Gihan N Wikramanayake

Abstract: As Web Services begin to dominate the market of distributed computing, securing the pipelines from intruders is becoming a mission, which cannot be considered as trivial anymore. As businesses adopt web services due to its very attractive features like platform independency, ease of implementation, unprecedented support from major vendors and ability of seamlessly interfacing with legacy systems, they unsuspectingly expose themselves into a zone filled with security loop holes which can pose a great threat to confidential data which might be traveling through the channels using these services. This paper proposes a comprehensive security solution for securing web services through the use of policies. In an era where web services are building bridges across heterogeneous systems, the need of a security solution, which can seamlessly integrate itself into the existing web service infrastructures of businesses, is becoming more and more apparent. Thus a solution, which can be easily incorporated into the existing infrastructures with minimum cost and effort on the part of the developers and businesses are proposed here.

Abstract: Major libraries have large collections and circulation. Managing libraries electronically has resulted in the creation and management of large library databases. The interconnection of libraries and sharing resources across libraries has resulted in the management of very large databases. Most large and/or multinational industries worldwide have exploited such opportunities by applying data warehouse technology to their data repositories to discover knowledge that had helped them to gain competitive advantage through decision making. The same can be done for libraries using the available large databases. This paper identifies the changes that had taken placed in libraries due to technology and how the data warehouse technology could assist them to discover knowledge and improve services.

Abstract: The report of a working party of the International Dietary Energy Consultative Group has suggested a body mass index below 18.5 as a cut off point for diagnosis of chronic energy deficiency. This is a report of a study of healthy, physically active, young adults (213 males, 172 females) drawn from several districts of Sri Lanka. The subjects were, measured in Colombo when they were participating in Inter-district tournaments. They had been selected to represent their districts on results of tournaments held locally. The selection of national teams for soccer, athletics, volley ball etc. are made at inter-district tournaments, so that the subjects are young adults who are participating regularly in sports activities and could therefore be assumed to be adequately nourished and healthy.

Abstract: Weight, total height (TH), sitting height (SH), skinfold thickness and mid upper arm circumference have been measured in 235 sportsmen and 204 sportswomen, drawn from several districts, participating in tournaments held in Colombo between March and August 1988 in order to obtain reliable data on Sri Lankan adults, to look for inter-district and inter-games differences, and to study the suitability of a BMI less than 18.5 for diagnosis of chronic energy inadequacy. Inter-district differences, reported in studies carried out about 40 years age, no longer exist. Differences between games for the variables weight, TH, SH and total body fat are significant for both genders, and for the variable BMI in the case of males. There has been a positive secular change in heights and weights of adults. When a BMI of 18.5 is used as a cut-off point, only 53% of women and 77.9% of men are categorised as being energy adequate. It is concluded that the BMR of Sri Lankan adults is probably lower than the values used by the FAO/WHO in calculating energy requirements.

Abstract: This Analysis was undertaken as an exercise to help understand the value of, as well as the problems associated with, Multiple Choice Question Examinations in measuring the student ability or achievement. It formed a small but by no means insignificant part of a study to investigate the feasibility as well as advantages and disadvantages of introducing MCQ type tests for separate university admissions in Sri Lanka. Part (I) of the G.C.E. (Advanced level) examination in the subjects Botany, Zoology, Chemistry and Physics is of the Multiple Choice type while Part (II) is of the essay type. In this study the MCQ Physics paper of 1983 was analysed according to certain methods indicated later on.

Abstract: The development of distance education in Bhutan, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka has been rapid, though has so far proved unable to cater to the dual challenge of increasing demand and the rapidly changing educational content. Current educational policies in the region are encouraging the use of new distance education methods based on information and communication technology, in the hope this they will improve the situation. This chapter reports a major study of the accessibility, acceptance, and effects of current distance education in Bhutan, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It is concluded that the modern focus on Internet-based education has failed to take account of its general lack of accessibility and affordability, and that distance education uses of mixed media technologies in the region should be encouraged.

Abstract: This section focuses on the problems of Internet accessibility in distance education. It emphasises the problems facing distance educators and students in South Asia, and the findings of an extensive (2005-07) study of the accessibility, acceptance and effects of DE in Bhutan, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, reported by the PANdora DE research network.

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Abstract: Aim: The aim of this study is to identify and discuss the challenges when transferring evaluation methodology and practice from one cultural context to another. Approach: The Asia-Link project Asia eBIT aimed to develop and implement a 3-year online external Bachelor program in ICT in Sri Lanka. An important part of the project is recurring evaluations of several different aspects of the program. Information has been obtained by questionnaires, interviews, field visits, focus groups and expert evaluations, conducted face to face and online. Findings: The structural differences of the educational systems among partners created a number of challenges, such as: organizational aspects of educational activities, didactic practice, learning culture in traditional education and online courses, staff responsibilities and duties, the financial model, language and other cultural issues. Major challenges mainly concern the interviews and have been three-fold: 1) getting students to talk; 2) when they talk - overcoming the language barrier; and 3) getting students to honestly speak their minds. This process has been a requirement in order to produce usable evaluations at the same time as it is part of the ongoing evaluation itself. Conclusions: The findings in this study further the understandings of the complexity when conducting evaluations across different cultural contexts. This understanding is important in order to perform high quality evaluations and should be part of any evaluators� skills when facing similar challenges. This is a unique study on evaluation approaches of Sri Lankan online ICT program.

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Abstract: This study is part of a larger study into assessment practices on a large distance education BSc programme in Information Technology (BIT) based at the University of Colombo, School of Computing (UCSC). The overall development in which it is set is co-ordinated by the national E-learning Centre of Sri Lanka based at UCSC. This project is supported through the Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions (SPIDER) involving a longer term study into summative assessment for the promotion of higher order thinking on the part of students working on the BIT programme. This programme involves annual enrolment of around 1500 students who work at a distance with variable levels of support from local study centres. The background context is one in which only 14% of qualified school leavers, approximately 120,000 students per annum, can secure a university place. The BIT degree lies outside the main state funded system, so that students do not receive financial support for their studies. Against this background there has been a continual process in place for improving failure and drop out rates through the use of technology enhanced learning. This has gone through three phases which has involved the introduction of a Learning Management System in the second phase and which most recently has involved the use of social media and e-learning 2.0 in the third phase i.e. the eBIT phase from 2006-07 onwards. This paper will address the question of the ways in which the design process has resulted in improving the student learning experience and in doing so will draw on data from students and teachers involved in the course.

Abstract: In Sri Lanka distance education initiatives commenced in late 1970s. Until the Open University offered courses for adult learning in the 80s, the distance education mode was primary used for teacher education. Printed material and face to face sessions at some regional centres were used as the mode of learning. The use of live audio and video broadcasting was restricted to few selected courses while others distributed recorded cassettes. CD-ROMs, websites and e-mail communications were gradually introduced from late 1990s. Computer based material was initially used to improve effectiveness of face to face learning and learners had access to them only through print media. Online access to learning resources was possible only from around 2000. It began through promoting courses offered along with access to course syllabus with reference list, some electronic learning material like lecture notes and past papers, student notices and individual messages posted through websites. These websites act as student portals to access information. Student learning rarely takes place in such environments as they visit either to access or download information and not to construct and develop knowledge. For effective learning to happen students should be able to interact with information and people. Use of commercial and institutionally developed Learning Management Systems (LMS) by some academic and professional organisations introduced virtual learning environments for our students. However these environments were exploited mostly through teacher centric study centres. While students were looking forward for teacher guidance the institutions wanted their students to be with them, and hence the institutions didn�t encourage online student centric and self/peer learning. With the advent of free and open-source e-learning software platforms and affordable access to Internet, more and more online communities immerged and now we have hundreds of online courses managed through LMS, mostly using Moodle. Several national and institutional initiatives contributed towards these developments. However, except for the first ever external degree in Information Technology which still attracts 1000s of students per year, all other online programmes had failed to attract students beyond the size of a typical classroom. There are certificate programmes completely conducted electronically. However most online certificate programmes focus on online learning and offline evaluations. When it comes to degree programmes and higher levels, our online courses are not self sufficient, and they are either offered in blended learning mode or the LMS acts only as a resource pool for learning and preparation for examinations. How such learning experiences took placed is presented here emphasising the use and success of selected online courses in Sri Lanka. It is interesting to note that regular online learners had accustomed for it and are seeking for online access to next set of courses even before the results of the previous is released. Like some of us check our emails regularly, online learning community continues to be online keeping in touch with fellow learners and global developments.

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Abstract: To address the shortage of opportunities to take computing as a career, University of Colombo introduced the BIT External Degree programme in 2000. However due to the high dropout rates at the initial stage of the programme, only small number of students has been successful in completing their studies. Therefore, it was a strong requirement to improve the quality and relevance of the delivery mechanism of BIT as the university was not involved in face to face teaching. Asia eBIT is a project to address these issues and to expand BIT into an International degree in Asia. Through the paradigm shift from teaching to learning, the relevance of the programme as an external degree has been achieved. Beside changes to the curriculum is gradually addressing the dropout issue as well as has provided the students an opportunity to first acquire end-user IT skills and then move on into development skills in ICT. Asia eBIT e-learning framework is built on top of a Learning Management System and provides a wide rage of learning resources. It is a virtual learning environment that promotes constructivism in collaborative learning. It includes interactive learning material, student manuals, learning activities and assessments. This paper introduces the Asia eBIT e-learning framework, curriculum changes that have take placed and the various learning resources that had helped the student to learn and test their skills. Paper also shows how the student performance of participated students had increased due to this learning environment.

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Abstract: Most of the data in the internet are markup for text and graphics in HTML format and are driven by syntax. These data are displayed to the user but the computers are concern there is no meaning of these data. If we semantically annotate data in the internet, then the computers can process these data in meaningful ways and increase the usability of the data. In this project a possible architecture for a semantics based middleware agent (broker) will be looked at, which has the capabilities to serve web service requests by searching through a larger space of web services. The matching capabilities of a semantics based broker are much higher than any of the syntax based middleware frameworks in the market today like UDDI. In this project, we will be using two of the current semantic web technologies OWL (Ontology Web Language) and OWL-Services. Once the broker receives a client request that contains the capabilities and input/output specification of a web service client wishes to invoke, it will read OWL-S descriptions of the services registered to the broker and try to find a direct match. If it is unable to find one the broker uses its powerful inference capabilities (not available in conventional syntax based middleware) to dynamically compose a set of available services together into a new service. Our IntelliBroker works as a true broker in the sense that client may even not know what the invoked services are. In executing the created composite service, the broker has the ability to exploit any parallelism between the child services and return results to the client faster. The broker will convert OWL types to SOAP messages and vice versa using XSLT (eXtensible Style Language Transformations). This paper focuses on the design and the architectural of our system. We implemented the system with Java language and used Axis framework for publishing and executing web services. Jena API was used to manipulate OWL data and the Pellet engine was used for the reasoning.

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Abstract: Web services provide interfaces to web resources described by WSDL interface definitions. The Web Service MEDiator system (WSMED) enables querying data accessible through web services. WSMED allows web service meta-data to be automatically extracted from any WSDL description. Then views can be created in terms of the imported meta-data and queried using SQL. To enhance query performance, WSMED permits to complement the automatically extracted web service meta-data with semantic enrichments. A WSMED prototype is being evaluated over existing web services to verify the effectiveness of the approach. It is being investigated how semantic enrichments and other query optimization methods are useful for efficient querying of mediated web services.

Abstract: E-learning has acquired a prime place in many discussions recently. A number of research efforts around the world are trying to enhance education and training using e-learning. This paper briefly explains one such attempt aimed at designing a system to support video clips in e-learning and explains how profiles of the presenters in video clips can be used to improve the usefulness of e-learning systems. Then it discusses one of the main problems identified in profile construction. Finally, it presents a solution to this problem and describes a novel algorithm for improving the efficiency of the profile construction process.

Abstract: Traditionally education is centred on sources such as schools, teachers and print media. The learners reached the information sources by enrolling with schools, teachers and libraries. Prior to the digital era, information was not accessible by the majority of people, and even those accessed were unable to obtain current information with respect to today�s context. The modern society wants to know the information as it happens and when it happens, and the world is moving from an information society to a knowledge society. Thus education is given the highest priority and brainpower is becoming the most valuable asset of an organisation. Advances in digital technology have opened up many avenues of learning. Technology has made information accessible / transmittable from anywhere and by / to all groups of people. Education has reached most parts of the world and ICT has become an integral part of human life. This paper describes the process of generation, creation and acquisition of knowledge through the technology. The use of ICT to manage and organise explicit knowledge is highlighted. The paper also describes how technology is used to access and apply such knowledge. The paper relates how these technologies have been used in education and its impact in general. Using examples the paper highlights some of the changes that has taken placed in the Sri Lankan education sector.

Abstract: E-learning has occupied a prime place in discussions about improving training and education worldwide recently. A number of research organizations and individuals around the world are trying to enhance education and training using e-learning. Earlier our research group published a Profile based Feature identification and Video segmentation system designed to support video clips in e-learning. However the efficiency of the system decreased gradually when we kept on increasing the number of profiles of the presenters. This paper presents a way to improve this problem by examining the distinct features of each profile and rearranging the profile feature space when adding new profiles to the database. We show the effectiveness of the new algorithm by using our application and the observed significant improvements in the system compared to the previous results.

Abstract: The Business Registries are one of the key elements in the Business to Business (B2B) transaction process in e-Commerce. It acts as knowledge centers by offering services to different business parties to collaborate their business processes in an effective manner. Currently it is challenging to extract accurate information needed by a business party who is querying a registry on a particular industrial domain due to its inability to store business specific domain information effectively. In this research paper we show how we improved the storage of a business domain specific knowledge by utilizing the implementation of Ontologies. For this we have selected �IT Outsource� as our reference implementation Ontology, which helps IT companies engaged in outsourcing business to setup their business repositories in an effective manner. Once Ontology is represented in the Business Registry, business parties could to automate their search process by using Ontology based querying and automating Agent based search.

Abstract: The use of video clips for e-learning has received less attention during the past. Integration of heterogeneous data is one of the greatest challenges for versatile e-learning environments. This paper presents a Profile based Feature identification and Video segmentation system designed to support the use of video clips in e-learning. This system is capable of storing educational video clips with their semantics and retrieving required video clip segments efficiently on their semantics. The system creates profiles of presenters appearing in the video clips based on their facial features and uses these profiles to partition similar video clips into logical meaningful segments. The face recognition algorithm used by the system is based on the Principal Components Analysis (PCA) approach. The new metadata standards like MPEG-7 and XML are used to store metadata on e-content.

Abstract: Engineering design process has an evolutionary and iterative nature as design artifacts develop through series of changes before the final solution is achieved. Design is performed based on design requirements which are mainly specified as restrictions on the properties of the design artifact, and are considered to be design constraints. A common problem encountered during the design process is that of constraint evolution, which may involve the identification of new constraints and modification or omission of existing constraints for a number of reasons. These reasons would include changes in customer requirements, changes in the technology, change in the production cost or to improve the performance. As design is an evolutionary process where a solution is sought by trial and error, integrity constraints in engineering design will not remain fixed but will tend to evolve during the design process. This evolving nature of constraints has made the support for automatic integrity validation, non-trivial as it imposes number of key issues that need to be dealt with. We have been able to successfully address these issues with respect to the engineering design environment and we identify how one could meet the challenges through effective management of these evolving constraints for engineering designs. Thus the original design will continue to exist while supporting the creation of new design versions to meet the changes.

Abstract: One of the essential requirements in electronic business is to exchange business information between agreed business partners. However discovering suitable partner(s) and establishing collaboration with these partners is a problem faced by many current e-commerce infrastructure models. Therefore effective implementation of a strategic B2B communication between business partners by proposing a feasible solution to overcome existing concerns/problems is one of the main objectives that we need to address in order to develop the existing Info-Structure concept. In this research paper we are proposing how we can improve the storage of business domain knowledge and effective searching of business services stored in registries utilizing the implementation of Ontologies. We have selected �IT Outsource� as our example Ontology which helps IT companies engaged in outsourcing to setup their business repositories in an effective manner. Therefore within a short period of time customers can effectively search business services advertised in these registries.

Abstract: The topic of data warehousing encompasses architectures, algorithms, and tools for brining together selected data from multiple databases or other information sources into a single repository called a data warehouse, suitable for direct querying and analysis. We have designed a data warehouse for the Sri Lanka education system and applied basic data mining techniques (i.e. data cleaning, data integration, data selection, data transformation, data mining, pattern evaluation, knowledge representation) to support decision making activities. For this we have built an integrated data warehouse consisting data from Dept. of Examination, University Grants Commission, School Census data, national population data and University student�s information. This paper highlights how the data warehouse was built for the Sri Lanka education system and how it was used to create data summary cubes for data analysis and mining process. At present using this developed system, basic level of summaries and analysis can be performed to obtain for decision support information. Further applying data mining techniques and advanced queries, we can obtain the necessary knowledge for policy marking as well.

Abstract: Use of video clips for e-learning is very limited due to the high usage of band width. The ability to select and retrieve relevant video clips using semantics addresses this problem. This paper presents a Profile based Feature Identification system for multimedia database systems which is designed to support the use of video clips for elearning. This system is capable of storing educational video clips with their semantics and retrieving required video clip segments efficiently on their semantics. The system creates profiles of presenters appearing in the video clips based on their facial features and uses these profiles to partition similar video clips into logical meaningful segments. The face recognition algorithm used by the system is based on the Principal Components Analysis (PCA) approach. However PCA algorithm has been modified to cope with the face recognition in video key frames. Several improvements have been proposed to increase the face recognition rate and the overall performance of the system.

Abstract: In this paper, we discuss our experience of developing an open multimedia database in which we store video presentations and other teaching materials for an external degree program called the Batchelor of Information Technology (BIT) conducted by the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) in Sri Lanka. The video presentations are telecasted weekly using local television channels and they are later inserted to the multimedia database after processing through a semantic segmentation tool. These segments are described using XML profiles based on the MPEG 7 standards. Apache Xindice is used as the XML database server in defining those profiles for video contents in the media server. The integrated interface of both these servers provides facilities to teachers to develop new teaching materials by searching and locating relevant segments of telecast videos. These new multimedia materials are distributed using a learning management system (LMS) for external undergraduates of the university.

