Organization, Program and Structure: An Analysis of the Chinese Innovation Policy Framework

The paper first identifies the stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of China’s innovation policy and compares them with different government systems in selected Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In order to disclose the relative strength and weaknesses inside China’s innovation policy framework, we proceed to utilize policy practices in the OECD countries as a guideline to examine China's innovation policy in five categories: reform in the public S&T institutions, financial policy, business innovation support structure, human resource policy and legislative actions. Subsequently, several weak components of the Chinese innovation policy framework are identified and two of them are selected for further analysis: education and human resource policy, and protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Finally, the paper provides some priorities and possible actions for future innovation policy developments in China.

An Electric Energy Consumer Characterization Framework Based on Data Mining Techniques

This paper presents an electricity consumer characterization framework based on a knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) procedure, supported by data mining (DM) techniques, applied on the different stages of the process. The core of this framework is a data mining model based on a combination of unsupervised and supervised learning techniques. Two main modules compose this framework: the load profiling module and the classification module. The load profiling module creates a set of consumer classes using a clustering operation and the representative load profiles for each class. The classification module uses this knowledge to build a classification model able to assign different consumers to the existing classes. The quality of this framework is illustrated with a case study concerning a real database of LV consumers from the Portuguese distribution company.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Towards a social approach to digital cities

The paper discusses the strategy followed in a digital cities project named Gaia Digital. This project is an ongoing threeyear project sponsored by the Portugal Digital Initiative, within the Information Society operation program framework. It provides a digital city counterpart for Vila Nova de Gaia, a Portuguese town with around 288.000 inhabitants, considering 2001 figures. The Gaia Digital project is focused in offering an environment to increase involvement of the local population and other people interacting with Gaia related and/or based activities. As a result, Gaia Digital adopts a social approach to the digital cities concept where technology follows information needs and information just exists to support people interaction. The Gaia Dig ital lemma is "Digital Gaia, a cup of ideas". This reinforces the role that innovation (both technology and its applications) and people participation may have in all aspects of the Gaia Digital project. The paper defends the need to have a social approach when considering digital cities, in order to define a strategy that takes advantage of people and not of current or prospective technology potential

Using a content management approach to support Web-based learning

EFTWeb proposes an approach to unify educational materials -- contents -- and their operation under education, learning and training activities. The proposed model allows content reuse no matter is produced by teachers or students. It also offers an open collection of educational material to be explored. As a complement, it provides a structured approach to the educational materials storage as usable content. The use of thesaurus facilities allow for the creation of alternative contexts where content can be used meaningfully within different perspectives. More traditional forms of content classification such as the use of metadata or content classification strategies offer a limited perspective on what was the content creation aim or the context where classification takes place. If we can, based on learning needs, specify a given knowledge topic using a high abstract description level instead of relying in same previous classification, a much wider potential use of available content can be expected. The paper proposes a model to enable such a content management approach

As características dos aprendentes na educação a distância: a particularidade de uma análise individualizada

A Educação a Distância (EaD), encarada aqui como forma de ensino assente em Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação, estará cada vez mais integrada nas acções de ensino/aprendizagem qualquer que seja a sua filosofia e intenção. A tese defendida neste trabalho propõe que os aprendentes, quando inquiridos sobre as suas características, numa abordagem transversal incidindo sobre os diferentes aspectos da sua vida familiar, pessoal e profissional, recursos tecnológicos a que têm acesso e modo como lidam com eles, assim como a sua motivação e preferências nos modos de aprender, possibilitam a antevisão de um conjunto de informações que permitem que ambos os intervenientes (aprendentes e facilitadores) disponham de mecanismos que lhes facilitem a adopção de estratégias de aprendizagem, susceptíveis de conduzir a uma experiência de aprendizagem bem sucedida.Distance Education (DE) defined here as teaching based on information and communication technologies, is more and more integrated in the teaching/learning process regarding any of its modalities. This thesis defends that the learners, when asked about their characteristics, taking into account different issues of their familiar, personal and professional life, available technology resources, technology skills, as well as motivation and learning preferences, provide an information set that, if turn available to facilitators, allow to both players (learners and facilitators) the mechanisms that ease the adoption of learning strategies, that enhance the possibility of a well succeeded learning experience.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

As características dos aprendentes na educação à distância: factores de motivação

A Educação a Distância (EaD), encarada aqui como forma de ensino assente em Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação, estará cada vez mais integrada nas acções de ensino/aprendizagem qualquer que seja a sua filosofia e intenção. A tese defendida neste trabalho propõe que os aprendentes, quando inquiridos sobre as suas características, numa abordagem transversal incidindo sobre os diferentes aspectos da sua vida familiar, pessoal e profissional, recursos tecnológicos a que têm acesso e modo como lidam com eles, assim como a sua motivação e preferências nos modos de aprender, possibilitam a antevisão de um conjunto de informações que permitem que ambos os intervenientes (aprendentes e facilitadores), disponham de mecanismos que lhes facilitem a adopção de estratégias de aprendizagem, susceptíveis de conduzir a uma experiência de aprendizagem bem sucedida.Distance Education (DE) defined here as teaching based on information and communication technologies, is more and more integrated in the teaching/learning process regarding any of its modalities. This thesis defends that the learners, when asked about their characteristics, taking into account different issues of their familiar, personal and professional life, available technology resources, technology skills, as well as motivation and learning preferences, provide an information set that, if turn available to facilitators, allow to both players (learners and facilitators) the mechanisms that ease the adoption of learning strategies, that enhance the possibility of a well succeed learning experience.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio