As online education becomes more familiar, so the reality of using it in teaching and learning has moved beyond the realm of the specialist. Pedagogy and best practice Delivering Learning on the Net explores the reality of online education today. Martin Weller chaired the groundbreaking Open University course You, Your computer and the Net, which is now the largest for-credit online course in Europe. Based on this and his experiences elsewhere, the book is a comprehensive resource grounded in practical reality as well as in research. Key issues covered include: *the Net and its relation to education; *developing and implementing online courses; *the key issues surrounding online education. Teachers, trainers, technologists, administrators and decision-makers working in higher and further education will all find much of value in this book.

What is Quality of Life in a society that has embraced information and communication technology (ICT)? What is Wisdom in this kind of society? And what things are helping or hindering us from having both wisdom and a good quality of life in ICT societies? Taking the reader through a quick analysis of the current social and psychological changes in the Information and Communication Society, Bradley challenges us to avoid becoming victims of technology - whether we are professionals, policymakers, parents or citizens. Indeed, she introduces a theoretical model based on four decades' worth of research to help the reader to understand this complex, technological world. In addition to focusing the reader's attention on convergence and acceleration, this model describes the interplay between technology, societal structure, organizational design and human roles, thus leading to what Bradley describes as a "good ICT society". Emphasising the necessity of a co-operative parallel between the automation and humanization of society, this innovative volume will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in the subjects such as Information and Communication Technology and Social Change, Psychology and Sociology, Computer Technology and Media Technology.

Whether you're already in the cloud, or determining whether or not it makes sense for your organization, Cloud Computing and Software Services: Theory and Techniques provides the technical understanding needed to develop and maintain state-of-the-art cloud computing and software services. From basic concepts and recent research findings to future directions, it gathers the insight of 50 experts from around to present a global perspective on the range of technical topics related to cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS). The book also: Reviews real cases and applications of cloud computing Discusses the infrastructure cloud and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Considers data- and compute-intensive environments Examines security and reliability in the cloud Witten in a manner that makes this complex subject easy to understand, this is an ideal one-stop reference for anyone interested in cloud computing. The accessible language and wealth of illustrations also make it suitable for academic and research-oriented settings. The comprehensive coverage supplies you with the understanding of cloud computing technologies and trends in parallel computing needed to establish and maintain effective and efficient computing and software services.

Getting Web projects done right and delivered on time is all about efficiency. Putting the information you need and tools you can rely on at your ready disposal-Managing Web Projects-is a complete guide for project managers in the Internetworking industry. Whether you are a Web developer or an Internet Service Provider, whether your project is a quick fix, a complete overhaul, or a new start-up, this resource provides you with an organized path. It will walk you through a typical project life cycle, while providing you with all the tools and definitions needed to take charge and instill confidence in your staff and your customers. Invaluable for those seeking ISO 9001 certification, the text includes a number of detailed Work Instructions that can be used to develop a formal quality management system specific to a project management organization. They can also be leveraged in a TQM (Total Quality Management) or a Six Sigma environment. The book includes: Management guidelines for web hosting, data center migrations, site security, content development, application and Web site loading and testing, VPNs, VoIP, business continuity, and disaster recovery An Internet project management glossary, a technical Internetworking glossary, and a project management acronym table A tools suite with a proven record of success for project initiation, planning, execution, control, and close out This complete resource provides the resources needed-including dozens of time-tested templates, schedules, checklists, and flow charts-to become fully versed in and aligned with the nine knowledge areas and five major processes codified by the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK (R)).

