in this issue

eLearning and Digital Publishing

Time Budgets for Usability Sessions

NewsForge Explores the Semantic Web with Piggy Bank

An introduction to user journeys

Welcome to SpringerLink

Characteristic, uniqueness, and overlap of information sources linked from North American public library Web sites

Disruptive Technologies: Semantic Web

Proven ROI from Website Usability Study

Usability and Acceptance in Small-Screen Information Systems

Semantic Web Technologies

Hsianghoo Steve Ching
Paul W.T. Poon
Carmel Mc Naught

Amazon's book description:

Our universities are facing immense pressures from within because of the increase in the 'publish or perish' syndrome. There are severe budgetary demands on university libraries attempting to enable access to this increasing avalanche of information. University teaching also needs to prepare graduates for a rapidly changing and connected world. This book explores the role of technology in this challenging scenario. Technology is portrayed as part contributor to the challenges higher education faces, and also part contributor to the solutions we need to explore. This book is not a 'doom and gloom' exposition but is forward-looking, offering fresh insights and new strategies for understanding the nature of scholarly communication in higher education. In this book there are three threads that are constantly intertwined – information literacy, eLearning and digital publishing – with information literacy acting as the glue that connects eLearning and digital publishing. This book was designed to occupy a unique niche in the literature accessed by library and publishing specialists, and by university teachers and planners. It examines the interfaces between the work done by these four groups of university staff who have been in the past quite separate from, or only marginally related to, each other. Yet all four groups are directly and intimately connected with the main functions of universities – the creation, management and dissemination of knowledge in a scholarly and reflective manner. The structure of the book has three main sections: the first has primarily an educational focus, the second a focus on digital publishing, and the third builds on the first two sections to examine overall implications for the growth of knowledge and scholarly communication. This collection brings perspectives (in alphabetical order) from Australia, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China, Singapore, Taiwan, United Kingdom and United States of America. Various chapters, therefore, examine the central concerns with different lenses. Our ability to understand the extent of the shifts that are occurring in modern universities, and still need to occur in the next few years, relies on our ability to synthesize ideas and experiences from a wide range of university staff. This is just what we hope this book offers.
 

EPSScentral is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2005 PCD Awards, chosen from a field of 27 entries. Noteworthy are two repeat winners (Issues Central and Granite Technologies), and two international recipients (BriteSoft Corp. and Awangan Jaya Sdn Bhd), both of Malaysia.

The recipients are:

Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Playbook(TM) created by Issues Central, Inc. Contact: Cathy Connally (cathyconnally@issuescentral.com, +1-416-977-1496 x 114). Category: PCD Solutions, In-production.

Salesforce.com Interactive Coach created by Christensen/Roberts Solutions and Rocket Software, Inc. Contacts: Hal Christensen (hchristensen@crsol.com, +1-718-793-8935) and Ray Walsh (Ray.Walsh@RocketSoftware.com, 1-617-614-2161). Category: PCD Solutions, Concept, Prototype.

Hawk 8 Innovative Security Alarm System created by Awangan Jaya Sdn Bhd. Contact: Wee Kee Heng (weekeeheng@yahoo.com, +60 3-2170 2688). Category: PCD Solutions, Concept, Prototype.

Briteworks developed by BriteSoft Corp. Contact: Jaya Sinnathamby (jaya@britesoftcorp.com, +1-703-880-1618). Category: Extraordinary PCD Tools, Comprehensive performance-centered application development tool/environment, In-production.

Instancy Knowledge Workflow Platform(TM) developed by Instancy, Inc. Contact: Harvey Singh (hsingh@instancy.com , +1-919-653-4981). Category: Extraordinary PCD Tools, Comprehensive performance-centered content/learning/knowledge management system development tool/platform.

Xegy by Granite Technologies, Inc. Contact: Kathy Larson (kalarson@xegy.com, +1-303-302-1186). Category: Extraordinary PCD Tools: Comprehensive performance-centered web-based portal development tool/platform.

The PCD Awards have been presented since 1997 to promote recognition for designers, their organizations and clients, their software, and their business sponsors, and are featured on http://www.epsscentral.info. The Awards are judged by an independent panel of PCD experts.

As you peruse the PCD Award recipients, you will notice that the development tools have become much more sophisticated and capable, and the solutions are more widely accepted at all organizational levels as they satisfy stringent business-case requirements. For example, Briteworks allows performance technologists to create enterprise-class performance-centered systems without writing a single line of code! In fact, there is no code! Just reliable frameworks. The Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Playbook fills an important business gap quickly and efficiently. And the Hawk8 is an innovative combination of technology and interface that is sure to revolutionize the way we view and use our home and business security devices. In short, we have come a very long way in 15 years from the old EPSS's that were nothing more than help systems on steroids! EPSScentral looks forward to next year's exciting and innovative submissions.

The 2005 PCD Awards will be presented at the Training/Online Learning Conference and Expo at 12:30 PM on the Expo Stage, Monday, October 17, 2005 in Long Beach, California.

Regards,

Gary Dickelman

User journeys are a method for conceptualising and structuring a website's content and functionality. These journeys allow us to shift away from thinking about structure in terms of hierarchies or a technical build; instead you create a narrative around your user's needs.

SpringerLink is the premier electronic data source from Springer for researchers in biomedicine, life science, clinical medicine, physics, engineering, mathematics, computer science, humanities, and economics.

This article reports on the availability, domain distribution, percentage of Web sites versus Web pages, perceived value, and category of 31,400 Web–based resources selected by 50 public libraries in the United States and Canada. Eighty–seven percent of these resources were available, 60 percent were Web pages, and resources selected by 20 percent of the sampled libraries were finding tools such as general or subject specific search engines. Ninety–three percent of the resources were selected by just one of the 50 libraries; only 17 percent of the resources appeared to be primarily of local interest. The public may be unaware of these unique resources. The public library community must develop programs to increase the awareness and sharing of these evaluated resources.

... For manufacturers, taking advantage of these technologies would bring significant -- even disruptive -- competitive advantages including better integrated and less costly supply chains as well as more seamless engineering, production and distribution processes. Key to all of this is the Semantic Web, whose technological underpinnings have been in development since the mid 1990s when commercial Internet applications were still a gleam in the eyes of many business people...

Sigmer Technologies, providers of bespoke software solutions and extensive website expertise, today announced the launch of their new website which has already achieved ROI, largely due to incorporating a usability study during the redevelopment of the site. Sigmer's new website showcases the business benefits of usability and information architecture as an integral part of the web development process. The new site supports W3C Accessibility Priority Level 3, the highest level. Sigmer developed the site utilising its experience in designing highly accessible websites for clients such as The International Save the Children Alliance.

Abstract: The small screen sizes of mobile phones can create problems for users. There is a need for acceptable user interfaces that enable a better, more maximised use of the limited screen size while still providing high levels of usability. One method of maximising a limited display area is translucency. To examine the effect of translucency on interface usability we created a fully functioning simulation of a third generation mobile phone user interface, containing a translucent menu system. In this study translucency was implemented at 50% alpha, and two menu levels deep. Objective and subjective aspects of usability and acceptance were gathered. Within the focus of the research the study yielded interesting findings positively relating translucency to perceived usability and measures of acceptance of small screen information systems. This paper presents the results of this study, and presents avenues for continuing research arising from the findings.

The Semantic Web is an ambitious vision, first proposed by Tim Berners-Lee, to extend today's Web – imbuing it with a sense of meaning. The articulation of this vision in a now famous article in Scientific American has led to a wide reaching research programme. This programme is resulting in the development of new technologies for describing items of Web-based information and their inter-relationships, but what impact is this development likely to have on Higher and Further Education? This TechWatch report provides an introduction to the Semantic Web – the vision, programme and technologies, but also explains where we currently are in its development and what the likely impact will be on education in areas such as information management and discovery tools, digital libraries, supporting Web-based interaction, and e-learning. It also proposes some realistic timescales for adoption and outlines the current and potential role of the UK F&HE community.