Bebo White

Linked data: evoluving the web into a global data space

The World Wide Web has enabled the creation of a global information space comprising linked documents. As the Web becomes ever more enmeshed with our daily lives, there is a growing desire for direct access to raw data not currently available on the Web or bound up in hypertext documents. Linked Data provides a publishing paradigm in which not only documents, but also data, can be a first class citizen of the Web, thereby enabling the extension of the Web with a global data space based on open standards - the Web of Data. In this Synthesis lecture we provide readers with a detailed technical introduction to Linked Data. We begin by outlining the basic principles of Linked Data, including coverage of relevant aspects of Web architecture. The remainder of the text is based around two main themes - the publication and consumption of Linked Data. Drawing on a practical Linked Data scenario, we provide guidance and best practices on: architectural approaches to publishing Linked Data; choosing URIs and vocabularies to identify and describe resources; deciding what data to return in a description of a resource on the Web; methods and frameworks for automated linking of data sets; and testing and debugging approaches for Linked Data deployments. We give an overview of existing Linked Data applications and then examine the architectures that are used to consume Linked Data from the Web, alongside existing tools and frameworks that enable these. Readers can expect to gain a rich technical understanding of Linked Data fundamentals, as the basis for application development, research or further study.

Social Media Tools and Platforms in Learning Environments

Online social media have transformed the face of human interaction in the 21st century. Wikis, blogs, online groups and forums, podcasts, virtual worlds, and social tagging are but a few of the applications enabling innovative behaviors that support acquisition, access, manipulation, retrieval, and visualization of information. It is, therefore, no surprise that educational practitioners and theorists have begun to explore how social media can be harnessed to describe and implement new paradigms for communication, learning, and education. The editors goal in publishing this book was to identify original research on the application of online social media and related technologies in education as well as emerging applications in Web technologies that could provide and shape future educational platforms. The selected contributions deal with questions such as how social media can truly enrich and enhance learning and teaching experiences in ways not otherwise possible; how learning can be integrated in a distributed and ubiquitous social computing environment; or what theories, paradigms, and models are applicable for the support of social computing in education. Researchers in education or educational software will find interesting and sometimes provocative chapters on paradigms and methodologies, virtual and mobile learning spaces, and assessment and social factors. Practitioners in these fields will benefit from an additional section devoted to case studies and first experience reports.

The Implications of Web 2.0 on Web Information Systems

“Web 2.0”is rapidly becoming a buzzword in the Web design and development communities. Despite this attention, a definition of the term and its scope are still evolving. To many observers “Web 2.0” appears to be a loose collection of recently developed concepts and technologies including Weblogs, Wikis, podcasts, Web feeds and other forms of collaborative publishing. Added to this mix are social software, Web APIs, Web standards, online Web services, AJAX, and more. There are common unifying goals in Web 2.0 which suggest that rather than being based on new technologies it instead represents a natural evolution of World Wide Web applications and services. As a result, the concepts incorporated in“Web 2.0”should be strongly considered in the development of Web Information Systems

Is “MOOC-Mania” over?

The New York Times famously branded 2012 “The Year of the MOOC” given the upsurge of interest in so-called “Massive Online Open Courses.” MOOCs were seen as the future of distance education and the realization of a dream to “democratize” education. Anyone with online access could become a “student” and participate freely in courses offered by the world’s most knowledgeable professors at the most elite universities. Class sizes were unprecedented – it was not unusual to have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of participants in some very popular courses. The Times declaration followed the launch of edX, by Harvard University and MIT, and the rapid growth of MOOC platforms and providers such as Coursera and Udacity. The Sand Hill Road venture capitalists invested substantial funds in these providers even though a monetization model was not obvious. It is now almost two years since “The Year of the MOOC” and we must ask ourselves whether the enthusiasm over the MOOC model was/is still warranted. Have MOOCs been successful in changing the direction of online education? What problems, issues, and challenges have MOOC adopters encountered?

Accessibility challenges of the next decade: cloud and mobile computing and beyond

A valuable body of research and best practices has been developed to address Web Accessibility to insure that all users of the technology have equal access to information and functionality. Significant effort has led to the development of rigorous guidelines addressing this goal. However substantial challenges lay ahead as the Web moves beyond the desktop and computing models evolve. Cloud computing promises that unlimited access to computing resources (processing power, storage, etc.) will be ubiquitous, economical and available to all. Mobile computers in the form of smart phones and tablets already surpass in sheer numbers all other computing systems. What will the challenges be to insure that cloud and mobile computing systems are genuinely accessible? What lessons can be learned from the Web accessibility efforts?

How to "Webby-ize" your Web site - factors in award-winning design

The Webby Awards/spl reg/ are the leading international awards honoring excellence in Web design, functionality and creativity (http://www.webbyawards.com). More than just a popularity contest, the Webbys recognize outstanding achievement in content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity, and overall experience. The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), the organization that oversees the award process, has given the Webby judges a framework for evaluating a Web site that is comprehensive and independent of the personal preference issues that are ordinarily associated with Web site evaluation.

Computational Intelligence for Natural Language Processing [Guest Editorial]

The articles in this special section focus on the use of computational modeling for natural language processing applications.

Innovation in ICT teaching: a longitudinal case study of WiFi in Hong Kong

This paper presents the rationale and the main findings of a quantitative study of a longitudinal WiFi security survey in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China. The authors have been conducting one of the world’s most comprehensive longitudinal WiFi surveys in HK since 2002. This paper looks at different ways that one can visualise WiFi AP data, to see how it is distributed within a city or an area and to draw conclusions about its use by means of mapping. This paper will be of interest to security experts and ICT educators in general. The results of the latest 2009–2010 WiFi survey experiments and implications drawn are also included in this paper.

Web accessibility, mobility and findability

This paper addresses the issues of accessibility, mobility and findability as appropriate to a discussion of Web site or Web page interface usability. The goal of this paper is to emphasize the importance of these factors while providing attendees with sufficient vocabulary and conceptual knowledge to make appropriate design decisions.

The World Wide Web (WWW)

In addition to Nelson’s work on Xanadu™, there have been a number of notable efforts to develop hypertext systems. Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) developed NLS (oN Line System) which was used to store research papers, memos and reports and make them accessible to collaborators separated geographically (Engelbart 1963). The Intermedia system, developed at Brown University’s Institute for Research and Information Scholarship, is an integrated environment that allows different types of applications (word processors, editors, and other programs) to be linked together (Meyrowitz 1986). Other systems were NoteCards, KMS, HyperTies, Guide, Textnet and HyperCard.