Introduction to the Proceedings of the Workshop on User-Focused Service Engineering, Consumption and Aggregation (USECA) 2011

The first User-Focused Service Engineering, Consumption and Aggregation workshop (USECA) in 2011 was held in conjunction with the WISE 2011 conference in Sydney, Australia. Web services and related technology are a widely accepted standard architectural paradigm for application development. The idea of reusing existing software components to build new applications has been well documented and supported for the world of enterprise computing and professional developers. However, this powerful idea has not been transferred to end-users who have limited or no computing knowledge. The current methodologies, models, languages and tools developed for Web service composition are suited to IT professionals and people with years of training in computing technologies. It is still hard to imagine any of these technologies being used by business professionals, as opposed to computing professionals. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.

Party On! A call for entrepreneurship research that is more interactive, activity based, cognitively hot, compassionate, and prosocial

It is the Journal of Business Venturing's (JBV) 30th birthday. Although the community of entrepreneurship scholars deserves to celebrate JBV's achievements over the last 30 years (and congratulate the journal's parents—Ian Macmillan and S. Venkataraman), my focus is more on the future of entrepreneurship (and by extension JBV). A focus on entrepreneurship is both timeless and timely. On the one hand, entrepreneurship is timeless given the long-recognized importance of entrepreneurs to economies and societies (e.g., Jean Baptiste who supposedly coined the term in about 1800). On the other hand, a discussion of entrepreneurship is timely because now that the field of entrepreneurship has achieved legitimacy, it faces both opportunities and threats. It is thus timely to acknowledge the threats and think about opportunities to advance the field. A discussion of entrepreneurship is also timely because society faces a number of grand challenges (including the durability of poverty, environmental degradation [ Dorado and Ventresca, 2013]), challenges well suited to entrepreneurial responses...

ISPCAN child abuse screening tool children's version (ICAST-C): Instrument development and multi-national pilot testing

Objective To develop a child victimization survey among a diverse group of child protection experts and examine the performance of the instrument through a set of international pilot studies. Methods The initial draft of the instrument was developed after input from scientists and practitioners representing 40 countries. Volunteers from the larger group of scientists participating in the Delphi review of the ICAST P and R reviewed the ICAST C by email in 2 rounds resulting in a final instrument. The ICAST C was then translated and back translated into six languages and field tested in four countries using a convenience sample of 571 children 12–17 years of age selected from schools and classrooms to which the investigators had easy access. Results The final ICAST C Home has 38 items and the ICAST C Institution has 44 items. These items serve as screeners and positive endorsements are followed by queries for frequency and perpetrator. Half of respondents were boys (49%). Endorsement for various forms of victimization ranged from 0 to 51%. Many children report violence exposure (51%), physical victimization (55%), psychological victimization (66%), sexual victimization (18%), and neglect in their homes (37%) in the last year. High rates of physical victimization (57%), psychological victimization (59%), and sexual victimization (22%) were also reported in schools in the last year. Internal consistency was moderate to high (alpha between .685 and .855) and missing data low (less than 1.5% for all but one item). Conclusions In pilot testing, the ICAST C identifies high rates of child victimization in all domains. Rates of missing data are low, and internal consistency is moderate to high. Pilot testing demonstrated the feasibility of using child self-report as one strategy to assess child victimization. Practice implications The ICAST C is a multi-national, multi-lingual, consensus-based survey instrument. It is available in six languages for international research to estimate child victimization. Assessing the prevalence of child victimization is critical in understanding the scope of the problem, setting national and local priorities, and garnering support for program and policy development aimed at child protection.

Rethinking Culture and Diversity in Early Childhood Preservice Teacher Education: Looking at Teaching and Learning Through an Interdisciplinary Lens

