurate as possible. After finishing a annotation, a documentation generation tool can be
called to recover the use case model following the procedures described in the previous section.
This technique was applied in a hosting managing system for an internet service provider. The system
was developed using the JAVA language and used the whole JEE technology stack and other open-source
tools and frameworks including: EJB, JMS, Servlets, JSP, Hibernate, Spring, Velocity, Maven, JUnit, RMI
and WebServices. The use of such technologies was clearly inadequate and the system was over-engineered.
Such over-engineering made the system very hard to maintain. Lack of knowledge of basic object-oriented
concepts made developers create classes with thousands lines of code and representing no entity or
abstraction.
The development process was mostly based on SCRUM mixed with some other concepts from other agile
methodologies. No formal requirements were kept. Unit tests were not developed as preached by such
methodologies.
As the system evolved the architecture which was not good from the beginning deteriorated very fast,
making even small changes in the requirements an humongous programming task. Such problems made this
system a perfect candidate for validating this technique. Annotations were developed and a tool to generate
documentation from the code was implemented. The tool recovered not only the use case model, but was also
able to tell where each service and episode could be found.
At the same time, a big effort on understanding the architecture and identifying who were the
architectural elements that should be annotated as SystemService and Episode was done. After several hours
reading lines of codes, it was easy to determine all the candidates for the SystemService annotation, but we
were unable to define a rule for annotating Episodes. Annotating Episodes had to rely on a good
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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understanding of the business and the desired granularity for Episodes as they could be found in different
levels of the architecture.
For each new requirement, a Story was created following the SCRUM methodology. When the Story was
to be programmed, developers were instructed to annotate every SystemService and Episode they would find
in their way. Finding Episodes and SystemServices was not a problem, but it did not make changing the
system any easier. On the other hand to describe a SystemService developers had define which use cases
were realized by that service, which actors used that service, and the service preconditions and post
conditions, which added more difficult than just understanding and changing the code as it was done before.
As more stories were developed, more SystemServices and Episodes were annotated and the faster
developers could find where to change the code to implement a new Story by reading the documentation
generated by the tool. This was easily detected by seeing how many SCRUM points were implemented in
each Sprint.
6. CONCLUSION
Annotations are a powerful tool to document and instrument code. The technique that we developed showed
how it could effectively help recovering a software requirement and mapping requirements to code. When
compared to Jermakovics (2008) approach, this technique requires a higher manual effort on one hand, but on
the other hand can be used where no requirement documentation exists. When compared to Liu (2005)
approach, this technique is much faster and more accurate however it relies on the source-code where Liu
assumes that even the source-code is no longer reliable and it is a top-down black-box approach. Comparing
in more generic way to other requirements reengineering techniques, there are two main approaches:
Code-parsing which is faster, but has limited use and requires some documentation, good variable
names in the source-code to be effective. Example: Jermakovics (2008);
Manually inspecting system and source-code which is slower, requires lots of hours, but can be used
in any situation. Example: Liu (2005).
This technique uses the manual approach, but as it uses annotations is restricted to JAVA legacy systems
and requires a reliable source-code. As it documents the system directly in the source-code it has an
advantage over the other techniques because it can be used incrementally and simultaneously as the system
evolves.
When applying the technique, we found that some modifications are necessary to make it more effective.
These modifications are described in the next paragraphs and we are currently working on those issues.
Actors and Use Case should be identified before making changes to the code. This may seem obvious to
someone developing a new software, but when you are maintaining a legacy system, the Use Cases and
Actors may not be clear and not knowing them make it harder to annotate the SystemService.
Annotation syntax as it is now does not allow defining annotation recursive reference, annotation
inheritance and others, which could help to have annotations that reflect more closely the original use case
metamodel. Such deficiencies made the use case model generated by the annotated code to have some
inaccuracies and inconsistencies.
Among the inconsistencies, it was the decision to have the context as the union of preconditions and
postconditions defined in the SystemService. Many times, as the Use Case was realized by calling different
services, one service postcondition was the next service precondition making both of them incorrect as a Use
Case context. Having the Use Case explicitly represented in the source code and referenced by the annotation
is the only solution we found so far for this problem. With the current annotation syntax this could be
accomplished by having an abstract class UseCase and implementing the use case as a regular class that
would never get called by system.
An experiment was done creating the UseCase class and it showed also that it would be very beneficial to
this technique using annotations that are processed during run-time. This would also allow to find episodes
and services relations by injecting dependencies and logging code during the run-time processing of the
annotations. This would also help solving another problem which was dealing with alternative flows, since as
the tool is now it can only identify which episodes are part of a service, but it can not say which ones are
inside a loop or an if statement and therefore run different number of times and in different conditions.
291
Although helpful the annotation model is very poor and needs to be improved and so does the
documentation generation tool which does not provide any graphical visualization of the Use Cases and its
mapping to the code. Developing a tool like Lagrein (Jermakovics, 2008) would be a good next step for this
technique.
Another issue that requires further research is how to integrate this technique with requirements
management tools.
Besides all this issued the technique proved that requirements could be recorded directly in the source
code in a way that they are readable and traceable. Documenting requirements directly in the code has the
advantage of having it easily accessible and read by developers. Also as the flow of episodes is determined
by the code, some changes in the requirements will be updated in the documentation without any extra effort
from the developer.
Finally, the case study showed that requirements knowledge and traceability has a big positive impact of
maintenance productivity.
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Bennett, K; Rajlich, V. Software maintenance and evolution: a roadmap. Proceedings of the Conference on The Future
of Software Engineering. Limerick, Ireland. p. 73 87. ISBN:1-58113-253-0. Publisher ACM Press New York, NY,
USA, 2000
Canfora, G., Di Penta, M. New frontiers of reverse engineering. In: Future of Software Engineering, Citeseer, 2007.
Daneva, M. Reuse measurement in the ERP requirements engineering process In:Software Reuse: Advances in
Software Reusability,p.211--230,Springer, 2006.
De Lucia, A. et alli. ADAMS Retrace: a Traceability Recovery Tool, 9th European Conference on Software
Maintenance and Reegineering (CSMR 2005), March. 2005.
Ernst, M., Coward D. JSR 308: Annotations on Java types. http://pag.csail.mit.edu/jsr308/, March 1st , 2010.
Fahmi, S.A. and Choi, H.J. Software Reverse Engineering to Requirements, In: 2007 ICCIT, p. 2199--2204, IEEE
Computer Society, 2007.
Jermakovics, A. and Moser, R. and Sillitti, A. and Succi, G. Visualizing software evolution with lagrein. In:
Companion to the 23rd ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object-oriented programming systems languages and
applications, p. 749750. ACM, 2008.
Lamsweerde, A. Requirements engineering: from craft to discipline. In: Proceedings of the 16th ACM SIGSOFT
International Symposium on Foundations of software engineering, p.238249. ACM, 2008.
Robbes, R., Lanza, M. A Change-based Approach to Software Evolution. In: Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer
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Rui, K. Refactoring use case models. Concordia University Montreal, PQ, Canada, 2007.
Schwarz, H. and Ebert, J. and Riediger, V. and Winter, A. Towards querying of traceability information in the context of
software evolution. In: 10th Workshop Software Reengineering (WSR 2008), 2008.
Taylor, K.B. and Rieken, J. and Leavens, G.T.. Adapting the Java Modeling Language for Java 5 Annotations.
Technical Report 08-06, Department of Computer Science, Iowa State University, 2008.
Weber, R. and Helfenberger, T. and Keller, R.K. Fit for Change: Steps towards Effective Software Maintenance, In:
Industrial and Tool Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Maintenance, p.26--33, Citeseer, 2005.
Yang, SU and Sheng-ming, HU and Yu-ying, W. and Ping, C. Recovering early-aspects at requirements level from
software legacy system. In: CIT 2006. IEEE Computer Society, India, 2006.
Liu, K. Requirements Reengineering from Legacy Information Systems Using Semiotic Techniques, In: Systems,
Signs & Actions, Vol.1, No 1, p. 38-61. CITW, 2005.
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THE ROLE OF WEB-BASED COLLABORATIVE SYSTEMS
IN SUPPORTING FIRM'S CREATIVITY
Claudia Dossena and Alberto Francesconi
University of Pavia Faculty of Economics Business Research Department
Via S. Felice 7, Pavia ITALY
ABSTRACT
The diffusion of Web Communities significantly increases opportunities for communications and social relations, thus
affecting firms creativity potential. We aim at finding out how WCs, as collaborative systems, can support the firms
creative processes. Our findings, based on an explorative case-study, emphasize the role of a wide and cohesive WC that
has both peculiarities of networks for knowledge exploitation and exploration. Reflections on main assets and capabilities
involved to manage the WC as well as suggestions for future research are presented.
KEYWORDS
Web community, Collaborative systems, Creativity, Networks.
1. INTRODUCTION
In contemporary competitive context it is commonly recognized the importance of effective firms creative
processes, based on the generation and the exploitation, respectively, of both new and already existing
knowledge.
IT plays a fundamental role in supporting creativity both at individual and collective level, e.g. by
encouraging cooperation and supporting the exchange of knowledge. Recently, the diffusion of social media
and, in particular, of Web Communities (WCs), has become an important way to share interests, problems
and experiences, thus supporting creativity through social relations.
Our WC analysis is based on important concepts used in network and inter-organizational learning
literature. In particular, our findings, based on a successful case (Roland DG Mid Europe), emphasize the
role of a wide and cohesive WC to support firms creativity where the WC has both peculiarities of networks
for knowledge exploitation and exploration. In order to give some suggestions for managerial practice, main
assets and capabilities involved are highlighted too.
2. WEB COMMUNITIES AS NETWORKS
Research on creativity focused primarily on creativity as an individual trait (see Barron & Harrington 1981
for a review). More recently, perspectives on creativity focused more on how contextual factors can affect
individual creativity, such as the development of appropriate incentive systems, the presence of slack
resources, the development of a work environment that promotes risk-taking and autonomous decision
making (Perry-Smith & Shalley, 2003; Woodman et al. 1993; Amabile et al. 1996; Tierney et al. 1999). In
several cases these factors have unequivocally a social dimension: creativity is, at least in part, a social
process (Amabile, 1988; Woodman et al. 1993). There are also other social factors directly linked to
individual creativity: interpersonal communication and social interaction levels (Amabile 1988, Woodman et
al. 1993). Communication and exchanges of ideas increase creativity (Amabile, 1996; Kanter, 1988;
Woodman et al. 1993). Similarly, also the contact among different individuals can increase firms creativity.
This difference is linked to different background, specialization areas, roles inside a firm (Amabile et al.
293
1996; Woodman et al. 1993). Differences lead to an increase in shared knowledge and to different
approaches to face a problem (Kanter 1988, Andrews & Smith, 1996).
Following this logic, some authors focused on benefits arising from the involvement of external actors
(Kimberly & Evanisko, 1981), activating inter-organizational learning processes. Firms can maximize the
effectiveness of their inter-organizational learning processes by reaching the so-called optimal cognitive
distance (Nooteboom & Gilsing, 2004, 2006). Cognitive distance is the difference between cognitive
patterns and knowledge shared among the individuals involved in learning process. This level is a function of
two different dimensions (in trade off): the level of absorption of exchanged knowledge shown by
individuals involved in learning processes (absorptive capacity) and the variety of exchanged knowledge.
The level of cognitive distance explains what Nooteboom & Gisling (2004) call network for
exploration and network for exploitation. Within networks for exploitation there is an effort to combine
and to improve knowledge provided by members. This strategy is based on the research of synergy and
complementarities. The focus is on the absorptive capacity level. In these networks there are predominantly
strong ties among members that show many similarities (Lincoln & Miller, 1979; Ibarra 1992). On the
contrary, networks of exploration aim at reaching upper levels of innovation, investing more on variety of
knowledge shared. Ties among different members tend to be weak: this means also low affinity levels among
them (Granovetter, 1982; Perry-Smith & Shalley, 2003).
WC is a particular kind of network based on Web based technologies. It can be seen as the evolution of
Communities of Practice (CoPs) (Wenger, 1998; Micelli, 1999; Hasan & Crawford, 2003). CoPs are created
in order to find common answers to problems related to the work of its members, sharing knowledge and
experiences. Also within WCs we can distinguish between ones in which learning is made by the valorization
of different knowledge (as in network for exploration) and ones in which people have similar knowledge (as
in network for exploitation).
The moderation process of the WC can be fundamental for the creation of a community more focused on
exploiting knowledge (Pedersen, 2008). In other situations uniformity is caused by a strong social pressure,
sometimes expressed in a very specific language shared by WC members, e.g. in forums about finance,
engineering, medicine etc. Nevertheless, WC can be more similar to network for exploration when they are
less cohesive such as in the case of members that have weaker ties to each other, changing more frequently
and without leadership roles well defined. The huge number of individuals, variety and dynamism of shared
knowledge are really important for the creation of new knowledge, as in WCs like Wikipedia and Yahoo
Answer.
3. THE CASE STUDY: ROLAND DG MID EUROPE
Roland DG Mid Europe srl (Roland), based in Italy, is a subsidiary of Roland DG Corporation
1
, a world class
manufacturer of computer peripherals on visual communication and digital graphics. Roland has 45
employees and attends to the Italian market, the French and Balkan area, with a revenue in 2009 of about 26
million Euros
2
and a market share of about 50%. We analyzed our case-study through 7 interviews to
Rolands Community Manager and Communication Manager - the 2 key figures in managing Roland WC -
and document analysis.
Firstly, we identified Rolands strategies for communitys creation and development, both on-line and
off-line (table 1). We found that tools and applications are conceived to create a cohesive community based
on strong connections or to increase visibility, thus drawing users, and enhancing the variety of shared
knowledge. This strategy combines the benefits of networks for exploitation and exploration.

1
Roland DG Corporation, has more than 560 employees. Its head office is in Japan but it works also in USA, Belgium, Austria, UK,
Spain, Italy and Denmark.
2
It is decreasing compared with 2008 because of financial crisis (33m Euros), but it will be recovering in 2010.
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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Table 1. Main tools adopted by Roland for its communication activities with the outside
Tool/application Description Main task
Events and
conferences
participation in events concerning both Roland
products and other topics related to the WC
- commercial task
- increasing the members of the community
Roland DG
Academy
school of Roland - visibility of the community
- disseminate know-how
Roland DG
Creative Center
show room with most creative ideas coming
from the community
- visibility
- gratification and status for community members
Events and trips events and trips for community members - socialization
Flickr - YouTube social networking site for sharing photos and
video
- increase cohesion in the community
- visibility to Roland product and Roland community
Roland Blog blog - increase cohesion in the community
- visibility to Roland product
Wiki Roland wiki - visibility to Roland product
Slideshare social networking site for sharing video and
presentation
virtual tour in Roland DG Creative Centre - visibility
Roland TV Internet TV - visibility
Twitter microblogging website - increase cohesion in the community
Last.fm internet radio - increase cohesion in the community
social media
press release
interactive press release - visibility
Facebook
LinkedIn
social networking site - increase cohesion in the community
- visibility
Roland Forum initially born as virtual place to connect people
met during training in Roland DG Academy
and to exchange working experiences
- visibility

We found that the Roland forum, is the core of Rolands WC. With its 9,398 discussions and its 2,996
users (of which 790 active)
3
, Roland Forum is one of the most important forums in the world related to the
area of visual communication and digital graphics. Established in 2004, the WC is prevalently made by
Rolands technicians, commercials and managers and customers though it involves also some dealers,
product suppliers and Roland Partners recognized as opinion leaders, due to their roles and experiences.
The involvement is totally voluntary. The wideness and heterogeneity of members as well as few constraints
and low levels of control support a remarkable variety of shared knowledge. Moreover, within the forum
there are 7 macro-areas (tab. 2). Some of them (no. 3, 6, 7) are specifically aimed at supporting socialization
and social interaction among community members in order to create strong relations based on trust.
Table 2. Discussions existing in each forum area.
Forum area No.
forum
area
Description Area task number of
discussions
(percentage)
technological
craftsmens
workshop
1

dedicated to training, tutorials and exchange
of useful external links
knowledge sharing 32%
application 2

about novel applications of Rolands
products
boudoir 3 where you can relax and converse socialization and WC cohesion 22%
software and
computer
4 about main SW and HW solutions knowledge sharing 6%
RolANDyou 5 where you can find information about
external sources
administration 6 with forum rules socialization and WC cohesion 4%
I was there
(X-Events)
7 about the events of Roland community socialization and WC cohesion 3%

3
Data are collected on April 2010. This year the forum grew considerably compared to 2009: the number of discussions rose by 60%,
the number of total users by 53% and the number of active users by 19%.
295
As a matter of fact, we found that the purpose of more than a third of Rolands discussion areas (no. 3, 6,
7) within the forum is to improve social identification and cohesion.
At the same time, the other areas pursue both network for exploitation and network for exploration
strategies, supporting in a complementary and synergistic way the creative process. In particular, the areas 1,
2, 4, 5 support the sharing of technical knowledge and specialist skills, thus reducing the cognitive distance
among members and increasing their level of absorptive capacity (network for exploitation strategy). The
area 2, for novel applications of Rolands existing products, drives toward a self-feeding process that sustains
a continuous creative process based also on external resources and capabilities due to the fact it attracts
continuously new members (network for exploration strategy). The voluntary involvement of new
members is stimulated by social pressure and social status and strengthen by DG Creative Centre
4
in which
are shown the most original and creative applications of Rolands products emerged in the WC.
3.1 Assets and Capabilities for managing a Web Community
In order to give some suggestions for managerial practice, in this paragraph we will focus on what are the
main assets and capabilities used by Roland for the creation of the Web community according to seven
interviews to Rolands Community Manager and Communication Manager. Firstly, for Roland the
moderation process is a key element: moderators have the purpose of maintaining a non invasive control on
discussions, though respecting shared rules. Secondly, there must be people that daily work on the
management of the WC: in Roland there are 3 employees out of 45 and 2 external moderators, not belonging
to the firms staff, that constantly manage the forums discussions without being rewarded. The Community
Manager works on everyday forum management, while the Communication Manager coordinates forums
activities, the blog and the website. They report directly to Roland DG Mid Europe CEO. From a strategic
point of view, an International Marketing Committee declines some communication guidelines but the
definition of actions about the WC is left to local administrations. A Web agency works on Rolands website
optimization and hosting. However, Rolands strategy is to internally manage Web application. Nevertheless
having technical skills is necessary though not sufficient. To resume what is mainly needed to manage a WC:
relational skills linked to specific communication channels, technical skills on community topics (in this case
about visual communication and digital print technology), organizational skills about time management
(acting quickly and monitoring the Web everyday). Besides moderators must have informatics skills, passion
for what they done, willingness to share their knowledge and authority because of the lack of hierarchy in
communities. Network management skills are critical factors too. According to Roland, problematic but
fundamental is the development of skills linked to the managing of shared knowledge inside the community
(knowledge management) and inter-organizational learning.
As previously said, Roland aims at having a wide WC. In order to attract new members in its WC, Roland
uses Google AdWords and the Direct Email Marketing. Furthermore, an active involvements in other forums
brings new members to Rolands WC.
Another key issue, subject to further improvements and deeper analysis, is related to performances on the
Web. Considering the difficulties in defining performance indicators of WC in terms of generated creativity,
reputation, improvement of markets share or sales, indicators on nature and characteristics of access to the
website are commonly used in order to improve the size and visibility of the WC. Currently, Rolands
performances on the Web are actually measured through the tool Google Analytics by monitoring elements
like the number and the provenience of logins, the number of coming backs, the average time connection, etc.
Nowadays, performance indicators of Web activities in terms of ROI are not used but this lack will be soon
partially fixed through the use of Salesforce, a software as a service for CRM. Investments on the Web are
hardly measurable in terms of firms performance. Opposite to the huge costs associated with the managing
of Web Communities (mainly coming from the human resources involved) there are benefits which, although
present, are difficult to quantify. Notwithstanding the actual difficulty in measuring the economic returns
linked to the WC, Roland Corporation valued positively the experience on the Web deciding to replicate this
project in France, too. As a matter of fact, though without specific data, from our interviews emerged that,
thanks to the WC, in the last years the level of creativity of Roland increased.

4
A showroom where, in addition to the availability of all Roland products for testing and evaluation, there are a lot of examples of their
potential applications, often the result of forum members creativity.
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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4. CONCLUSION
From our case-study some suggestions arise: WC can support firms creativity if firms create around
themselves a wide and cohesive WC, that has both peculiarities of networks for exploitation and exploration
of knowledge. In this work we illustrated how a successful firm has reached this aim. The accessibility of
Web base instruments, a process of moderation which is not excessively tight and a wide variety of
stakeholders within the WC are three key elements. At first, they allow the WC to exploit a highly
dynamicity and heterogeneity of members (as in network for exploration). Secondly, many initiatives (off-
line or on-line) can be developed to support the cohesion of the WC, as in network for exploitation, where a
less variety of knowledge exchanged is compensated by a higher level of absorptive capacity among
members. We are aware of the limits of this preliminary paper, first of all due to the uniqueness of the case
examined. We plan to extend the analysis to other firms that exploit WC. Nevertheless, some practical
insights for management arise. Main assets and capabilities used by a successful firm for creating and
managing a WC community are highlighted as well as some important difficulties in managing a WC.
REFERENCES
Amabile, T. M., 1988. A model of creativity and innovation in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol.
10, pp. 123-167.
Amabile, T. M., et al, 1996. Assessing the work environment for creativity. Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 39,
pp.1154-1184.
Andrews, J., and Smith, D. C., 1996. In search of the marketing imagination: Factors affecting the creativity of marketing
programs for the mature products. Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 33, pp. 174-187.
Barron, F., and Harrington, D. M., 1981. Creativity, intelligence, and personality. Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 32,
pp. 439- 476.
Granovetter, M. S., 1982. The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited. In P. V. Marsden and N. Lin (Eds.),
Social structure and network analysis, pp. 105-130. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Hasan, H., and Crawford, K., 2003. Codifying or enabling: the challenge of knowledge management systems, Journal of
the Operational Research Society, Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 184-193.
Ibarra, H., 1992. Homophily and differential returns: Sex differences in network structure and access in an advertising
firm. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 37, pp. 422-447.
Kanter, R. M., 1988. When a thousand flowers bloom: Structural, collective, and social conditions for innovation in
organization. Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol. 10, pp. 169-211.
Kimberly, J. R., and Evanisko, M. J., 1981. Organizational innovation: The influence of individual, organizational, and
contextual factors on hospital adoption of technological and administrative innovations. Academy of Management
Journal, Vol. 24, pp. 689-713.
Lincoln, J. R., and Miller, J., 1979. Work and friendship ties in organizations: A comparative analysis of relational
networks. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 24, pp. 181-199.
Micelli, S., 1999. Comunit virtuali: apprendimento e nuove tecnologie dellinformazione, Economia e Politica
Industriale, 104.
Nooteboom, B., and Gilsing, V.A., 2004. Density and Strenght of Ties in Innovation Networks: A Competence and
Governance View, Report Series, Erasmus Research Institute of Management.
Nooteboom, B., and Gilsing, V.A., 2006. Exploration and exploitation in innovation systems: The case of pharmaceutical
biotechnology. Research Policy, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 1-23.
Pedersen, A.F., 2008. The construction of patient identities in the Websites of patient associations, in 24th Egos
Colloquium, Amsterdam, Oland.
Perry-Smith, J.E, and Shalley, C.E., 2003. The social side of creativity: a static and dynamic social network perspective.
Academy of Management Review, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 89-106.
Tierney, P. et al, 1999. An examination of leadership and employee creativity: The relevance of traits and relationships.
Personnel Psychology, Vol. 52, pp. 591-620.
Wenger, E., 1998. 'Communities of Practice. Learning as a social system', Systems Thinker, http://www.co-i-
l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/cop/lss.shtml. Accessed December 15, 2008.
Woodman, R. W. et al, 1993. Toward a theory of organizational creativity. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 18, pp.
293-321.
297
TOWARDS A MEANINGFUL EXPLOITATION OF
IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIPS AMONG COMMUNITY
MEMBERS AND COLLABORATION ASSETS
George Gkotsis*, Nikos Karacapilidis*, Costas Pappis** and Nikos Tsirakis***
*Industrial Management and Information Systems Lab, MEAD, University of Patras, 26500 Rio Patras, Greece
**Department of Industrial Management, University of Piraeus, Piraeus 18534, Greece
***Computer Engineering and Informatics Department, University of Patras, 26500 Rio Patras, Greece
ABSTRACT
Numerous tools aiming at facilitating or enhancing collaboration among members of diverse communities have been
already deployed and tested over the Web. Taking into account the particularities of online Communities of Practice, this
paper introduces a framework for mining knowledge that is hidden in such settings. Our motivation stems from the
criticism that contemporary tools receive regarding lack of active participation and limited engagement in their use,
partially due to their inability of identifying and meaningfully exploiting important relationships among community
members and collaboration-related assets. Particular attention is given to the identification of requirements imposed by
contemporary communities and learning contexts.
KEYWORDS
Social Networking, Web 2.0, Collaborative Systems, Data Mining.
1. INTRODUCTION
As information diffusion is becoming enormous, contemporary knowledge workers are facing a series of
problems. People are straggling when trying to filter relevant information, extract knowledge out of it, and
apply specific practices on a problem under consideration. This phenomenon, broadly known as information
overload, has currently raised new, challenging, but not fully addressed issues. At the same time, it is widely
admitted that one of the best means to keep a knowledge workers competence high is through continuous
learning (Rosenberg, 2000). In fact, most organizations already support learning activities through seminars
and other traditional learning activities. Nevertheless, these activities do not comply with every learning
need. Collaborative environments aiming at supporting collaboration among groups of people forming
Communities of Practice (CoPs) are believed to be one of the most promising solutions to promote what is
commonly known as collective intelligence or organizational memory (Ackerman, 1998). The term CoP
is used to define a group of people with common disciplinary background, similar work activities, tools and
shared stories, contexts and values (Millen et al., 2002).
Related to the above remarks, contemporary tools receive criticism as far as active participation and
engagement of their users is concerned; this is partially due to the inability of identifying and meaningfully
exploiting a set of important relationships among community members and collaboration-related assets. To
address this problem, this paper introduces a framework that enables one to reveal meaningful relationships,
as well as other valuable information, about the community members roles and competencies. The proposed
framework exploits and integrates features originally found in the Data Mining and Social Networking
disciplines, and is intended to be used towards strengthening a communitys integrity.

ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
298
2. RELATED WORK
Contemporary approaches to web-based collaboration environments build on diverse user profiling
mechanisms (Fink and Kobsa, 2000). These approaches usually distinguish between static (user defined) and
dynamic (system updated) profiles. Dynamic attributes derive by tracking down user actions and aim at
providing a more personalized environment. Personalization of the environment may include user interface
adaptation by making most usable actions or information more easily accessible. Moreover, by taking into
account a users profile, these approaches aim at filtering information that generally resides in a big
collection of documents. Information filtering is achieved by reading the content of these documents and
combining this content with the users profile. The main goal of these approaches is to provide individualized
recommendations to the users about the system items.
Social network analysis (SNA) is a tool that allows the examination of social relationships in a group of
users, which is able to reveal hidden relationships (Wasserman and Faust, 1994). In business, SNA can be a
useful tool to reveal relationships and organizational structure other than those formally defined. These
relationships are extracted by examining the communication level among employees, usually resulting to a
collaboration graph. The outcome of this graphs analysis is likely to result to a flow chart that does not
necessarily follow the formal organizational structure. Traditionally, social relationships are revealed by
acquiring data manually (through questionnaires or interviews). SNA has been applied with success in
business and is regarded as a useful tool to analyze how a corporate operates.
In summary, the need for extracting and analyzing relationships among users has been identified for a
long time. The topic of this paper is addressed by two different but complementary approaches. One of them
applies Data Mining techniques that results to the identification of groups of people with similar preferences.
The other adopts SNA for gathering the required knowledge with regard to these groups. This approach is
applied to an online CoP aiming at revealing issues like management or human resource vulnerabilities.
Integrating these approaches, this paper introduces a framework that aims at identifying, measuring and
exploiting hidden relationships in a CoP. The overall approach followed in this paper, as described in the
next section, takes into account the particularities of these communities by customizing practices from Data
Mining and Collaborative Filtering and unites them with Social Network Analysis.
3. MINING HIDDEN KNOWLEDGE
Let us consider a collaboration support system, which adopts common Web 2.0 features and functionalities.
The system allows members of a CoP to easily express pieces of their knowledge through various types of
documents. These documents are uploaded on virtual working environments, usually known as workspaces.
Let us also assume that the system supports document rating by its users. For such a setting, we introduce a
framework for mining hidden knowledge. The proposed framework exploits a set of metrics that are
discussed below.
First, we define user similarity sim(i, j) between users i and j. Similarity is calculated by exploiting the
User Nearest Neighbor algorithm (McLaughlin and Herlocker, 2004), which takes as input the items ratings
provided by users. More specifically, the algorithm for measuring user similarity is based on the Pearson
correlation, with respect to the commonly rated items. We define:
j i
j j
A A a
i i
Rating a Rating Rating a Rating
j i sim
j i

) ) ( )( ) ( (
) , (

=

where
i
and
j
represent the standard deviations of the common item ratings for users i and j, respectively, A
i

is the set of items that user i has rated, Rating
i
(a) is the rating of user i on item a, and
i
Rating is the
average rating of user i on the set of commonly rated items.
To avoid overestimating the similarity of users with small corpus of documents that have been rating by
both users i and j, the above equation is amended as follows:
) , (
} |, max{|
) , ( ' j i sim
A A
j i sim
j i
,
299
where is a system-defined threshold.
In our case, the users of the system are the authors of all documents uploaded on the systems
workspaces. To weigh account ratings of user i on documents created by user j, a modification of the above
measurement is defined. It is:
) , ( ' ) , ( ' ' j i sim
Rating
Rating
j i sim
i
ij
= ,
where
ij
Rating is the average rating of user i on documents created by user j.
The above equation takes into account how user i evaluates documents of user j with regards to the rest of
their common documents. As derives from the above, similarity between users i and j is not reciprocal. This
remark is of big importance. Naturally, depending on a CoPs activity and nature of data, there are cases
where the number of users j documents that are rated by user i is small and therefore the information is
limited. Thus, depending on the amount and nature of our data, either sim(i,j) or sim(i,j) can be selected (see
more in Section 3.1).
Secondly, we define relationship
ij
between users i and j as a boolean measurement of direct
communication between these users as follows: for each couple (i, j) of members i and j, we create a matrix A
where a
ij
is the number of document ratings that user i has made on documents created by user j. From this
matrix A, we construct a new symmetric matrix A where a
ij
=max{a
ij
,a
ji
} (weak cohesion) or a
ij
=min{a
ij
,a
ji
}
(strong cohesion). Assuming that n
i
is the overall number of ratings of user i, we define a symmetric
measurement, called communication degree d
ij
, which represents the communication flow between users i
and j, as follows:
ij j i
ij
ij
a n n
a
d
'
'
+
= .
It is noted that d
ij
is 1 in case where users i and j rate exclusively each others documents, and 0 if none of
the users has rated any of the others documents (weak cohesion) or at least one has not rated all of the
others documents (strong cohesion). We define the binary function relationship
ij
to indicate the existence or
not of adequate direct information exchange between users i and j. It is:
=
ij
ip relationsh {
t d if
t d if
ij
ij
<
0
, 1

where t is a threshold depending on the nature and needs of the community under consideration. The function
relationship
ij
is the fundamental relationship that is used to construct the social network in the community
and will be used for the required analysis.
Other metrics adopted within our approach are:
Clusters: they refer to groups of entities (users in our case), in a way that entities in one cluster are
very similar, while entities in different clusters are quite distinct. Each cluster can combine various plausible
criteria.
Degree: it expresses the number of people a CoP member is connected to. Members with high
degree may be considered as of major importance in the network hub, since they keep the CoP tightly
connected.
Betweenness: While someone may be tightly connected with someone else, it might be the case that
some CoP members express the CoPs integrity better. People with high betweenness value are considered
to better express a collective consensus. More formally, betweenness of a member can be expressed as the
total number of shortest paths between all pairs of members that pass through this member (Freeman, 1977).
Closeness: it expresses the total number of links that a member must go through in order to reach
everyone else in the network (Sabidussi, 1966).
3.1 Clustering
Clustering can be defined as the process of organizing objects in a database into groups (clusters), such that
objects within the same cluster have a high degree of similarity (while objects belonging to different clusters
have a high degree of dissimilarity) (Anderberg, 1973; Jain and Dubes, 1988; Kaufman and Rousseeuw,
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
300
1990). Generally speaking, clustering methods about numerical data have been viewed in opposition to
conceptual clustering methods developed in Artificial Intelligence.
Referring to a specific CoP, a cluster is a collection of users that share similar ratings on items of the
same workspace. For example, let SP
1
, SP
2
,..., SP
k
be the k workspaces used by a community A. We build an
array X of size nn (n is the number of users), where the cell X
ij
denotes the correlation between user i and
user j. Correlation can be either sim(ij) or sim(ij), which will result to symmetric undirected or directed
arrays, respectively. After the construction of these arrays, a unified array can be built for the whole set of
workspaces by calculating the average value of each cell.
Regarding the clustering procedure and depending on the nature of the data gathered, two different
approaches with respect to the nature of the arrays (one concerning symmetric undirected arrays and one
concerning directed arrays) are followed.
In the first case (symmetric undirected arrays), an algorithm for hierarchical clustering is applied. In
hierarchical clustering, there is a partitioning procedure of objects into optimally homogeneous groups
(Johnson, 1967). There are two different categories of hierarchical algorithms: these that repeatedly merge
two smaller clusters into a larger one, and those that split a larger cluster into smaller ones. In MinMax Cut
algorithm (Ding et al., 2001), given n data objects and the pair similarity matrix W=(w
i,j
) (where w
i,j
is the
similarity weight between i and j), the main scope is to partition data into two clusters A and B. The principle
of this algorithm is to minimize similarity between clusters and maximize similarity within a cluster. The
similarity between clusters A and B is defined as the cutsize

=
B j A i
j i
w B A s
,
,
) , ( .
Similarity (self-similarity) within a cluster A is the sum of all similarity weights within A: s(A,A).
Consequently, the algorithm requires to minimize s(A,B) and maximize s(A,A) and s(B,B), which is
formulated by the min-max cut function MMcut(A,B):
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
B B s
B A s
A A s
B A s
B A MMcut + = .
Linkage l(A,B) is a closeness or similarity measure between clusters A and B; it quantifies cluster
similarity more efficiently than weight, since it normalizes cluster weight:
) , ( ) , (
) , (
) , (
B B s A A s
B A s
B A l
=
For a single user i, his linkage to cluster A is: l(A,i)=S(A,i)/S(A,A), where S(A,i)=S(A,B), B={i}.
According to this equation, users close to the cut can be found. If a user i belongs to a cluster, his linkage
with this cluster will be high. When a user is near the cut, then the linkage difference can be used: l(i) =
l(i,A)l(i,B). A user with small l is near the cut and is a possible candidate to be moved to the other cluster.
In the second case (directed arrays), the clustering algorithm presented in (Chakrabarti et al., 1998),
which is based on Kleinbergs link analysis algorithm (Kleinberg, 1999), is adopted. Initially, this analysis
was applied to documents related to each other through directed relationships (like in the World Wide Web);
for every document, authority and hub scores are calculated as the sum of hub and authority scores pointed to
and from this document, respectively. More specifically, having set up the user similarity matrix X of size
nn as before, a weighted directed graph of users is allocated and the non-principal eigenvectors of X
T
X are
computed. The components of each non-principal eigenvector are assigned to each user. By ordering in
increasing order the values of each eigenvector, a partition is declared among users at the largest gap between
them. The entries of X
T
X represent authority scores and those of XX
T
refer to hub scores. The result is
groups of users that are close to each another under the authority or hub score value. The algorithm can create
up to 2n different groups of users, but experimental results have shown that groups with users that have
large coordinates in the first few eigenvectors tend to recur and therefore a first set of collections of users can
satisfy the clustering procedure (e.g. (Kleinberg, 1999)).
3.2 Social Network Analysis
After the clustering procedure, groups of users that share the same or closely related preferences with regards
to their documents ratings are revealed. More formally, there is a classification of members of every CoP
into a set of clusters C
1
,C
2
, . . . ,C
m
. For each cluster, the proposed framework computes the values of each of
301
the SNA measures (i.e. degree, betweenness and closeness). More specifically, contrary to clustering where
the measurement was correlation (i.e. user similarity), SNA exploits the relationship
ij
measurement, which
corresponds to communication among members. This analysis can provide useful findings; for example, a
specific group of users considered to have high similarity will appear as a cluster. More generally, the
combination of clustering and SNA highlights properties in groups of users of particular interest; this
extracted knowledge can be provided to the users through notification or recommendations mechanisms.
4. CONCLUSIONS
This paper has introduced a framework that can be applied to a wide range of software platforms aiming at
facilitating collaboration and learning among users. Having described the basic characteristics of the settings
under consideration, we presented an approach that integrates techniques from the Data Mining and Social
Network Analysis disciplines. More precisely, we formulated two different clustering approaches in order to
find the values of some meaningful metrics. Moreover, we combined the outcomes of the proposed clustering
methodology with SNA metrics. The result of this effort is to reveal valuable knowledge residing in a CoP.
REFERENCES
Ackerman, M. (1998). Augmenting organizational memory: a field study of answer garden. ACM Transactions on
Information Systems, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 203-224.
Anderberg, M.R. (1973), Cluster Analysis for Applications. Academic Press, New York, NY.
Chakrabarti, S., Dom, B., Gibson, D., Kumar, R., Raghavan, P., Rajagopalan, S. and Tomkins, A. (1998). Spectral
filtering for resource discovery. Proceedings of the ACM SIGIR Workshop on Hypertext Information Retrieval on the
Web. ACM Press, New York, NY, pp. 13-21.
Ding, C., He, X., Zha, H., Gu, M. and Simon, H. (2001). A min-max cut algorithm for graph partitioning and data
clustering. Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 107-
114.
Fink, J. and Kobsa, A. (2000). A review and analysis of commercial user modeling servers for personalization on the
world wide web. User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 209-249.
Freeman, L. (1977). A set of measures of centrality based on betweenness. Sociometry, Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 35-41.
Jain, A. and Dubes, R. (1988). Algorithms for clustering data. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Johnson, S. (1967). Hierarchical clustering schemes. Psychometrika, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 241-254.
Kaufman, L. and Rousseeuw, P. (1990). Finding groups in data: an introduction to cluster analysis. Wiley-Interscience,
New York, NY.
Kleinberg, J. (1999). Authoritative sources in a hyperlinked environment. Journal of the ACM, Vol. 46, No. 5, pp. 604-
632.
McLaughlin, M. and Herlocker, J. (2004). A collaborative filtering algorithm and evaluation metric that accurately model
the user experience. Proceedings of the 27
th
annual international ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and
Development in Information Retrieval, ACM New York, NY, USA, pp. 329-336.
Millen, D.R., Fontaine, M.A., Muller, M.J. (2002). Understanding the benefit and costs of communities of practice.
Communications of ACM, Vol. 45, No. 4, pp. 69-73.
Rosenberg, M.J. (2000). E-Learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age. McGraw-Hill, New York,
NY.
Sabidussi, G. (1966). The centrality index of a graph. Psychometrika, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 581-603.
Wasserman, S. and Faust, K. (1994). Social network analysis: Methods and applications. Cambridge University Press,
New York, NY.
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
302
DO THE PERCEIVED ATTRIBUTES OF SOCIAL
NETWORKS DIFFER IN TERMS OF BEING INNOVATOR
OR SKEPTICAL OF PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS?
Assoc. Prof. Yasemin Koak Usluel*, Pnar Nuholu** and Bahadr Yildiz*
*Hacettepe niversitesi
**Ankara niversitesi
Ankara
ABSTRACT
Considering the social networks as an innovation, the purpose of this study is to determine if the perceived attributes of
innovation vary in terms of the innovativeness or being skeptical. In this way, it is aimed to investigate the diffusion of
innovation process from both of the innovation-based and an individual-based perspective. Perceived attributes of
innovation is handled as five factors, namely; usefulness, ease of use, social influence, facilitating conditions and relative
advantage. Innovators are defined as individuals who adopt innovations earlier, courageous to try innovations and learn
to use innovations by themselves. On the other side, skepticals are defined as individuals who use innovations to keep
pace with society, fall behind in to use innovation for different reasons and use innovations only when majority using it.
The data is collected by two scales, developed by the researchers. One of the scales aimed to measure
innovativeness/being skeptical (Cronbach = .697) and consisted of 7 questions in 10-Likert type while the other scale
aimed to measure perceived attributes of innovation (Cronbach = .929) and consisted of 27 questions in 10-likert type.
Expertsopinion was taken for content validity and exploratory factor analysis was executed to show construct validity.
The study group is consisted of 192 prospective teachers. An independent sample t-test has been executed to determine
whether the perceived attributes of innovation vary significantly in terms of innovativeness or being skeptical. The results
have revealed out that among the perceived attributes of innovation, perceived usefulness and ease of use vary
significantly due to the innovative or being skeptical characteristics of prospective teachers. It has been also revealed out
that while the variation in usefulness was in favor of the skeptical teachers, that in ease of use turned out to be in favor of
the innovatives. Thus within the limitations of the study, it can be concluded, perceived ease of use and perceived
usefulness are the perceived attributes that determine nature of innovative and the skeptical prospective teachers
respectively.
KEYWORDS
diffusion of innovation, perceived attributes, adopter categories
1. INTRODUCTION
The diversity of the innovations presented by improving technology and the sustainability of innovation bring
along studies on the diffusion and adoption of these innovations in the field of education. There is a notable
amount of literature presenting the perceived attributes of innovation and determining which of these
innovations explain most the diffusion and adoption of innovation (Lee, Kozar and Larsen, 2003; Venkatesh
and others, 2003; Mazman and Usluel, 2010).
The process of diffusion for innovation is a multi-dimensional and dynamic one. This process may vary
as to innovation, the social system or the attributes of the individual. Rogers (2003) stated that the perceived
attributes of innovation differ in terms of the characteristics of the individual. Thus this study attempts to
determine if there would be any differences in the perceived attributes of innovation in terms of being
innovator or skeptical.
It has been explained that the origins of the variables of perceived attributes of innovation as relative
advantage (Rogers, 1983; Moore and Benbasat, 1991; Prekumar and Potter, 1995), compatibility (Rogers,
1983; Chin and Gopal, 1995; Xia and Lee, 2000), complexity (Premkumar and Potter, 1995; Igbaria and
others, 1996), observability (Moore and Benbasat, 1991), triability (Moore and Benbasat, 1991; Karahanna
303
and others, 1999), image (Karahanna and others 1999; Venkatesh and Davis, 2000) are based on The
Diffusion of Innovations Theory (Rogers 1983). The origins of the social influence variable (Malhotra and
Galletta, 1999; Venkatesh and Morris, 2000) is stated to be based on the Theory of Planned Behavior which
was developed by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), while facilitating conditions (Karahanna and Straub, 1999) on
Taylor and Todd (1995) (Lee, Kozar and Larsen 2003).
Five of the perceived attributes of social networks have been selected within this study: usefulness,
relative advantage, ease of use, social influence, facilitating conditions. These five attributes were selected on
the basis of Usluel and Mazman (2010) content analysis study which examines 35 articles about the
diffusion, acceptance and adoption of innovations in the field of education published in the last five years on
ISI Web of Knowledge. This study has suggested that the perception of usefulness, the ease of use, social
influence and facilitating conditions have been the most examined factors among the perceived attributes of
innovation. However, given the definitions of the perceived attributes, it is notable that the perceptions of
relative advantage and usefulness have been studied through a wide perspective under the performance
expectancy (Venkatesh and others, 2003). Venkatesh and others (2003) have stated that performance
expectancy, the perception of usefulness, relative advantage, job relevance, external motivation and result
expectancy are interrelated, and that these concepts generally reflect the individuals perception that he
would obtain advantages when he makes use of an innovation. Thus, it has been detected that in all of the 35
reviewed studies, the perception of usefulness has been studied in different ways under the terms
performance expectancy, result expectancy and subjective norms. However this study handles relative
advantage and usefulness as two separate elements, and relative advantage has been included in the study in
addition to the 4 above mentioned attributes.
1.1 The Perceived Attributes of Innovation:
Davis (1989) defines usefulness as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system
would enhance his or her job performance, whereas saving prestige and economy refer to usefulness within
this study. Ease of use is defined as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system
would be free of effort (Davis, 1989), however in this study ease of use is adopted both learning and using
easier that is consistent with Davis and Rogers approach. Facilitating conditions refer to the perception of
the technical or institutional infrastructure of the employment of the system by the individual (Venkatesh and
others 2003) which increase the usage and rate of adoption of the system. Social influence is defined as
ones perception that people who are important to him think he should or should not perform the behavior in
question (Fisbein and Ajzen, 1975; 302). Social influence becomes more important for rate of adoption
within social networks because of its distinctive connection with sociality. Relative advantage is defined as
the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it supersedes (Rogers, 2003; 15). In
this study individuals subjective advantageous perception on innovation like doing their job faster and easier
expresses the degree of relative advantage.
1.2 The Adopter Categories:
Based on the idea that the indicator of innovativeness is the relatively earlier adoption of innovation by the
individual or the units compared to the other individual/units in the system, Rogers (2003) categorizes the
adopters in five: innovators (2,5%), early adopters (13,5%), early majority (34%), late majority (34%),
laggards (16%). In this study, those who choose to use the innovations before their environment, showing
tendency to take risks while trying the innovation and who learned how to use it on their own without help
from the others shall be referred to as innovators; Those who employed the innovations to keep up with the
social environment, somehow lagging behind in employing them, and who waited for the others to try the
innovation before they do in order to decide shall be referred to as skepticals. This study handles social
networks as an innovation, and aims to determine if there is a significant difference in the perceived attributes
of innovation in terms of being innovator or skeptical of prospective teachers.

ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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2. METHOD
2.1 Study Group
The study group comprised of 191 students attending teacher education programs in 2009-2010 spring
semester of a public university, Faculty of Education in Ankara.
Table 1. Genders accross to the education programs
Female Male Total
Education Programs Elementary Mathematics Education f 37 15 52
% 29,8% 22,4% 27,2%
Primary School Education f 66 47 113
% 53,2% 70,1% 59,2%
Elementary Science Education f 21 5 26
% 16,9% 7,5% 13,6%
Total f 124 67 191
2.2 Data Collection Tools
The data has been collected by means of 2 scales developed by the researchers. The content validity of the
scales is based on expert opinion while the construct validity was provided by exploratory factor analysis.
2.2.1 The Scale of Innovativeness:
10 likert-type scale of Innovativeness consisted of 7 questions to measure innovativeness/being skeptical
(Cronbach = .697); the 2-factor innovativeness scale explained 55,4% of the total variance.
Mean points of the factors have been considered while grouping participants. In order to determine the
innovators and skepticals in terms of mean points, a minimum standard deviation difference between mean
points has been taken into consideration. Table 2 presents the explanatory factor analysis result of
innovativeness scale.
Table 2. Explanatory factor analysis results of the innovativeness scale
Innovators Question Factor Loading Skepticals Question Factor Loading
2 ,825 1 ,782
3 ,810 9 ,771
7 ,601 10 ,693
8 ,516
2.2.2 The Scale of Perceived Attributes of Innovation:
Perceived attributes of innovation scale was consisted of 27 questions in 10 likert-type (Cronbach = .929),
as a result of the factor analysis, 27 items have been grouped under 5 factors and these 5-factor of perceived
attributes of innovation scale explained 66,78 % of the total variance.
The result of this scale which was designed to distinguish meaning difference of relative advantage and
perceived usefulness, showed that these two structure put forward different results when compared to the
definitions of Davis (1989) and Rogers (2003). Examining the results of the factor analysis, the perceived
usefulness could be described with concepts such as increase in prestige, being economical, increase in
performance, productivity while relative advantage could be described as the individuals personal opinion
that he finds it useful to employ, and that the innovation equips him with the ability to do something in a
more swift and convenient fashion. Table 3 present the factors and the factor loadings of scale.

305
Table 3. Explanatory factor analysis results of the perceived attributes of innovation scale
Factor Question No Factor Loading Factor Question No Factor Loading
Perceived Ease of Use 2 ,878 Perceived Usefulness 27 ,678
3 ,839 26 ,630
1 ,711 10 ,668
4 ,678 11 ,613
5 ,622 Social Influence 14 ,836
Facilitating Conditions 19 ,707 13 ,786
21 ,727 15 ,659
20 ,691 16 ,649
18 ,627 Relative Advantage 23 ,853
22 ,509 24 ,834
12 ,671
3. FINDINGS
According to the t test results (Table 4), the prospective teachers perceptions of usefulness and ease of use
differ significantly in terms of being innovator or skeptical (t
(89)
=-2.347, p<0.05; t
(97)
= 0.225 p<.05). The
mean point of skeptical prospective teacher (
X
= 4,8618) is significantly higher than that of the innovator
prospective teacher (
X
= 4,6934). In terms of ease of use, it could be observed that the mean point of
innovator prospective teachers perception of ease of use (
X
= 5,1164) are significantly higher than that of
the skeptical prospective teacher (
X
= 5,0091). In the light of this finding, the innovator prospective
teachers tendency to adopt the innovation should increase as the innovations level of complexity increases.
No significant difference has been found in the other perceived attributes except usefulness and ease of use.
Table 4. T-test results of the influence of adopter categories on adoption structures concerning social networks
Status N

X

sd t p
Ease of Use Innovator 55 5,1164 2,57414 ,225 ,037
Skeptical 44 5,0091 2,05685
Usefulness Innovator 56 2,7411 2,45177 -,347 ,032
Skeptical 43 3,1744 2,03076
Relative Advantage Innovator 58 5,2655 2,94262 -1,108 ,131
Skeptical 44 5,3864 2,62178
Social Influence Innovator 58 4,7414 1,77736 -1,208 ,938
Skeptical 42 5,3730 1,75978
Facilitating Factors Innovator 53 4,6934 2,19133 -,261 ,247
Skeptical 38 4,8618 2,48058
4. CONCLUSION
Considering the social networks as an innovation, this study examined the perceived attributes of innovation
in terms of being innovator or skeptical of prospective teachers within the context of adoption, acceptance
and diffusion of innovation. The attained findings have shown that the prospective teachers perception of
usefulness and ease of use concerning social networks differ significantly in terms of their innovativeness or
being skeptical. Similiarly to this study finding, Usluel and Mazman (2010) examined the prospective
teachers purposes in using the Web in terms of being innovator or skeptical, and supportively found that the
innovators have a higher rate than the skepticals in general purpose of Web usage. It could be concluded that
social networks are more widely used by the innovator teachers since they increase inter personal
communication and individual prefer to chat in social networks,.
It has been observed that the innovator prospective teachers perceptions of ease of use scores are higher
than that of the skeptical prospective teachers. This finding could have two interpretations: Innovator
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
306
prospective teachers have less effort expectations than the skepticals concerning how to learn to employ the
innovation and as the perception of complexity increases, the rate of adoption of innovation will increase.
It has also been observed that the skeptical prospective teachers perceptions of usefulness scores are
higher than that of the innovator prospective teachers. Examining this finding within the context of the study,
the higher rate of perception of usefulness among skepticals concerning social networks suggests that the
skeptical prospective teachers adopt innovation considering the, increase in performance, providing
productivity. Thus, classifying the potential adopters in two groups as innovators and skepticals in case of the
diffusion and adoption of innovations, it could be asserted that different diffusion and adoption strategies
should be followed for each group.
REFERENCES
Bartlett-Bragg, A., 2006. Reflections on pedagogy: Reframing practice to foster informalLearning with social software.
Retrieved 10.02.2008, http://www.dream.sdu.dk/uploads/files/Anne%20Bartlett-Bragg.pdf.
Chin, W.W. and Gopal, A., 1995. Adoption intention in GSS relative importance of beliefs. Database, Vol. 26, No. 2&3,
pp 42-63.
Davis, F. D., 1989. Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology. MIS
Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp 319-340.
Fishbein, M. and Ajzen, I., 1975. Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: an introduction to theory and research.:
Addison-Wesley, Reading MA.
Igbaria, M. et al, 1996. A motivational model of microcomputer usage. Journal of management information systems, Vol.
13, No. 1, pp 127-143.
Karahanna, E. and Straub, D.W. et al, 1999. The Psychological Origins of Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease-of-
Use. Information & Management, Vol. 35, pp 237-250.
Lee, M. C., 2010. Explaining and predicting users' continuance intention toward e-learning: An extension of the
expectation-confirmation model. Computers & Education, Vol. 54, No. 2, pp 506-516.
Lee, Y. et al, 2003. The Technology Acceptance Model: Past, Present, Future. Communications of the Association for
Information Systems, Vol. 12, No. 50, pp 752-780.
Malhotra, Y. and Galletta, D. F., 1999. Extending the Technology Acceptance Model to Account for Social Influence:
Theoretical Bases and Empirical Validation. Proceedings of Thirty-Second Hawaii International Conference on
System Sciences (HICSS)., Maui, Hawaii.
Moore, G.C. and Benbasat, I., 1991. Development of an Instrument to Measure the Perceptions of Adopting an
Information Technology Innovation. Information Systems Research, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp 192-222.
Premkumar, G. and Potter, M., 1995. Adoption of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) Technology: An
Innovation Adoption Perspective. Data Base, Vol. 26, No. 2&3, pp 531-544.
Rogers, M. E., 2003. Diffusion of innovation (5th ed.). New York: The Free Press.
Taylor, S. and Todd, P., 1995. Assessing IT usage: the role of prior experience, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp 561-
570.
Teo, T., 2009. Modelling technology acceptance in education: A study of pre-service teachers. Computers & Education,
Vol. 52, No. 2, pp 302-312.
Teo, T. et al, 2009. Assessing the intention to use technology among pre-service teachers in Singapore and Malaysia: A
multigroup invariance analysis of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Computers & Education, Vol. 53, No.
3, pp 10001009.
Teo, T. and Schaik, P. V., 2009. Understanding Technology Acceptance in Pre-Service Teachers: A Structural-Equation
Modeling Approach. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp 47-66.
Usluel, Y. K. ve Mazman, S. G., 2009. Eitimde Yeniliklerin Yaylm, Kabul ve Benimsenmesi Srecinde Rol
Oynayan geler: Bir ierik analizi almas. ukurova niversitesi Eitim Fakltesi Dergisi, under review.
Usluel, Y. K. ve Mazman, S. G., 2010. retmen adaylarnn web kullanm amalar yeniliki/temkinli olma durumlarna
gre farkllk gsteriyor mu?. Uluslar Aras retmen Yetitirme Politikalar ve Sorunlar Sempozyumu, Beytepe,
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Venkatesh, V. et al, 2003. User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward A Unified View. MIS Quarterly, Vol.
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307
A PROCESS CAPABILITY MODEL FOR SERVICES IN
THE BRAZILIAN PUBLIC SOFTWARE
Mrcia R. M. Martinez, Sueli A. Varani, Edgar L. Banhesse, and Clenio F. Salviano
CTI - Centro de Tecnologia da Informao Renato Archer
Rodovia D. Pedro I, km 143.6, CEP 13069-901
Campinas, SP, Brazil
ABSTRACT
This article presents a Process Capability Model for Service Providers in the context of the Brazilian Public Software
(SPB). SPB is a virtual environment in which the construction and appropriation of knowledge occurs in a collaborative
way. In spite of the diversity of Capability Process Models, there is a demand for new models for more specific contexts,
such as services in the SPB. The Process Capability Model is structured with Process Capability Areas and Process
Capability Levels. The current version of the SPB model is composed of five process capability areas: Admission of
Service Providers (APS); Incident Solving (RI); Management of Services (GPS); and Management of Service by the
Community (GSC). The process capability levels are levels 0, 1, 2 and 3 as defined in ISO/IEC 15504 Standard.
KEYWORDS
Brazilian Public Software, Process Capability Models, Services.
1. INTRODUCTION
In the recent years, society has experienced the importance of Internet as a new production locus, where it is
possible to establish a space favorable to the collaboration in webs. Authors of Wikinomics (Tapscott and
Willians, 2007) define the phenomenon as a common basis for production, where the coexistence of actors,
from private or public environments, is healthy and where there is a guarantee of access to results of works
done by all the actors involved.
In this context is the Brazilian Public Software (SPB after its original name in Portuguese: Software
Pblico Brasileiro), a virtual environment with a great potential to be a common basis for production, that
benefits from the coexistence of the public and private sectors. SPB allows the generalization of artifacts that
go beyond software code, aiding the sustainability of free licensing software and the equality of opportunities
for the private market.
In the case of virtual networks such as SPB, the construction of capability models must go beyond the
conventional view offered by current models, taking in consideration the prevailing dynamics, in which the
roles are constantly altered and the limits established by interrelations are not clearly defined. Amongst the
actors that coexist in the SPB are the service providers, which may be companies or self-employed workers,
bound to software solutions, and whose target is to offer a range of services to users.
This article presents a process capability model for services offered in the SPB, aiding service providers
in the service quality improvement. It is being developed in a cooperative and shared way, with the support
of the SPB communities. This article is organized as follows. This first section provides an introduction to
the article. The second section presents, in a summarized way, the SPB and the dynamics of services offer in
the web. The third section describes a general introduction about the process capability models. The fourth
section deals specifically of the capability model in the SPB context. Finally, the fifth section concludes the
article.

ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
308
2. THE BRAZILIAN PUBLIC SOFTWARE - SPB
SPB is an initiative undertaken by the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management of Brazil, in order to
decrease public costs by means of new and more efficient ways to develop and deliver software while
promoting the sharing of solutions among the public institutions.
The SPB considers on its formulation the free software model of production, and moreover, overlaps
other issues that borderline this concept as Economics of intangible goods, new role for the State, new
organizational models operating in network and intellectual property of goods produced in a collaborative
way. The Brazilian Public Software is made available by a portal (PSPB, 2010), a virtual environment which
gathers software - available for users to download and for its continuous improvement development under
permission - and a set of additional services offered by those entities that provide solutions such as user
guidebooks, installation guidebooks, discussion lists, forums, management models and some support. Thus,
the portal provides an important exchange of knowledge and of software tools, mainly those which are of
public interest. Currently the Portal has more than 40 thousand people subscribed, 37 software solutions
available, besides groups of interest. Among the current groups of interest there are 4CMBr and 5CQualiBr.
The 4CMBr group of interest discusses information technology for the Brazilian Municipalities (4CMBr,
2010). 4C means Collaboration, Community, Knowledge and Sharing after their Portuguese words:
Colaborao, Comunidade, Conhecimento and Compartilhamento. 4CMBr was launched in November 2008
with the purpose to stimulate the use of free software in the municipalities. From the use of information
technology, it proposes to improve the internal procedures of the Brazilian Municipalities, the quality of life
of citizens with by offering online services, tackling the waste of public resources and time, managing and
planning expenses.
5CQualiBr group of interest (5CQualiBr, 2010) concerns the subject of Quality. It has been developed
with the objective of increasing confidence in all levels of the artifacts displayed in the portal. The fifth C is
for Trust after its Portuguese word Confiana. It hosts communities interested in participating in the
construction of knowledge devoted to aspects of quality (interoperability, test, quality of products, quality of
development processes, quality in service delivery, dissemination and sustainability).
In the SPB Portal there is a group of software solutions and a group that demands services related to these
solutions. The Virtual Public Market (MPV, 2010) is the virtual space that allows the approximation between
the two groups. In the MPV information is kept about the service providers, which can be self-employed
workers or companies, thus generating a catalogue of service providers and a guide for fast consultation. The
occurrence of this phenomenon may, in theory, accelerate the development and use of the software solutions,
the increase in the services performed and the stimulation of economy around each software, thus
characterizing a new business model. Currently in MPV are registered more than 300 service providers.
In the context of the model presented in this article, service means the set of activities offered by the
Virtual Public Market to those who use the solutions available in the Portal SPB. Therefore, the services
considered in the Process Capability Model for Services in the SPB may be: training, development,
consulting, maintenance, installation, implantation, technical support, embedded software, interactive
applications programming, mechanical and computational modeling and associated products.
3. SERVICE CAPABILITY MODELS
Process Capability Models are repositories of best practices which are used as references for the process
improvement and assessment. In recent years, a set of best practices models has emerged in the information
technology field, with the objective of aiding companies in their structuring, management and monitoring of
their processes performance. Among them we may mention the models of CMMI (SEI, 2006; SEI, 2009;
SEI, 2007), MPS-BR (Softex, 2009) and ISO/IEC 15504 (ISO/IEC 2003). These models bring benefits to the
companies by recognizing the competitive advantage that can be created by a process-based management. A
recent survey identified 52 Process Capability Models for different domains (von Wangenheim et alli 2010).
A new generation of quality models has emerged and they are specific to the improvement of information
technology service processes, which are: CMMI-SVC (SEI, 2009), and SCM-SP (Hyder et al, 2006), etc. In
spite of a diversity of Process Capability Models there is a demand for new reference models for specific
contexts. It is the case of SPB, which will be detailed in the following sections.
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4. PROCESS CAPABILITY MODEL FOR SERVICES IN THE SPB
This section presents the structure of the process capability model for services in the SPB, their process
capability areas and levels, and a summary of three process capability areas.
The model has been developed with the use of Method Framework for Engineering Process Capability
Models (Salviano et al, 2009). In this development we have focused on understanding the current practices
for services in SPB and on analyzing the current general purpose models for services. The model
construction is coordinated by Centro de Tecnologia da Informao Renato Archer (CTI: Information
Technology Center Renato Archer) and has the participation of research centers, universities and SPB
communities. The work is financed by FINEP - Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos and is part of a larger
project called Reference Model for the Brazilian Public Software.
Following the Method Framework, a process was defined and used to guide the development of first
versions of the Process Capability Model in a cooperative and shared way, with the support of the SPB
communities. An initial version was developed and presented in a workshop with SPBs service provides.
From their feedback, another version was developed and established as a first version.
The Process Capability Model is structured in Process Capability Areas and Process Capability Levels.
The Process Capability Areas are described with the following components: (a) Purpose: Describes the
objective of the process capability area; (b) Introductory Notes: Shortly describes the process capability area;
(c) Objectives: Describes the target to be achieved by practices application; and (d) Practice: Guides the way
to perform the activities. The focus is in what and not in how to do. Examples are presented to serve as
suggestions of how a practice may be implemented. The Process Capability Levels are described with
similar elements.
The Process Capability Model process areas of SPB describe a set of practices to support the services
improvement of MPV service providers. The SPB communities are free to define how to implement each
practice. In this way, each process capability area guides the communities in the initiative to qualify service
providers, as well as guides service providers to improve the services quality through a set of practices. The
current version of SPB model is composed of five process capability areas: Service Providers Admission
(APS); Service Delivery (PS); Incident Solution (RI); Service Delivery Management (GPS); and Community
Service Management (GSC).
These five process capability areas provide a system to guide an initial improvement of a service delivery.
The objective was to provide a simple system, with few process capability areas, to facilitate its
understanding and application. Later, with more feedback from the SPBs service providers, more process
capability areas will emerge.
The process capability levels for this Process Capability Model are the capability levels 0 to 3 defined by
ISO/IEC 15504 (ISO/IEC, 2003). At Level 0: Incomplete process, the process is not implemented, or fails to
achieve its process purpose. At Level 1: performed process, the implemented process achieves its process
purpose. At Level 2: managed process, the previously described performed process is now implemented in a
managed fashion (planned, monitored and adjusted) and its work products are appropriately established,
controlled and maintained. At Level 3: Established process, the previously described managed process is now
implemented using a defined process capable of achieving its process outcomes.
The Service Delivery guides the establishment of processes for delivering a service based on a service
agreement. This process can be performed by a service provider at capability level 1, 2 or 3. In order to
deliver a service, a service provider needs to be admitted by a SPB community. The Service Providers
Admission guides the establishment of procedures to manage the service providers admission for the SPB
communities. The service delivery of an admitted service provider of a SPB community needs to be managed
by both the service provider and by the SPB community. The Service Delivery Management guides the
establishment of processes for this management by the service provider and the Community Service
Management guides the establishment of processes for this management by the SPB community. The
Incident Solution guides the establishment of processes to recovery agreed services as fast as possible with an
adequate and effective solution for the service incident.
Following we present a content summary of three process capability areas of SPB Model, composed of
the purpose, objectives and practices. The complete description of these three process capability areas and the
other two are available, including the examples of implementation of all the practices, in the community
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5CQualiBR. The Figure 1 shows the process capability area Service Providers Admission, Figure 2
presents Service Delivery, and Figure 3 presents Community Service Management.

Service Providers Admission
Purpose:
The purpose of the Process Capability Area Service Providers Admission is to guide the establishment of
procedures in order to manage the service providers admission for the SPB communities.
Objectives and Practices
Objective APS 1 Prepared Admission:
The admission is prepared based on the objectives, strategies and criteria for service delivery.
Practice APS 1.1 Establish and Maintain the Objectives of Service Delivery
Practice APS 1.2 Establish and Maintain the Admission Strategy
Practice APS 1.3 Establish and Maintain the Criteria for Admission
Practice APS 1.4 Take Actions to Attend the Objectives
Objective APS 2 Admission Performed and Monitored:
Admission is performed based on the criteria defined, the agreement is established and used as reference to
monitor the service delivery.
Practice APS 2.1 Perform and Monitor Admission
Practice APS 2.2 Establish and Maintain Agreement
Practice APS 2.3 Communicate the Admitted Service Providers
Practice APS 2.4 Monitor Service Delivery over the Objectives
Practice APS 2.5 Review the Admissions based on the Monitoring Results
Figure 1. Purpose, objectives e practices of process capability area service providers admission
Service Delivery
Purpose:
The purpose of the Process Capability Area Service Delivery is to guide the establishment of processes for
delivering a service based on a service agreement.
Objectives e Practices
Objective GSC 1 Service Delivery:
The service is delivered based on the service agreement.
Practice PS 1.1 Establish agreement
Practice PS 1.2 Prepare for service delivery
Practice PS 1.3 Deliver and Monitor the Service
Practice PS 1.4 Request an evaluation of the delivery service
Practice PS 1.5 Communicate the results of the service evaluation
Figure 2. Purpose, objectives e practices of process capability area service delivery
Community Service Management
Purpose:
The purpose of the Process Capability Area Community Service Management is to guide the
establishment of processes so that the moderator of the Community monitors the activities performed by the
MPV Service Providers, taking proper action when significant deviation occurs in compare to the
Community objectives.
Objectives e Practices
Objective GSC 1 Services Managed:
The services are managed, operationally and strategically, and actions are taken and monitored.
Practice GSC 1.1 Establish the Community Objectives
Practice GSC 1.2 Establish and Maintain a Strategy to Achieve Objectives
Practice GSC 1.3 Monitor Service Providers
Practice GSC 1.4 Verify Alignment with the Community Objectives
Practice GSC 1.5 Take Corrective Actions
Figure 3. Purpose, objectives and practices of process capability area community service management
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5. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
This work has presented a Service Process Capability Model for a virtual environment context, SPB. The
model can be found in version 3.0 and its evolution has had the following validations: in the preliminary
version the model had the participation of specialists in software engineering. The first version had the
contribution of other groups involved with SPB, being validated at a SPB conference, with the participation
of community members and other interested people, generating version 2.0. The current version of the model
has been elaborated with reference to the observations obtained in a workshop, feedback received in the
discussion forum and meetings of the team members. Case study of applications of a new version of the
model are being planned to evaluate it in pilot projects and therefore identifying its weak and strong points,
and opportunities of improvement. From these results, new versions of the model for SPB will be developed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors acknowledge FINEP Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos, for financing and supporting this
work, in the Project 0489/08: Reference Model for the Brazilian Public Software.
REFERENCES
4CMBr Brazilian Cities (Collaboration, Community, Knowledge and Sharing), available on
http://softwarepublico.gov.br/4cmbr/xowiki/Principal, last access in July/2010.
5CQualiBr (Trust for Cooperation, Communities, Knowledge, Sharing), available on
http://softwarepublico.gov.br/5cqualibr/xowiki/, last access in July/2010.
von Wangenheim, C. G., Hauck, J. C. R.; Zoucas, A.; Salviano, C. F.; McCaffery, F.; and Shull, F.; Creating Software
Process Capability/Maturity Models, IEEE Software, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 92-94, July/Aug. 2010,
doi:10.1109/MS.2010.96 (available from http://www.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/MS.2010.96).
Hyder, B. E. et al, 2006. The eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers: eSCM-SP v2.01: Practice Details;
ITSqc Carnegie Mellon.
ISO/IEC, 2003. Information Technology Software Process Assessment; Parts 1-9, The International Organization for
Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission; v. ISO/IEC 15504.
MPV (in Portuguese: Mercado Pblico Virtual) available on www.mercadopublico.gov.br, last access in July/2010.
Salviano, C. F. et al, 2009. A Method Framework for Engineering Process Capability Models; In: EuroSPI, Industry
Proc., pp. 6.25-6.36, 2-4, Spain.
SEI, 2006. CMMI for Development, version 1.2: CMMI-DEV; Software Engineering Institute.
SEI, 2007. CMMI for Acquisition, version 1.2: CMMI-ACQ; Software Engineering Institute.
SEI, 2009. CMMI for Service, version 1.2: CMMI-SVC; Software Engineering Institute.
SOFTEX, 2009. MR-MPS - Melhoria de Processo do Software Brasileiro: Guia Geral; SOFTEX- Associao para
Promoo da Excelncia do Software Brasileiro, Brasil.
Tapscott and Willians, 2007. Wikinomics How mass collaboration changes everything; Penguin USA.
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A STRUCTURED APPROACH TO THE INTRODUCTION
OF ENTERPRISE 2.0
Roberto Paiano and Andrea Pandurino
University of Salento, Department of Innovation Engineering, GSA Lab
Via per Monteroni, Lecce (LE), Italy
ABSTRACT
More and more often the organizations need to use a flexible organization model able to adapt quickly the internal
structure to the changing market conditions. In many cases, this uninterrupted need of changing is not compliant with the
strict structure of the enterprise business process that set the employees and their activities in a fixed schema. To face this
situation, in the past years many methodologies are born in order to improve the quality and to reduce the risks of change
management into an enterprise. Nowadays, the main innovation in the panorama of the organizational model is the
introduction of the Enterprise 2.0 (E2.0) philosophy. The E2.0 main concept of make the enterprise more flexible
improving the collaboration between the employees represents a new aspect that before in the traditional approach was
not considered. The use inside of an enterprise of the E2.0 is not a simple adoption of a new technology but a more
complex change that involves several areas. Today, there is not a unique and well-know process that could lead the
enterprise in the adoption of E2.0. This paper wants to provide (describing the introduction process) the guidelines and
the methodological steps that an organization could be executed for a correct and complete adoption of the E2.0
philosophy.
KEYWORDS
Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration, Knowledge, Business Process
1. INTRODUCTION AND RELATED WORK
Today the Web paradigm (defined as its interface, its interactional policy, the delivery mode of the contents,
etc.) has reached a pervasive level in the ordinary way of life that the new applications or contents are mainly
projected for this channel. An evolution process that involved the technological aspects and the users
expectations is in progress from these last years. On one side, the web applications evolved from a static web
site (that provided only static information) to richer applications that allow to delivery dynamic contents
(such as video, audio) with interaction methods and performance closer to the desktop application (such as in
the case of Rich Internet Application). On the other side, the user requirements are radically evolved: the web
is considered not as a simple tool to acquire information but as a virtual place in which all the daily and
social tasks could be executed. Thus, the social web application such as Facebook - the most famous one -
became a good alternative to the real meeting point allowing to cross over the geographic distance (in order
to interact with user far away) and the temporal gap (in order to contact old friends and to resume old
friendships that in another way could be lost forever). In its entirety, the web is changing from a system that
is highly focused on the data and on the services to manage these data to a system focused on the user: the
user is placed in the centre of a complex infrastructure that on one hand provides enhanced services for the
information and on the other hand, adapts itself to the specific communication user requirements allowing to
interact in his/her preferred way and using the channel closer to his/her needs. This innovative aspect leads to
the definition of a new generation of web applications that are described with the term Web 2.0 [Lazar,
2007]. In general, the concept of Web 2.0 is not a simple technological change (that was remarkable) but a
cultural transformation in the way in which the user uses Internet: it is a new philosophy focused on the
collaboration and puts the stress on cooperation and on the features to share the data between several
technological platforms based on hardware and software architectures. This new way to understand the
enterprise is been defined by Andrew McAfee [McAfee, 2006] using the term Enterprise2.0. With this
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definition, McAfee wants to identify a real philosophy that uses the concepts of the Web2.0 in order to renew
the enterprise standards not forcing the application of a hierarchical organization and of a strictly procedural
process. Today, the introduction in an organization of the E2.0 model is seen as the adoption of a new
technology (through the use of a tool such as wiki, blog,.. ) [Chwelos, 2000] [Premkumar, 1995] and the
problems connected with the managing of the information or with the organization are not considered.
Recovering this gap, this paper aims to define the adoption process of the Enterprise 2.0 model that could
be used as guidelines by the company in order to minimize the risk of a complete change of enterprise work
procedure [ The Economist, 2007]. After this paragraph that introduces the context in the second paragraph
we explain the open issue and the problem to adopt the Enterprise 2.0 model into an organization. The third
paragraph describes the process: first in general and then describing each phase. The conclusion describes the
research result and the future works.
2. THE ENTERPRISE 2.0 CHALLENGE
As stated before, the adoption inside an organization of the E2.0 paradigm is not a simple task because many
technical and social issues must be solved. First of all, its necessary to consider that the employees have a
natural aversion to any changes in their working manner. Thus, the possibility of the employees to work in a
collaborative perspective through the publication of their know-how in a blog or a wiki could be dramatic.
Not only the low level of collaboration and/or communication between the employees could be an obstacle
but also its higher level could cause several problems. Indeed, we have to consider that the opportunity
offered to the employees to insert their information [Newman, 2009] and to express their opinions involves
serious problems of governance related with the loss of know-how (information that is not correct and
inaccurate) and with the loss of sensible data (reserved information broadcasted).
From the technological point of view, even if the introduction of the Web2.0 tools in the enterprise
software architecture does not involve particular problems, these new collaborative features must be
integrated in the traditional information system. The traditional information systems are born and are
developed assuming the business process, including the operative processes, the management processes and
the collaborative processes in order to have a wide, integrated and pervasive control of the all enterprise
parameters . Clearly, the introduction of E2.0 that in a complete adoption must affect these processes in order
to promote the collaboration, must be related with the legacy system modernization . Furthermore, we have
to consider that the current information systems are strongly focused and strictly dependent from data and
their structure. These systems must be adjusted to manage the de-structured information obtained, for
example, from a forum and blog; in fact, the goal of the Web2.0 tools is to prompt each employee to elicit (in
a blog, wiki, forum) his/her know-how that must be indexed and make widely accessible. If the internal
information system does not have a flexible infrastructure able to manage the not structured data, all this
knowledge will be lost and all benefits of E2.0 for the organization will be really poor.
In the following, we report in general the main factors that affect the adoption of a complete E2.0
paradigm [Massey, 2007] [Riche, 2007] [Lin, 2005] inside an organization:
Infrastructure factor [Frappaolo, 2008] [Duncan, 2009]. This factor is directly connected with the
ability and the will of the enterprise to renew own legacy system: the management has to take a firm decision
in the modernization process and must be allocated a good part of the innovation budget. In some case,
hybrid architectural solution in which the legacy system manages the operative data and the Web2.0 system
manages the not-structured knowledge, could be efficiently adopted.
Cultural factor [Holt, 2007]. This factor is related with the enterprise culture and with its inclination
to evolve its internal organizational structures to follow the E2.0 philosophy. A flexible organization will be
more able to use a flat structure and to use in an informal way the new available tools.
Environment factor [Premkumar, 2005]. The enterprise is a part of complex environment that is the
market with its rules and pressure. If the enterprise works in a market that is much competitive in which
continuous changes are required and the company is often forced to follow these changes, clearly the entire
enterprise is directed towards a radical change such as the adoption of E2.0.
Technological factor [Edison, 2000]. Unlike the infrastructure factor, this aspect underlines the capacity
of the organization to innovate itself [Parasuraman, 2000]. If the employees are not accustomed to use ICT
tools during their works, the introduction of E2.0 will be more difficult.
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Assuming these factors, clearly the changeover to a E2.0 paradigm is not simple. The report The State
of Enterpise 2.0 Adoption Q4 2009 [Frappaolo, 2009] highlights the high level of uncertainty of scientific
and industrial community about the best practice to introduce the E2.0 model inside an organization. In the
following, we report the main data of this research:
21% of the interviewed company that have introduced the E2.0, used a top-down (also named
management driven) approach. In this approach, the main actor is the management that became the lever of
the entire adoption process;
28% of the company used a user-driven approach in which the innovation involves first the low
level of organization. The employees use the collaborative tools generating knowledge and collaborating in
an informal way in the execution of their task;
52% of the company use a mixed approach in which the innovation is mediated by the needs of
employees, management and governance.
Considering the importance of this innovation, clearly this uncertainty in the implementation process is
normal. Probably, the best solution is strictly related with the status of the organization; thus, it is difficult to
define a universal effective process. Taking up this challenge, we illustrate an implementation process that
considers the technological aspects and the factors related to the management, the business process and the
information system.
3. THE ADOPTION PROCESS
The process presented next is made up of several steps. In our vision, it is important to conclude anyway all
the steps. The skipping of a single step has as a consequence to increase the change risks and to compromise
the quality of the result. The organizations can start their evolutionary path from an intermediate step if they
are absolutely sure that had already implemented the previous steps. This choice must be based on the
reasons that brought, in the past, to adopt organizational/technological solutions apparently aligned with the
E2.0 paradigm. It is useful to consider the process steps already completed as a checklist. We describe the
process of fulfilment toward the Porter value chain; for each phase, we define the goal, the technological and
the methodological tools and the users (see figure 1).

Figure 1. Process of adoption
Considering the companys area in which the specific phase has the main effect, the steps are grouped. he
goal of the first four phases is to change the style of the company management to align the monitoring tools
to the E2.0 paradigm. Thus, the four phases have been grouped in the planning and monitoring area that deals
with management and governance. The operative area encourages the cooperation and collaboration in the
horizontal process and the vertical process. The phase 7 is characterized by the reengineering of the business
process more and more focused on the people and on their knowledge. The business process will be renewing
through the innovative application of the existing technologies of the Web2.0 . The phase 7 is very complex,
and it will be made in several sub-steps . The phase 8, called Vision is the end of a challenging path that
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brings the organization towards a more flexible, efficient and competitive model supported by an information
system based not on the data but on the knowledge. Next, we describe the detail of each phase.
Phase 1: Introduction of a common language. The introduction of the collaboration among employees
needs to the definition of a company common language in order to describe facts and the knowledge. In a
well-structured company, each unit operates in autonomy and develops its own know-how; thus, it is
fundamental to use a common language that could be at the basis of the common knowledge. The knowledge
base is not only a glossary of terms but includes the internal procedures, success stories and the solution to
not-standard cases. The definition of a common language in the Public Administration is very important; in
fact, the used language is complex and that the knowledge changes rapidly because there are law changes at
the national and local level. Clearly, in this complex and dynamic situation in order to guarantee
collaboration between several function units, it is important to have a knowledge base that simplifies a
concept and the internal procedures in the public administration.
Phase 2: Management involvement. The main role of the management is to apply the guidelines and the
plans defined by the top management in order to foresee the internal goal and to contribute to the
achievement of the companys goal. The innovation in the E2.0 vision must start from the involvement of the
management. In order to obtain the results, the management must manage people and resources and must
manage problems and exceptions thank to the cooperation and collaboration with other employees. In this
view, the creation of communities oriented to the management answer to the requirement of improves the
quality of the relation between people. he communities allow to create a shared knowledge base about
companys problems and their solution. Furthermore, the use of democratic tools such as blog, forum allows
to the employees to recognize the managers leadership. Clearly, if the manager is part of the community and
he/she understands the real benefit of that community, he/she understands the risks and benefit and he/she is
ready to address the change.
Phase 3:Definition of the user profile. This phase is the key point in the company and do not require
important changes in the organization but only a change of thinking with the introduction of the E2.0
paradigm based on the centrality of the people on their experience and knowledge. The definition of the user
profile is an activity that is: (i) centralized with the office that has the base information about the employee
such as the role of the employee, the responsibility and so on; (ii) distributed where employees update its
own profile with its expertise, its professional experience and other information both personal and
professional that is useful for the other employees. In the future, thanks to the profile available, it will be
possible to use these information in order to enhance the performance of the knowledge base; there will be
the possibility of enhance the index of the contents considering the profile of who add the content, and it will
be possible to have a search results considering the information about the profile in order to sharpen the
search.
Phase 4: Management of the governance 2.0. The adoption of enterprise 2.0 must take in care the
mutual and strictly relationship between the organization structure, the tools and the information system.
Thus, it is fundamental to understand the potential virtuous circles that must be proper managed to obtain all
the expected advantages. The first relationship is between the organization structure and the new Web2.0
tools. In particular, the organization change improves and promotes the effective use of the collaboration
tools that contribute to spread and to consolidate the new organization structure. The second relationship
between the applications and the information system concerns about the capability of the E2.0 tools to spread
open, collaborative and decisional processes suitable to the different needs of the corporate lifestyle. This
aspect draws the adoption of flexible information systems oriented to people, thus allowing the effective
diffusion of the collaborative tools and applications compliant with the security and performance aspects.
Finally, concerning the organizational maturity of the company and the diffusion of the Enterprise 2.0, the
best governance policy is to manage an infrastructure able to improve the collaboration allowing to coexist
with situations in which the user is supported by the ICT role and others in which the ICT management
promotes the users to manage their autonomy in an effective and mature way through the introduction of
new collaborative tools and a proper training.
Phase 5: Adoption of institutional communities. The main goal of this phase is to prompt the
employees to use the community tools to participate to the enterprise activities. The clearness and the access
to the enterprise information are implemented in this phase. The needed organizational changes are related to
the ability of the management to make the use of the community (realized through a blog, forum,..) a
democracy task in which the employees can free to express their opinion without to hit in explicit or implicit
disciplinary measures.
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Phase 6: Adoption of vertical collaborative tools. After that the management is become aware of the
use of the collaboration and that employees are changed their way to interact with the enterprise, the main
goal of this phase is to introduce the collaborative tools in the business process of the specific sectors of the
organization. The use of these tools can cause great vantage such as to reduce the time-to-market, to improve
the effectiveness and efficiency of the process sharing the knowledge inside the specific organization unit. In
this case, the process must be not structured in a procedural workflow and must include in its nature some
collaborative aspects. A good example of this kind of process is the Project Management process. The task
that is executed by the Project Manager and by the team could be considerably improved with a defined
economical benefit through the use of collaborative tools: the Blog can become the main communication tool
inside the team members and between different teams; the forum is, instead, the main source of knowledge of
the project; the possibility of be authors of contents and the advanced document management (using Tag)
could be the main tools to create the project documentation.
Phase 7: People Knowledge Engineering. Until now, the gradualness of the adoption process has the
goal is to make aware all the employees of a new way of working of cooperate. Furthermore, these phases
are related to not structured tasks or tasks that are more difficult to be structured that could have a big
advantage using collaborative tools. Now, the main goal of this phase is to introduce the collaboration
aspects in the processes that are governed by a rigid procedural workflow. Even if, the introduction of
Web2.0 tool changes the business process, it does not think proper to speak about reengineering of the
business processes, but we deal with the people knowledge engineering (PKE). In this phase, the used
approach is based on the innovative and collaborative adoption of the principles defined by Hammer
[Hammer, 1990 ][Hammer, 1993] in his theory about the Business Process Reengineering. For example, the
Hammer principle to Link parallel line of activity instead of integrating results is the essence of the
collaboration. The activities executed by several offices and related to the same object must be executed
considering the collaboration aspects and implemented using the web2.0 tools. The document management
system allows to work at the same time on the same set of documents.
Phase 8: the future of the information system. This last phase is the final goal that each organization
should aim in the future. In the previous phase, we have described the innovation on the existing system;
however, a complete change of working procedure could be essential considering also the continuous
changes of the economic and social contexts. Thus, if the context requires that a new information system
must be projected, the reference architectures must include the model Software-As-Service, the
dematerialization and virtualization of the infrastructure through the cloud computing technologies. In this
case, a full decomposition of the business processes will be required while other tools will manage the
orchestration of the collaborative environments. For this reasons the new information system (named
information system 2.0) must be flexible and collaborative and able to adapt itself according to the market
changes and the organization needs.
4. CONCLUSION
Today, there are many organizations that declare to adopt an Enterprise 2.0 model, but they have simply
added in their business process tools like forum, wiki, chat. n this context these tools are used in an improper
way and, above all, the employees know-how does not enter in the knowledge of the enterprise that is
strictly linked to the old information system that manages data and not knowledge. Instead, there are many
companies that need a more flexible organization model. These companies have business processes suitable
to use collaboration, but they do not have a guideline that can drive themselves to an Enterprise 2.0 model in
a gradual way and compliant with their organization structures.
This paper describes a new process to introduce the Enterprise2.0 model into an organization. This
process involves all the company sectors and roles (from the employee to the manager) and the transversal
and vertical processes. It is clear that the importance of the innovation of the Enterprise2.0 does not allow to
model an unique process valid for all the type of organization because the E2.0 model must be adapted to the
specific features of the company. For these reasons, reasons, the reported process must be understood as a
guideline that describes the methodological steps that an organization must mandatory do to reduce the risk
of E2.0 adoption such as a lack of governance. From our point of view, to gain the maximum benefits of the
E2.0 model it is necessary to adjust the business process in order to introduce the collaboration aspects. In
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this direction, our research will be developed. We think to have two steps in the process change: the first has
the goal to introduce into the process the Web2.0 tools in order to improve and change gradually the
employee tasks; the second using these new tools, the business process must be decomposed in order to be
more flexible delegating the employees to execute correctly the tasks using their knowledge (that is
supported by the entire information system 2.0).
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We want to thank the Links Management & Technology S.p.A. of Lecce for the support and the possibility to
test our approach in a research project funded by Apulia Region.
REFERENCES
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Research.
Duncan, N. L., 2009. The invisible weapon: A study of Information Technology Infrastructure as a Strategic Resource In
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The Economist, 2007. Serious business Web 2.0 goes Corporate. A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Edison, S. W. and Geissler, G. L., 2000. Measuring attitudes Towards General Technology: Antecedents, Hypotheses and
Scale Development. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing. Vol 12, 2..
Frappaolo, C., and Keldsen, D., 2008. Enterprise 2.0: Agile, Emergent & Integrated. MarketIQ Intelligence Quarterly
(aiim).
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Council, pp. 10.
Hammer M., 1990. Reengineering work: dont automate, obliterate. Harvard Business Review.
Hammer M., 1993. Reengineering the corporation: a manifesto for Business Revolution. Harper Business, New York.
Holt, D. T., Bartczak, S. E., Clark, S. W., and Trent, M. R., 2007. The development of an instrument to measure
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Lazar, I., 2007. Creating Enterprise 2.0 from Web 2.0. Business Communications Review. Vol 37, No. 8.
Lin, C.-H., and Peng, C.-H., 2005. The Cultural Dimension of Technology Readiness on Customer Value Chain in
Technology Readiness on Costumer Value Chain in Technology-Based Service Encounters. Journal of American
Academy of Business. Vol. 7, No. 1. pp. 176-189.
Massey, A. P., Khatri, V., and Montoya-Weiss, M. M, 2007. Usability of Online Services: The Role of Technology
Readiness and Context. Decision Sciences. Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 277-289.
McAfee, A. P., 2006. Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration. MITSloan management review. Vol. 47, No
3, pp. 21-28.
Newman, A. C., and Thomas, J.G., 2009. Enterprise 2.0 Implementation. New York, USA: McGraw Hill.
Parasuraman, A., 2000. Technology Readiness Index (TRI): A Multiple-item Scale to Measure Readiness to Embrace
New Technologies. Journal of Service Research. pp. 307-321.
Premkumar, G. and Ramamurthy, K., 1995. The Role of Interorganizational and Organizational Factors on the Decision
Mode for Adoption of Interorganizational Systems. Decision Sciences. Vol 26, No.3, pp. 303-306.
Richey, G. R., Daugherty, P. J., and Roath, A. S., 2007. Firm Technological Readiness and Complementarity:
Capabilities Impacting Logistics Service Competency and Performance. Journal of Business Logistics. Vol. 28, No.
1.
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RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF SERVICE-BASED
INTERACTIVE APPLICATIONS USING SERVICE
ANNOTATIONS
Marius Feldmann, Felix Martens, Georg Berndt, Josef Spillner and Alexander Schill
Chair of Computer Networks
Technische Universitt Dresden
Dresden, Germany
ABSTRACT
This paper presents an innovative development approach for creating Service-based interactive applications. In
comparison to further existing approaches enabling the creation of this type of applications our approach fully builds
upon the concept of Service annotations. Besides presenting the general idea behind our approach, an overview of a
specific tool is given, enabling the rapid development of Service-based interactive applications.
KEYWORDS
Web Services, Service annotations, interactive applications, development methodology
1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, Web Services are one of the most important means for developing distributed applications. Many
tools for their creation, deployment and runtime management have been produced and were introduced into
various software development environments such as NetBeans or Eclipse. Due to their characteristics, Web
Services are a promising tool for simplifying the development of interactive applications. By using functional
interface descriptions as a starting-point, a basic form-based UI can be derived easily by applying an
inference mechanism that analyzes available Service operations and their parameters and creates appropriate
input and output views based on the schema information (Spillner 2007). It is evident that the mechanism
leads to very simple user interfaces only. Particularly in times of "Web 2.0" applications with dynamic and
reactive UIs offering various support functionalities such as direct input validation or suggestion capabilities,
this basic approach does not lead to satisfying results. For improving the results of the automatic generation
mechanism, additional information is necessary which can be attached to functional interface descriptions in
the form of Service annotations. In this paper, an approach is presented for using Service annotations not
only for expressing aspects reusable in various application contexts but additionally for describing navigation
and data flows within interactive applications. By this, Service annotations are used as the only necessary
design-time model for creating Service-based interactive applications thus making additional models for
application representation unnecessary. This work-in-progress paper extends the concept of Service
annotations to describe application-specific aspects and introduces an authoring tool enabling the rapid
development of Service-based interactive applications. For full understanding the content of this paper, the
work presented in (Janeiro et al. 2009) should be present to the reader.
2. BACKGROUND
The idea of Service annotations for describing user interface related aspects has been introduced in (Kassoff
et al. 2003) and has initially been exclusively used for the ad-hoc generation of user interfaces for single Web
Services. The most enhanced approach addressing this type of annotation exploration is the Dynvocation
project (Spillner 2008). Since the realization of the project ServFace between the years 2008 and 2010,
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annotations have been used additionally for simplifying the development process of Service-based interactive
applications. Within the context of the FP7 project ServFace
1
, two application development approaches have
been specified (Patern 2010, Feldmann 2009) which explore Service annotations for reducing the
information which has to be specified by an application developer during the design-time. Both approaches
apply the annotation model described in (Janeiro et al. 2009). Just as previous annotation models, this model
focuses exclusively on expressing recurring aspects of the user interface which can be reused in different
applications contexts. The approach described in (Patern 2010) goes beyond the creation of Service-based
applications and enables arbitrary application classes, thus making the application development process
complex. Several modeling and transformation steps have to be realized in order to create a final user
interface for accessing Web Services. In comparison, the approach described in (Feldmann 2009) focuses on
purely Service-based interactive applications. It enables a rapid development of this class of applications but
has got several shortcomings which are eliminated by our results. First of all, the approach is built upon an
additional design-time model for representing navigation and data flows between different Service frontends.
This model binds the created application to a specific platform, thus making the transformation of an
application developed once to several platforms difficult. Besides, even minor variations between different
applications lead to the instantiation of completely separated models. Furthermore, the design-time tool used
within the approach targets end users without any programming skills which results in a simplification of the
tools user interface abstracting from many technical aspects. Especially data type information is lost within
the visual representation of the tool which is not desired in the case of developers with programming skills
and a basic technological understanding of the area of Web Services.
On one hand, the goal of our research is to extend the concept of annotations for representing application-
specific aspects instead of introducing an additional model. On the other hand, an authoring tool is developed
which does not abstract from the underlying technology, providing more transparency for a developer.
3. EXTENDED SERVICE ANNOTATIONS
It is obvious that the intention of Service annotations is changed by using them as means for representing
developed Service-based interactive applications. Instead of just representing recurring, application
independent information used in different application contexts, they become application dependent. As a
result, the disadvantages of an additional model disappear. The applied model is platform independent and
only those aspects have to be modeled which differ from the result of an automatic user interface inference
approach. Having a look at platform independent aspects, the models applied within the existing design-time
approaches hold three types of information. Firstly, they specify which operations are used within the context
of the developed application, secondly, they specify the navigation flows between different operations and,
thirdly, they point out the data flows connected to these navigation flows. As a consequence, the intended
Service annotations have to be able to describe at least these three aspects. During our work, annotations
have been developed which fulfil this requirement. These annotations have been designed as an extension of
the annotation model developed within the ServFace project. Thus we can apply the already existing
annotations defined by this model and additionally the extended Service annotations without using different
annotation models.
Figure 1 shows one of the annotations defined as an extension of the ServFace annotation model (the
interface DeltaAnnotation extends the class Annotation displayed in Figure 2 of (Janeiro et al. 2009)). The
annotation Application enables the specification of an application based on Web Service operations. All
operations which are used within the interactive application are referenced by this annotation (via the
references treatedOperations). Furthermore, those operations building the starting points of the navigation
flow are pointed out (using the reference initialOperations). As other annotations as well, the introduced
annotation can be bound to a specific language and to a specific platform. As a consequence, variations of
applications do not lead to a complete reformulation of the developed application model but only to the
introduction of single alternative annotations.

1
http://www.servface.org
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Figure 1. One of the developed annotations enabling the specification of an interactive application
For describing the navigation and data flows within a Service-based interactive application, an additional
annotation has been developed. It connects two operations, one of them forming the source, the second one
forming the target of the navigation step. Different types of data flows between the output of the source
operation and the input of the target operation can be associated with the specified navigation step.
4. AUTHORING ENVIRONMENT
For creating and distributing instances of the extended Service annotation model, an authoring tool has been
implemented
2
(based on Eclipse RCP and the Graphical Editing Framework 2.5). The authoring process is
based on three steps. Initially, a Web Service for which an interactive application should be created is
imported into the tool by specifying the URI referencing its functional interface description (WSDL
document). The operations provided by the Service with their input and output parameters are presented in a
specific view of the authoring tool subsequently (display in Figure 2 on the left side).

Figure 2. View of the authoring tool visualizing an overview of navigation and data flows
Operations which should be part of the intended interactive application can be imported in a second step
to one of two modeling views. One of these views provides an overview of the already imported operations
and of the navigation links between them (displayed in Figure 2 on the right side). These navigation links and
potentially connected data flows between operations are specified using a further view (displayed in Figure
3) in a third step of the modeling methodology. In this view, two operations are visualized besides each other.
On this view so called navigation choices can be introduced resulting in a navigation link from the operation

2
http://www.interactivecomponents.org/
321
displayed on the left side to the operation displayed on the right side. Furthermore, the operation visualization
shows the available input and output parameters of the operations and their data type information, thus
enabling the definition of data relations between the operations resulting in data flows during application
execution. During the authoring process, further Services may be imported and their operations can be
connected to the already existing navigation flow. After the authoring process is finished, the result is
serialized and can be transferred to various platform-specific executable applications. Currently, generators
for the platforms Android and for regular Web applications have been implemented. First applied user tests
have proven that the expressiveness of our approach is superior to the one presented in (Feldmann 2009).

Figure 3.View of the authoring tool for defining navigation and data flows
5. CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK
This paper presents an overview of a novel approach for developing Service-based interactive applications.
The central contributions of the paper are a coarse-grained introduction of, firstly, an extension of an existing
annotation model and of, secondly, an authoring tool enabling the rapid development of Service-based
interactive applications. In future work we will focus on extending the set of available annotations, thus
improving the expressiveness of the modeling approach. Furthermore, an extensive user study is planned in
order to evaluate the usability of the tool. Besides this work on the design-time, the set of available platform
mappings for generating executable platform specific applications from the instantiated extended annotation
model will be extended.
REFERENCES
Marius Feldmann, e, 2009. Overview of an End User enabled Model-driven Development Approach for Interactive
Applications based on Annotated Services. 4th Workshop on Emerging Web Services Technology, ACM International
Conference Proceeding Series
Jordan Janeiro, Andr Preussner, Thomas Springer, Alexander Schill, Matthias Wauer, 2009. Improving the
Development of Service-Based Applications through Service Annotations. IADIS WWW/Internet 2009
Michael Kassoff, Daishi Kato, Waqar Mohsin, 2003. Creating GUIs for Web Services. IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 7,
no. 5, pp. 66-73
Fabio Patern, Carmen Santoro, Lucio Davide Spano, 2010. Exploiting Web Service Annotations in Model-based User
Interface Development. Proceedings of Engineering Interactive Computing Systems 2010. Berlin, Germany.
Josef Spillner, Alexander Schill, 2007. Analysis on Inference Mechanism. Proceedings of XML Tage 2007. Berlin,
Germany, pp. 113-124
Spillner, J. et al., 2008. Ad-hoc usage of Web Services with Dynvoker. In proceedings of ServiceWave 2008, LNCS 5377.
Madrid, Spain, pp. 208219
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SMART UBIQUITOUS APPLICATION DELIVERY BASED
ON USABILITY RULES
Dieter Blomme, Heiko Desruelle, Frank Gielen and Filip De Turck
Ghent University IBBT - Dept. of Information Technology IBCN, Ghent Belgium
ABSTRACT
Today there is a growing diversity in devices that support software applications in sectors such as mobile, automotive and
home entertainment systems. Developing and testing an application for each existing and future device is inefficient and
not scalable. We state that the web with its standardized technologies and powerful components will be the converged
platform for ubiquitous application delivery. In this paper we propose a novel approach to ubiquitous application delivery
using usability rules that combine the delivery context and web application semantics. We give an overview of the
parameters that need to be taken into account when delivering applications ubiquitously.
KEYWORDS
Ubiquitous, mobile, Semantic Web
1. INTRODUCTION
Mobile is predicted to be the seventh mass medium (Ahonen 2008). Automotive devices and home
entertainment systems also start to have internet access capabilities. The anytime/anywhere-paradigm
envisioned at the start of the internet is finally becoming a reality due to the ubiquitous nature of internet
enabled devices, cloud computing and web service mash-ups.
However, it is not efficient to redesign, develop and test an application for each type of existing and
future device that can access cloud applications. The web will be the platform to support application
development for ubiquitous devices. The combination of standardized technologies such as HTML, CSS and
Javascript with powerful rendering and interpreter components ported to all these devices will enable true
convergence. But even with the standardized nature of web technologies, the device and browser diversity on
the market today make it almost impossible to create web applications that are optimized for every device.
On the other hand, a lot of these devices have additional capabilities that allow them to provide extensive
context information. On device sensors such as GPS, motion sensor, camera, microphone, etc. allow a web
application to be tailored not only to the target device, but also to the user using the web application.
The goal of our research is to provide a smart ubiquitous application delivery platform from the cloud to
a broad range of devices in a seamless manner.
1.1 Research Challenge
In order to achieve our goal, we need to tackle a number of issues and challenges.
Device diversity entails a broad range of presentation and interaction capabilities. The application
should adapt it's look-and-feel and interaction design to match these capabilities.
Ubiquitous devices, especially mobile phones, have the possibility to capture extensive context
information. The behaviour of the application has to be changed to fit the delivery context.
The behaviour of the application can also be augmented by taking the additional capabilities of the
device, such as the GPS for location-aware mashups, into account.

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1.2 Proposed Method
We propose an approach that guarantees an optimal ubiquitous application delivery based on the following
principles:
Context detection Ubiquitous context identification goes beyond the traditional device detection which
focuses on hardware parameters like screen size. To provide the user with an optimal experience, detection of
software capabilities such as support for web technologies and available API's and detection of user settings
such as security profiles are needed.
Semantic analysis Previous efforts to automatically transform content for the mobile internet have had
little success because they are only looking at the format and the structure of content. We base our
application delivery on a semantic analysis of the web application. This will allow reasoning and dynamic
application delivery that matches the delivery context of the device and user.
Usability The key success factor for ubiquitous web application is usability. We use a rule based system
to match the semantic data from the application with the usability guidelines that match the delivery context.
Transformations for web applications can be divided in two categories: object-level and structure-level
transformations. The first type handles individual blocks in the application with a specific purpose on a page.
Examples are a menu, a login form and input fields. The second type are transformations that redefine the
structure of a web application. This can be splitting out content over multiple pages, rearranging the content
on an individual page, rearranging table cells to fit the table to the width of the screen or changing a process
flow.
2. STATE OF THE ART
This section gives an overview of prior research in our domain on which our work will build.
Semantic page analysis Some works try to divide a page in segments based on their semantic
relationships (Xiang, P. 2006; Baluja, S. 2006). By using the structured data from the web page and visual
hints extracted from a rendered version of the page, it is divided into it's structural blocks.
Context delivery Mobile systems offer large possibilities for context-aware applications. By using
microformats, small object-level transformations can be made to adapt community dependent data (e.g. dates,
addresses) to the local semantics (Mrissa, M. et al. 2008). The Web 2.0 trend of mashups can be extended to
creating context-aware mashups targeted to mobile devices (Brodt, A. et al. 2008). Personalization in general
web-based information systems (Tvarozek, M. et al. 2007) can also be used and extended to take a mobile
device's added capabilities into account.
Usability Vigo, M. et al. 2008 provide a method to evaluate web pages adapted for mobile, using the
MobileOK tests from the W3C as a basis. These tests are extended to take the device characteristics into
account. Device features are retrieved from heterogeneous repositories.
3. SEMANTICS FOR (X)HTML
An optimal transformation of a web application can only be obtained when the source HTML file contains
unambiguous, machine-interpretable semantic information about both the object and structure level. At the
present, there are three methods to annotate or enhance an HTML page, that are both standardized (or are in
Figure 1. The proposed method.
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the process of standardization) and are already being used in existing web applications: Microformats, RDFa
an HTML 5. Based on these methods, we develop a fourth, novel approach for our system.
Microformats Microformats are tiny pieces of information that are injected into (X)HTML code by use
of the class, rev and rel attributes. This way it promotes data reuse while reusing existing technologies. It is
the most popular way to provide semantic annotations on a web page. Web 2.0 sites such as Twitter, Flickr,
LinkedIn and Yahoo have already adopted microformats.
Microformats are developed according to an open standard called the microformat specifications (Allsop,
J. 2007; Khare, R. 2006). The invention of custom microformats outside of the community is discouraged,
meaning a strict but limited vocabulary is available. This makes it easy to parse, but limits the extendibility in
terms of our problem.
RDFa RDFa (Adida, B. et al. 2008a; Adida, B. et al. 2008b) is a modular extension of XHTML based
on RDF, developed and proposed by the W3C. It allows a set of XML attributes to carry metadata about
values in the human-readable text of a HTML page. Because it uses XML specific properties, such as
namespaces, it is unusable for the non-XML compliant HTML standard. RDFa is based on external domain
vocabularies and thus promotes data reuse. It is still in an early adoption phase, but the number of RDFa
enabled websites will rise quickly with the integration in the new versions of popular content management
systems such as Drupal.
Unlike microformats, RDFa provides publisher independence and self containment. It allows application
developer to develop and publish their own vocabularies, extend others and let a vocabulary evolve over time
while still allowing maximum interoperability. The HTML and RDFa data are also separated.
HTML5 with microdata HTML 5 is a standard in development by the W3C and is intended to be the
successor for both HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0. It aims to reduce the need for plug-in based RIA
technologies such as Flash, Silverlight and JavaFX, indirectly improving the possibility to search and adapt
rich internet applications.
It provides semantics, by replacing certain generic block and inline elements with new semantically
improved tags. This will provide extended information about the structure of a web application, allowing an
improved structure-level adaptation. Because the HTML5 standard is work in progress and is now in last call
phase, browser support is still limited and the number of HTML 5 sites is small. Microdata (Anonymous
2010) is a feature of HTML5 that provides another way to embed semantic annotations.
Meaningful class attributes Besides microformats, the aforementioned technologies don't enjoy a
widespread use at this moment. Microformats itself only provides a limited and strict vocabulary. This gives
us a very limited data set for testing. Therefore we made the choice to develop a fourth approach for semantic
annotations. A lot of sites already provide meaningful class attributes to indicate semantic properties of the
content as a way to separate content from presentation. By using CSS presentation can be associated to
content based on semantics.
This approach fulfills our requirements. By developing a custom vocabulary, extensibility is ensured.
Reusing the existing class attributes in sites promotes data reuse. A lot of sites already have meaningful class
attributes, so widespread use is provided. The key quality requirement performance can also be ensured,
because a lot of high performance (X)HTML and CSS parsers already exist.
4. DEVICE CATEGORIZATION
A user only perceives an application as usable when the interaction is smooth and doesn't provide
frustrations. This makes it important to be able to categorize devices according to their interaction
mechanisms. This chapter gives an overview of the most important interaction methods.
The oldest type of interactive devices have a limited keypad and a set of directional buttons. In mobile,
these devices are the so-called feature phones, mostly associated with the 2G GSM networks. A similar
apparatus for page traversal is the remote control of an internet-enabled TV-set.
Some devices use a trackball-based system to support interaction. This results in more degrees of
freedom for page traversal. This navigation method can be found on a lot of blackberry phones and control
sticks on most game consoles.
Since the introduction of the iPhone, the era of touch phones has begun. Touch phones can be divided
in two categories: stylus and finger based touch interaction. Some automotive interfaces also provide a finger
325
based touch interaction. Finger based interaction requires a completely different interface than a regular
desktop website. At present day, most types of smartphones (iPhone, Android, WebOS, Symbian
3
, etc.) even
provide multitouch capabilities.
The next steps in interaction method are multimodal interfaces. The device sensors and actuators can be
used as additional input and output mechanisms, e.g. the camera to take a picture of a business card for
contact information.
5. USABILITY RULES
The quality attributes that are deemed most important are usability, performance and modifiability. Based on
this, the design of our top level architecture will be based on a rule based system to determine the adaptation
process for a specific delivery context. The rule-base is extensible, providing the modifiability of the
transformation pipeline.
We focus our efforts on object-level transformations. Based on the use cases from the previous section,
we can define two types of transformations:
Base level transformations that adapt the HTML code to the target runtime. This is needed e.g. for the
transformation of the menu to either a selection box or a list.
Progressive enhancement transformations that add CSS and/or javascript to the web application,
optimizing it for the target delivery context. For example, javascript can be used to make the menu list
expandable.
The input parameters for both transformations are (1) the semantic annotations for the object and (2) the
delivery context parameters. A set of rules that are expressed as formal logic statements will select the
appropriate usability rule.
The usability of the application will be guaranteed by creating a correct and complete set of rules. Rule
based systems have a negative impact on performance due to a slow selection process. However, by using
known variables and a conflict resolution strategy combined with the RETE algorithm, the performance of
the selection engine can be significantly improved .
Figure 2 gives an example in pseudocode that indicates the transformation of a menu to a selection box if
the browser does not support XHTML and only provides limited CSS2 support.

( object.class.contains(menu)
AND !browser.htmlsupport.contains(XHTML)
AND !browser.csssupport(CSS2 FULL) )
=>
apply(transformation.menuToSelectionBox)
Figure 2. Usability rule: transformation of a menu to selection box.
The second example (see Fig. 3) shows the addition of a stylesheet that makes sure all pointer elements
on a finger touch based device have a minimum size.

Device.interaction.contains(Touch)
=>
attach(stylesheet.touch)
Figure 3. Usability rule: making the interface touch friendly.
6. USE CASE
One important use case was selected to provide an overview of progressive enhancements techniques for
ubiquitous application delivery: a form which is an interaction object.
Desktop forms are designed for interaction methods based on a keyboard and mouse with field that
require text input. On devices with limited input capabilities, filling out the same forms will be time-
consuming and frustrating.
Two basic solutions can be used individually or combined, based on the type of device. One solution
splits the form in multiple pages. Form data should be stored in between browsing sessions, because it is
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likely a user only fills out part of these pages during a short browsing session and wishes to continue the form
entry at a later time.
Another solution is to hide the optional fields from the view. On low-end devices these fields can be put
on optional, separate pages. On middle- and high-end devices this can be done using javascript to hide the
optional fields from view, while still allowing the user to show them.
Automatic form-filling can be used as a layer on top of the previous solution. Ajax can be used to provide
autocompletion, e.g. to show possible values for the input field. The added capabilities of some devices also
allows automatic form-filling for certain types of fields. Possible values for address fields can be shown
based on context information such as the user's current location or his home address.
Automotive systems should limit user interaction, so the required input does not distract the driver. Home
entertainment systems have a very limited typing interface, usually only a remote control with a keypad and
directional buttons. The interaction for these devices can be optimized by displaying only the most basic
form, e.g. one with only dropdown boxes.
In this paper, we have developed a method for smart ubiquitous application delivery. Our approach is based
on context detection that goes beyond the traditional device detection and a semantic analysis of the web
application. Our method is based on a rule based system to determine the adaptation process for a specific
delivery context. The rules are expressed as formal logic statements composed using known variables to
increase the performance of the selection process.
Future research will include several directions. First, we will extend the rule base of our system with
additional object-level and structure-level transformations. A next step is the development of the semantic
analyzer for further automation of the ubiquitous delivery process. We will also investigate techniques that
allow the adaptation of application logic to the delivery context.
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Ahonen, T., 2008. Mobile As 7th of the Mass Media: Cellphone, Cameraphone, Iphone, Smartphone. Futuretext, London,
UK
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multipage/microdata.html>
Baluja, S., 2006, Browsing on small screens: recasting web-page segmentation into an eficiente machine learning
framework. Proceedings of the 15th international conference on World Wide Web. Edinburgh, Scotland, pp. 33-42
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Computer Science, Vol. 5175, pp. 280-291
Fling, B., 2009. Mobile Design and Development. OReilly Media, Sebastopol, USA
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pp. 68-75
Mrissa, M., Al-Jabari, M., Thiran, P., 2008, Using microformats to personalize web experience. Proceedings of the 7th
International Workshop on Web-Oriented Software Technologies. New York, USA, pp. 57-62
Tvarozek, M., Barla, M., Bielikov, M., 2007. Personalized presentation in web-based information systems. Lecture
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Vigo, M., Aizpurua, A., Arrue, M., Abascal, J., 2008, Evaluating web accessibility for specific mobile devices.
Proceedings of the 2008 international cross-disciplinary conference on Web accessibility, Bejing, China, pp. 65-72
Xiang, P., Yang, X., Shi, Y., 2006, Effective page segmentation combining pattern analysis and visual separators for
browsing on small screens. Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence,
Hong Kong, China, pp. 831-840
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GVDSR: A DYNAMIC ROUTING STATEGY FOR
VEHICULAR AD-HOC NETWORKS
Michael Barros
*
, Anderson Costa
*
and Reinaldo Gomes
**

**Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Paraba (IFPB)
**Systems and Computing Department - Federal University of Campina Grande
ABSTRACT
Routing in VANETs (Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks) is a developing area due the specific features of these networks. One
of the challenges is to provide information even that the channel is rapidly modified by the networks mobility. Mobility
is a notable issue, since it has been faced by the logical part in the network. The network layer needs to ensure the
stability of routing without relying on the mechanisms from the physical layer, and routing solutions have to consider
different features for communication between different hosts/vehicles considering the constantly changing topology. This
paper is presents a new routing strategy for VANETs called GVDSR (Generic Vehicular Dynamic Source Routing). This
strategy is based on the Routing Architecture for VANET Communications presented in this paper. Experiments were
performed in different scenarios to evaluate the proposed strategy and the obtained results were compared with AODV
and DSDV protocols. These experiments showed the usefulness of the proposed strategy and the results indicate that our
proposal gives markedly better performance on scenarios considered.
KEYWORDS
Routing, VANETs, Ad-Hoc, Protocol, Architecture.
1. INTRODUCTION
The specific characteristics of the networks nodes and their communication patterns of VANETs will affect
the routing strategy. The challenge of determine routes for information transport in vehicular networks is a
complex work due the high nodes mobility in the network and instability of wireless links. The routing
protocols for the communication between nodes are classified as: topological, geographical, opportunists and
dissemination of information [Alves 2009]. The protocols based in topology found the best path between any
other pair source-destination of the network. Typically, the best path is that offers the lowest cost according
to the utilized metrics. These protocols can be proactive, reactive or hybrid.
Position based routing (or geographical) is capable to provide more scalability in high mobility
environments. In this approach, its not necessary to keep information about the routes of each node in the
network [Gouqing 2008]. This type of routing assumes that the present elements in the network have some
location system like GPS, as Galileo [Hein 2002].
The community research is realized in order to provide a greater diversity of features to these protocols.
The developed protocols have the following features: carry large scales in the network on situations with high
vehicles density to improve routing [Wang 2007]; support to the intense vehicle mobility, adapts quickly to
the new topologies and enables a greater connection without a possible link breakage [Taleb 2007];
adaptation system to the constantly position exchange of nodes in the network [Ali 2009]; passivity [Xue
2008] and dynamic [Xi 2008]. Packets sent by proactive protocol have to update their paths database for the
packets routing, in other words, the routing protocol in VANETs has to forward packets reactively.
Based on this study, a Routing Architecture for Vehicular Communications was proposed in [Barros
2010]. This architecture contains relevant features which a routing protocol for VANET scenarios has to
face. The Generic Vehicular Dynamic Source Routing is a new routing strategy for VANETs that follows
this architecture. The GVDSR was implemented in the Network Simulator 2 [NS2 2010], and it was
compared to others protocols for MANET with the objective of functional validation. The results show the
contributions and the advantages for the GVDSR protocol and for the Routing Architecture.
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This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 introduces the Routing Architecture; the GVDSR protocol is
presented in Section 3; the simulations are explained in Section 4 and the results in Section 5. The paper is
concluded in Section 6.

Figure 1. Routing architecture for vehicular
communications

Figure 2. Used protocol on the architecture.
2. ROUTING ARCHITETURE FOR VEHICULAR COMMUNICATIONS
Many routing protocols for VANETs were studied and based on that were observed that these protocols focus
in specifics features and presents limited solutions. Some of the most significant features necessary for
VANETs routing protocols:
Be dynamic from the origin. The protocol will be reactive, determining routes on-demand [Xi
2008].
Presents a good behavior in small scale situation, like in the streets where they have lower vehicles
traffic; and in large scale, where the vehicles traffic is bigger like found in the avenues [Wang 2007].
Recognizes the networks topology even with the constantly change of nodes position, and do the
routing without a lot of discarded packets [Ali 2009].
Provides greater time connectivity between vehicles, for the packets routing can be done. And also
presents mechanisms for link breakage situations between vehicles [Taleb 2007].
To integrate these features in one routing strategy, an architecture was created to enable a new trend of
routing protocols in VANETs. This new trend has to encompass a majority of VANETs features in a
modularized way. The architecture is shown in the Figure 1. The Routing Architectures for VANETS
presents the most significant features of the vehicular communication.
3. GENERIC VEHICULAR DYNAMIC SOURCE ROUTING - GVDSR
Instantiating the Routing Architecture, a new protocol was developed: The Generic Vehicular Dynamic
Source Routing (GVDSR). The GVDSR protocol presents all steps from the routing architecture applying
VANETs existing protocols. The selected protocols that compose the GVDSR are shown in Figure 2. These
protocols can be replaced in every moment, if there is a new protocol with a new technology. The GVDSR
protocol is an extension of the DSR (Dynamic Source Routing) protocol [Johnson 2004], but it is designed
for Vehicular Communications.

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4. EXPERIMENTS
The GVDSR was implemented in the Network Simulator 2 (NS2) [NS2 2010]. This simulator was selected
for the facilities of implementing a new routing protocol, the wide documentation and tutorials founded in the
Internet and because the simulations in the network layer is near from the real world.
The main objective for implementing the GVDSR is the functional validation of the protocol and the
architecture. Primary scenarios were chosen for the same reason. The scenarios are shown in Figure 6. There
are four different scenarios, varying the number of the nodes and their direction. The nodes S and D are the
source and the destination respectively. The I node is the intermediary node which is fixed, like roadside
units. The S and D nodes move in 36km/h. The scenario c) is the unique on large scale for the distance
between the final nodes, the other scenarios are also important for the validation of the routing strategy. The
GVDSR protocol was compared with other protocols: AODV (Ad-Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector)
[Perkins 2003] and DSDV (Destination Sequenced Distance Vector) [Perkins 1994].
Table 1. Experiments parameters
Factor Value
Transceivers IEE 802.11 standard
Propagation Model
Antennas
Two Ray Ground
Ominidirectional
Table 2. Logic Configuration
Factor Value
Traffic Protocol TCP
Application Protocol
Connection Time
FTP
The all simulation time

The metrics for comparison were: Generated Packets, Dropped Packets and Total Throughput. For
VANET scenarios, the nodes needs a connection with a low number of packets discarded and a large
throughput for application, the metrics were chosen by these premises.

Figure 3. Used scenarios
5. RESULTS
The results in the scenario a), as shown in Fig.4, present the GVDSR protocol adding some extra packets for
routing. This strategy enables a higher discovery of information. The process of information discovery is
appropriate for the evaluation of the specific features of VANETs. The number of dropped packets and the
Total Throughput shows the effectiveness of the information discovery strategy. In the scenario b), Fig 5, the
number of dropped packets for GVDSR is lowers than the others protocols. The Generated Packets for
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GVDSR is greater, but it is for the information discovery, that enables the decrease of the dropped packets.
The throughput for applications will increase showing that the packet delivery ratio increased too.

Figure 4. Results for scenario a)

Figure 5. Results for scenario b)

Figure 6. Results for scenario b)

Figure 7. Results for scenario d)
The large scale scenario c), Fig. 6, is the one that shows the advantages of this architecture and the
GVDSR. For large scale situation the GVDSR protocol acts greater than the others, improving the packets
delivery ration with the decrease of packets number. This is ideal for VANETs scenario, with the increase of
the distance, the networks needs to route information with the less number of packets discarded. For Fig 7,
with the scenario d), the performance of the GVDSR protocol stays greater than the others protocols. The
number of dropped packets is lower for GVDSR, enabling an increase of the throughput for applications
since the increase of the vehicles speed.
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6. CONCLUSION
A new protocol for VANETs was presented in this paper: the GVDSR. This protocol was obtained as an
instance of the Routing Architecture for VANET Communications. The protocol is subdivided in four steps.
The steps are integrated in a modularized way for the selected algorithms being upgrade separately. The
algorithm provides a dynamic source routing with checking the strength of the path link. The GVDSR
provides different treatments for small or large scale situations. To decrease the link breakage the algorithm
calculates a metric called LET, this metric shows the reliability of the link between two nodes.
The GVDSR protocol was implemented in the NS2 simulator and compared with two protocols: AODV
and DSDV. The results show that the GVDSR adds some packets for the strategy of information discovery.
The number of dropped packets is the lowest in four different scenarios. For VANETs, the GVDSR protocol
presents a greater packet delivery ratio and a greater throughput for the nodes. Other metrics need to be
analyzed and evaluations for multimedia traffic are the future work.
REFERENCES
Alves et al., 2009. Redes Veiculares: Princpios, Aplicaes e Desafios. Proceedings of Simpsio Brasileiro de Redes de
Computadores (SBRC) Minicourse.
Gouqing, Z.; Dejun, M.; Zhong, X.; Weili, Y.; Xiaoyan, C., 2008. A survey on the routing schemes of urban Vehicular
Ad Hoc Networks. Proceedings of 27th Chinese Control Conference. pp. 338 - 343.
Hein, G.W., Godet, J., Issler, J.L., Martin, J.C.,Erhard, P., Lucas, R. e Pratt, T., 2002. Status of galileo frequency and
signal design. Proceedings of International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of the Institute of Navigation
ION GPS. pp. 266-277.
Wang, W.; Xie, F.; Chatterjee, M., 2007. TOPO: Routing in Large Scale Vehicular Networks. Proceedings of IEEE 66th
Vehicular Technology Conference. pp. 2106-2110.
Taleb, T.; Sakhaee, E.; Jamalipour, A.; Hashimoto,K.; Kato, N.; Nemoto, Y., 2007. A Stable Routing Protocol to Support
ITS Services in VANET Networks. In IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. Volume 56, Issue 6, Part 1, pp.
3337-3347.
Ali, S.; Bilal, S.M., 2009. An Intelligent Routing protocol for VANETs in city environments. Proceedings of 2nd
International Conference Computer, Control and Communication. pp. 1-5.
Xue, G.; Feng, J.; Li, M., 2008. A Passive Geographical Routing Protocol in VANET. Proceedings of IEEE Asia-Pacific
Services Computing Conference. pp. 680-685.
Xi , Sun; Li, Xia-Miao, 2008. Study of the Feasibility of VANET and its Routing Protocols. Proceedings of 4th
International Conference on Wireless Communications, Networking and Mobile Computing. pp. 1 - 4.
Barros, M.T.A.O.; Costa,A.F.B.F.; GOMES,R.C.M., 2010. Routing in VANETs: propose of a generic algorithm.
Proceedings of Wireless Systems International Meeting (WSIM). Campina Grande, Brazil.
Ns2 (The Network Simulator), 2010. http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/
Johnson D.,Maltz D. e Yin-Chun H., 2004. The dynamic source routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks
(http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-manet-dsr-10.txt). IETF Internet Draft.
Mo Z., Zhu H.,Makki K., Pissinou N., 2006. MURU: A multi-hop protoccol for urban ad-hoc networks. Proceedings
Third International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitos System: Networking and Services. pp. 169-176.
Perkins, C., Belding-Royer, E. e Das, S., 2003. {Ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) routing
(http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3561.txt). IETF Internet Draft.
Perkins, Charle E. and Pravin Bhagwat, 1994. Highly Dynamic Destination-Sequenced Distance-Vector Routing
(DSDV) for Mobile Computers.
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AN OWL BASED ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD
SUPPORTING EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE
Lukas Gerhold*, Hilal Tekoglu**, Markus Dorn*** and Michael Binder*
*Department of Dermatology, Division of General Dermatology, Medical University of Vienna
**Coordinating Center for Clinical Trials, Medical University of Vienna
***Faculty of Informatics, Technical University of Vienna
ABSTRACT
Appling evidence based medicine (EBM) and good clinical practice (GCP) in daily practice enhance the quality of health
care enormously. Checklists and guidelines help reducing medical malpractice significantly. A way to use checklists and
guidelines is to integrate this information into medical documentation. Although some hospital information systems
already support physicians with interactive IT support the use of EBM, structured, standardized electronic medical
documentation is still very limited. Electronic health records facilitate medical documentation.
Electronic health records are designed for exchanging patient information between institutions and systems. The aim of
this work is to show a way how electronic health records can be embedded into a comprehensive medical documentation
for providing relations between patient information and decision- or treatment processes.
Ambitious attempts have been done defining structures and models for electronic health records (EHR) facilitating
semantic interoperability between electronic health records - and electronic patient record systems. One of them is the
ISO 13606 EHR communication standard.
The Web Ontology Language (OWL) was developed for defining and structuring data semantically. OWL enables higher
levels of abstraction and expressiveness for defining models than relational database schemata can. Furthermore we used
a transformation of the ISO 13606-archetype model to OWL. We introduce an ontology driven application model. The
ontology driven application model describes how to derive functionality from ontology knowledge dynamically and
using it for application behavior. Furthermore we introduce an application layout that implements the ontology driven
application model. We realized a generic implementation being compliant with the ISO 13606 EHR communication
standard, to capture standardized electronic health records.
This work demonstrates how to use ontologies for developing a semantic web application, and finally proves the
introduced models and methods through presenting a prototype.
KEYWORDS
Semantic interoperability, electronic health records, OWL
1. INTRODUCTION
Evidence based medicine (EBM) aims to provide the best available evidence for medical decision making
gained from scientific methods (Timmermans and Mauck 2005). It aims to assess the strength of evidence of
the benefits and risks of treatments and diagnostic tests (Elstein 2004). A systematic way to apply EBM in
practice is by defining guidelines and checklists which represent the medical knowledge. Through these
representations physicians are guided through the decision or treatment process. Although applying EBM is
quite common during the medical treatment and decision processes, there is hardly any standardised IT
support.
In the past several years many approaches have been appeared to support semantic interoperability for the
communication of medical patient records (MPR) and electronic health records (EHR). Many complex
computer models were developed, like HL7v.3 Reference Information Model (HL7), ISO 13606
Communication Standard (ISO 2008) or openEHR (Beale 2000). Their aim is to structure medical
information formally, unambiguously and standardized to facilitate the exchange of health information
between diverse systems behind the scenes. Even more, as medical research advances, the information needs
increase or change; one major benefit of these standards is to easily adapt to new medical information
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without losing the possibility of retrieving captured information. Until now these benefits stay in the
background as most approaches tend to fit these models into legacy systems instead of rethinking legacy
developments.
These standards should be used to facilitate the EBM information support for health care participants
(HCP) during their daily practice. The models enable a vast range of interactive IT support for HCP by using
the benefits of semantic interoperability. We are going to show how this works through introducing an
ontology driven application model (ODAM). Furthermore we will use this approach to show an interactive IT
support for EBM and electronic documentation.
2. METHODS AND STANDARDS
2.1 ISO 13606 EHR Communication Standard
ISO 13606 facilitates structuring, communicating and interpreting medical information. The ISO defines an
EHR for integrated care as: a repository of information regarding the health status of a subject of care in
computer processable form, stored and transmitted securely, and accessible by multiple authorized users. It
has a standardized or commonly agreed logical information model which is independent of EHR systems. Its
primary purpose is the support of continuing, efficient and quality integrated health care and it contains
information which is retrospective, concurrent, and prospective (International Organization for
Standardization 2005). Communication is not only supported inside and between EHR systems but also with
other applications and components such as middleware services, moving towards an architecture-centric
approach with alerting and decision-support services, agent components including work flow management
systems (Blobel, Engel et al. 2006).
ISO 13606 is based on the GEHR/openEHR dual model approach. That is the idea of an archetype model
that constrains and references a generic reference model (Beale 2001). In other words an instance of the
archetype model - which is basically a meta-model provided following UML and XML - can be seen as
description of how to use the reference model, through constraining and referencing it. ISO 13606 comprises
of five parts:
Part 1 - specifies the Reference Model, which is a generic information model for communicating and
defining virtually any patient information. Furthermore it specifies the communication of a part or all of the
electronic health record (EHR) of a single identified subject of care between EHR systems, or between EHR
systems and a centralized EHR data repository (ISO 2008).
Part 2 - specifies the Archetype Model, which is also a generic information model and language to
specify archetypes for communicating domain concepts. Archetypes describe constraints and structures for a
(medical) information domain using the Reference Model for data definitions. This means an information
architecture required for interoperable communications between systems and services that need or provide
EHR data. Part 2 is not intended to specify the internal architecture or database design of such systems.
Archetype Definition Language (ADL), is a formal language for expressing archetypes, and can be
categorised as a knowledge description language. It provides a formal, abstract syntax for describing
constraints on any domain entity whose data is described by the Reference Model.
Part 3 - specifies the Reference Archetypes and Terms Lists, which describes how other EHR standards
could comply with ISO 13606.
Part 4 - specifies the Security Features.
Part 5 - specifies the Interface Model which describes how an interoperable communication can take
place.
2.2 Web Ontology Language
The semiotic triangle describes how linguistic symbols are related to objects they reference. The relation
between a symbol and a reference is established through a concept that describes the object abstractly.
Formalizing these relations was the aim for developing an ontology language (Sowa 2000).
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) developed the basic standards of Resource Description
Framework (Schema) (RDF(S)) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL) (W3C). RDF(S) and OWL are
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ontology languages that are especially made to facilitate information integration, implicit knowledge retrieval
and semantic interoperability. RDF is a specification for information the resources. Resources can be
described by attributes and their values, and also with the help of links to other resources (Hesse 2005).
Metadata is described in triples, similar to elementary sentences in the form subject, verb and object
(Berners-Lee, Hendler et al. 2001). A triple contains <object, attribute, value>, whereas the attribute links the
object (which is representing a resource) to the value. The latter are nodes, so that an RDF model forms a
semantic network (Mizoguchi 2003).
OWL is a language for creating ontologies with a formal representation. In principle, it is a semantic
markup language. Terms and their relations can be formally described by OWL in such a way that they
become machine understandable. Technically, this language builds upon the RDF syntax and also employs
the triple model, but it features more powerful possibilities for building expressions than RDF/S. User can
insert, update or query/retrieve data out of OWL ontologies enhanced by the support of semantic relations.
2.3 From ADL to OWL
There are several benefits using OWL to represent ISO 13606 archetypes. While the consistency of
knowledge cannot be guaranteed by using an ADL-based archetype construction it can be granted by using an
OWL-based representation. The problem is that the aforementioned archetype model itself has no
information about the Reference Model because these models are separately used. Hence instances of the
Archetype Model (archetypes) dont refer to the Reference Model consistently and in a closed environment
(Martinez-Costa, Menarguez-Tortosa et al. 2009). Another advantage of using OWL is the larger research
community working on the development of OWL. While OWL 1.0 was produced in 2004, OWL 2.0 is
already available (W3C 2009).
The authors of (Martinez-Costa, Menarguez-Tortosa et al. 2009) describe a promising way to transform
ADL into OWL without compromising the semantic interpretation of the Archetype Model. This mechanism
of transforming ADL into OWL is also implemented in the LinkEHR (Maldonado, Moner et al. 2009) tool,
which is a tool used for modelling ISO 13606 or openEHR archetypes in ADL.
As the ISO 13606 clinical standard is based on the dual model-based architecture, the main purpose is to
have both, the Reference Model and the Archetype Model, represented in OWL. For example, the Archetype
Model comprises concepts like archetype, archetype description or archetype term, whereas folder,
composition or section are classes of the Reference Model. The results of (Fernandez-Breis, Vivancos-
Vicente et al. 2006) can be summarized as two main ontologies:
EN13606-SP: representing the clinical data types and structures from the Reference Model.
EN13606-AR: representing the archetype model ontology and includes some Archetype Model classes.
Furthermore it imports the EN13606-SP ontology.
Because of the combination of these ontologies, they facilitate a more natural representation of the
domain concepts of archetypes than using ADL to formulate the same domain concept. Thus it is possible to
access all information concerning the same clinical term (Martinez-Costa, Menarguez-Tortosa et al. 2009;
Catalina Martinez-Costa 2010).
3. RESULTS
Section 0 describes the model behind the ontology driven approach. This approach can be seen as
implementation paradigm, how to use ontologies for implementing semantic web applications.
The system section 0 uses this method to implement the translated 13606 EHR ontology.
3.1 Ontology Driven Application Model
The ODAM consists of 4 parts: the ontology model, the ontology (individuals), the application model and the
application answer.
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The ontology model is the abstract model. It is a set of classes and properties that model a domain
concept. The ontology (individuals) comprises of the instantiations of the ontology model. The individuals
are concrete information or knowledge of a domain.
The application model (APM) is a platform dependent or programming language specific implementation
of the ontology model that translates the platform independent ontology model (e.g. provide in OWL) into a
programming language structure (e.g. classes and relations or database schema).
The application answer is the aim of the ODAM. Dependent on the ontology model, on the application
model and on the ontology instances, an application derives its functionality dynamically and returns the
application answer. The application answer is dependent on the requirements the ODAM is designed for.
3.2 The System
The system is divided into a server side implementation that provides the semantic web applications
functionality, web services accesses and basic application logic. And the second part of the system is a client
implementation to demonstrate the ISO 13606 compliant communication and to beautify the user interface.
3.2.1 The Server
The server is an implementation of two APMs, the Demographics APM and the EHR ontology APM.
The demographic APM accesses the demographics ontology. The demographics ontology is an OWL
model of the ISO 13606 demographic package provided as UML model. The application answer of the
ODAM is the identification of a patient or a healthcare professional.
The EHR ontology APM accesses the EHR ontology. The EHR ontology is based on the work mentioned
in section 0. We extended the union (the archetype ontology) of both ontologies to additionally meet the
criteria of the ISO 13606 part 1 reference model. Therefore we had to add the classes and properties of
EHR_EXTRACT and EXTRACT_CRITERIA to the archetype ontology. According to ISO 13606 standard
an instance of EHR_EXTRACT represents the top-level container for each patients health data. An instance
of EXTRACT_CRITERIA covers meta-information that facilitates finding an EHR_EXTRACT instance.
The EHR Ontology APM builds the accessor functionality to reveal the information of the individuals, and
to work with this information programmatically. The application of the ODAM for this APM is also to create
new EHR extracts (updating or changing an extract means the creation of new version) to store new patient
information in the EHR ontology combined with domain knowledge of the archetype description. This APM
can be seen as wrapper for all the 13606 relevant operations.
The functionalities of the controller, basic application logic and the web services are to call the APMs and
pass information from/to the web services. The basic application logic comprises: login user authentication;
user administration, patient search, patient documentation call (load, save EHR extracts, process insensitive);
logout. The access to the System is provided through web services. These web services facilitate the access to
the patient demographics APM and the EHR ontology APM, wrapped by the controller and basic application
logic. Furthermore the web services are designed to meet the criteria of ISO 13606 Part 5 standard that
specifies the interfaces to access EHR and archetypes and are implemented to handle security issues.
3.2.2 The Client
The client is a J2EE compliant web application written in Java (Java ServerFaces). The patients suffer from
chronic wounds and the aim of this implementation is to establish a multi professional homecare
management. We have been capturing archetype based EHR data for documenting patients with chronic
wounds. The graphical user interfaces supports input validation derived from archetype constraints. The
functionality of the client is to pass the user input data from and to the web services. The application logic is
build around the web services. The client implements session handling to prevent the user from logging in
again every time he/she calls a web service.
4. DISCUSSION - ODAM AND ISO 13606
The ODAM could be applied onto a non OWL-, programming language-, and relational database- dependent
implementation of ISO 13606 as well. Thus can play an important role for simplifying the implementation:
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As the dual model approach of the ISO 13606 EHR Communication Standard has its origin in structuring
information using domain ontologies (Beale 2000), Archetypes can be seen as descriptions of information
items, which concepts are very similar to ontologies except that ontologies tend to describe real world things
(OpenEHR 2008). Implementing the ODAM for ISO 13606, the ontology model is given by the ISO 13606
Reference Model and the ontology instances are provided through the ISO 13606 Archetypes, an application
could easily adapt to new Archetypes without reprogramming IT infrastructure and back-end systems.
Through an appropriate application model, EHR information could be exchanged and integrated with legacy
database systems without losing information during transformation from Archetype-based EHR to data base
schemata and without compromising the benefits of Archetype-based EHR exchange.
However several factors played a significant role for choosing OWL to implement ISO13606:
The power of OWL allowed us to uniform the dual model approach into a comprehensive and
consistent model, the EHR ontology model. Implementing the ISO 13606 dual model as one comprehensive
ontology model created a far more abstract view onto the two models of 13606. As described above the EHR
ontology as ontology model (in the ODAM) unifies different system- and programming language- dependent
implementations.
The OWL representation facilitated implementing the generic concept of ISO 13606.
The OWL representation facilitated a fast application development, through API and tool support, like
Protg (Stanford-University 2010).
The ISO 13606 standard specifies the information model only, which means that the standard is not
specific about the exchanging media. OWL is a means to structure the data according to the 13606 standard.
Due to the ODAM, data retrieval can be performed based on the Reference Model. This enables querying
the entire EHR data repository and drilling down onto archetype information later if necessary.
Exchanging of EHR extracts, compatible to non ontology driven applications, happens through web
services. These web services provide the ISO13606 model through WSDL and exchange the information
through SOAP messages. Ontology driven applications can access the ontologies directly, dependent on
security policies.
5. PERSPECTIVES
To formally express a process as ontology, the process building blocks are for example actions, control flows,
decision nodes et al. The individuals of this ontology describe how to arrange these building blocks to define
a concrete domain process. Both together result in an integrative-domain-process.
The process model is derived from OWL-S Process.owl ontology. OWL-S is an ontology for semantically
describing web services. OWL-S is an OWL-based Web service ontology, which supplies Web service
providers with a core set of constructs for describing the properties and capabilities of their Web services in
unambiguous, computer-interpretable form(DAML 2010). The aim of OWL-S is an ontology for web
services with a set of standardized classes and properties that enable a service provider to create machine
interpretable descriptions, and to enable a service requester to automatically find, invoke and composite the
right services. This is basically done by providing a process description that defines the conditions (e.g.
input- output parameter) for changing services state (Martin, Burstein et al. 2008). As OWL-S comprises of
different parts, one part is used for defining processes, the Process.owl ontology.
Implementing the ODAM for the clinical process model enables applications to communicate individuals
and assembling them to an integrative process. Thus, several new processes for different contents could be
easily implemented without reprogramming the IT infrastructure. Furthermore interchanging individuals
allows transmitting information about the state during a process. This means in a real world scenario for
example information about how the patient has been already treated and how he has to be further treated. If
you imagine a scenario where several attending physicians have to work together and exchange information
concerning one patient, process information could be a major benefit.
This approach facilitates the definition of EBM treatment or decision supporting processes for an
interactive IT support for HCPs.
Combining the process model with ISO 13606 in an Ontology Driven Application approach, enables
decision support using all aforementioned benefits. The process builds the knowledge base for guidance and
decision support, the Archetypes and EHR-extracts (patient information) trigger the workflow.
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Beale, T. (2000). "Archetypes - An Interoperable Knowledge Methodology for Future-proof Information Systems." from
http://www.openehr.org/publications/archetypes/archetypes_beale_web_2000.pdf.
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Berners-Lee, T., J. Hendler, et al. (2001). "The Sematic Web." ScientificAmerican.com.
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LANGUAGES AND WIKIPEDIA: CULTURAL EVOLUTION
INCREASES STRUCTURE
Julia Kasmire and Alfredas Chmieliauskas
TU Delft, Energy & Industry Section
Jaffalaan 5, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands
ABSTRACT
Natural languages and Wikipedia may both be evolving through the Iterated Learning Model, a cultural evolution
mechanism that relies on iterated learning, a transmission bottleneck, and a structured meaning space, but does not
require a competitive advantage for individual speakers or Wikipedia articles exhibiting more structure than others. This
paper examines evidence that the evolution of structure on Wikipedia meets the same criteria as have been established for
the ILM in the domain of language, and provides indications that Wikipedia is actually evolving through this mechanism.
As a more readily studied example of cultural evolution, Wikipedia may provide answers to the evolution of structure
that languages cannot address.
KEYWORDS
Cultural evolution, structure, Wikipedia, iteration, learning
1. INTRODUCTION
Wikipedia is gaining structure, some of which has provoked the protests of editors and users. This structural
increase may be more than just an annoying fad because similarities between Wikipedia and human
languages suggest that the same mechanisms may be driving evolution of structure in both domains. Typical
interpretations of evolution rely on a net benefit to individuals with a variation to drive the spread of that
variation, but structure in Wikipedia and human languages does not provide such a benefit. Only after the
structures are well established can the benefits to the total system be seen, with more structured examples
having little or no net benefit. The collective benefits of a shared, structured system do not justify the
evolution of this structure according to simplistic interpretations of evolution, yet the existence of both
structured languages and structure in Wikipedia shows that there must be a way.
However, the Iterated Learning Model (ILM) is a cultural evolution mechanism that does not rely on a
relative benefit for individuals and which has been used to explain the evolution of linguistic structure. The
ILM can also be applied to Wikipedia because Wikipedia meets all the necessary criteria and shows some
preliminary indications that the currently developing structure matches expectations from the ILM.
Wikipedia, and other documented open source information portals, therefore represent new and valuable
media for exploring cultural evolution behavior and dynamics, may be easier to study than language or other
typical subjects of cultural evolution models, and may help answer difficult questions for those fields.
2. WHAT IS STRUCTURE ON WIKIPEDIA?
Exploration of the English language Wikipedia and its version history, either through the internet or the
complete Wikipedia articles and version history data dump (http://download.wikimedia.org/enwiki/) shows
that when Wikipedia began in 2001 (Article: Wikipedia., 2010), there was very little structure in individual
articles. Instead articles were relatively holistic, meaning that the information was presented as a whole,
without subdivisions, structure, or explicit relationships between the different kinds of information contained
in the article. These early articles usually covered a single topic in as much detail as was available or desired
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by the community in an essay format. Although many kinds of structure have evolved on Wikipedia since it
began, this articles focuses on only 2: section headings and infoboxes.
Section headings are the titles given to the divisions in an article, and are usually listed in the table of
contents, if one is present. They are editor chosen and dependent on the article contents, so not all possible
section headings are in every article. This inclusion of structure has provoked no major reactions from editors
but seems to have been a natural addition to any article long enough to have more than one distinct part.
Starting in 2002, some science oriented Wikipedia articles began presenting some information in visually
separate infoboxes (Figure 1), which divide information into a label and its corresponding value, allowing
users to quickly identify relationships or compare properties through the infobox rather than searching for
that information in the main article. Infoboxes then began appearing in other articles as ways to quickly
reference typical information or as a summary for the basic information for very large articles. More
recently, Wikipedia has seen a backlash against infoboxes, with some editors complaining that they are
unnecessary, unattractive, redundant, and that they inappropriately oversimplify some subjects. In response,
Wikipedia published a manual of style for infoboxes and various essays condemning the infobox virus
(Projectpage: boxes., 2010) and calling for the removal of infoboxes failing to meet requirements for added
value, length relative to the main article, or subjective information content (Projectpage: disinfoboxes., 2010)
in order to return to a glorious preindustrial (pre-box) editor's paradise (Projectpage: boxes., 2010)
The antipathy toward infoboxes seems to come from the rapid numerical increase (Figure 2) and a failure
to recognize benefits that outweigh their negative appearance and psychological effects (Discussion page:
Disinfoboxes., 2010). Some editors see a value from aiding translation between different language
Wikipedias (Project page: thinking outside the infobox., 2010), allowing quick and easy access to some
types of information, and encouraging a uniform style (Discussion page: boxes., 2010), but these editors also
advocate major improvements or restrictions to limit the negatives. One benefit not mentioned in the
discussions of infobox pros and cons machine search-ability which allows websites like dbpedia to take
search over the structured, compositional, regular and standard format infoboxes of many articles, combining
criteria and compiling lists of all items that share many properties.
Both section headings and infoboxes represent the addition of structure to Wikipedia articles, but the
benefits of these features come not from adding or improving information, as the infobox critics demand they
should, but from organizing information and adding structure. This structure permits an exploitation of the
relationship between organized information across many articles, providing a benefit for the entire structured
system, not individual articles.

