Design Features for the Social Web: The Architecture of Deme

We characterize the "social Web" and argue for several features that are desirable for users of socially oriented web applications. We describe the architecture of Deme, a web content management system (WCMS) and extensible framework, and show how it implements these desired features. We then compare Deme on our desiderata with other web technologies: traditional HTML, previous open source WCMSs (illustrated by Drupal), commercial Web 2.0 applications, and open-source, object-oriented web application frameworks. The analysis suggests that a WCMS can be well suited to building social websites if it makes more of the features of object-oriented programming, such as polymorphism, and class inheritance, available to non-programmers in an accessible vocabulary.Comment: Appeared in Luis Olsina, Oscar Pastor, Daniel Schwabe, Gustavo Rossi, and Marco Winckler (Editors), Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Web-Oriented Software Technologies (IWWOST 2009), CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Volume 493, August 2009, pp. 40-51; 12 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Prioritising investments in health technology assessment: can we assess the potential value for money?

The objective was to develop an economic prioritisation model to assist those involved in (i) the selection and prioritisation of health technology assessment topics and (ii) commissioning of HTA projects. The model used decision analytic techniques to estimate the expected costs and benefits of the health care interventions which were the focus of the HTA question(s) considered by the NHS Health Technology Assessment Programme in England. Initial estimation of the value for money of HTA was conducted for a number of topics considered in 1997 and 1998. The main conclusion was that it is feasible to conduct ex ante assessments of the value for money of HTA for specific topics. However, a considerable amount of work is required to ensure that the methods used are valid, reliable, consistent and an efficient use of valuable research time.INAHTA, NCCHTA