Abstract: This paper proposes an approach for indexing a collection of multimedia clips by a speaker in an audio track. A Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) procedure is used for segmentation and Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) are extracted and sampled as metadata for each segment. Silence detection is also carried out during segmentation. Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) are trained for each speaker, and an ensemble technique is proposed to reduce errors caused by the probabilistic nature of GMM training. The indexing system utilizes sampled MFCC features as segment metadata and maintains the metadata of the speakers separately, allowing modification or additions to be done independently. The system achieves a True Miss Rate (TMR) of around 20% and a False Alarm Rate (FAR) of around 10% for segments between 15 and 25 seconds in length with performance decreasing with reduction in segment size.

Abstract: The Business Registries are one of the key elements in the Business to Business (B2B) transaction process in e-Commerce. It acts as knowledge centers by offering services to different business parties to collaborate their business processes in an effective manner. Currently it is challenging to extract accurate information needed by a business party who is querying a registry on a particular industrial domain due to its inability to store business specific domain information effectively. In this research paper we show how we improved the storage of a business domain specific knowledge by utilizing the implementation of Ontologies. For this we have selected �IT Outsource� as our reference implementation Ontology, which helps IT companies engaged in outsourcing business to setup their business repositories in an effective manner. Once Ontology is represented in the Business Registry, business parties could to automate their search process by using Ontology based querying and automating Agent based search.

Abstract: Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) is a rapidly developing technology and is considered as the solution for organizations that needs a way to manage the information efficiently. EDMS applications focus on the control of electronic documents throughout their entire life cycle, from creation to eventual archiving. Its functions include document creation, storage and retrieval, management, version control, workflow and multiple delivery formats. Document management is not a single entity or technology, but rather a combination of elements. It is the use of information and different users in a business process, combined with the technology that permits the interaction. The technologies that make up the EDMS are categorized into distinct functional groupings. We present these and describes the techniques used to electronically manage documents. We also explores the immediate future of the EDMS and conclude that having the EDMS industry is at crossroads in its own lifecycle and is made up of a highly fragmented group of products with no single integrated vendor or framework for automating the entire cradle to grave document life cycle.

Abstract: The United Nations Center for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) provides UN/CEFACT Modeling Methodology (UMM) for technology and protocol independent business process and business information modeling for e-Commerce Systems development. In e-Commerce, systems design is based on two fundamental types of models, business models and process models. A business model is concerned with value exchanges among business partners, while a process model focuses on operational and procedural aspects of business communication. Thus, a business model defines the what in an e-Commerce System, while a process model defines the how. This means that the e-Commerce Systems development workflow consists of two main phases. First, a business requirement capture phase focusing on value exchanges, and secondly, a phase focused on operational and procedural realization of those requirements. Among the meta-models defined in UMM, Business Requirements Views (BRV) can be associated by designers for the business model development while Business Transaction (BTV) and Business Service Views (BSV) can be associated for business process models. However it has been realized that still there is a gap between UMM's business models and process models as much explanation cannot be found on how one can move from coarse-grained views at initial phases to more fine-grained views at later stages. This work is addressed to bridge the gap between UMM's coarse grained views at initial phases and fine-grained views at later stages of e-Commerce Systems development. For this purpose we are adopting well-established Speech Act theory for modeling business communication and also we are proposing a unified framework based on Speech Acts. This unified framework gives much clearer interpretations for UMM's modeling concepts, facilitates business modeling and process modeling and provides smoother integration between those models.

Abstract: Availability of vast amount of information on the web has provided access to all types of learning material. The teacher�s lecture notes is no longer the primary focus of a learning process, and the teacher�s role and the student�s learning process are changing. In the modern global learning environment e-learning has become a facilitator in organisational development through knowledge sharing, especially in the area of web based training and project management. It has also become a potential business for many organisations. The changes that should be happening in teaching and learning are discussed here with the aid of two case studies. The key technologies and practices of elearning at University of Western Sydney (UWS) are highlighted here and are compared with the existing activities of the external degrees program at University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC). The importance of identifying learning objects, assessment methods and training to apply the learning outcomes are some of the changes in the teaching process. These changes should be considered as a strategy to implement e-learning systems. The learning process is activity based and focuses on group and individual work with presentations and discussions. E-learning environment together with tutorial and practical classes facilitates the learning process.

Abstract: The ebXML initiative is designed for electronic interoperability, allowing businesses to find each other, agree to become trading partners and conduct business. ebXML repository is used to store the ebXML resources and the ebXML registry is used to discover these resources. ebXML resources may be in the form of XML documents, Document Type Definitions, XML Schemas, UML models and various other forms. Therefore a proper tool is required for the management of these resources. Management of ebXML resources has to be done by the experts who create and modify and are in charge of these resources. If there is a tool for the management of these resources, the experts can concentrate more on the content of these resources rather than management of them. This paper describes the implementation of a graphical tool for the management of ebXML resources based on the proposed ebXML specifications. Two approaches are being used to discover these resources. Registry Navigator is one, which is in a tree structure and gives a full view of the registry. Query Manager is the other, which enables quick referencing to the resources if the user is fully aware of what resources are needed. The documents discovered in this manner are to be opened in the Editor pane of the tool. This editor facilitates the creation and modification of documents easily. The tool also incorporates capabilities to add and remove resources through the Life Cycle Manager. It also has a mechanism, which keeps track of different versions of the resources, so that the preferred version can be referred with minimum effort. Finally, it allows non-expert users to dynamically access the content of the registry over the web.

Abstract: In e-commerce, systems development is based on two fundamental types of models, business models and process models. A business model is concerned with value exchanges among business partners, while a process model focuses on operational and procedural aspects of business communication. Thus a business model defines the �what� in an e-commerce system, while a process model defines the �how�. Business process design can be facilitated and improved by a method for systematically moving from a business model to a process model. Such a method would provide support for traceability, evaluation of design alternatives, and seamless transition from analysis to realisation. This paper introduces a methodology called Process Pattern Perspective (P3) for systematic transformation of a business model to a process model, which can be executed on a Process Manager. The applicability and usability of P3 has been evaluated using a laboratory e-catering case study and a real European e-business that sells custom built systems and computers via the WWW. The paper discusses the European e-business case study and identifying the business model, configuration, economic events and the process model. Our experiences with respect to designing e-Commerce Systems using P3 are also presented.

Abstract: When building e-commerce systems, two types of models are fundamental: business models and process models. A business model is concerned with value exchanges among business partners, while a process model focuses on operational and procedural aspects of business communication. Thus, a business model defines the what in an e-commerce system, while a process model defines the how. A business model can be seen as more basic than a process model as it specifies the declarative aspects of an e-commerce system. In our work, we argue that it is possible to move from a business model to a process model. The theoretical foundations of our approach are based on the Language/Action approach and REA. We are using ebXML as a conceptual and notational framework and more specifically BPSS for process models and UN/CEFACT UMM for business models. In this paper we are proposing a methodology to generate business process specifications to design e-commerce systems.

Abstract: A solution to reduce inequalities in resource allocation in the school education sector was developed in 1999. The issues identified were the allocation of resources for educational quality inputs is not adequate to supply the needed resources to teach the school curriculum, the allocation of resources for educational quality inputs is not equitably distributed among students in different types of schools, the current method of allocating resources to education is not based on a formal mechanism which is equitable and linked to the school curriculum and the process of resource allocation to education is not transparent (at all key stages in the system) making it difficult to track whether resources allocated for a particular purpose are actually spent on that purpose. The new allocation mechanism is called NBUCRAM and it provides resources, on a rational and equitable basis, for quality inputs, and maintenance replacement activity. The quality inputs are logically linked to the curriculum and equitably distributed on a per pupil basis for student related inputs and on a per teacher basis for teacher related inputs, across schools. This allocation mechanism is now being used by national, provincial and zonal education officials in their planning activities and managerial decisions concerning the allocation of resources to schools. The allocation mechanism will enable education authorities to synchronise their delivery of quality inputs with the maintenance and replacement activities to ensure long-term sustainability at a level of financing adequate to meet the needs of curriculum quality inputs.

Abstract: The World Wide Web is the most commonly used and possibly the largest information system available at present. Most of the Web sites in the Internet use static Web pages to present information with hyper links. There are several disadvantages in this procedure such as the inability to cater for specific user needs and to update existing pages ensuring consistency of information. A Web site with a database as the back-end for information storage provides a new dimension, as maintaining consistency of the information and the production of dynamic Web pages is possible through the database. A Web site with dynamic data is developed for one-day international (ODI) cricket data. The information processing involve data management, retrieval, producing dynamic reports and answering potential user requests. Output of the system includes the ability to present user requests as Web pages and on-line updates of information. A Web site for ODI cricket information which stores the data available in an ODI score card and other related information in its central database is constructed with a Relational Database Management System. All the frequently asked questions regarding ODI cricket is answered using the database with relevant processing. User Interface with options for different categories of interest is provided to the users. Up-to-date statistical information for user requests is presented as dynamic Web pages. This information is useful to anybody who wants either to study strengths and weaknesses of players and teams.