(a) (b)
Figure 1. Wikipedia article with and without structure
An early version (a) of the Wikipedia article for comedian Eddie Izzard without structure and a later
version (b) with structures such as an infobox (on right, including a picture) and a table of contents (on left)
with some section headings.
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Figure 2. Rapid growth of Wikipedia and its structure
An analysis of the March 2010 English language complete Wikipedia data dump reveals that the number
of new Wikipedia articles created and the number of new infoboxes have increased rapidly. After first
appearing in 2002, the infobox addition rate stabilized at approximately 1/10 of the article creation rate in
2006, and has since closely followed the pattern of article creation.
3. CULTURAL EVOLUTION LEADS TO STRUCTURE
Natural languages have many structural features that aid communication. For example, compositionality
allows listeners to understand a completely new word if they understand the parts from which it is composed,
while syntax means that users can reliable interpret completely novel sentences by relying on the relationship
between the words and the way they are strung together.
A dominant linguistic paradigm postulates a sophisticated, genetically inherited cognitive tool that turns
sparse linguistic exposure into language competence (Chomsky, 1965 and 1995; Briscoe, 1997). As a
consequence of this assumption, many researchers link the biological evolution of cognitive abilities to a
gradual increase in linguistic structure (Pinker, 1992; Gould, 1979), such that less cognitively capable
ancestors would have spoken less structured languages. However, a new linguistic structure gene does not
benefit the individual, as he has no one who can understand the more structured language he speaks. Instead,
as with infoboxes, the benefits come only from a shared structure.
Regardless, the time elapsed since Wikipedia's introduction in 2001 precludes concurrent biological
evolution as an explanation for the evolution of its structure. Cultural evolution, which substitutes learning
and imitation in place of genetic inheritance, moves much faster and could be responsible. One view of
cultural evolution simply replaces genes with memes and relies on the relative net benefit of these "units of
culture" to dominate the population of cultural items, Wikipedia articles in this case, just as the genes for a
superior language ability might have come to dominate early human populations. However, this explanation
requires a recognized net benefit for relatively more structured articles, while the largely unrecognized
benefits of structure apply across articles rather than to single articles.
Fortunately, the Iterated Learning Model (ILM) is a cultural evolution framework that provides a meme-
free explanation for the evolution of language structures such as recursive syntax (Kirby, 2002),
compositionality (Smith, 2003), word order universals (Kirby, 1999) and the regularity-irregularity
distinction (Kirby, 2001). In a typical ILM (Figure 3), learners are exposed to linguistic data as input, usually
in the form of pairs of meanings and signals. From this input they attempt to form a hypothesis of the
language which they use to reproduce the language as output. The linguistic output is then provided as the
input to a new learner, and the cycle is repeated.
If the input is unstructured then there are no patterns or relationships between meanings and signals, such
that similar meanings have similar signals, and no way to interpret the meaning of a novel signal or predict
the signal for a novel meaning. As such, the learners would need 100% exposure to the unstructured training
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Figure 3. Iterated learning model (ILM)
The initial learner (L
i
) forms a hypothesis from the input, then uses that hypothesis to produce output for
the next generation (L
i + 1
), and the pattern repeats to the i + nth generation.
data in order to be able to reproduce it correctly and if reproduced correctly, it will remain unstructured.
However, providing only a subset of the total possible input to the learners, creates a transmission
bottleneck and produces a different result. Because the transmission bottleneck prevents exposure to all the
meaning-signal pairs possible in a language, learners are forced to invent new signals as output when
prompted to reproduce a signal for an unfamiliar meaning. These inventions become part of the input for the
next learner, changing the language at each generation, and providing opportunities for accidental similarities
between the signals of similar meanings to creep into the data, Learners can then interpret these similarities
as weakly structured patterns, leading to a semi-structured hypothesis of the language. The learners then use
that hypothesis when prompted to invent new output for unfamiliar meanings, thus extending the structure in
the new inventions. After many generations, the structure becomes well enough established that a learner can
form a hypothesis that correctly reproduces the entire language even when exposed to only a subset of the
language as input and will produce output that reliably leads a new learner to the same hypothesis.
4. CRITERIA FOR APPLICATION OF THE ILM
The ILM can explain the evolution of structure in language because of 3 important criteria that are also true
of Wikipedia, making the ILM an excellent candidate to explain the evolution of structure and increasing
numbers of section headings and infoboxes, despite the poorly recognized benefits or the protests of infobox
critics. The first important criterion is iterated learning, meaning that the output of one learner forms the
input for another. Just as all language users learned to speak from exposure to the language of others,
Wikipedia editors learn how to make a Wikipedia article based on exposure to existing Wikipedia articles. If
their input includes structure, such as section headings and infoboxes, then their hypothesis of how to make
an article will capture patterns of when and how to use that structure, and will later be used to add structure
when creating output. Wikipedia now provides templates, or formalized hypotheses of appropriate structure,
making it easier to include section headings and infoboxes, thus reinforcing the patterns in the data.
Second, like language, Wikipedia has a transmission bottleneck. In many ILM simulations, the
transmission bottleneck is a formal limit on the percentage of all possible training data a learner recieves
before being asked to reproduce the language. There is no limit on the number of well-formed utterances in
every natural language (Nowak, Komarova, & Niyogi, 2002), essentially making natural languages an
infinite set of meaning-signal pairs. Since all speakers produce output before being exposed to the infinite
possible meaning-signal pairs, there is always an implied bottleneck (Vogt, 2005). Likewise, although
there is not an infinite number of Wikipedia articles, exponential growth since 2002 (Voss, 2005) means that
editors cannot possibly be exposed to all the available input before creating new articles. The implied
bottlenecks for language users and Wikipedia editors force them to produce output based on a hypothesis
formed from exposure to a subset of the total possible input, rather than exposure to a correct or ideal form to
be copied.
Third, the perception of structure in the meaning space may be a requirement for the evolution of
structure in the signal (Smith, 2003). Many ILM simulations represent language as a mapping from
meanings, such as combinations of objects and actions (Kirby, 2002) or points in a multi-dimensional
meaning space (Smith, 2003) to signals, usually strings of characters from a limited set. The meaning space
is structured because relationships between pairs of meanings that share actions or objects, or that are near
each other in the multi-dimensional space, make them more similar than other pairs of meanings that do not
share features or proximity. Through the interaction of iterated learning and the transmission bottleneck, the
relationship across meanings comes to be mirrored by structure in the signal. Like meaning in languages,
Input Input
Input
L
i+n
Output Output
L
i
L
i+1

Output
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Figure 4. Meaning space structure is increasingly reflected in the articles
Initially random sections featured many unique headings, but now appear to be converging on a standard
structure.
pairs of Wikipedia articles can be can be judged as more related or similar. Further analysis of the March
2010 English language complete Wikipedia history data dump shows that the not only are examples of
structure increasingly present in Wikipedia, but they are also behaving as the ILM predicts. For example, in
2002, almost 45% of the section headings found in articles about musicians were unique, being only found in
one article. By 2009 however, only 13% of section headings were unique with all the rest appearing in
multiple articles. Wikipedia editors appear to have used patterns in their input to form a hypothesis of how an
article about musicians should look, and then used that hypothesis to extend the patterns, resulting in a
collection of articles that are more similar in structure, mirroring the structure in the meaning space.
Language and Wikipedia are both ways to transmit information, but some readers might suggest that the
accidental introduction of patterns in language evolution simulations is unlike the apparently rational and
intentional addition of structure to Wikipedia. However, research using human participants in place of
computer agents (Kirby et al., 2008) showed that people are unaware of their hypotheses formed from the
input, and then unintentionally and unknowingly increase structure in the language, as did the computer
agents. Both in computer simulations and in human experiments, the hypothesis reflects patterns in the data
rather than rational searches for the optimal example. While introducing a particular structure to a particular
Wikipedia article may or may not be intentional or rational, structure evolves without rational decisions or
awareness of patterns in the data. Furthermore, given the rapid rate of infobox addition along with the
outspoken criticism, rational decisions to include infoboxes seems unlikely to explain the infobox virus.
5. CONCLUSION
Since Wikipedia and language are both well described as cases of iterative learning, with transmission
bottlenecks and with a structured meaning space, the ILM of cultural evolution provides a good explanation
for the rapid evolution of structure on Wikipedia, despite the tastes of some critical Wikipedia editors, just as
it can explain the evolution of structure in language. However, syntactically ambiguous utterances like I saw
a moose in my pajamas. or non-compositional phrases like kick the bucket (meaning to die) show that,
although stable at high level of structure, natural languages are not totally structured. As Wikipedia has not
yet stabilized or converged on structure, it provides an opportunity to explore how structure evolves in ways
no longer possible for natural languages.
Will Wikipedia articles converge on a standard structure? Will there be formal rules regarding the
structure of articles, or will unstructured articles be quickly edited to include structure? What kind of articles,
if any, will remain unstructured? Given the ambivalent or negative reactions to some structure, how will
editors react to a convergence on structure? Unlike language, Wikipedia has a completely recoverable
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revision history, as well as recorded talk pages, and statistics on page views and author networks, all of
which can provide new insight into how the structures first arrive, change over time, increase in popularity,
and approach convergence on a standard.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This project is made possible by European Regional Development Fund and the Communication Task Force
Sustainable Greenport Westland East Country. Special thanks to I. Nikolic and C. Davis for their
constructive criticism, feedback and ideas.
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Disinfoboxes> [Accessed 6-July-2010].
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Thinking_outside_the_infobox> [Accessed 6-July-2010].
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Disinfoboxes [Accessed 03-09-2010].
Briscoe, T., 1997. Co-evolution of language and of the language acquisition device. Proceedings of the eighth conference
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418-427.
Chomsky, N., 1965. Aspectsof the Theory of Syntax. MITPress, Cambridge, MA.
Chomsky, N., 1995. The minimalist program. MITPress, Cambridge, MA.
Gould, SJ. And Lexontin, RC., 1979. The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a critique of the
adaptationist programme. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B. Biological Sciences. London, UK,
Vol. 205, No. 1161, pp581-598.
Kirby, S., 1999. Function, selection, and innateness: The emergence of language universals. Oxford University Press,
USA.
Kirby, S., 2001. Spontaneous evolution of linguistic structure-an iterated learning model of the emergence of regularity
and irregularity. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 5(2):102110.
Kirby, S., 2002. Learning, bottlenecks and the evolution of recursive syntax. Linguistic evolution through language
acquisition, pages 173203.
Kirby, S., Cornish, H., and Smith, K., 2008. Cumulative cultural evolution in the laboratory: An experimental approach
to the origins of structure in human language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(31):10681.
Nowak, M.A., Komarova, N.L., and Niyogi, P., 2002. Computational and evolutionary aspects of language. Nature, Vol.
417, No. 6889, pp. 611-617.
Pinker, S. and Bloom, P., 1992. Natural language and natural selection. The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and
the generation of culture. Pp. 451-493.
Smith, K, Kirby, S. and Brighton, H., 2003. Iterated learning: A framework for the emergence of language. Artificial
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Vogt, P., 2005. The emergence of compositional structures in perceptually grounded language games. Artificial
Intelligence Vol. 167, No. 1-2, pp 206-242.
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A TOOL TO SUPPORT AUTHORING OF LEARNING
DESIGNS IN THE FIELD OF SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
EDUCATION
Sotirios Karetsos and Dias Haralampopoulos
Energy Management Laboratory, Dept of Environment, University of the Aegean
Mytilene, Greece
ABSTRACT
Sustainable energy education is anticipated to contribute to the solution of a sequence of challengesproblems related
generally with the dominant developmental models and particularly with the energy production and consumption. Within
this contribution we examine the integration of an ontology based framework for learning design in sustainable energy
education area with a semantic wiki, as a web based tool supporting the collaborative construction, improvement and
exchange/ dissemination of learning designs in the field of sustainable energy education.
We conjecture that the semantic wiki technology platform constitutes an adequate environment, in terms of its usability
and expressiveness, for the building and supporting of a community of practice in this area.
KEYWORDS
Ontology; learning design, sustainable energy, semantic wiki, collaborative authoring.
1. INTRODUCTION
The efficiency of the development of learning scenarios highly depends on the ability to reuse existing
materials and expertise (Pawlowski & Bick, 2006). While the issue of reuse in education was initially
focused in content, hereafter the focus was shifted to the activity oriented approach, which promotes a model
of the teacher as a designer and is enhanced from the parallel development of tools in the WWW, stimulating
the emersion of communities of practice for the exchange of learning scenarios and experiences (Brouns, et
al., 2005; Pernin & Lejeune, 2006). One such category of popular tools that support more and more
communities to collaboratively produce and exchange knowledge are Wikis (Nixon & Simperl, 2006).
However, according Kousetti, et al. ( 2008), if the web is considered as a continually growing collection
of documents readable only by people does not fully exploits the stored knowledge. Thus the evaluation,
collection, adaptation and distribution of the ever growing amount of educational material in the domain of
sustainable energy education, coming from various resources, in various languages and forms, constitutes a
troublesome undertaking. This problem becomes more critical due to the reported teachers lack of basic
education on sustainable energy (Papadimitriou, 2004; Skanavis, et al., 2004; Spiropoulou, et al., 2007),
necessitating teachers training.
Semantic Web can support addressing such problems. According Aroyo and Dicheva (2004), Semantic
Web technologies and standards are needed, along with new methods and types of courseware compliant
with the Semantic Web vision, in order to adaptation, flexibility and interoperability be achieved in the web
based educational systems. Furthermore the combination of Wiki and Semantic Web technologies is aligned
with the requirements of knowledge society for life-long learning and flexible learning environments
(Schaffert, et al., 2006). It pairs the user-friendliness of wikis, as Social Software giving users freedom for
choosing their own processes and supporting multi-site content generation and collaboration anytime and
anywhere, while Semantic Web technology gives the possibility to structure information for easy retrieval,
reuse, and exchange between different systems and tools. Additionally, learning modes dovetailed inherently
with wiki environments, as cooperative and group learning are becoming increasingly important as problems
are usually solved by teams and not by individuals (Dello, et al., 2006; Schaffert, et al., 2006).
345
Taking into consideration the above concepts we attempted to integrate a ontology-based framework for
learning design in the field of sustainable energy education (Karetsos, et al, in press) with a semantic wiki in
order to support the tasks of collaborative construction, improvement and exchange/ dissemination of
learning designs in the area of sustainable energy education. We envisage these tasks as a cooperative
teaching and learning process implying the formation of a community of practice in this area.
Briefly the paper is structured as follows: First a predefined ontology-based framework for learning
design in the field of sustainable energy education is outlined. Second our choices regarding the integration
of the ontology based framework with a semantic wiki are justified while some technical details and use
cases of the platform are presented. Finally future work is mentioned, along with some concluding remarks.
2. THE ONTOLOGY-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR SUSTAINABLE
ENERGY EDUCATION
In order to lay the foundations of an energy-environment curriculum that will enable teachers and students to
familiarize themselves with the current developments in the area of sustainable development we rely on a
framework based on three ontologies, namely content, learning design (LD) and sustainable energy domain
models (Karetsos, et al., in press), enriched by a ontology-based competency model (Karetsos &
Haralampopoulos, 2010). This framework is designed to support discovery of LOs, recommending about the
selection of learning designs, and construction of learning designs with reuse of LOs. An overview of this
framework including some generic relations among its constituent ontologies-models is depicted in Fig. 1.

Figure 1. Representation of the ontology based framework integrated in the semantic wiki, including generic relations
among the constituent models.
Below, we describe in brief what we mean by domain, LD, content and competency models and how we
envisage to support learning design in the field of sustainable energy education relying on this framework.
The domain model specifies the basic concepts of sustainable energy development and their
interrelations. Its core component is the DPSIR (Driving force, Pressure, State, Impact, Response action)
indicator-based framework (European Environment Agency-EEA, 2002), extended by Hierro and. Prez-
Arriaga (2005) in order to embody impacts of energy production and consumption not only on the
environment but also on the society and the economy, and enriched by Karetsos et al (in press) in order to
become a broad knowledge base for learning design, rather than a tool for policy making. The DPSIR
framework depicts the sequence in which the events take place in the energy production-consumption chain,
allows identifying the stages where there is a sustainability problem, and connects this problem with a
potential response-solution. This structure provides a base for a systemic approach of sustainability in a
problem-based manner, contributing also to the semantic annotation and retrieval of LOs. Causal loops based
on the DPSIR framework and related with sustainability problems can act as a backbone of a learning course
(Karetsos, et al, in press).
The LD model is based on the concept of mediating artefacts (Conole, 2008) that practitioners use in
the authoring process, in order to, according activity theory, bridge the gap between historical state of
learning design and their developmental stage. It is designed to act as repository of existing artefacts in the
learning and learning design fields, like pedagogical models, patterns and generic learning designs, case
studies, but also educational taxonomies, learning design processes, learning design conceptual models and
representation formats. Following a toolkit approach for the learning design process aims at providing a
variety of supports, ranging from informal solutions, as patterns, up to more constraint structures as the
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formal representation inspired by IMS Learning Design specification (IMS Global Learning Consortium,
2003).
As far as the content model is concerned, it is based on the IEEE Learning Object Metadata standard -
(IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee, 2002).
Finally the competency model (Karetsos & Haralampopoulos, 2010) represents competencies needed to
be obtained in the domain and can support competencies gap analysis and personalization of learning,
increasing potentially the level of competencies possessed by the learners. It is aiming to establish
connections between LOs, learners, activities, learning objectives/competencies and knowledge in the
sustainable energy domain and actually interconnects the other three models. For example the question for
assessing progress of sustainable energy development in a society (EEA, 2002), Is the use of energy having
less impact on the environment, the economy and the society?, which instantiates the class assessment entity
(belongs to the competency model and represents the evidence of a competency possessed by a learner) is
related with a number of pressure indicators/classes of domain ontology like greenhouse gas emission, air
pollutant emission, generation of radioactive wastes, and poorest income to energy prices.
3. SEED WIKI: INTEGRATING THE ONTOLOGY-BASED
FRAMEWORK WITH THE SEMANTIC MEDIA WIKI
In order to explore wiki technology as an environment for supporting authoring and exchange/ dissemination
of learning designs in the field of sustainable energy education, we have built a semantic wiki, called
SEEDWiki. (Sustainable Energy Education Wiki).
Our wiki is built on the top of Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) (Krtzsch, et al, 2006). SMW is an extension
of MediaWiki, a platform used by the popular Wikipedia, implying thus a usability advantage (Krtzsch, et
al, 2006). According its creators addresses core problems of todays wikis, as consistency of content,
accessing knowledge and reusing knowledge. SMW is probably the most popular and mature semantic wiki
platform (Kuhn, 2008), with a wide variety of available extensions like SMWHalo, SemanticForms,
SemanticGardening, SWMOntologyEditor, SemanticResultFormats, SemanticCompoundQueries ,
SemanticGraph, and RichMedia, which support and enhance the functionalities of adding, editing,
annotating, browsing, querying, displaying, importing exporting rich data and their interconnections.
The choice of a semantic wiki platform is justified by several reasons.
First of all it can provide a web-based uniform tool and interface for the representation of the different
components of the ontology based framework (i.e. domain, learning design, content, and competency
models). Second, a wiki constitutes an accessible environment for collaborative construction of knowledge in
a domain, being quite familiar application for regular users, and requiring only a web-browser from them in
order to use it.
Furthermore a semantic wiki allows for the semantic annotation and retrieval of pages. Moreover such a
platform could support the collaborative construction and refinement not only of learning designs but also of
the underlying ontology itself. This actually could be facilitated by the use of predefined templates allowing
the formalization of informal descriptions inserted to the wiki. A semantic form realizing such a template is
the key concept for the user friendliness of the application. This way a user does not need to know any
particular syntax or language to participate in a learning design process.
Via the integration of the ontology-based framework to the SMW platform we actually import a structure-
sceleton for filling the wiki.
Another aspect we took in consideration in our choice was the ability for context-based navigation. The
relations between wiki pages, specified by the sustainable energy domain ontology for example, could
support navigation between resources, based in a causal DPSIR loop helping the user to catch an overall view
of a sustainable energy issue. Visual representation of such loops, along with relevant inline queries could
jointly substantiate such a prospect.

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4. SOME APPLICATION SCENARIOS FOR SEED WIKI
Scenarios involving teachers exchanging knowledge regarding sustainable energy issues over the Wiki,
include the supporting and guiding of users to contribute content, and other material as learning models or
generic learning designs and patterns, enriched with semantic annotations. A predefined form is the key for
supporting such a task, in terms of a content annotating tool.
Hence, a community of teachers interested in sustainable energy issues could upload or reference such
material from the semantic Wiki, relating it to other concepts within the Wiki. Afterwards such resources
could be retrieved and accessed via form based query functionality.
Also in the overall case, where users follow the steps of a suggested learning design process (e.g. Browse
and select theme, Extract a DPSIR model, Select and adapt templates, Identify objectives, Arrange activities,
Specify resources and assessment, Represent learning design), the ontology browser and semantic drilldown
allow selection by use of a tree or list browsing correspondingly, while inline queries could be used to
present/highlight a categorization of pages in a way that helps decision making by the user.
The inline queries are based on the parser function #ask and can be created by few editors providing
dynamically query results which can inform users without requiring from them to learn the query syntax. Thus
regarding the selection of templates corresponding to abstract representations of learning designs (i.e. learning
models or generic learning designs and patterns) these could be presented dynamically in the relevant page,
categorized by the purpose/challenge they address.
As far as the extraction of causal chains based in the DPSIR model is concerned, effort has been
undertaken for visual representation of pages relations, as valuable information attached to any page and
increasing the user friendliness of the application. The parser function #Hypergraph is used to represent
relationships specified in the wiki as a network graph, while inline queries further specify these relationships.
An example concerning the page AirPollutionEmissionGr04 is depicted in Fig. 2.

Figure 2. Visual representation and the results of inline queries included in the page AirPollutantEmissionGr04
5. CONCLUSION
We introduced a tool, named SEEDwiki and resulting from the integration of a ontology-based framework
for authoring learning designs in the field of sustainable energy education with a Semantic MediaWiki
platform. Via this integration we aim to facilitate the acquisition and representation of knowledge about
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learning design in the field of sustainable energy education for users with no experience of knowledge
engineering and management technologies. Users are allowed to add and view knowledge facilitated by
semantic forms and visual representations of pages relations.
The prototype presented in this article is under active development. Work for the near future concerns the
more efficient representation and extraction of DPSIR causal loops related with sustainable energy issues and
acting as skeletons for learning designs, along with improvements of the user interface. Evaluation
experiments with the participation of teachers are needed, in order to detect if the wiki provides the adequate
expressiveness and functionality to support them in constructing learning designs suited to their specific
educational context.
REFERENCES
Aroyo, L. and Dicheva, D., 2004. The New Challenges for E-learning: The Educational Semantic Web. In Educational
Technology & Society, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 59-69.
Brouns, F. et al, 2005. A First Exploration of an Inductive Analysis Approach for Detecting Learning Design Patterns. In
Journal of Interactive Media in Education, Vol. 3, pp. 1-10.
Conole, G., 2008. Capturing Practice, the Role of Mediating Artefacts in Learning Design. In L. Lockyer, S. Bennet, S.
Agostinho, and B. Harper, eds. Handbook of research on learning design and learning objects: Issues, applications
and technologies. Hersey PA: IGI Global, pp. 187-207.
Dello, K. et al, 2006. Creating and using Semantic Web Information with Makna. Proceedings of 1
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Workshop on
Semantic Wikis - From Wiki to Semantics. Budva, Montenegro, pp. 43-57.
European Environment Agency, 2002. Energy and environment in the European Union. European Environment Agency,
Copenhagen, Denmark.
Hierro, I. and. Prez-Arriaga, I.J., 2005. Indicator-Based Methodology to Analyze Progress toward a Sustainable Energy
System in a Country: Application to the Spanish Energy Context. Proceedings of the Madrid SESSA Conference on
Investment for sustainability. Madrid, Spain.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Learning Technology Standards Committee, 2002. IEEE 1484.12.1 Std
for Learning Object Metadata. IEEE Standards Association, New York, USA.
IMS Global Learning Consortium, 2003. IMS Learning Design Specification ver.1.0. IMS GLC, Lake Mary, USA.
Karetsos, S. and Haralampopoulos, D., 2010. Ontologies to Support Teachers to Construct Learning Designs in the
Domain of Sustainable Energy Education. Proceedings of the 8th International JTEFS/BBCC Conference on
Sustainable Development - Culture Education. Paris, France.
Karetsos, S. et al, (in press). An Ontology-Based Framework for Authoring Tools in the Domain of Sustainable Energy
Education. In International Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Information Systems-Special issue on
Intelligent Systems for Engineering Environmental Knowledge.
Kousetti, C. et al, 2008. A Study of Ontology Convergence in a Semantic Wiki. Proceedings of 4th International
Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration (WikiSym '08). Porto, Portugual.
Krtzsch, M. et al, 2006. Semantic MediaWiki. In Computer Science, Vol. 4273, pp. 935-942
Kuhn, T., 2008. AceWiki: A Natural and Expressive Semantic Wiki. Proceedings on Semantic Web User Interaction at
CHI 2008: Exploring HCI Challenges. Florence, Italy.
Nixon, J.L.B. and Simperl, E., 2006. Makna and MultiMakna: Towards Semantic and Multimedia Capability in Wikis for
the Emerging Web. Proceedings of the Semantics2006, Vienna, Austria.
Papadimitriou, V., 2004. Prospective Primary Teachers Understanding of Climate Change, Greenhouse Effect, and
Ozone Layer Depletion. In Journal of Science Education and Technology, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 299-307.
Pawlowski, J.M. and Bick, M., 2006. Managing & Re-using Didactical Expertise: The Didactical Object Model. In
Journal of Educational Technology & Society, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 84-96.
Pernin, J.P. and Lejeune, A., 2006. Models for the Re-Use of Learning Scenarios. Proceedings of Conference on
Imagining the Future for ICT and Education, lesund , Norway, pp.49-59.
Schaffert, S. et al, 2006. Learning with Semantic Wikis. Proceedings of 1
st
Workshop on Semantic Wikis - From Wiki to
Semantics. Budva, Montenegro, pp. 109-123.
Skanavis, C. et al, 2004. Educators and Environmental Education in Greece. Proceedings of the International Conference
for the Protection and Restoration of the Environment VII. Mykonos, Greece.
Spiropoulou, D. et al, 2007. Primary Teachers Literacy and Attitudes on Education for Sustainable Development. In
Journal of Science Education and Technology, Vol.16, No. 5, pp. 443450.
349
BILINGUAL ALPHABETISATION OF DEAF CHILDREN
AND PROGRESS ASSESSMENT: A PROTOTYPE OF A
WEB SYSTEM BASED ON A PHONIC METHODOLOGY
Miranda, Alssio Paula, L.J.de , Garca,L.S, Capovilla F.C, Direne, A.I; Sunye,
M.S.; Castilho, M.A.; Bona, L.E; Silva, F.; Machado D. and Duarte J.; Bueno J.
Computer Science Department, UFPR, Centro Politcnico, Av Cel Francisco H dos Santos, Curitiba Paran, Brazil
ABSTRACT
Globalization, supported by computer technology and mechanisms of long distance communication, is responsible for
increasingly smaller obstacles in communication across countries and cultures. However, the communication obstacles
faced by deaf people are yet to be eliminated, one effective way of doing it being through leaning Portuguese. In order to
support this process and assess the students language acquisition, Fernando Capovilla develop a set of eleven tests
through which the level of Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) and Portuguese knowledge of deaf students can be measured
with some precision. In the present paper, we will describe a web prototype of these tests based on the aforementioned
methodology. The test system we propose here could potentially be used by deaf people across the country. We will also
discuss the challenges entailed by the project, as well as the solution we put together, for which both key concepts of
Human-Computer Interaction and certain contextual constraints were of paramount importance.
KEYWORDS
Deaf students, Human-Computer Interaction, Assessment, Libras, Portuguese, Capovilla.
1. INTRODUCTION
One of the most paramount underlying principles of education is the notion of evaluation, meant here as the
key element to the constant improvement of teaching. Only through constant improvement will it be possible
to add to the conceptual pair teaching-learning the necessary underlying cause-consequence relation to the
processes of teaching and learning. In this light, evaluation in the context of the alphabetization of deaf
children plays an even more crucial role, particularly in a country with chronic difficulties in the area of
education. Indeed, the current investments in education are not even enough to bring illiteracy to an end, let
alone to improve the standards of Special Education to an acceptable level.
2. THE TESTS AND THE HYPOTHESIS METHOD
2.1 Features of the Tests
The tests contain four basic response types, namely choose amongst the pictures, choose amongst the
words, choose Right or Wrong and write words. As for the stimuli that prompt the responses, the tests
make use of the following: live or drawn Libras signs, pictures of objects, pictures of objects associated to
words and written sentences. As regards the analysis of the cognitive process, five different strategies
permeate the different tests. Firstly, the level of difficulty is increased gradually so as to indentify when the
examinee stops getting questions right. Secondly, the level of syntax complexity of the sentences is gradually
increased as a strategy of error induction, mainly through distracting pictures that actually correspond to
incomplete parts of the sentences. The main objective here is to assess the level of syntactic processing
acquired by the student. Thirdly, different reading routes (logographic, perilexical, lexical) are contrasted
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through various subtests that offer independent evidences for internal checking, as well as cross-validation of
conclusions and findings associated to the test. Fourthly, quality, completion and precision evaluation criteria
are used. Finally, errors are induced by distractions, in order to characterize the nature of the cognitive
processing underlying the students reading and writing in Portuguese.
2.2 The Four Tests selected for Our Prototype
As already mentioned above, we selected four out of eleven tests to make up our prototype. Here is a
description of these tests.The TVRSL, or Test of the Visual Receptive Vocabulary of Libras Signs
(Capovilla, 2004), was elaborated and validated according to the results of a study carried out in different
years of both primary and secondary education. The test assesses the students ability to understand isolated
Libras signs performed live. In fact, it assesses the level of development of their chimerical lexicon, i.e. their
set of Libras signs. This knowledge allows the deaf person to understand, express and process information
through sign language. The TCLS, or Test of Sentence Reading Competence (Capovilla, 2005), assesses the
students ability to read sentences and texts, and to present their meanings by choosing the right picture
amongst distracting pictures. The TNF-Choice, or Test of Picture Naming by Choice, assesses the
examinees ability to choose the correct written name of 36 pictures from sets of four alternatives.
3. CHALLENGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROJECT
Once we had analyzed these four tests, we then moved on to the transposition of the tasks from a physical,
concrete space into a virtual environment. Our main aim at this point was not to interfere with intrinsic
features of each test; in other words, we strived to keep all variables that characterize each test unaltered.
During the mapping process of both the real and the virtual spaces, we tried to come up with adequate
technical ways of displaying the tests (static aspects) and enabling the computational interaction, so as to
ensure their user-friendliness (dynamic aspects).
In addition to the abovementioned difficulty, another aspect of the project was particularly challenging for
us, namely the technology employed. Our objective was to introduce a tool capable of providing possibilities
inexistent in the real process (Winograd and Flores, 1986). Amongst these innovative possibilities are, for
instance, the simultaneous follow-up of every individual test being taken in the lab the examiner can check
on which question a given student is working and how much time there is left for him/her, for example.
Another innovative possibility is real-time conversation amongst all examiners giving similar tests in any of
the schools registered in the server. This last advance is particularly useful for when examiners want to
discuss eventual questions or unpredicted situations that may have arisen (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Test follow-up screen.
Another innovative possibility we introduced so as to illustrate the potential of this tool (but which is
easily reversible) is the animation of the expressions in Libras in the TVRSL (Figure 2). This intervention
was inspired in the concepts of semantic and articulatory distance devised by Norman (1986), a classic author
in the area of Human-Computer Interaction. Even though the original sequence of pictures indicates the
movement through arrows, thus making the meaning (semantic) susceptible to the users interpretation, there
is a significant distance between the expression (articulation) and the movement, a problem which our
animation tool solves. Nevertheless, we feel that before adopting this solution, one must thoroughly revise
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the expressions and perhaps even conduct an experiment to determine the following: to what extent the
animation affects the length of the test in minutes, and to what extent it affects the results obtained. We have
used a number of works by the group of the author of the methodology to build our prototype, and these
works reveal the importance of this issue.

Figure 2. Sequence of three standard pictures with arrows indicating the movements in the central picture on the left, and
the solution with the play button to activate the animation on the right.
4. OUR SOLUTION
4.1 The Conceptual Model
We strived to make our conceptual model as generic as possible, so as to allow new future developments or
changes. Additionally, we based it on an arguably complete model. The prototype represents our idea of a
possible solution, revealing the functional potential of the four tests described above and allowing them to be
partially done (just to show what the possibilities would be like). Within the system, there are two kinds of
final user, namely examiner and student. Such user profiles are associated to their own units of work and
study. Therefore, when examiners wish to schedule a test and select students to take it, they will be able to
access only the profiles of students registered in the school where they work. In addition to students and
examiners, the system comprises the registration of schools, tasks and answers. In other words, all these
entities are represented in the database. The conceptual model of the system includes the storage of the
answers to the tests tasks and questions. As different students take different tests and feed their answers
into the systems database, it will be possible to implement consultations which, in turn, will produce the
expected answers based on the data and on statistical manipulation (which is technically easy). Moreover,
we have taken into account the fact that sets of alternative data, i.e. sets of ordered sequences of items for
each question, must be available for all tests. Indeed, if the same students need to retake the same tests, they
will not receive the exact same data again. This way, we have managed to avoid the carry-over effect or test-
retest learning by controlling the set up and configuration of alternatives of all tests.
4.2 The Model of Architecture (Client-server)
In our model, students can work asynchronously regardless of the computer platform or school network to
which they belong. However, there are a few tasks that examiners have to do prior to each test in order to
ensure that. In fact, in the real world, students usually take these tests asynchronously and independently
anyway, since the time they take to complete each task will vary by a fraction of a second depending on the
student. Indeed, even the same student will perform differently at different moments, going more quickly as
his/her learning set improves, and going more slowly as he/she grows tired. In the solution proposed by our
prototype, once a given examiner has enabled a number of students to take a certain test, this examiner may
gather these students in a lab and have them take it at the same time. Nevertheless, the moment all students
have heard the system guidelines, they can log in and start taking their test independently from their peers.
Despite that, all students must take the test under the same conditions, which in turn will depend on the
scientific specifications particular to each test. In this case, synchrony, i.e. having all students begin a test
simultaneously, may have its advantages, particularly as regards the follow-up by the examiner. However, it
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352
is undoubtedly not the best solution because it relies greatly on computer conditions and, therefore, might be
rather problematic in primary and secondary schools in Brazil.
4.3 Functionality and the Environment
Our environment offers four basic functions within the user profile examiner, as follows: about the tests
(displays a short summary of each available test for examiners to take a quick look), schedule a test (allows
examiners to select a school, a test, a date and time), give test (instructs examiners about the guidelines to
be given to students for the successful interaction with the tool meta-communication system-user is
necessary to the intellectual artifacts (De Souza,2005) and enables the follow-up of the test by examiners),
and check results (is a projected though not implemented tool that displays a menu with available
information, which in turn may be compiled by the system, stored in its database and displayed in the main
screen. In the future, the system should be able to generate a table containing three columns, the first
displaying the number of items (e.g. 1 to 70), the second indicating whether the task was done right (1) or
wrong (0), and the third showing the total time taken to finish the task (in minutes). This table would be
compatible with any electronic spreadsheet application. As for the user profile student, the environment
displays the list of available tests and, once a test has been selected, it enables the access to the test in
question (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Example of our solution for the TVRSL
It is up to the examiner to schedule a given test, and this can be done either in advance or right before the
test is given to a group of students. Once examiners have guided students through the system guidelines, they
allow students to log in. The moment a student enters the environment, he/she can choose the correct test and
begin, quite independently from other peers that may or may not be present in the lab. A little progress bar
proportionally and graphically showing the students progress in relation to the question on which s/he is
currently working is constantly displayed, as well as a clock showing how much time has elapsed and how
much time remains, so as to help students to manage their time while taking the test (Figures 3). This
particular feature may be enabled or disabled by researchers, who in turn are hierarchically above
supervisors, followed by examiners. The researchers must let the supervisors know in which version this
feature will be disabled, and they must then inform the examiners. These timing resources may be a great
source of anxiety and distraction, causing examinees that are more inexperienced or prone to nervousness and
distraction to achieve worse results, hence being able to disable them is a precious tool. The effects of these
features still need to be verified before their introduction
5. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORKS
From the point of view of the interface environment in relation to the user, we would like to stress the
relevance of two resources added to the prototype. Firstly, it provides examiners with numerous advantages,
including a set of guidelines to be explained to the students, a real time list containing the names of all
students currently taking a given test, the number of the task on which a certain student is working at a given
moment, and how much time has elapsed and how much time still remains for that student (a tool that may or
may not be enabled for students to access these pieces of information as well). These tools (especially the last
three) are a great help for examiners to better manage the entire process. Secondly, our prototype includes a
tool that allows different examiners working on the same tests to communicate with one another, giving them
353
the opportunity to discuss and share information about questions they may have. The relevance of this last
tool depends on the context. Indeed, it is extremely relevant when new examiners join the team, but becomes
gradually less relevant once this new examiner has mastered the use of the system.
As far as future works are concerned, a pilot experiment should be carried out, followed by the setting of
norms to be taken into account in a new experiment. This set of tasks would probably prove the hypothesis
whereby the computer version of the tests successfully assesses the alphabetization process of bilingual
acquisition (Libras and Portuguese) of deaf children in all years of special education (primary and secondary
school).
REFERENCES
Capovilla, F. C. 1989 on the context of discovery in experimentation with human subjects. volume 1. ANN ARBOR:
UMI, Cambridge, Mass, 1989.
Capovilla, F. C. and Raphael, W.D. 2004 Enciclopdia da Lngua de Sinais Brasileira: O Mundo do Surdo em Libras,
volume 1 Edusp: Editora da Universidade de So Paulo, So Paulo, Brasil.
Capovilla, F. C. and Raphael, W.D. 2004 Enciclopdia da Lngua de Sinais Brasileira: O Mundo do Surdo em Libras,
volume 2 Edusp: Editora da Universidade de So Paulo, So Paulo, Brasil.
Capovilla, F. C. (2009) Prottipo do grupo da UFPR, e-mail to Fernando Capovilla email (fcapovilla@gmail.com), 17
FEB.
Capovilla, F. C. and Macedo, C.E. Costa et al 1996 Manipulao de envolvimento de ego via para-instrues
experimentais: Efeitos sobre estados de nimo e desempenho educativo em resoluo de Problemas Psicologia USP,
So Paulo, Brasil.
De Souza, C. S. 2005 Semiotic Engineering of Human-Computer Interaction MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street Cambridge,
MA 02142-1493, USA.
Norman, D. A. and Draper, S.W. 1986 User centered system design: New perspectives on human-computer interaction.
Ablex Publishing Corporation. Norwood, NJ.
T. Winograd and F. Flores. 1986 Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design, Ablex
Publishing Corporation, Norwood, NJ,
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GENERATING SECRET COVER IMAGE BY USING
RANDOM ART APPROACH
Raghad J awad Ahmed
Computer Science and Engineering Dept., University Politehnica of Bucharest ,Romania
ABSTRACT
We present an efficient approach to offer a cover image to embed an image within. The cover image has been constructed
according to the characteristics of the embedded image through applying Random Art Approach. It is often uneasy to
choose a suitable image to embed the secret image within. To make it easier and more accurate, the characteristics of the
secret image are considered in a better and more accurate embedding.
KEYWORDS
Steganography, Information hiding, Random Art, Image Processing, Cryptography.
1. INTRODUCTION
Steganography is the art and science of hiding information such that its presence cannot be detected.
Motivated is growing concern about the protection of intellectual property on the Internet and by the threat of
a ban for encryption techniques. The interest in techniques for information hiding has been increasing over
the recent years [1]. Two general directions can be distinguished within information hiding scenarios:
protection only against the detection of a message by a passive adversary and hiding a message such that not
even an active adversary can remove it. A survey of current Steganography can be found in [2].
Steganography with a passive adversary is perhaps best illustrated by Simmons Prisoners problem [7].
Alice and Bob succeed if Alice can send information to Bob such that Eve does not become suspicious,
Hiding information from active adversaries is a different problem since the existence of a hidden message is
publicly known, such as in copyright protection schemes. Steganography with active adversaries can be
divided into watermarking and fingerprinting, Watermarking supplies digital objects with an identification of
origin; all objects are marked in the same way [4, 5, 6].
In this paper the proposed approach produces a suitable cover image is needed to bury the embedded
image. The present study adopts random image generation method considering embedded image, and the
random image has been constructed according to the properties of the embedded image through applying
Random Art Approach. By applying the Random Art approach on the embedded image by using the random
image generation grammar, we can build a suitable cover image that clasps the embedded image in it.
The technique for secret hiding of messages in an otherwise innocent looking carrier message belongs to the
field of Steganography. The purpose of Steganography is to conceal the very presence of secret information;
The field of steganography is very old. The most popular steganographic methods used by spies include
invisible ink and microdots [3]. Microdots are blocks of text or images scaled down to the size of a regular
dot in a text. Shifting words and changing spacing between lines in text documents or in images containing
text can also be used for hiding bits of secret messages. The gaps in human visual and audio systems can be
used for information hiding. In the case of images, the human eye is relatively insensitive to high frequencies.
This fact has been utilized in many steganographic algorithms, which modify the least significant bits of gray
levels in digital images or digital sound tracks. Additional bits of information can also be inserted into
355

coefficients of image transforms, The stenographers job is to make the secretly hidden information difficult
to detect given the complete knowledge of the algorithm used to embed the information except the secret
embedding key [2]. This so called Kerckhoffs principle is the golden rule of cryptography and is often
accepted for steganography as well, in real world, however, it may be rather difficult if not impossible to
obtain this knowledge. In one typical scenario, Alice and Bob exchange messages (images) and Eve wants to
find out if they use steganography. Alice and Bob draw images from a certain source, Eve may find out, for
example, that Alice uses a specific scanner, digital camera, a camcorder with a TV card, or some other
imaging device as a source of images. Eve could purchase the same type of imaging device and generate a
large database of images.
3. RANDOM IMAGE GENERATION (RIG)
Generally, each pixel in plane image can be represented by x and y coordinates, and the pixel value is
evaluated from the three components Red, Green and Blue, which can be denoted as [R, G, B].
The pixel components (red, green, blue) should also have a value between [-1, 1], since its value is
dependent on a mathematical functions (such as sin, cos, etc.). For example, RGB [0,0,0] is black which is
normalized into RGB [-1,-1,-1] , RGB [255,0,0] is red which normalized into RGB [1,-1 1] and so on, the
equations below convert the default RGB values into values between [-1, 1]:
2
255 * ) 1 (
255 .. 0 1 .. 1
+
=

n
Nb , Where n is any number from [-1...1] (3.1)
1
255
2 *
1 .. 1 255 .. 0
=

n
Nb , Where n is any number from [0...255] (3.2)
3.1 The Grammar Rules
The used grammar rules are written using Backus-Naur Form (BNF). BNF is a notation for expressing the
grammar in the form of production rules [8]. BNF grammar consists of terminal{s} and non-terminals. In
BNF notation, angle brackets are used to distinguish non-terminals, the symbol: : =stands for is defined
as, and | stands for or . The use of | is a shorthand for several productions, which have a concatenation of
zero and more symbols (terminals and non-terminals) on the right hand side [7]. The BNF grammar used in
the proposed RIG is shown in Table 1
Table 1. The RIG grammar

Several mathematical functions are selected and used in the proposed system to generate the cover image.

