1,059 research outputs found
Regional tourist destinations - the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in collaboration amongst tourism providers
The tourism industry can be seen as one of the first business sectors where business functions are almost exclusively using information and communications technologies (ICT). This has impacted on the way in which regional tourism destinations are promoted. The method of promoting regions via the development of regional tourist destination websites or portals using Internet technologies is increasingly being adopted both in Australia and around the world.
This paper investigates whether this approach is the most effective to achieve increased awareness and subsequent visitation of a region. Are there other ways to achieve a similar outcome? One such alternative is via a bottom up approach achieved through co-opetition or collaboration established within the group of local tourism industry operators. This cooperative networking is made possible via the use of ICT to facilitate the establishment of virtual business networks amongst tourism operators in a local community, cascading into an informal secondary tourism network within that region.
In many Australian regional areas the tourism bureau has been the key node for local tourism, but this structure has been fraught with many problems. Little is known about their effectiveness in delivering services to local small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs). The role of tourism bureaus in local tourism networks is changing and a study of this dynamic is provided here as an example of the interaction between top down and bottom up approaches.
Published case studies from around the world are considered demonstrating alternative approaches to using ICT to promote a region and communicate with potential visitors. Future empirical research is required to more fully understand the effectiveness of the different approaches
Architectures for integration of information systems under conditions of dynamic reconfiguration of virtual enterprises
Tese Doutoramento Programa Doutoral em Industrial and Systems EngineeringThe aim of this thesis is to explore Architectures of information systems Integration under
conditions of dynamic reconfiguration of Virtual Enterprises. The main challenge that we identify
and which formed the basis of the research is that information technologies alone cannot support
efficiently and effectively the human knowledge and their natural way of interacting.
Already from Sausurre (1916) it could be argued that part of knowledge resides in person, and
the attempt to try to model it is sufficient for it to be misrepresented. And this is the motto of all
this work. Enhance the capabilities of emerging technologies, but in the sense that allow humanto-
human interaction, having the information system merely a means to make this possible.
Thus we argue that a communicational architecture of information systems integration (where
Pragmatics mechanisms are enabled) in virtual enterprises in dynamic reconfiguration scenarios,
are better able than the existing transactional architectures.
We propose a communicational architecture able to achieve an effective integration of
information systems, as well as designing its logical and functional model. We also define the
necessary semiotic framework in order to a communicational integration architecture could be
efficient and effective.
We implemented two prototypes to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed architecture.
The demonstration of the research hypothesis was demonstrated with the realization of two
experimentations where the ontologies have been unable to resolve disagreements or absences
of opinion inherent in people who collaborated. This was overcome with the implementation of
mechanisms that allow the co-creation between members of the group that participated in the
trial.O objectivo desta tese é explorar Arquitecturas de Integração de Sistemas de Informação em
condições de Reconfiguração Dinâmica de Empresas Virtuais. O principal desafio que
identificamos e que serviu de base da pesquisa é que as tecnologias de informação por si só não
conseguem suportar de forma eficiente e efectiva o conhecimento humano e a sua forma natural
de interagir.
Já Sausurre (1916) defendia que parte do conhecimento residirá sempre na pessoa, e a
tentativa de o tentar modelar é suficiente para que seja deturpado. E esse é o mote de todo este
trabalho. Enaltecer as capacidades das tecnologias emergentes mas no sentido de elas
permitirem a interacção homem-to-homem, sendo o sistema de informação meramente um meio
para que tal seja possível.
Argumentamos por isso que uma arquitectura comunicacional de integração de sistemas de
informação, onde Pragmatics mechanisms are enabled, em empresas virtuais em cenários de
reconfiguração dinâmica, são mais capazes que as actuais arquitecturas transacionais.
Propomos para isso uma arquitectura comunicacional capaz de conseguir uma integração
efectiva de sistemas de informação, assim como desenhamos o seu modelo lógico e funcional.
Definimos ainda o quadro semiótico necessário para que uma arquitectura comunicacional de
integração seja eficiente e effectiva.
