Adoption of Koha Open Source Software in Libraries: a Web Based Study

Since last few years open source integrated library systems gaining attention of library and information science professionals. This paper tries to identify the extent of adoption of Koha, an open source ILS in libraries around the world through a Web based study. The study found that Koha adoption in libraries is still at infancy

Web Service Composition Systems for the Web Service Challenge - A Detailed Review

This report gives a detailed discussion on the system, algorithms, and techniques that we have applied in order to solve the Web Service Challenges (WSC) of the years 2006 and 2007. These international contests are focused on semantic web service composition. In each challenge of the contests, a repository of web services is given. The input and output parameters of the services in the repository are annotated with semantic concepts. A query to a semantic composition engine contains a set of available input concepts and a set of wanted output concepts. In order to employ an offered service for a requested role, the concepts of the input parameters of the offered operations must be more general than requested (contravariance). In contrast, the concepts of the output parameters of the offered service must be more specific than requested (covariance). The engine should respond to a query by providing a valid composition as fast as possible. We discuss three different methods for web service composition: an uninformed search in form of an IDDFS algorithm, a greedy informed search based on heuristic functions, and a multi-objective genetic algorithm.

Towards semantic web mining

Semantic Web Mining aims at combining the two fast-developing research areas Semantic Web and Web Mining. The idea is to improve, on the one hand, the results of Web Mining by exploiting the new semantic structures in the Web; and to make use of Web Mining, on overview of where the two areas meet today, and sketches ways of how a closer integration could be profitable.

Semantic web mining and the representation, analysis, and evolution of web space

Semantic Web Mining aims at combining the two fast-developing research areas Semantic Web and Web Mining. This survey analyzes the convergence of trends from both areas: Growing numbers of researchers work on improving the results of Web Mining by exploiting semantic structures in the Web, and they use Web Mining techniques for building the Semantic Web. Last but not least, these techniques can be used for mining the Semantic Web itself. The second aim of this paper is to use these concepts to circumscribe what Web space is, what it represents and how it can be represented and analyzed. This is used to sketch the role that Semantic Web Mining and the software agents and human agents involved in it can play in the evolution of Web space.

Semantic web mining

Semantic Web Mining aims at combining the two fast-developing research areas Semantic Web and Web Mining. This survey analyzes the convergence of trends from both areas: an increasing number of researchers is working on improving the results of Web Mining by exploiting semantic structures in the Web, and they make use of Web Mining techniques for building the Semantic Web. Last but not least, these techniques can be used for mining the Semantic Web itself. The Semantic Web is the second-generation WWW, enriched by machine-processable information which supports the user in his tasks. Given the enormous size even of today’s Web, it is impossible to manually enrich all of these resources. Therefore, automated schemes for learning the relevant information are increasingly being used. Web Mining aims at discovering insights about the meaning of Web resources and their usage. Given the primarily syntactical nature of the data being mined, the discovery of meaning is impossible based on these data only. Therefore, formalizations of the semantics of Web sites and navigation behavior are becoming more and more common. Furthermore, mining the Semantic Web itself is another upcoming application. We argue that the two areas Web Mining and Semantic Web need each other to fulfill their goals, but that the full potential of this convergence is not yet realized. This paper gives an overview of where the two areas meet today, and sketches ways of how a closer integration could be profitable.

Managing Quality Properties of Web Service Compositions

Web services from different partners can be combined to applications that realize a more complex business goal. Such applications built as Web service compositions define how interactions between Web services take place in order to implement the business logic. Web service compositions not only have to provide the desired functionality but also have to comply with certain Quality of Service (QoS) levels. Maximizing the users' satisfaction, also reflected as Quality of Experience (QoE), is a primary goal to be achieved in a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). Unfortunately, in a dynamic environment like SOA unforeseen situations might appear like services not being available or not responding in the desired time frame. In such situations, appropriate actions need to be triggered in order to avoid the violation of QoS and QoE constraints. In this thesis, proper solutions are developed to manage Web services and Web service compositions with regard to QoS and QoE requirements. The Business Process Rules Language (BPRules) was developed to manage Web service compositions when undesired QoS or QoE values are detected. BPRules provides a rich set of management actions that may be triggered for controlling the service composition and for improving its quality behavior. Regarding the quality properties, BPRules allows to distinguish between the QoS values as they are promised by the service providers, QoE values that were assigned by end-users, the monitored QoS as measured by our BPR framework, and the predicted QoS and QoE values. BPRules facilitates the specification of certain user groups characterized by different context properties and allows triggering a personalized, context-aware service selection tailored for the specified user groups. In a service market where a multitude of services with the same functionality and different quality values are available, the right services need to be selected for realizing the service composition. We developed new and efficient heuristic algorithms that are applied to choose high quality services for the composition. BPRules offers the possibility to integrate multiple service selection algorithms. The selection algorithms are applicable also for non-linear objective functions and constraints. The BPR framework includes new approaches for context-aware service selection and quality property predictions. We consider the location information of users and services as context dimension for the prediction of response time and throughput. The BPR framework combines all new features and contributions to a comprehensive management solution. Furthermore, it facilitates flexible monitoring of QoS properties without having to modify the description of the service composition. We show how the different modules of the BPR framework work together in order to execute the management rules. We evaluate how our selection algorithms outperform a genetic algorithm from related research. The evaluation reveals how context data can be used for a personalized prediction of response time and throughput.

