With electronic commerce growing exponentially, staying competitive through an effective e-business strategy is a tough challenge. Electronic commerce represents one of the most promising directions for generating competitive advantage at the micro level of the organization and for increasing productivity at the macro level of the economy. This is a study of the critical fundamental elements that could impact a user's perception of business-to-business and business-to-consumer electronic commerce. It examines key components and concepts of e-commerce, evaluating the critical success factors of global e-commerce, the economics of e-commerce, and the practical issues involved with e-commerce in various applications.

Discussing the extraordinary importance of Internet technologies, this volume is a single source for information on the worlds greatest network. It provides a wealth of information for the average Internet consumer, as well as an expert in the field of networking and Internet technologies.

As the Internet has become more pervasive, information disseminated through the Web grows in an exponential rate, creating a call for more universal design so more people from different backgrounds are able to access this information. ""Advances in Universal Web Design and Evaluation: Research, Trends and Opportunities"" covers various aspects of universal Web design from disabilities to cultural differences, including various aspects of Web design: prototyping, analysis, and evaluation with an emphasis on universal and inclusive design. ""Advances in Universal Web Design and Evaluation: Research, Trends and Opportunities"" highlights several prominent issues in this area such as ageing and gender issues and provides the basis of a framework for the development and evaluation of Web sites for people with special needs.

With the emergence of the Java 3D API, the creation of high quality 3D animated graphics for Java applications and applets becomes a possibility. With numerous aspects of the business, science, medical, and educational fields implementing this technology, the need for familiarity of Java 3D amplifies.""Interactive Web-Based Virtual Reality with Java 3D"" provides both advanced and novice programmers with comprehensive, detailed coverage of all of the important issues in Java 3D. This essential book delivers illustrations of essential keywords, syntax, and methods to provide an easy-to-read learning experience for the reader.

Millions of users have taken up residence in virtual worlds, and in those worlds they find opportunities to revisit and rewrite their religious lives. Robert Geraci argues that virtual worlds and video games have become a locus for the satisfaction of religious needs, providing many users with communities, a meaningful experience of history and human activity, and a sense of transcendence. Using interviews, surveys, and his own first-hand experience within the games, Geraci shows how World of Warcraft and Second Life provide participants with the opportunity to rethink what it means to be religious in the contemporary world. Not all participants use virtual worlds for religious purposes, but many online residents use them to rearrange or replace religious practice as designers and users collaborate in the production of a new spiritual marketplace. Using World of Warcraft and Second Life as case studies, this book shows that many residents now use virtual worlds to re-imagine their traditions and work to restore them to authentic sanctity, or else replace religious institutions with virtual communities that provide meaning and purpose to human life. For some online residents, virtual worlds are even keys to a post-human future where technology can help us transcend mortal life. Geraci argues that World of Warcraft and Second Life are virtually sacred because they do religious work. They often do such work without regard for and frequently in conflict with traditional religious institutions and practices; ultimately they participate in our sacred landscape as outsiders, competitors, and collaborators.

Medical internet of things (IoT)-based applications are being utilized in several industries and have been shown to provide significant advantages to users in critical health applications. Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a key role in the growth and success of medical IoT applications and IoT devices in the medical sector. To enhance revenue, improve competitive advantage, and increase consumer engagement, the use of AI with medical IoT should be encouraged in the healthcare and medical arena. Revolutionizing Healthcare Through Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things Applications provides greater knowledge of how AI affects healthcare and medical efficacy in order to improve outputs. It focuses on a thorough and comprehensive introduction to machine learning. Covering topics such as patient treatment, cyber-physical systems, and telemedicine, this premier reference source is a dynamic resource for hospital administrators, medical professionals, government officials, students and faculty of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

The previous edition provided the first resource for examining how the Internet affects our definition of who we are and our communication and work patterns. It examined how normal behavior differs from the pathological with respect to Internet use. Coverage includes how the internet is used in our social patterns: work, dating, meeting people of similar interests, how we use it to conduct business, how the Internet is used for learning, children and the Internet, what our internet use says about ourselves, and the philosophical ramifications of internet use on our definitions of reality and consciousness. Since its publication in 1998, a slew of other books on the topic have emerged, many speaking solely to internet addiction, learning on the web, or telehealth. There are few competitors that discuss the breadth of impact the internet has had on intrpersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal psychology.
Key Features
* Provides the first resource for looking at how the Internet affects our definition of who we are
* Examines the philosophical ramifications of Internet use and our definitions of self, reality, and work
* Explores how the Internet is used to meet new friends and love interests, as well as to conduct business
* Discusses what represents normal behavior with respect to Internet use

As Web technology evolves and adopts new uses and applications, the creation and proliferation of Web services continues to be an increasingly important issue for study and research. Web Services Research for Emerging Applications: Discoveries and Trends provides a comprehensive assessment of the latest developments in Web services, with chapters focused on composing and coordinating Web services, the design and development of Service Oriented Architectures, and XML security.

The massive volume of data that some medical and biological applications generate require special processing resources that guarantee privacy and security, creating a crucial need for cluster and grid computing. Biomedical Diagnostics and Clinical Technologies: Applying High-Performance Cluster and Grid Computing disseminates knowledge regarding high performance computing for medical applications and bioinformatics. Containing a defining body of research on the subject, this critical reference source includes a valuable collection of cutting-edge research chapters for those working in the broad field of medical informatics and bioinformatics.

