WORKSHOP Proceedings final with cover - Aleph Filesalephfiles.rtu.lv/TUA01/000028485_e.pdf ·...

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PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP

"IST 6TH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME – GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR COOPERATION AND

COLLABORATION"

RIGA, LATVIA

April 6 - 7, 2005

IST 6th FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME – GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR COOPERATION IST4Balt project workshop proceedings AND COLLABORATION 2005

I S T 4 B A L T ’ 2 0 0 5 2 R I G A , L A T V I A

IST4Balt Workshop

„IST 6th Framework programme - great opportunity for cooperation and collaboration” Editor in chief: Prof. Leonid Novitsky (Riga Technical University, Latvia) Editorial board: Mr. Jacques Babot (EC, Belgium) Prof. Jean Bonnin (EDNES, France) Prof. Aleksei Gvishiani (Russian Academy of Science) Prof. Yury Merkuryev (Riga Technical University, Latvia) Ass. Prof. Vyacheslav Shitikov (Riga Technical University, Latvia) Ms. Inga Bakane (Riga Technical University, Latvia) Editorial board address: Institute of Applied Computer Systems, Riga Technical University Kalku str. 1, Riga, LV-1658, Latvia Phone: +371 7089572, +371 7089096; Fax: +371 7089572 e-mail: [email protected] Scientific secretary: MSc. Tatiana Rikure (Riga Technical University, Latvia) IST4Balt 2005 Local organisation: Inga Bakane (RTU, Latvia) Aleksey Jurenok (RTU, Latvia) Tatiana Rikure (RTU, Latvia) Dmitry Shitik (RTU, Latvia) Inese Upite (RTU, Latvia) Jana Aleksandrova (RTU, Latvia) Maija Muceniece (RTU, Latvia) Agnese Franke (RTU, Latvia)

Printed in Latvia, „RTU” publishing house, 2005

© European Commission, 2005 © Riga Technical University, 2005



Acknowledgements

Workshop “IST 6th Framework programme – great opportunity for cooperation and collaboration” was organised by Riga Technical University in frame of the project IST4Balt (Information Society Technologies promotion in Baltic States) funded by Information Society Programme of the European Commission and in cooperation with EDNES (France).

We would like to admit our special acknowledgements to:

Ina Gudele Head of the Secretariat of the Ministry of Electronic Government Affairs of Latvia

Andrew Rasbash Head of Representation of the European Commission in Latvia

Dr.habil.sc.ing. Ivars Knets Rector of Riga Technical University, Latvia

Frans de Bruïne Director, DG INFSO, European Commission

Jacques Babot Head of sector of European Commission DG INFSO,

Unit F4: New working environment



Foreword

The workshop “IST 6th Framework programme – great opportunity for cooperation and collaboration” was held in Latvia, in Riga, from April 6 to 7, 2005. The workshop aimed at strengthening the scientific and technological cooperation and collaboration among the European Union countries in field of IT applications to new working environment, e-learning, e-logistic and digital cultural and scientific resources and to show how IST activities can facilitate collaboration between Latvia and other EU member states. The main goal of the workshop was to increase awareness about the actual 6th Framework Programme and oncoming 7th Framework Programme, by lesson learn from the participation of Baltic States in previous IST programmes. Two days workshop has attracted around 70 participants from different countries, including Belgium, France, South Africa, Russia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, UK, Italy, Spain, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Finland and Netherlands. Sectors of different IT activities were widely represented. Workshop clearly showed an interest of different organizations and necessity of similar event in the future. We would like to thank and congratulate all those who participated in the workshop and contributed their scientific papers and presentations to the proceedings. Thanks to everybody who assisted to make this event successful and we look forward to further co-operation and success in the future.

