Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has recently evolved from a simple capability for transporting voice communications into a much more powerful technology capable of changing the way voice applications are constructed, delivered, marketed and sold. Whilst VoIP has clearly provided a focus for much debate within the telecommunications industry, there has been a clear gulf between hype and reality. However the questions now being asked have migrated from 'Will it work?' to 'What will the industry look like when it is delivered at scale?' In Voice over IP: systems and solutions, Richard Swale has brought together key contributors from within the BT Group and externally, to cover all of the important issues surrounding telephony over IP networks. This authoritative book examines VoIP as a technology and its consideration within the industry, the motivations for VoIP networks, a review of the status of the major components of a VoIP network and their development, and both current and emerging applications. VoIP technology blurs the boundaries between fixed, mobile and multimedia communications and the implications are explored and discussed. The primary market for this comprehensive book is telecommunications engineers and developers, service providers and regulators. However, all those with a technical or business interest in this rapidly developing area of communications technology will also find this book highly relevant.

BE 2002 is the second in a series of conferences on eCommerce, eBusiness, and eGovemment organised by the three IFIP committees TC6, TC8, and TCll. As BE 2001 did last year in Zurich, BE 2002 continues to provide a forum for users, engineers, and researchers from academia, industry and government to present their latest findings in eCommerce, eBusiness, and eGovernment applications and the underlying technologies which support those applications. This year's conference comprises a main track with sessions on eGovernment, Trust, eMarkets, Fraud and Security, eBusiness (both B2B and B2C), the Design of systems, eLearning, Public and Health Systems, Web Design, and the Applications of and Procedures for eCommerce and eBusiness, as well as two associated Workshops (not included in these proceedings): eBusiness Models in the Digital Online Music and Online News Sectors; and eBusiness Standardisation - Challenges and Solutions for the Networked Economy. The 47 papers accepted for presentation in these sessions and published in this book of proceedings were selected from 80 submissions. They were rigorously reviewed (all papers were double-blind refereed) before being selected by the International Programme Committee. This rejection rate of almost 50% indicates just how seriously the Committee took its quality control activities.

During the last decade significant progress has been made in Internet technology by using computational intelligence methods. This book presents reports from the front of soft computing in the Internet industry and covers important topics in the field such as search engines, fuzzy query, decision analysis and support systems as well as e-business and e-commerce. The articles are selected results from a recent workshop (Fuzzy Logic and the Internet - FLINT 2001) related to the Internet Fuzzy Logic hosted by the Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing (BISC) program. The main purpose of the Workshop was to draw the attention of the fuzzy logic community as well as the Internet community to the fundamental importance of specific Internet-related problems including search engines, user modeling and personal information provision, e-commerce, e-business, e-health, semantic web/net, web-assistant and agents, knowledge representation for e-learning, content-based information retrieval, information organization, intrusion detection and network management. The book presents a collection of challenging problems and new directions toward the next generation of search engines and the Internet.

Virtual texts have emerged within the realm of the Internet as the predominant means of global communication. As both technological and cultural artifacts, they embody and challenge cultural assumptions and invite new ways of conceptualizing knowledge, community, identity, and meaning. But despite the pervasiveness of the Internet in nearly all aspects of contemporary life, no single resource has cataloged the ways in which numerous disciplines have investigated and critiqued virtual texts. This bibliography includes more than 1500 annotated entries for books, articles, dissertations, and electronic resources on virtual texts published between 1988 and 1999.

Because of the multiple contexts in which virtual texts are studied, the bibliography addresses virtual communication across a broad range of disciplines and philosophies. It encompasses studies of the historical development of virtual texts; investigations of the many interdisciplinary applications of virtual texts and discussions of such legal issues as privacy and intellectual property. Entries are arranged alphabetically within topical chapters, and extensive indexes facilitate easy access.

Databases have been designed to store large volumes of data and to provide efficient query interfaces. Semantic Web formats are geared towards capturing domain knowledge, interlinking annotations, and offering a high-level, machine-processable view of information. However, the gigantic amount of such useful information makes efficient management of it increasingly difficult, undermining the possibility of transforming it into useful knowledge.