Abstract: The Internet is changing the way that people communicate which each other and the way they obtain their necessary information. Currently there is so much information available on the Internet and people tend to depend on it to locate the necessary information. Information providers for the web must ensure that they provide the necessary information for its users in a style that will help them to locate the information easily. This applies to the web sites on Sri Lankan Universities where the limited information available on them is not consistent among the different departments, faculties and universities. This paper describes the design and implementation of an integrated Sri Lankan University information system that is accessed and maintained through the Internet. A university information system of this nature will not only provide easy maintenance of such sites, but also provide useful integrated information. This will allow people to find out suitable universities to follow a particular course, to identify resource persons available in a particular field of study and to determine the job opportunities. The information of this system is maintained using an Oracle database. The users access the integrated data through a Java-enable web browser. The coding for each sub task is done using Java applets. The database is connected to the web browser using an Oracle JDBC Thin driver. Oracle PL/SQL is used to retrieve the data from the database. As universities are geographically distributed through out the country, remote database updating facilities are provided to authorised university personnel over the Internet.

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Abstract: Some countries use agricultural information systems to assist different users such as planters, researchers, prospective investors, importers and exporters. Sri Lanka despite having an agricultural based economy does not have an information system of this nature. This paper describes the design and development of a web based agricultural information system for the main crops of Sri Lanka. The main feature of this information system is the availability of agricultural information on Sri Lanka to various users through the Internet. The information that can be made available through such an information system includes the crops and inter-crops, their production and export details, crop and inter-crop diseases, land availability, soil suitability, fertiliser, research institutes and researches. Most of this information is in the form of statistical data and facts about these crops and products made out of them. These information will be made available to this information system through respective institutes in Sri Lanka, namely: Rubber Research Institute, Agalawatta; Tea Research Institute, Thalawakale; Coconut Research Institute, Lunuwila; and Rice Research Institute, Gannoruwa. Currently, this system is a prototype at the University of Colombo, which will eventually be maintained by authorised users of these institutes. The front-end of this system use Java applets for its graphical user interfaces, while the back-end uses an Oracle database to manage its data. The front-end and back-end of this system is connected using an Oracle thin driver. The data retrieval and update of this system is done using embedded SQL queries.

Abstract: A wealth of information is held in databases supporting the IT capabilities of organisations. Many of these databases are called legacy databases in that they and their associated applications were developed with software systems that are now technologically obsolete, particularly when compared with the more recent systems being used for new developments in the organisation. These legacy databases need to be evolved and migrated to modern computing environments, so that their existence remains beneficial to their community of users. The evolution path of these databases is based on a re-engineering process. The Conceptualised Constraint Visualisation and Enhancement System (CCVES) for relational legacy databases, developed at Cardiff, is a database software tool that assists with the migration process of legacy databases, and its re-engineering databases using meta-programming technology is described here. This tool is initially used to create a graphical model of a relational legacy database which shows its current integrity constraints applicable to the elements of the model. CCVES was developed using meta-translation techniques and can accept input from a variety of relational systems (INGRES, Oracle and POSTGRES have been tested) to produce graphical models of a database�s schema as either as ER model or an OMT model accompanied by a display of the integrity constraints in force in the database. CCVES can also be used to enhance the legacy database by accepting input of explicit new constraints which the underlying database does not support or which are incomplete in the database in that they should be enforced. This enables further constraints to appear in the graphical model. These constraints are used to enhance the original database�s meta-data model; and to assist legacy databases to be evolved and viewed in new ways. These constraints can also be used to detect inconsistent legacy data prior to its migration from its current database and help in the transparent migration of legacy databases which permits users to continue using them while they migrate. Meta-programming technology have been successfully used in several recent research projects to address heterogeneity issues. A key to this approach is the transformation of the source meta-data or query into a common internal representation which is then separately transformed into a chosen target representation. Thus components of a schema, referred to as meta-data, are classified as entity and attribute on input, and are stored in a database language independent fashion in the internal representation. This meta-data is then processed to derive the appropriate schema information of a particular DBMS. In this way it is possible to use a single representation and yet deal with issues related to most types of DBMSs. A similar approach is used for query transformation between source and target representations.

Abstract: A wealth of information is held in databases supporting the IT capabilities of organisations. Many of these databases are called legacy databases in that they and their associated applications were developed with software systems that are now technically obsolete. This obsolescence is particularly marked when this development software is compared with the more recent systems being used for new developments in the organisation. Theses legacy databases need to be evolved and migrated to modern computing environments, so that their existence remains beneficial to their community of users and hence the organisation. The Conceptualised Constraint Visualisation and Enhancement System (CCVES) for relational legacy databases, developed at Cardiff, is a database software too that assists with the migration process of legacy databases by enabling the structure of the database to be displayed in a user preferred graphical style to improve their understanding of the databases contents prior to the migration. The approach, role, potential usefulness, significance, and some of our experiences in using this tool are described in this paper.

Abstract: We introduce a problem in legacy database migration, describe the approach-implemented in a database software tool, the Conceptualised Constraint Visualisation and Enhancement System (CCVES)-that we are developing to help address this problem, and assess briefly the potential usefulness and significance of this approach.

Abstract: Relational databases are restricted in their ability to represent different types of data to a limited set of basic typesn.This paper is concerned with enhancing the character type present in the INGRES DBMS into domains representing sets of character values that could be linked semantically, such as the set of county names representing the English counties.This enhancement was implemented by enhancing the SQL and QUEL interfaces to INGRES.Such an enhancement allows a database through its character set to hold knowledge in these domains.The implementation has used storage efficient techniques and supports dynamic use of data manipulation operations involving these user defined character domains.A form of defining and using synonyms for the domain values as well as methods of performing referential integrity during data manipulation is also presented.Two approaches were tried to enchance character domains.1.)Firstly using only the facilities of the relational query language (this was investigated using the SQL and QUEL interfaces to INGRES).2.)Secondly using the facilities of an embedded query language to build a user interface which fully supported domains.The constraints imposed by the query language prevented the development of a suitable interface using the first approach.These constraints as well as the potential to represent knowledge of the user interface approach are discussed.

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Abstract: During the industrial revolution the demand for people to create, operate and maintain machinery and equipment increased rapidly. Like wise in the modern day, people are required to create, operate and maintain Information Technology (IT) / Information Systems (IS). Computers are primarily used to create Business Information Systems and process its information. However it can also be used to control devices and machinery as well as to advise people on what should be done. Alongside with the rapid advances in technology, computers and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) are being used in many exciting and challenging ways. Over the last decade the global demand for a career in ICT has grown rapidly. However, only a small percentage of Sri Lankans have taken the challenge of entering into the field of ICT as opposed to Indians. A job in computing is more demanding than most other fields and it can also help you in earning high salaries. For instance ICT graduates now draw starting salaries of over 35,000 and they double it within a year or two.

Abstract: The International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL), known as the ECDL in Europe, is the global standard in end-user computer skills, offering Candidates an internationally recognised certification that is supported by governments, computer societies, international organisations and commercial corporations globally. It is the world�s largest end-user computer skills certification programme, with more than 6 million candidates in over 150 countries doing these examinations in 38 languages and in 25,000 testing centres around the world. The ECDL program is globally administered by the ECDL foundation, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. ICDLAP develops and supports the implementation of the ICDL in the Asia Pacific Region while testIT (Pvt) Ltd. is its Business Partner and Computer Society of Sri Lanka is the Accreditation Agent in Sri Lanka and Maldives

Abstract: Knowledge discovery in the Web by exploring the Web server logs entirely depend on effective capture of user navigation paths from the Web server logs. When users� privacy is protected most of the approaches taken are heuristic based. In this article, two such effective approaches are discussed with their drawbacks.

Abstract: Email to SMS forwarding is the service that enables automated and intelligent forwarding of electronic information from email accounts to SMS mobile devices. An SMS Email Reader provides a service to read the emails from the email accounts when requests are sent by the user via mobile phones.

Abstract: In the tourism sector travel agents, hotels, tour operators make ticket booking, hotel reservations and tour bookings respectively to perform their day to day business. Customs at the airport records tourist arrival for use by the tourist board. Currently these data are used only for internal use by respective organisation. Thus the current decision support modules used by commercial organizations, which are plugged into existing operational systems do not offer quality strategic decision making information due to lack of integration of other operational system and external data, poor performance due to the interference of the operational system and also due to the great difficulty in managing and maintaining a system whose main functionality is quite different to an operational system. Also, there is the presence of large amounts legacy data spanning over ten years by most organizations. The organizations have a great need to harness business intelligence using these legacy data but are without the technological know how necessary to create such systems. Therefore data warehousing is emerging, in Sri Lanka, as a very popular and necessary process/technology to harness the power of the operational data of business organizations. Here we show the possibilities of integrating such tourism data and exploiting them through an enterprise data warehouse solution for the chosen customer organization. For testing purpose an organization concerned with inbound tour operators in Sri Lanka was chosen. Inbound tour operators, partner with tour operators of other countries such as Germany, United Kingdom etc. to bring down tourist and manage their entire itinerary from arrival to departure. The data for this development came from 3 sources, namely from the operational tour operations system, budget data by the management and external data from the Ceylon Tourist Board on the country tourist arrival figures. Data warehouse was build on Oracle and Oracle Discoverer End User Query Tool, which is user friendly, graphical, On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) tool was used to help the senior management of the customer organization gain full potential of the data warehouse.