Production
rule number
The Production rule Production
rule number
The Production rule
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

<Exp>::=<Input>
<Exp>::=<operation>
<Input>::=X
<Input>::=Y
<Input>::=R
<operation>::=Add(<Exp>,<Exp>)
<operation>::=Mult(<Exp>,<Exp>)
<operation>::=Div(<Exp>,<Exp>)
<operation>::=Mod(<Exp>,<Exp>)
<operation>::=Sin(<Exp>)

10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
<operation>::=Tan(<Exp>)
<operation>::=Arctan(<Exp>)
<operation>::=Cos(<Exp>)
<operation>::=Reverse(<Exp>)
<operation>::=Bw(<Exp>)
<operation>::=Expf(<Exp>)
<operation>::=Rgb(<Exp>,<Exp>,<Exp>)
<operation>::=If(<Exp>,<Exp>,<Exp>)
<operation>::=Mix(<Exp>,<Exp>,<Exp>,<Exp>)
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
356
Table 2. The list of functions that are used in RIG
3.2 Linear Feedback Shift Registers (LFSR)
The embedded image properties are described as set of bytes. These bytes must be composed in a random
form. A feedback shift register was used to satisfy the randomness.
A feedback shift register is made up of two parts: a shift register and a feedback function as it is shown
in Figure 1. The shift register contains a sequence of bits. The length of a shift register is figured in bits; if it
is n bits long, it is called an n-bit shift register.
The simplest kind of feedback shift register is a linear feedback shift register or LFSR as it is shown in
Figure 2. The feedback function is simply the XOR of certain bits in the register; the list of these bits is called
a tap sequence.

Function number Function name Function meaning
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
X[]
Y[]
R[]
Bw[G]
Expf[a]
Sin[a]
Cos[a]
Tan[a]
Arctan[a]
Reverse[a]
Add[a,b]
Mult[a,b]
Div[a,b]
RGB[r,g,b]
If[cond,T,E]
Mix[a,b,c,d]

Identifies the X coordinate.
Identifies the Y coordinate.
Generates randomnumber in range [-1,1]
A shade of gray, G=-1 is black, G=1 is white.
The exponential function.
The sine function.
The cosine function.
The tangent function.
The arctangent function.
The reverse color of a.
The sumof two colors.
The product of two colors.
The division of two colors.
A color specified by the RGB component.
The if -then-else function: if cond is positive, then the value is T, else the value is E.
The mixing of two colors a and b depending on the value of c and d.
Shift Register

Output
b
n
b
n 1
b
4
b
3
b
2
b
1
Figure 2. Linear Feedback shift register

b
n
b
n-1
b
4
b
3
b
2
b
1
FeedbackFunction
Figure 1. Feedback shift register

b
n
b
n-1
b
4
b
3
b
2
b
1
FeedbackFunction
Figure 1. Feedback shift register
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3.3 Image generating Fidelity Criteria
The RIG generated images need to satisfy the most common regularity properties. Images that are containing
recognizable shapes are called regular images. So every image generated by RIG must be tested for its
regularity and amount of information. The Fourier spectrum can be used to detect the image regularity. Each
image can be detected by calculating the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) for it and then we check the energy of
the selected image. The Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) equation may be illustrated as:

=
=
1
0
) ( ) (
N
n
k
Q n f k F For k =0, 1 N-1 (3.3)

=
1
0
) (
1
) (
N
n
k
Q n F
N
n f For n =0, 1 N-1 (3.4)
Where |
.
|
\
|
+ |
.
|
\
|
=
N
k
i
N
k
Q
k
t t 2
sin
2
cos (3.5)
Where 1 = i
For regularity property, if the energy of the spectrum is concentrated in the high frequency, then image is
irregular, otherwise the image is regular; the amount of image information is measured by applying Entropy
test. The following equation describes the entropy formula:

=
=
1
0
2
) ( log *
L
i
i i
p p Entropy (3.6)
Where p
i
: stands for the probability of the ith gray level =n
k
/ N
2

n
k
: stands for the total number of pixels with gray value k.
L : stands for the total number of gray levels (e.g., 256 for 8 bits)
4. THE PROPOSED TECHNIQUE
The proposed approach uses the structured images, which are generated using random image generation
(RIG) algorithm. Because if photographs are used instead of the structured images; it is easier for the
observer to predict some information about secure embedded images, and another personal knowledge, the
following algorithm describes the technique of the proposed system:
Step 1: Extracting the embedded image properties.
Step 2: The first random digit is generated using LFSR and depends on extracted properties.
Step 3: If the first digit matches one of the grammar numbers that is suited to the first generated digits, then
store it in a temporary array. Otherwise return to step 2.
Step 4: Scan for the applicable rule that the generated digit number matches its number.
Step 5: Search the matching rule to count the number of arguments of its function.
Step 6: If the number of arguments is not equal to zero and is less than 13 (since the maximum number of
nested functions can be 13), then do the following steps:
i) Generate new digit using LFSR.
ii) Search for the application rule that the generated digit number matches its rule number.
iii) Scan the matching rule to count the number of arguments of its function.
iv) If the number of arguments is equal to zero, then decrement one from the resisted number of
arguments of the previous function. Otherwise, increment the number of functions of the resulting
stream of integers and return to step 6.
Step 7: If the number of arguments is equal to zero then go to step 9.
Step 8: Else, if the number of arguments is not equal to zero and the number of functions in the formula is
greater than 13 then generate random number using LFSR and decrement one from the number of
arguments. Repeat this process until the number of arguments becomes zero.
Step 9: Replace the resulted stream of digits to the corresponding right-hand side of the production rule in
the RIG grammar.
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5. IMPLEMENTATION
The Matlab 6.5 and Mathematica 4.0 applications are used to build the proposed system. Many functions are
constructed depending on the given facilities of the selected applications.
5.1 Experiments and Results
1- First test was applied on 100x100 gray scale images. Figures 3, 4 show the selected image and its
histogram. The result of RIG approach is (256 by 256) color Cover image shown in Figure 5.

Figure 4. Embedded Image Histogram
The grammar rule of the embedded image is illustrated bellow:
Random Image formula
RGB Color Formula
R Sin (X[])
G If (X[],Y[])
Composed Formula

B Mult(Sin(X[]),Y[]) RGB [Sin(X[]),If(X[],Y[]),Mult(Sin(X[]),Y[]]

Figure 5. Shows the RIG generated image of the above formula:

Figure 5. The Generated (256x256) Image Using Random
Art approach

Figure 6. Energy spectrum of the generated image by
applying FFT
The amount of information of the generated cover image is calculated as :{ Entropy value} =7.9645 bits/ pixel.
2- The second test was utilized on (150x150) gray scale embedded image shown in Figure 7. Figure 8.
Describes the histogram of the selected image. The output of RIG is(256x256) color image is shown in
Figure 9 ,The grammar rule of the embedded image is illustrated bellow:

Figure 7. Embedded Image (150x150) Figure 8. Embedded Image Histogram

The grammar rule of the embedded image is illustrated bellow:
Random Image formula
RGB Color Formula
R Tan (X[])
G If (X[],Y[])
Composed Formula
B Add(Cos(X[]),If(X[],Y[])) RGB [Tan(X[]),If(X[],Y[]),Add(Cos(X[]),If(X[],Y[])]
Figure 3. Embedded Image (100x100)
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Figure 10. Energy spectrum of the generated image by
applying FFT
The amount of information of the generated cover image is calculated as :{ Entropy value} =3.6733 bits/ pixel.
6. CONCLUSION
Constructing a random image proved to be a good hiding media, where:
1. Random image is a suitable media for the image that is intended to be Cover image, because it has no
specific meaning. The reason behind this is that random image does not raise the suspensions of the
attackers.
2. An image that is highly detailed can be produced by complicating the grammar. The product image is
more suitable for embedding secret message.
3. The Consideration of the characteristics of the embedded image allows us to recognize the information
contained in the image. A suitable cover image is needed to hide the embedded image; the present study
adopts random image generation method considering an embedded image.
4. New functions can be added to the grammar rules to generate and expand wide range of images that are
appropriate for embedding.
REFERENCES
1. Roos Anderson (ed.), 1996. Information hiding, Lecture Notes in computer science, vol. 1174, Springer.
2. Ross J . Anderson and Fabien A. Petitcolas, 1998. On the limits of Steganography, IEEE Journal on Selected areas in
communications 16, no. 4.
3. N.F.Johnson, 1998. Steganography , http://www.jjtc.com/stegdoc, George Mason University.
4.D. Kahn, 1996. The history of steganography, 1 st Information Hiding Workshop, Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, R. Anderson, ed., vol. 1174, pp. 15, Springer-Verlag.
5. Moni Naor, Amos fiat and Benny Chor, 1994. Tracing traitors , advances in cryptology : CRYPTO 94 (Tvo G.
Desmedt,ed.), Lecture notes in computert science, vol. 839.
6. British Pfitzmann and Matthias Schunter, 1996. Asymmetric fingerprinting, advances in cryptology; EUROCRYPT 96
(Ueli Maurer, ed.) ,Lecture notes in computert science, vol. 1233.
7. V.J . Rayward Simth , 1984 . A first course in formal language theory.
8. Alfred V.Aho, Ravi, Sethi, and J effrey D.Ulman, 1986.Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools, Addison-
Wesley.
Figure 9. The Generated (256x256) Image
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
360
BILINGUAL ALPHABETISATION OF DEAF CHILDREN:
REQUIREMENTS FOR A COMMUNICATION TOOL
Juliana Bueno
1
, Laura Snchez Garca
1
and Alssio Miranda Jnior
1
1
Computer Science Department Federal University of Paran,
Centro Politcnico, Jardim das Amricas, ZIP CODE: 81531-980 Curitiba - PR
ABSTRACT
The present work was inspired by the wish to contribute to the bilingual alphabetisation of deaf children whose mother
tongue is Libras (Brazilian Sign Language). In this light, we came up with an internet environment to encourage deaf
children to engage in informal conversations and, at a later stage, in educational activities (both oral and written). In order
to create the environment, we first carried out extensive research as an essential methodological step, which then led to
the establishment of three sets of requirements. These requirements gave rise to the possibilities offered by the system, as
well as to its general interface and interaction solutions. Finally, we described the overall features of the technological
tool proposed in the present paper.
KEYWORDS
Deaf Children, Libras (Brazilian Sign Language), Bilingual Alphabetisation, Virtual Environment, Interface.
1. INTRODUCTION
The origin of the present work traces back to the questioning of social and production habits of people.
People with special needs, the deaf included, make up a minority and thus tend to be discriminated against. In
order to change this situation, one must acknowledge the differences inherent to these minorities, respecting
the way in which the members of these groups interact and communicate, rather than imposing on them what
seems normal to the majority of the population.
By analysing these minorities in this case, deaf people and thinking of ways to both respect their
differences and bring them closer to the so-called hearing community, we arrived at the conclusion that
studying the alphabetisation process of deaf people might be a great contribution, starting at early childhood
stages. Normally, in order to obtain positive results, deaf children must first learn sign language (L1) before
learning a second language (L2), in this case Portuguese. This process is entitled bilingual education
(Quadros, 2006).
Nowadays, computers have become a resource which - if used efficiently may greatly contribute to this
teaching-learning process (Masetto, 2000). Indeed, thanks to the latest developments in Computer Science,
communication has been changing and schools have been trying to adapt by using computers as a teaching
tool (Stumpf, 2005). Especially concerning deaf people, computer resources bring even more advantages due
to their particularly visual character.
In this light, the main objective of our project was to call attention to the issue of the bilingual education
of deaf children and to highlight the role the computer plays in the process of language teaching and learning.
Therefore, our main motivation was to contribute to the process of Portuguese learning by deaf children
(or Libras, which is a term used to describe people who know Libras, i.e. Lngua Brasileira de Sinais, or
Brazilian Sign Language). Having this objective in mind, we think about developing an attractive and
alluring Internet environment to help these students with their writing.
In order to build the environment, we first had to carry out a detailed study to identify its main
requirements, which in turn is perhaps the main contribution of the present work. To fulfill this task, we
looked into the culture and identity of deaf people, as well as into sign language and its importance for deaf
children learning other languages. As our target public consisted of children, we had to become acquainted
with more comprehensive research within the area of Visual Communication on the likes and preferences of
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children. Finally, we studied the various means of representation of sign language so as to understand what
factors must be taken into consideration when one uses these means.
Based upon the overall results we obtained in our research, we came up with requirements for
communication environments on the computer whose aim is to help the bilingual (Libras-Portuguese)
teaching-learning process of deaf children.
Finally, we sketched an environment that synthesised all this; all in all, an adequate environment for the
work hypothesis discussed here. The implementation will be our future work.
2. LITERATURE REVISION
2.1 Deaf Children: Culture, Teaching and Learning
As we looked into the concept of culture, or more specifically into deaf culture, we realised that one should
speak of multicultural products rather than of cultural products (Peter McLaren apud Moura, 2000). Indeed,
when one creates a certain product for a deaf target public, one must at the same time respect the target
culture and not restrict the product to that culture; instead, one must interact with the hearing culture as well.
Another paramount element is the use of visual resources in communication because they are inherent to the
communication between deaf people and the world (Perlin, 1998 and Quadros, 2005).
As for the kinds of activities to be used, we find group activities particularly important as they push the
learning process of deaf children forward. Amongst the strategies we studied, story reading and telling in
groups is perhaps the most interesting one, motivating children to improve their reading skills (Gillesppie and
Twardosz, 1996).
Another relevant element we took into account is the notion of visual alphabetisation in a bilingual
context (Sofiato, 2005). This notion consists of focusing the childs attention on reading by exploring the
interpretation of images.
Yet another aspect we found relevant is the fact that Libras must be the main language for user-system
and system-user communication (Peixoto, 2006).
Furthermore, we feel that making use of fun activities in Libras is a promising strategy to increase
learning and integration amongst the children. By playing games, telling stories and the like, children have
fun in sign language and learn more (Quadros, 2004).
Finally, in terms of the kinds of materials to be used for deaf children, we believe that they must include
interesting texts filled with images and that promote the constant association between text and image
(Fernandes, 2006).
2.2 Graphic Projects targeted to Children
As far as our graphic project is concerned, it is well known that the visual concept of a given project must
privilege the preferences of the target public. In our case, the environment must explore the fun character of
activities and stimulate the childrens imagination (Munari, 1981).
Another relevant factor is colour. When one works with children, one should make use of primary colours
(red, yellow and green) because they tend to be the childrens favourite and because they help to establish
colour as an emphatic element for content (Farina, 1982).
As for content, it must be less verbal and more visual. Indeed, an interesting way to instigate children to
read is to use iconic, indicial and symbolic reading, so as to stimulate them to first learn how to read images.
In terms of adequate fonts for children, they must be clearly legible and sized between 14 and 24 pts.
Capital letters that clearly distinguish between a and g, for example, together with texts aligned to the
left are ideal for children being alphabetised (Strizver, 2006).
Concerning shapes, children tend to prefer circular or round shapes. Therefore, in this kind of project, the
use of round shapes makes the environment more attractive to children (Frana, 2005).
Another essential element is the fact that environments targeted to children must always allow for some
interaction amongst the children and between them and the environment.
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Moreover, some studies have shown that a more rectilinear illustration style containing primary colours,
naturalism, a fairly absent context and geometrical lines is often preferred by children (Frana, 2005). This
specific point can be explored in the Libras illustrations.
Last but not least, it would be interesting to make use of visual vocabulary (signs and arrows), helping the
children to associate them with other educational contents, thus leading them to improve their visual
orientation which is key in Libras representations.
2.3 Representation of Libras Signs
Even though there have not been standard studies about Libras representations, particularly not about the
bilingual teaching of deaf children, the materials we studied shed some light on the matter and led us to a few
conclusions.
One of these conclusions is the importance of preserving, together with a certain sign, its corresponding
facial and body expression. Similarly, when it comes to Libras representations, one must respect its
complexity and avoid ambiguity.
The use of graphic resources, such as arrows, action lines and multiple juxtapositions, is pertinent in
Libras illustrations. By the way, these resources are already being used, but often in the wrong way. A few
very recent studies may lead to a more effective use in the future (Dyson, e Souza, 2008).
In materials targeted to children, the use of differential illustrations (that nevertheless contain all the
components of the sign), together with the use of colour, make the materials more in line with the preferences
of the target public (Couto, 2009).
As for images, videos and animations in Libras, displaying all the movements comprised by a sign is
essential. One must not display the character-interpreters entire body, but rather the head and torso. The
character must stick to those movements and expressions related to the sign only. In addition to that, other
rules have to be followed, such as the adequate clothing of the interpreter, as well as the use of the same
interpreter for all signs (Campos, 2007).
In computer systems that present signs through videos and animations, it is important to allow users to
control these videos and the like, enabling them to disable this function if they wish to do so.
3. BILINGUAL ALBHABETISATION OF DEAF CHILDREN:
REQUIREMENTS FOR VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS
3.1 The Three Sets of Requirements
Requirements related to the user profiles of Deaf Children_Libras (RDCL):
RDCL1 - Libras as main communication language user-system: The environment must use Libras as
the main communication language user-system and user-user.
RDCL2 - Integration Interculturality: The environment must be multicultural, i.e. it cannot be
restricted to a deaf audience, but rather must respect the specificities of the deaf community and, at the same
time, interact with the hearing community.
RDCL3 - Multiple representation of a single meaning: It is important to establish associations between
what is said (hearing), signalled (deaf) and written (Portuguese), so as to make communication easier.
Getting deaf children to visualize what is verbal and non-verbal, and to make associations between the
languages, in order to build a single meaning, is essential to bilingual (Libras Portuguese) leaning and
knowledge.
RDCL4 - Visual Character: The environment must make abundant use of visual resources since visual
meanings make up the basis of communication amongst the deaf.
RDCL5 - Genuinely interesting environment, subject to visual representation: The environment must
offer users not only interesting texts, but also texts rich in images and associations between language and
image.
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RDCL6 - Support activities to bilingual alphabetisation: The environment must offer children
additional activities to those used in their alphabetisation class.
RDCL7 - Articulation in Libras: It is useful to carry our role playing activities, as well as other
activities that encourage group learning, focusing on the ability to express signs.
Requirements related to Visual Communication for Children between 7 and 10 years of age (RVCC):
RVCC1 - Project Conceptualisation: The visual concept of the project must privilege the preferences of
the target public, making use of fun activities and stimulating the childrens imagination.
RVCC2 - Use of Colours: The environment must privilege the use of primary colours (red, yellow and
green) both because children tend to prefer these colours, and also because colours may be explored as
emphatic elements to be associated to content.
RVCC3 - Attractiveness: Content must be less verbal and more visual.
RVCC4 - Emphasis on Different Reading Types: The tool must explore iconic, indicial and symbolic
reading, as children must first learn to read images.
RVCC5 - Use of Fonts: The environment must contain legible fonts sized between 14 and 24 pts,
preferably capitalised, with a clear distinction between the letters a and g and with texts aligned to the
left.
RVCC6 - Use of Shapes: The environment must also privilege circular or round shapes because children
tend to prefer them.
RVCC7 - Interaction Stimulation: The environment must offer children the opportunity to interact with
one another.
RVCC8 - Illustration Style: The style to be adopted for illustrations and drawings should be rectilinear,
with primary colours, naturalism, a fairly absent context and geometrical lines.
RVCC9 - Use of Visual Vocabulary: The interface must make use of visual vocabulary (signs and
arrows), making associations with other educational contents and making visual orientation easier.
Requirements related to the Expression of Libras Signs (RELS):
RELS1: The expression must preserve all elements of the sign, including its facial and body expression.
RELS2: The representation of the sign must strive to avoid ambiguities;
RELS3: When it comes to materials target to children, it is important to make abundant use of different
and colourful illustrations of the signs.
RELS4: The interpreter-character, be it in an image, animation or video, must respect all the current rules
surrounding Libras interpretation.
RELS5: The system must allow users to have control over the display of images and videos, being users
also capable of enabling this control function.
3.2 Environment Proposal
In the present subsection, based upon the abovementioned requirements, we shall look into any functions of
the application in form topics:
Real-time communication amongst users;
Group Communication discussion forums;
Translation Portuguese Libras and Libras Portuguese;
Writing and sending online messages;
Story-telling;
Role Playing Game;
Display of Libras expressions;
Libras practice;
3.3 Preliminary Architecture of the Environment
Figure 1 describes the preliminary architecture of the environment. The structure comprises a few user
profiles, various software modules, and several input and output devices. We shall describe these elements
below.
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The environment offers the following user profiles: deaf Libras children (aged from 7 to 10), children in
general (equally aged from 7 to 10), Libras teachers, Libras and Portuguese monitors.
As input and output devices we have at least the following: keyboard, camera 1 (close), camera 2 (large,
angular), microphone, monitor.
Figure 1. Preliminary architecture
4. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
The present work had its origins in two main facts, as follows: firstly, in the need for bilingual
alphabetisation (Libras and Portuguese) of deaf children as the basis for their full human development and
social inclusion; and secondly, in the complexity inherent to the learning of Portuguese by deaf children
whose mother tongue is Libras.
In this light, we developed an environment with an emphasis on communication amongst the members of
the target public, attractive enough to instigate children to work with it, so that, in the long run, they get
involved with other activities of support to bilingual alphabetization to be incorporated into the environment.
To be implemented, the environment must first be better detailed. We estimate that the translation
modules Portuguese Libras and Libras Portuguese will offer the most difficulty, seeing as they require a
lot of research in the area of image processing. Once the tool has been partially implemented, one can then
conduct experiments on its actual use, aiming at obtaining feedback from the target audience and hence
providing ongoing improvement to the environment.
REFERENCES
Campos, M. B.; Silveira, M. S., 2007. Promoo da Cidadania da Comunidade Surda: o Uso das TICs na Apropriao de
sua Lngua Materna. In: XXXIV SEMISH - Seminrio Integrado sobre Software e Hardware, 2007, Rio de Janeiro.
Couto, R. M. S., 2009. Multi-Trilhas. Do concreto ao virtual: interatividade no letramento de indivduos surdos. Relatrio
final de pesquisa, PUC-Rio.
Dyson, M., Souza, J. M. B., 2007. An illustred review of how motion is represented in static instrutional guides. Global
Conference Visual Literacies: Exploring Critical Issues. Oxford, United Kingdom.
Farina, M.,1982. O mergulho nas cores. Psicodinmica das cores em comunicao. So Paulo: Edgard Blcher.
Fernandes, S. F., 2006. Prticas de letramentos na educao bilnge para surdos. SEED. Curitiba.
Frana, M. S., 2005. Estamparia txtil infantil: abordagem terica e experimental. Trabalho de Concluso de Curso
(Graduao em Desenho Industrial), UFPR.
Gillespie, C. W.; Twardosz, S., 1996. Survey of literacy environments and practices in residences at schools for the deaf.
American Annals of the of the Deaf, 141(3), 224-230.
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Masetto, M. T., 2001. Mediao pedaggica e o uso da tecnologia. In: J. M. Moran, M.T. Mosetto; M. A. Behrens. Novas
tecnologias e mediao pedaggica. Editora Papirus. Campinas.
Moura, M. C., 2000. O Surdo: caminhos para uma nova identidade. Editora Revinter. Rio de Janeiro.
Munari, B., 1981. Das coisas nascem coisas. Lisboa: Edies 70.
Perlin, G., 2005. Identidades Surdas. Em Skliar (org.) A Surdez: um olhar sobre as diferenas. Editora Mediao. Porto
Alegre. 1998. Magistrio. 3 Edio. Ed. Scipione. So Paulo.
Peixoto, R. C., 2006. Algumas consideraes sobre a interface entre a Lngua Brasileira de Sinais (LIBRAS) e a Lngua
Portuguesa na construo inicial da escrita pela criana surda. Cad. CEDES, vol.26.
Quadros, R. M., 2004. Educao de surdos: efeitos de modalidade e prticas pedaggicas. Temas em Educao Especial
IV. So Carlos. EDUFSCar, p. 55-62.
Quadros, R. M., 2006. Idias para ensinar portugus para alunos surdos. Braslia: MEC, SEESP.
Sofiato, C. G., 2005. O desafio da representao pictrica da lngua de sinais brasileira. Dissertao de Mestrado (em
Artes Visuais) Instituto de Artes, UNICAMP.
Strizver, I., 2006. Type Rules!: The Designer's Guide to Professional Typography. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc.
Stumpf, M., 2005. Aprendizagem de escrita de lngua de sinais pelo sistema signwriting: lnguas de Sinais no papel e no
computador. Tese (Doutorado em Informtica na Educao), Ps-Graduao em Informtica na Educao, UFRGS.
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Reflection Papers

SEMIOTICS OF BRAZILIAN E-COMMERCE SIGNS
Cayley Guimares, Diego R. Antunes, Alice G. de Paula and Alssio Miranda Jr
Universidade Federal do Paran
ABSTRACT
Signs from Brazilian e-commerce sites were studied focusing on their intended meaning for the user to go about the
operations to be executed to perform desired tasks. It is shown a low mapping between the intended function in the
system and the desired goal from the user. A better understanding of the Theory of Sign Production and Semiotic
Engineering Methods for sign re-design is recommended.
KEYWORDS
Semiotic Engineering. Sign Analysis, e-commerce, Communication ruptures.
1. INTRODUCTION
Dertouzos (1977) states the importance of e-commerce sites, widely used. Pictographic signs (e.g. shopping
cart) are used to communicate available functions. When the user is unable to determine the meaning of such
signs, she may simply go to another site. In Carroll et al (1988) we find that metaphors are a good aid in the
attibution of meaning to novelties, and can be used to represent a concept in a non-verbal manner. Such use
of metaphors in the form of pictographic signs may be used with the purpose of designing a user-friendlier
site. de Souza (2005) states that the elements of the interface serve to communicate to the user how and why
to use the system. This communication is obtained through the use of several types of signs.
Pio & Guimares (2007) analized signs used in Brazilian e-commerce sites and concluded that the
subjects had a great difficulty in atributting meaning to signs they encoutered. This research further analyses
the same set of signs using a semiotic approach in an attempt to try to elucidate the communications ruptures
and interpretations (i.e. abductive paths) of users.
2. SIGNS
According to de Souza (2005), the engineering of signs is a rational process of choosing represantations
that will be computationally codified and interpreted. The choices certainly make sense to the coder. It is
expected that they also make sense to the user: The design of signs that can trigger converging semiosis
around its implemented meaning is the primary goal of HCI design in a semiotic engineering perspective.
According to Pierce apud de Souza (2005), a sign is defined as anything that stands for something else, to
somebody, in some respect or capacity and it is the basis of interpretation (what someone understands as the
meaning of something). Pierce views signs as a triade composed by the object (referent), the representamen
(representation) and the interpretant (meaning). The relation within the triade is that the representamen
represents the object (referent) in a manner that creates the interpretant (meaning) in the mind of the
interpreter. Signs work as a process: there isnt, necessarily, a conection between a representation and its
object: meaning is always a mediatior between them.
According to Pierce, signs can be classified, among others, in firstness, secondness and thirdness.
Firstness is the category of undiferantiated qualitative experience (e.g. the cry of a child). Secondness is the
category of strict association between two phenomenum, that happens through some common invariable
between them (e.g. when the child cries, for the parents this cry is the secondness that something is wrong).
Thirdness is the category of mediated relations (e.g. the thirdness occur when the parents attibute to the
crying the meaning that the child is hungry). Originally, Pierces classification referred to the how
369
representations evoqued their referents (not their meanings (i.e. how the representamen manifests the object
of a sign). Therefore, icons are signs in which the representation brings up the firstness of the referent.
Indices are signs whose representation bring the secondness (e.g. smoke represents fire). Symbols are signs
that bring the thirdness, a result of a convention that stablish its meaning.
According to de Souza (2005), signs entail a process named semiosis, in which the three parts
(interpretant, object and representamen) interact to form the sign. This process is infuenced by a plethora of
elements, such as culture, previous knowledge, context etc. Since signs are designed to convey specific
meaning, this process is supposed to succeed. A well designed sign links the object and the interpretant to the
user, and it is this relation that determines the success or failure of the interpretation process (effect relation -
where the links between the object and the interpretant are closely tight and cannot exist independently from
each other). There is also a relation between the representamen and the object, that deals with the conception
of the sign to convey its meaning. Additionaly, to complete the triade, there is also the relation between the
representamen and the interpretant.
According to [Carroll et al, 1988] signs reduce the complexity of the system, the mental overload of the
user in face of a new system. They may represent functions, states of the system etc. and the most effective
icon is that which maps the object directlly. Signs are more easily recognized and remembered, and give
support to learning and to users memory. However, ill-desined signs may reduce the usability. However,
often people recognize the picture of things, and grasp its meaning more quickly than when the verbal
representations of the things are used.
Eco (1997) states that signs have a few functions, such as: Signification systems; Communication
Processes; Discursive Competence (that manifest itself by knowledge and exposition to signs). Eco also
defines four modes of composition and interpretation of signs: Cost (if a sign is already known, it cost less to
be interpreted); Type-Token (use culturally conventioned expressions ratio facilis to ratio difficilis);
Continuum (reference or content similar to the expression); Complexity of articulation (icons). For Eco, these
four parameters are used to distinguish the various ways of sign production: the physical job required to
produce an expression; the ratio type-token of the expression; the type of continuum; the mode and
complexity of the articulation (characterizes the degree of gramaticalization of the sign to be produced).
3. PICTOGRAPHIC SIGNS EVALUATION
According to Mullet and Sano (1999) apud de Souza (2005) [] when developing multiple images, care
must be taken to maintain cohesion within the image set to consider the physical, conceptual, and cultural
context in which the images will ultimately be displayed. Mastery of these concepts is far more important
than any innate artistic ability in developing an effective image program. Sign evaluation is a process of
subjective interpretation, created within the context in which the sign is inserted, and even that of the users
culture. The signs analysed in this research exist within the context of the functionality of Brazilian e-
commerce sites, and the user has previously used the expected functions for such sites in order ot obtain their
goals (those of finding, comparing, buying a product).
Pio & Guimares (2007) conducted an usability evaluation test with 30 users of e-commerce sites, which
allowed them to select the signs most common to conduct a large survey (130 responses) of their meaning.
showed that the icons chosen by developers do not match the meaning attribution desired. In fact, a great
number of signs were not recognized by the subjects. Above all, the subjects attributed different meanings
when compared to the percentage of correct meanings.
is the picture of lock, whose thirdness was to inform that the site was safe. 84.2% made such relation.
10% interpreted the sign as the representation of a shopping list. Firstness may be the cause of failure, since
the sign resambles a shopping basket, that refers to shopping (secondness), which reminds of the list of
products to be shopped (thirdness). The cost of recognition was high. has an intended thirdness of product
visualization. 63.1% made the intended relation. There was no suggestion as to a better meaning. Thirdness
and a mismatch in the type-token relation: the user might have a previous experience with other systems that
lead to the meaning attibution of a file (which does not does not exist in the context of e-commerce sites).
is typical of shopping bag in Brazil, but was used to represent the shopping list (for 52.6 % of the
subjects). 26.3% thought the secondness was for the act of buying (bag to hold products), a problem of type-
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toke relation. The use of for buying the product was made sense for only 42.1% of the subjects. 52.6%
thought the thirdness of the sign was the shopping list. Culturally, the shopping cart is where shoppers put
items to be bought later. It is hard to understand the firstness of , meant to mean delivery services (to
31.8%). 36.8% found the secondness to be the homepage. It can be seen that the designer had a problem with
the complexity to articulate the concept of delivery services, for which there is no convention. As for it
appears to have the firstness of a shield, for safety (31.8% of the subjects made such relation). A lower cost
for safety could be the use of a lock, widely used in all types of information systems in regards to safety.
is a talking baloon, typical from cartoons. Its intended thirdness was that of online services, a
relation made by only 26.3%. For another 26.3% of the subjects, the assigned thirdness was of information.
The cost of recognizing this sign was high. The sign was meant to stand for type of payments, a relation
made only by 26.3% of the subjects. 52.6% attibuted the price as the meaning of the sign, which seems to be
the more culturally common attribution.
To show the wraping service, the designer used , meaningfull to 15.8% of the subjects. 47.4%
abducted that the sign indicated which items were to be sent to another person (as a gift). The type-token
relation didnt follow the cultural idea of a gift, causing the low understanding of the sign. As for , it is
hard to see why the designer intended its thirdness to be online questions, a relation made by only 15.8% of
the subjects. 36.8% understood the thirdness to be contact information. A high cost of producing this sign for
a rather abstract concept may have played a role in its lack of understanding by the subjects.
was used to indicate that the picture of the product could be enhanced, a relation made by only 10.5%
of the subjects. 73.7% went with the widely interpretation (althought controversial) that its thirdness was for
the search operation. In an example of lack of consistency, the sign was meant to bring up a thirdness
of a wedding list, a relation made by only 10.5% of the subjects. 15.8% attributed the thirdness of indicating
which item is a gift. is rather difficult, and it was used by the designer as a thirdness of store locations, a
relation made by only 5.3% of the subjects. 31.6% thought the firstness was that of a storage warehouse, and
attributed the meaning of the availability of the product. Clearly the sign wasnt recognized. Perharps a map
would directly map the designers intention. In contrast, the sign was used to bring the thirdness of
availability. Only 5.3% of the subjects dared to attribute the meaning that the product would be delivered
sealed. It is even hard to guess as to a abductive path in this case.
Again, the lack of consistency appears, with the designer using as a thirdness of privacy policies. It is
not far fetched to see why none of the subjects made that relation. The type-token relation would indicate
safety, as was the case for all the subjects. appears to be a notepad, whose intended thirdness was the
visualization of the products items, a relation made by no one of the subjects. Instead, 68.4% attributed a
thirdness of shopping list, a more culturally known relation. The firstness of is also obscure, and it was
used for a thirdness of exibiting the technical data of the product, a relation no subject made. 26.4% thought
the sign was for configurations of the product. The firstness of the signs and was also hard to
determine. The former was meant to be return policies and the latter the login into the system. 15.8%
thought that the first sign was for buying the product, and 21.1% thought that the second sign meant group
discount. The articulatory complexity may have played a part.
Another inconsistency can be found in the sign , whose firstness is that of a gift, but whose intende
thirdeness by the designer was for gift certificates. No subjcet made such relation, whereas 42.1% attributed
the meaning of a gift (not a gift certificate). A clear firstness of a telephone, the sign meant a thirdness of
sales phone. However, 68.4% of the subjects made the rather culturally conventional attribution os Customer
Services, in a clear example of a type-token relation common in other e-commerce sites.
The sign seems a swiss-knife representation, and it was used as a thirdness of sales and services. A
more common meaning culturally conventioned for the swiss-knife in Brazil is that of multiple uses, a
relation made by 26.3% of the subjects. The rather difficult concept of wish list was represented by the sign
. The firstness for this sign is anyones guess. 31.8% of the subjects saw a shopping list. There were a
high cost of recognition and a high degree of articulatory complexity for this sign. The same can be said of
, whose intende thirdness was that of partnership. 47.6% of the subjects took the firstness to be a lock, and
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the thirdness to be safety. A rather obscure thirdness was also intended for the sign : that of e-mail service.
The typical type-token relation lead 94.7% of the subject to attribute the more culturally conventioned
meaning of help. For 21.1% of the subjects meant the user profile (instead of the desired phone service);
31.6% thought that , a pendrive, had a continuum of save (as opposed to product description); is
clearly a computer for 31.6% of the subjects, not a sign for help; and meant product list for 26.3% of the
subjects (whereas the thirdness intended by the designer was that of services).
4. ANAYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS
The set of signs, used in the major Brazilian e-commerce sites, analyzed here, is not suitable for functionality
representations in such information systems. The signs used confuse the user into attributing dismal
meanings. Only 2 out of 29 signs lead to a thirdness attibution that was convergent with the intended one. 11
lead the user to attibute a different meaning from that intended. And 16 failed completely in helping the user
to converge on their meaning. Worst, these 16 signs lead the user to attibute, some times, the opposite
meaning. It was observed a lack of consistency even for the firstness for the traditional functions expected in
a e-commerce site, such as sales (three different signs), safety (two) and information. These type-token
relation mistakes should be easily avoided.
A lot of the meaning attribution discrepancies occurred because culturally conventioned signs were not
used properly. 11 of the problems occurred in the thirdness (which is typical of symbols already
consolidated). 7 occurred in the secondness (that shows a direct relation between the sign and its known
function). For example, rightly so, the users attributed the meaning of gifts to signs intended to show wraping
services, wedding list, return policies, itens of a product etc. Gift was also the meaning of choice for signs
intended to bring up the thirdness of delivery. Another example is the attribution of shopping to signs that
were wrongly intended to mean safety, list, return policies, wish list, help. The magnifying glass and the
interrogation point are blatant examples of such disregard for culturally conventioned symbols.
The lack of consistency also appeared when it is observed that for safe site, different signs such as lock
and shield were used. As for more abstract concepts such as privacy policies, technical data, items of a
product, partnerships, services, online support, among others, the signs didnt quite convey a firstness to help
the user to converge an abductive path to the intended meaning. The dollar sign, for instance, is clearly a sign
for value, and not payment alternatives.
Corroborating the findings in Pio & Guimares (2008), the present study show that the signs used for
functions and concepts in Brazilian e-commerce sites are not adequate. There appears to be a lack of
understanding of the importance such signs play in the overall success of the information system. A call for a
more systematic construction and evaluation of signs is made.
REFERENCES
1. Carroll, J.M. et al., 1988. Interface metaphors and ser interface design In, Helander, M. (ed.) Handbook of Human-
Computer Interaction. Elsevier Science Publishers, 67-85.
2. Dertouzos, M. 1997. O que ser: como o mundo da informao transformar nossas vidas. So Paulo: Cia das
Letras.
3. de Souza, 2005. The Semiotic Engineering of Human-Computer Interaction. In: Captulo 2, Fundamental Concepts
in Semiotics, MIT: MIT Press.
4. Pio, F.; Guimares, C., 2007. E-commerce: Qual cone vale mais que mil palavras? In: SBC/IV SMSI, 2007, Lavras.
5. Umberto Eco, 1997. Semiotica e filosofia del linguaggio. Torino: Giulio Einaldi editore.
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NEED FOR PROTOCOLS AND STANDARDS FOR A
DECENTRALIZED WEB SEARCH PARADIGM
Sergio R. Coria
University of the Sierra Sur
Calle Guillermo Rojas Mijangos S/N, Col. Ciudad Universitaria
70800 Miahuatlan de P. Diaz, Oax., Mexico
ABSTRACT
This paper proposes to create a new paradigm on services for information search on the web, involving new protocols and
standards. For more than one decade, the current paradigm has consisted in services that have been provided by a small
number of private companies on an advertising business scheme, mainly. This concentration involves a number of risks
and disadvantages to WWW users. One of the risks is the service vulnerability because of the large dependence on the
infrastructure of one or two providers. Scalability might become into a concern because of the huge increasing of
information on the WWW. The current paradigm also involves economical and political disadvantages because the
providers decide which websites are allowed to be listed or not as well as their rankings; this can bias the search results.
Therefore, this paper aims to suggest general lines for research and development for a new, global, non-for-profit,
paradigm for crawling, indexing and searching information on the WWW.
KEYWORDS
Web search, web crawling, web indexing, protocols, standards.
1. INTRODUCTION
Since the 1990 decade, service for information search on the World Wide Web (SISW) has been provided by
a small number of private companies on an advertising business basis. A general explanation on how SISW
work can be found in (Manning et al., 2008), and Brin and Page (1998) present a specific description of
Google, the most influential SISW at the present time. A historical overview of infrastructure and algorithms
for information search on WWW is presented by Evans et al. (2005).
The current paradigm presents a series of technological, economical and political concerns to cyberspace
users. Concentration in a small number of providers involves, among others, the risk that the service is more
vulnerable because of the large dependence on their infrastructure only. Information increasing on the WWW
can impact on infrastructure scalability. A non-technological issue is the bias in both search results and
rankings that can be introduced by the service providers. Spink et al. (2006) show how search results differ
among the major providers, suggesting that bias can be involved.
Centralization of web contents indexes and focus on profit orientation seem to be two important
weaknesses of the current paradigm. Thus, index decentralization and a non-for-profit approach are desirable
characteristics of a future, improved, paradigm. Index decentralization needs to be supported by a large
number of servers; therefore, new protocols and standards to communicate multiple locations can be useful.
A non-for-profit approach needs publicly accessible hardware infrastructure to reduce index hosting costs.
2. PROTOCOLS AND STANDARDS
Web search depends on creating and updating indexes of the WWW contents. This is a highly complex task
that needs efficient algorithms as well as infrastructure with high storage and speed capabilities. Brin and
Page (1998) state that distributed indexing systems, e.g. GlOSS (Gravano, 1994), can be the most efficient
and elegant technical solution for indexing. Furthermore, they consider that distributed indexing would
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improve searching drastically. Other more recent studies about distributed indexing for the WWW are
(Melnik et al., 2001) and (Baeza-Yates et al., 2009). Brin and Page comment the difficulty to use distributed
indexes on a worldwide basis because of the high administration costs of setting up large numbers of
installations. However, they also suggest that this can become feasible by reducing the costs.
Our claim is that low-cost distributed indexing can be implemented as an inherent functionality of web
servers if protocols and standards for crawling, indexing and ranking web contents are created. Once these
are available, free software solutions can be developed to automatically create and manage local indexes. If
every web server has an index and a ranking list of its local contents, the web search process can be easierly
performed by a larger number of search engine providers, either commercial or non-commercial. This way,
openness and auditability can be characteristics of the new paradigm, and bias in web searching can be
reduced or even eliminated.
The definition of protocols and standards for crawling, indexing, ranking and searching can be started by
enumerating features (i.e. functionalities) to be satisfied by web server software and by search engines. A
series of useful features are suggested in sections 5 and 6.
3. INFRASTRUCTURE
In the new paradigm, a bottom-up approach can be considered, i.e. a fully- or semi- distributed searching
service that operates on a set of publicly available servers and indexes can be implemented. No new
infrastructure is needed because typical web servers can be used as hosts for their own contents indexes by
using the new standards and protocols. This way, web hosting providers can allocate both forward and
inverted indexes along with their hit lists.
The new providers of searching services would need less hardware resources for their search engines, and
their indexes can be construed by inverted indexes and ranking tables only which can be produced from those
located at web hosting servers. A probabilistic approach for distributed indexing can be adapted on a basis
similar, for instance, to (Gravano et al. 1994). A fully non-for-profit paradigm can be implemented by
defining a hierarchical structure and standardized protocols on a basis inspired on the DNS server global
infrastructure. General lines to organize a distributed indexing scheme are suggested in section 4.