Early Childhood Education (ECE) has a long history of building foundations for children to achieve their full potential, enabling parents to participate in the economy while children are cared for, addressing poverty and disadvantage, and building individual, community and societal resources. In so doing, ECE has developed a set of cultural practices and ways of knowing that shape the field and the people who work within it. ECE, consequently, is frequently described as unique and special (Moss, 2006; Penn, 2011). This works to define and distinguish the field while, simultaneously, insulating it from other contexts, professions, and ideas. Recognising this dualism illuminates some of the risks and challenges of operating in an insular and isolated fashion. In the 21st century, there are new challenges for children, families and societies to which ECE must respond if it is to continue to be relevant. One major issue is how ECE contributes to transition towards more sustainable ways of living. Addressing this contemporary social problem is one from which Early Childhood teacher education has been largely absent (Davis & Elliott, 2014), despite the well recognised but often ignored role of education in contributing to sustainability. Because of its complexity, sustainability is sometimes referred to as a ‘wicked problem’ (Rittel & Webber, 1973; Australian Public Service Commission, 2007) requiring alternatives to ‘business as usual’ problem solving approaches. In this chapter, we propose that addressing such problems alongside disciplines other than Education enables the Early Childhood profession to have its eyes opened to new ways of thinking about our work, potentially liberating us from the limitations of our “unique” and idiosyncratic professional cultures. In our chapter, we focus on understandings of culture and diversity, looking to broaden these by exploring the different ‘cultures’ of the specialist fields of ECE and Design (in this project, we worked with students studying Architecture, Industrial Design, Landscape Architecture and Interior Design). We define culture not as it is typically represented, i.e. in relation to ideas and customs of particular ethnic and language groups, but to the ideas and practices of people working in different disciplines and professions. We assert that different specialisms have their own ‘cultural’ practices. Further, we propose that this kind of theoretical work helps us to reconsider ways in which ECE might be reframed and broadened to meet new challenges such as sustainability and as yet unknown future challenges and possibilities. We explore these matters by turning to preservice Early Childhood teacher education (in Australia) as a context in which traditional views of culture and diversity might be reconstructed. We are looking to push our specialist knowledge boundaries and to extend both preservice teachers and academics beyond their comfort zones by engaging in innovative interdisciplinary learning and teaching. We describe a case study of preservice Early Childhood teachers and designers working in collaborative teams, intersecting with a ‘real-world’ business partner. The joint learning task was the design of an early learning centre based on sustainable design principles and in which early Education for Sustainability (EfS) would be embedded Data were collected via focus group and individual interviews with students in ECE and Design. Our findings suggest that interdisciplinary teaching and learning holds considerable potential in dismantling taken-for-granted cultural practices, such that professional roles and identities might be reimagined and reconfigured. We conclude the chapter with provocations challenging the ways in which culture and diversity in the field of ECE might be reconsidered within teacher education.

Technology and the City: Systems, Applications and Implications

This book investigates and reveals the interplay between smart technologies and cities, a topic that has gained incredible currency in urban studies in recent years. Beginning with an elaboration of the historical significance of technologies in economic growth, social progress and urban development, the author then goes on to introduce the most prominent smart urban information technologies before demonstrating the use of these technologies in various smart urban systems. The book then showcases some of the most significant cases of smart city best practice from across the globe before discussing the magnitude and prospects of smart technologies and systems for our cities and societies. "The interplay between smart urban technologies and city development is a relatively uncharted territory. Technology and the City aims to fill that gap, exploring the growing importance of smart technologies and systems in contemporary cities, and providing an in-depth understanding of both theoretical and practical aspects of smart urban technology adoption, and its implications for our cities. Beginning with an elaboration of the historical significance of technologies in economic growth, social progress and urban development, Yigitcanlar introduces the most prominent smart urban information technologies. The book showcases significant smart city practices from across the globe that uses smart urban technologies and systems most effectively. It explores the role of these technologies and asks how they can be adopted into the planning, development and management processes of cities for sustainable urban futures. This pioneering volume contributes to the conceptualisation and practice of smart technology and system adoption in our cities by disseminating both conceptual and empirical research findings with real-world best practice applications. With a multidisciplinary approach to themes of technology and urban development, this book is a key reference source for scholars, practitioners, consultants, city officials, policymakers and urban technology enthusiasts."--Publisher website

Private power and new media: The case of the corporate suppression of WikiLeaks and its implications for the exercise of fundamental rights on the internet

Globalization, along with its digital and information communication technology counterparts, including the Internet and cyberspace, may signify a whole new era for human rights, characterized by new tensions, challenges, and risks for human rights, as well as new opportunities. Human Rights and Risks in the Digital Era: Globalization and the Effects of Information Technologies explores the emergence and evolution of ‘digital’ rights that challenge and transform more traditional legal, political, and historical understandings of human rights. Academic and legal scholars will explore individual, national, and international democratic dilemmas--sparked by economic and environmental crises, media culture, data collection, privatization, surveillance, and security--that alter the way individuals and societies think about, regulate, and protect rights when faced with new challenges and threats. The book not only uncovers emerging changes in discussions of human rights, it proposes legal remedies and public policies to mitigate the challenges posed by new technologies and globalization.