The research presented by De Virgilio, Giunchiglia and Tanca tries to bridge the two worlds in order to leverage the efficiency and scalability of database-oriented technologies to support an ontological high-level view of data and metadata. The contributions present and analyze techniques for semantic information management, by taking advantage of the synergies between the logical basis of the Semantic Web and the logical foundations of data management. The book's leitmotif is to propose models and methods especially tailored to represent and manage data that is appropriately structured for easier machine processing on the Web.

After two introductory chapters on data management and the Semantic Web in general, the remaining contributions are grouped into five parts on Semantic Web Data Storage, Reasoning in the Semantic Web, Semantic Web Data Querying, Semantic Web Applications, and Engineering Semantic Web Systems. The handbook-like presentation makes this volume an important reference on current work and a source of inspiration for future development, targeting academic and industrial researchers as well as graduate students in Semantic Web technologies or database design.

A comprehensive exploration of the increasing availability of health information on the Internet. The accessibility of health information on the Internet has revolutionized access to clinical information for health practitioners and patients. This access to information has the potential to make a major contribution to health care. However, the effective use of this accessibility depends on an understanding of all the issues involved, from the underlying technologies and economic pressures, to questions of how best to manage quality and privacy, how people seek and use information, and what the barriers to its use are. Cullen's book examines the extent of health information on the Internet, the providers of websites and their content, and outlines the nature of the paradigm shift affecting knowledge in the health sector.

With the advent of new technologies and governmental regulation, notably the Telecommunications Act of 1996, not only has the broadcast industry changed dramatically, but also the laws covering the management and its human resources. Executives must know and understand these changes to operate within the law and to make best use of their people. With careful attention to scholarly accuracy and the latest thinking, Scott's book approaches the crucial human resource problems in broadcasting with a hands-on awareness of what really goes on among broadcasting industry people and the organizations that depend on them. Scott writes for practitioners and provides the information they can use daily, supplying academic professionals and students of broadcasting management with an important resource.

Chapter 1 briefly describes the broadcast industry, with special attention to significant technological changes and regulations. Chapter 2 examines the standard regulatory challenges faced by broadcasters. Chapters 3 and 4 review the major management and motivational theories over the past 150 years. These theories are then critiqued and applied to current personnel problems. The section on broadcast ethics discusses moral and ethical frameworks to help managers make the right decisions. In Chapter 5, the duties of the human resource director are noted along with pertinent EEOC laws banning discrimination. Chapter 6 reviews the employment process, including interviewing, training, performance reviews, progressive discipline, and the proper, legal method to terminate an employee. Chapter 7 enumerates the duties and responsibilities of the programming area including the operations manager, chief engineer, program director, and other department heads. Types of radio and television programming are discussed along with effective scheduling strategies. The book concludes with Chapter 8, Sales, which includes discussions of the Arbitron and Nielsen ratings organizations, sales proposals, and duties of the sales personnel.

Real World Applications of Semantic Web Technology and Ontology is a professional book and provides a series of case studies which give examples of real benefits to be derived from the adoption of semantic web based ontologies in real world situations, such as telecommunication, B2B integration, tourism, education and more. Real World Applications of Semantic Web Technology and Ontology is designed for practitioners in industry, as well researchers and graduate-level students in computer science.

Hypertext/hypermedia systems and user-model-based adaptive systems in the areas of learning and information retrieval have for a long time been considered as two mutually exclusive approaches to information access. Adaptive systems tailor information to the user and may guide the user in the information space to present the most relevant material, taking into account a model of the user's goals, interests and preferences. Hypermedia systems, on the other hand, are `user neutral': they provide the user with the tools and the freedom to explore an information space by browsing through a complex network of information nodes. Adaptive hypertext and hypermedia systems attempt to bridge the gap between these two approaches. Adaptation of hypermedia systems to each individual user is increasingly needed. With the growing size, complexity and heterogeneity of current hypermedia systems, such as the World Wide Web, it becomes virtually impossible to impose guidelines on authors concerning the overall organization of hypermedia information. The networks therefore become so complex and unstructured that the existing navigational tools are no longer powerful enough to provide orientation on where to search for the needed information. It is also not possible to identify appropriate pre-defined paths or subnets for users with certain goals and knowledge backgrounds since the user community of hypermedia systems is usually quite inhomogeneous. This is particularly true for Web-based applications which are expected to be used by a much greater variety of users than any earlier standalone application. A possible remedy for the negative effects of the traditional `one-size-fits-all' approach in the development of hypermedia systems is to equip them with the ability to adapt to the needs of their individual users. A possible way of achieving adaptivity is by modeling the users and tailoring the system's interactions to their goals, tasks and interests. In this sense, the notion of adaptive hypertext/hypermedia comes naturally to denote a hypertext or hypermedia system which reflects some features of the user and/or characteristics of his system usage in a user model, and utilizes this model in order to adapt various behavioral aspects of the system to the user. This book is the first comprehensive publication on adaptive hypertext and hypermedia. It is oriented towards researchers and practitioners in the fields of hypertext and hypermedia, information systems, and personalized systems. It is also an important resource for the numerous developers of Web-based applications. The design decisions, adaptation methods, and experience presented in this book are a unique source of ideas and techniques for developing more usable and more intelligent Web-based systems suitable for a great variety of users. The practitioners will find it important that many of the adaptation techniques presented in this book have proved to be efficient and are ready to be used in various applications.

"Best of the Web - Geography" is the first title in a new series of evaluative guides, which guide the reader through the best web sites within a subject area. The book is compiled with the reader in mind and has a very clear, consistent and systematic layout.

A large number of sites have been evaluated. The book contains information on geographical sites around the world. Only sites, which are considered to be informative, reliable and stable have been included. All the sites listed will provide valuable information within this subject area.

The information given for each site includes: title, URL, owner/maintainer, server location, and a full description.

This is an excellent guide, which will be invaluable to anyone seeking geographical information on the Web. It is an essential reference source for librarians and information officers, students and library users in the academic, public and commercial sectors.

Middleware Networks: Concept, Design and Deployment of Internet Infrastructure describes a framework for developing IP Service Platforms and emerging managed IP networks with a reference architecture from the AT&T Labs GeoPlex project. The main goal is to present basic principles that both the telecommunications industry and the Internet community can see as providing benefits for service-related network issues. As this is an emerging technology, the solutions presented are timely and significant. Middleware Networks: Concept, Design and Deployment of Internet Infrastructure illustrates the principles of middleware networks, including Application Program Interfaces (APIs), reference architecture, and a model implementation. Part I begins with fundamentals of transport, and quickly transitions to modern transport and technology. Part II elucidates essential requirements and unifying design principles for the Internet. These fundamental principles establish the basis for consistent behavior in view of the explosive growth underway in large-scale heterogeneous networks. Part III demonstrates and explains the resulting architecture and implementation. Particular emphasis is placed upon the control of resources and behavior. Reference is made to open APIs and sample deployments. Middleware Networks: Concept, Design and Deployment of Internet Infrastructure is intended for a technical audience consisting of students, researchers, network professionals, software developers, system architects and technically-oriented managers involved in the definition and deployment of modern Internet platforms or services. Although the book assumes a basic technical competency, as it does not provide remedial essentials, any practitioner will find this useful, particularly those requiring an overview of the newest software architectures in the field.

With contributions by leading scientists in the field, this book gives the first comprehensive overview of the results of the seminal SmartKom project - one of the most advanced multimodal dialogue systems worldwide.

As we interact online we are creating new kinds of knowledge and community. How are these communities formed? How do we know whether to trust them as sources of information? In other words, Should we believe Wikipedia? This book explores what community is, what knowledge is, how the internet facilitates new kinds of community, and how knowledge is shaped through online collaboration and conversation. Along the way the author tackles issues such as how we represent ourselves online and how this shapes how we interact, why there is so much bad behavior online and what we can do about it. And the most important question of all: What can we as internet users and designers do to help the internet to bring out the best in us all?