Abstract: Web Services are the next hype been built which will undoubtedly revolutionize the IT world with the phenomenal support it provides for distributed computing through the use of standardized protocols which enables the seamless integration of heterogeneous systems across different platforms. Through the use of protocols such as XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI, applications can exchange information and interoperate in a manner, which was only a dream decades ago. The secrets behind the success of this new paradigm are many. Among them the use of standard Internet protocols, which enables faster and economical application integration has been prominent. Ease of implementation, platform independency, the unprecedented support from major vendors and the ability of interfacing with legacy systems seamlessly have been few of the other secrets behind its success. A strict definition of Web Services is �encapsulated, loosely coupled, and contracted software objects offered via standard protocols.� Essentially, Web Services are application functionality residing on systems that accept requests from other systems locally or across the Internet by means of lightweight, vendor-neutral communications technologies.

Abstract: Data mining is the process of non-trivial extraction of implicit, previously unknown and potentially useful information from data in large databases. Data mining is the principal core of the knowledge discovery process, which also includes data integration, data cleaning, relevant data selection, pattern evaluation and knowledge visualization. Traditionally, data mining has been applied to databases. The wide spread of the World Wide Web (WWW) technology has made the large document collection in the WWW a new ground for knowledge discovery research. Although Web search engines assist in resource discovery, it is far from satisfying for its poor precision. Moreover, the target of the Web engine is only to discover resource on the Web. In contrast to resource discovery that finds and retrieves resources from the Web, knowledge discovery on the Web aims at deducing and extracting implicit knowledge not necessarily contained in a resource. Data mining on the Web, commonly referred Web Mining, is the use of data mining techniques to automatically discover and extract information from WWW data. Web involves three types of data: data on the Web (content), Web structure data (hyperlinks) and Web log data (usage) regarding the users who browsed the Web pages. Thus, Web mining can be categorized into three areas of interest based on which part of the Web to mine: Web content mining, web structure mining and Web usage mining.

Abstract: E-Learning offers potentially universal access to content, regardless of location and time, and it can transform education and training from a passive consumption experience to a more flexible and learner-centric experience. As a result of the increasing availability of e-learning, the market for training in workplace readiness and problem-solving is growing rapidly. In a typical e-learning system facilities should be provided to browse, store and retrieve educational content in many different forms ranging from simple text documents to video clips. In addition such systems should also provide a variety of services to organize related items together and to enable the retrieval of different types of educational material easily and quickly based on the learner requirements. This paper presents media server based architecture that we have been developed to support such requirements.

Abstract: Value addition of Apparel comes from its identification. Without a proper identification, customer never believes in the manufacturer. As an example, if prestigious apparel manufacturer like Marks and Spencer releases new apparel without proper identification, none of the end customers will believe it is from Marks and Spencer. 100% value addition of a particular garment will be given only by its Brand Identification. Throughout the world there are hundreds of thousand Brand Identification Manufacturers who supply for the demand of above categories. Some of them are capable of providing all three categories and act as one stop shop for their buyers and others may only produce one or two of them. As market leaders in this industry four manufacturers can be identified as PAXAR, RVL, shoretoshore and AVERY DENISSON. It is hard to name the order but in different parts of the world different players are dominating. If we look at Sri Lanka both PAXAR and shoretoshore are very active as they have their own manufacturing plants in the country but other two operates through subcontractors within the country itself.

Abstract: In order to facilitate e-commerce communication, many standardisation activities have been initiated in the industry. One of the most influential standardisation efforts, which enable enterprises to search for information efficiently and accurately, establish agreements, and carry out business transactions, is ebXML. UN/CEFACT Modelling Methodology (UMM) describes a method and supporting components, to capture business knowledge, independent of the underlying implemented technology so that the business acumen is retained and usable over generations of implemented technology. Today organisations are competing in dynamic, complex environments. An accurate understanding of their objectives and the methods for quickly achieving those objectives is vital. The Balanced Scorecard is a revolutionary tool that motivates staff to make the organisation�s vision happen. The mapping of the performance measurement and management tool �Balanced Scorecard� using UMM concepts is described here.

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Abstract: It is recognized that business models provides ways to explore new business ideas and hence design and redesign operational business processes. Business model describes who are involved in the business and what resources are exchange between them. Process model on the other hand, shows ordering of exchange of resources, communication among agents to coordinate these resource exchanges. Process model is use to trace and coordinate value exchanges. The business model used in this work is e3-value model. The e3-value model was originally designed to support the explorations of new business networks. The paper contributes by addressing the research questions of identifying: e3-value model elements that needs to be mapped into the process model, essential sub processes that should be in a process model with respect to the e3-value model and nature of the process patterns. The paper provides answers to these research questions. The paper also discuss a method to transforms a business model to a process model in a systematic way. Such a method would provide support for traceability, evaluation of design alternatives. When two agents are exchanging resources in a value transaction, the order of exchange of resources would be vary from one business case to another business case. It depends on the contractual agreement setup between the involved business partners. The derivation of a process model from a business model is considered to be a nondeterministic design process. There would be different ways of achieving same goal. As such there would be different process models that achieve the same goal. Process patterns are ready made solutions to a certain problem in a specific problem domain. Process patterns are using as a candidate to build the process model. It is up to the designer to choose the appropriate patterns to construct process model. The selection is depends upon costs and benefits. He could compare the alternatives and choose the suitable one that achieves the goal. In this work we use elementary process patterns discussed in the Open-EDI, in particular negotiation, actualization and post-actualization, as the starting point.

Abstract: As Web Services begin to dominate the market of distributed computing, securing the pipelines from intruders is becoming a mission, which cannot be considered as trivial anymore. In today�s highly competitive world, businesses adopt web services due to its very attractive features like platform independency, unprecedented support from major vendors, ability of seamlessly interfacing with legacy systems, use of standardized protocols (SOAP, XML, UDDI, WSDL etc�) etc�As a result they unsuspectingly expose themselves into a zone filled with security loop holes which can pose a great threat to confidential data which might be travelling through the channels using these services. This paper intends to propose a comprehensive security solution for securing web services through the use of policies, which can be easily incorporated into the existing infrastructures with minimum cost and effort on the part of the developers and businesses.

Abstract: Isolated management of information is a common practise in most organisations. This occurs due to the use of separate systems for each functional areas of an organisation. Such systems are not inter-operable, as the data used and produced by one system does not fulfil the needs of the other. Hence the design and development of an integrated management information system is necessary to benefit from such systems. The Information Unit of the Department of Technical Education and Training maintains computerised databases related to their Courses and Colleges. Due to the weaknesses and lack of complete information they were used only for selective managerial work and for limited planning and decision making purposes. To overcome these problems, a systematic technique was considered to translate existing information systems into an integrated well-design data model, followed by a data migration. This paper describe the integration process used by us to successfully use the technical education and training data at three different levels, namely: College, Zone and National. The important achievement of this work includes the re-engineering of the National databases of the Technical Education and subsequent migration of its data to the new application environment without any loss of information. A College level database was designed for use at each college as a sub system of the National level database. The enforcement of data uniformity at College level is possible due to the introduction of this sub system. This makes it possible to use the College level data at the National level for decision making on planning, controlling and operation.

Abstract: Cricket is a very popular sport in Sri Lanka as well as in other cricket playing countries. Information about a cricket match is provided using a scorecard. The analysis of such scorecards generate information important for players, team management, selection boards and other interested parties since they will lead to better judgement about players, their strengths and weaknesses, and performance as a team. This information is in the form of statistical data that changes with every cricket match. The World Wide Web is the most commonly used and possibly the largest information system available at present. An Internet based information system using a database as its back-end can effectively manage the cricket data and dynamically present up-to-date statistical information to all its users. The design and development of such an information system for One-Day International (ODI) cricket is described in this paper. Input of the system is mainly in the form of cricket scorecards. Information processing involve data management, retrieval, producing static or dynamic web pages and answering user requests. Most of the processing is carried out using the database query language. Presentation of statistical information for series, country, match, team statistics, batting records, bowling records, fielding, wicket keeping, player profile and all round performance to the users, and the capability to answer frequently asked questions about cricket are the output of the system.

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Abstract: The research work reported here is concerned with enhancing and preparing databases with limited DBMS capability for migration to keep up with current database technology. In particular, we have addressed the problem of re-engineering heterogeneous relational legacy databases to assist them in a migration process. Special attention has been paid to the case where the legacy database service lacks the specification, representation and enforcement of integrity constraints. We have shown how knowledge constraints of modern DBMS capabilities can be incorporated into these systems to ensure that when migrated they can benefit from the current database technology. To this end, we have developed a prototype conceptual constraint visualisation and enhancement system (CCVES) to automate as efficiently as possible the process of re-engineering for a heterogeneous distributed database environment, thereby assisting the global system user in preparing their heterogeneous database systems for a graceful migration. Our prototype system has been developed using a knowledge based approach to support the representation and manipulation of structural and semantic information about schemas that the re-engineering and migration process requires. It has a graphical user interface, including graphical visualisation of schemas with constraints using user preferred modelling techniques for the convenience of the user. The system has been implemented using meta-programming technology because of the proven power and flexibility that this technology offers to this type of research applications. The important contributions resulting from our research includes extending the benefits of meta-programming technology to the very important application area of evolution and migration of heterogeneous legacy databases. In addition, we have provided an extension to various relational database systems to enable them to overcome their limitations in the representation of meta-data. These extensions contribute towards the automation of the reverse-engineering process of legacy databases, while allowing the user to analyse them using extended database modelling concepts.