This book provides an overview of the current Internet of Things (IoT) landscape, ranging from the research, innovation and development priorities to enabling technologies in a global context. A successful deployment of IoT technologies requires integration on all layers, be it cognitive and semantic aspects, middleware components, services, edge devices/machines and infrastructures. It is intended to be a standalone book in a series that covers the Internet of Things activities of the IERC - Internet of Things European Research Cluster from research to technological innovation, validation and deployment. The book builds on the ideas put forward by the European Research Cluster and the IoT European Platform Initiative (IoT-EPI) and presents global views and state of the art results on the challenges facing the research, innovation, development and deployment of IoT in the next years. The IoT is bridging the physical world with virtual world and requires sound information processing capabilities for the "digital shadows" of these real things. The research and innovation in nanoelectronics, semiconductor, sensors/actuators, communication, analytics technologies, cyber-physical systems, software, swarm intelligent and deep learning systems are essential for the successful deployment of IoT applications. The emergence of IoT platforms with multiple functionalities enables rapid development and lower costs by offering standardised components that can be shared across multiple solutions in many industry verticals. The IoT applications will gradually move from vertical, single purpose solutions to multi-purpose and collaborative applications interacting across industry verticals, organisations and people, being one of the essential paradigms of the digital economy. Many of those applications still have to be identified and involvement of end-users including the creative sector in this innovation is crucial. The IoT applications and deployments as integrated building blocks of the new digital economy are part of the accompanying IoT policy framework to address issues of horizontal nature and common interest (i.e. privacy, end-to-end security, user acceptance, societal, ethical aspects and legal issues) for providing trusted IoT solutions in a coordinated and consolidated manner across the IoT activities and pilots. In this, context IoT ecosystems offer solutions beyond a platform and solve important technical challenges in the different verticals and across verticals. These IoT technology ecosystems are instrumental for the deployment of large pilots and can easily be connected to or build upon the core IoT solutions for different applications in order to expand the system of use and allow new and even unanticipated IoT end uses. Technical topics discussed in the book include: * Introduction* Digitising industry and IoT as key enabler in the new era of Digital Economy* IoT Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda* IoT in the digital industrial context: Digital Single Market* Integration of heterogeneous systems and bridging the virtual, digital and physical worlds* Federated IoT platforms and interoperability* Evolution from intelligent devices to connected systems of systems by adding new layers of cognitive behaviour, artificial intelligence and user interfaces.* Innovation through IoT ecosystems* Trust-based IoT end-to-end security, privacy framework* User acceptance, societal, ethical aspects and legal issues* Internet of Things Applications

Internet-of-Things (IoT) Analytics are an integral element of most IoT applications, as it provides the means to extract knowledge, drive actuation services and optimize decision making. IoT analytics will be a major contributor to IoT business value in the coming years, as it will enable organizations to process and fully leverage large amounts of IoT data, which are nowadays largely underutilized. The Building Blocks of IoT Analytics is devoted to the presentation the main technology building blocks that comprise advanced IoT analytics systems. It introduces IoT analytics as a special case of BigData analytics and accordingly presents leading edge technologies that can be deployed in order to successfully confront the main challenges of IoT analytics applications. Special emphasis is paid in the presentation of technologies for IoT streaming and semantic interoperability across diverse IoT streams. Furthermore, the role of cloud computing and BigData technologies in IoT analytics are presented, along with practical tools for implementing, deploying and operating non-trivial IoT applications. Along with the main building blocks of IoT analytics systems and applications, the book presents a series of practical applications, which illustrate the use of these technologies in the scope of pragmatic applications. Technical topics discussed in the book include: Cloud Computing and BigData for IoT analytics Searching the Internet of Things Development Tools for IoT Analytics Applications IoT Analytics-as-a-Service Semantic Modelling and Reasoning for IoT Analytics IoT analytics for Smart Buildings IoT analytics for Smart Cities Operationalization of IoT analytics Ethical aspects of IoT analytics This book contains both research oriented and applied articles on IoT analytics, including several articles reflecting work undertaken in the scope of recent European Commission funded projects in the scope of the FP7 and H2020 programmes. These articles present results of these projects on IoT analytics platforms and applications. Even though several articles have been contributed by different authors, they are structured in a well thought order that facilitates the reader either to follow the evolution of the book or to focus on specific topics depending on his/her background and interest in IoT and IoT analytics technologies. The compilation of these articles in this edited volume has been largely motivated by the close collaboration of the co-authors in the scope of working groups and IoT events organized by the Internet-of-Things Research Cluster (IERC), which is currently a part of EU's Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI).

