Engineering Web applications for reuse

Web design frameworks combine generic conceptual, navigational, and context schemas. Such frameworks offer developers a conceptual approach to maximize design reuse rather than code reuse in Web applications. The authors apply the object oriented hypermedia design extension, OOHDM-Frame, to determine key architectural components and design structures that lend themselves to reuse     

Does hypermedia really work for tutoring children?

The advent of multimedia technology has produced an explosion of research on the use of computers in education. Indeed, the computer is a rich communication tool that instructors can use for effectively illustrating ideas. However, compared to human communication, computers lack several features needed for satisfactory communication. They don't have analogies to eyes, ears, voice, and hands that humans use for acquiring information; neither can they create different information representations. Graphic, video, animation, and sound use in multimedia systems attempts to overcome these limitations to develop systems that can better communicate and cooperate with humans. Several recently developed hypermedia environments - both online (on the World Wide Web) or offline (on CD-ROM) - promote knowledge acquisition on a wide range of topics and attempt to teach problem-solving abilities in users. However, the basic question of whether hypermedia learning environments actually promote learning is still debatable, Our work here refers to a hypermedia designed for a particular category of users, namely children in a primary school. The hypermedia offers a tutoring component to teach basic logic concepts to children. We call this hypermedia Logiocando, a name obtained by merging two Italian words (Logica Giocando) and meaning "playing with logic." To determine whether this tutoring hypermedia really works (that is, to check its instructional validity), we performed two experiments that evaluated the pedagogical efficiency of the hypermedia in comparison to traditional classroom instruction.     

Distributed multimedia information systems

The Distributed Link Service (DLS) infrastructure for linking hypertext documents on the World Wide Web complies with the open hypermedia model. In combination with link processing and management tools, we're addressing distributed information management issues. Our approach, focusing on multimedia streams and facilitating collaboration, reflects two key trends in network technology: an increase in per-user bandwidth and hosts. This corresponds to more users working with more media of increasingly different types. Open hypermedia can provide new techniques that let us take advantage of this evolution. We're extending our streaming work to HyperRadio, building on the idea that a program is actually a tour through available resources, where users can interactively follow links to other resources that interest them. By exploiting higher bandwidths and compression techniques, we can transport such “branching” material to the user. We're conducting this work with audio streams on the Internet, and plan to apply it to digital audio broadcasting     

Reusable multimedia content in Web based learning systems

We discuss reusability aspects of interactive multimedia content in Web based learning systems. In contrast to existing approaches, we extend a component based architecture to build interactive multimedia visualizations by using metadata for reusability issues. The experiment we conducted shows how to reuse the same visualization in different learning contexts     

Rapid application design and testing of Web usability

The rapid application design and testing (RAD-T) process greatly advances time-driven development of Web applications without sacrificing usability. Our GUI-based toolset, in conjunction with an extension of HTML, provides for early usability testing at the onset of Web specification and design activities     

Thinking aloud as a method for testing the usability of Websites:the influence of task variation on the evaluation of hypertext

In the usability testing of Web sites, thinking aloud is a frequently-used method. A fundamental discussion, however, about the relation between the use of different variants of thinking aloud and the evaluation goals for this specific medium is still lacking. To lay a foundation for this discussion, I analyzed the results of three usability studies in which different thinking-aloud tasks were used: a simple searching task, an application task and a prediction task. In the task setting, the profile of the Web surfer, the communication goal of the Web site and other quality aspects are taken into account. The qualitative analysis of these studies shows that the task variation has some influence on the results of usability testing and that, consequently, tasks should be matched with the evaluation goals put forward     

Open government data portal usability: A user-centred usability analysis of 41 open government data portals

Open government data, as a phenomena, may be considered an important and influential innovation that has the potential to drive the creation of public value via enabling the prevention of corruption, increase in accountability and transparency, and driving the co-creation of new and innovative services. However, in order for open government data to be fully taken advantage of, it must be found, understood, and used. Though many countries maintain open government data portals, the usability of said portals can vary greatly; this is important to understand as the usability of a portal likely impacts the eventual reuse of the data made available there. Acknowledging the importance of portal usability to the data reuse process, this paper helps to elucidate some initial insights by asking two questions: “How can the usability of open government data portals be evaluated and compared across contexts?” and “What are the most commonly missing usability aspects from open government data portals?”. In order to answer these research questions, a subset of 41 national open government data portals were selected for an in-depth usability analysis drawing on the feedback from 40 individual users. As a result of this analysis, the paper is able to make three primary contributions: (1) the validation of a framework for open government data portal usability analysis, (2) develops an initial comparative international ranking of open government data portal usability, and (3) identifies commonly occurring portal usability strengths and weaknesses across contexts.     

数据库连接池在动态Web网页开发中的设计与实现

动态Web网页的开发方法有多种,其中JSP与Servlet的结合为Web动态网页的实现带来良好应用前景,在易用性、效率、安全性和可移植性方面都有很好表现。在Web环境下,当有大量的用户访问数据库时,会对系统的效率带来很大的影响。为此,分析了几种数据库连接管理方法的优缺点,并讨论了采用连接池模式的设计方法和需要注意的问题。     

Broadway: A Compiler for Exploiting the Domain-Specific Semantics of Software Libraries

This paper describes the Broadway compiler and our experiences in using it to support domain-specific compiler optimizations. Our goal is to provide compiler support for a wide range of domains and to do so in the context of existing programming languages. Therefore, we focus on a technique that we call library-level optimization, which recognizes and exploits the domain-specific semantics of software libraries. The key to our system is a separation of concerns: compiler expertise is built into the Broadway compiler machinery, while domain expertise resides in separate annotation files that are provided by domain experts. We describe how this system can optimize parallel linear algebra codes written using the PLAPACK library. We find that our annotations effectively capture PLAPACK expertise at several levels of abstraction and that our compiler can automatically apply this expertise to produce considerable performance improvements. Our approach shows that the abstraction and modularity found in modern software can be as much an asset to the compiler as it is to the programmer.     

Multilayer context cloud framework for mobile Web 2.0: a proposed infrastructure

Existing context‐aware systems focus only on characterizing the situation of an entity to exhibit the advantage of contextual information association, but they have no mechanism to facilitate the interoperation and reuse of contextual information. Cloud computing offers an adaptable and flexible solution for existing context‐aware applications, integrating Mobile Web 2.0 technologies. This work presents a multilayer context cloud framework (MCCF) that integrates Web 2.0 technologies into a mobile context‐aware system for use in a cloud computing environment. The proposed MCCF includes a context sensor layer, a context information layer, a context service layer, a context representation layer, a cloud computing layer, and a mobile Web 2.0 context‐aware Software as a Service layer. To demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, a Mobile Web 2.0‐based context‐aware Software as a Service platform, which is a cloud computing application based on MCCF, is implemented to provide continuous and context‐aware monitoring of a specific application. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ending the tyranny of the button

In his keynote address to the Hypertext 91 conference, Frank Halasz described “ending the tyranny of the link” as a major issue facing the hypermedia research community at that time. The greatest problem is not that users always focus on buttons because they know a button indicates a link or connection of some kind. Just the opposite, users expect buttons in hypermedia systems, so if no buttons are indicated, they assume there are no links. The new, open hypermedia systems readily permit the dynamic generation of links and the application of links to standard desktop computing packages not under the hypermedia system's control. In such scenarios, buttons rapidly become less and less necessary, or useful, as a means of indicating a link. Indeed, since a button's main purpose in a hypermedia system is to indicate the presence of links, buttons should become redundant as we move toward systems where links themselves are virtual entities. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen whilst hypermedia authors and users have such a fixation on buttons. The author explores why the button so dominates today's hypermedia systems and why this must change     

A Shared Meanings Approach to Intercultural Usability: Results of a User Study Between International and American University Students

When developers need to make a system available for a particular culture, the specific aspects of the target group are evaluated and then the content and navigation are ldquolocalizedrdquo for it. However, there are many situations in which Web media cannot be localized and hence, culturally heterogeneous users must interact with the same interface. The emerging strategy for this kind of usability is known as the shared meaning or shared context approach. This paper presents results of a between-group study of culturally heterogeneous users who provided shared contextual meanings and performance measures from interaction with a Web interface. Results were mixed but do suggest methods for how Websites may be developed in shared situations.     

基于Web的超媒体教学CAI课件系统设计

为促进基于Web的超媒体课件在高校教学改革中的实际应用,以WindowsXP为开发平台,Tomcat为服务器引擎,采用JSP／Servlet作为服务器端执行语言,SQL Server2000为后台数据库作为技术支撑,开发设计并实现了基于Intemet／Intranet标准协议的三层（Brower／Server,B／S）体系结构的超媒体教学课件。该超媒体课件系统经实践应用表明,能够激发学生学习兴趣,减轻教师考试和答疑负担,有助于利用网络信息技术改进教学方法和提高教学质量。     

Constructing simulation-based Web documents

Our system for constructing Web documents features visual interactive simulations and other hypermedia elements. It uses a continuous simulation language composed of abstraction layers that describe the simulation models' behavior, pages or slides, and courses, articles, or presentations. The methods and tools presented stress key points in the development of Web based applications such as maintainability, reusability integration, and easy testing     

随机数的捕获及其基于Web的应用

在计算机程序应用中，很多应用是随机的，因此，产生随机数并捕获这些随机数是非常重要的，本文通过一个具体的例子给出了一个如何捕获随机数并利用捕获的随机数进行WEB应用的实际解决方案，效果良好。     

基于Web Service的SOA软件部署的研究

为实现校园教学管理的信息化、科学化,在分析现有校园信息管理系统特点的基础上,研究了基于Web Service的SOA(Service Oriented Architecture)的设计思想和关键技术。给出了一个在数字校园系统平台上使用Web服务实现SOA的应用实例。并阐述了采用SOA体系结构开发数字校园系统的软件重用、系统结构、服务组成等实现技术,为实现校园教学管理信息化和科学化提供了一种有效的解决方案。     

Hypermedia data modeling, coding, and semiotics

This paper reviews the key issues in hypermedia systems as an overture to the proposal of a new semiotic paradigm for hypermedia data and coding models. The hypertext concept permits users to interact with and manage data as high-level conceptual objects rather than as symbol streams. Current hypermedia systems can best be defined as an amalgamation of hypertext and multimedia. While the hypertext data model enables this goal, that is not true for the data models of other media forms. A new semiotic paradigm that addresses these deficiencies and supports object-oriented interaction with compressed multimedia streams is proposed. This paper initially presents an overview of the hypertext data model, contrasting it with existing multimedia data and coding models. The framework for the new paradigm is then presented in a brief review of cognitive, psychological, and semiotic principles. This analysis culminates in the proposal of semiotically based data models and representations predisposed to the hypermedia paradigm     

The usability process: working with iterative design principles

A discussion of the real-world environment of usability testing in the computer industry leads into a discussion of how the real world constrains the usability process and how the usability specialist can cope with the constraints. The focus is on two major constraints that result from the need to get information to the interface designers early enough so that they can use it: the need to work with incomplete materials, and the short amount of time usually allotted for a usability test iteration. The design of a new documentation model at Microsoft is considered as an example