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Abstract: This case study describes applicability of e-assessment considering policies and practices at the university of Colombo school of computing (UCSC). assessment plays an important role in the education process and the use of ICT in this assessment process has become an important requirement to meet the demand and effectiveness in the process. We describe the process as well as our immediate plans in this case study.

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Abstract: To address the shortage of opportunities to take computing as a career, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka introduced the Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) External Degree program in 2000. However due to the high dropout rates at the initial stage of the program, only small number of students has been successful in completing their studies. Therefore, it was a strong requirement to improve the quality and relevance of the delivery mechanism of BIT as the university was not involved in face to face teaching. By experimenting with different e-learning material and curricula revisions BIT program today have implemented a paradigm shift from teaching to learning through an e-learning framework and has been rewarded with UNESCO´s recognition for contributing to the provision of �Education for All�. Universities in Sri Lanka had been producing computer science graduates since 1990. However the industry was continuously complaining the inadequate numbers produced by the system. As the Sri Lankan university system is state funded only less than 10% of eligible candidates are provided with higher education opportunities with only around 200 per year were able do computer science by 2000. As a solution for that a low cost external degree program was launched by the University of Colombo, where the university will examine candidates who would have learned through other sources such as a private training institute or self study. Although over 50 training institutes and 5000 candidates enrolled to participate in this program only 2% ended up obtaining the degree. This low success was despite students having access to the curriculum, power point slides and model papers with model answers provided by the university. Factors affected the BIT Program, included gradual decline in BIT Intake, high dropouts of enrolled candidates, low success rates at examinations and low participation and success by less urbanized/rural/overseas candidates. Subsequent research identified that teacher centric approach work well when evaluations are done with the involvement of same teachers, and for this program we had to move to a student centric learning environment. This presentation will address initiatives that were introduced to resolve the factors that were affecting the BIT program and the extent it had contributed to overcome the issues. Particular reference would be made on initiatives on learner centered syllabi; virtual learning environment; online learning pedagogy with activity based learning, interactive lessons, formative assessments and e-facilitation; e-testing, audio-visual content and foundation courses. Finally reference would be made to some ongoing learning initiatives using social media and e-learning 2.0 technologies.

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Abstract: Organisations be it industry or business or even educational institutes, need to improve their information inventory system so as to survive in the competitive environment. The organisations have to increase their efficiency and effectiveness in maintaining the cycle of activities, in their planning, decision-making processes, and analytical needs. There are several ways to acquire this goal; one of it is with data mining which is able to make a prediction using existing data in their database in order to forecast future demand. In addition, with data mining they would be able to determine which activity is more important and what trend is prevailing. An information system, which is based on both World Wide Web technology and a 3-tiered architecture, is proposed herein to meet the above requirements. This paper is an attempt to provide the initial concept about data mining model that most likely will be used in various department including libraries of the teaching institutes. The initial concepts covered by the paper are the appropriate data warehouse schema; data mining tasks and techniques that are best suited, and applications.

Abstract: The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is growing in Distance Education Institutions (DEI). ICT has contributed to effective learning for rural/urban, male/female, ethnic, and remote student groups. In Pakistan, tertiary education is generally restricted to those who can afford it in urban areas. In addition, recent accessibility studies in Pakistan have identified that most students do have access to a range of ICT devices, but with limited Internet access due to problems related to the national ICT infrastructure. An ICT equipped DEI can, however, deliver tertiary education with high levels of interaction to females and underprivileged ethnic groups living in rural and remote areas. Therefore, DEIs need to uncover suitable education delivery models. Blended learning models with multiple access methods for content development and presentation, teacher student interaction, and e-assessment are needed. Blended e-learning is relatively cost effective, and can provide quality education to distant students. Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) initiated e-learning in Pakistan about a decade ago, and the program has been continuously evaluated. Owing to its success and cost effectiveness, AIOU planned a major organizational change to incorporate ICT-based blended learning. In the present paper, these ICT-based access models for blended learning are described with multiple accessibility options to provide content delivery over TV, radio, Internet, and video conference-based communications. Progress to date is also highlighted.

Abstract: The Designers' Workbench is a system developed by the Advanced Knowledge Technologies Consortium to support designers in large organizations, such as Rolls-Royce, to ensure that the design is consistent with the specification for the particular design as well as with the company's design rule book(s). In the principal application discussed here, the evolving design is described using a jet engine ontology. Design rules are expressed as constraints over the domain ontology. Currently, to capture the constraint information, a domain expert (design engineer) has to work with a knowledge engineer to identify the constraints, and it is then the task of the knowledge engineer to encode these into the Workbench's knowledge base. This is an error-prone and time-consuming task. It is highly desirable to relieve the knowledge engineer of this task, so we have developed a system, ConEditor+, that enables domain experts themselves to capture and maintain these constraints. Further, we hypothesize that to appropriately apply, maintain, and reuse constraints, it is necessary to understand the underlying assumptions and context in which each constraint is applicable. We refer to them as �application conditions,� and these form a part of the rationale associated with the constraint. We propose a methodology to capture the application conditions associated with a constraint and demonstrate that an explicit representation (machine interpretable format) of application conditions (rationales) together with the corresponding constraints and the domain ontology can be used by a machine to support maintenance of constraints. Support for the maintenance of constraints includes detecting inconsistencies, subsumption, redundancy, fusion between constraints, and suggesting appropriate refinements. The proposed methodology provides immediate benefits to the designers, and hence, should encourage them to input the application conditions (rationales).

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Abstract: Abstract: E-learning has acquired a prime place in many discussions recently. A number of research efforts around the world are trying to enhance education and training through improving e-learning facilities. This paper briefly explains one such attempt aimed at designing a system to support video clips in e-learning and explains how profiles of the presenters in video clips can be used to improve the usefulness of e-learning systems. The system proposed is capable of storing educational video clips with their semantics and retrieving required video clip segments efficiently on their semantics. The system creates profiles of presenters appearing in the video clips based on their facial features and uses these profiles to partition similar video clips into logical meaningful segments. The paper also discusses one of the main problems identified in profile construction and presents a novel algorithm to solve this problem.

Abstract: Abstract. The web Service MEDiator system (WSMED) provides general query capabilities over data accessible through web services by reading WSDL meta-data descriptions. Based on imported meta-data, the user can define views that extract data from the results of calls to web service operations. The views can be queried using SQL. The views are specified in terms of declarative queries that access different web service operations in different ways depending on what view attributes are known in a query. To enable efficient query execution over the views by automatic query transformations the user can provide semantic enrichments of the meta-data with key constraints. We evaluated the effectiveness of our approach over multi-level views of existing web services and show that the key constraint enrichments substantially improve query performance.

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Abstract: http://scis.ulster.ac.uk/index.php/interop.html

Abstract: E-learning has become an integral part in higher education in the last decade. The emerging multimedia information technologies will allow researchers to identify new ways to store, retrieve, share, and manipulate complex information which are expected to be used for building exciting new e-learning applications. The focus of this paper is on video based educational material where presenters deliver educational content. We have developed a system which is capable of storing educational video clips with their semantics and retrieving required video clip segments efficiently on their semantics. The system creates profiles of presenters appearing in the video clips based on their facial features and uses these profiles to partition similar video clips into logical meaningful segments. We address one of the main problems identified in profile construction and propose a novel approach to create the profiles by introducing a profile normalization algorithm. In particular, this method places more effort on solving the profile overlapping problem by using certain parameters. The effectiveness of the normalizing algorithm was tested by comparing Total Error Rate (TER) when the normalizing process is avoided versus together with the normalizing method. The results show that the insertion of profile normalizing method reduces TER by 38 % to 19%. Improving these techniques for lecture videos has significant educational and social benefits.

Abstract: The Designers� Workbench is a system, developed by the Advanced Knowledge Technologies (AKT) consortium to support designers in large organizations, such as Rolls Royce, by making sure that the design is consistent with the specification for the particular design as well as with the company�s design rule book(s). Currently, to capture the constraint information, a domain expert (design engineer) has to work with a knowledge engineer to identify the constraints, and it is then the task of the knowledge engineer to encode these into the workbench�s knowledge base (KB). This is an error prone and time-consuming task. It is highly desirable to relieve the knowledge engineer of this task, and so we have developed a tool, ConEditor that enables domain experts themselves to capture and maintain these constraints. The tool allows the user to combine selected entities from the domain ontology with keywords and op-erators of a constraint language to form a constraint expression. However we hypothesize that to apply constraints appropriately, it is necessary to understand the context in which each constraint is applicable. We refer to this as �applica-tion conditions�. We plan to make these application conditions machine inter-pretable and investigate how they, together with a domain ontology, can be used to support the verification and maintenance of constraints.