Online churches are Internet-based Christian communities, pursuing worship, discussion, friendship, support, proselytization, and other key religious goals through computer-mediated communication. The first examples appeared in the mid-1980s, but this genre of online activity has been revolutionized over the last decade by considerable institutional investment and the rise of new low-cost social media platforms. Hundreds of thousands of people are now involved with online congregations, generating new kinds of ritual, leadership, and community as well as new networks of global influence.

Creating Church Online is the first large-scale sociological investigation of this area, offering a significant and timely advance in the study of religion, media, and culture. Five ethnographic case studies are presented, based primarily in the UK, USA, and Australasia, providing levels of detail, scope, and variety previously unexplored by researchers in this field. Comparative analysis of these case studies demonstrates the emergence of intriguing new hybrids of digital, local, and institutional religion, reflecting major shifts in contemporary patterns of religious commitment. Author Tim Hutchings constructs a rich account of the culture and practice of five online churches, emphasizing worship, leadership, and community and the relationship between online and everyday life. Through such in-depth analysis, this book explores the significance and impact of online churchgoing in the religious and social lives of participants, as well as the relationship between online and everyday life, in search of a new theoretical framework to map religious users engagement with new media."

Why do enterprise systems have complicated search pages, when Google has a single search box that works better? Why struggle with an expense reimbursement system that is not as easy as home accounting software? Although this seems like comparing apples to oranges, as information and communication technologies increasingly reach into every industry the demand for easy-to-use work tools continues to grow. An exploration of cutting-edge approaches for evaluating the usability of complex user interaction, Usability of Complex Information Systems: Evaluation of User Interaction focuses on improving design and communicating content to the end user. The book continues the conversation about the evolution of usability, asking how we can design and evaluate these complex systems and the complex work they support. It describes and analyzes approaches to teaching, testing, analyzing, or managing usability studies-approaches that involve technical communicators making novel contributions to how we think about and evaluate increasingly complex systems. The book contains case studies on different types of complexity, including: A complex work environment, requiring collaboration among different people or a goal sustained over time, and often in the face of distractions, interruptions, and planned pauses A complex information context, one with no single answer, where the data changes dynamically or where the best answer may rely on other aspects of a fluid environment A complex technology, in which people use many different applications in their work and collaboration A complex topic, requiring advanced technical or domain knowledge Even systems that seem simple are, in fact, complex. The shopping interface for an e-commerce system may not be complex, but the databases, business processes, and logistics behind it certainly are. The examination of different aspects of designing and examining complexity presented in this book brings you a step further in developing a deeper understanding of what it takes to make complex systems work.

A dazzling look at modern videogame worlds seen through an architectural lens, utilizing maps, diagrams and graphic illustrations to offer new perspectives on the art of virtual world building. Videogame Atlas presents a journey through twelve well-known videogame worlds via panoramic maps, intricate exploded diagrams and detailed illustrations. The book offers a playful new way of seeing these beloved virtual worlds using the practices and academic rigour that underpins real-world architectural theory. Titles such as Minecraft, Assassin's Creed Unity and Final Fantasy VII are explored in exhaustive detail through over 200 detailed illustrations of the micro and macro, each with supporting commentary and architectural theory. Taking influence from high-end architectural monographs, the book is carefully designed to the smallest of details and its production is intricately executed. This book, printed in five colours, with neon ink throughout, is a culmination of Luke and Sandra's work, which includes founding the Videogame Urbanism studio at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL that promotes the use of game technologies in architectural education.

The book presents a comprehensive study of various cognitive and affective aspects of web searching for translation problem solving. Research into the use of the web as an external aid of consultation has frequently occupied a secondary position in the investigation of translation processes. The book aims to bridge this gap in the literature. Beginning with a detailed survey of previous studies of these processes, it then focuses on web search behaviors using qualitative and quantitative analysis that presents a multifaceted overview of translation-oriented web searching. The book concludes by addressing the implications for the teaching of and research into translators' web searching skills. With regard to teaching, the book's didactic discussions will make it a valuable tool for both translator trainers and translation students wanting to familiarize themselves with the intricacies of Web searching and to reflect upon the pedagogical implications of the study for acquiring online information literacy in translator training.