Jacques BABOT European Commission

Project Officer

Jean BONNIN EDNES

Project coordinator

Inga BAKANE RTU

Project Manager



Editor preface

This issue is a collection of papers presenting recent research results in the field of Information technology and Computer Science focused on Baltic States. Papers presented during the international workshop of IST4Balt project could be grouped around the following main subjects: e-Learning (e.g., papers by Jean - Claude Marot, Vyacheslav Shitikov, Tatiana Rikure etc.), Collaborative Working Environment (e.g., papers by Adam Turowiec, Arnis Kokarevics, Peter French etc.), e-Logistics (e.g., papers by Egils Ginters, Yuri Merkuryev, Aleksey Jurenoks etc.), Preservation and access to cultural and scientific resources using new IST (e.g., papers by Armands Strazds, Massimo Bertoncini etc.), other related topics. Three kinds of of papers are presented in this issue:

• Full papers (up to 8 pages), • Short papers (up to 2 pages), • Abstracts.

Practically all papers are followed by authors PPT presentations, which are collected on the CD and attached to this issue.

Leonid NOVITSKY Editor in chief



Contents

Programme ............................................................................................................................................. 8 PLENARY SESSION “POTENTIALITIES OF INFORMATION SOCIETY TECHNOLOGIES IN LATVIA”

“IST activities in Latvia and strengthening the collaboration with other EU Member States” Dina Berzina .......................................................................................................................................... 12

“IST4Balt – opportunities for cooperation and collaboration” Alexander Beriozko and Jean Bonnin ................................................................................................... 17

„IST development in Latvia” Janis Grundspenkis ............................................................................................................................... 18

“The European IST Prize an opportunity for innovative companies and organisations" Georges Grunberg................................................................................................................................. 22 PARALLEL SESSION “E-LEARNING”

“How to design e-learning projects? Questions and processes” Jean - Claude Marot .............................................................................................................................. 23

“Cognitive Approaches to Instructional Multimedia Design” Bruno Zuga, Atis Kapenieks, Armands Strazds and Nadja Pizika ....................................................... 31

“Intelligent Tutoring Systems” Tatiana Rikure and Leonid Novitsky...................................................................................................... 35

“Post-graduate e-Training for Teachers of Informatic of rural secondary schools” Vyacheslav Shitikov and Jurij Lavendel ................................................................................................ 41

”Multimedia learning tools for electrical engineering” Augusts Ruplis, Eriks Priednieks and Rudolfs Gulbis ........................................................................... 45

“The EU Leonardo Da Vinci Programme Project ORGANIC” Alexander Beriozko and Richard Messnarz .......................................................................................... 46

“Justifying The Cost Of Security” Dmitry Kryukov and Eleonora Latisheva ............................................................................................... 52

“Learning Set Preparation for Alternative Diagnostics Algorithm” Vadim Sherman..................................................................................................................................... 60 PARALLEL SESSION “E-LOGISTICS”

“eLOGMAR-M project: Applications of the advanced IT- and Mobile Solutions in transport logistics” Leonid Novitsky, Eberhard Bluemel and Egils Ginters ......................................................................... 66

“E - logistics: Informatization of Slovenian Transport Logistics Cluster” Ales Groznik .......................................................................................................................................... 71

“E-learning methods development for training in logistics information systems” Egils Ginters, Antonio Guasch, Leonid Novitski and Inara Trezina....................................................... 77



“Calypso: A new vision of transport with contactless ticketing” Ralph Gambetta .....................................................................................................................................84

“Mobile Solutions in Transport Logistics" Alexey Jurenoks .....................................................................................................................................88

“Simulation System of the Baltic Container Terminal” Yuri Merkuryev, Vladimir Bardatchenko, Andrey Solomennikov and Fred Kamperman .......................91 PLENARY: THE 6FP IST − HOW TO PREPARE A PROPOSAL?