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Abstract: The Designers� Workbench is a system, developed by the Advanced Knowledge Technologies (AKT) consortium to support designers in large organizations, such as Rolls Royce, by making sure that the design is consistent with the specification for the particular design as well as with the company�s design rule book(s). Currently, to capture the constraint information, a domain expert (design engineer) has to work with a knowledge engineer to identify the constraints, and it is then the task of the knowledge engineer to encode these into the workbench�s knowledge base (KB). This is an error prone and time-consuming task. It is highly desirable to relieve the knowledge engineer of this task, and so we have developed a tool, ConEditor that enables domain experts themselves to capture and maintain these constraints. The tool allows the user to combine selected entities from the domain ontology with keywords and operators of a constraint language to form a constraint expression. However we hypothesize that to apply constraints appropriately, it is necessary to understand the context in which each constraint is applicable. We refer to this as �application conditions�. We plan to make these application conditions machine interpretable and investigate how they, together with a domain ontology, can be used to support the verification and maintenance of constraints.

Abstract: Nowadays, computer networks and multimedia are considered as not only new and attractive, but first of all active and effective education tools. E-learning is often discussed in context of distance education, but it can also play an important role in the classic �face to face� study. In this article, we are discussing our experience with Internet use and different types of electronic study materials in subjects concerning programming (taught in 1st and 2nd class of master and bachelor study fields at The Department of Informatics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine The Philosopher University in Nitra). We explored opinions of students on our own way of teaching as well as e-learning in general. In the article, we are presenting results from this research.

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Abstract: The aims of this research are to: (a) examine the equity and efficiency properties of the �traditional� or �received� school finance system and its problems (in the past and as far as it persists in the present) in Sri Lanka; (b) evaluate the impact on equity of norm-based unit cost resource allocation mechanism (NBUCRAM) for allocating entitlements to learning equipment & materials into schools which has been recently introduced into the school system; (c) evaluate the impact on decision-making efficiency of the school-based resource management (SBRM) which is being implemented through the school-based procurement of learning equipment & materials at school level under NBUCRAM, will be compared with the �traditional� centralised procurement procedures. This will involve: (i) evaluating the efficiency incentives of the SBRM; (ii) identifying practical issues and problems emerging at school level as a result of SBRM; (d) make recommendations for maintaining transparency, equity and students� equal rights to education, and efficiency in relation to higher standards of students� performance of educational achievement in the entire Sri Lankan education system.

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Abstract: The existence of distributed and heterogeneous database system requires the effort of integration among different schemas for the accessibility of data to remote users. Most integration processes are made successful with the support of database conceptual schema translation. In this paper, a translation approach that will translate relational database conceptual schema into object-oriented database conceptual schema is proposed. This approach is then implemented in a prototype of relational to object-oriented schema translation tool, called RETOO (RElational-to-Object-Oriented).

Abstract: The integration process is essential in the effort of forming a distributed, heterogeneous database system. This process consists of two main phases, which are conceptual schema translation phase and the integration phase. In this paper, a translation approach to translate relational database schema to object-oriented database schema is proposed. The translation rules applied in this RElational-to-Object-Oriented (RETOO) database schema translation tool are based on inclusion dependencies, key attributes and types of attributes.

Abstract: In this paper, we handle database reverse engineering. The main motivation to carry-out this study is the fact that the maintenance of an existing database depends on the depth of understanding of its characteristics. Such an understanding is easily lost when the developers disperse; this is mostly the case with legacy databases. We concentrate on solutions to the case of having a legacy database that we know nothing about its structure or characteristics. We propose some techniques to extract the required characteristics based on the contents of the existing legacy database. Our approach leads to a graph that shows all possible links (relationships) between relations in the relational schema; it is equivalent to the ER diagram. The source of information to be used in drawing the graph depends on the depth of understanding of the existing conventional relational schema.

Abstract: This paper addresses the issue of documenting an existing legacy database by mining out its characteristics and derive the corresponding entity-relationship model. We developed algorithms to identify candidate keys of all relations in the relational schema, to locate the occurrence of a given candidate key as foreign key in any existing relation, and to decide on the appropriate links (relationships) between the given relations. Based on the mentioned analysis, we draw a graph that corresponds to the entity-relationship diagram, and predicts all possible relationships between relations in the existing relational schema. Finally, we derive the cardinality of each link in the graph.

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Abstract: The Air Force acquisition community tasked the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) to create a reference document that would provide the Air Force with a better understanding of software technologies. This knowledge will allow the Air Force to systematically plan the research and development (R&D) and technology insertion required to meet current and future Air Force needs, from the upgrade and evolution of current systems to the development of new systems. The initial release of the Software Technology Reference Guide is a prototype to provide initial capability, show the feasibility, and examine the usability of such a document. This prototype generally emphasizes software technology of importance to the C4I (command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence) domain. This emphasis on C4I neither narrowed nor broadened the scope of the document; it did, however, provide guidance in seeking out requirements and technologies. It served as a reminder that this work is concerned with complex, large-scale, distributed, real-time, software-intensive, embedded systems in which reliability, availability, safety, security, performance, maintainability, and cost are major concerns.

Abstract: This paper examines the issues involved in the migration of database technology towards object-orientation. This includes issues of schema translation, data migration and the consideration of the whole database system including client programs. In addition, this paper reports some early results from a long-term project to provide support for the migration of data and meta-data from a relational to an object-oriented database. The initial tool processes the schema of a relational database and presents it to the user as the equivalent object-oriented schema. The result of this processing is an initial version of the object schema and requires user intervention in the naming of new abstract classes built by the system.

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Abstract: Enterprises use various models to find design solutions to their e-Commerce information systems. Goal, business and process models are parts of a chain of models used for this purpose. Business modelling requires structured methods to support design and traceability. Process modelling also needs structured methods to manage design complexity, traceability and flexibility. The thesis proposes several artifacts to address these challenges. It proposes a method to design business models from goal models. We start by analyzing strategic goals and express goal model notions using business notions. A set of guidelines is proposed to design a business model. The method provides structured business model design and traceability of the decisions from business to strategic level. The thesis also discusses a set of mappings to relate goal modelling language constructs to process modelling notions. We use BMM, i* and KAOS for goal modelling. The mappings are used to identify how these techniques can support process design. In addition, a set of mappings is proposed to relate business modelling language constructs to process modelling notions. We use the e3value model for business modelling. Based on these mappings a number of activities are identified to structure process activities from a business viewpoint. We also propose a method to design process models using goal and business models as inputs. As a bridge between two input models and a process model, the notion of an activity dependency model is introduced. The transitions between models are performed by using guidelines. The method provides structured process model design, flexibility for process models and traceability of the decisions from operational to strategic and business levels. These artifacts can be used for designing enterprise business and process models. We follow the design science research method used in information systems research. The evaluation builds on scenarios, implementations and a literature review.

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Abstract: Users of the Web usually use search engines to find answers to a variety of questions. Although search engines can rapidly process a large number of Web documents, in many cases, the answers returned by search engines are not relevant to the user�s information need, although they do contain the same keywords as the query. This is because the Web contains information sources created by numerous authors independently, and the authors� vocabularies vary greatly. Furthermore, most words in natural languages have inherent ambiguity. This vocabulary mismatch between user queries and Web sources is often addressed through query expansion. Moreover, user questions are often short. The results of a search can be improved when the length of the question is long. Various query expansion methods that add useful question-related terms before processing the question have been proposed and proven to increase the performance of the result. Some of these query expansion methods add contextual information related to the user and the question. On the other hand, human communications are quite successful and seem to be very easy. This is mainly due to the understanding of language and the world knowledge that humans have. Human communication is more successful when there is an implicit understanding of everyday situations of others who take part in the communication. Here the implicit situational information, or the �context� that humans share, enables them to have a more meaningful interaction amongst themselves. Similar to human�human communications, improving computers� access to context can increase the richness of human�computer communications, giving more useful computational services to users. Based on the above factors, this research proposes a method to make use of context in order to understand and process user requests. Here, the term �context� means the meanings associated with key query terms and preferences that have to be decided in order to process the query. As in a natural environment, results produced to different users for the same question could vary in an automated system. If the automated system knows users� preferences related to the question, then it could make use of these preferences to process user queries, producing more relevant and useful results to the user. Hence, a new approach for a personalised query expansion is proposed in this research, where user queries are expanded with user preferences and hence the expanded queries that will be used for processing vary for different users. An architecture that is required for such a Web application to carryout a personalised query expansion with contextual information is also proposed in the thesis. The preferences that could be used for the query expansion are therefore user-specific. Users have different set of preferences depending on the tasks they want to perform. Similar tasks that have same types of preferences can be grouped into task based domains. Hence, user preferences will be the same in a domain, and will vary across domains. Furthermore, there can be different types of subtasks that could be performed within a domain. The set of preferences that could be used for each sub task could vary, and it will be a sub set of the set of preferences of the domain. Hence, an approach for a personalised query expansion which adds user, domain and task-specific preferences to user queries is proposed in this research. The main stages of this expansion are identified and discussed in this thesis. Each of these stages requires different contextual information which is represented in the context model. Out of the main stages identified in the query expansion process, the first three stages, the domain identification, task identification, and missing parameter identification, are explored in the thesis. As the preferences used for the expansion depend on the query domain, it is necessary to identify the domain of the query at first instance. Hence, a domain identification algorithm which makes use of eight different features is proposed in the thesis to identify domains of given queries. This domain identification also reduces the ambiguity of query terms. When the query domain is identified, context/associating meanings of query terms are known. This limits the scope of the possible misinterpretations of query terms. A domain ontology, domain dictionary, and user profile are used by the domain identification algorithm. The domain ontology consists of objects and their categories, attributes of objects and their categories, relationships among objects, and instances and their categories in the domain. The domain dictionary consists of objects and attributes. This is created automatically from the domain ontology. The user profile has the long term preferences of the user that are domain-specific and general. When the domain of the query is known, in order to decide the preferences of the user, the task specified in the query has to be identified. This task identification process is found to be similar in domains with similar activities. Hence, domains are grouped at this stage. These domain groups and the rules that could be used to find out the tasks in the domain groups are identified and discussed in the thesis. For each sub tasks in the domain groups, the types of preferences that could be used to expand user queries are identified and are used to expand user queries. An experiment is designed to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The first three stages of the query expansion, the domain identification, task identification, and missing parameter identification, are implemented and evaluated. Samples of five domains are implemented, and queries are collected in these domains from various users. In order to create new domains, a wizard is provided by the system. This system also allows editing the existing domains, domain groups, and types of preferences in sub tasks of the domain groups. Instances of the attributes are manually identified and added to the system using the interface provided by the system. In each of the stages of the query expansion, the results of the queries are manually identified, and are compared with the results produced by the system. The results have confirmed that the proposed method has a positive impact in query expansion. The experiments, results and evaluation of the proposed query expansion approach are also presented in the thesis. The proposed approach for the query expansion could be used by search engines, organisations with a limited set of task domains, and any application that can be improved by making use of personalised query expansion.

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Abstract: Web services provide a framework for data interchange between applications by incorporating standards such as XMLSchema, WSDL SOAP, HTTP etc. They define operations to be invoked over a network to perform the actions. These operations are described publicly in a WSDL document with the data types of their argument and result. Searching data accessible via web services is essential in many applications. However, web services don't provide any general query language or view capabilities. Current web services applications to access the data must be developed using a regular programming language such Java, or C#. The thesis provides an approach to simplify querying web services data and proposes efficient processing of database queries to views of wrapped web services. To show the effectiveness of the approach, a prototype, web Service MEDiator system (WSMED), is developed. WSMED provides general view and query capabilities over data accessible through web services by automatically extracting basic meta-data from WSDL descriptions. Based on imported meta-data, the user can then define views that extract data from the results of calls to web service operations. The views can be queried using SQL. A given view can access many different web service operations in different ways depending on what view attributes are known. The views can be specified in terms of several declarative queries to be applied by the query processor. In addition, the user can provide semantic enrichments of the meta-data with key constraints to enable efficient query execution over the views by automatic query transformations. We evaluated the effectiveness of our approach over multi-level views of existing web services and show that the key constraint enrichments substantially improve query performance.

Abstract: Emergence of the Internet paved the way for companies to search for new ways of doing their business electronically. This new technological advancements mark the beginning of new class of business information systems: e-commerce systems. Today there is a growing demand for interoperability of such systems to make it possible for companies to operate together to offer their services to the customers without boundaries and to increase their profits. As a step towards this, we propose a Reference ontology based on three well established business modelling ontologies: BMO, REA and e3-value. The Reference ontology represents the synthesis of concepts used in these three ontologies. Furthermore, to strengthen its position as a business modelling ontology, we introduced number of new concepts, primarily related to transfer of resources between various business stake holders. Primarily, our goal in this research is to pave a way to develop common understanding between different business modelling ontologies. This will enable interoperability between different types of business models created based on them.

Abstract: Enterprises, with their own specialties, products, and services, are often required to operate as a value web to fulfil jointly ever changing, complex customer needs. Business models and process models are two types of model in the chain of models used by enterprises to describe different aspects of a business in a value web. A business model identifies who are the actors involved in a value web, resources, value exchanges among actors, and how the value is created and marketed. A process model depicts the behaviour of actors, in particular the order of exchanging resources, data flows, and message exchanges. It is recognized that business models are using not only to explore new business networks but also for the design and redesign of operational business processes. In this thesis, we discuss the problem of deriving a process model from a business model in a systematic way. We have identified three issues in process management and modelling; business orientation, traceability, and flexibility. It is shown how these issues can be addressed by basing process models on business models. In our approach, we have analyzed the internal structure of a value exchange. A value exchange is seen as an aggregation of right, resource, custody, and evidence document. When someone buys a resource what they are actually receiving is some right on the resource. To enjoy this right a supplier must transfer the custody of the resource to the buyer. In addition, to prove what right a buyer has in the resource some document should be given to the buyer. To bridge the gap between business models and process models, the notion of activity dependency model is introduced. The purpose of an activity dependency model is to identify and classify activities necessary for the exchange and production of resources. We discuss some relationships among those activities that could be useful to order activities in process models. These relations have different and clear business motivations. We propose a set of mapping rules to derive an activity dependency model from the business model and a process model from the activity dependency model.

Abstract: Content-based indexing and retrieval has emerged as an important area in computer vision and multimedia computing. Current solutions for searching image data primarily deal with associated text and low-level image features. Humans tend to use high-level concepts in everyday life; user queries are typically based on higher-level semantics and not low-level image features. However, what current computer vision techniques can automatically extract from images are mostly low-level visual features. To narrow down this semantic gap, some off-line and on-line processing is needed. The state-of-the-art image retrieval approach is to incorporate image semantics with low-level visual primitives to enhance the retrieval performance. Unfortunately the current mainstream of the image retrieval technologies in most web search engines is keyword-based retrieval; they have not explored the full potential of semantics of an image through effective use of its nearby text. Therefore I propose an image retrieval system that captures semantics of an image through effective use of its associated text and use integrated system architecture for keyword-based retrieval with low-level image features to enhance retrieval of images on the web. I have developed a new image retrieval system that enhances retrieval of images on the web through optimum. I conducted a preliminary study on collection of images obtained from HTML documents on the web. Based on my findings on text associated with the image, I have identified the textual contents of page title, image title, image alternate text, image caption and Meta tags are well related to an embedded image. These keywords lists have different significance in identifying the image semantics. I comparatively evaluate the performance of each keyword list exclusively to study their impact on overall retrieval effectiveness. The major contribution of my work included a full-scale development and implementation of the new image retrieval system I-Search. The system was based on an enhanced image representation that exploits the vast power of image semantics from the text associated with the images and higher-level semantic categories based on low-level image features of the images. The user-interface was designed to allow the user to communicate keywords based query and semantic categories to the image retrieval system. The performance of this new image retrieval system I-Search was compared with GoogleTM and YahooTM. Our analysis of this experiment confirmed that the integration of text associated with an image and low-level image features will lead to efficient retrieval system for content-based indexing of images on the web and will in fact substantially enhance the image searching capabilities on the web.

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Abstract: The usage of Web sites has been of interest to Web administrators and researchers ever since the Web started. Analysis of Web site usage data helps to understand the behaviour of its users, which is very important, as many important decisions can be made based on it. The user behaviour may be deduced by knowing all the activities each user does from the time s/he starts a session on the Web site until s/he leaves it, which is collectively called a user session. As Web server logs explicitly record the browsing behaviour of site users and are readily and economically available, this thesis explores the use of Web server logs in capturing user sessions on Web. In order to protect users� privacy, the standard Web server logs in general do not record the user identities or similar measures to uniquely identify the users. This thesis concentrates on heuristic strategies to infer user sessions. The heuristics exploit the background knowledge of user navigational behaviour recorded in the standard Web server logs without requiring additional information through cookies, logins and session ids. They identify relationships that may exist among the log data and make use of them to assess whether requests registered by the Web server can belong to the same individual and whether these requests were performed during the same visit. Researchers have proposed several heuristics, which were adversely affected by proxy servers, caching and undefined referrers. The thesis proposes new heuristics, which effectively address all the limitations, thus extending the work in this field. It also introduces a set of measures to quantify the performance of the heuristics and uses them to investigate their efficiency based on logs from three Web sites and makes recommendations for the Web sites to devise their own heuristics. The investigation has shown satisfactory results and the new heuristics are applicable to wider range of Web sites.

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Abstract: In electronic commerce, systems development is based on two fundamental types of models, business models and process models. A business model is concerned with value exchanges among business partners, while a process model focuses on operational and procedural aspects of business communication. Thus, a business model defines the what in an e-commerce system, while a process model defines the how. Business process design can be facilitated and improved by a method for systematically moving from a business model to a process model. Such a method would provide support for traceability, evaluation of design alternatives, and seamless transition from analysis to realization. This work proposes a unified framework that can be used as a basis to analyze, to interpret and to understand different concepts associated at different stages in e-Commerce system development. In this thesis, we illustrate how UN/CEFACT�s recommended metamodels for business and process design can be analyzed, extended and then integrated for the final solutions based on the proposed unified framework. Also, as an application of the framework, we demonstrate how process-modeling tasks can be facilitated in e-Commerce system design. The proposed methodology, called BP3 stands for Business Process Patterns Perspective. The BP3 methodology uses a question-answer interface to capture different business requirements from the designers. It is based on pre-defined process patterns, and the final solution is generated by applying the captured business requirements by means of a set of production rules to complete the inter-process communication among these patterns.

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