Plan de Empresa Virtual Gnosis

El presente Business Plan se ha diseñado con el ánimo de crear la empresa Virtual Gnosis. Dicha empresa operará en el sector de la informática y la industria de software, dentro de la prestación de Servicios de TI. La empresa se centrará en la gestión de la información y el conocimiento del talento humano de las organizaciones, a través de la creación de AVAI (Ambientes Virtuales de Aprendizaje Inmersivo). El mercado objetivo son las instituciones educativas y los conglomerados de PYMES. A continuación se exponen con detalle los aspectos de operaciones, marketing, financieros y administrativos de la empresa propuesta.

Sharing and visualizing environmental data using Virtual Globes

Virtual globe technology holds many exciting possibilities for environmental science. These easy-to-use, intuitive systems provide means for simultaneously visualizing four-dimensional environmental data from many different sources, enabling the generation of new hypotheses and driving greater understanding of the Earth system. Through the use of simple markup languages, scientists can publish and consume data in interoperable formats without the need for technical assistance. In this paper we give, with examples from our own work, a number of scientific uses for virtual globes, demonstrating their particular advantages. We explain how we have used Web Services to connect virtual globes with diverse data sources and enable more sophisticated usage such as data analysis and collaborative visualization. We also discuss the current limitations of the technology, with particular regard to the visualization of subsurface data and vertical sections.

Tycho: a wide-area messaging framework with an integrated virtual registry

In a distributed environment remote entities, usually the producers or consumers of services, need a means to publish their existence so that clients, needing their services, can search and find the appropriate ones that they can then interact with directly. The publication of information is via a registry service, and the interaction is via a high-level messaging service. Typically, separate libraries provide these two services. Tycho is an implementation of a wide-area asynchronous messaging framework with an integrated distributed registry. This will free developers from the need to assemble their applications from a range of potentially diverse middleware offerings, which should simplify and speed application development and more importantly allow developers to concentrate on their own domain of expertise. In the first part of the paper we outline our motivation for producing Tycho and then review a number of registry and messaging systems popular with the Grid community. In the second part of the paper we describe the architecture and implementation of Tycho. In the third part of the paper we present and discuss various performance tests that were undertaken to compare Tycho with alternative similar systems. Finally, we summarise and conclude the paper and outline future work.

Generating virtual environments to allow increased access to the built environment

The problems encountered by individuals with disabilities when accessing large public buildings is described and a solution based on the generation of virtual models of the built environment is proposed. These models are superimposed on a control network infrastructure, currently utilised in intelligent building applications such as lighting, heating and access control. The use of control network architectures facilitates the creation of distributed models that closely mirror both the physical and control properties of the environment. The model of the environment is kept local to the installation which allows the virtual representation of a large building to be decomposed into an interconnecting series of smaller models. This paper describes two methods of interacting with the virtual model, firstly a two dimensional aural representation that can be used as the basis of a portable navigational device. Secondly an augmented reality called DAMOCLES that overlays additional information on a user’s normal field of view. The provision of virtual environments offers new possibilities in the man-machine interface so that intuitive access to network based services and control functions can be given to a user.

VLMA: a tool for creating, annotating and sharing virtual museum collections

The Virtual Lightbox for Museums and Archives (VLMA) is a tool for collecting and reusing, in a structured fashion, the online contents of museums and archive datasets. It is not restricted to datasets with visual components although VLMA includes a lightbox service that enables comparison and manipulation of visual information. With VLMA, one can browse and search collections, construct personal collections, annotate them, export these collections to XML or Impress (Open Office) presentation format, and share collections with other VLMA users. VLMA was piloted as an e-Learning tool as part of JISC’s e-Learning focus in its first phase (2004-2005) and in its second phase (2005-2006) it has incorporated new partner collections while improving and expanding interfaces and services. This paper concerns its development as a research and teaching tool, especially to teachers using museum collections, and discusses the recent development of VLMA.

