Using SVG and XSLT for graphic representation

Using SVG and XSLT for graphic representation In this paper we will present an XML based framework that can be used to produce graphical visualisation of scientific data. The approach rather than producing ordinary histogram and function diagaram graphs, tries to represent the information in a more graphical appealing and easy to understand way. For examples the approach will give the ability to represent the temperature as the level of coulored fluid in a thermometer. The proposed framework is able to maintain the value of the datas strictly separated from the visual form of its representation (positions of element, colours, visual representation etc.). By defining appropriate data structures and expressing them using XML, the framework gives the user the ability to create graphic representations using standard SVG and XSLT. Since XML can be used for describing complex data information, we represent every level of the graphic representation with an XML structure. To describe our architecture we defined the following XML dialects, each one with different markup tags, reflecting the semantical values of the elements. Data definition level. Used to define the value of the datas that can be used in the graphic representation Data representation level. Used to define the graphic representation, it defines how the values expressed by the data definition level are represented. Both data representation and data definition files are based on a DTD to impose the constraints. Data representation level is the core of the system, and defines a powerful language for representation. Source primitives. Used to define for the source of the graphic elements, for example static file or SVG code. Modification primitives. Used to define the modifications that can affect a graphic element, for example rotation, scaling or repetition. Disposition primitives. Used to define the possible dispositions along x, y and z axes, for example to impose a order in the representation of elements. Action primitives. Used to define the possible actions that canbe activated by graphic elements for different user behaviours. For example a mouse action can activate a link to a different resource, or can change the value of any of the other primitives of the data structure, as image source or disposition, or can show a tooltip . XSLT is used to output a SVG file derived from the two files describing the graphic representation. Our aim is to provide an abstract language to be used to represent in different ways the same concept. In fact, we can link a data definition file with different data representation levels, providing different kinds and levels of complexity for the same concept. An example use could be the representation of the temperature described before, where the temperature itself could be represented either as the level of mercury in the termomether, or as the rotation of an arrow in a gauge. The transformation process is made from an XML source tree into an XML result tree, using XPath to define patterns. XSLT transformation process is based on templates, that define some actions (like adding or removing elements, or sorting them) to be performed when a part of the document matches a template. To implement some of the complex graphics operations we are using XSLT extensions that allow to perform mathematical operations. These XSLT extensions are not yet standard and require specific compliant parser, as Apache Xalan, that allows the developer to interface with Java classes in order to increase XSLT areas of application, from simple node transformations to quite complex operations

E-learning and Fast-Changing Subjects

The Open University has been, since its foundation, one of the forerunners of innovative learning methods for distance education, and one of the first academic institutions to start to extensively focus on e-learning. While research has already been focusing on teaching methods for traditional subjects (as Maths or English Literature) - but fast-changing subjects, as most of the subjects in the field of ICT, pose additional challenges. While we have to draw a line between training and university education, there are many topics that are changing so fast that require specialised teaching methods (and infrastructure). This paper reports about the experience of the Open University with teaching fast-changing subjects

IT jobs in UK: current trends

Part of the role of universities is, today as from their earlier times, to prepare students for a productive role in the society. In this context, the role of curriculum development is to ensure that students are able – if so they wish – to acquire skills that are in demand in the work market. This is of uttermost importance in areas as IT where weak choices by students and/or universities might have repercussions in the employability at the end of the academic studies. This paper aims to discusses and a discuss and analyse what are the requirements of the job market, now, today, for IT workers in UK and to provide a meaningful starting point to support curricula development in UK

Market Relations, Non-Market Relations and Free Software

Free Software is sometimes considered solely a technical option, but that is a quite limited point of view: we suggest, indeed, that Free Software is not merely a technical option, but it is, in fact a different working paradigm for the software development community and a different model for acquiring (and sharing) resources in the Information Society. This paper will discuss this working paradigm and analyse the market and non-market relations that are implied by it