“How to prepare a proposal for FP6?” Elina Zicmane.........................................................................................................................................96 PARALLEL SESSION “COLLABORATIVE WORKING ENVIRONMENT”

“Collaborative workspaces for entities from New Member and Associated States (NMAS) who wish to participate in future FP6/7 research on e-Work and e-Business” Adam Turowiec.....................................................................................................................................102

“Advantages from the cooperation as a new way of doing business” Kristine Berzina and Gundars Berzins .................................................................................................103

“Latvian Researchers Mobility Centre and Portal – new tools to promote researchers and their employers” Arnis Kokorevics...................................................................................................................................106

“FP6 as a great opportunity for small and medium developers and suppliers of mobile services and applications” Peter French.........................................................................................................................................111

“Application and integration of intelligent systems in e-neighbourhood” A.Kaklauskas, G. Kaklauskas and Mindaugas Krutinis .......................................................................116 PARALLEL SESSION „PRESERVATION AND ACCESS TO CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC RESOURCES USING NEW IST”

“IST4Balt project development in Estonia/Inforing AS” Konstantin Baranov ..............................................................................................................................125

“Open access to scientific publications from Moldova” Victor Sibirschi......................................................................................................................................127

“New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society “ Armands Strazds..................................................................................................................................130 Afterword.............................................................................................................................................134 Author index .......................................................................................................................................135



Workshop PROGRAMME "IST 6th Framework programme - great opportunity

for cooperation and collaboration"

Wednesday, April 6

Time Activity

10:00 – 10:45

IST4Balt Plenary Welcome speech

• Head of the Secretariat of the Ministry of Electronic Government Affairs of Latvia - Ina Gudele

• Head of Representation of the European Commission in Latvia -

Andrew Rasbash

• Rector of Riga Technical University - Dr.h.inz.Ivars Knets • Head of sector of European Commission - Directorate F, Unit F4: New

working environment - Dr. Jacques Babot

Organisation of the workshop Riga Technical university, IST4Balt Project Manager, Inga Bakane

10:45 - 11:15 Coffee break

11:15 - 13:00

Plenary Session “Potentialities of Information Society Technologies in Latvia” Chairman – Prof. Jean Bonnin, President of EDNES, France

• “IST activities in Latvia and strengthening the collaboration with other EU member states” Dina Berzina, Coordinator of IST Programme, National Contact Point, Latvia

• “IST4Balt – opportunities for cooperation and collaboration” Dr. Alexander Beriozko, IST4Balt project manager, EDNES, France

• “Factors and impacts in the information society a prospective analysis in the candidate countries”, report on Latvia, Dr. Raita Karnite, Director of Institute of Economics, Latvian Academy of Science, Latvia

• “IST development in Latvia” Professor Janis Grundspenkis, Head of the Department of Systems Theory and Design, Director of the Institute of Applied Computer Systems, Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Riga Technical University, Latvia

• E-content development and research after internet bubble” Dr. Atis Kapenieks, Director of Distance Education Study Centre, Riga Technical university, Latvia

• “The European IST Prize an opportunity for innovative companies and organisations" Georges Grunberg, Adviser of Euro Case, France

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch Parallel Sessions

14:00–16:00 A/1: E-Learning B/1: E-Logistics Chairman – Dr. Atis Kapenieks, Director

of Distance Education Study Centre, Riga Technical university, Latvia

Chairman – Dr.habil.sc.ing.Yuri Merkuryev, Head of Department of Modelling and Simulation, RTU, Latvia



• “How to design e-learning

projects? Questions and processes” Jean - Claude Marot, Director of JC consultants, France

• “Cognitive Approaches to Instructional Multimedia Design” Bruno Zuga, Researcher from Distance Education Study Centre, Riga Technical university, Latvia

• ”Intelligent Tutoring Systems” Tatiana Rikure, RTU PhD student, IST4Balt project manager assistant, Riga Technical university, Latvia

• “Post-graduate e-Training for

Teachers of Informatic of rural secondary schools” Dr.sc.ing. Vyacheslav Shitikov Dr.sc.ing. ass.prof. Jurij Lavendel Riga Technical University, Latvia

• “Multimedia learning tools for electrical engineering” Dr. habil., associated professor Augusts Ruplis Dr. associated professor Eriks Priednieks PhD Rudolfs Gulbis Riga Technical university, Latvia

• “The EU Leonardo Da Vinci

Programme Project ORGANIC” Dr. Alexander Beriozko, IST4Balt project manager, EDNES, France

• “Justifying the Cost of Security”,

Dmitry Kryukov, RTU PhD student, Dr.Sc.ing. Prof. Eleonora Latisheva, RTU, Riga, Latvia