Too often the suggestion of using games and virtual environments in an educational setting is met with skepticism and objections. Many traditionally-oriented educators are simply not aware of the benefits that come from implementing digital games into an instructional environment. Serious Games and Virtual Worlds in Education, Professional Development, and Healthcare seeks to counter these doubts by explaining how digital environments can easily become familiar and beneficial for educational and professional development. Highlighting techniques beyond the traditional practice, this reference source is useful for researchers, academics, professionals, and students interested in the benefits to implementing these games into various aspects of our environment.

XML has become the lingua franca for representing business data, for exchanging information between business partners and applications, and for adding structure
and sometimes meaning to text-based documents. XML offers some special challenges and opportunities in the area of search: querying XML can produce very precise, fine-grained results, if you know how to express and execute those queries.
For software developers and systems architects: this book teaches the most useful approaches to querying XML documents and repositories. This book will also help managers and project leaders grasp how querying XML fits into the larger context of querying and XML. Querying XML provides a comprehensive background from fundamental concepts (What is XML?) to data models (the Infoset, PSVI, XQuery Data Model), to APIs (querying XML from SQL or Java) and more.
* Presents the concepts clearly, and demonstrates them with illustrations and examples; offers a thorough mastery of the subject area in a single book.
* Provides comprehensive coverage of XML query languages, and the concepts needed to understand them completely (such as the XQuery Data Model).
* Shows how to query XML documents and data using: XPath (the XML Path Language); XQuery, soon to be the new W3C Recommendation for querying XML; XQuery's companion XQueryX; and SQL, featuring the SQL/XML
* Includes an extensive set of XQuery, XPath, SQL, Java, and other examples, with links to downloadable code and data samples."

To develop and sustain competitive advantage in the marketplace, organizations depend critically on competence and resources, knowledge and information exchanged both within and across partner organizations, and on process integration and management. ""Semantic Web Technologies and E-Business: Toward the Integrated Virtual Organization and Business Process Automation"" presents research related to the application of semantic Web technologies, including semantic service-oriented architecture, semantic content management, and semantic knowledge sharing in e-business processes. ""Semantic Web Technologies and E-Business: Toward the Integrated Virtual Organization and Business Process Automation"" compiles research from experts around the globe, bringing business, managerial, technological, and implementation issues surrounding the application of semantic Web technologies in e-business to the forefront.

During the past two decades, telecommunication technologies combined with Web-enabled technologies have created a new technology-based focus-Web-based learning and teaching. This new area has changed the concept of education around the world, creating new challenges and opportunities offered by this new technology-based concept. Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies: Opportunities and Challenges addresses many issues, trends, opportunities and problems facing colleges and universities in the effective utilization and management of Web-based learning and teaching technologies.

This book has a focus on the development and deployment of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) paradigm, discussing frameworks, methodologies, benefits and limitations, as well as providing case studies of employing the IoT vision in the industrial domain. IIoT is becoming an attractive business reality for many organisations such as manufacturing, logistics, oil and gas, energy and other utilities, mining, aviation, and many more. The opportunities for this paradigm are huge, and according to one report, the IIoT market is predicted to reach $125 billion by 2021. The driving philosophy behind the IIoT is that smart machines are better than humans at accurately capturing, analysing and communicating real-time data. The underlying technologies include distributed computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and machine-to-machine communication, with a typical IIoT system consisting of intelligent systems (applications, controllers, sensors, and security mechanisms), data communication infrastructure (cloud computing, edge computing, etc.), data analytics (to support business intelligence and corporate decision making), and most importantly the human element. The promised benefits of the IIoT include enhanced safety, better reliability, smart metering, inventory management, equipment tracking, and facilities management. There are, however, numerous issues that are also becoming the focus of active research, such as concerns regarding service availability, data security, and device communication. Lack of ubiquitous interoperability between heterogeneous devices is also a major concern. This book intends to fill a gap in the IIoT literature by providing the scientific contributions and latest developments from researchers and practitioners of international repute, focusing on frameworks, methodologies, benefits, and inherent issues/barriers to connected environments, especially in industrial settings. The intended audience includes network specialists, hardware engineers, and security experts who wish to adopt newer approaches for device connectivity, IoT security, and sensor-based devices design. University level students, researchers and practitioners will also find the latest innovation in technology and newer approaches relevant to the IIoT from a distributed computing perspective.

Over one million people write political blogs, yet a select few wield enormous power within the political blogosphere and over politics in general. Known as the "political blogging A-list", these bloggers command the majority of blogging traffic; set the agenda for the rest of the political blogosphere; and have a strong influence on politics, whether it is directly through blogging, or indirectly through influencing mainstream news media. In Making it in the Political Blogosphere, Tanni Haas profiles and interviews twenty of the world's top political bloggers, who share the secrets of their success. Despite the partisan nature of blogging, in which Liberals, Conservatives and Libertarians share the same space, the twenty bloggers are in surprising agreement about what makes a successful blogger. In securing access to the political blogging A-list, Haas has provided us with an entertaining sequence of interviews, which are invaluable to any aspiring political blogger.

Social media platforms have emerged as an influential and popular tool in the digital era. No longer limited to just personal use, the applications of social media have expanded in recent years into the business realm. Analyzing the Strategic Role of Social Networking in Firm Growth and Productivity examines the role of social media technology in organizational settings to promote business development and growth. Highlighting a range of relevant discussions from the public and private sectors, this book is a pivotal reference source for professionals, researchers, upper-level students, and academicians.