A quantitative approach to usability evaluation of web sites

Web usability arose as research field at the very beginning of the Internet era. The term "Internet" was formally defined in October 1995; nevertheless Nielsen wrote his first article on web usability in May 1995, and looking in the newsgroup archives at groups.google.com we can find a promotional message (http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=alt.comp.shareware) of a company, dated December 1995, offering consulting services on usability. The pace of evolution of the web is creating new challenges and 15 years after the first studies on web usability, the subject is still attracting heavy interest from researchers. In the recent years numerous authors (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 1998; Nielsen and Molich, 1990; Nielsen, 1994) have been working on developing heuristics to support human evaluation of web sites. This paper builds upon the existing theory to develop a quantitative approach to usability evaluation of web sites

Matching Demand and Offer in On-line Provision: a Longitudinal Study of Monster.com

When considering the jobs market, changes or recurring trends for skilled employees expressed by employers’ needs have a tremendous impact on the evolution of website content. On-line jobs sites adverts, academic institutions and professional development “standard bodies” all share those needs as their common driver for contents evolution. This paper aims, on one hand, to discuss and to analyse how current needs and requirements (“demand”) of IT skills in the UK job market drive the contents of different types of websites, in turn analysing whether this demand changes and how. On the other hand, it is studied what the UK higher education institutions have to offer to fulfill this demand. The results found analysing the evolution of the largest on-line job centre (www.monster.com), and the websites of selected UK academic institutions, demonstrate that often what is requested by UK industries is not clearly offered by UK institutions. Given the prominence of monster.com in the global economy, these results could provide a meaningful starting point to support curricula development in UK, as much as worldwide

A usable web for long-stay hospitalised children

This paper analyses the problems that should be considered when designing a web site for disadvantaged children. We focus our research on long-stay hospitalised children who use the Internet to communicate with realities located outside their usual surroundings, especially with distance education related activities. We introduce a case study which focuses on the use of the Internet in some Italian hospitals and then we sketch out some guidelines for designing usable web sites for hospitalised children

Open Source Migrations: Experiences from the European public administrations

The landscape of public organizations in Europe is diverse and complex. Public administrations differ in the services that they provide and on their characteristics, but they all rely on computing to deliver their services, even if it is to varying degrees. This paper analyzes the experience of a group of European public organizations investigating the possibility of supporting their services through the use of Open Source. Open Source is software developed inside a community committed to producing software that is free to use, modify and redistribute. The group under examination is composed of a number of public administrations varying in size, from four different countries. While the motivation for starting the migration varies across the members, the results from the different experiences are consistent and show that Open Source is a realistic opportunity to consider. Technical, strategic, and environmental aspects that arose during the migration have been investigated and analyzed

Engaging without Over-powering: a Case Study of a FLOSS project

The role of Open Source Software (OSS) in the e-learning business has become more and more fundamental in the last 10 years, as long as corporate and government organizations have developed their educational and training programs based on OSS out-of-the-box tools. This paper qualitatively documents the decision of the largest UK e-learning provider, the Open University, to adopt the Moodle e-learning system, and how it has been successfully deployed in its site after a multi-million investment. A further quantitative study also provides evidence of how a commercial stakeholder has been engaged with, and produced outputs for, the Moodle community. Lessons learned from this experience by the stakeholders include the crucial factors of contributing to the OSS community, and adapting to an evolving technology. It also becomes evident how commercial partners helped this OSS system to achieve the transition from an “average” OSS system to a successful multisite, collaborative and community-based OSS project

Content Discovery Advertisements: An Explorative Analysis

Content discovery advertisements are type of native ads which have gained traction for driving ad traffic. These advertisements are being hosted on supposedly reputed websites and their popularity has been growing however it has been reported in the media that these ads are deploying click bait ads. In this research, these ads were evaluated for a period of one month to study and examine their credibility. It was found that significant percentage of these ads were malicious in nature