Even though the semantic Web is a relatively new and dynamic area of research, a whole suite of components, standards, and tools have already been developed around it. Using a concrete approach, Introduction to the Semantic Web and Semantic Web Services builds a firm foundation in the concept of the semantic Web, its principal technologies, its real-world applications, and its relevant coding examples. This introductory yet comprehensive book covers every facet of this exciting technology. After an introduction to the semantic Web concept, it discusses its major technical enablers and the relationships among these components. The author then presents several applications of the semantic Web, including Swoogle, FOAF, and a detailed design of a semantic Web search engine. The book concludes with discussions on how to add semantics to traditional Web service descriptions and how to develop a search engine for semantic Web services. Covering the building blocks of an advanced Web technology, this practical resource equips you with the tools to further explore the world of the semantic Web on your own.

The Internet has redefined how maps are used. No longer restricted to paper, maps are now transmitted almost instantly and delivered to the user in a fraction of the time required to distribute maps on paper. They are viewed in a more timely fashion. The Internet presents the map user with both a faster method of map distribution and different forms of mapping. This book provides an international perspective on this growing area of information dissemination.

Web search engines are not just indispensable tools for finding and accessing information online, but have become a defining component of the human condition and can be conceptualized as a complex behavior embedded within an individual's everyday social, cultural, political, and information-seeking activities. This book investigates Web search from the non-technical perspective, bringing together chapters that represent a range of multidisciplinary theories, models, and ideas.

It's a bargain! The definitive guide to buying and selling success on eBay - fully updated for 2020 Want to know the best way to get rid of some of that clutter laying around the house and make some cash? Or sell that beautiful jewelry you made recently? It might be time to take a quick trip to a market with more than 175 million buyers and start a global bidding war. eBay remains the easiest way to sell to hungry consumers worldwide and to uncover incredible bargains and unique items for yourself in the process. Marsha Collier, longtime eBay business owner and one of their first elite PowerSellers, shares 20+ years of expertise to fast-track you to becoming a trusted buyer and seller on the site. You'll find out how to set up your account, market effectively, and master shipping and payment, as well as how to find the best bargains for yourself and close those sweet, sweet deals. Establish your eBay store Find techniques to make your listings stand out Make money and friends with social media Bid or buy outright Whether you're a bargain hunter or bargain seller, declutterer or aspiring eBay tycoon, eBay for Dummies has what you need. Put your bid on it right now!

This volume explores the nature of the Internet's impact on civil society, addressing the following central questions: is the Internet qualitatively different from the more traditional forms of the media? has the Internet demonstrated real potential to improve civil society through a wider provision of information, an enhancement of communication between government and citizen, or via better state transparency? does the Internet pose a threat to the coherence of civil society as people are encouraged to abandon shared media experiences and pursue narrow interests? in authoritarian states, does the Internet function as a beacon for free speech or as another tool for propaganda?

Learn how the disruptive AI chatbot is going to change school, work, and beyond ChatGPT For Dummies demystifies the artificial intelligence tool that can answer questions, write essays, and generate just about any kind of text it’s asked for. This powerful example of generative AI is widely predicted to upend education and business. In this book, you’ll learn how ChatGPT works and how you can operate it in a way that yields satisfactory results. You’ll also explore the ethics of using AI-generated content for various purposes. Written by a journalist who's been on the front lines of artificial intelligence for over a decade, this book dives deep into ChatGPT’s potential, so you can make informed decisions—without asking ChatGPT for help. Learn how ChatGPT works and how it fits into the world of generative AI Harness the power of ChatGPT to help you, and avoid letting it hinder you Write queries that deliver the kind of response you want Take a look into how the ChatGPT API interacts with other tools and platforms This just-in-time Dummies title is perfect for any life or career may be impacted by ChatGPT and other AI. ChatGPT is just the tip of the iceberg, and this book can help you prepare for the future.