Crime risks of three-dimensional virtual environments

Three-dimensional virtual environments (3dves) are the new generation of digital multi-user social networking platforms. Their immersive character allows users to create a digital humanised representation or avatar, enabling a degree of virtual interaction not possible through conventional text-based internet technologies. As recent international experience demonstrates, in addition to the conventional range of cybercrimes (including economic fraud, the dissemination of child pornography and copyright violations), the 'virtual-reality' promoted by 3dves is the source of great speculation and concern over a range of specific and emerging forms of crime and harm to users. This paper provides some examples of the types of harm currently emerging in 3dves and suggests internal regulation by user groups, terms of service, or end-user licensing agreements, possibly linked to real-world criminological principles. This paper also provides some directions for future research aimed at understanding the role of Australian criminal law and the justice system more broadly in this emerging field.

Energy-efficient management of data center resources for cloud computing : a vision, architectural elements, and open challenges

Cloud computing is offering utility-oriented IT services to users worldwide. Based on a pay-as-you-go model, it enables hosting of pervasive applications from consumer, scientific, and business domains. However, data centers hosting Cloud applications consume huge amounts of energy, contributing to high operational costs and carbon footprints to the environment. Therefore, we need Green Cloud computing solutions that can not only save energy for the environment but also reduce operational costs. This paper presents vision, challenges, and architectural elements for energy-efficient management of Cloud computing environments. We focus on the development of dynamic resource provisioning and allocation algorithms that consider the synergy between various data center infrastructures (i.e., the hardware, power units, cooling and software), and holistically work to boost data center energy efficiency and performance. In particular, this paper proposes (a) architectural principles for energy-efficient management of Clouds; (b) energy-efficient resource allocation policies and scheduling algorithms considering quality-of-service expectations, and devices power usage characteristics; and (c) a novel software technology for energy-efficient management of Clouds. We have validated our approach by conducting a set of rigorous performance evaluation study using the CloudSim toolkit. The results demonstrate that Cloud computing model has immense potential as it offers significant performance gains as regards to response time and cost saving under dynamic workload scenarios.

The adoption of web services based architectures in Australian organisations : an exploratory study

This exploratory research study contributes to answering two related research questions. First it identifies the key influences that seem to be driving and constraining the adoption of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and XML/Web Services and secondly it adduces some evidence to confirm that these influences significantly differ from those found by IS researchers in the adoption of other innovations in organisations. The key drivers were found to include improved agility, reuse and [open standards enabled] interoperability. None of these map easily to factors identified in previous Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) related IS research. In spite of standards being originally seen as strengths, it was found that the lack of IT industry agreement on the next generation of Web Services standards is now emerging as a perceived constraint. Variants of the ‘network effect’ such as partner push and client drag were also found to be influential.

Identifying the extent, motivations and barriers to outsourcing of accounting services

In this paper we analyse the oursourcing of accounting services. The extent to which firms are currently outsourcing, or considering outsourcing such services, and the motivations and barriers associated with outsourcing are identified. Empirical data from a random sample of accounting firms are used in this analysis. Data indicate that the majority of accounting firms are either currently outsourcing or considering outsourcing and that they exopect the volume of oursourced services to increase. In contrast to the scholarly literature advocating labor arbitrage as the primary driver for organizations choosing to outsource, in this study it was found that the main factors underpinning the decision to outsource were the expediting of service delivary to clients, and to enable the firm to focus on its core competencies.

If a holistic approach to social work requires acknowledgement of religion, what does this mean for social work education?

There is growing recognition that promoting wellbeing requires a holistic approach to social work practice which includes understanding the role of religion in the lives of service users. This is reflected in a number of mentions of religion in the new code of ethics produced by the Australian Association of Social Workers. However, any consideration of whether religion has a place in social work should not only occur at the individual level, but also consider faith-based agencies. This paper considers the implications of this for social work education in respect of developing curriculum which acknowledges the religious dimension of the lives of many service users; skill development to enable social workers to broach issues of religion with service users; and working in or with faith-based agencies.

Quality control of sensor network data

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a group of sensors that are geographically distributed and interconnected by wireless networks. Sensors gather information about the state of physical world. Then, after processing forward them to the main destination. To be able to provide this service, there are many aspects of communication techniques that need to be explored. Supporting quality of service (QoS) will be of critical importance for pervasive WSNs that serve as the network infrastructure of diverse applications. To illustrate new research and development interests in this field, this paper examines and discusses the requirements, critical challenges, and open research issues on QoS management in WSNs. A brief overview of recent progress is given.

A theoretical framework of entrepreneurship and innovation in healthcare organisations

This paper examines the role of entrepreneurship and innovation in the context of healthcare management by offering a number of research propositions. In recent years, hospitals have attracted ever growing commentary about rising costs and the need for improving information technology systems. Whilst there have been some service innovations introduced from other industries, particularly the manufacturing industry, there have been few service innovations originating from the healthcare sector. In the healthcare sector, there are a number of service innovations, which are discussed in this paper in terms of their relevance to managerial roles of hospital staff members. In addition, this paper examines the role of entrepreneurial managers in determining innovative technology behaviour in healthcare organisations. Literature from innovation management, corporate intrapreneurship and healthcare management is used to explain the findings of this paper and future areas of research are also proposed.

Guest editorial : In Journal of networks, v7 n.6

This special issue mainly focuses on the timely topic of “Data and Security in Web Service”. More specially, from the perspective of service construction, the future Web service should address issues such as how to construct an intelligent service which can effectively perceive the individual behavior, identify and satisfy individual requirements. On the other hand, from the perspective of service utilization, in the dynamic environment, Web services should address issues such as how to utilizing security-related techniques. In this JNW special issue, we select and edit 6 most relevant papers with higher reviewer scores from 16 submissions, which give effective discussion about Web service management methodologies from different perspective.