Dise??o y construcci??n de p??ginas web educativas

Se presenta experiencia educativa que muestra una comunicaci??n realizada por el grupo de trabajo perteneciente al CEP de Granada, que pretende hacer reflexionar sobre el camino recorrido para la elaboraci??n de una web educativa. Se realiza en el CEIP Virgen de la Paz en Otura, Granada. Los objetivos son: favorecer la comunicaci??n en el entorno de la comunidad educativa; adquisici??n de los conocimientos necesarios para la realizaci??n de la web; sentar las bases necesarias para realizar el mantenimiento de la web; aportar al resto de profesorado materiales y programas educativos para los distintos niveles y ??reas.

La web escolar como medio de integraci??n entre el centro y la comunidad educativa : la biblioteca escolar

Se presenta experiencia educativa que describe las actividades relacionadas con la biblioteca escolar. Se realiza en el IES Am??rico Castro en Hu??tor-T??jar, Granada. Los objetivos son: dise??ar un sitio web para el centro; construir la web formando al profesorado en el manejo de herramientas de creaci??n web para que puedan incluir y mantener los contenidos que crean convenientes; familiarizar al profesorado, alumnado y familia con el uso de la web escolar y los beneficios que ofrece como veh??culo de transmisi??n de informaci??n; promover el uso de la web de centro como medio de obtenci??n de informaciones relevantes.

Creaci??n de una p??gina web con motivo del IV centenario del Quijote

Se presenta memoria final de proyecto educativo que pretende fomentar la lectura y escritura entre el alumnado, a trav??s de la creaci??n de una p??gina web en honor al IV centenario de El Quijote. Se realiza en el IES Auringis en Ja??n. Los objetivos son: incentivar la participaci??n del profesorado en proyectos que superen el ??mbito exclusivo del centro, aprovechando las facilidades que proporcionan al respecto las nuevas tecnolog??as; habilitar foros donde el profesorado puedan compartir experiencias, buscar soluciones a problemas profesionales cotidianos, lanzar ideas; fomentar entre el alumnado el h??bito de lectura por medio del boca a boca, m??todo que, al menos por ahora, consideramos m??s efectivo que el de la imposici??n de lecturas obligatorias; propiciar que el alumnado cuenten la lectura como una posibilidad m??s de entre las que existen para ocupar el tiempo de ocio; luchar contra el prejuicio elitista que gira en torno a lo libresco; fomentar enfoques interdisciplinares del hecho de leer; festejar el IV centenario de la publicaci??n de la primera parte de El Quijote. El proceso consta: reuniones previas a la elaboraci??n del proyecto de innovaci??n; redacci??n del proyecto de innovaci??n; investigaciones tendentes a darle contenido a la p??gina web; encuentros con autores; premios literarios; exposiciones sobre autores y libros; lecturas p??blicas; asistencia a los actos conmemorativos; participaci??n en experiencias de 'Book-crossing'; feria del libro; redacci??n de la memoria de progreso; redacci??n de la memoria final. Los resultados obtenidos: p??gina web, exposiciones, encuentros con autores, premios literarios, feria del libro.

Prototype of a Configurable Web-Based Assessment System

The MIT Prototype Educational Assessment System provides subjects and courses at MIT with the ability to perform online assessment. The system includes polices to handle harassment and electronic "flaming" while protecting privacy. Within these frameworks, individual courses and subjects can make their own policy decisions about such matters as to when assessments can occur, who can submit assessments, and how anonymous assessments are. By allowing assessment to take place continually and allowing both students and staff to participate, the system can provide a forum for the online discussion of subjects. Even in the case of scheduled assessments, the system can provide advantages over end-of-term assessment, since the scheduled assessments can occur several times during the semester, allowing subjects to identify and adjust those areas that could use improvement. Subjects can also develop customized questionnaires, perhaps in response to previous assessments, to suit their needs.

Context Mediation in the Semantic Web: Handling OWL Ontology and Data Disparity through Context Interchange

The COntext INterchange (COIN) strategy is an approach to solving the problem of interoperability of semantically heterogeneous data sources through context mediation. COIN has used its own notation and syntax for representing ontologies. More recently, the OWL Web Ontology Language is becoming established as the W3C recommended ontology language. We propose the use of the COIN strategy to solve context disparity and ontology interoperability problems in the emerging Semantic Web – both at the ontology level and at the data level. In conjunction with this, we propose a version of the COIN ontology model that uses OWL and the emerging rules interchange language, RuleML.