An Approach and an Eclipse Based Environment for Enhancing the Navigation Structure of Web Sites

This paper presents an approach based on information retrieval and clustering techniques for automatically enhancing the navigation structure of a Web site for improving navigability. The approach increments the set of navigation links provided in each page of the site with a semantic navigation map, i.e., a set of links enabling navigating from a given page to other pages of the site showing similar or related content. The approach uses Latent Semantic Indexing to compute a dissimilarity measure between the pages of the site and a graph-theoretic clustering algorithm to group pages showing similar or related content according to the calculated dissimilarity measure. AJAX code is finally used to extend each Web page with an associated semantic navigation map. The paper also presents a prototype of a tool developed to support the approach and the results from a case study conducted to assess the validity and feasibility of the proposal

A prototype environmental information system for London (London Environment Online or "LEO")

Current access to environmental information about London can be slow andtedious. This is because different organisations, (both private companies andpublic bodies) hold environmental information relating to London and rarelyintegrate this information. In some instances free public access to thisinformation is not possible. In other situations, access is possible, but theinformation is often stored in a ?user unfriendly format?. This may beincomprehensible ?tabular? data, or data that is stored in a format that requiresthe user to purchase specialist software before attempting to view theinformation. Environmental Information Systems aim to integrate and improveaccess to this information and provide a variety of tools and technologies toassist the management and use of environmentally related data andinformation.This project aims to bring together some of this environmental data for Londonand provide access to it in an easier format. The main goal was to develop aprototype Environmental Information System for London. The system shoulddemonstrate how it is possible to combine information and provide a greaterinsight into London?s environmental situation. The system should alsocommunicate environmental information about London to a potentially ?wideranging audience? in an easy to use and intuitive manner.The outcome was London Environmental Information System or ?LondonEnvironment Online? (LEO) as it has been named. The naming includes theword ?Online? because it a new breed of Environmental Information Systemthat operates over the Internet or World Wide Web. This addresses severalissues since it allows a large number of people to access the system from avariety of locations. It also means that, although the core of the systemdepends upon expensive and powerful software packages, hardware anddatabases, the data within this can be used via a basic ?Internet Browser? or?Web Browser?. Web Browsers are typically free and commonly used on mostdesktop computers around the world to day.The report itself is directed to stakeholders involved in the monitoring andmanagement of the London environment. This ranges from senior politiciansand ministers responsible for implementing environmental policy to thosecollecting the basic data in the field and those responsible for storing anddisseminating this information. Particularly, the document is directed at centraland local government departments in their role as environmental decisionmakersand managers. It is also of interest to public watchdogs, communityorganisations and non-government organisations (NGO?s) interested in toolsfor supplying environmental information

CEDIM Risk Explorer ? a map server solution in the project "Risk Map Germany"

International audienceThe project "Risk Map Germany" at the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM) aims at visualizing hazards, vulnerabilities and risks associated with natural and man made hazards. CEDIM as an interdisciplinary project unified various expertise like earthquake, storm and flood disaster research. Our aim was to visualize the manifold data exploration in thematic maps. The implemented Web-GIS solution "CEDIM Risk Explorer" represents the map visualizations of the different risk research. This Web-GIS integrates results from interdisciplinary work as maps of hazard, vulnerability and risk in one application and offers therefore new cognitions to the user by enabling visual comparisons. The present paper starts with a project introduction and a literature review of distributed GIS environments. Further the methods of map realization and visualization in the selected technical solution is worked out. Finally, the conclusions give the perspectives for future developments to the "CEDIM Risk Explorer"

Development of a travel web site on a corporate internet

In early 1999, the Travel Department of Global Crossing (formerly Frontier Communications) was searching for a better way to transfer information between travel planners and travel counselors. At the same time, the corporation mandated that all departments within the corporation have a presence on the corporate intranet. Both of these goals would be accomplished by designing and developing a travel site on the corporate intranet. The next question was how to accomplish this task. Benchmarking, as well as research, was conducted to determine the best way to develop a travel web site. Courses in web design were taken, and information for the site was gathered. Content was gradually added to the site until it was ready to go live in front of the corporation. The site was continually updated and maintained. Travelers had increased opportunities to submit forms and register for events on-line. One of the main goals of the web site was to save time for both travelers and travel counselors. Through interviews with both of these groups, it was discovered that the web site was accomplishing its goal

Quality measures for ETL processes: from goals to implementation

Extraction transformation loading (ETL) processes play an increasingly important role for the support of modern business operations. These business processes are centred around artifacts with high variability and diverse lifecycles, which correspond to key business entities. The apparent complexity of these activities has been examined through the prism of business process management, mainly focusing on functional requirements and performance optimization. However, the quality dimension has not yet been thoroughly investigated, and there is a need for a more human-centric approach to bring them closer to business-users requirements. In this paper, we take a first step towards this direction by defining a sound model for ETL process quality characteristics and quantitative measures for each characteristic, based on existing literature. Our model shows dependencies among quality characteristics and can provide the basis for subsequent analysis using goal modeling techniques. We showcase the use of goal modeling for ETL process design through a use case, where we employ the use of a goal model that includes quantitative components (i.e., indicators) for evaluation and analysis of alternative design decisions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft