An Effective End-User Development Approach Through Domain-Specific Mashups for Research Impact Evaluation

Over the last decade, there has been growing interest in the assessment of the performance of researchers, research groups, universities and even countries. The assessment of productivity is an instrument to select and promote personnel, assign research grants and measure the results of research projects. One particular assessment approach is bibliometrics i.e., the quantitative analysis of scientific publications through citation and content analysis. However, there is little consensus today on how research evaluation should be performed, and it is commonly acknowledged that the quantitative metrics available today are largely unsatisfactory. A number of different scientific data sources available on the Web (e.g., DBLP, Google Scholar) that are used for such analysis purposes. Taking data from these diverse sources, performing the analysis and visualizing results in different ways is not a trivial and straight forward task. Moreover, people involved in such evaluation processes are not always IT experts and hence not capable to crawl data sources, merge them and compute the needed evaluation procedures. The recent emergence of mashup tools has refueled research on end-user development, i.e., on enabling end-users without programming skills to produce their own applications. We believe that the heart of the problem is that it is impractical to design tools that are generic enough to cover a wide range of application domains, powerful enough to enable the specification of non-trivial logic, and simple enough to be actually accessible to non-programmers. This thesis presents a novel approach for an effective end-user development, specifically for non-programmers. That is, we introduce a domain-specific approach to mashups that "speaks the language of users"., i.e., that is aware of the terminology, concepts, rules, and conventions (the domain) the user is comfortable with.Comment: This PhD dissertation consists of 206 page

Socially-Aware Multimedia Authoring

Bulterman, D.C.A. [Promotor]Cesar, P.S. [Copromotor

Current trends on ICT technologies for enterprise information s²ystems

The proposed paper discusses the current trends on ICT technologies for Enterprise Information Systems. The paper starts by defining four big challenges of the next generation of information systems: (1) Data Value Chain Management; (2) Context Awareness; (3) Interaction and Visualization; and (4) Human Learning. The major contributions towards the next generation of information systems are elaborated based on the work and experience of the authors and their teams. This includes: (1) Ontology based solutions for semantic interoperability; (2) Context aware infrastructures; (3) Product Avatar based interactions; and (4) Human learning. Finally the current state of research is discussed highlighting the impact of these solutions on the economic and social landscape

Un método de evaluación de usabilidad de mashups basado en la composicionalidad de sus componentes

[ES] Los Mashups son una nueva generación de aplicaciones Web que integran componentes provistos por terceros desde la Web. La usabilidad en este tipo de aplicaciones es un factor muy importante ya que como en toda aplicación Web, este determina el éxito de la aplicación. Si bien se han planteado métodos de evaluación que permiten evaluar la usabilidad de aplicaciones Web en general, éstos no cubren las características inherentes a la composicionalidad de los Mashups. La presente tesina de máster pretende aportar un método de evaluación de la usabilidad de Mashups acorde con sus características propias de composicionalidad. El método está compuesto de un modelo de usabilidad y un proceso de evaluación que provee guías sobre la forma en la que el modelo de usabilidad puede ser usado para realizar evaluaciones específicas. Tanto el modelo de usabilidad como el proceso de evaluación están alineados con el último estándar ISO/IEC 25000 para la evaluación de la calidad de producto (SQuaRE) y ambos toman en cuenta la naturaleza composicional de los Mashups. El modelo de usabilidad descompone el concepto de usabilidad en sub-características y métricas genéricas. Estas métricas son aplicadas en la composición del producto final y el método de evaluación puede ser aplicado en cualquier estado del ciclo de vida de este tipo de aplicaciones, ya sea en la selección de los componentes, durante el proceso de composición o cuando el producto está listo para ser usado. Para apoyar esta propuesta se ha realizado un profundo estudio del estado del arte. Este estudio comprende dos mapeos sistemáticos: el primero abarca un estudio de la evaluación de la calidad de los Mashups y el segundo cubre las características de la composicionalidad envueltas en los Mashups. Los resultados obtenidos aportaron de una forma significativa en la definición del Modelo de Usabilidad de Mashups y posteriormente en el proceso de evaluación de usabilidad. Finalmente, se desarrollaron tres casos de estudio que muestran la viabilidad de nuestro enfoque. Estos casos de estudio muestran en detalle como el método de evaluación propuesto utiliza nuestro Modelo de Usabilidad para Mashups. Los resultados muestran que nuestra propuesta permite detectar problemas de usabilidad, los cuales una vez corregidos, permiten obtener Mashups más usables[EN] Mashups are the new-generation of Web applications that integrates third-party components from the Web. Usability in these applications is very important since their success depends on this quality factor. Although several methods have been proposed to evaluate the usability of Web applications in general, they do not cover the specific characteristics inherent to the compositionality of Mashups. This master thesis aims to provide a method for evaluating the usability of Mashups according to their specific characteristics of compositionality. The method is composed of a usability model and an evaluation process that provides guidelines on how the usability model can be used to perform specific evaluations. Both the usability model and the evaluation process are aligned with the latest ISO/IEC 25000 standard for software product quality evaluation (SQuaRE), and both take into account the compositional nature of mashups. The usability model breaks down the concept of usability into sub-characteristics, attributes and generic metrics. These metrics are applied to the final product composition and process evaluation method can be applied at any stage of the life cycle of this kind of applications (i.e., during the component selection, the composition process or when the product is ready for use. In order to support the foundation of this proposal, an in-depth study was performed about the state of art. This study comprises two systematic mappings: the first one covers the quality evaluation of Mashups, whereas the second one covers the compositionality features involved in Mashups. The obtained results were used as input in order to define both our Mashups Usability Model, and our usability evaluation process. Finally, we developed three case studies in order to show the feasibility of our approach. These case studies show in detail how the proposed evaluation method was followed by using our Mashup Usability Model. Results showed that our approach was able to detect usability problems, which once corrected, it allows obtaining more usable Mashups.Cedillo Orellana, IP. (2013). Un método de evaluación de usabilidad de mashups basado en la composicionalidad de sus componentes. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/37955Archivo delegad