Electronic markets and service delivery: requisite competencies for virtual environments

Electronic markets have a short but dynamic history. How an electronic market can be successfully developed remains in dispute. There is a clear need to better understand the nature of electronic markets themselves and, in particular, to review important developments in their conceptualisation. To enable a deeper understanding of these issues, we decided to restrict our investigation to electronic markets in the agricultural export sector. Agribusiness is a natural early adopter of digital marketplaces because of the industry’s traditional reliance on markets and current take-up of global supply chain management (Wilkins, Swatman and Castleman, 2002). We review two portals from this sector that aimed to simplify access to regulatory documentation. The earlier implementation had its funding withdrawn after one year, whilst the more recently established portal is rapidly becoming a showcase project for the stakeholders. We use a composite theory based on Bijker (1995) and Nowotny et al (2001) to establish a framework for analysing our data. We also refer to a body of literature characterising intangible services and their design and its implications for emarket implementations. Our findings indicate that governance style is in fact closely related to the success or failure of specific sites. We also found support for earlier research indicating that expectations and understanding of electronic markets are still evolving.

The ethical dilemmas of social networking services in classroom contexts

This chapter explores five ethical dilemmas associated with using Social Networking Sites (SNS) in classrooms. First, do we have the right to colonize or marginalize students’ out of school social networking practices in the classroom? Second, should we access students’ out of classroom virtual identities from their SNS in a classroom context? Third, should we be engaging students’ social networking in public performances of the curriculum? Fourth, are we prepared for recognising and responding to illicit activity in SNS? Fifth, do teachers understand the implications of exposing their out of school identities to their students who inhabit the same social network? The authors do not dispute that SNS in the classroom can be a rich site for learning, but they argue that the concept of ethics as a process of analyzing and respecting the other is essential if we are to responsibly engage with SNS in the classroom.

Anxiety online - a virtual clinic : preliminary outcomes following completion of five fully automated treatment programs for anxiety disorders and symptoms

Background : The development of e-mental health interventions to treat or prevent mental illness and to enhance wellbeing has risen rapidly over the past decade. This development assists the public in sidestepping some of the obstacles that are often encountered when trying to access traditional face-to-face mental health care services. Objective : The objective of our study was to investigate the posttreatment effectiveness of five fully automated self-help cognitive behavior e-therapy programs for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder with or without agoraphobia (PD/A), obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and social anxiety disorder (SAD) offered to the international public via Anxiety Online, an open-access full-service virtual psychology clinic for anxiety disorders. Methods : We used a naturalistic participant choice, quasi-experimental design to evaluate each of the five Anxiety Online fully automated self-help e-therapy programs. Participants were required to have at least subclinical levels of one of the anxiety disorders to be offered the associated disorder-specific fully automated self-help e-therapy program. These programs are offered free of charge via Anxiety Online. Results : A total of 225 people self-selected one of the five e-therapy programs (GAD, n = 88; SAD, n = 50; PD/A, n = 40; PTSD, n = 30; OCD, n = 17) and completed their 12-week posttreatment assessment. Significant improvements were found on 21/25 measures across the five fully automated self-help programs. At postassessment we observed significant reductions on all five anxiety disorder clinical disorder severity ratings (Cohen d range 0.72–1.22), increased confidence in managing one’s own mental health care (Cohen d range 0.70–1.17), and decreases in the total number of clinical diagnoses (except for the PD/A program, where a positive trend was found) (Cohen d range 0.45–1.08). In addition, we found significant improvements in quality of life for the GAD, OCD, PTSD, and SAD e-therapy programs (Cohen d range 0.11–0.96) and significant reductions relating to general psychological distress levels for the GAD, PD/A, and PTSD e-therapy programs (Cohen d range 0.23–1.16). Overall, treatment satisfaction was good across all five e-therapy programs, and posttreatment assessment completers reported using their e-therapy program an average of 395.60 (SD 272.2) minutes over the 12-week treatment period. Conclusions : Overall, all five fully automated self-help e-therapy programs appear to be delivering promising high-quality outcomes; however, the results require replication.

