National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure Task Force on Campus Bridging Final Report

The mission of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advisory Committee on Cyberinfrastructure (ACCI) is to advise the NSF as a whole on matters related to vision and strategy regarding cyberinfrastructure (CI). In early 2009 the ACCI charged six task forces with making recommendations to the NSF in strategic areas of cyberinfrastructure: Campus Bridging; Cyberlearning and Workforce Development; Data and Visualization; Grand Challenges; High Performance Computing (HPC); and Software for Science and Engineering. Each task force was asked to offer advice on the basis of which the NSF would modify existing programs and create new programs. This document is the final, overall report of the Task Force on Campus Bridging.National Science Foundatio

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience

Open educational resources for all? Comparing user motivations and characteristics across The Open University’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform.

With the rise in access to mobile multimedia devices, educational institutions have exploited the iTunes U platform as an additional channel to provide free educational resources with the aim of profile-raising and breaking down barriers to education. For those prepared to invest in content preparation, it is possible to produce interactive, portable material that can be made available globally. Commentators have questioned both the financial implications for platform-specific content production, and the availability of devices for learners to access it (Osborne, 2012). The Open University (OU) makes its free educational resources available on iTunes U and via its web-based open educational resources (OER) platform, OpenLearn. The OU’s OER on iTunes U reached the 60 million download mark in 2013; its OpenLearn platform boasts 27 million unique visitors since 2006. This paper reports the results of a large-scale study of users of the OU’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform. A survey of several thousand users revealed key differences in demographics between those accessing OER via the web and via iTunes U. In addition, the data allowed comparison between three groups: formal learners, informal learners and educators. The study raises questions about whether university-provided OER meet the needs of users and makes recommendations for how content can be modified to suit their needs. As the publishing of OER becomes core to business, we reflect on reasons why understanding users’ motivations and demographics is vital, allowing for needs-led resource provision and content that is adapted to best achieve learner satisfaction, and to deliver institutions’ social mission

Technology 2002: The Third National Technology Transfer Conference and Exposition, volume 2

Proceedings from symposia of the Technology 2002 Conference and Exposition, December 1-3, 1992, Baltimore, MD. Volume 2 features 60 papers presented during 30 concurrent sessions

Models and evaluation of human-machine systems

"September 1993.""Prepared for: International Atomic Energy Association [sic], Wagramerstrasse 5, P. 0. Box 100 A-1400 Vienna, Austria."Part of appendix A and bibliography missingIncludes bibliographical referencesThe field of human-machine systems and human-machine interfaces is very multidisciplinary. We have to navigate between the knowledge waves brought by several areas of the human learning: cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, linguistics, ergonomy, control systems engineering, neurophysiology, sociology, computer sciences, among others. At the present moment, all these disciplines seek to be close each other to generate synergy. It is necessary to homogenize the different nomenclatures and to make that each one can benefit from the results and advances found in the other. Accidents like TMI, Chernobyl, Challenger, Bhopal, and others demonstrated that the human beings shall deal with complex systems that are created by the technological evolution more carefully. The great American writer Allan Bloom died recently wrote in his book 'The Closing of the American Mind' (1987) about the universities curriculum that are commonly separated in tight departments. This was a necessity of the industrial revolution that put emphasis in practical courses in order to graduate specialists in many fields. However, due the great complexity of our technological world, we feel the necessity to integrate again those disciplines that one day were separated to make possible their fast development. This Report is a modest trial to do this integration in a holistic way, trying to capture the best tendencies in those areas of the human learning mentioned in the first lines above. I expect that it can be useful to those professionals who, like me, would desire to build better human-machine systems in order to avoid those accidents also mentioned above

Science-based restoration monitoring of coastal habitats, Volume Two: Tools for monitoring coastal habitats

Healthy coastal habitats are not only important ecologically; they also support healthy coastal communities and improve the quality of people’s lives. Despite their many benefits and values, coastal habitats have been systematically modified, degraded, and destroyed throughout the United States and its protectorates beginning with European colonization in the 1600’s (Dahl 1990). As a result, many coastal habitats around the United States are in desperate need of restoration. The monitoring of restoration projects, the focus of this document, is necessary to ensure that restoration efforts are successful, to further the science, and to increase the efficiency of future restoration efforts

Propelling the Potential of Enterprise Linked Data in Austria. Roadmap and Report

