Alvin W. Yeo

Global-software development lifecycle: an exploratory study

This study was conducted to explore the efficacy of the global-software development lifecycle (global-SDLC), which comprises design, implementation and usability evaluation phase. A spreadsheet was adapted using the global-SDLC process to accommodate a number of cultures. The design and implementation phases were efficacious. However, in the usability evaluation phase, the usability evaluation techniques were only efficacious when participants, who were experienced computer users and participants who were familiar with the experimenter, were employed. Explanations, from cultural literature such as Hofstede, are presented and implications of these findings on the usability evaluation phase and the global-SDLC are also described.

Automatic Discovery of Concepts from Text

Existing mechanisms for concept discovery tend to pick up all possible relationships between terms in a document based on roles of terms identified. The proposed work aims to enhance this discovery process by employing machine learning and semantic modelling. We explore a framework for automatically discovering labeled clusters from a large collection of documents. The aim of this framework is to enable the extraction of concepts and to structure these into labeled concepts for use by text processing applications such as text summarization and text categorization. We have developed a mechanism for automatically inducing a set of words that captures the meaning of a collection of documents. The WordNet lexical database is used to extract root meanings and to determine relationships amongst these terms

Augmenting indigenous knowledge management with information and communication technology

Numerous studies have been conducted to elicit and analyse structures within the indigenous knowledge (IK) management systems, which fundamentally differ from technology supported systems. This paper highlights the approaches used in eTORO project by the Institute of Social Informatics and Technological Innovations, UNIMAS with active participation of the local community in Long Lamai, Sarawak. The main objective of the project is to facilitate the community in preserving and transferring their indigenous botanical knowledge (IBK) through proper documentation processes. The project activities include exploring the specific needs of the community, to design the cultural protocols, to develop ICT tools and to clarify the roles of the stakeholders with process flow diagrams which have been developed with the active participation of community. The methodology that is developed for the project is of value to those who work with indigenous communities whose literacy, social and cultural logic and values profoundly differ from others.

Usability in Malaysia

Malaysia is located in Southeast Asia and comprises 13 states and three federal territories. Malaysia has a population of about 28.3 million people (Department of Statistics Malaysia 2009). According to the Department of Statistics, Malaysia, for the year 2009, Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national income per capita are USD 42.9 billion and USD 7,400 respectively. The latest unemployment rate is 3.6% (Department of Statistics Malaysia 2009).

Participatory action research in software development: indigenous knowledge management systems case study

Participatory action Research In Software Methodology Augmentation (PRISMA) is a software development methodology which has been amalgamated with Participatory Action Research (PAR). This paper justifies the inclusion of PAR in software development, and describes the PRISMA methodology vis-a-vis a case study. Specifically, the case study encompasses the development of eToro, an Indigenous Knowledge Management System for the Penans, a remote and rural community in Malaysian Borneo.

Linguistic and Cultural Differences in Information Categorization and Their Impact on Website Use

The Internet is increasingly used as a medium for providing medical information. Nevertheless, whether the World Wide Web is favoured over other information sources depends to a large extent on how easily the sought information can be found. Therefore, this paper investigates the impact of culture, language and medical knowledge on users’ preferences of information categorization and on the evaluation and use of search cues and search options. Results from a laboratory experiment with 141 Malaysian, British, Russian, and German test subjects revealed significant differences but also commonalities between these groups. As a consequence of their limited medical knowledge, all groups exhibited a preference for visual cues over verbal cues. Outcomes suggest furthermore that culture mainly influences the users’ preferences in information categorization as well as their attitudes and using behaviour, whereas language predominantly affects the users’ beliefs about ease of use and usefulness.

Re-framing HCI through local and indigenous perspectives

This one-day workshop aims to present different local and indigenous perspectives from all over the world in order to lead into an international dialogue on re-framing concepts and models in HCI/Interaction Design. The target audience is HCI researchers and practitioners who have experience with working with culture and HCI. The expected outcome of the workshop is a) network building among the participants, b) a shortlist of papers that can be basis for a proposal for a special issue of the UAIS journal, and c) identify opportunities to develop a funded network or research proposal.

TELECENTRE REPLICATION INITIATIVE IN BORNEO MALAYSIA: THE COERI EXPERIENCE

There are many bridging‐the‐digital‐divide initiatives implemented by various government agencies and non‐governmental organisations throughout the world. Numerous studies have been conducted to identify the critical success factors in providing remote and rural communities equitable access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Malaysia has its fair share of successes and failures in such initiatives. One such initiative, the eBario Project, which provided ICTs to the rural and remote community in Bario, Borneo Malaysia, has been in operation over the last decade. The project was undertaken by the Centre of Excellence for Rural Informatics (CoERI), Institute of Social Informatics and Technological Innovations, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) with active participation of the local community in Bario. Critical success factors of the eBario Project include the close cooperation between the project initiator and the local community, strong support from the local champions, focus on actual needs and socio‐economic goals of the community, and deployment of appropriate technologies to the remote community. Given its relative success, the eBario project has been replicated to four other rural and remote communities in Borneo Malaysia. This paper highlights the approach used in implementing telecentres within these communities and some of the lessons learnt during the replication process. The CoERI Experience provides a useful guide to policy makers, project implementers and researchers who intend to deploy telecentres in rural communities at a larger scale.

Identification of Closely Related Indigenous Languages: An Orthographic Approach

The main focus of this study is to identify the closely related languages amongst the indigenous languages of Sarawak and major languages such as Bahasa Melayu and English. The indigenous languages involved in this study include Iban (standard), Bidayuh (Bau-Jagoi), Kelabit (Bario), Melanau (Matu-Daro), Sa’ban (Long Banga) and Penan (East Baram). The relationship between the languages is established via the proportion of cognates in the Swadesh list of the language pairs. The orthographic approach, which primarily examines the spelling of the vocabulary words, is used. The outcome of this study reveals that some indigenous languages are more closely related to to Bahasa Melayu than others. The findings from this research serve as an initial solution to answer the greater challenges in computational linguistics, such as the use of closely related languages as Pivot solutions in problems related to the under-resourced languages.

New Interaction Tools for Preserving an Old Language

The Penan people of Malaysian Borneo were traditionally nomads of the rainforest. They would leave messages in the jungle for each other by shaping natural objects into language tokens and arranging these symbols in specific ways -- much like words in a sentence. With settlement, the language is being lost as it is not being used by the younger generation. We report here, a tangible system designed to help the Penan preserve their unique object writing language. The key features of the system are that: its tangibles are made of real objects; it works in the wild; and new tangibles can be fabricated and added to the system by the users. Our evaluations show that the system is engaging and encourages intergenerational knowledge transfer and thus has the potential to help preserve this language.