Rapid progress in software, hardware, mobile networks, and the potential of interactive media poses many questions for researchers, manufacturers, and operators of wireless multimedia communication systems. Wireless Multimedia Communication Systems: Design, Analysis, and Implementation strives to answer those questions by not only covering the underlying concepts involved in the design, analysis, and implementation of wireless multimedia communication systems, but also by tackling advanced topics such as mobility management, security components, and smart grids. Offering an accessible treatment of the latest research, this book: Presents specific wireless multimedia communication schemes that have proven to be useful Discusses important standardization processing activities regarding wireless networking Includes wireless mesh and multimedia sensor network architectures, protocols, and design optimizations Highlights the challenges associated with meeting complex connectivity requirements Contains numerous figures, tables, examples, references, and a glossary of acronyms Providing coverage of significant technological advances in their initial steps along with a survey of the fundamental principles and practices, Wireless Multimedia Communication Systems: Design, Analysis, and Implementation aids senior-level and graduate-level engineering students and practicing professionals in understanding the processes and furthering the development of today's wireless multimedia communication systems.

Broad in scope, Semantic Multimedia Analysis and Processing provides a complete reference of techniques, algorithms, and solutions for the design and the implementation of contemporary multimedia systems. Offering a balanced, global look at the latest advances in semantic indexing, retrieval, analysis, and processing of multimedia, the book features the contributions of renowned researchers from around the world. Its contents are based on four fundamental thematic pillars: 1) information and content retrieval, 2) semantic knowledge exploitation paradigms, 3) multimedia personalization, and 4) human-computer affective multimedia interaction. Its 15 chapters cover key topics such as content creation, annotation and modeling for the semantic web, multimedia content understanding, and efficiency and scalability. Fostering a deeper understanding of a popular area of research, the text: Describes state-of-the-art schemes and applications Supplies authoritative guidance on research and deployment issues Presents novel methods and applications in an informative and reproducible way Contains numerous examples, illustrations, and tables summarizing results from quantitative studies Considers ongoing trends and designates future challenges and research perspectives Includes bibliographic links for further exploration Uses both SI and US units Ideal for engineers and scientists specializing in the design of multimedia systems, software applications, and image/video analysis and processing technologies, Semantic Multimedia Analysis and Processing aids researchers, practitioners, and developers in finding innovative solutions to existing problems, opening up new avenues of research in uncharted waters.

As multimedia applications have become part of contemporary daily life, numerous paradigm-shifting technologies in multimedia processing have emerged over the last decade. Substantially updated with 21 new chapters, Multimedia Image and Video Processing, Second Edition explores the most recent advances in multimedia research and applications. This edition presents a comprehensive treatment of multimedia information mining, security, systems, coding, search, hardware, and communications as well as multimodal information fusion and interaction. Clearly divided into seven parts, the book begins with a section on standards, fundamental methods, design issues, and typical architectures. It then focuses on the coding of video and multimedia content before covering multimedia search, retrieval, and management. After examining multimedia security, the book describes multimedia communications and networking and explains the architecture design and implementation for multimedia image and video processing. It concludes with a section on multimedia systems and applications. Written by some of the most prominent experts in the field, this updated edition provides readers with the latest research in multimedia processing and equips them with advanced techniques for the design of multimedia systems.

Establishing adaptive control as an alternative framework to design and analyze Internet congestion controllers, End-to-End Adaptive Congestion Control in TCP/IP Networks employs a rigorously mathematical approach coupled with a lucid writing style to provide extensive background and introductory material on dynamic systems stability and neural network approximation; alongside future internet requests for congestion control architectures. Designed to operate under extreme heterogeneous, dynamic, and time-varying network conditions, the developed controllers must also handle network modeling structural uncertainties and uncontrolled traffic flows acting as external perturbations. The book also presents a parallel examination of specific adaptive congestion control, NNRC, using adaptive control and approximation theory, as well as extensions toward cooperation of NNRC with application QoS control. Features: Uses adaptive control techniques for congestion control in packet switching networks Employs a rigorously mathematical approach with lucid writing style Presents simulation experiments illustrating significant operational aspects of the method; including scalability, dynamic behavior, wireless networks, and fairness Applies to networked applications in the music industry, computers, image trading, and virtual groups by techniques such as peer-to-peer, file sharing, and internet telephony Contains working examples to highlight and clarify key attributes of the congestion control algorithms presented Drawing on the recent research efforts of the authors, the book offers numerous tables and figures to increase clarity and summarize the algorithms that implement various NNRC building blocks. Extensive simulations and comparison tests analyze its behavior and measure its performance through monitoring vital network quality metrics. Divided into three parts, the book offers a review of computer networks and congestion control, presents an adaptive congestion control framework as an alternative to optimization methods, and provides appendices related to dynamic systems through universal neural network approximators.