• “Learning Set Preparation for

Alternative Diagnostics Algorithm”, Vadim Sherman, RTU PhD student, Riga, Latvia Working group Moderator Dr. Atis Kapenieks

• “eLOGMAR-M project:

Applications of the advanced IT- and Mobile Solutions in transport logistics” Professor, Dr.habil.sc.ing. Leonid Novitsky, Head of Department of Applied Systems Software, Riga Technical university, Latvia Dr. Eberhard Bluemel Fraunhofer FhG/IFF, Germany

• “E - logistics: Informatization of Slovenian Transport Logistics Cluster” Ales Groznik, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economic, Slovenia

• “E-learning methods development for training in logistics information systems” Dr. Egils Ginters, Director of Latvian Intelligent Systems, Latvia

• “Calypso: A new vision of transport with contactless ticketing” Ralph Gambetta, Managing Director of Temco GmbH, Germany

• “Mobile Solutions in Transport Logistics" Alexey Jurenoks, RTU PhD student, Latvia

• “Simulation System of the Baltic

Container Terminal” Prof. Dr.habil.sc.ing.Yuri Merkuryev Corresponding member, Latvian Academy of Sciences, Head of Department of Modelling and Simulation, Riga Technical university, Vladimir Bardatchenko Doctor of Engineering, Riga Technical University Working group Moderator Dr.habil.sc.ing.Yuri Merkuryev

16:00 - 16:20 Coffee break

16:20 – 18:00

Plenary: The 6FP IST − How To Prepare a Proposal? Chairwoman – Dr. pol.sc., assoc.prof. Feliciana Rajevska, University of Latvia • “How to prepare a proposal for FP6?”

Elina Zicmane, Consultant, CARSA, Belgium



• “Finance in IST FP6 programme projects” Inga Shirante, Financial Manager – accountant, NCP of Latvia

16:20–18:00 "Support and stimulation of development of the mobile services and application sector" Thursday, April 7

9:00 – 11:00 Official Opening of the Conference Baltic IT&T 2005 Plenary Session: Global IT&T Trends and Consequences for Governments and Businesses

Parallel Sessions 11:30 – 13:00 A/2: Collaborative Working Environment B/2: Preservation and access to

cultural and scientific resources using new IST

Chairman – Nurbek Rayev, Deputy chairman, Centre for Marketing & Analytical Research under the Ministry of Economy and Budget Planning of the republic of Kazakhstan

• “Collaborative workspaces for entities from New Member and Associated States (NMAS) who wish to participate in future FP6/7 research on e-Work and e-Business” Adam Turowiec, Director of Institute of Communication and Information Technologies Ltd. (ITTI), Poland

• “Advantages from the

cooperation as a new way of doing business” Kristine Berzina, Gundars Berzins, PhD students, assistants’ lecturer, University of Latvia

• “Advanced Resource Centres for

Rural Economic Development” Tofig Babayev, Director of Baku Scientific and Training Centre, Azerbaijan

• “Latvian Researchers Mobility Centre and Portal – new tools to promote researchers and their employers” Arnis Kokorevics, Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, Latvia

• “FP6 as a great opportunity for small and medium developers and suppliers of mobile services and applications” Peter French, Entrepreneur and responsible for business development within Cybercom, Sweden

Chairwoman – Elina Zicmane, Consultant, CARSA, Belgium

• “The European Library: Modular Extensions for Mediating Online Resources (TELMEMOR)” Andris Vilks, Director of National Library of Latvia, Latvia

• “Azerbaijan cultural heritage

and the Regional Academy of Digital Image Technologies in the frame of Digital Silk Roads” Tofig Babayev, Director of Baku Scientific and Training Centre, Nigar Abbaszade, State Academy of Art in Azerbaijan

• “Teleradiology Project for

Latvia” Dr.Egils Stumbrs-Stumbergs, Head TM Center, Riga City Council, Latvia

• “IST4Balt project development in Estonia/Inforing AS” Konstantin Baranov, Director of Inforing AS, Estonia

• “Open access to scientific

publications from Moldova” Victor Sibirschi, State University of Moldova, Moldova