On-line dating; is a digital kiss and virtual wink the new way of finding love?

In 2007, I asked for a show of hands of people who ‘might consider online dating as a way of finding a partner’. Not a single hand went up and the lecture theatre was stony silent. The same question, some five years later resulted in a significant show of hands and a buzz of chatter. Something had changed and perceptions around online dating had shifted. Nielsen Research last year found most Australians (51 per cent) had either tried online dating or would consider doing so. RSVP and eHarmony claim to have 2 million members and more than 4 million people have apparently joined RSVP since it was launched 17 years ago. Online dating is experiencing significant growth in Asia as well, with the number of new web services (some, like ‘Muslima’, are tightly focused) growing exponentially. Online dating is a global phenomenon. This paper will use current media studies research literature and data from conversations with university students in Australia and Indonesia to explore how the changing world of online dating is helping/hindering young people as they shape and develop identity, represent themselves in the virtual world and ultimately, how they find love on line.

Utilizing the CORBA platform in the construction of a highly immersive virtual environment

This article presents the implementation of a distributed system of virtual reality, through the integration of services offered by the CORBA platform (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) and by the environment of development of 3D graphic applications in real time, the WorldToolkit, of Sense8. The developed application for the validation of this integration is that of a virtual city, with an emphasis on its traffic ways, vehicles (movable objects) and buildings (immovable objects). In this virtual world, several users can interact, each one controlling his/her own car. Since the modelling of the application took into consideration the criteria and principles of the Transport Engineering, the aim is to use it in the planning, project and construction of traffic ways for vehicles. The system was structured according to the approach client/server utilizing multicast communication among the participating nodes. The chosen implementation for the CORBA was the Iona's ORBIX software. The performance results obtained are presented and discussed in the end.

Ubiquity of virtual disguisers and potential impact on ethical behavior

The widespread availability of wirelessly connected portable computers, smartphones and other mobile devices, and the pervasive presence of computer services in our everyday environment, has brought the prediction of Mark Weiser of future ubiquitous computer systems closer to reality. Some of these - ever-present, anywhere, anytime - ubiquitous computer services mean easier and pleasant lifestyles for many people, but the generalized availability of some classes of these softwares and computer services, known as virtual disguisers and Virtual Robots, can pose new ethical problems in a world of explosive growth of social networking sites. The objective of the present article is to investigate some of these problems, from an interdisciplinary philosophical perspective. Special emphasis shall be given to the potential impact on human conduct caused by disguisers and Virtual Robots. © 2011 IEEE.

Proposta de uma ferramenta de visualização e realidade virtual para o monitoramento de tráfego de redes de computadores

Pós-graduação em Ciência da Computação - IBILCE

Serviço de Referência Virtual via chat: uma análise comparativa em bibliotecas universitárias norte-americanas e brasileiras

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Serviço de referência virtual via chat: uma análise comparativa em bibliotecas universitárias norte-americanas e brasileiras

Pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação - FFC

Serviço de Referência Virtual: implantação do serviço de chat

Introduction: With the invention of the Internet and the Collaborative Web, libraries had to rethink the way to offer their services. Thus, the U.S. libraries began a search for technological innovations in an effort to bring the library to the user through features that patrons commonly use. The Virtual Reference Service (VRS) through chat and reference services via videoconferencing are features that derived from this search. Objective: This article aims to outline the implementation process of Virtual Reference Services (SRV) libraries in American universities, particularly those for chat, as well as presenting the successful Brazilian experience. This paper also discusses factors to be considered for implementing virtual reference service via chat for libraries wishing to offer the service. Methodology: The research methodology is based on a theoretical search on international and national literature on the subject. The methodology also includes participant observation. Results: In Brazil the implementation of SRV in some university libraries has occurred and according to these institutions, the SRV is a service that benefits the community and puts the library in line with the demands of information technology and communication. Conclusions: It is concluded that online SRV is appropriate to the reality of university libraries in Brazil, since the institutions that offer the service have positive results from their assessments and believe they are adding value to their library.