From Online Social Presence to Network Social Presence

Open Network Learning Environment (ONLE) empowers network learners to create, edit, and share their knowledge via social network connection. This chapter examines the predictive relationship between social presence and ONLE interaction and scrutinizes the relationships between social presence and four dimensions of ONLE's interaction. The chapter concludes that online social presence could not serve as a predictor for all four open network learning's interactions. The results suggest both online and ONLE social presences have distinguishing dynamics in social interaction. ONLE focuses on “social” and “networking” linkages to transform online learners into “network learners” to project their preferred “network social presence” rather than online social presence. This chapter proposes the Open network linkage design model, which is a “Linkage Architecture” that links multiple network resources, network learners, and Web 2.0 tools to allow learners, instructors, and other stakeholders to construct and to share their Personal Learning Environments within the human network.

Co-Creation between Food Allergy Customers and Restaurants using Mobile Devices

Dealing with food allergies in the restaurant industry is becoming more important as more customers have needs, and restaurants are concerned with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The objective of this chapter is to suggest how to provide information to facilitate the communication between the restaurant industry and the food allergy customers' families who want to enjoy dining out. As the first step, the authors conduct an interview with a major company in the restaurant industry to parallel the research of food allergy customers' families in order to identify communication problems. In the second step, they develop a mobile service to support communication between costomers and restaurants. Lastly, as the third step, the authors set up a focus group interview to verify usability of the mobile service. They find that there are many customers (9-55%), who are allergic to the 7 specific allergens, but there are also customers who are allergic to ingredients from the 25 allergens, such as sesame (12%), and who are allergic to multiple ingredients. The authors found that the lack of information about ingredients and the lack of knowledge of the employees are responsible for the inconsiderate customer service and misses in operation, leading to communication problems. The results of the study reveal co-creation strategies enhance customer knowledge of food and create a shared environment of information value. The communication support tool utilizing the touch panel mobile device developed in this study gained favorable reviews from customers' families.

Residential Dynamics in the Wake of Katrina

The increased racial and ethnic diversity experienced by the United States in recent decades has vividly transformed this nation's urban landscapes. In New Orleans, Louisiana this transformative process was dramatically enhanced and accelerated by the disruptive impact of Hurricane Katrina, a tropical storm that devastated many of the area's residential neighborhoods. The displacement and turmoil brought on by this event, and the rebuilding efforts that followed, generated a residential geography that varied considerably from the one that existed prior to the storm. This chapter builds upon earlier work that investigates the impacts these processes had on the changing levels of residential segregation evident among racial and/or ethnic groups in New Orleans from 2000 to 2010. Empirical analysis entailed the measurement of two dimensions of segregation evident among Non-Hispanic whites, African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. Measures of residential exposure were decomposed in order to investigate the relative impacts of metropolitan-wide compositional change and intra-urban redistributive change on segregation among the four groups. Irrespective of media reports suggesting otherwise, New Orleans did exhibit very modest forms of residential integration during the decade. However, results also suggest that some groups within New Orleans continue to exhibit “ethnic (or racial) self-selectivity,” a form of residential behavior that concentrates these groups residentially. This chapter provides compelling evidence that residential landscapes across New Orleans continue to be impacted by complex forces operating at both the neighborhood and metropolitan scales.

The Learning Curve in Emergency Preparedness

This chapter addresses post-9/11 emergency preparedness, which has been a point of scrutiny regarding the effectiveness and efficiency of response systems, the role of ICT, and how these methods affect first responders and the socially vulnerable, as well as infrastructure concerns stemming from natural and person-caused disasters. The main objective of this chapter is to describe the ongoing solutions that must be incorporated in terms of information and ICT preparation, social media communications, Community Response Grid (CRG), and social networking. The authors propose new programs that must continuously be explored with a variety of partners to assure that programs and policies for the socially marginalized are mitigated. Finally, the authors explore ways to augment the emergency learning curve through using the cooperation of government so funding and policies are in place to prevent infrastructure weakness, pre- and post-disaster, and to protect the lives and well-being of the citizenry.

Foundations for the Logic of Questions and Commands

Recent interest in logics for questions and commands has been prompted partly by a recognition that reasoned argument often involves moves that are not truth-evaluable, and partly by the use of questions and commands in most procedural programming. The authors argue that certain methodological issues must be addressed before we can agree on the purpose and nature of logics for questions and commands. They deny that formulas in such logics should correspond to sentences in ordinary language. They consider how formulas should be interpreted, focusing especially on questions. The authors argue that logics designed to capture the conditions for correct reasoning involving questions require a semantics that treats question-answer pairs as values. This emphasis brings to the fore issues about questions in premise-conclusion arguments. In both premise-conclusion and dialogical argumentation, the authors argue that logic should aim to capture moves in reasoning, not facts about sentences.

Using Open Web 3D Services and X3D for Interactive Virtual Globes

This chapter discusses how the scene graph concept, originating from computer graphics and graphics editing tools, can be used in a 3D Geoweb environment. A concept for developing and setting up Virtual Globes is described, which merges spatial data infrastructures with computer graphics technology in order to create a global coherent framework for accessing and displaying 3D assets. Using scene graph data structures for encoding, transmitting, and displaying city and landscape models imposes new requirements to geospatial data processing and analysis. Supporting transformations between coordinate reference systems is essential for geospatial system integration. They are described in detail in this chapter including matrix calculations. Streaming formats that are used to transmit 3D geo data to the consumer also need to support the scene graph concept. In this context, a Web 3D Service (W3DS) interface is used for streaming X3D encoded data in distributed web environments. An implementation of a Virtual Globe based on freely available data sets from OpenStreetMap and NASA is described as a result.

A New Perspective on Visual Design within Information Systems

This chapter proposes that the Information Systems (IS) discipline can serve as a reference discipline for the Visual Design discipline and that visual design can reciprocate as a reference discipline for IS. To this end, it offers a pluralistic framework of Visual Systems Design (VSD) where the primary focus is on how the Visual Design discipline utilizes the intellectual know-how of IS concerning systems development. Because visual design is part of the aesthetic paradigm where interpretivism rules and IS is contained in the positivist paradigm, the chapter employs a multi-paradigm, theory-building approach to bridge these two paradigms and their constituent disciplines. The implications of VSD are discussed in the remainder of the chapter.

Using Participatory GIS to Improve Community Land Use Decisions

Community land use decisions benefit from spatially explicit community preferences; yet, the methods for incorporating the preferences for intangible values are challenging to represent spatially. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an introduction to the Total Value Assessment Tool for Farmland (TVAL-Farm), a tool that incorporates scenic quality and cultural heritage elements to create an enhanced Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) model. The chapter describes the development of TVAL-Farm and its implications for farmland preservation in Western North Carolina. The enhancement of the LESA model created by TVAL-Farm provides insight and a framework on how to collect and incorporate qualitative public values within the quantitative environment of a Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Inclusion of these public values is essential for holistically valuing land parcels and understanding community land use preferences. Increased use of modern technologies in the data collection process will promote a cost-effective method of community participation and engagement.

A Technology and Process Analysis for Contemporary Identity Management Frameworks

The digital profile of a person has become one of the tradable digital commodities over the Internet. Identity management has gained increasing attention from both enterprises and government organisations, in terms of security, privacy, and trust. A considerable number of theories and techniques have been developed to deal with identity management issues using biometric multimodal approaches. In this chapter, the authors review, assess, and consolidate the research and development activities of contemporary biometric and non-biometric identity management in 21 privately and publicly funded organisations. Furthermore, they develop a taxonomy to characterise and classify these identity management frameworks into two categories: processes and technologies. The authors then study these frameworks by systematically reviewing the whole lifecycle of an identity management framework, including actors, roles, security, privacy, trust, interoperability, and federation. The goal is to provide readers with a comprehensive picture of the state of the art of the existing identity management frameworks that utilise biometric and non-biometric technologies with the aim to highlight the contemporary issues and progress in this area of identity management.

Investigating Appropriation and Reinvention along a Design Process with Adaptive Structuration Theory

The literature states that when an information system is introduced to support and manage group activities a complex pattern of actions (appropriation and reinvention) can be observed. Such actions might lead to an actual use of the system different from the desired one. The Adaptive Structuration Theory is commonly used to investigate the change in the users' perceptions about an information system and their relationship with it after such a system is implemented. Appropriation and reinvention of information systems might, however, occur during the design process, contributing in this circumstance, if properly managed, to reinforce the quality of the final artefact and the involvement of the users. With this regard, this chapter discusses the case of the design of an information system to manage archaeological finds, applying the adaptive structuration theory, with some adaptations, to the design phase of an information system. The chapter highlights the presence of appropriation and reinvention by users during the design process and suggests that some managerial actions consequent to such events might contribute to successfully design a system that balances conflicting requirements by heterogeneous groups of users, technology experts, and project leaders.