Implementamos dois protótipos capazes de demonstrar a aplicabilidade da arquitectura
proposta. A demonstração da hipótese de pesquisa ficou demonstrada com a realização de uma
experimentação onde as ontologias se mostraram incapazes de resolver discordâncias ou
ausências de opinião inerentes às pessoas que colaboram. Tal foi superado com a aplicação de
mecanismos que permitiram a co-criação entre os membros do grupo que realizou a
experimentação
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
Recommended from our members
Evaluating the resilience and security of boundaryless, evolving socio-technical Systems of Systems
Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns
Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse
Forum Session at the First International Conference on Service Oriented Computing (ICSOC03)
The First International Conference on Service Oriented Computing (ICSOC) was held in Trento, December 15-18, 2003. The focus of the conference ---Service Oriented Computing (SOC)--- is the new emerging paradigm for distributed computing and e-business processing that has evolved from object-oriented and component computing to enable building agile networks of collaborating business applications distributed within and across organizational boundaries. Of the 181 papers submitted to the ICSOC conference, 10 were selected for the forum session which took place on December the 16th, 2003. The papers were chosen based on their technical quality, originality, relevance to SOC and for their nature of being best suited for a poster presentation or a demonstration. This technical report contains the 10 papers presented during the forum session at the ICSOC conference. In particular, the last two papers in the report ere submitted as industrial papers
Interorganizational Information Systems: Systematic Literature Mapping Protocol
Organizations increasingly need to establish partnerships with other organizations to face environment changes and remain competitive. This interorganizational relationship allows organizations to share resources and collaborate to handle business opportunities better. This technical report present the protocol of the systematic mapping performed to understand what is an IOIS and how these systems support interorganizational relationships
Internet of Things Applications - From Research and Innovation to Market Deployment
The book aims to provide a broad overview of various topics of Internet of Things from the research, innovation and development priorities to enabling technologies, nanoelectronics, cyber physical systems, architecture, interoperability and industrial applications. It is intended to be a standalone book in a series that covers the Internet of Things activities of the IERC – Internet of Things European Research Cluster from technology to international cooperation and the global "state of play".The book builds on the ideas put forward by the European research Cluster on the Internet of Things Strategic Research Agenda and presents global views and state of the art results on the challenges facing the research, development and deployment of IoT at the global level. Internet of Things is creating a revolutionary new paradigm, with opportunities in every industry from Health Care, Pharmaceuticals, Food and Beverage, Agriculture, Computer, Electronics Telecommunications, Automotive, Aeronautics, Transportation Energy and Retail to apply the massive potential of the IoT to achieving real-world solutions. The beneficiaries will include as well semiconductor companies, device and product companies, infrastructure software companies, application software companies, consulting companies, telecommunication and cloud service providers. IoT will create new revenues annually for these stakeholders, and potentially create substantial market share shakeups due to increased technology competition. The IoT will fuel technology innovation by creating the means for machines to communicate many different types of information with one another while contributing in the increased value of information created by the number of interconnections among things and the transformation of the processed information into knowledge shared into the Internet of Everything. The success of IoT depends strongly on enabling technology development, market acceptance and standardization, which provides interoperability, compatibility, reliability, and effective operations on a global scale. The connected devices are part of ecosystems connecting people, processes, data, and things which are communicating in the cloud using the increased storage and computing power and pushing for standardization of communication and metadata. In this context security, privacy, safety, trust have to be address by the product manufacturers through the life cycle of their products from design to the support processes. The IoT developments address the whole IoT spectrum - from devices at the edge to cloud and datacentres on the backend and everything in between, through ecosystems are created by industry, research and application stakeholders that enable real-world use cases to accelerate the Internet of Things and establish open interoperability standards and common architectures for IoT solutions. Enabling technologies such as nanoelectronics, sensors/actuators, cyber-physical systems, intelligent device management, smart gateways, telematics, smart network infrastructure, cloud computing and software technologies will create new products, new services, new interfaces by creating smart environments and smart spaces with applications ranging from Smart Cities, smart transport, buildings, energy, grid, to smart health and life. Technical topics discussed in the book include: • Introduction• Internet of Things Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda• Internet of Things in the industrial context: Time for deployment.• Integration of heterogeneous smart objects, applications and services• Evolution from device to semantic and business interoperability• Software define and virtualization of network resources• Innovation through interoperability and standardisation when everything is connected anytime at anyplace• Dynamic context-aware scalable and trust-based IoT Security, Privacy framework• Federated Cloud service management and the Internet of Things• Internet of Things Application
Knowledge Graphs and Large Language Models for Intelligent Applications in the Tourism Domain
In the current era of big data, the World Wide Web is transitioning from being merely a repository of content to a complex web of data. Two pivotal technologies underpinning this shift are Knowledge Graphs (KGs) and Data Lakes.
Concurrently, Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a potent means to leverage data, creating knowledge and pioneering new tools across various sectors. Among these advancements, Large Language Models (LLM) stand out as transformative technologies in many domains.
This thesis delves into an integrative exploration, juxtaposing the structured world of KGs and the raw data reservoirs of Data Lakes, together with a focus on harnessing LLM to derive meaningful insights in the domain of tourism.
Starting with an exposition on the importance of KGs in the present digital milieu, the thesis delineates the creation and management of KGs that utilize entities and their relations to represent intricate data patterns within the tourism sector. In this context, we introduce a semi-automatic methodology for generating a Tourism Knowledge Graph (TKG) and a novel Tourism Analytics Ontology (TAO). Through integrating information from enterprise data lakes with public knowledge graphs, the thesis illustrates the creation of a comprehensive semantic layer built upon the raw data, demonstrating versatility and scalability.
Subsequently, we present an in-depth investigation into transformer-based language models, emphasizing their potential and limitations. Addressing the exigency for domain-specific knowledge enrichment, we conduct a methodical study on knowledge enhancement strategies for transformers based language models.
The culmination of this thesis is the presentation of an innovative method that fuses large language models with domain-specific knowledge graphs, targeting the optimisation of hospitality offers. This approach integrates domain KGs with feature engineering, enriching data representation in LLMs.
Our scientific contributions span multiple dimensions: from devising methodologies for KG construction, especially in tourism,
to the design and implementation of a novel ontology; from the analysis and comparison of techniques for enriching LLMs with specialized knowledge, to deploying such methods in a novel framework that effectively combines LLMs and KGs within the context of the tourism domain.
In our research, we explore the potential benefits and challenges arising from the integration of knowledge engineering and artificial intelligence, with a specific emphasis on the tourism sector. We believe our findings offer a promising avenue and serve as a foundational platform for subsequent studies and practical implementations for the academic community and the tourism industry alike
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