Open source software (free software) has emerged as a major field of scientific inquiry across a number of disciplines. When the concept of open source began to gain mindshare in the global business community, decision makers faced a challenge: to convert hype and potential into sustainable profit and viable business models. This volume addresses this challenge through presenting some of the newest, extensively peer-reviewed research in the area.

This book includes 23 papers dealing with the impact of modern information and communication technologies that support a wide variety of communities: local communities, virtual communities, and communities of practice, such as knowledge communities and scientific communities. The volume is the result of the second multidisciplinary "Communities and Technologies Conference," a major event in this emerging research field. The various chapters discuss how communities are affected by technologies, and how understanding of the way that communities function can be used in improving information systems design. This state of the art overview will be of interest to computer and information scientists, social scientists and practitioners alike.

The recent pursuits emerging in the realm of big data processing, interpretation, collection and organization have emerged in numerous sectors including business, industry and government organizations. Data sets such as customer transactions for a mega-retailer, weathermonitoring, intelligence gathering, quickly outpace the capacities of traditional techniques and tools of data analysis. The 3V (volume, variability and velocity) challenges led to the emergence of new techniques and tools in data visualization, acquisition, and serialization. Soft Computing being regarded as a plethora of technologies of fuzzy sets (or Granular Computing), neurocomputing and evolutionary optimization brings forward a number of unique features that might be instrumental to the development of concepts and algorithms to deal with big data.

This carefully edited volume provides the reader with an updated, in-depth material on the emerging principles, conceptual underpinnings, algorithms and practice of Computational Intelligence in the realization of concepts and implementation of big data architectures, analysis, and interpretation as well as data analytics. The book is aimed at a broad audience of researchers and practitioners including those active in various disciplines in which big data, their analysis and optimization are of genuine relevance. One focal point is the systematic exposure of the concepts, design methodology, and detailed algorithms. In general, the volume adheres to the top-down strategy starting with the concepts and motivation and then proceeding with the detailed design that materializes in specific algorithms and representative applications. The material is self-contained and provides the reader with all necessary prerequisites and augments some parts with a step-by-step explanation of more advanced concepts supported by a significant amount of illustrative numeric material and some application scenarios to motivate the reader and make some abstract concepts more tangible."

New approaches to teaching are inherently important for any teacher, faculty member, or corporate trainer involved with the application of technology-based resources for instruction and learning. ICTs for Modern Educational and Instructional Advancement: New Approaches to Teaching explores current models and issues involved with online course development, assessment, and blended learning. Collecting an international collaboration of experts, this Premier Reference Source takes a futuristic peek at the classroom of the new millenium and emerging technologies expected in the 21st century.

The importance of knowledge and information technology management has been emphasized both by researchers and practitioners in order for companies to compete in the global market. Now such technologies have become crucial in a sense that there is a need to understand the business and operations strategies, as well as how the development of IT would contribute to knowledge management and therefore increase competitiveness. Knowledge and Information Technology Management: Human and Social Perspectives strives to explore the human resource and social dimensions of knowledge and IT management, to discuss the opportunities and major issues related to the management of people along the supply chain in Internet marketing, and to provide an understanding of how the human resource and the IT management should complement each other for improved communication and competitiveness.

This book represents the compilation of papers presented at the IFIP Working Group 8. 2 conference entitled "Information Technology in the Service Economy: Challenges st and Possibilities for the 21 Century. " The conference took place at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, on August 10 13, 2008. Par ticipation in the conference spanned the continents from Asia to Europe with paper submissions global in focus as well. Conference submissions included complete d research papers and research in progress reports. Papers submitted to the conference went through a double blind review process in which the program co chairs, an associate editor, and reviewers provided assessments and recommendations. The editor ial efforts of the associate editors and reviewers in this process were outstanding. To foster high quality research publications in this field of study, authors of accepted pape rs were then invited to revise and resubmit their work. Through this rigorous review and revision process, 12 completed research papers and 11 research in progress reports were accepted for presentation and publica tion. Paper workshop sessions were also esta blished to provide authors of emergent work an opportunity to receive feedback fromthe IF IP 8. 2 community. Abstracts of these new projects are included in this volume. Four panels were presented at the conference to provide discussion forums for the varied aspect s of IT, service, and globalization. Panel abstracts are also included here.

Recent trends have shown increasing privatization of standardization activities under various corporations, trade associations, and consortia, raising significant public policy issues about how the public interest may be represented. ""Standardization and Digital Enclosure: The Privatization of Standards, Knowledge, and Policy in the Age of Global Information Technology"" establishes a framework of analysis for public policy discussion and debate. Discussing topics such as social practices and political economic discourse, this book offers a truly interdisciplinary approach to standardization and privatization valuable to technical, economic, and political researchers and practitioners, as well as academicians involved in related fields.

Many of the initial developments towards the Internet of Things have focused on the combination of Auto-ID and networked infrastructures in business-to-business logistics and product lifecycle applications. However, the Internet of Things is more than a business tool for managing business processes more efficiently and more effectively it will also enable a more convenient way of life.

Since the term "Internet of Things" first came to attention when the Auto-ID Center launched their initial vision for the EPC network for automatically identifying and tracing the flow of goods within supply-chains, increasing numbers of researchers and practitioners have further developed this vision.

The authors in this book provide a research perspective on current and future developments in the Internet of Things. The different chapters cover a broad range of topics from system design aspects and core architectural approaches to end-user participation, business perspectives and applications.

This book reports on the development and validation of a generic defeasible logic programming framework for carrying out argumentative reasoning in Semantic Web applications (GF@SWA). The proposed methodology is unique in providing a solution for representing incomplete and/or contradictory information coming from different sources, and reasoning with it. GF@SWA is able to represent this type of information, perform argumentation-driven hybrid reasoning to resolve conflicts, and generate graphical representations of the integrated information, thus assisting decision makers in decision making processes. GF@SWA represents the first argumentative reasoning engine for carrying out automated reasoning in the Semantic Web context and is expected to have a significant impact on future business applications. The book provides the readers with a detailed and clear exposition of different argumentation-based reasoning techniques, and of their importance and use in Semantic Web applications. It addresses both academics and professionals, and will be of primary interest to researchers, students and practitioners in the area of Web-based intelligent decision support systems and their application in various domains.

Advancing medical technologies are now developing cutting-edge computer applications useful to the field of oral studies. Informatics in Oral Medicine: Advanced Techniques in Clinical and Diagnostic Technologies provides innovative research techniques on current technologies in the management of problems in oral health and medicine. A unique and comprehensive reference source, this enriched collection contains valuable computational tools and the latest applications in dental and oral research topics such as artificial mouths, laser melting, and dentist appointment management.

This book is broadly organized in three parts. The first section ('Enhancing and Managing Customer Value') focuses on presenting the state-of-knowledge in managing and enhancing customer value through extraction of consumer-centric knowledge from mountains of data that modern interactive applications generate. The extracted information can then be used to provide more personalized information to customers, provide more relevant information or products, and even to create innovative business processes to enhance overall value to customers. The second section in the book ('Computational Approaches for Business Processes') focuses on presenting several specific innovative computing artifacts and tools developed by researchers that are not yet commercially used. These represent cutting-edge thought and advances in business computing research that should soon find utility in real-world applications or as a tool to analyze real-world scenarios. The final section in the book ('Supporting Knowledge Enterprise') presents approaches and frameworks that focus on ability of an enterprise to analyze, build, and protect computing infrastructure that supports value-added dimensions to the enterprise's existing business processes.

Despite the significance and potential benefits of data-exchange standards, a void remains in literature of a research publication dedicated to its barriers and critical success factors. ""Data-Exchange Standards and International Organizations: Adoption and Diffusion"" establishes factors related to the implementation and dissemination of data-exchange standards. A cutting-edge reference source written by an international collaboration of field experts, this book covers advanced topics such as product life cycle support, IT standardization, and innovation- and adopter-centric data analysis.

R/3 is a business system that has gained global prominence. However, the SAP R/3 has 237,000 function modules. Quite oftenprogrammersare unaware that a module exists which can be of help in their programs. This convenient resource is a collection of the most common ABAP modules, demonstrated within simple programs. These programs for easily searchable examples can be accessed from http: //extras.springer.com/978-1-85233-775-9

The modules in this book are organised for quick reference. This concise reference contains: A full explanation of the layout of reference entries;a brief introduction to SAP; coverage of conversion and date and time modules; file and directory modules; list, long texts, and number modules; useful integration modules for MSOffice and pop-up dialog box management.

This book organises over 300 modules, many of which are undocumented in text, and arranges them for quick and easy reference, and explains when and where to use the most common SAP R/3 ABAP function modules.

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Automated and semi-automated manipulation of so-called labelled transition systems has become an important means in discovering flaws in software and hardware systems. Process algebra has been developed to express such labelled transition systems algebraically, which enhances the ways of manipulation by means of equational logic and term rewriting.The theory of process algebra has developed rapidly over the last twenty years, and verification tools have been developed on the basis of process algebra, often in cooperation with techniques related to model checking. This textbook gives a thorough introduction into the basics of process algebra and its applications.