Figure 1. Basic architecture of the new paradigm
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4. HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE OF DISTRIBUTED INDEXES
In the current paradigm, search engines (SE) create forward indexes (fi), inverted indexes (ii) and other data
structures, but no index is created at web servers (WS) locally. In the new paradigm, every WS creates a set of
local indexes. In addition, index servers (IS) are proposed to allocate mid-hierarchy indexes that subsume
data from those located at a set of WS. Figure 1 presents a hierarchical index structure for the new paradigm.
Three index levels are needed in the new paradigm:
Level 1: local indexes and hit lists that are located at every WS, the lowest level of the hierarchy.
Level 2: intermediate indexes and ranking tables that are located at every IS. This level can be construed
by a number of sublevels.
Level 3: general indexes and ranking tables that are located at search engines (SE).
Structures at level 2 contain data that subsume data from level 1. IS can be hosted by web hosting
providers. Level 3 contains data subsumed from level 2. Assignation of WS to IS needs to be ruled by a
standard or protocol to guarantee the following conditions:
i. At least one IS is assigned to every WS.
ii. At most n WS are assigned to every IS. n can be defined for each particular IS in accordance with a
set of IS classes that depend on infrastructure capabilities. These involve storage size, hardware speed and
networking bandwidth. Smallest IS can constitute, for instance, class A, other larger can constitute class B;
other even larger, class C, etc. This way, n can be, for instance, 2 for class A; 4 for class B, 8 for class C, etc.
iii. Every IS is available to every SE.
5. NEW FEATURES IN WEB SERVER SOFTWARE
Two of the most important new features to be available and standardized in web server software are indexing
and ranking. Both involve data structure and algorithm issues that might be addressed on a basis similar to
(Brin and Page, 1998) and (Melnik et al., 2001), as described below.
5.1 Indexing
Standardized data structures (see figure 1) for indexing local contents at every web server (WS) should store:
i. A document index (di).
ii. A lexicon (l).
iii. A forward index (fi).
iv. An inverted index (ii).
Similar data structures are needed at index servers (see IS in figure 1) to store data on a subsumed basis.
A number of data structures that are present at level 1 might not be necessary at levels 2 or 3.The subsuming
process can be based on a probabilistic approach, similar to (Gravano et al. 1994). Standardized indexing
algorithms should:
i. Create and update the data structures enumerated above.
ii. Minimize data transfer among different levels of the architecture.
5.2 Ranking
Standardized data structures (see figure 1) for ranking should store:
i. A hit list (hl) that is created from only local information and is hosted at every WS (level 1).
ii. A ranking table (rt) that is created from data available at a number of hl and other additional data
(e.g. link graphs). An rt is hosted at every IS (level 2).
Standardized ranking algorithms should:
i. Create and update these data structures.
ii. Minimize data transfer among different levels of the architecture.
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6. FEATURES IN WEB SEARCH ENGINES
Since a series of indexes, hit lists and ranking tables can be available at IS (and also at WS), a SE does not
need to create them from scratch. Instead, SE can take advantage of them. Therefore, SE should:
i. Store and create data structures at level 3 that subsume data from level 2 and, maybe exceptionally,
from level 1.
ii. Update these data structures.
iii. Minimize data transfer among different levels.
Crawling in the new paradigm is significantly different from that in the current. Even more, crawling
could be unnecessary. The main reason is that levels 1 and 2 are responsible for creating and updating their
indexes, hit lists and ranking tables on a bottom-up basis. Therefore, SE does not need to access WS directly.
Rather, crawling is replaced by a new, different, process in which SE uses data structures of IS at level 2.
If standards for level 1 are established, other alternate architectures can be implemented for the new
paradigm using other different data structures and features at levels 2 and 3. Regarding WB, new features
could be incorporated, so that WB can perform a smarter role in information search and retrieval.
Nevertheless, the increasing in network traffic that could be produced by smarter WB is a constraint to be
taken into account.
7. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
This paper has addressed the need for standards to crawl, index and rank web contents in order to provide
web server software with local indexing features that support a global, distributed, indexing scheme. These
standards and protocols can become guidelines to create free software applications so that every web server
can automatically create and manage local indexes. If these functionalities become inherent to WWW
protocols and servers, dependence on centralized search services can be reduced. Future research should
address an evaluation of the best algorithms and data representations for these purposes in order to propose
preliminary standards.
REFERENCES
Baeza-Yates, R. et al., 2009. On the Feasibility of Multi-site Web Search Engines. Proceedings of ACM 18th Conference
on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM 09). Hong Kong, China, pp. 425-434.
Brin, S. and Page, L. 1998. The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine. Proceedings of the Seventh
International World-Wide Web Conference (WWW 1998). Brisbane, Australia.
Evans, M.P. et al., 2005. Search Adaptations and the Challenges of the Web. IEEE Internet Computing, Vol. 9, Issue 3,
pp. 19-26.
Gravano et al. 1994. The Effectiveness of GlOSS for the Text-Database Discovery Problem. Proceedings of the 1994
ACM SIGMOD International Conference On Management Of Data. Minneapolis, USA, pp. 126-137.
Manning, C. D. et al. (2008). Introduction to Information Retrieval. Cambridge University Press, New York, USA.
Melnik, S. et al. 2001. Building a Distributed Full-Text Index for the Web. Building a Distributed Full-Text Index for the
Web. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, Vol. 19, No. 3, July 2001, Pages 217241.
Spink, A. et al. 2006. Overlap among Major Web Search Engines. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on
Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG'06). Las Vegas, USA. pp. 370-374.
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A RECOMMENDER SYSTEM FOR E-LEARNING
Lara Cini, Matthew Montebello and Vanessa Camilleri
Department of Intelligent Computer Systems, University of Malta, Malta.
ABSTRACT
E-learning plays an important role in todays world. It provides people with the possibility of learning at their own pace,
which is of a great advantage (Rosenberg, 2006). However, people are finding increasingly difficult to find relevant
content from the Web because its volume is drastically increasing in an unstructured manner. This paper takes a look at a
system which aids learners throughout their learning process by recommending learning resources which match their
interest or even other learners who share common interests. The integration of the hierarchic description of concepts
under which resources fall and that of a social network is fundamental in the proposed system. This paper takes a look at
the most important parts of a project bearing the same name, and is essentially a summary of it.
KEYWORDS
Tagging, Ontologies, eLearning
1. INTRODUCTION
Information stored on the web is not structured. Rather, if one is interested in a subject, one is allowed to put
up a website about the matter to which other websites can be linked. With no regulatory body which keeps
track of data proliferating on the web it becomes tedious for a viewer to filter out content which one would
have already encountered from content which is new (to the viewer).
Nevertheless, the World Wide Web is a place whose wealth of information is comparable to no other. It
would be desirable to aid a user in viewing content which is relevant to him. The approach that this paper
deals with involves the usage of online social networks. It employs different aspects that such a network
provides for providing a user with relevant information.
This paper is divided into sections. In the next section, an overview of the background literature including
similar recommender systems and technologies available for achieving the goal of the project are defined.
The following section gives an in-depth analysis and design of the proposed system which leads to the actual
system implementation. In section 6, the results obtained from the evaluation of the entire system are
discussed.
2. BACKGROUND
2.1 Social Networks
There are numerous existing bodies of literature which deal with the understanding of how social networks
function and the tools for the provision of recommendation algorithms.
A Social Network (Weaver, et al., 2008) is composed of a number of users, referred to as learners,
connected together with the aim of sharing learning material. Users annotate resources by using tags.
Resources include articles, reports, videos or any other content found on the web while tags refer to the terms
used to define a particular resource. The purpose of Social Tagging is to classify information which makes it
easier for users to find information.

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2.2 The Concept of an Ontology
An ontology allows for the hierarchic description of concepts (Bennett, et al., 2006). This gives insight on
how concepts relate to each other. Essentially, an ontology is a tree whereby any node may have multiple
parents or children, and, therefore, subsequently siblings.
The concept of ontologies in e-Learning is implemented in the LT4eL project which is defined in
Monachesi et al. (2008). This project uses the ontology to search for documents in a Learning Management
System but does not entail the idea of using ontologies together with social networks for friends/resources
recommendations.
2.3 Recommender Systems
Recommender systems are engines that recommend information to a user. For example, they might provide a
daily digest of what resources the friends of a user have tagged, or what new friends they have added. More
intelligently, they might put to action algorithms that analyse an ontology and/or a social network and come
up with prioritised recommendations. Thus, it makes sense, since usage of social networks is on the rise, that
recommendation approaches based on them are developed. Such approaches take advantage of the fact that
users would have already manually tagged resources themselves and selected users to be their friends.
(Kardan, et al.)
2.4 Notion of a Target User
Most of the recommendation algorithms put forward in the project relate to a target user. A target user is the
user on which the recommendation algorithms act, to which:
friends, and
resources are proposed..
3. AIMS & OBJECTIVES
The e-learning Recommender System proposed in this thesis aims at providing means which reduces the
time taken for a learner to find relevant resources from the Web. This will definitely be an asset for those
users who wish to further their knowledge on a particular topic.
The advent of social networking has made the tasks of finding relevant material easier. This has brought
about the idea of communities of learners in which the latter can share ideas and knowledge amongst
themselves (Terveen, et al., 2001). Thus, it is important for users to identify the other learners who seem to
have similar interests in order to form their network. The proposed system is able to provide the users with a
list of other users, also known as friends, who have similar interests which are more likely to form part of the
users social network.
4. DESIGN
What social networks provide for is a basis upon which one can build several approaches through which to
offer user recommendations. This is because, since social networks are inherently attractive to a person, one
willingly invests time adding friends and even tagging resources to show his friends that he likes them.
Figure 1, below presents several approaches of dealing with recommendations.
A summary of the approaches is given below:
i) Recommending resources via ontology
This approach traverses an ontology, seeing what user has tagged. It commences from the different levels
of concepts tags of a target user may fall in, and traverses two levels up and two down. It should be noted
that a node in the ontology may be encountered more than once, in different traversals stemming from
different concepts of the target user.

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Figure 1. General structure of the system
iii) Recommending friends via tags
This approach uses the cosine similarity measure (J i, et al., 2007) to find the similarity between two users.
The approach detects similarity between two users by taking into consideration the number of tags common
between them, and how often they have used them. Clearly it has to be run for each pair of users present in
the topology of a social network, in order to be comprehensive with regard to it. The equation used for
collaborative tagging (J i, et al., 2007) is:

Equation 1. Similarity between users via Collaborative Tagging
iv) Recommending friends via ontology and ratings
This approach builds on the first. It finds all the users which have tagged recommended resources that the
first approach recommends for a target user, in order to recommend friends to the target user. It takes into
consideration the number of tags that each user has attributed to each particular resource. This is used to rate
the friendship of the recommended friend.
v) Recommending experts via technical terms & tags
This approach attempts to find a measure for the expertise of each user, if any. It compares the tags that a
user has used for different resources against a set of technical terms. The more tags a user has which fall
within the set, the more expert he is classified to be.
vi) Finding expertise distribution of experts via ontology
This approach is similar to the former approach in that it deals with the expertise of a user. However,
whereas the former approach measures the expertise of each user and put a figure on it, this approach
attempts to put a figure of how much the expertise of a user is spread. To do this, this approach makes use of
the ontology. It counts, for each user, the number of technical tags used by him pertaining to concept falling
under different branches. Therefore, each user would have scores as much as there are branches in the
ontology. A branch is defined as a concept and its children, which is a child of the concept of Collection,
which is the parent of all branch parents. From these, scores, then, for each user, one can calculate the
standard deviation. This would go to indicate how much the expertise of a user is spread.
Different algorithms are put forward in different approaches. The approach, which traverses an ontology
tree in order to recommend similar resources and similar friends employs the concept of recursion:

getScoresUp(concepts, position, currentScore){
for (int i =0; i <concepts.size(); i++){
altagsCurrConc =concepts(i).getTags();
/* loop on altagsCurrConc, finding which resources aretagged
by thetags and adding [currentScore] to their scores
arrayList which is thevalueof hTresScores, keys being
resourcesNames
*/ (Process A)
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}
/* loop on siblings of each concept */
siblings =concepts(i).getSiblings();
for (int j =0; j <siblings.size(); j++){
if (concepts.contains(siblings(i))
{
aLCurrSibTags =siblings(i).getTags();
do Process A on aLcurrSibTags;
}
}
}
if (position <2){
getScoresUp(aLsuperClassessCurrConc,
position++, currentScore* 0.5);
}
}
}
Figure 1. Pseudo-code showing recursion in getScoresUp method
The concept of recursion is particularly useful in that traversing different levels of an ontology
intrinsically employs the same concept. The base case of the recursion would occur when the desired number
of levels in the ontology has been traversed. This is referred to in Figure 1 as position.
The project targets this issue in that scores of past recommendation are stored in database, to be used for
future recommendations.
5. IMPLEMENTATION
The project is implemented in an object oriented manner using the language J ava. It is important to point out
that in reality the project may be implemented in any OO language. The web interface of the project utilises
J SP.
SPARQL is used to query both the RDF and the ontology. SPARQL (Prud'homeaux, et al., 2008) is a
query language for RDF. A SARQL query is composed of triple patterns which correspond to subject,
predicate and object and are usually represented as variables. The basic parts used to construct a SPARQL
query are the SELECT and WHERE clauses. The SELECT clause identifies the variables that should appear
in the result while the WHERE clause is the criteria in the form of a graph pattern which should match the
given data graph. Moreover, SPARQL syntax can be extended for further functionalities. The following is a
sample SPAQL query which gets all names of the persons in a social network.
6. RESULTS
The documentation argues about the result obtained from variations of approaches enlisted in the design
section that the project puts forward. For instance, tags used by a target users may or may not be used to
identify resources which to recommend in approach one. This makes sense if the target user has confidence
in his own tagging. In addition, more detailed concepts (children of concepts of the target user) may be given
a lesser score than concepts above. This makes sense if the target user is interested more in getting to grips
with general ideas rather than specific ideas.
Ultimately, different flavours of the approaches put forward have their benefits and disadvantages in
relation to what the target user is looking for. Other minor variations in results entail considerations related to
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display, such as whether to display or not resources returned by recommendation algorithms which may
already be tagged by a target user (see approach 1 in the design section).
It should be noted that the recommendation of friends and that of resources to a target user is closely
related. This is because friends may be recommended on the basis of how much they have shown interest on
a resource which an approach has deemed as similar. Conversely, similar resources may be recommended on
the basis of how much they have been tagged by users which have been deemed as similar. This is also
alluded to in the design section.
7. CONCLUSION
The major strength of this project is that it would aid a user in searching for resources. Through semantic
description of data, the system is able to recommend friends and resources as well as allowing users to rate
both resources and other friends. In addition, the system is also able to find the experts in the social network
together with their main area of expertise. The project has been extensively tested and in general all
recommendation algorithms that were implemented function as expected.
8. FUTURE WORK
Recommending friends via same tags
Changing recommended friends positions
Giving weight to concepts depending on the levels in the ontology
Computing the experts scores via technical terms
Automatic Generation of ontology
An ontology may be built both automatically or manually. Automatic building of it would entail language
processing techniques and resource (or document) automatic classification, an area which the project does
not delve into. Although the project does not directly propose such automatic ontology generation techniques,
it discusses concerns which such a process must address. For example, the fact that resources may pertain to
the same part (or branch) of an ontology must be treated with care. Such a process should try to ascertain that
the classification of a resource to a concept is as relatively detailed as can be. The process should therefore be
exhaustive, not stopping short of classifying resources into sub-categories rather than categories where
possible. Moreover, usage of a stemming algorithm is also needed in this regard, in that documents may
contain different versions of the same word. When classifying documents, it is crucial to ascertain that
different versions of the same word are treated as the same word, with the prefixes and suffixes being
removed.
REFERENCES
Bennett, Brandon and Fellbaum, Christine. 2006. Formal Ontology In Information Systems. s.l. : Netherlands : IOS Press,
2006. 1-58603-685-8.
J i, Ae-Ttie, et al. 2007. Collaborative Tagging in Recommender Systems. 2007.
Kardan, Ahmad A., Speily, Omid R. b. and Modaberi, Somayyeh. Recommender Systems for Smart Lifelong Learning.
Iran : s.n.
Monachesi, P., et al. 2008. What ontologies can do for eLearning? . In: Proceedings of The Third International
Conferences on interactive Mobile and Computer Aided Learning. 2008.
Prud'homeaux, Eric and Seaborne, Andy. 2008. SPARQL Query Language for RDF. W3C Recommendation. [Online] 01
15, 2008. http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/.
Rosenberg, Marc J. 2006. Beyond E-Learning. San Francisco : Pfeiffer, 2006.
Terveen, Loren and Hill, Will. 2001.
Beyond Recommender Systems: Helping People Help Each Other. HCI In the Millenium, J. Carroll, Ed. Addison-
Wesley, Reading, MA. . 2001.
Weaver, A. C. and Morrison, B. B. 2008. Social Networking. 2008, Vol. 41, 2.
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WEB 2.0: INTRODUCTION INTO E-GOVERNMENT
APPLICATIONS
Francesco De Angelis, Roberto Gagliardi, Alberto Polzonetti and Barbara Re

1
School of Science and Technology University of Camerino Italy
ABSTRACT
Under the name of web 2.0, a new wave of web-based applications has emerged and has recently found successful take-
up in different domains. These applications rely on the concept of the user as a producer or co-producer. Web 2.0
technologies also provide new ways to improve public governance. Involvement and active online participation of
citizens, businesses, interest groups and employees of public, private and non-profit organizations becomes possible in an
easy and unconventional way. Web2.0 entails various kinds of activities for citizens: political participation, community
building and opinion forming, advising of other citizens, providing service ratings, assisting in monitoring and law
enforcement, acting as producer of government information and services, etc. Also staff of agencies may use these new
social media for cross-agency interaction and collaboration, good practice exchange and knowledge management. This
contribution provides a reflection of web 2.0 introduction into e-government applications.
KEYWORDS
e-government, Web 2.0
1. INTRODUCTION
Under the name of Web 2.0, a new wave of web-based applications has emerged and has found successful
take-up. Web 2.0 means a paradigm shift, i.e. understanding the Internet as platform, spanning all
connected devices. Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that
platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it,
consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own
data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an architecture
of participation, and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences [9]. The
term is closely associated with Tim O'Reilly because of the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004
(http://www.web2con.com/web2con/ ) Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it
does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but rather to cumulative changes in the ways
software developers and end-users use the Web. Whether Web 2.0 is qualitatively different from prior web
technologies has been challenged by World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, who called the term a
"piece of jargon"[14] precisely because he specifically intended the Web to embody these values in the
first place.
Web 2.0 also provides a recently emerging but important way to improve public governance. Social
media can be used in government-related activities. Through web 2.0 technologies and the respective
paradigm shift from citizens as consumers to citizens as co-producer, influence can be largely exerted on
democratic deliberation and participation in policy making. Likewise, the principles of public governance
transparency, efficiency/effectiveness, responsiveness, forward vision, rule of law - stressed by the OECD
([10], p. 58) can be supported and implemented in a better way.
In the following sections the discussion starts sketching the basics: so the demands of e-participation and
the diverse possibilities the Web 2.0 is offering. Then the influence of Web 2.0 on Public Governance is
treated in three aspects: the citizen side; the administration side; the special case of Less Developed
Countries.
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2. WEB 2.0 SYMBOLIZING A NEW WEB
Under the name of Web 2.0 a new wave of web-based applications has emerged [9].These applications rely
on the concept of the user as a producer of information. As a consequence Social Webs are emerging. The
creation of collaborative content is done in several ways. So blogs are online notes open to comment for
other users, while wikis are built by collaborative edition of content. Further important is tagging that result
in co sharing of information, so it may be organized by references such as bookmarks and URLs. Web 2.0 is
a broad and emerging concept, so best it is regarded as a set of features involving technologies, applications,
and values.
The user roles are diverse in Web 2.0 applications. One may distinguish for qualitative different roles: (a)
Producing content such as blogs or contributions to wikis; (b) providing ratings and reviews; c) using content
provided by other users; (d) providing attention such as using on-line services or going to a most read page.
As the level of engagement decreases, the number of users increases. There is a paradox on uptake: Low
uptake for large scale online public services; high uptake for low-budget user-driven services. Thus also
communities are diverse, so Communities of Practice may involve professionals while Communities of
Interest brings together persons with different background. With a social web new ideas are diffusing much
more rapidly. Time (25 Dec 2006) made the User the Person of the Year. Therefore the front-page of that
edition had a reflecting foil mirroring the spectator.
2.1 Participation on the Rise
Developing Government has to support the formation of a democratic culture. Thus e- participation develops
and implements new forms of participation. Communication in e-participation involves citizens, public
authorities, elected representatives etc. One challenge is the perceived democratic deficit requiring new
relationships between state and citizens. Public responsiveness should be improved. Reconnecting citizens
with politics and policy making is high on the agenda. Given the complexity of decision making and
legislation, knowledge and expertise of citizens should be tapped in a well. All those who are concerned by a
decision should be directly or indirectly part of the decision making process.
The various project in Europe, have been investigated (DEMO-net project, www.demo-net.org ), the
various views and concepts of participation via technology and have brought forward a structured way of
conceptualizing e-participation research and practice [11, 12, 13].
The focus of e-Participation have changed. Initial investigations on e-democracy have focused on e-
Voting and transparency. There were several projects using the web for voting (see e.g. the proceedings of
the e-voting conferences [14,15]). But most projects ran without digital signature and were often directed to
rather special groups.
Further interest was put on transparency. There is a close connection between transparency and
participation in the form of a mutual promotion. In recent years some new foci have come in. Several projects
show direct ways to the top, so in e-Petition which gives communication to the Prime Ministers Office.
Besides several initiatives by public agencies and examples of successful projects the overall picture remains
equivocal. Many projects are isolated, they lack commitment from elected representatives, and they may
experience political resistance.
Then online consultations are not inter-connected with other activities on same public policy issue.
Problems of size, numbers, space, distances, and different languages have to be overcome. There is a need to
create environment and culture favorable to engagement in e-Participation. So the to-do list is long: active
participation; innovative solutions; responding to greater diversity; better outcomes at less cost. One has to
support all forms of community development.
3. WEB 2.0 IMPROVING PUBLIC GOVERNANCE
In the public sector transformation of Government and improving Public Governance is high on the agenda.
E-Transformation has changed nearly domain of performing work. Transformation takes place for any kind
of relationship: seller-to-buyer, administrator-to -citizen, and teacher-to-student are just some examples. Thus
Electronic Government is about transformation: changing fundamentally the way Government does what it
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does. The permanent e-Transformation of the public sector spurs the discussion on entirely new ways for
Public Governance.
The scope of Public Governance is rather broad: democratic and cooperative policy formulation; citizen
and civil society involvement; a transparent and efficient implementation of policies; a continuous evaluation
of their results; an accountability of public decision makers; ways to improve policy making in the future.
With this agenda it becomes clear that Web 2.0 applications are going to improve Public Governance. There
are several government-related activities that can be affected:
Democracy and participation.
Petitions.
Campaigning.
Monitoring politicians.
Advice and ratings on public service.
Law enforcement.
Suggestions and Feedback.
Cross-agency collaboration.
Knowledge Management.
Good Practice Exchange.
3.1 Web 2.0 and Public Governance: The Citizen Side
E-Democracy is the support and enhancement of democracy, democratic processes and institutions. So
empowerment is the red thread in many activities. The idea of empowering means: giving someone the
power that he was deficient before. Participation is the way, democracy is the goal. E-Participation will
transform the nature of representative democracy by facilitating more direct and more numerous links
between representatives and individual voters.
Citizens may become quite active in supporting their representatives at elections. Earlier Campaigning
was performed by print media, party meetings, rallies, public speeches. Then electronic media, radio and TV,
arrived. Since the mid-Nineties the Web 1.0 got used, a new medium but an old message. Now there is a
move to Web 2.0 as new medium bringing additional messages. E-Campaigning is about raising awareness
about issues as well as engaging with people and encouraging people to engage with each other. So it
channels the power of public opinion to advance a progressive drive. The tools used are quite diverse, so
blogging, forwarding campaign information via email or twitter, producing videos, making fund raising sites,
etc. The new contexts are different: e-Campaigning is citizen-based, decentralized, and individualistic using
social micro-networks.
Citizens are not only supporting their representatives, they are also watching and observing them in a
critical disposition. Diverse forms of monitoring have become a leading issue in citizen participation. The
targets of monitoring are diverse. They include events such as elections, groups such as political unions,
persons such as politicians, modes such as proper fund spending and spaces such as parks.
There are many cases where law is enforced and citizens help with monitoring. Such cases may involve
negative behavior such as insults on race. Other cases are that citizen may be involved in documenting
trespasses of the travel code. As an example citizens have posted photos of cars parking in a bike lane. Such a
form of monitoring has been nick-named as little-brother-role.
Other forms of contributions by citizens include e.g. providing advice and ratings of public services
therefore helping other citizens. Some lay persons are very skilled in rewriting public information in a form
that is better understandable as the official jargon used for. Further, experienced citizens may give hints how
to better deal with special administrative problems such as making applications to a certain public agency.
Then the Web 2.0 may be used for suggesting administrative improvements. There is a common critic
that e-Government is too much supply oriented with too much focus on efficiency. The citizens may
contribute by giving proposals for amendment via social media. So Burgerlink was created in The
Netherlands and suggests an e-Citizen Charta (www.burger.overheid.nl). The demands stated include: Choice
of channel, overview of rights and duties, comprehensive procedures and convenient services etc.

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3.2 Web 2.0 and Public Governance: The Administration Side
With Web 2.0, the border between e-Democracy and e-Government is blurring. In many cases, the Web 2.0
is used as a means to improve Public Administration. One important point is: citizens suggest an
improvement. This is a valuable feedback to agencies and makes administration more accessible. As an
example, the Dutch ministry of the Interior set up a portal posing the question: How would you improve
government? From many answers the best three were voted. The winning ideas included: (a) Help me with
this e-Form; (b) Government makes it possible - a proactive system; (c) A portal that makes government
services more accessible. Web 2.0 tools can be used for cross-agency cooperation and managing
administrative knowledge. In administrations the usage for cross-agency cooperation is substantial so
different agencies may write joint reports. In the public sector problems may occur as cooperation is informal
skipping hierarchies. Further some moderation may be needed, as it comes to sharing of rather sensitive data.
Another field is lawmaking an effort involving politicians, administrations, citizens and experts.
Connecting stakeholders will make law-making more effectively. Empowered through ICT law making may
become more transparent, accessible and accountable. Further, citizen will be more engaged in public life
when they get better access to parliament.
Knowledge Management is an important application for larger communities of knowledge workers and
public administration is a typical example for them. The usage for Knowledge Management means especially
sharing of informal and tacit knowledge among. Also the persons involved get a better understanding what
other persons of the community do. In addition, analyzing and visualizing the flow of knowledge may reveal
trends. Different social interaction scenarios may be investigated. For the professionals information exchange
is of utmost importance. Taking as example the field of e-Government the professional community has
different stakeholders, such as politicians, administrators, companies, researchers. For them, the portal
www.epractice.eu was created and promoted by the European Commission.
3.3 Web 2.0 and Less Developed Countries
In particular for Less Developed Countries (LDC) Web 2.0 becomes important. For LDCs one has to put
emphasis on low-cost, grassroots, sustainable solutions that makes emails and mobile phones fundamental. In
Less Developed Countries mobile phones can substitute other ways of communication; so mobile phones
have undergone a transformation to a multi-purpose tool of ubiquitous nature. Thus a priority is to deploy
content and applications for mobile phone applications. There are other factors as well promoting mobile
phones. So with regard the political situation in Less Developed Countries prepaid mobile phones are popular
because they cannot be tracked back to particular citizen. It is a way to organize participation in the case of
unstable democracies and authoritarian regimes. In addition, economic factors count also for the mobile
phones.
REFERENCES
1. Leitner, C. (ed), eGovernment in Europe: The State of Affairs, presented at the eGovernment Conference in Como,
EIPA, Maastricht, 2003.
2. Millard, J. (ed), European eGovernment 2005-2007: Taking stock of good practice and progress towards
implementation of the i2010 eGovernment Action Plan, presented at the eGovernment Conference in Lisbon, EC
Brussels, 2007
3. Osimo, D., Web 2.0 in Government: Why and How? http://www.jrc.es/publications/ pub.cfm?id=1565
4. Fages, R., Sanguesa, R., (ed), State of the art in Good Practice Exchange and Web 2.0, http://www.epractice.eu,
September 2007
5. COE, Council of Europe, Good Governance in the Information Society,
http://www.coe.int/T/E/Integrated_Projects/Democracy/
6. COE, Council of Europe, Reflections on the Future of Democracy in Europe, ISBN 92-871-5835-5, Sept 2008
7. Smith, S., Macintosh, A., Millard, J. (ed), Study and supply of services in the development of eParticipation in the
EU, http://www.european-eparticipation.eu, May 2008
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8. Tholeifsdottir; A., Wimmer; M. (ed), Report on current ICTs to enable Participation, http://www.demo-net.org,
2006
9. OReilly, T.: What is Web 2.0. URL: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-
20.html
10. Jacobzone, S., C. Choi and C. Miguet, "Indicators of Regulatory Management Systems", OECD Working Papers on
Public Governance, 2007/4, OECD Publishing. doi:10.1787/112082475604
11. Sabrina Scherer, Christian Schneider, Maria A. Wimmer. Studying eParticipation in Government Innovation
Programmes: Lessons from a Survey. In Hampe, F., Swatman, P.M.C., Gricar, J., Pucihar, A., Lenart, G. (Eds.).
eCollaboration: Overcoming Boundaries through Multi-Channel Interaction. 21st Bled eConference, 2008, electronic
proceedings (ISBN 978-961-232-217-5)
12. Maria A. Wimmer, Christian Schneider, John Shaddock. Framework and methodology to turn barriers and challenges
of eParticipation into research themes and actions. In Cunningham, Paul, and Cunningham, Miriam. Expanding the
Knowledge Society: Issues, Applications, Case Studies. Part 1. IOS Press: Amsterdam et al., 2007, pp. 189-196
13. Ann Macintosh. eParticipation and eDemocracy Research in Europe. In: Chen, H. Brandt, L., Gregg, V.,
Traunmller R., Dawes, S., Hovy, E., Macintosh, A. & Larson, C. A.: Digital Government: eGovernment Research,
Case Studies, and Implementation. Springer, 2007, pp. 85-102
14. "DeveloperWorks Interviews: Tim Berners-Lee". 2006-07-28.
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/podcast/dwi/cm-int082206txt.html. Retrieved 2007-02-07
15. Krimmer Robert Electronic Voting 2006 2nd International Workshop Co-organized by Council of Europe, ESF TED,
IFIP WG 8.6 and E-Voting.CC, August 2006
16. Robert Krimmer, Rdiger Grimm (Eds.), 3rd international Conference on Electronic Voting 2008, Co-organized by
Council of Europe, Gesellschaft fr Informatik and E-Voting.CC, August 2008
17. Meet, share and learn Selected articles from 19 European eGovernment Awards 2007 Finalists September 2007
(http://www.epractice.eu/files/download/awards/ArticlesPublicationFinal.pdf )
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STUDY CASES ON THE CURRENT USE OF
MICROFORMATS
Iasmina Ermalai and Radu Vasiu
Politehnica University of Timisoara
Bd. Vasile Parvan no 2, 300223, Timisoara, Romania
ABSTRACT
Microformats are simple standards used as frames for intelligently publishing content on the Web. They are considered to
be the lower case semantic web and they are designed for humans first and for machines second. These are the main
reasons why the number of web pages that have implemented merely hCard has surpassed 2 billion by the middle of
2010. Nevertheless only a small number of universities have integrated no more than two of the most common
microformats (hCard and hCalendar) into their educational web portals. The present paper offers a perspective on the
current use of microformats.
KEYWORDS
Semantic Web, Microformats, hCard, hCalendar, eLearning
1. INTRODUCTION
The success of the Internet encouraged new forms of communication but even if its growth was exponential,
it still remained mostly oriented towards the human reader. This is the reason why there is an urgent and
continuous need for the automation of content processing on the Internet. Researchers and web enthusiast
worldwide are trying to develop machines capable of understanding and processing data from the Web.
Semantic Web is the next big thing and it has been like this for a few years now. According to Sir
Timothy Berners-Lee, Semantic Web is an extension of the current web, in which information receives a well
defined meaning, enhancing thus the communication between humans and machines (Berners-Lee, 2001). In
order for the Semantic Web to be functional, computers must have access to collections of structured
information. The Semantic Web implies standardization and transformation of existing programs or agents
according to the new vocabularies. This is sometimes very difficult to initiate and accomplish, thus the
distrust of some IT experts (Downes, 2007).
Microformats appear at this moment as a way of attenuating the gap between present and future web.
They are designed for humans and machines both and they work with existing tools and on existing browsers.
Microformats actually represent class names which enhance the semantic of web pages. Microformats are
simple, yet structured methods, based on existing standards (HTML and CSS) and used for adding more
meaning to web pages, in order to better indicate people, companies, events, reviews, tags, and so on (Lewis,
2009) (elik, 2007).
Despite the fact that best known web portals use microformats, universities worldwide appear to be quite
reluctant when it comes to integrating microformats into their learning portals. Only a handful of universities
use hCard and hCalendar as tools for facilitating the administrative part of the learning process.
The present paper aims to establish the current use of microformats both in educational, as well as in non-
educational web portals.

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2. MICROFORMATS AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Microformats are frames for the content. Using them, humans and machines can better understand the
meaning of the information published on a web page (Martin). Microformats represent an intermediate stage,
as well as a major step towards Semantic Web. Due to the fact that they are destined for humans and
machines both, but mostly because they allow a relatively easy adaptation and processing of existing web
content, the number of applications, services and programs that implement different types of microformats is
quite significant nowadays and it is continuously growing.
Following are some of the most important and widely known web portals and applications that use
Microformats: Digg, Dreamweaver (Microformats Extension supporting hCard, hCalendar, XFN, rel-tag,
relg-licence), Drupal, Eventful, Facebook, Flickr People and Photos, Google (Chrome, Search, Blogger,
Creative Commons Search, Maps), Internet Explorer, LinkedIn, Ma.gnolia, phpMicroformats, Technorati
(Contact Feed Service, Events Feed Service, Microformats Search, Search, Tags), Upcoming, WordPress,
Yahoo (Creative Commons Search, Local, Tech, UK Movies), and Pingerati (Microformats.org, 2010b).
The most commonly used microformat is hCard.
Recent browser versions, like Firefox 3.0 have built-in support for microformats while older versions can
be adapted by adding plug-ins like Operator, BlueOrganizer, Tails or Tails Export. Internet Explorer 7 uses
Oomph as a plug-in for Microformats. Chrome uses Michromeformats as an extension and Android uses
Mosembro. Other browsers with a consistent effort in this direction are Flock and Safari (Microformats.org,
2010a).
According to the examples listed on the Microformats official web page, the most commonly used
microformats pages are:
- hCard stable microformat specification used for representing people, companies, organizations
and places; information published using hCard classes can be exported and saved into different other
programs (for example a contact can be saved into Yahoo! Contacts);
- hCalendar stable microformat specification used for representing events; information published
using hCalendar classes can be saved in digital agendas like Google Calendar.
- hResume draft microformat specification used for publishing resumes and CVs;
- hReview draft microformat specification used for embedding reviews (of products, services, etc)
in web pages.
As stated by Tantek elik, the father of Microformats, in the mid 2010, at five years of existence, over
two billion web pages used hCard, the most common Microformat (elik, 2010).
According to ReadWriteWeb, Google stated at the Semantic Technologies conference that it had been
using structured data open standards such as microformats and RDFa for rich snippets feature and also that
microformats were far more common for this feature (MacManus, 2010).
3. MICROFORMATS AND EDUCATIONAL PORTALS
Regardless of their currently significant use in web portals, Microformats have not raised the same interest in
the educational field. According to a study conducted in the year 2009 (Ermalai, 2010b), only a small number
of worldwide universities integrated Microformats into their web pages, and one could not really speak of a
diversity of Microformats - the maximum number of complex Microformats implemented by any university
was two: hCard and hCalendar. A similar study conducted this year revealed the fact that the number of
educational institutions using microformats has barely increased and no other microformat has been added to
the two mentioned above. Both of the mentioned studies had as starting point the examples-in-wild page from
the Microformats official web portal. Examples published on this page were tested in order to establish the
accuracy or the information.
The results of this years study led to the figure below:
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Figure 1. hCard versus hCalendar in educational portals
We used black for hCard and gray for hCalendar. In the case of a University using both of the mentioned
microformats, we included that university in the hCard, as well as in the hCalendar numbers.
Universities used hCard for the following:
- publishing solely the institutions address (they only used the hCards adr class) - 23% of the whole
microformats use;
- publishing staff information and also the institutions address 40% of the total microformats use
in educational institutions.
The first implementation allows students to localize the institution on digital maps, while the second one
offers the facility of exporting or saving the contact information in different other programs.
hCalendar holds 37% of the microformats educational market and universities generally use it for
publishing information regarding the timetable. Using a plug-in, students can save this information into their
digital agendas.
In 2009, the Politehnica University of Timisoara has also implemented microformats in the Distance
Learning Centres portal. The novelty resided in the fact that, besides the two microformats mentioned in the
above study, we have also integrated hAudio, whose classes were used for publishing information about the
audio/video materials from the Podcasting section of the Universitys web site. On account of the fact that
hAudio was still a draft, we also had to develop a script that allowed processing of the information published
using hAudio classes. Including this script in Operator plug-in, students could download the audio/video files
or they could perform web searches for materials with the same name on web sites like YouTube,
TeacherTube, StudentTube, Trilulilu or Google.
The functionality and ease of use of the three microformats mentioned above were evaluated with the
fourth year students. The results of the tests revealed the fact that microformats were viable tools in an online
learning environment (Ermalai, 2010a). As a consequence of these results we plan to develop one or more
modules which would be used for integrating different microformats into the present web portal of
Politehnica University of Timisoara, which is an implementation of Moodle. Considering the fact that
Moodle is the most used learning management system nowadays, the development of the mentioned modules
would be a good method for increasing the number of microformats in the educational environment.
4. CONCLUSIONS
Microformats are simple, easy-to-use standards which offer a method for publishing structured content on the
web. They are part of the Semantic Web and are much easier to use and understand than Semantic Web
vocabularies, known as ontologies (e.g. OWL). The current paper seeks to establish the present use of
microformats both in educational as well as non-educational web portals.
Research shows that nowadays most of the worldwide known web applications like Facebook, LinkedIn,
Chrome, Blogger, Yahoo use microformats for structuring different pieces of information. Special plug-ins
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discover this information and offer various ways of using it, facilitating thus the way data is transferred from
one application to another.
Regardless of the obvious utility of microformats, their penetration into the educational field is scarce.
Only a few universities/institutes worldwide have implemented two of the most used microformats (hCard
and hCalendar) into their web portals. But hCard and hCalendar are not the only microformats with
applicability in education; for example hReview is a microformat which could be used by tutors for writing
reviews about the students activities and hResume could be used for the tutors and students resumes.
By adapting and integrating different types of microformats in learning web portals and by teaching
students and tutors to use them, the administrative part of the educational process would gain significant
support.
REFERENCES
elik, T., 2007, Microformats, Building Blocks, and You. Available from:
http://tantek.com/presentations/2007/05/microformats-bb-you/
elik, T., 2010, microformats.org at 5: Two Billion Pages With hCards, 94% of Rich Snippets. Available from:
http://microformats.org/2010/07/08/microformats-org-at-5-hcards-rich-snippets
Downes, S., 2007, Why the Semantic Web Will Fail. Available from: http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2007/03/why-
semantic-web-will-fail.html
Ermalai, I. et al, 2010a, 'The usefulness and functionality of Microformats in a particular eLearning system', in IEEE
International Joint Conferences on Computational Cybernetics and Technical Informatics (ICCC-CONTI 2010),
Timisora, Romania, pp. 387-390.
Ermalai, I. et al, 2010b, 'Inserting Microformats into Online Learning Environments', Scientific Bulletin of Politehnica
University of Timisoara, Transactions on Automatic Control and Computer Science, vol. 55(69), no. 1 / March, pp.
37-42.
Lewis, E. 2009, Microformats Made Simple.
MacManus, R., 2010, Google's Semantic Web Push: Rich Snippets Usage Growing. Available from:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_semantic_web_push_rich_snippets_usage_grow.php
Martin, A., What are microformats? Available from: http://microformats.org/wiki/what-are-microformats
Microformats.org, 2010a, Browsers. Available from: http://microformats.org/wiki/browsers
Microformats.org, 2010b, Microformats Implementations. Available from: http://microformats.org/wiki/implementations
Berners-Lee, T. et al, 2001, 'The Semantic Web', Scientific American.

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Posters

A WEB-BASED MULTILIGUAL DICTIONARY FOR
TERMINOLOGY OF POLYMERS
Tiago Frana Melo de Lima and Cludio Gouvea dos Santos
Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto
Ouro Preto, MG Brasil
ABSTRACT
This paper presents the current stage of development of a web-based system to support the construction of an online
multilingual dictionary for terminology of polymers. The dictionary allows users to do searches for terms and definitions
and find its translations to various languages such as English, Chinese, French, Greek, Portuguese, and Spanish. This is a
project of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), world authority on nomenclature and
terminology related to chemistry, and will bring benefits to scientific, academic and professional communities, expanding
and facilitating the access to standards defined by IUPAC.
KEYWORDS
Web-based system, dictionary, terminology, multilingual, polymer.
1. INTRODUCTION
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) "serves to advance the worldwide aspects
of the chemical sciences and to contribute to the application of chemistry in the service of Mankind"
(IUPAC, 2010). Thus, IUPAC is recognized as the world authority on chemical nomenclature and
terminology. Through their publications it endeavors to spread Chemistry-related information to the
scientific, academic and industrial communities around the world. One of these efforts is the development of
a multilingual dictionary for science of polymers.
This paper presents the current stage of the development of a web-based system to support building of an
online multilingual dictionary for terminology of polymers. It is expected that the development of this project
will benefit the scientific community as a whole (researchers, professionals, teachers and students), serving
as a quick reference for terms and definitions of the science of polymers, improving scientific communication
and expanding access to standards defined by IUPAC.
2. THE MULTILINGUAL DICTIONARY
The dictionary for terminology of polymers is formed by a set of terms and definitions of polymers
nomenclature, currently standardized by the IUPAC in English, and their translations into several other
languages. Once the dictionary is publicly available through a website, users will be able to access a term and
its definition in English, and also view their translations to several others languages.
The project receives contributions from several countries. The current working group for translations is
formed by chemists of Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea, France, Italy, Japan, Poland and Czech Republic.
Thus, the user interface should be common and without ambiguities for all users, avoiding interfering in
translation process.
To support the construction of dictionary, the system should be flexible and efficient, allowing fast and
efficient updates and additions of terms. All terms and definitions in dictionary should be in accordance with
standards established and approved by IUPAC. So, only authorized users can insert and update data on
dictionary. Moreover, system interface should be simple and easy to use, due to its wide range of users.
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The web is the ideal platform for various types of activities involving terminology (Nuopponen, 1996). A
great number of dictionaries and encyclopedias in different languages and targeted to a wide variety of users
can be found on Internet (Nuopponen, 1996; Nuopponen, 2000). One example is the multilingual dictionary
for technical terms related to astronomy, developed by International Academy of Astronautics (Matsukata et
al., 2002). Another example, related to Geoinformatics area, provides users a greater participation and
interaction allowing them to add suggestions and comments on dictionary entries. Such suggestions and
comments are visible to all users and can stimulate discussion and influence linguistic decisions of those
responsible for dictionary maintaining (Jachimski, 2004). The OpenDict, a multilingual dictionary based on
wiki technology for e-learning, allows users to directly add and edit entries in the dictionary, and the
dictionarys administrator can assesses these changes and can accept or reject them (Szedmina et al., 2005).
The possibility of use of hypermedia content, the rich interactivity due to its non-linear navigation's
structure, and the power to make information widely accessible makes web the ideal media to build
dictionary. Furthermore, with the web it is possible to do frequent updates and immediate publications of
information, unthinkable for other types of media. Moreover, the high connectivity that eliminates distances
and establishes a virtual communication offers high productivity through collaborative methods of virtual
work, essential for building the dictionary.
There are many efforts destined to promote access to information for general and scientific purpose, as
Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) and Science Across the World (http://www.scienceacross.org/). A
multilingual dictionary for terminology of polymers easily accessible represents another effort.
3. DEVELOPMENT OF THE DICTIONARY
The system development process is iterative and incremental. The following activities were undertaken in the
project development: (1) elicitation and analysis of requirements; (2) definition of conceptual model and
architecture of the system; (3) development of prototypes to validate the requirements; (4) definition of the
technologies to be used; (5) implementation of the system; (6) deployment of the system.
The main use cases of the application domain are: (1) Register a term registration of a term standardized
by IUPAC; (2) Register a translator registration of a collaborator as the translator for a specific language;
(3) Translate a term translation of a term and its definition from English to another language; (4) Search
terms: search for terms and definitions in dictionary. The system has the following actors: (1) Administrator,
responsible for include terms and definitions approved by IUPAC in the dictionary and register on the system
the collaborators responsible for translations, (2) Translator, that represents collaborators that will make the
translation of terms and definitions (3) End-user, that represents the community of system end-users,
comprised of students, teachers, researchers and others that will use the dictionary.
An important requirement is the implementation of access control of users to database, as illustrated in
Figure 1. Only the Administrator user has total access to the database where standardized terms are stored.
The Translator user has writings access only to the specific database of language which he is the responsible
translator, while the End-user can perform just read-only queries in database.

Figure 1. Database control access
The adoption of free tools and technologies was made as an implementation strategy to reduce
development and maintenance costs. Thus, the LAMP platform (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP),
widespread and consolidated for web systems, was used. Linux is an open source operating system robust
and appropriate for systems that require high performance and reliability. Apache (http://httpd.apache.org/) is
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the most used web server in the world (http://news.netcraft.com/) and provides support for various tools and
programming languages. MySQL (http://www.mysql.com/) is a multitasking and multiuser database server
that has a free license. PHP (http://www.php.net/) is a programming language that allows the development of
web based systems, supports object oriented programming and provides connections to several databases.
The interfaces for interaction with users were implemented using HTML and CSS, according to the
recommendations and standards defined by W3C World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.w3c.org/)
Each collaborator will have a login and password to access the environment of translation (only for the
language in which it was registered). Once authenticated, he can access the set of standardized terms to be
translated. Choosing a term, its information and fields for insertion of the translation will be displayed, as
shown in Figure 2. The option "Activate Translation" allows publish or not the translation of the term in the
dictionary.

Figure 2. Interface for translation of terms
The registered terms can be accessed through an index or by a search engine. The search engine allows
users to choose the language of research. Figure 3 shows an example of search. Once a term is accessed,
registered and active translations for this term will be displayed. The translation of the definition can be
accessed by clicking on the term in the desired language.

Figure 3. End-user search interface
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The work presented in this article is still under development, requiring the implementation of aspects of
validation and security of the system and improvements on the interface of interaction with the user and the
inclusion of languages with non-occidental characters.
The availability of a multilingual online dictionary for terminology of polymers will bring gains for the
scientific community, improving the scientific communication and expanding access to standards defined by
IUPAC.
REFERENCES
IUPAC, 2010. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry IUPAC. <http://www.iupac.org/>
Jachimski J., 2004, Design of an open formulae for the interdisciplinary multilingual terminological dictionary for
geoinformatics. International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Vol.
XXXV. Istanbul.
Matsukata, J.; Hashimoto, T.; Ninomiya, K.; Akiba, R., 2002, International Edition of IAA Multilingual Dictionary
Coordinated Through Computer Network, Acta Astronautica vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 95-101. International Astronautical
Federation. Published: Elsiever Science Ltd.
Nuopponen, A., 1996, Terminological Information and Activities in World Wide Web. Terminology and Knowledge
Engineering. 92-99. Frankfurt: INDEKS-Verlag.
Nuopponen, A., 2006. Terminology Forum. < http://lipas.uwasa.fi/comm/termino/>
Szedmina, L; Covic, Z; Sabino, T.G.; Risthaus, M., 2005, An e-Learning Multilingual Dictionary (OpenDict). 3rd
Serbian-Hungarian Joint Symposium on Intelligent Systems SISY 2005.
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PROCESSING REMOTE SENSING IMAGES ON A
GRID-BASED PLATFORM
Silviu Panica, Marian Neagul and Dana Petcu
Computer Science Department, West University of Timisoara
B-dul Vasile Parvan 4, 300223 Timisoara, Romania
ABSTRACT
Huge quantity of remote sensing data is acquired daily by several satellites and only few of them are really exploited. The
public availability of a considerable part of these data allows the development of new innovative applications. A minimal
training in processing remote sensing images is needed to develop such applications. Unfortunately, training the
developers of Earth observation applications is currently addressed only by few institutions and platforms. In this context,
we have built recently a training platformdistinguished from other solutions by its high degree of interactivity and
extensibility. The fast response to the multiple users processing requests is possible due to the usage of Grid computing
technologies that is hidden behind a friendly Web-accessible interface shortly described in this paper.
KEYWORDS
Grid computing, Image processing, Earth observation, Distributed data management.
1. INTRODUCTION
Due to its intensive data processing and highly distributed organization, the multidisciplinary Earth
Observation (EO) applications community is highly interested in the exploitation of Grid computing
infrastructures. Several petabytes of already acquired data are presently underexploited due to the fact that
getting the results in a reasonable time requires more computing power that currently is available in the
biggest data centers. If these data are made publicly available, even with the support of Grid technologies
mainly focusing on computing facilities, an efficient distributed infrastructure to handle and treat very large
data sets is still missing. In order to facilitate the access to data, their processing and visualization, a special
attention was given in the last decade to the development of Web portals integrating standard and EO specific
services. In few cases these portals expose Web or Grid-based computational services or Web access to
parallel processing facilities. Despite the availability of these new Internet-based remote facilities, human
resources involved in the development of new services or exploitation of the existing ones are suffering from
low level of training either in Earth observation techniques, either in using the new technologies.
In this context we proposed recently a Grid-based training platform for Earth Observation, namely
GiSHEO. Its design and different views of particular platform components functionality were already
reported last year (Neagul et al, Petcu et al, and Petcu 2009). Following the results of stressing the platform
under real usage conditions in classroom trainings in the academic year 2009-2010, the requirements for the
user interface were modified and the development of a new Web user interface was necessary affecting
partially also the services interfaces. In this paper we report shortly these changes.
2. SHORT OVERVIEW OF THE GISHEO PLATFORM
GiSHEOs architecture is basically a service oriented one. The Grid-enabled platform for satellite image
processing is structured on several levels including user, security, service, processing and a data level. The
user level is in charge with the access to the web user interface (built by using Googles Web Toolkit
framework). The security level provides security context for both users and services. The service level
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exposes internal mechanisms belonging to the GiSHEO platform by using various Web services technologies
such as the followings: EO services processing applications are represented through a Web service
interface; the workflow service internal workflow engine which can be accessed by using a specialized
Web service; data indexing and discovery services access to the GiSHEOs data management mechanisms.
At processing level the GiSHEO platform proposes two models for data processing by either using Condor
HTC, a direct job submission using Condor's specific Web services, or Globus Toolkit 4 through GRAM. At
data level we have the datasets database which contains the satellite imagery repository and processing
application datasets used by applications to manipulate satellite images. At the date of this paper the
repository includes authorized copies of NASA public available remote sensing images, photograms specific
for the geographical region of the developers, as well as connections with ESAs GENESI-DR catalogue
through a particular Web service.
The GiSHEO processing platform consists of two parts, the interface exposed as a Web service (WS) and
the workload management system. The interface is built by using AXIS2 Web Service technology and is
responsible for the interaction with other internal services as the Gisheo Data Index Service (GDIS) in order
to facilitate access to the processing platform. Its main responsibilities are at this point to receive tasks from
the workflow engine or directly from user interface, to use a task description language (the ClassAd meta
language for example in case of Condor HTC) in order to describe a job unit, to submit and check the status
of jobs inside the workload management system and to retrieve job logs for debugging purposes. As a
workload management system, GiSHEO uses Condor HTC and provides Condor HTC resource manager
accessible through it built-in Web service interface to access an internal component called Condor J ob
Manager used for task dispatching and administration.
The Web-based user interface is designed as a client to the platform services. New user interfaces or
applications can be easily build on top of the existing Web and Grid services that are publicly exposed on the
project Web site. Due to the fact that EO applications are data-intensive, the key element in any Web portal
for EO is the selection of the data and, only after it, the selection of the processing that will be applied to
them. Note GiSHEOs current solution in Figure 1: the data information is central; each data has associated a
list of tasks that can be launched using it depending on its type.

Figure 1. GiSHEOs Web-based interface - front page: photogram catalog
The EO data selection in different EO portals range from simple selection from list based catalogues to
visual selection of region of interests. The early interface of GiSHEO has been designed having in mind a
low degree of knowledge about data types and therefore the visual selection was preferred (see the interface
functionality in the demos provided on the project website). But this option has put a high stress on the
platform, as well as on the users Web browser, in order to be able to present multiple pre-views of the huge
data (at different zooming scales) available for the same region simultaneous. Moreover the computing task
dependability on the type of the input data was hardly solved in the case of multiple inputs representing data
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from the same region of interest. The new solution that is proposed allows the user to select the images to
process using the location, type, date and so on parameters, and presents the data available in a list form, each
entry having only one preview form and a list of possible tasks to be applied. The user can specify a
particular location in which he or she is interested. More complex type filtering is also available. A specific
language was designed for these kinds of selections and can be used when someone wants to build his/her
user interface to the platform documentation is available on project site.
Note that the input and output (huge) images are not transferred to the user site, only at request, and all
the processing are taking place where the data are, on GiSHEO platform. The processing results are stored at
remote site in catalogues that are specified by the user and which can be shared later one with other users.
Since the processing time of the huge satellite images can be of seconds order (depending on the task type),
the communication with the user is asynchronous. After the task completion, the user can retrieve the results.
As mentioned earlier, the platform is designed with the training purpose in mind. The easy development
of the EO lessons based on the interactive experimental facilities of the platform has been also a clear goal of
the project. The eGLE component of the platform for e-learning allows the teacher to build, in a short time,
new lessons based on templates for texts, images, videos etc.
3. RELATED WORK
GiSHEO follows after considerable world-wide efforts in Grid-based experiments for Earth observation. We
consider that two periods can be distinguished in Grid-based Earth observation developments. The first one is
that of early experiments and proof-of-concepts finalized by European DataGrid, SARA Digital Puglia or
GEOGrid projects. The first period finished with the studies delivered by the European projects D4Science
and DEGREE about the challenges that the Earth Sciences are imposing on Grid infrastructure, as well as
several case studies in which Grid are useful of production environments. The second period is the one of the
production environments. The platform called Grid Processing On Demand, shortly G-POD currently offers a
Grid-based platform for remote processing of the satellite images provided by ESA and offers several
satellite image processing services for environmental management. Moreover, GENESI-DR offers an
interface for digital data discovery and retrieval, while raw data are processed using G-POD facilities. The
Landsat Grid Prototype LGP is using Grid computing to generate single scenes from the composite of
multiple input scenes. EGEE-3 and SEE-Grid-SCI e-infrastructures projects have build environmental
applications based on satellite data including also some of the ones provided by GENESI-DR. Note that the
GiSHEOs eGLE component is connected to the SEE-Grid-SCI platform, and the catalog to GENESI-DR.
The closest solution to GiSHEOs one is G-POD. Both have Web services interfaces to access the
platform facilities. Opposite to G-POD that is designed for commercial aims and offers very complex
processing services on proprietary images, GiSHEO is designed for training aims and the processing tasks are
simple and operate on public available data. Complex applications can be build on top of GiSHEO platform,
to reach the level of complexity of G-POD services, only by using its workflow based services that are
exposed and by exploiting a pre-knowledge of the user in Earth observation processing requirements.
Currently there is only a few number of resources involved in educational activities in EO. One of the
most complex is EduSpace. While the training material is more consistent than that of the GiSHEO platform,
the interactivity and flexibility degree in the relationship platform-user is lower compared with GiSHEO
solution.
REFERENCES
Neagul, M., Panica, S., Petcu, D., Zaharie, D. and Gorgan D., 2009. Web and Grid Services for Training in Earth
Observation, Proceedings of IEEE International Workshop on Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing
Systems: Technology and Applications. Rende, Italy, pp. 241-246.
Petcu, D., 2009. Challenges of Data Processing for Earth Observation in Distributed Environments, Intelligent
Distributed Computing III, Studies in Computational Intelligence SCI 237, Springer, pp. 9-19.
Petcu, D., Zaharie, D., Neagul, M., Panica, S., Frincu, M., Gorgan, D., Stefanut, T. and Bacu, V., 2009. Remote Sensed
Image Processing on Grids for Training in Earth Observation. Image Processing, In-Tech, Vienna, pp. 115 140.
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DEVELOPMENT OF AN E-LEARNING SYSTEM TO
SUPPORT SELF-LEARNING OF NURSING SKILLS
Yukie Majima*, Masato Soga** and Yasuko Maekawa***
*Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Osaka Prefecture University, 1-1 Gakuencho, Naka, Sakai, Osaka, Japan
**Faculty of Systems Engineering, Wakayama University, 930 Sakaedani, Wakayama-city, Wakayama, Japan
***School of Nursing, Osaka Prefecture University, 3-7-30 Habikino, Habikino-city, Osaka, Japan
ABSTRACT
This study developed an e-learning system for beginners to support the self-learning of nursing skills. To share and use
know-how of nursing skills that has been accumulated from experience but which cannot be verbalized, this system
renders them as formal knowledge through visual representation. The instructional design consists of the following four
phases: 1. Identification of ones own technical procedures; 2. Comparison of model images with ones own technical
images; 3. Comparison of each image with ones own practice progression; and 4. Output and identification of learning
results. Then, we experimented in intravenous injection technology for nursing students and nurses. We describe that the
characteristics of how nurses and nursing students perceive knacks of intravenous injection and the overview of our e-
learning system.
KEYWORDS
E-learning system, Nursing skill, Self-learning, Nursing student, Intravenous injection
1. INTRODUCTION
Learning appropriate nursing skills is necessary in nursing education, as well as learning specialized
knowledge. Good or bad skills influence evaluation of nursing. Consequently, not merely procedures but
safe, comfortable, and practicable expert techniques (skills) are also required. For use in ICT for education
1)
,
numerous studies have been done of systems to support the learning specialized knowledge
2)
, but studies of
required-skills learning support systems have just begun. For that reason, this study first clarifies the
differences between technical knacks of intravenous injections perceived by nurses and those by nursing
students. Then, based on the characteristics, an e-learning system is developed for beginners to support self-
learning of nursing skills.
2. METHODS
In the experiment, we chose an intravenous injection.
Subjects were 31 nurses (2 male and 29 female; average
age 36.7; average years of experience 15.1) and 30
nursing students (4 male and 26 female; average age
20.1), who gave consent to the study. The procedures of
the study are as follows. Figure 1 presents a picture of the
experiment situation.
1) Performing intravenous injections assisted by a
simulation model.
2) Conducting a semi-structured interview survey
about what are perceived as knacks when performing
intravenous injections
3) Developing an e-learning system to support self-
Intravenous Injection Simulation Arm Model
The Role of Patient
Intravenous Injection
Simulation Arm Model
For Self-Training
Eye Mark Recorder
(Nac EMR-8B)
Monitor
Simulated Blood Box
Figure 1. The experiment situation
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learning of nursing skills (hereinafter designated as the system) based on results of the interviews.
3. RESULTS
3.1 Characteristics of how Nurses and Nursing Students Perceive Knacks of
Intravenous Injection
Results of the interviews revealed that the knack of intravenous injections most often perceived by nursing
students was selection of a blood vessel (14 people), followed by feeling and sense at needle insertion (8
people), syringe fixation (5 people), and arrangement of articles and procedures overall (5 people). On
the other hand, the contents of knacks perceived by nurses were selection of a blood vessel (17 people),
feeling and sense (3 people), and image simulation (3 people). Linguistic expressions differ from nurse
to nurse in terms of the sensation of fingers at selecting a blood vessel or inserting an injection needle. For
example, it was expressed as smoothly or without hesitation at needle insertion, which indicates that
such a sense of speed is important.
Many nursing students and nurses recognize
selection of a blood vessel as a knack. However,
regarding selection methods, nurses answered visual
inspection or feeling by touch based on their own real
feelings, whereas students gave answers such as
engorging (or tying) sufficiently and understanding
anatomy. Furthermore, regarding feeling and sense,
they recognized others experiences that would be
knacks in the future, such as It is better to capture a
sense of entering a blood vessel, as knacks, but not
their own real, experienced feelings. It would be good
for nursing students to be able to learn knowledge (tacit
knowledge) that experts have gained through
experience.
On the other point, the differences of intravenous
injection skill between nurses and nursing students were how to hold the syringe, angle of needle prick,
how to stretch the skin, and so on(Figure 2).
3.2 Overview and e-Learning System Characteristics
Linguistic expressions differed among nurses in terms
of the sensation of fingers that nurses recognize at
perceiving blood vessels by touch or inserting an
injection needle. This suggests that formal knowledge
by visualization would be better than that by
verbalization to share and use know-how of nursing
skills which cannot be verbalized.
Consequently, the developed e-learning system
described herein assigns importance to handling images
to enable visual learning. In addition, because many
nursing students consider precise implementation of
procedures as technical knacks, the instructional
design consists of the following four phases:
1. Identification of ones own technical procedures;
2. Comparison of model images with ones own technical images;
3. Comparison of each image in ones own practice progressions; and
4. Output and identification of learning results.
A Nurse A Nursing Student
< Difference between nurses and nursing students >
# How to hold the syringe
# Angle of needle prick
# How to stretch the skin
Figure 2. The differences of intravenous injection skill
between nurses and nursing students

Figure 3. The screen of technical procedures check
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The Identification of ones own technical procedures in this e-learning system is shown Figure 3. Nursing
students can study the right technical procedures by checking radio button in this phase.
A major feature of the system is that it can synchronize and display two images from the beginning of
nursing skills. This screen layout is shown Figure 4. A learner answers the presented questions by comparing
their own technical images with the nurses model technical images on the system. Therefore, the learner puts
that awareness (tactic knowledge) in writing and expresses it (formal knowledge), instead of learning it
intuitively by viewing images. The result is that reflective learning is done during the expression process. We
also added a PDF file output function to use reflected results. Figure 5 presents an example of outputted
report.

4. CONCLUSION
This study clarified the differences between knacks of intravenous injection skills perceived by nurses and
those by nursing students. Based on their characteristics, we developed an e-learning system for beginners to
support self-learning of nursing skills. Learning effects attributable to the system will be examined in future
studies.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This study supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) at Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology in Japan (19390548).
REFERENCES
1) Vincent DS., et al., 2003, Interactive nursing skills training using advanced networked technology,J Telemed Telecare,
Suppl 2, pp.S68-70.
2) Yukie M., et al., 2009, Development of ubiquitous on demand study support environment for nursing students,
Human-Computer Interaction. Interacting in Various Application Domains Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol.
5613/2009, pp.149-155.
Figure 4. The screen of comparing images and inputting
awareness
Figure 5. The example of outputted report
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DESIGNING AN E-LEARNING SYSTEM TO SUPPORT
RE-EMPLOYMENT OF POTENTIAL NURSES
Yukie Majima*, Yumiko Nakamura**, Yasuko Maekawa**, Hiroko Makino**,
Yukari Nakajima** and Mizuko Hiramatsu**
*Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Osaka Prefecture University, 1-1 Gakuencho, Naka, Sakai, Osaka, Japan
**School of Nursing, Osaka Prefecture University, 3-7-30 Habikino, Habikino-city, Osaka, Japan
ABSTRACT
The shortage of nursing personnel has been a growing national concern in Japan because of the progression of the aging
population concomitantly with a low birth rate. Consequently, we developed an e-learning system to support re-
employment of those who have a nursing qualification but who are not engaged in nursing service employment (potential
nursing personnel). Major features of this system are: 1) it can recommend certain contents from over 100 learning
contents according to when potential nursing personnel were separated from service and according to medical
departments in which they wish to be re-employed; and 2) it can answer questions posed by learners.
KEYWORDS
Potential nursing personnel, E-learning system, Recommendation, Nursing practice example, Mentor assistance
1. INTRODUCTION
In Japan, after medical fees were revised in 2006 with the requirement that The basic fee for hospitalization
in a general ward is determined based on seven patients for one nurse, the demand for nursing staff has
increased further. This has engendered the concentration of new graduate nursing personnel in some large
hospitals and the shortage of nursing staff in other facilities. As a strategy to mitigate that severe shortage of
nursing personnel, it would appear useful to support re-employment of those who have a nursing
qualification but who are not engaged in nursing services (potential nursing personnel). However, it is
extremely difficult to locate potential nurses, who are estimated as up to 550 thousand in Japan.
Our previous study
1)
suggested that unemployed nurses evaluated practical nursing skills more highly
than nursing supervisors and they felt a lower need for training and a greater need for the items of latest
information and handling equipment. This study then developed an e-learning system to reveal potential
nursing personnel and to support training for their re-employment using the internet. The e-learning contents
are consisted of their learning needs. We report on that system.
2. OUTLINE OF THE E-LEARNING SYSTEM TO SUPPORT RE-
EMPLOYMENT OF POTENTIAL NURSES
A major feature of this system is to recommend certain contents from over 100 contents to learn nursing
practice examples and nursing skills according to when potential nursing personnel are separated from
service and which medical departments in which they wish to be re-employed. The configuration of the
system is as described below.

403
2.1 Learning Content Presentation System
The developed e-learning system
contains example materials mounted
on an e-learning system for learning
nursing practice examples
2)
as its
basic learning content. The examples
span a wide array of nursing fields
such as basic, adult, maternal and
pediatric, gerontological, psychiatric,
community health, home care, and
occupational care nursing
3)
.
This system enables nursing
personnel to learn specialized
knowledge, nursing skills, and past
national exam questions in the
context of the development of
nursing processes. An overview of
the e-learning system for learning
nursing practice examples is
presented in Figure 1.
2.2 Learning System for Potential Nursing Personnel
To undertake training to support the re-employment of potential nursing personnel, this system has the
following two functions: (1) a configuration management function for training programs: and (2) a mentor
assistance function.
2.2.1 Configuration Management Function for Training Programs
This is the function by which, when a potential nurse (learner) inputs the prescribed requirements, the system
automatically produces and presents a training program that is suitable for the person. Figure 2 presents the
configuration and flow.
The prescribed requirements
include the following: the year of
separation from service; experienced
medical departments; the medical
department at the time of leaving
service; a desired facility and a
medical department the learner
wishes to return; a desired area for
practical training; and a desired
learning pattern.
We define the following three
patterns as desired learning patterns.
1) I would like to return to
service as soon as possible.
Consequently, I would like to learn
by particularly addressing skills and
knowledge modified after my
retirement in a medical department
to which I wish to return.
2) I would like to return to service if certain conditions are met. Consequently, I would like to learn all
skills and knowledge in a medical department to which I wish to return (including skills and knowledge
modified after my retirement).
e-Learning Training Materials
Study Knowledge
Study Skills Exercises
Nursing Practice Examples (Nursing Process) of "Basic Nursing Knowledge", "Basic
Nursing Techniques" and "National Examinations" are studied through e-Learning.
Patient
Understanding Ex.
Care Planning Ex.
Care Plan
Evaluation EX.
Study
Mode 1
Study
Mode 2
Figure 1. Overview of the e-Learning system for studying nursing practice
Configuration management function for training programs
Potential nursing
personnel
(Learner)
The system automatically configures a training program from the educational material DB using
individual attributes (year of leaving service, medical department at the time of leaving service, desired
medical department to return, desired learning pattern) as the key.
Using automatic configuration, a training program is acquired together with information in cooperation
with the material learning system (URLs and names of educational materials to be learned).
Potential nurses can add (or delete) materials to a training program along with automatic configuration.
User master
Login
Automatic
Configuration
process
Training program
Material
learning
Educational
material DB
Material learning system
Adding attributes
(1) Medical department
(2) Year
(3) Kind of skill
(4) Keywords
Additional
registration
Figure 2. Configuration and flow for the training system
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3) I would like to learn all skills and knowledge without specifying a medical department to which I wish
to return or the year in which I left service.
2.2.2 Mentor Assistance Function
This function assists the service by which a learning assistant, designated as the mentor, answers questions
or consultations from a person of
learner on the Web. The flow of
the system is as depicted in
Figure 3.
1) A mentor inputs a
proposed answer and keywords
to a question from a person of
learner and presses the search
database button.
2) The system extracts
educa-tionnal materials matched
to the keywords set by the
mentor from the database and
presents them.
3) The mentor selects appro-
priate ones among the presented
educational materials and sends
an answer to the learner.
4) The learner receives the
answer and is able to view the
educational materials to be learned.
3. CONCLUSION
This e-learning system was developed to identify potential nursing personnel whose whereabouts might be
unknown and to support their training for re-employment using the internet. In future studies, we plan to
administer a post-learning questionnaire to users and to perform a comprehensive evaluation of the system,
along with promotion of the system.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This study supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) at Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology in Japan (20249083).
REFERENCES
1) Yumiko N., et. Al., 2010,Comparison of Training Needs for Rehiring of Unemployed Nurses and Nursing Supervisors,
11th International ICNE Conference Clinical Ethics across the Lifespan, (Acceptance)
2) Yukie M., et al., 2006, Framework for Problem-Solving Based Learning in Nursing Domain -An Experimental Study-,
Learning by Effective Utilization of Technologies: Facilitating Intercultural Understanding, pp.625-628 .
3) Yukie M., et al., 2009, Development of ubiquitous on demand study support environment for nursing students,
Human-Computer Interaction. Interacting in Various Application Domains Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol.
5613/2009, pp.149-155.
Mentor assistance function
Potential
nurse
(Learner)
Question data
Inputting a
question
Learning material
selection
Answer data
Unanswered
Question list
Questions/ answers
Learning material DB
Mentor
(Learning
assistance)
Inputting an answer by a mentor/
Informing after learning material
selection
Presentation
processing
Inputting an
answer
Viewing answers
List of learning
materials
Material
learning
Educational
material DB
Answer
announcing
mail
Material learning system
Presentation processing is a process to
extract educational materials matched to key
words set by a mentor from the educational
material database and present them.
After selecting the most appropriate one
from presented educational materials, a
mentor sends an answer to a potential nurse.

Figure 3. The Flow of mentor assistance function
405
AUTOMATIC SEMANTIC IMAGE ANNOTATION WITHIN
THE DOMAIN OF SOFTWARE MODELING
Matthias Heinrich and Antje Boehm-Peters
SAP AG, SAP Research, Dresden, Germany
ABSTRACT
The information society requires capable means to access the vast set of digital content. Currently, search engines are the
predominant approach to find suitable data. Although state-of-the-art search engines deliver decent results for textual
content, algorithms to retrieve appropriate bitmap data fall short on providing proper image selections. Therefore, we
propose a semantic image annotation solution that automatically classifies raw bitmap data visualizing software diagrams
with an ontological formalism. Rather than applying pattern recognition techniques to an existing image pool, bitmap
data is enhanced by semantic annotations at image creation time. Thus, the underlying data model can be exploited to
derive semantic annotations. In contrast to pattern recognition algorithms, our approach implies a precise ontological
classification which is the foundation of accurate bitmap search.
KEYWORDS
Image Annotation, Ontology-Based Annotation, Automated Annotation
1. INTRODUCTION
The information age brings along a rapid increase of digital content. For example in 2000, the total of disk
storage summed up to 3,000,000 TB and this capacity is doubling each year [Coffman et al. 2002]. In order
to leverage the broad knowledge base, information technology has to provide appropriate means to access the
available information. Thus, search engines have evolved and nowadays satisfy search queries operating on
textual content.
However, bitmap search still delivers poor results. This is due to the fact that retrieving meaningful
keywords from bitmap data in an automated fashion is a cumbersome task. Numerous research activities
focus on pattern recognition techniques [Schreiber et al. 2001] which are able to identify and classify objects
visualized on images. Nevertheless, fully-automated classification systems are not adequate to achieve 100%
accuracy.
Therefore, we propose an automated image annotation platform capable of associating bitmaps with
precise semantic annotations. The platform serves as an image annotator as well as an image generator for
bitmaps derived from software models (e.g. UML, BPMN). Since image creation and image annotation is
executed by one integrated platform, annotation derivation algorithms have full access to the underlying data
model. This data model is a typed, well-defined and programmatically accessible model representing a
precise semantic description of the visualization. Consequently, the association of images with semantic
annotations breaks down to the task of preserving knowledge captured in the data model within the target
export format. In the proposed solution, we have combined the semantic formalism supplied by the Semantic
MediaWiki system with widespread bitmap formats such as JPEG. Eventually, this enforces a semantically
enriched and consistent image library which allows for precise semantic search.
In this paper, we proceed with a brief discussion of related work in Section 2. Section 3 introduces the
high-level architecture of the semantic image annotation platform and describes the concrete implementation
in detail. Finally, in Section 4 we summarize the benefits of the presented solution and propose further
applicable domains.
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2. RELATED WORK
Several publications address the topic of semantic image annotation. In general, there are two established
approaches to enrich bitmap data with semantics.
On the one hand side various research endeavors favor a semi-automatic solution. Even though systems
suggest various annotations and support the annotation process itself, domain experts decide whether the
automatic tagging is eligible. For example Schreiber et al. describe in Ontology-Based Photo Annotation
[Schreiber et al. 2001] a tool that allows for annotating and querying photographs. The annotation ontology is
based on the RDFS standard [RDFS 2004] and capable of capturing photo features (e.g. photographer),
medium features (e.g. resolution) and subject-matter descriptions (e.g. setting). In order to finalize the
annotation process experts are required to validate all produced annotations. A second accepted approach
focuses on automated semantic annotation systems. Those autonomous systems scale and are cost effective.
Tansley et al. implemented an automated solution called MAVIS 2 [Tansley et al. 2000]. The semantic
classification combines latent semantic analysis with proprietary semantic classification algorithms.
Resulting classifications are produced automatically but may include incorrect annotations.
Currently, all existing systems are not able to join the cost-effectiveness of automated systems with the
annotation accuracy of expert-supported systems. Our proposed solution offers cost-effectiveness as well as
annotation accuracy for the software modeling domain.
3. ARCHITECTURE & IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SEMANTIC
IMAGE ANNOTATION PLATFORM
The semantic image annotation platform derives bitmaps from the visual representation of software models
and enriches the generated bitmap data with the semantics of the displayed content. Figure 1 represents the
platform architecture.

Figure 1. Platform architecture Figure 2. Platform implementation
The architecture is split into 3 components: the developers workbench, the content extraction platform
and the content management system (CMS).
The developers workbench provides the tooling to create & modify software models. Dedicated editors
are in place to manipulate software models in an ergonomic way. The resulting models are persisted in a
repository and adhere to a so called meta-model. This meta-model specifies the language vocabulary which
will be instantiated by models. The content extraction platform consists of a bitmap extractor that transforms
the model visualization into a bitmap format. The semantics extractor analyses the model itself (model
element properties and relations to other model elements are analyzed, constraints are calculated, etc). Since
this analysis is executed on the software model and not on the respective bitmap data, the entire data model
can be traversed and exploited in order to extract its semantics. Finally, the export component combines
binary bitmap data with textual semantics data and transmits it to the CMS. The CMS stores bitmap and
semantic data. Furthermore, it links bitmap instances to ontological instances. Therefore, raw bitmap data is
always associated with its semantics.
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The explained high-level architecture is implemented reusing well-known open-source frameworks as
depicted in Figure 2. The developers workbench is implemented as a set of Eclipse plug-ins and currently
supports two software modeling languages (UML [UML 2009] and BPMN [BPMN 2009]). The meta-models
describing available elements of the UML and BPMN language are defined using the Ecore language
which is part of the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) [Steinberg et al. 2008]. EMF also provides an API
to create models adhering to the respective meta-model and means to load / save models. In order to visualize
the data model, the Graphical Editing Framework (GEF) is utilized.
The content extraction platform facilitates the data derivation and submission. The bitmap extractor
consumes GEF-figures and maps them to JPEG-bitmaps. Besides rendering diagram bitmaps, the extractor is
also capable of cropping minimal bitmaps displaying solely single elements (e.g. UML class, BPMN
activity). To capture the semantics of software models, the openArchitectureWare (oAW) framework is
utilized. oAW provides a code generation engine and a template language called Xpand. Xpand templates
define rules which entities of the software models specify the semantics and should therefore be extracted.
The Xpand templates operate on the vocabulary described by an Ecore meta-model. Therefore, one template
can process all models based on a certain meta-model. That leads to a fully automated annotation process.
All generated data (bitmap and semantics data) is bundled by the export component. The export
component injects the data to a Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) installation using the HTTP-interface.
The SMW system persists all data and links the semantics to the appropriate bitmap. Semantic
classification & association is established through SMW categories, relations and attributes. The semantics
extractor maps the model elements to SMW categories, relations and attributes by analyzing the model
elements and its relations to other elements. Consequently, bitmaps stored in the CMS can be accessed using
semantic search or navigation.
4. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we presented an image annotation platform fostering precise semantic annotations which
provoke an expressive, ontologically-enriched bitmap data base. Furthermore, the annotation platform
supports an automated end-to-end annotation process. Both assets - accuracy & effectiveness - are the key
drivers to stimulate large-scale roll-outs and eventually pave the way for semantic bitmap search.
Presently, the annotation platform is applied to the domain of software modeling. However, it is not
limited to this domain. For example mechanical engineers typically rely on computer-aided design (CAD)
tooling. To communicate and document wireframe models, a mapping from CAD models to bitmap formats
is required. Our architecture could be applied to render and annotate those bitmaps. Various other domains
may also be embraced. Nevertheless, all domains that leverage the generic approach have to fulfill solely one
prerequisite: the models have to be based on an explicitly specified formalism (e.g. meta-model or schema).
REFERENCES
BPMN 2009. Business Process Model and Notation - Version 2.0. OMG Specification. Available at
http://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN/2.0/, retrieved May 23rd, 2010.
Coffman, K. et al., 2002, Growth of the Internet - Optical Fiber Telecommunications IV B. Academic Press, USA.
RDFS 2004. RDF Semantics. W3C Recommendation. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-rdf-mt-20040210/,
retrieved May 23rd, 2010.
Schreiber A. et al., 2001. Ontology-Based Photo Annotation. In IEEE Intelligent Systems, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp 66-74.
Steinberg, D. et al., 2008, Eclipse Modeling Framework, Second Edition. Addison-Wesley, USA.
Tansley, R. et al., 2000. Automating the linking of content and concept. Proceedings of 8. ACM Multimedia 2000. Los
Angeles, CA, USA, pp 445-447.
UML 2009. Unified Modeling Language. OMG Specification. Available at http://www.omg.org/spec/UML/2.3/,
retrieved May 23rd, 2010.
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LOCATION BASED MOBILE ADVERTISING
Matthew Sammut, Matthew Montebello and Vanessa Camilleri
Department of Intelligent Computer Systems, University of Malta
ABSTRACT
The scope of this paper is to use Location-Based Services and create an advertising platform for mobile phones based on
the location of the user. The systemis aimed mainly at location-based marketing but can be used for other purposes such
as location-based news, general information, events, weather and much more. Information will be delivered to the sub-
scribers based on what the advertisers have specified. This data will be delivered via SMS. Todays mobile phones are
getting increasingly sophisticated and are being equipped with geo-positioning systems (GPS) which are accurate to a
few meters range.
1. INTRODUCTION
In this age of noteworthy competition in the telecommunications sector, mobile network operators and soft-
ware businesses continually seek new and innovative ways to create differentiation and increase profits. One
of the best ways to accomplish this is through the delivery of highly personalized services. LBS and the vari-
ous technologies required to achieve accurate, timely locations from mobile phones will be explained here.
This paper is based on two main scenarios which are being integrated in mobile phones. These are loca-
tion awareness and presence. Location-awareness enables a device and a person carrying it to be geographi-
cally located, while presence allows a user, or in this case a system, to know the status of another user.
2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The main aim of this paper is that of creating a service where advertisers can target adverts to a particular
zone. Users then subscribe to this service and install a small application on their phone. When the users and
their devices are in the advertising zone, they will receive advertisements related to the area in which they
currently are. The objectives are divided into three parts:
Website Design and develop a website where advertisers and users can subscribe to the service.
Advertisers will have the facility to target their adverts in different zones on a Google Map. Users
will have options to subscribe to various categories of adverts and download the mobile application
on their smart phone.
Application Develop an application for BlackBerry phones which will get co-ordinates of the lo-
cation at which the phone currently is and send the data to the server which in turn will be matched
to advertising zones in the database.
SMS Messaging System Given that co-ordinates being passed from the application to the system
fall in one or more advertising zones, an SMS will be sent with the advert content to the mobile
phone.
All three parts will communicate together wirelessly and deliver real-time adverts based on the location of
the users. The aim is to have a fully working prototype and test the effectiveness of such a system and the
various uses that it might have.
2.1 Specification and Design
A clear picture of the system helps in identifying all the modules and the interaction between them. Below is
a list, together with a brief explanation of the main modules of the system:
409

Advertisers Subscription - In order to access the advertisers section on the website, users need to sign
up as advertisers. This will be done through a user friendly form where basic information will be requested.
Advertisements based on Location - Each advertiser will be able to create advertisements based on lo-
cation. This will be done by having a map and advertisers will just drag a marker on the advertising zone.
The co-ordinates will be recorded by the system automatically. The advertiser then will just need to enter the
advertising text based on the location he has chosen.
Advertisement Categories - A list of predefined categories will be already available in the system. These
categories will help advertisers to categorize their adverts in one or more categories.
Subscribers Information and Preferences - In order to make use of the system, users are required to
subscribe and choose their preferences. These preferences include their mobile number, the choice of catego-
ries that they wish to subscribe to, the maximum number of adverts they wish to receive daily.
Mobile Application to track position - An application which will be installed on the subscribers phones
(more specifically BlackBerry phones) will be developed to track the co-ordinates or the users and send these
co-ordinates to the system. The application will prompt the subscriber for the username and password so that
it will identify him/her.
Advert messaging platform - SMS will be used to deliver advertisements. The messaging platform will
be triggered every time the application sends a set of co-ordinates that are located in an advertising zone.
When this happens, an SMS containing the advertisement text will be sent to the mobile phone found in the
advertising zone.
Having listed and described the various specifications required by the system, in Figure 1 we can see a
conceptual design that defines the structure and behavior of the system.

Figure 1. System Architecture
2.2 Mobile Application Design
Applications designed for BlackBerry devices should provide a balance between the best possible user ex-
perience and a long battery life. The aim of the application is not to boast a cool user interface, but to have an
application that when started, runs in the background and send data at intervals through a wireless network
available to the system database. The application focuses to identify the position of the user by checking the
position of the device using the integrated GPS. These fundamental characteristics were identified during the
design stage and which were of use during the implementation phase:
A smaller screen size that can display a limited number of characters;
Slower processor speeds;
Wireless network connections with a longer latency period than standard LANs;
Less available memory;
Shorter battery life;
One screen at a time.
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2.3 Website and Database Design
The website is an essential part of the implementation since every module that forms part of this system in-
teracts in some way or another with the website. The website is not just an informative static website but a
fully fledged dynamic website which adapts and changes with the content input by the advertisers and
subscribers. It is also an informative website with a blog being continuously updated by the site administrator
on news and information related to Location-based services from around the world.
3. IMPLEMENTATION
A key difference between system implementation and all other phases of the lifecycle is that all activities up
to this point have been performed in safe, protected and secure environments where issues that arose have
little or no impact on the final system.
3.1 Website
Users have two different roles in the system, namely, subscriber advertiser. A registration module was re-
quired to distinguish between them. The website front-end can be accessed by anyone browsing the internet
except for two specific pages being the Advertiser Page and the Subscriber Page.
The advertising module allows advertisers to list advertisements on the website. This is divided into the
listings section and the add an advert section. The listing section displays all the adverts and corresponding
information of the logged in advertiser whilst the add an advert section allows the advertiser to create adver-
tisements by choosing the location from the Google Map, category from the drop down list and fill in the
advertisement text.
The subscriber module allows subscribers to set their user preferences on the system. Logged in subscrib-
ers can choose categories pre-defined by the advertisers in order to receive adverts based on these categories.
Subscribers are always presented with the list of subscribed categories which they can alter anytime they
want. Allowing users to choose the categories they are interested in makes the service more interesting.
Both subscribers and advertisers can unsubscribe from the service from the website and all the related in-
formation is permanently deleted. Other sections in the website like the blog section make the system more
complete.
3.2 Mobile Application
The mobile application that was created is small service application that is used to get the subscribers mobile
co-ordinates and send them to the system for the comparison with advertising zone areas. J AVA and various
BlackBerry APIs where used to develop this application. It consists of two basic screens which are the login
screen and the status viewer screen. When the application is started, the Login Screen appears so that the sub-
scriber inputs the username and password and then the application authenticates them with the system data-
base. The application can then be minimized to run as a background process on the phone. Subscribers can
alter the interval each time the co-ordinates are sent to the system database. This is done through the status
view screen. On this screen the viewer can also see the latest co-ordinates that had been sent to the system
database.
Since advertising zones are set by just a pair of co-ordinates we needed to find a way to know if the co-
ordinates being sent by the phone of the subscriber, fall in the advertising zone the area around the points
set by the advertiser. To do this we used the Haversin Formula (see Equation 1) which is an equation that
calculates the distance and bearing between Latitude and Longitude points.

Equation 1: Haversin Formula

411

3.3 Delivering SMS Adverts
SMS adverts are only delivered to the subscribers that are located in an advertising zone. With the Haversin
Formula this is being calculated and the result can either be that a subscriber is found in an advertising zone
or not. If there is no match then nothing happens but if the subscriber is in an advertising zone then the sys-
tem needs to deliver an advert via SMS.
4. RESULTS
The main aim of this paper was to create a system that is able to send advertisements based on the location of
its subscribers. The system was divided into three main parts: Website, Application and SMS messaging sys-
tem. Each on of these three main modules had a list of specifications that had to be designed, developed and
integrated with the rest of the system.
Different testing strategies were adopted to ensure that the implementation was in line at every progres-
sive stage. Unit testing was carried out after every subtask was completed to check that each component
worked well. Integration testing was performed when components were integrated together, to ensure that
components worked well in conjunction with each other. System testing ensured the end-to-end quality of
the entire system.
4.1 Application Testing Results
In order to verify that the application works correctly, a series of tests were carried out. The results obtained
from these tests enabled us to understand the weaknesses of the system and thus help us correct and improve
the application. We made sure that the application worked in different scenarios and also verifying that the
application does what it needs to do. The outcome from the results obtained shows that the application cre-
ated is robust.
The targets set in the beginning of this paper have been accomplished and the system has all the features
mentioned in the aims implemented. From the results obtained it can also be said that the system is quite ro-
bust and has good error handling capabilities.
5. CONCLUSION
A location-based service has been created to allow advertisements to be sent to subscribers based on their
location. The expectations set in the beginning seemed impossible but yet in the end the implementation was
effectively tackled step by step and all the required tasks were accomplished. The system was divided into
modules which were easier to handle in the various stages outlined. The end result was precisely that which
was initially described as the ultimate goal: a location-based mobile advertising platform.
REFERENCES
AG, YellowMap. 2002. Business Models for LBA. Europe : s.n., 2002.
BlackBerry. 2010. Smartphones and Cell Phones at Blackberry.com. Blackberry.com. [Online] Research In Motion
(RIM), J anuary 20, 2010. [Cited: May 22, 2010.] http://www.blackberry.com/.
CentOS. 2010. The Community Enterprise Operating System. [Online] [Cited: May 6, 2010.] http://www.centos.org.
Clickatell. 2010. Clickatell. Clickatell Bulk SMS Gateway. [Online] May 29, 2010. [Cited: May 22, 2010.]
https://www.clickatell.com/.
Linux. Linux Homepage at Linux Online. Linux.org. [Online] [Cited: May 6, 2010.] http://www.linux.org/.
Shukla, Reena. 2000. LBS - The ingredients and the alternatives. GIS Development. [Online] February 19, 2000. [Cited:
April 26, 2010.] http://www.gisdevelopment.net/technology/lbs/techlbs006.htm.
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BRAZILIAN PUBLIC SOFTWARE AND QUALITY
Angela M. Alves, Giancarlo Stefanuto and Paula F. D. Castro
Centro de Tecnologia da Informao Renato Archer (CTI)
Rod. Dom Pedro I, km 143,6, Campinas, SP, Brazil, 13069-901

Marcelo Pessa
Universidade So Paulo (USP)
Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, n 380, So Paulo, SP, Brazil, 13069-901
ABSTRACT
This work presents a case of an innovative Brazilian experience of use of free software in public administration as an
emergent ecosystem, and the attempt to establish a quality framework for that. At the beginning of the century, Brazilian
policy makers were concerned with the limitations of the Free Software Model of Production (FSMP) to provide software
to public administration. Issues such as installation and operational support, quality of software (users interfaces,
manuals) and bugs were not effectively solved by the FSPM alone. They then shaped the Brazilian Public Software,
which is based on code opening (FSPM), but includes some additional duties to the entity that makes the software
available. To support and to make the concept operational and institutional, an environment was formed and so a virtual
ambience named Brazilian Public Software Portal (BPSP) began to exist. Since their beginning in the end of 2006, the
BPSP1 has increased its number of associates to 84,000 users, and today it has 40 software solutions available, in many
technological areas: geo-processing, health, public town management (sanitation, hospitals management, data
management, etc). Even software solutions originated from private entities that had public interest as textual database and
web application server ambience. The solutions are used not only by governmental agencies but also by small and
medium-sized companies and other kinds of organizations. Other related interest groups emerged inside the BPS:
4CMBr, driven to municipalities; Virtual Market focused on services; 5CQualiBr devoted to the quality of the software in
a large sense and to the ecosystem sustaintability. Quality and quality assurance are a challenge in this kind of ecosystem
KEYWORDS
E-Government, digital emerging ecosystem, network quality model.
1. INTRODUCTION
This article presents a case about the quality in the BPS, the cooperative network focused at producing public
software in the Brazilian government. The quality framework is based on the BPS experience, seen through
the lens of the Complex Thinking Theory. The BPS is a project of the Planning, Budget and Management
Ministry (PBMM) of Brazil that introduces a new concept and operational structure to produce software,
aimed at improving efficiency of the governmental system. The project began officially in 2006 [1]. At that
time, FSPM adopted by the Federal Government was strongly stimulated by national policies. One of the
experiences of code opening, the Cacic software [2] (infrastructure inventory software), gave to Brazilian
policy makers the perception that the government and several sectors of the Brazilian society were interested
in sharing and improving the software knowledge. In few months, thousands of software developers accessed
the site where Cacic was and formed a virtual community, similar to FSPM communities.
Then, policy makers of PBMM developed the concept of public software and created the BPS project.
The BPS project is based on a code opening model (FSPM), but it also includes additional duties to the entity
interested in making its software available as a public good. This is basically because the government has the
legal responsibility to make public goods available (including software) in minimal conditions of use,
security and trust. These duties are established by a formal term between PBMM and the entity that includes