• “New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society “ Armands Strazds, Researcher,



• “Application and integration of intelligent systems in e- neighbourhood” Prof. A. Kaklauskas, Prof. G. Kaklauskas, Mindaugas Krutinis, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania

Working group Moderator Nurbek Rayev

lecturer Riga Technical university, Latvia

• The BRICKS EU Project: Building blocks for allowing European cultural digital resources talking to each other” Massimo Bertoncini, Project Manger, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, Italy

Working group Moderator Elina Zicmane

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch 14:00 – 16:00 Chairwoman – Sally Reynolds, ATiT, Belgium

IST4Balt Workshop “IST 6th Framework programme – great opportunity for cooperation and collaboration”: • Reports of Parallel Sessions (A1, B1, A2, B2) • "European Technology Platforms and European Software Industry"

Jose M. Cavanillas, Technology Center Director, STREAM Madrid Tech Center - Public Sector, Atos Origin, Spain

• Round table discussion Moderator Sally Reynolds Participation of Baltic’s in the EU IST programme during the last years, lessons learned and perspectives of the 7 FP: ISTC members of Baltic States European Commission

Frans de Bruïne Director, DG INFSO, European Commission

Latvia

Dina Berzina Coordinator of IST Programme, National Contact Point Dr.Atis Kapenieks National expert for IST Programme Committee

Estonia Tarmo Pihl National expert for IST Programme Committee, representative from NCP

Lithuania

Dr. Juozas Zalatorius Association INFOBALT

• Conclusions

Frans de Bruïne Director, DG INFSO, European Commission, Belgium

POTENTIALITIES OF INFORMATION Plenary Session SOCIETY TECHNOLOGIES IN LATVIA 2005


IST ACTIVITIES IN LATVIA AND STRENGTHENING THE COLLABORATION WITH OTHER EU MEMBER STATES

Dina BERZINA

University of Latvia / NCP Latvia, Riga, Latvia

Keywords: EC FP6 IST priority, New Member State, EU-15, proposal

Abstract: The paper deals with EC FP6 IST priority activities, Latvia’s participation and possible solutions to increase success. The relatively low degree of participation by New Member States (NMS) in FP IST priority (~6% of the total) is partly due to lower involvement at the application stage, and partly to the lower average retention rate of projects in which they are involved. In terms of finances awarded, NMS received 8% of total funding, compared with 85% received by EU-15. Latvian partner is in 4% of Call 1 proposals, 2.5% - Call 2 and 12% - Call 3 (designed for NMS). The favourite team leaders for LV participants are co-ordinators from DE (21), FR (12), GR (11) and PL (10), but the most successful are co-ordinated by PL (30%), followed by FR (25%) and DE (24%). Most of the applicants interested to join a project or to search partners lack good contacts with European best and experienced teams. There are still no project co-ordinators from Latvia in FP6 IST priority.

INTRODUCTION

Involvement of a broader spectrum of organisations traditionally applying to the IST Calls is top essential for Latvia: we have to increase participation of large commercial companies, governmental organisations, as well as SMEs and put more effort to those industry sectors that are traditionally less active in the IST Priority.

In many organisations the decision-making process concerning participation in a project proposal takes too long (often up to one month) and requires approval from executives at several management levels The result is unwillingness to take risk and responsibilities for activities that are not the core business of the company. Often organisations participate in the project only for the reason of getting funded and not for the results of any project, which covers much broader area including new contacts and knowledge, sharing of expertise and best practice, as well as many direct scientifically valuable and commercially exploitable outputs. Under the present financing system in FP6, SMEs struggling for survival and share on market don’t have additional funding to invest in research.

OVERVIEW OF FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME IST PRIORITY ACTIVITIES

The relatively low degree of NMS participation in EC FP IST priority is partly due to lower involvement at the application stage (one-quarter that of EU-15 per head of population), and partly to the lower average retention rate of projects in which they are involved (one-half of EU-15). In terms of finance grant awarded, NMS and Accession states received 8% of total funding, compared with 85% received by EU-15 [1]. According to IST priority five-year assessment for 1999-2003, on average an EU-15 applicant organisation had over 20% chance of ‘success’ (i.e. of being a partner in a retained project), more than double of an NMS applicant. Out of 2400 proposals submitted for FP6 IST priority Thematic Calls 1 & 2 only 79 (or 3%) are with participant from Latvian. SSAs are the best-retained projects and there are no retained STRePs for IST priority Thematic Calls 1 & 2.