In times of digital transformation and considering the potential of the data-driven economy, it is crucial that data is not only made available, data sources can be trusted, but also data integrity can be guaranteed, necessary privacy and security mechanisms are in place, and data and access comply with policies and legislation. In many cases, complex and interdisciplinary questions cannot be answered by a single dataset and thus it is necessary to combine data from multiple disparate sources. However, because most data today is locked up in isolated silos, data cannot be used to its fullest potential. The core challenge for most organisations and enterprises in regards to data exchange and integration is to be able to combine data from internal and external data sources in a manner that supports both day to day operations and innovation. Linked Data is a promising data publishing and integration paradigm that builds upon standard web technologies. It supports the publishing of structured data in a semantically explicit and interlinked manner such that it can be easily connected, and consequently becomes more interoperable and useful. The PROPEL project - Propelling the Potential of Enterprise Linked Data in Austria - surveyed technological challenges, entrepreneurial opportunities, and open research questions on the use of Linked Data in a business context and developed a roadmap and a set of recommendations for policy makers, industry, and the research community. Shifting away from a predominantly academic perspective and an exclusive focus on open data, the project looked at Linked Data as an emerging disruptive technology that enables efficient enterprise data management in the rising data economy. Current market forces provide many opportunities, but also present several data and information management challenges. Given that Linked Data enables advanced analytics and decision-making, it is particularly suitable for addressing today's data and information management challenges. In our research, we identified a variety of highly promising use cases for Linked Data in an enterprise context. Examples of promising application domains include "customization and customer relationship management", "automatic and dynamic content production, adaption and display", "data search, information retrieval and knowledge discovery", as well as "data and information exchange and integration". The analysis also revealed broad potential across a large spectrum of industries whose structural and technological characteristics align well with Linked Data characteristics and principles: energy, retail, finance and insurance, government, health, transport and logistics, telecommunications, media, tourism, engineering, and research and development rank among the most promising industries for the adoption of Linked Data principles. In addition to approaching the subject from an industry perspective, we also examined the topics and trends emerging from the research community in the field of Linked Data and the Semantic Web. Although our analysis revolved around a vibrant and active community composed of academia and leading companies involved in semantic technologies, we found that industry needs and research discussions are somewhat misaligned. Whereas some foundation technologies such as knowledge representation and data creation/publishing/sharing, data management and system engineering are highly represented in scientific papers, specific topics such as recommendations, or cross-topics such as machine learning or privacy and security are marginally present. Topics such as big/large data and the internet of things are (still) on an upward trajectory in terms of attention. In contrast, topics that are very relevant for industry such as application oriented topics or those that relate to security, privacy and robustness are not attracting much attention. When it comes to standardisation efforts, we identified a clear need for a more in-depth analysis into the effectiveness of existing standards, the degree of coverage they provide with respect the foundations they belong to, and the suitability of alternative standards that do not fall under the core Semantic Web umbrella. Taking into consideration market forces, sector analysis of Linked Data potential, demand side analysis and the current technological status it is clear that Linked Data has a lot of potential for enterprises and can act as a key driver of technological, organizational, and economic change. However, in order to ensure a solid foundation for Enterprise Linked Data include there is a need for: greater awareness surrounding the potential of Linked Data in enterprises, lowering of entrance barriers via education and training, better alignment between industry demands and research activities, greater support for technology transfer from universities to companies. The PROPEL roadmap recommends concrete measures in order to propel the adoption of Linked Data in Austrian enterprises. These measures are structured around five fields of activities: "awareness and education", "technological innovation, research gaps, standardisation", "policy and legal", and "funding". Key short-term recommendations include the clustering of existing activities in order to raise visibility on an international level, the funding of key topics that are under represented by the community, and the setup of joint projects. In the medium term, we recommend the strengthening of existing academic and private education efforts via certification and to establish flagship projects that are based on national use cases that can serve as blueprints for transnational initiatives. This requires not only financial support, but also infrastructure support, such as data and services to build solutions on top. In the long term, we recommend cooperation with international funding schemes to establish and foster a European level agenda, and the setup of centres of excellence

The Legal Aspects of Cybercrime in Nigeria: An Analysis with the UK Provisions

Cybercrime offences know no limits to physical geographic boundaries and have continued to create unprecedented issues regarding to the feasibility and legitimacy of applying traditional legislations based on geographic boundaries. These offences also come with procedural issues of enforcement of the existing legislations and continue to subject nations with problems unprecedented to its sovereignty and jurisdictions. This research is a critical study on the legal aspects of cybercrime in Nigeria, which examines how laws and regulations are made and applied in a well-established system to effectively answer questions raised by shortcomings on the implementation of cybercrime legislations, and critically reviews various laws in Nigeria relating or closely related to cybercrime. This research will provide insight into current global cybercrime legislations and the shortfalls to their procedural enforcement; and further bares the cybercrime issues in Nigeria while analysing and proffering a critique to the provisions as provided in the recently enacted Nigerian Cybercrime (Prohibition and Prevention) Act 2015, in contradistinction to the existing legal framework in the United Kingdom and the other regional enactments like the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection 2014, and the ECOWAS Directive on Cybercrime 2011