ThisvolumecontainstheproceedingsofIFIPTM2009, theThirdIFIPWG11.11 International Conference on Trust Management, held at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA during June 15-19, 2009. IFIPTM 2009 provided a truly global platform for the reporting of research, development, policyandpracticeintheinterdependentareasofprivacy, security, and trust. Building on the traditions inherited from the highly successful iTrust conference series, the IFIPTM 2007 conference in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, and the IFIPTM 2008conferencein Trondheim, Norway, IFIPTM 2009 focusedontrust, privacyand security from multidisciplinary perspectives. The conferenceisanarenafor discussionaboutrelevantproblemsfromboth research and practice in the areas of academia, business, and government. IFIPTM 2009 was an open IFIP conference. The program of the conference featured both theoretical research papers and reports of real-world case studies. IFIPTM 2009 received 44 submissions. The ProgramCommittee selected 17 - pers for presentation and inclusion in the proceedings. In addition, the program and the proceedings include one invited paper and ?ve demo descriptions. The highlights of IFIPTM 2009 included invited talks and tutorials by academic and governmental experts in the ?elds of trust management, privacy and security, including Eugene Spa?ord, Marianne Winslett, and Michael Novak. Running an international conference requires an immense e?ort from all p- ties involved. We would like to thank the Program Committee members and external referees for having provided timely and in-depth reviews of the subm- ted papers.We wouldalsolike to thank the Workshop, Tutorial, Demonstration, Local Arrangements, and Website Chairs, for having provided great help or- nizing the con

In the healthcare field, there is limited literature published on the subject of global deployment, diffusion, adoption, use, and impact of information communication technologies in the context of health informatics and electronic healthcare applications. Due to a lack of such literature, those involved in healthcare spend a great deal of time searching and gathering information from various sources. ""The Handbook of Research on Advances in Health Informatics and Electronic Healthcare Applications: Global Adoption and Impact of Information Communication Technologies"" for the first time brings to the healthcare community a comprehensive resource elucidating the adoption and usage of health informatics. Gathering an in-depth collection of research articles and case studies from leading experts worldwide, this handbook of research provides a global understanding of the advances in health informatics and electronic applications in healthcare delivery and management.

As two areas of study that thrive on change and innovation, the combination of electronic resources and corporation management presents many challenges to researchers and professionals as information is discovered and applied to existing practices. Business Technologies in Contemporary Organizations: Adoption, Assimilation, and Institutionalization investigates the reciprocal relationship between information systems and corporations in order to understand and assess the benefits of this partnership as technology continues to progress. This publication is an essential reference source for researchers, practitioners, and students interested in the practical and theoretical implementation of information systems and electronic resources in corporations and firms.

It is, indeed, widely acceptable today that nowhere is it more important to focus on the improvement of software quality than in the case of systems with requirements in the areas of safety and reliability - especially for distributed, real-time and embedded systems. Thus, much research work is under progress in these fields, since software process improvement impinges directly on achieved levels of quality, and many application experiments aim to show quantitative results demonstrating the efficacy of particular approaches. Requirements for safety and reliability - like other so-called non-functional requirements for computer-based systems - are often stated in imprecise and ambiguous terms, or not at all. Specifications focus on functional and technical aspects, with issues like safety covered only implicitly, or not addressed directly because they are felt to be obvious; unfortunately what is obvious to an end user or system user is progressively less so to others, to the extend that a software developer may not even be aware that safety is an issue. Therefore, there is a growing evidence for encouraging greater understanding of safety and reliability requirements issues, right across the spectrum from end user to software developer; not just in traditional safety-critical areas (e.g. nuclear, aerospace) but also acknowledging the need for such things as heart pacemakers and other medical and robotic systems to be highly dependable.

Designed to serve as a reference work for practitioners, academics, and scholars worldwide, this book is the first of its kind to explain complex cybercrimes from the perspectives of multiple disciplines (computer science, law, economics, psychology, etc.) and scientifically analyze their impact on individuals, society, and nations holistically and comprehensively. In particular, the book shows: How multiple disciplines concurrently bring out the complex, subtle, and elusive nature of cybercrimes How cybercrimes will affect every human endeavor, at the level of individuals, societies, and nations How to legislate proactive cyberlaws, building on a fundamental grasp of computers and networking, and stop reacting to every new cyberattack How conventional laws and traditional thinking fall short in protecting us from cybercrimes How we may be able to transform the destructive potential of cybercrimes into amazing innovations in cyberspace that can lead to explosive technological growth and prosperity

"Power SAS: A Survival Guide" is designed to provide the millions of SAS users with the largest and most comprehensive collection of SAS tips and techniques ever offered. Kirk Lafler is an Internet and software consultant with 25 years of experience providing clients around the world with innovative technical solutions and training. Kirk's tips will help you leverage features of SAS that even the most experienced SAS users may not know.

Whether you read it cover to cover, browse through it in your free time, or use it as a reference by looking up pertinent tips, this book is an invaluable self-help resource for working smarter, and for troubleshooting and resolving SAS problems and errors. The book's organization makes it easy for SAS users of all experience levelsprogrammers, statisticians, database programmers and administrators, technical managers, technical support staff, and studentsto find what they need. The nine chapters cover SAS basics, data access, data step programming, data manipulation, data management, data presentation, efficiency and performance, configuration and support, and SAS 9.