Proceedings of the Sixth Danish Human-Computer Interaction Research Symposium.

Proceedings of theSixth Danish Human-Computer Interaction Research Symposium.Aarhus, Denmark, November 15, 200

Using Web 2.0 technology to support collaborative learning in distance education

Distance education continues to grow in popularity with higher education institutions across the country. A shift in pedagogy towards collaborative learning activities within the online learning environments is designed to bring students together as a group. This review of research investigates how Web 2.0 technology has proven to be useful in these collaborative activities. Various issues and obstacles are addressed which may arise in the use of this social software for collaborative learning within a distance education setting. The introduction of Web 2.0 software to distance education may hold the key to creating powerful collaborative learning experience for students who live across the state, nation, and possibly the world

Semantic technologies: from niche to the mainstream of Web 3? A comprehensive framework for web Information modelling and semantic annotation

Context: Web information technologies developed and applied in the last decade have considerably changed the way web applications operate and have revolutionised information management and knowledge discovery. Social technologies, user-generated classification schemes and formal semantics have a far-reaching sphere of influence. They promote collective intelligence, support interoperability, enhance sustainability and instigate innovation. Contribution: The research carried out and consequent publications follow the various paradigms of semantic technologies, assess each approach, evaluate its efficiency, identify the challenges involved and propose a comprehensive framework for web information modelling and semantic annotation, which is the thesis’ original contribution to knowledge. The proposed framework assists web information modelling, facilitates semantic annotation and information retrieval, enables system interoperability and enhances information quality. Implications: Semantic technologies coupled with social media and end-user involvement can instigate innovative influence with wide organisational implications that can benefit a considerable range of industries. The scalable and sustainable business models of social computing and the collective intelligence of organisational social media can be resourcefully paired with internal research and knowledge from interoperable information repositories, back-end databases and legacy systems. Semantified information assets can free human resources so that they can be used to better serve business development, support innovation and increase productivity

Proceedings of the GIS Research UK 18th Annual Conference GISRUK 2010

This volume holds the papers from the 18th annual GIS Research UK (GISRUK). This year the conference, hosted at University College London (UCL), from Wednesday 14 to Friday 16 April 2010. The conference covered the areas of core geographic information science research as well as applications domains such as crime and health and technological developments in LBS and the geoweb. UCL’s research mission as a global university is based around a series of Grand Challenges that affect us all, and these were accommodated in GISRUK 2010. The overarching theme this year was “Global Challenges”, with specific focus on the following themes: * Crime and Place * Environmental Change * Intelligent Transport * Public Health and Epidemiology * Simulation and Modelling * London as a global city * The geoweb and neo-geography * Open GIS and Volunteered Geographic Information * Human-Computer Interaction and GIS Traditionally, GISRUK has provided a platform for early career researchers as well as those with a significant track record of achievement in the area. As such, the conference provides a welcome blend of innovative thinking and mature reflection. GISRUK is the premier academic GIS conference in the UK and we are keen to maintain its outstanding record of achievement in developing GIS in the UK and beyond