ICE-B 2007 Abstracts

Area 1 - Communication and Software Technologies and Architectures
Full Papers Short Papers
Area 2 - Web and Mobile Business Systems and Services
Full Papers Short Papers
Area 3 - Business and Social Applications
Full Papers Short Papers

Area 1 - Communication and Software Technologies and Architectures

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 64
Title:

AN ADAPTIVE SHILL BIDDING AGENT
Authors:

Jarrod Trevathan, Alan McCabe and Wayne Read
Abstract: This paper presents a software bidding agent that inserts fake bids on the seller’s behalf to inflate an auction’s price. This behaviour is referred to as shill bidding. Shill bidding is strictly prohibited by online auctioneers, as it defrauds unsuspecting buyers by forcing them to pay more for the item. The malicious bidding agent was constructed to aid in developing shill detection techniques. We have previously documented a simple shill bidding agent that incrementally increases the auction price until it reaches the desired profit target, or it becomes too risky to continue bidding. This paper presents an adaptive shill bidding agent which when used over a series of auctions with substitutable items, can revise its strategy based on bidding behaviour in past auctions. The adaptive agent applies a novel prediction technique referred to as the Extremum Consistency (EC) algorithm, to determine the optimal price to aspire for. The EC algorithm has successfully been used in handwritten signature verification for determining the maximum and minimum values in an input stream. The agent’s ability to inflate the price has been tested in a simulated marketplace and experimental results are presented.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 14
Title:

A NOVEL DYNAMIC GREEDYDUAL-SIZE REPLACEMENT STRATEGY TO MAKE TIME-CRITICAL WEB APPLICATIONS SUCCESSFUL
Authors:

Allan K. Y. Wong, Kang A. Wong, Wan W. Lin and Tharam S. Dillon
Abstract: The GreedyDual-Size (GD-Size) replacement algorithm is a static-cache-size approach that yields a higher hit ratio than the basic LRU replacement algorithm. Yet, maintaining a given hit ratio needs dynamic cache size tuning, and this can only be achieved by the MACSC (model for adaptive cache size control) model so far. Since the GD-Size yields a higher hit ratio than the basic LRU, it is proposed in this paper to replace the LRU unit in MACSC with the GD-Size algorithm. The replacement creates a new and more efficient dynamic cache size tuner, Dynamic GreedyDual-Size (DGD-Size).
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Paper Nr: 18
Title:

SPECIFICATION-DRIVEN DESIGN OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS - Design Support for Networked Embedded Software Applications
Authors:

Miroslav Sveda and Radimir Vrba
Abstract: The paper presents an approach to formal specification, verification and prototyping of networked embedded software system applications ranging from large information systems down to small components embedded e.g. in mobile devices. Main attention focuses both on architectural and behavioral specifications of either reactive or real-time activities utilizing either structured or object-oriented approach depending on application requirements. The design approach fully respecting such requirements can eliminate not only behavioral and structural faults but also security flaws caused by design errors. Reflecting current trends in engineering software-intensive systems, this contribution discusses in more detail executable specifications and rapid prototyping for structured design, and structural specifications and verifications for object-oriented design. The paper presents Asynchronous Specification Language and Class Specification Language developed for that purpose.
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Paper Nr: 59
Title:

TOWARDS A SEMANTICALLY AUGMENTED COLLABORATIVE WORKING ENVIRONMENT - Designing a Service Oriented Architecture Environment for eProfesionals
Authors:

Antonio Ruiz Martínez, M. A. Martínez-Carreras and Antonio Gómez-skarmeta
Abstract: Both social and economic changes have favored the appearance of eProfessionals as workers whose business and tasks can only be achieved using modern cooperative technologies. To be able to achieve this vision there is a need to research and develop new collaborative working environments. This is the main goal of the ECOSPACE project. As part of the research in this project, in this paper, we introduce an architecture based on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) which has been improved by means of the inclusion of semantic information. This semantic information allows us to achieve a better level of interoperability than we can provide only by using the syntactic information provided by SOA technologies.
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Paper Nr: 69
Title:

DYNAMIC RESOURCE PROVISIONING FOR SELF-ADAPTIVE HETEROGENEOUS WORKLOADS IN SMP HOSTING PLATFORMS
Authors:

Ramon Nou, Ferran Julià, Jordi Guitart and Jordi Torres
Abstract: We introduce a novel approach that allows heterogeneous applications run together on a shared hosting platform, dynamically sharing the platform’s resources. The proposed approach has been validated by a proof-of-concept prototype which uses a global processor manager to distribute the platform’s processors among two (or more) heterogeneous applications, i.e. a Tomcat application server and a Globus grid middleware. Our evaluation demonstrates the benefit of including bidirectional communication between applications and the OS for efficiently managing the resources and preventing the degradation of an applications performance, especially when the hosting platform is fully overloaded. For the sake of simplicity, we have modified the applications so that they communicate with the resource manager, although other techniques can be applied to avoid these modifications. Running different applications in a shared platform and being able to assign priorities between them provides important benefits.
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Paper Nr: 71
Title:

APPROXIMATE ANALYSIS OF A CALL CENTER WITH SKILL-BASED ROUTING
Authors:

Chul G. Park and Dong Hwang Han
Abstract: Call centers have become the prevalent contact points between many companies and their customers. By virtue of recent advances in information and communication technology, the number and size of call centers has grown dramatically. As a large portion of the operating costs are related to the labor costs, efficient design and workforce staffing are crucial for the economic success of call centers. In this context, the workforce staffing level can be modeled as mathematical optimization problem using queueing theory. In this paper, we deal with an approximate analysis of the so-called N-design call center with two types of customers, two different finite queues and two different exponential patient times. We also represent some numerical examples and show the impact of the system parameters on the performance measures.
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Paper Nr: 102
Title:

INTEGRATED DESIGN OF EVENT STREAM SERVICE SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE (ESSSA)
Authors:

Kyungeun Park, Yanggon Kim, Jinkyu Lee and Juno Chang
Abstract: This paper proposes the integrated design of an event stream service system architecture (ESSSA) which can be used as a gateway to capture and process enormous amounts of event streams continuously generated by radio frequency identification (RFID) or variable sensors over ubiquitous sensor network (USN) installed in a wide variety of locations, transfer the refined events to the various event-driven applications connected to this architecture, and allow the corresponding actions to be taken by the applications. The events continuously delivered from versatile origins and their streams are inherently uncertain, unbounded, and time-varying. Their arrival rate might severely fluctuate in some cases. Accordingly, this design focuses on the elaborate handling of the event streams by facilitating robust event gathering scheme as a front-end gateway in combination with a back-end event processing engine. The paper also contains the time-varying event query processing schemes of the ESSSA by extending the object-relational spatial database management system, ZEUS. The ESSSA can be applied as a framework for interfacing RFID or USN sensor based applications such as an enterprise resource planning system (ERP), a supply chain management system (SCM), a warehouse management system (WMS), or a centralized command and control system.
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Paper Nr: 103
Title:

THOTH - A FRAMEWORK FOR BUILDING SECURE TV BROADCASTERS NETWORKS OVER THE INTERNET
Authors:

Thiago D. Anjos, Luiz H. Freitas, Guido S. Filho and Tiago L. Salmito
Abstract: Nowadays satellite link are costly. Small TV stations can not afford such expenses and big TV stations make huge investments on such infrastructures. Instead of satellite, IPTV based technologies allow real time distribution of digital content with lower costs. Security is one of the main impairments for using IPTV on such type of applications. Considering security as a mandatory requirement we designed Thoth: a framework for creating secure virtual organizations platforms to share TV content among a scalable number of TV stations.
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Paper Nr: 121
Title:

ONTOLOGY MODEL FOR TRACEABILITY IN FOOD INDUSTRY
Authors:

Viorica R. Chifu, Ioan Salomie and Emil S. Chifu
Abstract: This paper presents a business ontology model for semantic annotation of Web services which consists of a core ontology and two categories of taxonomic trees: Business Service Description trees and Business Product Description trees. The Business Service Description trees contain generic business concepts, and the Business Product Description trees contain domain specific concepts. A business ontology for the Romanian language in the domain of traceability has been built according to this model in the framework of the Food-Trace project. The domain concepts of this ontology are organized into a domain taxonomy which is automatically built out of textual descriptions from Web sites of Romanian meat industry companies.
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Paper Nr: 81
Title:

A DOCUMENT RULES DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE BASED ON FEATURE LOGIC FOR XML DOCUMENT EXCHANGE
Authors:

Makoto Imamura, Yasuhiro Takayama, Yasuhiro Okada and Norihisa Komoda
Abstract: We propose a minimum Document Rules Description Language DRDL for XML validation and translation in web-based document exchange. DRDL has small syntax and simple semantics so that it can ease to reuse document rules. Furthermore, DRDL can describe mapping constraints from XML tree structure to table structure for web input-form generation. The technical feature of DRDL is to extend and reinterpret a Feature Logic, which has been used for representing linguistic knowledge, in order to allow existential and universal quantifiers over list-value to cope with XML. DRDL has already been applied to real systems such as elevator design support, Web-EDI, government-to-business and facility management.
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Paper Nr: 92
Title:

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT FOR COLLABORATIVE E-BUSINESS: INTEGRATING EBXML ENVIRONMENT AND LEGACY DMS
Authors:

Alessio Bechini, Andrea Tomasi and Jacopo Viotto
Abstract: It is widely known that e-business capabilities are a key requirement for a large number of modern enterprises. New B2B technologies can enable companies all around the world to collaborate in more effective and efficient ways, better satisfying the needs of their customers. The ebXML specifications are the standard solution to achieve this kind of interoperability, but they are not as widespread as traditional legacy systems yet. Enterprises typically store their knowledge inside Document Management Systems (DMS), which come in different technologies and handle system-specific metadata models. In this paper, we propose an architecture that enables enterprises to take advantage of the power and flexibility of the ebXML approach to metadata management; this is achieved without affecting in-place working systems, and with no need for a complete repository reconstruction.
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Paper Nr: 92
Title:

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT FOR COLLABORATIVE E-BUSINESS: INTEGRATING EBXML ENVIRONMENT AND LEGACY DMS
Authors:

Alessio Bechini, Andrea Tomasi and Jacopo Viotto
Abstract: It is widely known that e-business capabilities are a key requirement for a large number of modern enterprises. New B2B technologies can enable companies all around the world to collaborate in more effective and efficient ways, better satisfying the needs of their customers. The ebXML specifications are the standard solution to achieve this kind of interoperability, but they are not as widespread as traditional legacy systems yet. Enterprises typically store their knowledge inside Document Management Systems (DMS), which come in different technologies and handle system-specific metadata models. In this paper, we propose an architecture that enables enterprises to take advantage of the power and flexibility of the ebXML approach to metadata management; this is achieved without affecting in-place working systems, and with no need for a complete repository reconstruction.
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Paper Nr: 111
Title:

E-NEGOTIATION SYSTEMS DESIGN ISSUES
Authors:

Morad Benyoucef and Antonio Silva
Abstract: Most design frameworks for e-negotiation systems have focused on achieving higher efficiency and lower transaction costs and, to a lesser extent, easy development and deployment. However, they have neglected the most important element in a negotiation: the user. In fact, no framework has properly addressed usability requirements. Usability must not only be the cornerstone of e-negotiation systems, but also serve as a driver for their development. This paper presents the five phases essential to an e-negotiation system development process and addresses how usability requirements and evaluation should be used to guide the process.
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Paper Nr: 115
Title:

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE BEADS FOR AUTOMATED NEGOTIATION
Authors:

Yan Zhuang, Francis Yan, Simon Fong and Shi Meilin
Abstract: A methodology called Knowledge Beads (KB) that was proposed in our previous paper features object-oriented formatting and expressive power in defining a complex bill-of-material. In this paper, we show how this knowledge representation methodology could be used in the design of automated negotiation systems and how KB helps in giving a unified approach for representing the data throughout the process that includes evaluation, negotiation, and post-negotiation. We identify two types of knowledge namely General Knowledge and Negotiation knowledge, in the negotiation process. A methodology is proposed on how these two types of knowledge can be used in automated negotiation.
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Area 2 - Web and Mobile Business Systems and Services

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 51
Title:

SAT: A WEB-BASED INTERACTIVE ADVISOR FOR INVESTOR-READY BUSINESS PLANS
Authors:

Dietmar Jannach and Uffe Bundgaard-joergensen
Abstract: The business plan is one of the essential tools for companies to attract investors and raise venture capital. Getting a business plan "investor ready" in that context means that it has to be professionally prepared such that it answers all questions of potential investors. This, however, requires in-depth knowledge of a typical investor's expectations and viewpoints, a type of knowledge which in particular first-time entrepreneurs or small companies do not dispose of. As a consequence, significant amounts of consulting hours are required to get the business plan ready to be presented to investors. The goal of the SAT project presented in this paper is to provide an in-depth business plan advisory service over the Web. While current approaches in that area rely on static fill-out forms or checklists, the SAT tool is based on personalized interactive dialogs, knowledge-based input analysis and feedback generation, as well as on detailed financial calculations. Within the paper, we thus show how knowledge-based approaches can serve as a technological foundation for such next-generation electronic services and how the corresponding development and maintenance efforts can be minimized. The paper gives an overview on the general knowledge-based architecture of the system, discusses the integrated graphical modelling environment, and finally reports on experiences gained from the practical use of the tool.
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Paper Nr: 86
Title:

DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR WEB BASED ITS APPLICATIONS - A Proposed Architecture in Design of Intelligent Transport Systems Application
Authors:

Andrea Sponziello
Abstract: Modern ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) applications are designed on Web paradigm, exploiting third-party web services for accessing, for instance, to geographic information and routine such as cartography, route planning or weather condition services. This allows a customer to use the ITS platform as an outsourcing service, due to the Web interface, reducing maintenance costs and improving the application accessibility.The web technology creates only a basis for an easy SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) integration. In order to have a full SOA compliant ITS application we have to adopt a new perspective for the ITS applications design: from a monolithic and closed web application to open framework of services and APIs capable of user customizations.In fact, a third-party application like an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) can take many advantages by linking its vehicles, drivers, workers (and mobile resources in general) directly with real-time and historical data of the ITS. In this paper we demonstrate that integrating an ITS application developed on the Java platform with modern Scripting Engines and Languages such as Groovy, JRuby or Mozilla Rhino greatly enhances the possibility of extending and integrating the application itself with external applications.
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Paper Nr: 89
Title:

A TAXONOMY OF MOBILE LOCATION-BASED SERVICES
Authors:

Ana M. Bernardos, Paula Tarrío and José R. Casar
Abstract: This contribution aims at identifying classes of differential features of mobile location services, as a framework to understand their value chain and business models. With the purpose of recognizing LBS horizontal common features, we conceptualize a functional taxonomy from an empirical analysis of current commercial mobile location applications. Afterwards, we propose and use an evaluation model to describe mobile location services considering their technological aspects (network technology, accuracy needs, location techniques, etc.), but also the user experience (value proposal, user interaction methods and type of delivered contents or privacy management) and some related business issues (involved stakeholders, value chain and revenue model). To exemplify the proposed model, a number of in-market services are reviewed.
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Paper Nr: 90
Title:

A MIDDLEWARE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MOBILE SERVICES BASED ON AN ENTERPRISE SERVICE BUS - Mobile Service Provisioning as SOA-Integration Problem
Authors:

Michael Decker and Rebecca Bulander
Abstract: A middleware platform especially designed for the provisioning of data services for handheld computers using wireless data communication (e.g. smartphones, PDAs) has to offer a variety of different features. Some of these features have to be provided by external parties, e.g. billing or content syndication. The integration of all these features while satisfying mobile-specific challenges is a demanding task. In the article at hand we thus describe a middleware platform for mobile services which follows the idea of an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). An ESB is a communication backbone for a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based on asynchronous communication with integration capabilities like transformation or intelligent routing. Because of its specific characteristics an ESB is an appropriate fundament for mobile service provisioning.
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Paper Nr: 97
Title:

QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF CONSUMER-BASED M-COMMERCE SYSTEMS
Authors:

John Garofalakis, Antonia Stefani, Antonia Stefani and Michalis Xenos
Abstract: In m-commerce applications, the design process still lacks a systematic quality control procedure. These systems are data-intensive, user-driven, and have increasing needs for accessibility, efficiency, adaptivity, portability and competitiveness. In this paper we study the quality of the software on which retail shopping through the mobile web is based, i.e. the software part of B2C (business-to-customer) m-Commerce system. A consumer’s perception quality evaluation was conducted to reveal the quality attributes that offer insights into m-commerce systems based on the external quality characteristics of ISO9126 quality standard.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 43
Title:

SCRAWLER: A SEED-BY-SEED PARALLEL WEB CRAWLER
Authors:

Joo Y. Lee, Sang H. Lee and Yanggon Kim
Abstract: As the size of the Web grows, it becomes increasingly important to parallelize a crawling process in order to complete downloading pages in a reasonable amount of time. This paper presents the design and implementation of an effective parallel web crawler. We first present various design choices and strategies for a parallel web crawler, and describe our crawler’s architecture and implementation techniques. In particular, we investigate the URL distributor for URL balancing and the scalability of our crawler.
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Paper Nr: 49
Title:

ALGORITHM FOR SELECTION OF CONTENTS IN A LOCATION-BASED SYSTEM
Authors:

Adolfo Aumaitre, Vicente Carrillo and Francisco Javier Ortega
Abstract: This article presents a geo-referenced and personalized radio system for mobile terminals that works over wireless broadband networks. The architecture of the system allows the combination of thematic contents that are chosen by the user and contents with local information that depends in the first instance on GPS coordinates, velocity and direction of travel of the user and in the second instance on the preferences of the user, who can configure its terminal according to its interests. The requesting, downloading and playing of local information is managed by a predictive algorithm that takes into account not only the position of the terminal or the preferences of the user but also other features as the area where the information must be played and the loading time.
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Paper Nr: 83
Title:

LOCATION BASED SERVICES FOR MOBILE COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
Authors:

Christos Georgiadis, G. Melas and P. Tzamtzis
Abstract: Mobile setting considerations provide valuable issues regarding flexible mobile applications. In this paper, we indicate the advantages of an m-commerce application capable to provide users with useful information (e.g. historical buildings, shops, hotels) according to their location. First, the application creates a basic profile of the current user (type of information the user is mainly interested in). Then, in addition with the location awareness of the user’s position the application provides only useful information according to the user’s whereabouts. When the user is alerted that he is in close proximity of one place that he is interested in, he has the option to access more info about it (streaming video or photo and text). The application is implemented using the Java Micro Edition (Java ME) platform and is mainly making use of the Location API, which provides information about the device's present physical location and orientation. The customized information is stored online and is accessed only when user needs it.
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Paper Nr: 108
Title:

TOWARDS A FRAMEWORK FOR AUTOMATED E-NEGOTIATIONS
Authors:

Giannis Koumoutsos and Kleanthis Thramboulidis
Abstract: In this paper a framework to support fully automate e-negotiations is presented. A novel approach that exploits ontologies, Semantic Web Services and software agent platforms to define an architecture that favours flexible, dynamically created and adapted e-negotiations, is described. Negotiating agents can enter a negotiation area, acquire the negotiation protocol or even suggest their own in a widely understandable notation and participate. Rule-based protocol specification along with process specification for describing interactions during e-negotiations is presented.
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Paper Nr: 45
Title:

UNIVERSAL WCMS - An Open Source Web Content Management System and Customer Relationship Management for e-Business
Authors:

Vicente Galiano Ibarra, Hector Mm, David Pérez Caparrós and Juan Alejandro Palomino Benito
Abstract: Web technologies bring to the companies the opportunity to show their products and services around the world, increasing the number of potential customers. Furthermore, the evolution of these technologies in the last few years has allowed the development of Web applications to access private customer data from anywhere at any time, it is an important improvement to customers. This paper proposes an Open Source tool to create and manage a Corporate Management web Site (CMS), and to provide Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Web application without requirements of Web programming knowledge. Universal Web Content Management System accomplishes wide range of small and medium-sized businesses requirements, through high customization capability and low implementation cost.
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Paper Nr: 45
Title:

UNIVERSAL WCMS - An Open Source Web Content Management System and Customer Relationship Management for e-Business
Authors:

Vicente Galiano Ibarra, Hector Mm, David Pérez Caparrós and Juan Alejandro Palomino Benito
Abstract: Web technologies bring to the companies the opportunity to show their products and services around the world, increasing the number of potential customers. Furthermore, the evolution of these technologies in the last few years has allowed the development of Web applications to access private customer data from anywhere at any time, it is an important improvement to customers. This paper proposes an Open Source tool to create and manage a Corporate Management web Site (CMS), and to provide Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Web application without requirements of Web programming knowledge. Universal Web Content Management System accomplishes wide range of small and medium-sized businesses requirements, through high customization capability and low implementation cost.
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Paper Nr: 76
Title:

OPTIMIZING REVENUE - Service Provisioning Systems with QoS Contracts
Authors:

Jennie Palmer, I. Mitrani, M. Mazzucco, P. McKee and M. Fisher
Abstract: We consider the problem of how best to structure and control a distributed computer system containing many processors, subject to Quality of Service contracts. Services of different types are offered, with different charges for running jobs and penalties for failing to meet the QoS requirements. The aim is to choose the number of servers allocated to each service type, and the admission criteria for jobs of that type, so as to maximize the total average revenue per unit time. The performance of a fast allocation heuristic is evaluated.
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Paper Nr: 77
Title:

A NEW SYSTEM DESIGN TO ENHANCE LOCATION-BASED SERVICES AND POSITIONING ACCURACY
Authors:

S. Almasri and Z. Hunaiti
Abstract: Location Based Services (LBS) provide resources and information depending on the user’s location. In This paper three issues related to LBS as a pedestrian navigation system have been identified: the accuracy of positioning, the volume size of data, and data presentation to the end user. Addressing these issues will enhance the performance of the system. The proposed system allows the end users to access vital, accurate and updated information based on their location. Since this location is not fully accurate, particularly in the urban environments where users are most likely use this system, a new algorithm combines correction data available from SISNeT can be utilised on the information received from Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver to enhance the positioning accuracy. Moreover, to overcome the volume of data problem, a new mechanism can be used to allow the users to load only the data of the town they are travelling to (Zone based), and not the entire GIS database, depending on their user-profile (e.g. businessman, tourist, etc.). And to overcome the problem that most of the users are facing (dealing with maps), an alternative technique can be used which allows providing information in a form of photos, voice and short videos.
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Paper Nr: 85
Title:

FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING THE IMPLICATIONS OF ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTIONS TO MARKET STRUCTURES
Authors:

Nonna Kostamo, Otso Kassinen, Timo Koskela and Mika Ylianttila
Abstract: Understanding the economical effects of a technology has become more and more important. This has created a need for a conceptual framework to analyze the economic implications of technologies already in their design stage. So far, most of the research has been done in retrospect. Our framework is an organized approach to analyze this complex multidisciplinary task. The framework is experimented by analysing a case of a personalized mobile context-aware community web calendar. The market structure analysis concentrates on three solutions designed for the collection and distribution of user context and community information, an essential functionality for the service being developed.
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Paper Nr: 104
Title:

A HYBRID GA-BASED COLLABORATIVE FILTERING MODEL FOR ONLINE RECOMMENDERS
Authors:

Yvonne Ho, Simon Fong and Yan Zhuang
Abstract: Online recommenders have been a prevalent tool in e-Business that assists users to find items of their interest. Different algorithms that predict scores based on the heuristic of similarity of other peoples’ taste to that of the user have been experimented by many researchers. However most of the current recommendation systems take all users with common items as neighbors in their measurement, which may induce noise and hence inaccurate prediction. In this paper, we attempt to solve this problem by proposing a hybrid model that combines content-based filtering and collaborative filtering for online recommenders. The model exploits merits from these two techniques by selectively encoding both the user profiles and the product information into the same chromosomes in a Genetic Algorithm. Our experiments demonstrated that this new approach gives relatively high accuracy rate in predicting user preferences.
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Paper Nr: 106
Title:

MOBILE APPLICATIONS AND SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE INTEGRATION - A Practical Approach in Incorporating Mobility with Enterprise Information System
Authors:

Guillaume Koum, Augustin Yekel, Tam Sangbong, Raoul Martial Tsamo and Arnaud Fosso
Abstract: Mobile Applications and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) are two aspects of Computer Science which offer to Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) more agility and flexibility in order to follow the constant evolution of enterprises business. However, the inadequacy of hardware resources and wireless network availability and bandwidth constitutes a major constraint when developing any mobile application. The challenge is exacerbated for developers when trying to integrate these applications with EIS which are naturally heavier. This document presents this integration in the context of an EIS built on SOA. Added to the basic tools needed for local data storage and communication with the server, a mediator (on the device) is introduced to facilitate interactions between the application and the service. We also study reasons which lead us to the choice of implementing a gateway on the server, in order to facilitate the service consumption.
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Paper Nr: 128
Title:

PLAYING MOBILE GAMES: CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
Authors:

Krassie Petrova and Haixia Qu
Abstract: The paper presents the design and the results of a project studying the adoption of mobile gaming (playing mobile games) in the New Zealand youth market. An adoption model extending TAM (Technology Adoption Model) was used, with intention to use as the dependent variable. Data were gathered from a sample group consisting of undergraduate university students. It was found that adopters of mobile gaming were likely to be male as well as female, and also that the group surveyed exhibited a behaviour towards relatively high spending on mobile entertainment (in proportion to income). Perceived expressiveness was found to be the most significant influential factor affecting intention to use, while perceived enjoyment was found to be motivated by perceived ease of use. Recommendations regarding developing and offering mobile games are also included.
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Area 3 - Business and Social Applications

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 31
Title:

A CREDIT CARD USAGE BEHAVIOUR ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK - A DATA MINING APPROACH
Authors:

Chieh-Yuan Tsai
Abstract: Credit card is one of the most popular e-payment approaches in current online e-commerce. To consolidate valuable customers, card issuers invest a lot of money to maintain good relationship with their customers. Although several efforts have been done in studying card usage motivation, few researches emphasize on credit card usage behaviour analysis when time periods change from t to t+1. To address this issue, an integrated data mining approach is proposed in this paper. First, the customer profile and their transaction data at time period t are retrieved from databases. Second, a LabelSOM neural network groups customers into segments and identify critical characteristics for each group. Third, a fuzzy decision tree algorithm is used to construct usage behaviour rules of interesting customer groups. Finally, these rules are used to analysis the behaviour changes between time periods t and t+1. An implementation case using a practical credit card database provided by a commercial bank in Taiwan is illustrated to show the benefits of the proposed framework.
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Paper Nr: 41
Title:

ARE MEDIA CUES REALLY A KEY DRIVER TOWARDS TRUST IN BUSINESS TO CONSUMER E-COMMERCE
Authors:

Khalid Al-Diri, Dave Hobbs and Rami Qahwaji
Abstract: E-commerce B2C yet suffers from consumers’ lack of trust, and most of the research in e-commerce field focuses on how to build trust through cues that appeal to pursue consumers to do on-line purchasing. Since the nature of the Internet is lack of interpersonal exchanges that enhance trust behaviour, in this study we compared on-line consumers’ initial trust on four on-line vendors with the interpersonal cues of a person representing customer supports (Western photo, Saudi photo, Western video clip) and without photo through an extensive lab experiment. We found that the photograph and the video clip enhanced the initial trust than no photo and that the effect of the culture was stronger with Saudi than Western photo. Nevertheless, we presented many results that benefit the academic and the practitioner respectively.
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Paper Nr: 44
Title:

WE-INTENTION TO USE INSTANT MESSAGING FOR COLLABORATIVE WORK: THE MODERATING EFFECT OF EXPERIENCE
Authors:

Aaron X. Shen, Christy M. Cheung, Matthew Lee and Weiping Wang
Abstract: In response to an increase in both team collaboration and real-time dynamics in the current business environment, more and more companies adopt instant messaging as a means of improving team effectiveness and efficacy and reducing delays in decision making. This study offers a novel exploration of co-workers’ we-intention to use instant messaging for collaborative work by investigating two group-level determinants – group norm and social identity – and considering the mediating effect of desire. A survey (n=482) was conducted to test the differences between high and low experience respondents. The research model explains 57.5% of the variance in we-intention. Research results show that desire partially mediates the effects of group norm and social identity on we-intention. The relationships between group norm and desire, as well as between group norm and we-intention, are found to be stronger for low experience group, in contrast, the relationships between social identity and desire, as well as between social identity and we-intention, are found to be stronger for high experience group. Implications of this study are provided for both researchers and practitioners.
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Paper Nr: 48
Title:

AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE IMPACT OF CORPORATE STRATEGY AND EXISTING BUYER-SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIPS ON THE USE OF ELECTRONIC PROCUREMENT APPLICATIONS IN US-BASED FIRMS
Authors:

Dawn Pearcy and Larry Giunipero
Abstract: Given the emerging nature of e-procurement, additional empirical research is necessary to understand the antecedents of its use. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to empirically test the relationship between the firm’s corporate strategy as well as the strategic importance of the existing buyer-supplier relationship and the use of nine different e-procurement applications. A total of 128 purchasing/supply management professionals completed the self-administered survey. The data revealed a positive, significant relationship between the firms’ use of a low-cost corporate strategy and e-procurement applications which are considered market mechanisms. The data revealed a negative, significant relationship between the firms’ use of a low-cost corporate strategy and e-procurement applications that are considered coordination flows. The data did not support a significant relationship between the strategic importance of the existing buyer-supplier relationship and use of the various e-procurement applications.
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Paper Nr: 52
Title:

E-BUSINESS @ SCHOOL - The Technology Adoption Advantage
Authors:

Ratvinder Grewal
Abstract: eBusiness is an emerging interdisciplinary field combining commerce and computer science. Businesses that successfully implement technology often have an advantage, in streamlined internal and external data processing. The lack of graduates with eBusiness expertise able to successfully implement technology has created the need for a specialized programme. This paper shares the successes and challenges of being one of the first programmes in Canada to implement an eBusiness Science undergraduate programme.
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Paper Nr: 62
Title:

CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS FOR INTERNET HEALTH INFORMATION MARKET SEGMENTATION IN KOREA
Authors:

Moon-Sun Hwang, Heui Sug Jo and Hwa-Jong Kim
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to segment the Internet health information market of health counselling, disease consultation, health commodity shopping, and hospital information in Korea by using decision tree, a widely used data mining algorithm. Telephone survey with structured question was performed, and finally 8,656 completed interviews were used for the analysis out of 10,325 respondents of Kangwon province and Incheon city in Korea. The survey was conducted from July 2006 to October 2006. We used CHAID algorithm where chi-square statistics is used to find optimum split. Dependent variables are experience of the Internet health information access, disease consultation, health commodity shopping, and hospital selection, while independent variables are demographic data and health conditions. Among the 8,656 samples, 1,665 (19.2%) have used the Internet for health information search during the previous year. The main purposes of the Internet search was, allowing plural choice, for general health tips(64.2%), disease consultation(32.0%), health commodity shopping(23.7%), and hospital selection(19.3%). We found that each section of the Internet health information had its own devoted customers, and therefore customized market segmentation was strongly required. As a result, the Internet search pattern and customer behavior with health information in Korea was grasped, and the result would be useful to analysis the Internet health information market segmentation in Korea.
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Paper Nr: 73
Title:

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF INTERNET SHOPPING IN JAPAN: CUSTOMER-CENTRIC AND WEBSITE-CENTRIC PERSPECTIVES
Authors:

Kanokwan Atchariyachanvanich, Hitoshi Okada and Noboru Sonehara
Abstract: The results from a study conducted on the effect of factors on the customers’ attitude toward using Internet shopping in Japan are presented in this paper. The research model was an extended version of the consumers’ acceptance of virtual stores model with the addition of a new factor, need specificity, grouping critical success factors based on their customer-centric and website-centric perspectives sources, and examining how the differences in customer characteristics affect the actual use of Internet shopping. The results of an online questionnaire filled out by 1,215 Japanese online customers pointed out that gender, education level, innovativeness, net-orientation, and need specificity, factors of customer-centric perspective, have positive impacts on the actual use of Internet shopping. The implication also shows that Japanese online customers do not consider the service quality of Internet shopping, a factor of the website-centric perspective, as significantly as offline customers do.
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Paper Nr: 91
Title:

TOWARDS A GENERIC FRAUD ONTOLOGY IN E-GOVERNMENT
Authors:

Panos Alexopoulos, Kostas Kafentzis, Xanthi Benetou, Tassos Tagaris and Panos Georgolios
Abstract: Fraud detection and prevention systems are based on various technological paradigms but the two prevailing approaches are rule-based reasoning and data mining. In this paper we claim that ontologies, an increasingly popular and widely accepted knowledge representation paradigm, can help both of these approaches be more efficient as far as fraud detection is concerned and we introduce a methodology for building domain specific fraud ontologies in the e-government domain. The main characteristic of this methodology is a generic fraud ontology that serves as a common ontological basis on which the various domain specific fraud ontologies can be built. The methodology along with the generic fraud ontology consist a powerful conceptual tool through which knowledge engineers can easily adapt ontology-based fraud detection systems to virtually any e-government domain.
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Paper Nr: 98
Title:

COMPLIANCE OF PRIVACY POLICIES WITH LEGAL REGULATIONS - Compliance of Privacy Policies with Canadian PIPEDA
Authors:

Nolan Zhang, Peter Bodorik and Dawn Jutla
Abstract: The W3C’s Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) is a set of standards that provides for representation of web-sites’ privacy policies using XML so that a privacy policy can be automatically retrieved and inspected by a user’s agent. The agent can compare the site’s policy with the user’s preferences on collection and use of his/her private data. If the site’s privacy policy is incompatible with the user’s preferences, the agent informs the user on the privacy policy’s shortcomings. The P3P specification defines XML tags, schema for data, set of uses, recipients, and other disclosures for expressing web-sites’ privacy policies. It is important for the user’s agent to determine whether the site’s privacy policy actually satisfies privacy regulations that are applicable to the user’s current transaction. We show that the P3P specification is not sufficiently expressive to capture all of the legal requirements that may apply to a transaction. Consequently, to determine whether or not a site’s privacy policy satisfies the requirements of a particular law in question, the site’s privacy policy expressed in the natural language must also be retrieved and examined. To determine which legal requirements of a particular law are satisfied by the site’s P3P privacy policy, which is an XML document, we examine the document’s XML tags - a relatively straight-forward task. To determine whether legal requirements, which cannot be satisfied by using P3P XML tags, are present in the site’s privacy policy expressed in the natural language, we use standard classification algorithms. As a proof of concept, we apply our approach to the Canadian PIPEDA privacy law and show up to 88% accuracy in identifying the legal privacy clauses concerning the Safeguard principle in privacy statements.
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Paper Nr: 98
Title:

COMPLIANCE OF PRIVACY POLICIES WITH LEGAL REGULATIONS - Compliance of Privacy Policies with Canadian PIPEDA
Authors:

Nolan Zhang, Peter Bodorik and Dawn Jutla
Abstract: The W3C’s Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) is a set of standards that provides for representation of web-sites’ privacy policies using XML so that a privacy policy can be automatically retrieved and inspected by a user’s agent. The agent can compare the site’s policy with the user’s preferences on collection and use of his/her private data. If the site’s privacy policy is incompatible with the user’s preferences, the agent informs the user on the privacy policy’s shortcomings. The P3P specification defines XML tags, schema for data, set of uses, recipients, and other disclosures for expressing web-sites’ privacy policies. It is important for the user’s agent to determine whether the site’s privacy policy actually satisfies privacy regulations that are applicable to the user’s current transaction. We show that the P3P specification is not sufficiently expressive to capture all of the legal requirements that may apply to a transaction. Consequently, to determine whether or not a site’s privacy policy satisfies the requirements of a particular law in question, the site’s privacy policy expressed in the natural language must also be retrieved and examined. To determine which legal requirements of a particular law are satisfied by the site’s P3P privacy policy, which is an XML document, we examine the document’s XML tags - a relatively straight-forward task. To determine whether legal requirements, which cannot be satisfied by using P3P XML tags, are present in the site’s privacy policy expressed in the natural language, we use standard classification algorithms. As a proof of concept, we apply our approach to the Canadian PIPEDA privacy law and show up to 88% accuracy in identifying the legal privacy clauses concerning the Safeguard principle in privacy statements.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 5
Title:

DEVELOPING A SEMANTIC WEB MATCHMAKER FOR MULTIMEDIA LEARNING OBJECTS - A Case Study on Creating a Web Service Interface for OO-JDrew
Authors:

Jinan Fiaidhi, Sabah Mohammed and Marshall Hahn
Abstract: This paper introduces a matchmaker to discover multimedia learning objects on the semantic Web. The increase in learning objects and lack of semantic base in search mechanisms of the semantic Web discovery engine (UDDI) make it difficult for clients to find a required learning object service (LOs). Using metadata to find distributed educational Web services or LOs that meet one’s functional requirements is only the first step. LOs requestors may have additional requirements such as presenting a flexible query to find a relevant multimedia course. The LOs need to employ a matchmaking engine that can process the rules and conditions of the requesters. This article provides a draft implementation of an Apache Axis matchmaker, which embeds the OO-jDREW rule-based engine. The developed first prototype provides a lightweight and customizable reasoner for allocating multimedia LOs courseware presentations.
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Paper Nr: 33
Title:

A MEASURE FOR THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE INTERNET ERA
Authors:

Guendalina Capece
Abstract: The drive to introduce this new parameter arose when we asked ourselves two crucial questions about capabilities to obtain and maintain distinctivity in the Internet era. The first question is: “how can nowadays an e-business idea be inimitable, non-substitutable, non-transferable and innovative and different from the existing ones?”. While the second question is: “how this can be measured?”. In this paper we propose an answer to these questions by defining a metrics and a parameter, called e-distinctivity, that quantitatively measures the fundamental distinctivity aspects of an e-business idea. To evaluate the e-distinctivity of an e-business idea we used a reference user panel. The assessments and results on the parameter have been evaluated on a panel of eighteen e-business enterprises, taken as reference examples of successful implementation of e-business ideas. At the end of the paper we finally discuss the results and underline the advantages of this methodology.
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Paper Nr: 34
Title:

CORPORATE ADVERTISING WEB SITES - Effectiveness in Terms of Promotion, Communication and Relationship Marketing
Authors:

Fotini Patsioura, Maro Vlachopoulou and Eleonora-Ioulia Malama
Abstract: Academic research regarding advertising websites effectiveness and evaluation has been focused on two areas: defining factors that produce or affect advertising “effects” and providing guidance on their development and optimisation based on usability and functionality issues. This paper proposes and presents a conceptual framework of criteria for measuring the overall effectiveness of corporate advertising web sites supporting the idea of being used as a complete tool of promotion and relationship marketing, incorporating several approaches of previous related advertising effectiveness models. Primary research was conducted with the participation of 160 undergraduate and postgraduate students of the Applied Informatics Department. The importance of each criterion towards specific advertising effectiveness indicators and advertising effects was evaluate.
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Paper Nr: 34
Title:

CORPORATE ADVERTISING WEB SITES - Effectiveness in Terms of Promotion, Communication and Relationship Marketing
Authors:

Fotini Patsioura, Maro Vlachopoulou and Eleonora-Ioulia Malama
Abstract: Academic research regarding advertising websites effectiveness and evaluation has been focused on two areas: defining factors that produce or affect advertising “effects” and providing guidance on their development and optimisation based on usability and functionality issues. This paper proposes and presents a conceptual framework of criteria for measuring the overall effectiveness of corporate advertising web sites supporting the idea of being used as a complete tool of promotion and relationship marketing, incorporating several approaches of previous related advertising effectiveness models. Primary research was conducted with the participation of 160 undergraduate and postgraduate students of the Applied Informatics Department. The importance of each criterion towards specific advertising effectiveness indicators and advertising effects was evaluate.
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Paper Nr: 34
Title:

CORPORATE ADVERTISING WEB SITES - Effectiveness in Terms of Promotion, Communication and Relationship Marketing
Authors:

Fotini Patsioura, Maro Vlachopoulou and Eleonora-Ioulia Malama
Abstract: Academic research regarding advertising websites effectiveness and evaluation has been focused on two areas: defining factors that produce or affect advertising “effects” and providing guidance on their development and optimisation based on usability and functionality issues. This paper proposes and presents a conceptual framework of criteria for measuring the overall effectiveness of corporate advertising web sites supporting the idea of being used as a complete tool of promotion and relationship marketing, incorporating several approaches of previous related advertising effectiveness models. Primary research was conducted with the participation of 160 undergraduate and postgraduate students of the Applied Informatics Department. The importance of each criterion towards specific advertising effectiveness indicators and advertising effects was evaluate.
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Paper Nr: 40
Title:

EMBRACING E-COMMERCE: A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE OF ON-LINE SHOPPING IN SAUDI ARABIA
Authors:

Khalid Al-Diri, Dave Hobbs and Rami Qahwaji
Abstract: The growing use of the Internet in Saudi Arabia provides a developing prospect for E-shopping. Despite the overwhelming potential of online shopping in this country, there remains a lack of knowledge and potential impact on consumers regarding this matter. This paper, part of a larger study of 144 Saudi Internet Users aims to establish a preliminary evaluation and understanding of the characteristics of online shopping. It explores their information seeking patterns as well as their motivations and concerns for this rapidly evolving technology. Consumers still lack a trust in the vendor’s websites through concerns related to security, privacy when dealing with online vendors, the Saudi Internet Network and the dominant English language as a medium of interaction. Whilst motivating factors for the Saudi public to utilise online shopping have shown to be convenience, unavailability of offline products/services and price, we present and discuss a range of findings and recommend changes that will represent a paradigm shift that is required to achieve a broader acceptance and diffusion of online shopping in Saudi Arabia.
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Paper Nr: 60
Title:

CLASSIFICATION OF STUDENTS USING THEIR DATA TRAFFIC WITHIN AN E-LEARNING PLATFORM
Authors:

Cristian Mihaescu and Dumitru D. Burdescu
Abstract: In this paper we present the results of am analysis process that is used to classify students using the quantity of the data traffic they transfer. We have performed students classification using data representing their activity (D.D Burdescu et. al. Dec. 2006). Generally speaking the correlation between executed actions and traffic is weak because dependencies are too weak or too complex (M. Sydow, 2005). Still, we propose an analysis process specially designed to be used within e-Learning platforms that predicts Web traffic data using only executed actions. Therefore, students classification using traffic data produces the same results as classification based on performed actions but with great benefits regarding computational time and complexity. We propose an algorithm for comparing two classifications made on students within an e-Learning platform. This algorithm may be used to validate the correlations between classification procedures that use different features.
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Paper Nr: 65
Title:

INFORMATION ADOPTION IN AN ONLINE DISCUSSION FORUM
Authors:

Christy M. Cheung and Matthew Lee
Abstract: This paper introduces the research model of user intention to continue adopting information in an online discussion forum. The model is built upon the information adoption model and the IS continuance model. Since the focus of this study is on continuance intention, the model takes user evaluation process into account and includes some important constructs (satisfaction, information quality, source credibility, and information usefulness) to explain the continuance behavior. An online survey was conducted and a total of 315 completed questionnaires were collected. Among the 315 respondents, 144 respondents have adopted the information in an online discussion forum. The research model explains 60% of the variance. The results also provide strong support for the existing theoretical links, as well as for those newly hypothesized in this study.
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Paper Nr: 67
Title:

PERCEIVED UNETHICAL E-STORE CONDUCT NEGATIVELY IMPACTS REPUTATION AND OPPORTUNITIES - Is it worth it?
Authors:

Arik Sadeh, Avshalom M. Adam and avshalom Aderet
Abstract: What is the extent to which ethical conduct by e-stores impacts their reputation and, in turn, their business opportunities? Employing the ethical factors of: (i) accurate product description, (ii) e-vendor accountability and (iii) data privacy and security, we assess e-stores’ ethical conduct. 174 e-stores engaged in business to consumer retail are surveyed. A comparative website which compares the products or services and prices of e-stores and scores their reputation amongst e-consumers is utilized. The ratings attained by e-stores with respect to the ethical factors, reputation and number of actual buyers are studied. The findings of the study indicate that the perceived unethical conduct of e-stores is highly correlated (0.38) with a negative reputation, which results, in turn, in relatively fewer actual buyers (correlation of 0.43).
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Paper Nr: 74
Title:

MANAGING TIME IN BANK MARKETING
Authors:

Johanna Ahola and Helena Ahola
Abstract: Time in marketing and economic studies is usually treated as a scarce resource. Therefore, theoretical perspectives from philosophy, sociology and psychology are used to build a preliminary framework for recognizing representations and categories of time in bank marketing. “Anytime” enabled by the Internet has inspired this conceptual paper based on work-in-process research approached from business anthropology. Further ethnographic research, especially time-reckoning method from anthropology, is suggested to explore the time representations of customers’ banking. The main managerial contribution of the study will be to create concepts and frameworks to better strategically manage time using CRM systems.
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Paper Nr: 74
Title:

MANAGING TIME IN BANK MARKETING
Authors:

Johanna Ahola and Helena Ahola
Abstract: Time in marketing and economic studies is usually treated as a scarce resource. Therefore, theoretical perspectives from philosophy, sociology and psychology are used to build a preliminary framework for recognizing representations and categories of time in bank marketing. “Anytime” enabled by the Internet has inspired this conceptual paper based on work-in-process research approached from business anthropology. Further ethnographic research, especially time-reckoning method from anthropology, is suggested to explore the time representations of customers’ banking. The main managerial contribution of the study will be to create concepts and frameworks to better strategically manage time using CRM systems.
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Paper Nr: 135
Title:

CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR MODELING UNDER SEVERAL DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES BY USING EM ALGORITHM
Authors:

Takeshi Kurosawa, Ken Nishimatsu, Motoi Iwashita and Akiya Inoue
Abstract: This paper gives a model of customer choice behavior modeling based on a combination of decision-making processes by applying latent class model based on EM algorithm. This model can apply for the choice problems of multi services and multi brands under various decision-making processes. In addition to the model based on EM algorithm, we tried some conventional models and compared them. The model based on EM algorithm enables us to know what kinds of customers are classified into a certain class. Moreover, we could construct more accuracy model than conventional model and found the existence of two decision-making processes.
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Paper Nr: 26
Title:

TOWARDS A REPUTATION MODEL FOR ONLINE COLLABORATIVE ERP PROJECTS
Authors:

Ioannis Ignatiadis, Jonathan Briggs and Adomas Svirskas
Abstract: When companies engage in online collaborations, they may need to form alliances with partners that they have not worked with before, but who should be well placed in meeting end customer demands. Online reputation management systems play an important role in this case in choosing the right partners to collaborate with. Those systems facilitate the recording and dissemination of opinions of actors in an online community, with regards to other members of that community. The purpose of this paper is to report the research in progress carried out as part of the European Union (EU) co-funded project “PANDA”, which examines amongst others potential reputation models that could be applied in online collaborations of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) coming together to implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system at an end customer.
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Paper Nr: 29
Title:

THE EIT E-LEARNING MODULE
Authors:

Philippos Pouyioutas, Vilte Gridasova, Christian Petter, Maria Poveda, Emilios Solomou, Victoria Kalogerou and Anthos Shekeris
Abstract: This paper presents the initial stages of a Leonardo Da Vinci project. The project aims at developing the EIT (English Language for Information Technology Specialists) E-Learning module, which will include relevant and innovative e-learning material for English learning/teaching in the field of IT. This material will be designed for IT professionals, students and English language tutors in order to bridge the current gap in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) IT-related materials and to facilitate the work of tutors, enhance self-study and encourage life-long learning. The paper presents also the analysis of the results of a survey aiming at identifying the requirements, special needs and innovation drivers of the potential users of the proposed module. The survey was conducted through a questionnaire given to IT students and interviews with IT professionals. Based on the analysis of the results we proceed herein with suggestions for the design of the module.
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Paper Nr: 63
Title:

THE NEED FOR E-SERVICES - The Case of the e-Citizen
Authors:

Seppo Sirkemaa
Abstract: Internet has an important role in our society. It has had a significant impact on the way business can be done. Here we are looking beyond e-business; today public sector organizations are developing various electronic services for citizens. In both cases understanding user needs is the basis for successful e-services.
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Paper Nr: 117
Title:

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT AND ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE IN AN ONLINE CONTRACT SERVICE
Authors:

Thomas Kwok and Thao Nguyen
Abstract: In this paper, we present a Web-hosted contract service application that enables small and medium-size businesses to execute and manage contracts entirely online, such as the merging several documents to form an electronic contract and the superimposing of users’ signing information as a watermark in a signed contract, eliminating the need to work with paper documents. This application has found to improve substantially the efficiency, and at the same time eliminates the potential for human error and security breaches in the performance of electronic contract management and processing tasks.
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