An examination of retention rates by Strategic Objective (SO) of proposals involving one or more of the NMS shows a wide variation in success rates. Among all proposals submitted, more than 10% were retained within each SO for Call 1, while for proposals involving a NMS participant it is not true. Areas where proposals including a NMS were very significantly below average (in terms of retention rates) were ‘Business/Governments’ (5.2% compared with an overall average of 10.2%), ‘Learning/Heritage’ (5.5% compared with 12.4%). They were the largest in terms of overall numbers of applications. E-Learning SO is heavily oversubscribed also in Call 4.The numbers in Latvia are even



more dramatic: out of 52 Call 1 projects 16 (or 31%) were submitted for Networked businesses and governments – 0 retained, 17 (or 33%) for Technology-enhanced learning and access to cultural heritage with only 1 retained. For Call 2 picture is similar: out of 27 projects 11 (or 41%) were submitted for Applications and Services for the Mobile User and worker – of which only 1 retained.

Success rates for proposals from NMS are lower in all areas than for partners from the member states and associated countries than expected and the low number of coordinators caused particular disappointment. Thus far there have been no coordinators of IPs or NoEs from NMS. It may be, however, that time is required to build a sufficient basis of experience to equip people for these challenging roles. The reasons for the current state are to a large extent uncertain and need to be studied in detail.

In general, NMS have a young and educated population, with a significant number of young researchers. This is essential for building up national RTD and innovation capacities. However, many countries face a potential brain drain to other European countries or to the US in case their RTD capacities are not rapidly expanded. Latvia has the lowest GDP (but the highest growth rate) in EU and only about 0.5% is the share for research and development [2].

The barriers for NMS to participate are of more general nature and not only FP procedures. They are due to lack of:

experience in competitive tendering, established networks with EU researchers, capital and research equipment, associated industrial infrastructure, high tech companies, industry associations.

PARTICIPATION OF LATVIA IN EC FP IST PRIORITY

Researchers from Latvia participate in EC Framework Programmes since 1999, starting with FP5, followed by FP6 and now approaching for FP7. The start-up in each new FP has always appeared to be difficult. In FP5 first year resulted in 22% success, in FP6 – only 10%. Activity of Latvian proposers has risen along with others – susses rate has dropped down – more than for others. Table 1 illustrates that participation of Latvian proposers only in 2 years of FP6 almost equals to that in the whole FP5, but success has been considerably lower and so is the received funding.

Table 1. Participation of researchers from Latvia in EC FP5 and FP6

FP5 FP6 Number of submitted projects/proposals 117 144 Number of Participants in submitted proposals 145 178 Number of Retained projects 18 33 Success rate 15% 23% Funding, mil € (requested - retained) 16,3 – 1,1 18,5 - 2,8

The total participation in all with IST related activities during FP6 for proposers from Latvia is represented in Table 2. It is essential to mention that Call 3 was specially designed for NMS and contained only Specific support and Coordination actions – there were no research projects.

Table 2. Participation of researchers from Latvia in EC FP6 IST linked activities

Total Call 1 Call 2 Call 3 Fet Open

Fet proactive

IST+NMP Joint

Number of submitted projects 130 52 27 32 6 0 13 Number of Participants in proposals 160 66 36 36 7 - 15 Number of projects above thresholds 26 5 6 13 0 - 2 Number of Retained projects 20 3 5 10 0 - 2 Success rate 15% 6% 19% 31% 0% - 15%

Evaluation of the effectiveness of the Instruments (types of projects) of FP6 shows that the New Instruments mean additional barriers for participants from the NMS but the full development of the ERA requires also active participation of the NMS [3].