1 www.softwarepublico.gov.br
413
[3]: 1) to license software in (General Public License (GPL) form; 2) to provide software guidebooks to users
and guarantee that software work after installation; 3) to provide a focal point or a team that constitutes a
communication interface with the society, driving and solving their needs concerned with the available
software; 4) to provide associated services to do the communication with society, like forum, internet site,
software version control tools and 5) to manage the collaboration with the virtual community, inducing
participating, registering contributions to software, defining quality patterns, launching and new versions.
Today there are more than 40 solutions available in the Portal. Around each software solution a community
has been formed that interacts with the leaders. Therefore, many people participate in more than one
community. The solutions came mostly from public entities, but private enterprises began to release software.
The growth of software communities in the BPS portal quickly gave rise to demands that in their turn led
to new dimensions to be analyzed and incorporated into the BPS model [3,4]. Dimensions quite different in
terms of their nature, such as intellectual property, services commercialization derived from the
apprenticeship in the communities, demands on the infrastructure usability, flexibility and interoperability,
new policy acts to complete the public good concept even the implantation of the model in other countries in
Latin America. These results [7] [10] indicate that the ecosystem is evolving. Like a living system, BPS
ecosystem responds to environmental (socio-politic-economic context) pressures. And the changes occurred
in BPS derive from responses to that pressures and the learning process involving it [5]. This learning process
is not only derived from responses to practical situations, but involves a common desire and efforts of the
communities of BPS and the policy makers of PBMM to understand the complex nature of BPS [6].
This work presents the trajectory followed by researchers of the Centro de Tecnologia da Informao
Renato Archer (CTI) to comprehend the complex dynamic of BPS ecosystem. First, it presents the context
and the researcher problem, secondly; the 5CQualiBr and next the final considerations.
2. THE 5CQUALIBR
5CQualiBr is a group of interest which deals with the topic of quality in the realm of the BPS ecosystem [11].
The main values of the 5CQualiBr group are: Trust, Cooperation, Community, Knowledge and Sharing The
objective of the group is to build knowledge in a collaborative way about Information and Communication
Technology (ICT), directed to the Quality of the Brazilian Public Software. In the group, the team Quality of
BPS is divided into many subjects. Each specific topic of quality is called a vector. The vectors currently
implemented are: Ecosystem, Interoperability, Quality of Software Products, Quality of development process,
Quality of services, Software tests. The members of the group of interest may participate in all the vectors or
only in those of their interest. The dynamics of the group is aligned by Cooperation to build and Share
Knowledge within the Community. A fifth fundamental element for the development and sustainability of the
environment is Trust. Trust is important for all in the group and in the ecosystem. For the Sharing of
Knowledge to exist, Trust is needed, and so that Cooperation exists, knowledge is needed. The higher the
quality of BPS solutions, the more Trust will be placed by the society, given that Trust generates Quality and
Quality generates Trust, in a virtuous cycle. The participation in the vectors of interest occurs in the following
ways: download of contents (technical documents or publications), posts of opinions in the vector blog;
participation in forums; participation in chats and file upload [7]. 5CQualiBr also uses in its environment tools
like Twitter [8] and identi.ca! [9]. The environment also counts on a blog (Hello Community), which is the
virtual space created for the discussion of topics of the BPS community as a whole, that is, a space for posting
opinions, criticism, doubts and suggestions about the BPS interactivity. It is a space to treat the environment
common to all communities and vectors, the necessary changes and the existing conflicts. It is a site for
collecting ideas and improving the collaborative environment and makes it sustainable. The dissemination
activities of the 5CQualiBr aim to support two basic steps to build knowledge and make it available in a
collaborative way that are: attracting a heterogeneous public of collaborators and publicize the knowledge
generated by the collective interaction. The needs identified for the first step are: 1) Obtaining information
about the previous understanding of the purpose of the Project by its participants and above all, by the
communities of the BPS portal; 2) Creating a proper virtual environment for the formation of communities for
discussion of themes and development of knowledge about the public software; 3) Developing publicity about
the environment for discussion and creation of knowledge; 4) Publicizing the relevance of the discussions and
the importance of the contributions. The needs identified for the second step are: 1) Developing publicity
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about the results (knowledge); 2) Publicizing the knowledge (results from discussions); 3) Creating
mechanisms capable of transferring the discussions and knowledge to the portal in a spontaneous and
sustainable way. The group was released in October 10 2009 and amounts today to approximately 2000
members and counts with seed codes available in all quality vectors that constitute the first version of the
environment [10].
The ecosystem has been modeled using appropriate methodologies for the treatment of complex ecosystems.
Other methodologies have been used whose structures stem from the Complex Thinking. With the
methodology used important variables have been raised for the system as well as the relations between them.
The material obtained has been used to define the BPS Reference Model as well as to allow the research group
the identification of artifacts and emergent relations in the system. Among the systems which have been
identified is 5CQualiBr, which has been introduced in this work.
REFERENCES
[1] Pertele, Anderson; Castro, Carlos A. J.; Meffe, Corinto; Bretas, Nazar L.; Santos, Rogrio S.; 2005. Materializao
do Conceito de Software Pblico. IP - Informtica Pblica, v. 7, n. 2, setembro, pp. 19-28
[2] Sistema de Inventrio CACIC, http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/cacic, last access in MAI/2010.
[3] Meffe,Corinto, 2008. O avano do Software Pblico Brasileiro Experincia Brasileira Linux Magazine. 49 (Dec.
2008), 28-32. http://www.linuxnewmedia.com.br/images/uploads/pdf_aberto/LM_49_28_32_05_corp_soft_livre.pdf.
[4] Meffe, C.; Entrevista para Revista Cincia e Cultura da SBPC. http://www.softwarelivre.org/news/7372, last access
MAY/2010.
[5] Alves, A. M., Stefanuto, G., Salviano, C., Drummond, P., and Meffe, C. 2009. Learning path to an emergent
ecosystem: the Brazilian public software experience. In Proceedings of the international Conference on Management
of Emergent Digital Ecosystems (France, October 27 - 30, 2009). MEDES '09. ACM, New York, NY, 454-455.
DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1643823.1643910.
[6] Software Pblico Brasileiro: muito alm do compartilhamento de software; Angela M. Alves, Giancarlo N. Stefanuto,
Paula F. Drummond de Castro, Sueli A. Varani; Revista InfoBrasil - Ano II - nr. 7 - junho/agosto de 2009
[7] Um modelo de referncia para o Software Pblico Brasileiro; Jarbas L. Cardoso Jr., Marcos Antonio Rodrigues,
Angela M. Alves; Revista InfoBrasil - Ano II - nr. 7 - junho/agosto de 2009
[8] http://twitter.com/5CQualiBr
[9] http://identi.ca/5cqualibr/
[10] Um modelo de referncia para o Software Pblico Brasileiro; Jarbas L. Cardoso Jr., Marcos Antonio Rodrigues,
Angela M. Alves; Revista InfoBrasil - Ano II - nr. 7 - junho/agosto de 2009
[11] Alves, Angela, STefanuto, Giancarlo, Castro, Paula e Eleutrio, Sueli Varani. Brazilian Public Software and its
Impact on Brazilian Society. In: International Conference on e-Government, 5, 2009, Boston, EUA. Proceedings of
5th International Conference on e-Government. EUA: Academic Publishing Limited, 2009. P. 187-191.
415
THE INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE POSITIONING IN
IT GOVERNANCE
Prof. Dr. Claudio Gottschalg Duque* and Mauricio Rocha Lyra*/**
*UNB Universidade de Braslia
**UniCEUB Centro Universitrio de Braslia
ABSTRACT
IT governance is supported by various models and standards such as COBIT, ITIL, ISO20000, ISO27002. The main
objective of these models and standards is to give transparency to the actions and processes of IT. In a short study of each
them, we observed that they do not present in your body space for the information architecture. If one of the goals of the
Information Architecture is to organize the information for decision making, how can this be out of context? This
research aims to study the IT governance models in order to prepare a modification suggestion to place the information
architecture in each one of them.
KEYWORDS
Governance, Information Architecture, Best Practice
1. INTRODUCTION
Much has been said about "best practices" of governance and the benefits of its adoption in the corporate
context and the management of technological resources. The necessity of align actions with strategic goals is
present in most of texts about this theme.
More than the result of the society reaction to the waywardness and accounting and financial fraud
developments in the last decade with major international companies, governance is a natural evolution of
society toward greater control, transparency and responsibility in the conduction of business. Organization
governance means the ability of its leaders to effectively implement the principles, guidelines and controls
that ensure, consistently and predictably, the attention to its corporate purpose and legal obligations.
Corporate Governance was defined by IBGC (Instituto Brasileiro de Governana Corporativa) as "the
system by which companies are directed and monitored, involving the relationship between shareholders,
administrative council, board of directors and audit committee" (IBGC, 2005).
Only IT resources with their computers, databases, systems and telecommunications, are able to field the
information complexity and mass involved in their activities to ensure the necessary controls to the corporate
governance.
Information technology offers unique challenges for its own governance. Demands for better
understanding and visibility of their internal processes, full alignment with business objectives and economic
operation of its infrastructure are some examples. Good IT governance is an essential requirement to ensure
the effective contribution of IT to the profitability of the company and to consolidate its strategic positioning
for the future.
In this context, the IT Governance Institute (2005) defines IT governance as follows:
"IT governance is the responsibility of senior management (including directors and executives),
leadership, organizational structures and processes that ensure IT sustains and extends the strategies of the
company and the goals of the organization."
According to (Fernandes Abreu, 2008) the main goal of IT governance is to align IT resources with
business requirements, based on business continuity, care of business strategies and service to external
regulatory frameworks.
In order to cope with these challenges some models, methodologies, standards and tools have been
developed (by professional associations or encouraged by governments) to make the management of IT and
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work processes more transparent, understandable, manageable and reliable. CoBIT ( Control Objectives for
Information and Related Technology), ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), CMMI
(Capability Maturity Model integrated), ISO20000, ISO27002 are some of these initiatives that serves as role
models for the IT areas to ensure alignment of their processes to goals of the business and its own
governance requirements.
2. INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Wurman suggests that "information structures influence the interactions in the world the same way that the
structures of buildings stimulate or limit social interactions" (Wurman, 1991). He writes that structures
should be created or planning information to meet the personal paths to knowledge. Technology is an aspect
to be considered by the information architecture to enable the aggregation and provision of necessary
information in an organization (Wurman, 1991).
According to (Hagedorn, 2009), Information Architecture is the art and science of organizing information
to satisfy information needs, which involves the processes of research, analysis, design and implementation.
In his work, the ecology of information (Davenport, 1998) defines information architecture as a guide to
design and locate information within an organization, and it can be descriptive (involving a map of the
information environment at present) or deterministic (offering a model of the environment at some future
time).
(Rosenfeld, Morville, 1998) defines information architecture as:
'Information Architecture' is the methodology of 'draw' that applies to any 'information environment', this
being understood as a space located in a 'context', comprising 'contents' in flow, which serves to a communit
of users'.
According to (McGee; Prusak, 1994) the goal of an Information Architecture is to create a comprehensive
map of organizational data and then build systems based on this map. The model of information architecture
of authors also provides:
Identify needs and requirements of information: on the planning of what should be done, must be
obtained sources of information relevant to the institution;
Sorting, storage, processing and presenting information: when the information should be organized
and then displayed by the institution;
Develop products and information services: the choices of resources to facilitate the location and
access information Users and other stakeholders in the success of AI, as professionals and experts of the
institution, can contribute to the development of products;
Distributing and disseminating information: a process that identifies the needs of the users to meet
them even before they are expressed, through upgrades, additional services such as the use of search engines,
etc.
3. THE PROBLEM
So how is it possible to talk about the use of IT resources aligned to strategic planning without an appropriate
Information Architecture? How to make effective use of IT resources without thinking first in an Information
Architecture?
A preliminary analysis of the main models of IT governance and related international standards (eg:
COBIT, ITIL, ISO20000, ISO27001, ISO27002) demonstrate that they were not constructed in compliance
with the concepts of Information Architecture mentioned previously.
So what is the positioning of the information architecture in models of IT governance and its related
international standards? How the information architecture can help to ensure that they facilitate the
organization of information for companies achieve their strategic goals?

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4. THE PROPOSAL
This research pretends to study the IT governance models and related international standards and propose
adjustments in making possible to them to include the concepts of Information Architecture.
To achieve this goal, we intend to perform a review of the Information Architecture literature trying to
their identify possible contributions to IT governance, study models of IT governance and related
international standards in order to identify opportunities for improvement.
The expected result for this research is an elaboration of a proposed adjustment in the models of IT
governance and related international standards by inserting the contributions of Information Architecture.
REFERENCES
Davenport, T. H.; Prusack, L. Ecologia da informao. So Paulo: Futura, 1998.
Fernandes, A.; Abreu, V. Implantando a governana de TI. Da estratgia gesto dos processos e servios. Rio de
Janeiro: Brasport, 2008.
Hagedorn, K. The Information Architecture Glossary. USA, Maro 2000. Disponvel em:
<http://argus-acia.com/white_papers/iaglossary.html>. Acesso em: 05 ago 2010.
Mcgee, James; Prusak, Laurence. Gerenciamento Estratgico da Informao. Rio de Janeiro, Campus, 1994.
Rosenfeld, L.; Morville, P. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. USA: O'Reilly, 1998.
Wurman, R. S. Ansiedade da Informao. So Paulo: Cultura Editores Associados, 1991.
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Doctoral
Consortium

TOWARDS A DOMAIN-EXPERT CENTERED ONTOLOGY
ENGINEERING METHODOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Bernd Stadlhofer and Peter Salhofer
FH JOANNEUM, University of Applied Sciences, Dept. of Information Management
Alte Poststrasse 149, 8020 Graz, Austria
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a proposal for a doctoral thesis regarding the development of an ontology engineering methodology
especially dedicated for domain-experts in public administration. Numerous existing initiatives already show the
enormous potential of Semantic Web technologies concerning transparency and citizen orientation of public
administration agencies. In order to reach the next step of matureness of such semantically enriched E-Government
applications there arises the need for a well-defined ontology engineering process, which should be tackled by this thesis.
Although there already exist a number of ontology engineering methodologies in general the decentralized nature of the
public sector in Europe with its diversity in local laws and regulations is hardly any considered. Emphasizing
investigations towards human-centered computing and natural language processing should empower domain-experts to
autonomously develop most parts of relevant ontologies. The resulting methodology will be a crucial success factor
towards the goal of the deployment of ontology-driven E-Government applications on a large-scale.
KEYWORDS
E-Government, Ontology Engineering Methodology, Domain modeling, Human-centered computing
1. MOTIVATION
Applying emerging semantic technologies in E-Government has been deeply investigated in numerous
national and transnational initiatives, lately (see section 2.2). These initiatives mostly investigate the
establishment of semantic interoperability between several stakeholders in public administration processes as
well as the deployment of public administration services as so called semantic web services. Thereby, the
authors of [2] observe the problem that the results from earlier projects described in section 2.2 are rarely
considered in latter ones even when carried out within the same program framework. Thus, a consolidated
view of semantic interoperability in E-Government is still missing and desirable in order to achieve the goal
of semantic interoperability on a large scale.
Latest semantic interoperability efforts mainly focus on modeling the meta-model for public
administration (e.g. WSMO-PA service model by [23]), thus modeling an object model for service
provisioning in public administration or modeling the top-level ontology for public administration.
Certainly, this is one of the very first and most important aspects in order to reach the goal of semantic
interoperability. However, what has not been intensively investigated so far is the fact, that behind these top-
level ontologies for public administration there is a second crucial type of ontologies namely domain
ontologies. Such ontologies specify the vocabulary and knowledge basis of the specific domains in public
administration. E.g. public administration service providers offer procedures and services for the building
domain, trade or industry domain, childcare, etc. Besides the vocabulary the structural knowledge of
domains also procedural knowledge is from major interest when building a knowledge basis for a specific
context. There are some promising approaches available for modeling semantically enriched business
processes [24] [25] [26]. Whereas such efforts already found their way into aspects of cross border service
provisioning and collaboration, the back-office processes in public agencies are rarely considered in existing
research approaches.
421
The field that covers the definition and building process of ontologies in general is described by the term
ontology engineering. In the context of ontology engineering numerous methodologies and processes that act
as modeling guidelines for ontology development have been described (see section 2.1). However, as most of
the E-Government initiatives that cover the utilization of semantic technologies are rather in an early stage of
integration into a productive environment and not focused on deployment of ontologies and semantically
enriched E-Government applications on a large scale, relevant domain ontologies tend to be built on an ad
hoc basis rather than by following a well-defined engineering process.
Even if there are quite a lot of methodologies for the ontology engineering process available it is
interesting to observe, that most of these methodologies emerged before the announcement of Tim Berners
Lee's famous vision of the Semantic Web [17]. Consequently, most of these methodologies aren't prepared
for the decentralized nature of current information and knowledge management systems. Only DILIGENT
[4] and HCOME [19] face this paradigm shift to decentralized systems. The nature of the public
administration sector with its diversity in local laws and regulations isn't tackled by any of these
methodologies, anyway. Legislation and law is a crucial part in ontology engineering for public
administration, though.
Most of the methodologies described in 2.1 identify the domain expert and ontology engineer as two
essential roles in the process of ontology engineering. The ontology engineer, mostly with software
engineering background, thereby makes (implicitly or explicitly) use of knowledge elicitation methods in
order to acquire expert knowledge for a specific domain from the domain expert. This should enable the
ontology engineer to model a specific domain. In many cases the process of knowledge elicitation is quite
complex. As a consequence it is inevitable that some knowledge is lost or some information is misinterpreted
during this process. Therefore, an ontology engineering methodology should empower the domain-expert
himself/herself to model a specific domain. Most of the existing methodologies, except in parts by
DILIGENT [4] and HCOME [19], don't include any attempts towards this goal. Besides the aspect of
knowledge-loss in the knowledge elicitation process also cost saving is an argument because classical
ontology engineers are mostly not employed in the public agencies but in external software or knowledge
engineering companies. Thus, a lot of research is required in this field, which should also be addressed by
this thesis.
As [18] points out, in ontology engineering for the public administration sector, legislation and
enforcement of law on national, regional or local levels need to be incorporated and a variety of different
competent authorities has to be involved. In many cases constraints probably might have to be weakly
encoded, accompanied by textual explanations and links to further information and supporting bodies. This is
necessary to reflect the special demands of a legal system and to safeguard legal certainty. Another aspect
tackled by [18] is that, since law is complex, involved authorities are numerous and as expert knowledge is
usually dispersed over the involved authorities, it is simply not possible to develop and maintain all relevant
information at one central point.
As pointed out in [21] the last few years have seen a growing body of research and practice in the field of
artificial intelligence and law for what concerns the construction of legal ontologies and their application to
the law domain. However, existing ontologies vary significantly, concerning their underlying structure and
organization, the way they are constructed and how they are exploited in different applications [20]. One
major problem thereby is that different authors mean different things by the term ontology itself. As a
consequence the ontologies vary significantly in the way they are represented. These differences are
significant in that they make it hard to compare different ontologies like the proverbial comparison of
apples and pears [20]. Another aspect from [20] is that ontological choices are strongly influenced by the
purpose of the ontology. That is, the same knowledge will be structured or formalized differently depending
on how it will be used by the reasoner in reaching the desired conclusions in a specific context. This indicates
that reusability is a good idea, but it can never be accomplished completely according to [20].
Generally speaking, the two research disciplines AI and law and E-Government are closely related to
each other. What can be observed, though, is the fact that those two disciplines very rarely use results from
the other discipline. Using results of AI and law in generating intelligent E-Government applications and vice
versa brings a lot of potential and should be intensively promoted.
Concluding to this section, the desire and need for an ontology engineering methodology in the context of
public administration, as proposed with this thesis, is obvious. The planned research focus and research
questions are further explained in section 3.
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2. RELATED RESEARCH
2.1 Ontology Engineering
As described in [1] and [5] a series of approaches have been reported for developing ontologies so far. Here a
number of these approaches are listed chronologically.
Table 1. Ontology engineering methodologies
Year, Methodology Literature
1990, Cyc [6]
1995, TOVE [7],[8],[9]
1996, KACTUS [10],[11]
1996, METHONTOLOGY [12],[13],[14]
1997, SENSUS [15]
2001, On-To-Knowledge [16]
2005, DILIGENT [4]
2005, HCOME [19]
2.2 Semantic Interoperability in e-government
As described in [2] a number of generic ontologies for public administration have been developed in major
semantic interoperability-related projects, particularly among the European Commission's IST projects. E.g.,
within the SemanticGov project (http://www.semantic-gov.org) a reference model of the E-Government
domain, called Governance Enterprise Architecture (GEA), including an ontology for E-Government
services, was developed. An ontology for the conceptualization of E-Government services was also
developed within the SmartGov project (http://smartgov.e-gov.gr). Similar efforts were made within the
Access-eGov project (http://www.accessegov.org). Moreover, the OntoGov project (www.ontogov.com)
delivers a set of ontologies for modeling E-Government services, including a Legal ontology to describe legal
documents, a Service ontology to describe public services, a Lifecycle ontology to describe information
flows and decision-making processes in public administration as well as a Web Service orchestration
ontology.
A rather pragmatic approach to model ontologies in the E-Government domain so that they can be easily
used to assist a citizen in formally expressing a goal that can in turn be used for public service discovery is
described in [3].
2.3 Legal Ontologies
A detailed discussion of related research in this field can be found in [20] and [22].

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3. RESEARCH AIM
3.1 e-Government Meta-Model
In order to minimize the diversity of relevant ontologies as discussed in section 1 and of course in order to be
able to develop an ontology engineering methodology for public administration a basic meta-model has to be
implemented first. Related research in this field (see section 2.2) should be intensively used and analyzed.
Existing work is mainly focused on the description of object models for service provisioning in public
administration. Besides, further investigations towards finding abstract meta-concepts for particular domains
as well as investigations towards finding a meta-model for the procedural knowledge of public agencies'
back-office activities will be conducted within this doctoral thesis.
On the one hand, such a meta-model is a crucial basis to achieve semantically enriched E-Government
applications ready to use in a productive environment. On the other hand, results of this research focus
should be a step forward to reach a consolidated view of semantic interoperability in E-Government, strongly
requested by [2].
3.2 Human-centered Ontology Engineering
As shortly mentioned in section 1 the process of ontology engineering today is a quite complex and software-
technology oriented process. In order to formulate an ontology including more or less complex axioms and
inference-rules it is nearly inevitable having some mathematics or software engineering background. Aim of
this research focus is to investigate possibilities to empower the domain-expert himself/herself to
autonomously develop most parts of a relevant domain-ontology. For this purpose tools and interfaces have
to be provided in order to simplify this complex task of ontology engineering. The HCOME methodology
[19] already contributes a lot in this direction. There also exist other valuable approaches, especially in the
field of natural language processing (e.g. Oracle Policy Automation
http://www.oracle.com/us/industries/public-sector/058991.html). A comparison of existing work as well as
further investigations in the field of human-centered computing in conjunction with ontology engineering in
public administration should be part of this research focus.
3.3 Ontology Engineering Methodology in the Context of Public
Administration
As already pointed out in section 1 most of todays E-Government initiatives that cover the utilization of
semantic technologies are rather in an early stage of integration into a productive environment and not
focused on deployment of ontologies and semantically enriched E-Government applications on a large scale.
As a consequence, relevant domain ontologies tend to be built on an ad hoc basis rather than by following a
well-defined engineering process. Based on the findings of 3.1 and 3.2, the research focus of this part of the
thesis will be the definition of an ontology engineering methodology, especially designated for public
administration. Ontology engineering for public administration and law might be a rather complex task (see
aspects of [18], summarized in section 1). One hypothesis thereby is obvious: Existing ontology engineering
methodologies don't exactly fulfill the special requirements that might arise for the public administration
sector. Promising approaches from existing methodologies should be strongly considered and evolved,
though. Finally, a tool-suite should be developed to support ontology modeling based on the resulting
methodology. The tool-suite should especially be designed for non-software experts, based on the results of
3.2.
4. SCIENTIFIC APPROACH
The outcomes of initiatives described in section 2.2 underpin the enormous potential of semantic web
technologies for the public administration sector and lead to the hypothesis that the importance of semantic
systems in public administration is rising. The main objective of this thesis is to develop a methodology
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including a tool-suite especially dedicated to the public administration sector to make the complex task of
ontology engineering easier and achievable by domain experts with no or hardly any software engineering or
mathematics background. One hypothesis behind this main objective is that the resulting quality of
ontologies directly developed by domain experts is higher than the quality of ontologies developed by a
classical ontology engineer as no knowledge is lost or misinterpreted during the knowledge elicitation
process. A second hypothesis is that the quality of ontologies that were developed following a well defined
engineering process is significantly higher than by developing ontologies on an ad hoc basis. How to measure
the quality of an ontology is an open question, though and should also be investigated within this thesis.
By means of a feasibility study it will be verified if the level of detail concerning rule/axiom definition as
well as taxonomy definition that can be reached by using the developed tool-suite is sufficient to be directly
operational by semantic systems.
Subsequently, it will be investigated within a pilot case if the developed methodology is appropriate for
domain experts with no software engineering/mathematics background.
Finally, a comparative exploratory case study will be conducted to analyze the influence of the overall
methodology in development speed, quality, interoperability and operationality.
REFERENCES
[1] Corcho O., Fernandez-Lopez M., Gomez-Perez A. Methodologies, tools, and languages for building ontologies.
Where is their meeting point? in: Data and Knowledge Engineering, pp. 41-64, 2002.
[2] Ojo A., Janowski T., Estevez E. Semantic Interoperability Architecture for Electronic Government, in: Proceedings of
the 10
th
International Digital Government Research Conference, pp. 63-72, 2009.
[3] Salhofer P., Stadlhofer B., Ontology Modeling for Goal Driven E-Government, in: Proceedings of the 42nd Hawaii
International Conference on System Sciences, 5-8 J anuary 2009, Big Island Hawaii, USA, IEEE, pp. 1-9, 2009.
[4] Vrandecic D., Pinto S., Tempich C. and Sure Y. The DILIGENT knowledge processes, in: Journal of Knowledge
Management, Vol. 9 No. 5, pp. 85-96, 2005.
[5] Fernandez-Lopez M., Overview of Methodologies for Building Ontologies, in: IJCAI99 Workshop on Ontologies and
Problem-Solving Methods: Lessons Learned and Future Trends, Stockholm 1999.
[6] Lenat D.B., Guha R.V., Building Large Knowledge-Based Systems: Representation and Inference in the Cyc Project,
Addison-Wesley, Boston, 1990.
[7] Uschold M., King M., Towards a Methodology for Building Ontologies, in: IJCAI95 Workshop on Basic Ontological
Issues in Knowledge Sharing, Montreal, 1995.
[8] Grninger M., Fox M.S., Methodology for the design and evaluation of ontologies, in: Workshop on Basic
Ontological Issues in Knowledge Sharing, Montreal, 1995
[9] Uschold M., Grninger M., Ontologies: Principles methods and applications, in: The Knowledge Engineering Review
11 (2), pp 93-155, 1996.
[10] Bernaras A., Laresgoiti I., Corera J ., Building and reusing ontologies for electrical network applications, in: Proc.
European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 96), Budapest, Hungary, pp. 298-302, 1996.
[11] Schreiber A., Wielinga B., J answeijer W., The KACTUS view on the 'O' word. Technical Report, ESPRIT Project
8145 KACTUS, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1995.
[12] Gomez-Perez A., Fernandez-Lopez M., deVicente A., Towards a Method to Conceptualize Domain Ontolologies, in:
ECAI 96 Workshop on Ontological Engineering, Budapest, pp. 41-51, 1996.
[13] Fernandez-Lopez M., Gomez-Perez A., J uristo N., METHONTOLOGY: FromOntological Art Towards Ontological
Engineering, AAAI Symposium on Ontological Engineering, Stanford, 1997.
[14] Gomez-Perez A., Knowledge sharing and reuse, in: J. Liebowitz (Ed.), Handbook of Expert Systems, CRC, New
York, Chapter 10, 1998.
[15] Swartout B., Ramesh P., Knight K., Russ T., Toward Distributed Use of Large-Scale Ontologies, AAAI Symposium
on Ontological Engineering, Stanford, 1997
[16] Staab S., Schnurr H.P., Studer R., Sure Y., Knowledge processes and ontologies, IEEE Intelligent Systems 16 (1),
pp. 26-34, 2001.
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ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
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WebFDM: A WEB APPLICATION FLEXIBLE
DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGY
Adelaide Bianchini
Computer Science and Information Technology Department, Universidad Simn Bolvar
Valle de Sartenejas, Caracas 1080. Venezuela. abianc@usb.ve
ABSTRACT
Over the past decade several methodologies have been proposed to improve the quality of Web application development.
There are proposals that provide techniques and mechanisms to specify the product model, but leave apart some aspects
about the process development model for shaping the development and the generation of products based on different
situations. Besides, some industry and academic methods are not flexible enough to react according to the different
situations and conditions of the projects to be. These conditions may include application type and complexity, models to
be created, development team characteristics, technological resources and other requirements. This paper presents
WebFDM, a flexible method for the development of web applications in conjunction with a Case Tool - COHESION. This
flexible method will be aligned to Situational Method Engineering principles and Web Engineering foundations. As a
result of this research, we will obtain a methodology able to tailor for project conditions and an instance of the COHESION
Case Tool, configured according to the methodology.
KEYWORDS
Web application development, Web Engineering, Situational Method Engineering.
1. INTRODUCTION
The complexity of Web applications has grown significantly: from static systems (Web sites) oriented to
information content dissemination, to dynamic systems like online transactions, e-banking, e-commerce
applications, etc. Over the past decade several methodologies have been proposed to improve the quality of
Web application development, such as OOHDM (Schwabe and Rossi, 1995), OOWS (Pastor et al., 2003),
WebML (Ceri et al., 2000) and UWE (Koch and Kraus, 2002). In fact, considerable attention has been given
to Web Engineering, a discipline that provides a systematic and disciplined approach for developing,
documenting and maintaining Web applications.
However there are methods that can be considered generic, thus they are used in any kind of Web
application, different domains and in diverse situations. In practice, a rigid or generic method does not fit
well for every Web Application domain (Vlaanderen et al., 2008). There is a common agreement about the
steps or phases that methods in Web Engineering follow, because all of them establish a typical process: from
requirements elicitation to implementation, and for each phase they propose the use of different techniques
and procedures. There is, also, an agreement about the products generated and the process to be followed, but
they prescribe complex tasks rather than broad guidelines (Selmi et al., 2008). For example, a very
exhaustive requirement elicitation phase may be unnecessary in small-size Web applications, or with low
level of complexity.
Some proposals leave apart aspects about the process development model for shaping the development
and the generation of products based on different situations. A situation is the combination of circumstances
at a given moment, possibly in a given organization. A situation affects the way of working and the product
types to be delivered, and can be a combination of different domain, specific type of web application,
complexity level of the application, capacities of the working team, times and costs related to the
development, and other characteristics. In each new development, the designers have to adapt or extend, in
some way, the method to support the new Web project (Vlaanderen et al., 2008).
427
The discipline to build project-specific method based on a situation is called Situational Method
Engineering. It proposes strategies to select methods, called method fragments (from a repository), to create a
new one based on characteristics of the development circumstances (Brinkkemper, 1996).
Based on the above observations, there is an interest in the following research issues: Is it possible to set a
web application development methodology based on different situations, using the principles of Situational
Method Engineering and the foundations of Web Engineering? Which indicators or attributes are adequate
enough to characterize a web application development?
The idea behind this proposal is that Web applications development needs flexible approaches that allow
developers to configure the process and to generate the product models, according to a set of attributes about
the project characteristics and situation. Also the flexible approach has to guide the developers in the creation
of models and artifacts, needed to specify the Web application to be implemented.
To achieve the flexible approach we are designing and developing WEBFDM (Bianchini et al., 2005), a
methodology for the development of Web applications and a CASE tool, we call COHESION (Bianchini et al.,
2007), which brings full support in the use of the methodology.
This paper is organized as follows: related works are presented in section 3. The proposal is described in
section 3. Finally, conclusions are presented in section 4.
2. RELATED WORKS
Based on the literature review, few proposals considered the possibilities of adaptation based on a
development situation. In (Engels et al., 2006) it is proposed a meta-process that uses and observes some
characteristics about the project to be developed, and promotes the transition from an agile method to a
disciplined one. In (Kraiem et al., 2010) it is proposed the construction of new methods based on existing
fragment methods, based on Situational Method Engineering, and also provides three types of guidance for
developers: (i) the selection of the most appropriate design process-model; (ii) the selection of the most
appropriate method fragments, and (iii) the application of selected method fragments. In (Vlaanderen et al.,
2008), the OOWS method metamodel is defined with the purpose of applying Situational Method
Engineering, in order to improve the development of CMS (Content Management System), because OOWS
method lacks expressiveness to define Web Applications in some domains as CMS (Vlaanderen et al.,
2008). In (Weerd et al., 2006), the authors state that web application development methods do not cover the
specific needs of a method for web content management implementations and present WEM (Web
Engineering Method) as an assembly-based Situational Method Engineering approach applied to develop a
new design method for the domain of CMS. In (Luinenburg et al., 2008) is proposed the Method Association
Approach, which selects and constructs methods from five model-driven Web modeling approaches to fit the
project domain. A research about identifying indicators of characteristics of Web applications has been
proposed by (Selmi et al., 2005). In a study about practical application of Web Engineering, conducted by
(Escalona et al., 2007), there is an interesting proposal to categorize the complexity of Web applications
through requirements elicitation.
3. PROPOSAL DESCRIPTION
All mature methods in Web Engineering provide techniques and mechanisms to specify the product model,
including content, presentation (interface and interaction) and hypertext, but leave apart some aspects about
process and product development models for shaping the development process according to different
situations. A methodology can be view as a collection of methods, or method fragments, used to address the
problem of Web application design and implementation, at different levels of abstraction.
The existing methods in Web Engineering follow the well-known framework proposed by (Fraternali,
1999) and (Retschitzegger and Schwinger, 2000) to modeling web applications at different abstraction levels
and also considers the customization in all dimensions. In the other hand, considering the principles of
Situational Method Engineering, we can view the framework as a collection of methods needed to
accomplish Web applications development. This interpretation is shown in Fig. 1.

ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
428

Figure 1. Modeling dimensions for web application. adapted from (Retschitzegger and Schwinger, 2000).
The fundamental aspect related to this proposal is WEBFDM, -Web application Flexible Development
Methodology- based on MVC architectural pattern. The method is supported by a CASE Tool COHESIN.
At this moment, both methodology and CASE Tool are used to design and implement Web applications at
Universidad Simn Bolvar (Caracas). COHESIN is a Web application developed with WebFDM and
COHESIN itself. It actually host around 300 designs including student projects, and complete Web
applications.
The generic development process as proposed in WebFDM is shown in Fig. 2, and consists of the
following phases:
Web Project Characterization, which includes the evaluation of project conditions and the
development situation.
Requirements Elicitation and Specification;
Conceptual Design, which includes Data Design, Functional Design (to accomplish the transaction
requirements), Navigation Design, Interface Design and Information Architecture;
Implementation;
Testing and Validation;
Evolution and Maintenance Plan Design.

Figure 2. The generic development process in WebFDM
The life-cycle model specifies the sequencing of processes and products involved in the development of
an application. WebFDM follows the iterative and incremental process model, so in each increment the
designer builds or enriches the products created; at each iteration the current design version is tested and then
it is possible to modify or extend the achieved product.
WEBFDM was conceived as an agile methodology, and while using it and COHESIN, we noted the need
to incorporate extensions in order to provide guidance to designers. Based on the fact that any development
429
project involves different characteristics and conditions, we decide to include in WebFDM (and in
COHESIN) mechanisms in order to make the methodology flexible. This implies that WebFDM, in any
different development, will be tailored for project conditions or characteristics, and an instance of the
COHESIN CASE Tool will be set for that development.
COHESIN follows the Model-Driven Development approach: it uses models and transformations of
models in different phases of the development. The core component is the Model Compiler Engine which is a
model transformer developed with the idea that the target can be defined (at least implicitly) using a
metamodel. At this moment, COHESIN generates code that runs with the Jakarta Struts and Struts2
(implemented in Java), well known frameworks that implement MVC Model 2. It can also generate code for
the Django framework (in Phyton) and Portlets.
The COHESIN CASE Tool is concurrent, different users can access and modify the same design project.
Supporting WebFDM, the COHESIN CASE Tool is a collection of method fragments that allows to record
requirements, define a representation model and actors, list use cases, specify navigation and personalize
actions according to actors (for customization), modeling the interaction between user and system, CRUD
modeling, among other features. Therefore, WebFDM is aligned to the framework showed in Fig.1.
The current status of the COHESION CASE Tool that supports the use of WebFDM, including those
method fragments under development, is shown in Fig. 3. A complete explanation of the methods developed
and implemented in COHESIN is available in (Surez, Bianchini and Prez, 2010).

Figure 3. Components of COHESIN CASE Tool supporting WebFDM
A special component of COHESIN is the Web Development Characterization Engine (WDCE) that can
guide the developer in the use of COHESIN for a given project. It is based on diverse indicators that
characterize the final product, and then the developers will know what models have to be created and the
development process to be followed. Currently we have identified a preliminary set of attributes to
characterize Web application and project situation. Once the Web application, to be developed, is being
characterized through the WDCE, then the methodology using COHESION will guide the designer in the
selection of models and process model needed to reach the application deployment.
4. CONCLUSIONS
The aim of this doctoral proposal is twofold: i) A full definition of WebFDM as a methods collection that
follows the framework proposed by (Fraternali, 1999) and (Retschitzegger and Schwinger, 2000), in order to
achieve a methodology that covers all aspects needed for Web application development based on the
foundations of Web Engineering and the principles of Situational Method Engineering; ii) The identification
of the set of attributes and indicators useful to characterize a Web application development (situation); the
preliminary set of attributes includes characteristics of the final application (type and complexity), the work
ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 2010 IADIS
430
environment, available resources, scale and size of the project, in other words the specific situation of the
development.
The expected contribution of this work is that WebFDM methodology and COHESIN will incorporate the
features and configuration mechanisms necessary to make the methodology a flexible, model-driven
development of Web applications with the CASE Tool support, able to shape the development process and
the generation of models and products based on proper situation.
REFERENCES
Bianchini, A., Ortega, M. and Surez, A. 2005.Una Metodologa de Diseo de Aplicaciones Web bajo el Patrn MVC.
Jornadas Chilenas de Computacin - 2005. Proceedings XIII Encuentro Chileno de Computacin 2005. Valdivia,
Chile, November.
Bianchini, A., Blanch, R., Ortega, M. and Surez, A. 2007. Diseo de una herramienta para el desarrollo de aplicaciones
Web basadas en Struts. Proceedings CIAWI IADIS Iberoamericana. Vila Real, Portugal, 2007.
Brinkkemper S. 1996. Method engineering: engineering of information systems development methods and tools.
Information & Software Technology, 38(4), 275-280.
Ceri, S. et al. 2000. Web modeling language (WebML): a modeling language for designing web sites. WWW9/Computer
Networks, 33, (16), pp. 137157.
Engels, G., Lohmann, M., and Wagner, A. 2006. The Web Application Development Process. In Kappel G., Prll B.,
Reich S., Retschitzegger W. (Editors): Web Engineering - The Discipline of Systematic Development of Web
Applications, pp. 197-218. John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
Escalona M. J. et al. 2007. Practical Experiences in Web Engineering. Advances in Information Systems Development,
pp. 421-433.
Fraternali, P. 1999. Tools and Approaches for Developing Data-Intensive Web Applications: A Survey. ACM Computing
Surveys, 31 (3), September, pp. 227-263.
Koch, N. and Kraus, A. 2002. The Expressive Power of UML-based Web Engineering. Proceedings of 2nd International
Worskhop on Web-oriented Software Technology (IWWOST 02).
Kraiem, N., et al. 2010. A Situational Approach for Web Applications Design. IJCSI International Journal of Computer
Science Issues. Vol. 7, Issue 3, No 1, May 2010, pp. 37-51.
Pastor, O., Fons, J. and Pelechano, V. 2003. OOWS: A method to develop web applications from web-oriented
conceptual models. Proceedings of 3rd international workshop on web oriented software technology. Oviedo: Luis
Olsina, Oscar Pastor, Gustavo Rossi, Daniel Schwabe Editors.
Retschitzegger, W. and Schwinger, W. 2000. Towards Modeling of DataWeb Applications: A Requirements
Perspective. Proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS 2000), Long Beach, CA.
August.
Selmi, S., Kraiem, N. and Ben Ghezala, H. 2005. Toward a comprehension view of Web Engineering. Proceedings of
International Conference in Web Engineering ICWE 2005, LNCS 3579. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 19-
29. Sidney, Australia
Selmi, S., Kraiem, N. and Ben Ghezala, H. 2008. Guidance in Web Applications Design. Proceedings of Model Driven
Information Systems Engineering: Enterprise, User and System Models MoDISE-EUS 2008, pp. 114-125.
Montpellier, France.
Schwabe, D. and Rossi, G. 1995.The Object Oriented Hypermedia Design Model. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 38,
#8, pp 45-46, August.
Surez, A., Bianchini, A. and Prez, C.A. 2010. COHESIN: A Model-Driven Development Tool for Web Applications.
Internal Report. Computer Science and Information Technology Department. Universidad Simn Bolvar. Caracas.
September.
Vlaanderen, K., Valverde, F. and Pastor, O. 2008. Improvement of a Web Engineering Method Applying Situational
Method Engineering. Proceeding International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, ICEIS 2008, pp. 147-
154.
Weerd I. van de et al., 2006. A situational implementation method for web-based content management system-
applications: Method Engineering and Validation in Practice. Software Process: Improvement and Practice 11(5), pp.
521-538.
431

AUTHOR INDEX

Ahmed, R. ...................................................... 355
Aldehim, G. ................................................... 168
Alshamari, M.................................................. 168
Alves, A. ........................................................ 413
Anacleto, J. ....................................................... 35
Andrade, L. ...................................................... 27
Andreolini, M. ............................................... 201
Angelis, F. ..................................................... 382
Antunes, D. ............................................ 267, 369
Akar, P. ......................................................... 262
Astolfi, G. ........................................................ 35
Atwood, J. ....................................................... 65
Banhesse, E. .................................................. 308
Baranauskas, M. ...................................... 143,183
Barbosa, J. ........................................................ 19
Barhoush, M. ................................................... 65
Barla, M.......................................................... 227
Barros, M........................................................ 328
Berndt, G. ...................................................... 319
Bezerra, J. ...................................................... 127
Bezerra, V. ..................................................... 287
Bianchini, A. .................................................. 427
Bielikov, M................................................... 227
Binder, M. ..................................................... 333
Bittencourt, I. ................................................. 120
Blomme, D. ................................................... 323
Boehm-Peters, A. ........................................... 406
Bona, L. ......................................................... 350
Braun, I. ......................................................... 282
Bueno, J. ................................................. 350, 361
Camilleri, V. ........................................... 377, 409
Capovilla, F. ................................................... 350
Casolari, S. ..................................................... 201
Castilho, M. .................................................... 350
Castro, P. ........................................................ 413
Cetin , Y. ......................................................... 81
Chmieliauskas, A ........................................... 339
Cini, L............................................................. 377
Cgo, F. ......................................................... 143
Coria, S........................................................... 373
Costa, A. ........................................................ 328
Costa, E. ......................................................... 120
Cunha, D. ....................................................... 135
Darbyshire, P.................................................. 192
Desruelle, H. ................................................. 323
Direne, A........................................................ 350
Doria, P. ........................................................ 211
Doria, S. ........................................................ 219
Dorn, M. ........................................................ 333
Dossena, C. ................................................... 293
Duarte, J. ....................................................... 350
Duque, C. ...................................................... 416
Eriksson, N....................................................... 11
Ermalai, I. ...................................................... 387
Fantinato, M. ..................................................... 3
Feldmann, M. ................................................ 319
Feng, W. ........................................................ 277
Fernandes, S. ................................................. 267
Ferreira, R. .................................................... 120
Figueiredo, J................................................... 135
Francesconi, A. ............................................. 293
Franco, L. ......................................................... 19
Freitas, D. ........................................................ 35
Freitas, F. ...................................................... 120
Gagliardi, R. .................................................. 382
Garca, L. ............................... 159, 267, 350, 361
Garofalakis, J. .................................................. 73
Gerhold, L. .................................................... 333
Gielen, F......................................................... 323
Gimenes, I. ......................................................... 3
Gkotsis, G. ..................................................... 298
Gomes, R........................................................ 328
Grlitz, R. ........................................................ 49
Goto, H............................................................. 42
Guimares, C. ........................................ 267, 369
Haralampopoulos, D. ..................................... 345
Heinrich, M. .................................................. 406
Hiramatsu, M. ................................................ 403
Hirata, C. ....................................................... 127
Holanda, O. ................................................... 120
Hori, Y. ......................................................... 257
Hbsch, G. .................................................... 175
Iacob, C. ........................................................ 112
Ilgaz, H. ......................................................... 262
Imai, Y. ......................................................... 257
Ishikawa, H. ................................................... 151

Jang, C. .......................................................... 244
Kappler, D. .................................................... 192
Karacapilidis, N. ............................................ 298
Karetsos, S. .................................................... 345
Kasmire, J. ..................................................... 339
Kawamura, T. ................................................ 101
Kmpel, A. .................................................... 282
Li, J................................................................. 277
Liebing, C....................................................... 175
Lima, R........................................................... 120
Lima, T. .......................................................... 393
Lyra, M........................................................... 416
M. Jr., A. ........................................................ 267
Machado, D. ................................................... 350
Maekawa, Y. .......................................... 400, 403
Majima, Y............................................... 400, 403
Makino, H....................................................... 403
Martens, F. ..................................................... 319
Martinez, M. ................................................... 308
Martins, C......................................................... 19
Mayhew, P. .................................................... 168
McDonald, T. .................................................. 57
Melnikoff, S. .................................................. 287
Melo Filho, D. ............................................... 120
Melo, L. .......................................................... 120
Menezes, H....................................................... 27
Meng, T. ......................................................... 277
Miranda Jnior, A................... 159, 350, 361, 369
Montebello, M. ....................................... 377, 409
Nakagawa, H. ................................................. 101
Nakajima, Y. ................................................. 403
Nakamura, Y. ................................................ 403
Neagul, M. ..................................................... 397
Nuholu, P...................................................... 303
Ohsuga, A. ..................................................... 101
Orji, R. ............................................................. 81
Ozkan, S. ......................................................... 81
Paiano, R. ...................................................... 313
Pandurino, A................................................... 313
Panica, S. ........................................................ 397
Pappis, C. ....................................................... 298
Paula, A. ........................................................ 369
Paula Junior, L. .............................................. 350
Pereira, R. ...................................................... 143
Pessa, M. ...................................................... 413
Petcu, D. ......................................................... 397
Piccolo, L. ..................................................... 183
Polzonetti, A. ................................................. 382
Rashid, A.......................................................... 49
Re, B. ............................................................. 382
Rosa, J. ............................................................. 19
Salhofer, P...................................................... 421
Salviano, C. ................................................... 308
Sammut, M..................................................... 409
Santos, C. ....................................................... 393
Santos, M. ....................................................... 89
Schill, A. ........................................ 175, 282, 319
Seip, B. ............................................................ 49
Serbanati, L. .................................................. 272
Shin, I. ........................................................... 101
Shiraishi, K. .................................................. 257
Silva, A. ......................................................... 135
Silva, F. .......................................................... 350
Silva, J............................................................ 143
Silva, M. .......................................................... 35
Silva, P. ........................................................... 89
Silva, R. ......................................................... 267
Silva, S. .......................................................... 143
Siqueira, S. ...................................................... 27
Soga, M. ........................................................ 400
Spillner, J. ...................................... 175, 282, 319
Spohn, M. .............................................. 211, 219
Stadlhofer, B. ................................................. 421
Stefanone, M. ................................................ 244
Stefanuto, G. ................................................. 413
Strandvik, P...................................................... 11
Sugiyama, B. .................................................... 35
Sunye, M. ...................................................... 350
Tahara, Y........................................................ 101
Tekoglu, H. ................................................... 333
Times, V........................................................... 89
Toledo, M. ......................................................... 3
Tosi, S. .......................................................... 201
Trattner, C. ..................................................... 234
Triantafillidis, G............................................... 73
Trindade, D. .................................................. 267
Tsirakis, N...................................................... 298
Turck, F.......................................................... 323
Usluel, Y. ...................................................... 303
Varani, S. ...................................................... 308
Vasilateanu, A. ............................................... 272
Vasiu, R.......................................................... 387
Vecchiato, D....................................................... 3
Villena, J. ........................................................ 35
Wario, R. ......................................................... 57
Xia, Y. ............................................................ 277

Yildiz, B. ....................................................... 303
Yokoyama, S. ................................................ 151
Zacharias, V. .................................................... 49
Zhang, B. ....................................................... 277
Zhu, L. ............................................................ 112

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