Deviance is both socially defined and influenced. While it is widely accepted that deviance is a social construction, this research revisits the conceptualization of deviance and advances the methods used to study deviance and social construction. This book presents and compares three methods for conceptualizing deviance within and across cultures. Comparing the United States to South Korea, perceptions of deviance are presented as how individuals define deviance and what acts are cited as deviant. Next, attribute data are used to assess differences in of conceptualizations of deviance by demographic factors. Finally, social network analysis is used to understand the social influences at work in how one perceives deviance. This book is unique in its reconceptualization of deviance and the application of social network analysis as a new tool for studying social influence and perceptions.

The A-to-Z source on cyberethicsthe responsible use of technology! What is safe and responsible behavior for using the Internet? Cybersins and Digital Good Deeds: A Book About Technology and Ethics provides a comprehensive look at the innovativeand sometimes unscrupulousworld of rapidly evolving technology and the people who use it. This encyclopedic source helps even the most technology-challenged understand various facets relating to the use and misuse of technology in today's society. Topics are organized A-to-Z for easy reference, with selections chosen because of historical importance, present relevance, and the likelihood of future impact. Privacy, security, censorship, and much, much more are discussed in detail to reveal the ethical complexities of each issue. Harmful and illegal cyber behavior can manifest quickly in several ways in today's digital world. Keeping up with the shifts and advances in technology, its applications, and how it affects you can be difficult. Cybersins and Digital Good Deeds reviews the latest trends in computer technology and the impact it has on the way we live. This extensive book provides easy-to-understand explanations of tech terms, while clearly examining the current ethical issues surrounding different aspects of technology and its use in positive or destructive actions. Discussions include issues concerning general use, business, entertainment, multimedia development, and education. The broad range of ethical topics in Cybersins and Digital Good Deeds includes: advertising in school the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and its impact upon technology in schools blogging and free speech bride scams video voyeurism censorship and filtering cheating in school using technology Child Online Protection Act Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPPA) computer addiction crackers, lamers, and phreaks cyberbullying cyberchondriacs disinhibition domain hijacking Online auction fraud elder care and technology Google Bombing identity theft pornography media and cognitive development movie duplication sharing audio files online gambling pyramid schemes the Patriot Act phishing podcasting Project Gutenberg RFID tracking spyware technolust Trojan horses and viruses much, much more! Cybersins and Digital Good Deeds is a perfect at-your-fingertips source for questions you may have on the jargon and the ethical use or misuse of technology. This book is perfect for business people; high school, public, and academic librarians; library science professors, education professors, students, or anyone needing clarification of issues related to technology and information ethics.

This book addresses the social and organisational dynamics which underlie recent technological and work developments within organisations. often referred to as 'virtual working'. It seeks to go beyond a mere description of this new work phenomenon in order to provide more rigorous ways of analysing and understanding the issues raised. In addition to providing accounts of developments such as web-based enterprises and virtual teams, each contributor focuses on the empolyment of information technology to transcend the boundaries between and within organisations, and the consequences this has for social and organisationaL relations.