Although proposers demonstrated good level of knowledge of the FP mechanisms, there is a significant difference between participants form EU-15 and from NMS. Participation from NMS including Latvia is growing too slowly, which can partly be explained by the introduction of the New Instruments. The barriers to be a co-ordinator of a project submitted under the New Instruments are high:

the cost of the preparation process with the needs to travel and to have pre-contractual meetings,

access to information and management capacity for co-ordinating large groups, one must be an authority in his field to be accepted as a co-ordinator by one’s peers - there are

no project leaders from Latvia for any of the FP6 IST projects.

Table 3. Submitted projects per Instrument in Latvia and for the Call total

Latvia, Call 1+ Call 2 Call 1 Call 2 Instrument Submitted Retained Latvia EC total Latvia EC total Total 79 8 52 1396 27 1064 IP 17 1 15 29% 325 23% 2 7% 190 18% NoE 8 1 6 12% 161 12% 2 7% 58 5% STReP 24 0 15 29% 727 52% 9 33% 635 60% SSA 22 3 11 21% 130 9% 10 37% 139 13% CA 9 3 5 9% 52 4% 4 15% 49 4%

Alarming is the appraisal that submitted project structure from Latvian researchers is disfigured. STRePs play a key role within the portfolio of FP6 instruments: they are adequate for small players such as SMEs or small teams. By participating in STRePs these actors can enter a learning process, familiarising with EU RTD programmes and preparing to an active participation in other types of Instruments. Unfortunately for Latvia it is vice versa: if for the Call total the majority of applications go for STRePs, in Latvia it is equal with SSAs. Among 24 submitted STRePs there is not a single one on retained list.

Latvian researcher: has difficulties to join competitive consortia as partner because the best groups in Europe work

in-closed and don’t need new participants, sometimes is involved in project for large quantity of job for in-adequately small funding, even as a part of consortium doesn’t receive full proposal applications for un-successful

proposals and can’t learn from mistakes, is rather introvert and has problems in finding partners - Ideal-ist Partner search facilities have

not been used in Latvia during FP5 and FP6.

LATVIA IN COLLABORATION WITH OTHER EU MEMBER STATES

Table 4 represents the most favourite Latvian coordinators (mentioned countries of 2 or more submissions with Latvian partner).

Table 4. Coordinators for proposals with Latvian participation in three thematic calls

STReP IP NoE SSA CA Total Belgium 0 1 0 1 0 2 Czech Republic 2 0 0 3 1 6 France 2 2 2 / 1 4 / 1 2 / 1 12 / 3



STReP IP NoE SSA CA Total Germany 6 4 1 8 / 4 2 / 1 21 / 5 Greece 4 2 0 5 / 1 0 11 / 1 Israel 1 1 0 2 / 1 0 4 / 1 Italy 1 1 0 3 2 7 Netherlands 0 2 / 1 0 0 0 2 / 1 Norway 1 2 2 0 0 5 Poland 1 0 0 9 / 3 0 10 / 3 Portugal 0 0 1 2 / 2 1 / 1 4 / 3 Spain 6 0 0 2 1 9 Sweden 2 1 0 0 1 / 1 4 / 1

The absolute leader is Germany: both for proposals (21) and retained projects (5) with Latvian participation (24%). The most successful coordinator for Latvia appears to come from France – 25%. Promising seems situation for Poland – they have succeeded in 30% of proposals with Latvian participation. Otherwise successful Italy has no results with Latvia as participant – it proves conclusion that partners from NMS can’t get into competitive Consortia.

Call 3 contributed to awareness raising and training support actions in order to stimulate, encourage and facilitate the participation of organisations from the NMS. It resulted in greater involvement of NMS in partnership and new possibilities to educate on proposal preparation, networking and partner search. A group of these projects have been linked up in virtual cluster to address the aforementioned challenges of the possibilities provided by participation in the FP6 IST. Part of these projects operate also in Latvia and should be employed properly for greater outcome in networking, consortium building and new proposal preparation.

