PDCAT - On checking the compatibility of web services\u27 policies

This paper discusses the compatibility issue between policies of Web services, which could refrain the automatic composition of these Web services from smoothly progressing. Policies regulate/constrain the functioning of Web services at three levels identified by business, behavior, and privacy. Because independent Web services collaborate with one another in order to satisfy users\u27 needs, their respective policies could be in contradiction. This could lead to conflicts and exceptions at run-time unless these contradictions are as a first step, detected and then, fixed. In this paper, WSPL is the language to specify policies of Web services

On Checking the Compatibility of Web Services\u27 Policies

This paper discusses the compatibility issue between policies of Web services, which could refrain the automatic composition of these Web services from smoothly progressing. Policies regulate/constrain the functioning of Web services at three levels identified by business, behavior, and privacy. Because independent Web services collaborate with one another in order to satisfy users\u27 needs, their respective policies could be in contradiction. This could lead to conflicts and exceptions at run-time unless these contradictions are as a first step, detected and then, fixed. In this paper, WSPL is the language to specify policies of Web services. © 2007 IEEE

Web-Enhanced Instruction: A Mixed Bag of Contradictions and Possibilities for Doctoral Education

This article explores some of the contradictions and possibilities of web-enhanced learning through the qualitative analysis of a pedagogical experiment. The parameters for this study are, broadly, doctoral education and, specifically, one doctoral course. However, extrapolations beyond these lenses are ventured

Wrestling and wrangling with a worrisome wiki: an account of pedagogical change in the use of a Web 2.0 technology in a first year education course

The delivery of higher education in online and blended modes has implications across a range of contexts – economic, pedagogic, technical and social. This article explores the tensions and contradictions of teaching in a blended learning environment in terms of its pedagogic implications. It reports on how a specific Web 2.0 technology (a wiki) was used over a four-year period with and by students in an Education Course to enhance their learning outcomes during their first year of university study. Student feedback (qualitative and quantitative), and the personal reflections of the first author regarding her teaching approach, kept over a four-year period, provide the dataset for this article. Analysis of these data builds a story of how the wiki developed from an extraneous, inauthentic component of the course to an integral component of a successful teaching and learning experience for both the lead author and the students in the course. This story illustrates how an early career academic wrestled to develop appropriate approaches to adult education; wrangled with largely untested Web 2.0 technologies in higher education; and reaped the rewards of the use of such technologies in enhancing the educational experience of both the students and the lecturer. Although a highly personal account of wrestling, wrangling and reaping, the article provides valuable insights into the importance of establishing and maintaining authentic pedagogic relationships in increasing online educational environments. It cautions that the development of technical skills alone is insufficient to guarantee improved outcomes for students

Webs of activity in online course design and teaching

In this study, we followed three faculty members' experiences with designing and teaching online courses for the first time. In order to complete the activity, the faculty members had to work -collaboratively with others across the university. Activity theory provided a framework within which to study faculty members' collaborative activities with members of different activity systems that had different goals, tools, divisions of labor and accountabilities. In concordance with activity theory, such differences led to contradictions, disturbances, and transformations in thinking and work activities. The results of the study have implications for individuals and systems undertaking technology integration in teaching

Plugged in Praxis: Critical Reflections on U.S. Feminism, Internet Activism, and Solidarity with Women in Afghanistan

Cyber-space presents many contradictions to those seeking to use it for activist ends in a transnational world. This paper explores some of these contradictions by examining various uses of the internet in efforts to raise awareness about the situation for women in Afghanistan during the period the Taliban came to power and controlled a majority of the country. I explore differences in approaches, images, and tone within examples of internet activism, emphasizing the Web work of the Feminist Majority Foundation, set in comparison with that of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Due to the prominence of the chadari in the images and campaigns of the Feminist Majority, a central part of the work is devoted to careful consideration of the image of veiling. As I note in the body of the paper, internet activism around the crisis for women living under the Taliban shows the potential for its usefulness as a tool in raising cross-global consciousness. At the same time this research reveals the need for caution, care and a critical eye when exploring and utilizing the internet and Web as a means of activist education and organization. In the end, I hope this critical reflection on these examples were feminists have utilized the tools of cyber-space will help in building, especially within the U.S., more careful and nuanced approaches as we seek international solidarity

Behind the Scenes with OpenLearn: the Challenges of Researching the Provision of Open Educational Resources

Open educational resources are defined as technology-enabled educational resources that are openly available for consultation, use and adaptation by users for non-commercial purposes (UNESCO, 2002). OpenLearn is one of the largest of such initiatives and is committed to the provision of open educational resources for all. It is being developed by The Open University and is primarily sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. It provides users with over 4 200 hours of higher educational material drawn from Open University courses. Other learning tools such as discussion forums, video conferencing, and knowledge mapping software are also available to the user. In this paper we introduce OpenLearn and outline some of the main research issues surrounding such an initiative. We seek to explore theoretical and practical approaches that can provide suitable tools for analysis. Activity theory is seen as a suitable approach for macro analysis and its use is illustrated in terms of the complexity of large scale research. Activity theory, besides informing research perspectives, can be turned in upon the research process itself allowing us to consider the challenges and context of the research. By using activity theory in this way and illustrating from a range of practical approaches we demonstrate and illustrate a useful research approach

Design smart city apps using activity theory.

In this paper we describe an innovative approach to the design process of Smart City interventions. We tested it with participants enrolled in the Master\u2019s Degree program in \u201cInnovators in enterprise and public administration\u201d: the objective of the Master was to stimulate the acquisition of technical and methodological skills useful in designing and implementing specific Smart City actions. During the "project work" phase, participants learned about a design method named SAM \u2013 Smart City Model - based on the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). We present an overview of design criteria for Smart City projects, the description of the theoretical framework of Activity Theory, and our proposal of the SAM design model. We also present some examples of student\u2019s \u201cprojects\u201d and a more extensive description of one case study about the full design process of an App planned using SAM, for \u201csmart health\u201d vaccine management and monitoring services. The App was later published and made available to the citizens and was successful in attracting thousands of users. All the participants considered the model very useful in particular because it made possible to understand the interaction and solve contradictions between different stakeholders and systems involved

Having it both ways: Larry Wall, Perl and the technology and culture of the early web

What image defines the 1990s web? Perhaps it is an “under construction” gif, a “starry night” background or some other fragment of what net artist and scholar Olia Lialina dubbed “a vernacular web” (2005). If not a vernacular, perhaps a sign of an increas- ingly commercial and professional web – the first banner ad, announcing that this par- ticular information superhighway would be dotted with billboards and shopping malls, or a jutting line graph showing the precipitous rise of the Nasdaq composite index. Of course, the answer is both, or all of the above. The 90s web was defined by its contradictions: amateur and professional, playful and serious, free and incorporated. Early descriptions of the World Wide Web’s significance oscillated between, on the one hand, an accessible and open alternative to walled gardens like America Online, and on the other hand an electronic frontier ripe for commercialization (Markoff, 1993; Wolf, 1994). Long before social media or web 2.0 became buzzwords, startups and new media gurus claimed the web was both a place of community and a place of commerce (Silver, 2008). Importantly this was not a matter of two webs existing side- by-side: the 90s web was all of these things at once. Perhaps it was this capacity for having it both ways, more than any single technical feature, that made the web feel new