Professionals' perceptions of a new model of sexual assault investigation adopted by Victoria Police

This article presents a qualitative evaluation of a new method of operation for sexual assault investigation developed by Victoria Police. The model is characterised by two core components: the establishment of specialist teams of investigators responsible for investigation and victim support; and the establishment of service sites, referred to as 'Multidisciplinary Centres', where all key services are located in a single building separate from police stations. The research approach consisted of in-depth interviews with 90 stakeholders (police, counsellors, medical officers, child protection workers and prosecutors). Collectively, these interviews revealed strong, unanimous support for the ideologies that underpinned the new reforms. Reported outcomes included the following: improved collaboration; increased victim satisfaction, referrals between professionals and reporting rates; reduced response and investigation times; better quality briefs; and higher prosecution and conviction rates. These findings, along with the stakeholders' suggestions for further improvements, are discussed.

Do service and merchandise exporters behave and perform differently? : a New Zealand investigation

Research on export behaviour and the determinants of export performance of manufacturing firms abounds in the literature. By contrast relatively little research has been undertaken that focuses on service exporters despite the growing importance of service exports in most advanced industrialised countries. This paper compares the export behaviour and performance of service firms to those of manufacturing firms. The study is based on a survey of 155 small and medium size exporters from New Zealand. The results suggest that service exporters are distinctively unique in many respects and exhibit export behaviours that are different from exporters of merchandise. Generally, service firms have greater flexibility to adapt their products to the specific requirements of their customers, use direct export channels more often and are also more proactive than merchandise firms in the establishment of future export strategies. Overall, the size and commitment of service exporters have the greatest influence on their performance.

A model to select processes for IT service management improvement

IT organisations are continually seeking improvements in managing IT service management processes. The selection of relevant processes to improve is one of the most crucial initial decisions to make in service improvement projects. In this paper, we focus on developing a process selection decision model using service perception factors from the Service Quality (SERV-QUAL) model and business drivers from the Balanced Scorecard perspectives along with the main objective of service improvement as improvement driver. We use a Design Science Research method to develop the model and then a prototype from our proposed model. We establish an evaluation protocol to determine the effectiveness of the prototype which will be demonstrated in a case organisation. The main contribution of the paper is to provide evidence-based decision support for IT service providers to select the most relevant service processes to improve.

Service quality in a higher education context : an integrated model

Purpose – The aim of this study is to develop and empirically test an integrated model incorporating the antecedents and consequences of service quality in a higher education context.

Design/methodology/approach – This research employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The data from three focus groups, conducted at the Central Queensland University (CQU), Rockhampton, Australia, generated key themes and their interrelationships. The theoretical model was then tested using structural equation modelling technique on a sample of 528 university students.

Findings – The findings show that information (marketing communications) is more statistically significant than past experience as the antecedents of service quality. The consequences of service quality are composed of trust, satisfaction, and image. Overall, the results suggest a good validity of the theoretical model and the key paths in the model are found statistically significant, except past experience affecting service quality.

Originality/value – The model provides a good explanation of a university brand image, and perceived service quality was found playing an important role in this model. Universities intending to enhance their image are encouraged to consider focusing their efforts on marketing communication information, service quality, student satisfaction and trust.

Victims' perceptions of a new model of sexual assault investigation adopted by Victoria Police

This paper evaluates a method of operation for sexual assault investigation recently developed by Victoria Police (Australia). The model (which is new to Victoria) is characterised by two core components: the establishment of specialist teams of investigators (responsible for investigation and victim support) and service sites referred to as ‘Multidisciplinary Centres’ where all key services are provided to victims in a single location separate from police stations. The approach consisted of in-depth interviews with 25 victims of sexual assault aged between 15 and 54 years. The overriding theme to arise from the interviews was the importance to victims of being treated with dignity and respect; six elements were highlighted by victims as assisting this. These elements are presented along with evidence to demonstrate that the police response to victims has become more victim-centred under the new model of service delivery.

Hybrid cloud resource provisioning policy in the presence of resource failures

Resource provisiomng is an important and challenging problem in the large-scale distributed systems such as Cloud computing environments. Resource management issues such as Quality of Service (QoS) further exacerbate the resource provisioning problem. Furthermore, with the increasing functionality and complexity of Cloud computing, resource failures are inevitable. Therefore, the question we address in this paper is how to provision resources to applications in the presence of resource failures in a hybrid Cloud computing environment. To this end, we propose three Cloud resource provisioning policies where we utilize workflow applications to drive the system workload. The proposed strategies take into account the workload model and the failure correlations to redirect requests to appropriate Cloud providers. Using real failure traces and workload models, we evaluated the performance and monetary cost of the proposed policies. The results of our experiments show that we can decrease the deadline violation rate of users' requests to as low as 20% with a limited cost on Amazon public Cloud.

Microsoft and Amazon : a comparison of approaches to cloud security

Research has shown that data security has always been an important aspect of quality of service for data service providers; but cloud computing poses new and challenging security threats. The most common security concerns for users of cloud storage are data confidentiality, integrity and availability. Microsoft has considered these concerns and responded with the Azure virtual private storage based on Searchable Encryption. Amazon has also responded to these security issues with its Amazon Web Services. In this paper, we investigate and compare in depth the features of Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services deemed to provide security with a particular focus on confidentiality, integrity and availability of data.