Mobile IP: Present State and Future is an up-to-date introduction to the rapidly evolving field of mobile IP. In addition to detailed coverage of motivation behind mobile IP and fundamental concepts of mobile IP like agent advertisement and discovery, registration and tunneling, the book provides a comprehensive treatment of various associated technical issues such as security, TCP performance, multicasting and integration with wireless. The book has been written to serve as a text for network professionals who are yearning to acquire a clear understanding of this interesting field. It also covers ongoing research on possible ways to mitigate the challenges and issues associated with mobile IP. This makes the book a good reference for advanced readers as well as researchers in the field. Network system developers and administrators will find this book useful due to discussions on applications of mobile IP in the real world, and management of mobile IP. Last but not least, the book delineates possible future directions of mobile IP, a topic that will be of interest to a large section of network professionals and researchers. The book contains a large number of examples, illustrations and notes to make the presentation simple and interesting. The book should be relevant for courses on advanced networking, mobile computing and similar topics.

Cyber Zen ethnographically explores Buddhist practices in the online virtual world of Second Life. Does typing at a keyboard and moving avatars around the screen, however, count as real Buddhism? If authentic practices must mimic the actual world, then Second Life Buddhism does not. In fact, a critical investigation reveals that online Buddhist practices have at best only a family resemblance to canonical Asian traditions and owe much of their methods to the late twentieth-century field of cybernetics. If, however, they are judged existentially, by how they enable users to respond to the suffering generated by living in a highly mediated consumer society, then Second Life Buddhism consists of authentic spiritual practices. Cyber Zen explores how Second Life Buddhist enthusiasts form communities, identities, locations, and practices that are both products of and authentic responses to contemporary Network Consumer Society. Gregory Price Grieve illustrates that to some extent all religion has always been virtual and gives a glimpse of possible future alternative forms of religion.

This new volume provides an informative collection of chapters on ICT and data analytics in education, helping to lead the digital revolution in higher education. The chapters emphasize skill development through ICT, artificial intelligence in education, policies for integrating ICT in higher education, and more. The book focuses mainly on technological advancements in ICT in education, the perceived role of ICT in the teaching-learning transaction, pedagogy for teaching-learning in the 21st century, student-centered learning based on ICT, learning analytics, online technologies learning, tools for technology enhanced learning, distance education and learning, the effective use of ICT in management education, experiences in ICT for technology-enhanced learning, influence of ICT in research development in higher education, role of teachers in direct classroom teaching in web-based education system, and role of ICT in innovation capacity building. The case studies help to illustrate the ideas and concepts discussed in the chapters.

This book covers significant recent developments in the field of Intelligent Meth ods applied to eCommerce. The Intelligent Methods considered are mainly Soft Computing Methods that include fuzzy sets, rough sets, neural networks, evolutionary computations, probabilistic and evidential reasoning, multivalued logic, and related fields. There is not doubt about the relevance of eCommerce in our daily environ ments and in the work carried out at many research centers throughout the world. The application of AI to Commerce is growing as fast as the computers and net works are being integrated in all business and commerce aspects. We felt that it was time to sit down and see how was the impact into that field of low-level AI, i.e. softcomputing. We found many scattered contributions disseminated in con ferences, workshops, journal, books or even technical reports, but nothing like a common framework that could serve as a basis for further research, comparison or even prototyping for a direct transfer to the industry. We felt then the need to set up a reference point, a book like this. We planned this book as a recompilation of the newest developments of re searchers who already made some contribution into the field. The authors were se lected based on the originality and quality of their work and its relevance to the field. Authors came from prestigious universities and research centers with differ ent backgrounds."

E-Government in Asia offers a thorough examination of e-governance in Asia, including the uses of the Internet to mediate interactions between Asian governments and their citizens. The book examines how the Internet is reshaping these interactions in the region and summarizes the nature of e-government, the growth of the Internet in Asia, issues of the digital divide, and how the Internet is affecting the ways in which public services are provided, how Asians acquire information, and other issues.

Reviews: Ronald Eyerman, Professor of Sociology, Yale University and author of 'Myth, Meaning and Performance' - Fun to read... It makes a strong case for the democratic power of blogging and the internet, a form of empowerment for the voiceless. Norman Solomon, author of 'War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death' - Anyone eager to understand how cyberspace has changed our possibilities - and how it often remains trapped in grim social contexts - would do well to read Erik Ringmar's A Blogger's Manifesto.