Complimentary collaborations: Teachers and researchers co-developing best practices in art education

Australia is currently experiencing a huge cultural shift as it moves from a State-based curriculum, to a national education system. The Australian State-based bodies that currently manage teacher registration, teacher education course accreditation, curriculum frameworks and syllabi are often complex organisations that hold conflicting ideologies about education and teaching. The development of a centralised system, complete with a single accreditation body and a national curriculum can be seen as a reaction to this complexity. At the time of writing, the Australian Curriculum is being rolled out in staggered phases across the states and territories of Australia. Phase one has been implemented, introducing English, Mathematics, History and Science. Subsequent phases (Humanities and Social Sciences, the Arts, Technologies, Health and Physical Education, Languages, and year 9-10 work studies) are intended to follow. Forcing an educational shift of this magnitude is no simple task; not least because the States and Territories have and continue to demonstrate varying levels of resistance to winding down their own curricula in favour of new content with its unfamiliar expectations and organisations. The full implementation process is currently far from over, and far from being fully resolved. The Federal Government has initiated a number of strategies to progress the implementation, such as the development of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) to aid professional educators to implement the new curriculum. AITSL worked with professional and peak specialist bodies to develop Illustrations of Practice (hereafter IoP) for teachers to access and utilise. This paper tells of the building of one IoP, where a graduate teacher and a university lecturer collaborated to construct ideas and strategies to deliver visual arts lessons to early childhood students in a low Socio- Economic Status [SES] regional setting and discusses the experience in terms of its potential for professional learning in art education.

The implications of creative industries for regional outcomes

As the 21st century progresses, the most successful economies and societies will be creative ones. Worldwide, governments are producing strategies to encourage the development of creative industries and to strengthen the role of knowledge cities nationally and internationally. There is a significant policy discussion regarding the role of creative clusters in strengthening local economies and significant energy has been expended discussing the many positive outcomes of such developments. This article takes these issues as a starting point and considers the role of creative industries within broader concerns regarding uneven metropolitan development. By developing a typology of jobs across Australia’s metropolitan regions, the article will consider the broad social and economic impacts of uneven development of creative industry jobs between metropolitan regions and also the implications for individual metropolitan regions and policy outcomes.

BioPatML : pattern sharing for the genomic sciences

Computational biology increasingly demands the sharing of sophisticated data and annotations between research groups. Web 2.0 style sharing and publication requires that biological systems be described in well-defined, yet flexible and extensible formats which enhance exchange and re-use. In contrast to many of the standards for exchange in the genomic sciences, descriptions of biological sequences show a great diversity in format and function, impeding the definition and exchange of sequence patterns. In this presentation, we introduce BioPatML, an XML-based pattern description language that supports a wide range of patterns and allows the construction of complex, hierarchically structured patterns and pattern libraries. BioPatML unifies the diversity of current pattern description languages and fills a gap in the set of XML-based description languages for biological systems. We discuss the structure and elements of the language, and demonstrate its advantages on a series of applications, showing lightweight integration between the BioPatML parser and search engine, and the SilverGene genome browser. We conclude by describing our site to enable large scale pattern sharing, and our efforts to seed this repository.

Designing for engagement : building IT systems

Context The School of Information Technology at QUT has recently undertaken a major restructuring of their Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) course. Some of the aims of this restructuring include a reduction in first year attrition and to provide an attractive degree course that meets both student and industry expectations. Emphasis has been placed on the first semester in the context of retaining students by introducing a set of four units that complement one another and provide introductory material on technology, programming and related skills, and generic skills that will aid the students throughout their undergraduate course and in their careers. This discussion relates to one of these four fist semester units, namely Building IT Systems. The aim of this unit is to create small Information Technology (IT) systems that use programming or scripting, databases as either standalone applications or web applications. In the prior history of teaching introductory computer programming at QUT, programming has been taught as a stand alone subject and integration of computer applications with other systems such as databases and networks was not undertaken until students had been given a thorough grounding in those topics as well. Feedback has indicated that students do not believe that working with a database requires programming skills. In fact, the teaching of the building blocks of computer applications have been compartmentalized and taught in isolation from each other. The teaching of introductory computer programming has been an industry requirement of IT degree courses as many jobs require at least some knowledge of the topic. Yet, computer programming is not a skill that all students have equal capabilities of learning (Bruce et al., 2004) and this is clearly shown by the volume of publications dedicated to this topic in the literature over a broad period of time (Eckerdal & Berglund, 2005; Mayer, 1981; Winslow, 1996). The teaching of this introductory material has been done pretty much the same way over the past thirty years. During this period of time that introductory computer programming courses have been taught at QUT, a number of different programming languages and programming paradigms have been used and different approaches to teaching and learning have been attempted in an effort to find the golden thread that would allow students to learn this complex topic. Unfortunately, computer programming is not a skill that can be learnt in one semester. Some basics can be learnt but it can take many years to master (Norvig, 2001). Faculty data typically has shown a bimodal distribution of results for students undertaking introductory programming courses with a high proportion of students receiving a high mark and a high proportion of students receiving a low or failing mark. This indicates that there are students who understand and excel with the introductory material while there is another group who struggle to understand the concepts and practices required to be able to translate a specification or problem statement into a computer program that achieves what is being requested. The consequence of a large group of students failing the introductory programming course has been a high level of attrition amongst first year students. This attrition level does not provide good continuity in student numbers in later years of the degree program and the current approach is not seen as sustainable.

21st Century politics : new faces/new spaces

Politics has been described as a man’s game and a man’s place. Further, the design of houses of politics also embeds this dominant masculine ethos. Traditional Chambers have been large with only limited seating arrangements ensuring that only privileged elite can participate and both officials and the public are located at some distance and separate from the elected officials. Such a Chamber ensures that Members need to face each other and the dominant interaction is adversarial. Within this system however, women have been able to carve out new spaces, or use existing ones in different ways, to become more involved with the mechanisms of parliament and provide alternative routes to leadership. In doing so, they have introduced elements of the private domain (nurturing, dialogue and inclusion) to the public domain. The way in which space is used is fundamental and its treatment has consequences for individuals, organizations and societies (Clegg and Kornberger 2006). Dale’s (2005) work emphasises the social character of architecture which recognises the impact which it has on the behaviours of individuals and nowhere is this more pertinent than the way the Australian Parliament House operates. This paper draws on the experiences of Australian parliamentarians to examine the way in which the new Australian Parliament House shapes the way in which the Australian political cultural norms and practices are shaped and maintained. It also seeks to explore the way the Members of Parliament (MPs) experience these spaces and how some MPs have been able to bring new ways of utilising the space to ensure it is more accommodating to the men and women who inhabit this building at the apex of Australia’s political life. In doing so, such MPs are seeking to ensure that the practices and processes of Australia’s political system are reflective of the men and women who inhabit this national institution in the beginning of the 21st century.

Managing Process Model Complexity - Part I: Concrete Syntax

While Business Process Management (BPM) is an established discipline, the increased adoption of BPM technology in recent years has introduced new challenges. One challenge concerns dealing with process model complexity in order to improve the understanding of a process model by stakeholders and process analysts. Features for dealing with this complexity can be classified in two categories: 1) those that are solely concerned with the appearance of the model, and 2) those that in essence change the structure of the model. In this paper we focus on the former category and present a collection of patterns that generalize and conceptualize various existing features. The paper concludes with a detailed analysis of the degree of support of a number of state-of-the-art languages and language implementations for these patterns.

Literacy education in the context of globalisation

This review chapter provides an overview of English language literacy education in the contexts of cultural and economic globalisation. Drawing case study examples of India and China, the authors outline three complementary models: the development paradigm, the hegemony paradigm and the new literacies paradigm. The analysis focuses on effects of the spread of English on vernacular languages and the non-synchronous issues raised by digital production cultures. Noting the difficulties of education systems in contending with new literacies - it argues for the reframing of transnational relations, global material conditions and new communications technologies as the objects of critical literacy education.

Managing process model complexity via abstract syntax modifications

As a result of the growing adoption of Business Process Management (BPM) technology different stakeholders need to understand and agree upon the process models that are used to configure BPM systems. However, BPM users have problems dealing with the complexity of such models. Therefore, the challenge is to improve the comprehension of process models. While a substantial amount of literature is devoted to this topic, there is no overview of the various mechanisms that exist to deal with managing complexity in (large) process models. It is thus hard to obtain comparative insight into the degree of support offered for various complexity reducing mechanisms by state-of-the-art languages and tools. This paper focuses on complexity reduction mechanisms that affect the abstract syntax of a process model, i.e. the structure of a process model. These mechanisms are captured as patterns, so that they can be described in their most general form and in a language- and tool-independent manner. The paper concludes with a comparative overview of the degree of support for these patterns offered by state-of-the-art languages and language implementations.