Table 5. Virtual cluster of SSA projects financed by EC – list of contacts for consulting and testing project ideas

Project Number Acronym Goal Partner in

Latvia

Support to Associated Countries and NMS

015742 STAR-NET

services and tools for the animation, training, information sharing and deployment of the network services (also from 2007 onwards)

LITTA, Māra Jākobsone, [email protected]

Supporting IST Organisations from Central and Eastern Europe

015942 CEEC IST

NET

detailed on-line free database and a web portal to be used as the network support

LEBIC, Jānis Smilga, [email protected]

IST Academies NMS States and Accession Countries

015996 IST

Academies

13 one-day Academies, addressing the NMS and ACC’s ICT stakeholders, experts, and producers, directly in their countries

-

Knowledge Base for RTD Competencies

015823 IST World

portal containing information about RTD actors: persons, organisations and projects, their experience and expertise

UL MII, Kārlis Čerāns, [email protected]

Partner Search Support for participants in IST Priority by European network of NCP for IST under the FP6

511355 IDEALIST34

promotion of the participation of newcomer from organizations of all types by: partner search mechanism to help consortia find project partners, partner search services during international EC conferences and information days, networking forum to help industry and SMEs

National Contact point, Dina Bērziņa, [email protected]

Extension of idealist34 project to INCO Balkan and NIS countries

015813 idealist-extend

training of NCP related organisations and potential proposers in IST related questions, identifying experts for call evaluations

-

Getting SMEs from Candidate countries To Increase participation on IST projects

511281 GET IN

toolset and training for guiding NMS SMEs through the different stages of IST-related proposal submission

LTC, Gundega Lapiņa, [email protected]



Project Number Acronym Goal Partner in

Latvia Enhancing the participation of research organizations from Associated Candidate Countries to the FP6

511328 EUROPEAN

IST

networking the IST research community across Europe, integrating the "info part" (IST NCP) and the "end-users" (RDsector) through IST tools into the European Research Area

-

IST Financial Training and Web Portal for NMS

015481 Finance-NMS-IST

addressing the financial and budgetary aspects of participation.

NCP, Dina Bērziņa, [email protected]

The Ideal-ist network is co-financed by the European Commission and has 34 representatives in the Member States, Candidate Countries and Associated States, as well as Third Countries: Russia and Belarus. Partner Searches are Call specific and rely on a proactive mechanism - project idea is distributed to over 55,000 international contacts interested in the IST Priority. The service boasts 92% success rate where proposers find appropriate partners for partnership building and provides suitable partners within weeks or even days. Latvian proposers have to rely upon this mechanism as the experience shows – without additional help from outside we can’t find competitive consortia for the proposals. Users feedback proves it - even successful proposers from Italy reply: “I was really surprised...I've received over 45 potentially interested replies in less than 36 hours” (Joseph Leone, Jamu Software, IT) [4].

IST Mentor+ project (507704) develops a networked group of proficient IST multipliers, whose task is to enhance building awareness of the IST Program and to assist potential proposers in submitting high quality proposals by coaching and mentoring these multipliers to teach them on how to succeed in the proposal writing and submission Trained multipliers form the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, School of Business Administration “Turība” and Daugavpils Entrepreneurs Support centre have already become “extended arm” of the National Contact Point.

CONCLUSIONS

Today there are still many obstacles for the integration of the NMS in the IST community activities: weakly developed RTD infrastructure and low RTD expenditures of these countries, weakly developed economies, also in the area of ICT, but also new investment opportunities, currently very weak participation in the IST Priority.

The NMS including Latvia are in process of transition – we have to create an enterprise-friendly environment at the same time build the conditions for knowledge-based economy. Institutional reforms and allocation of sufficient resource to knowledge creation combined with intelligent use of structural funds and other EU/national instruments could provide solutions for necessary changes.

Latvian proposers do not contact the EC directly to verify the validity of research idea. They rely on their partners within the EU to do this – the twinning between “old member states” and “new member states” could be one of solutions for better integration of NMS in European Community and ERA.

REFERENCES 1. Five-Year Assessment: 1999-2003 - Research and Technology Development in Information Society

Technologies. EC 2005, ISBN 92-894-8410-1. 2. Towards a European Research Area Science, Technology and Innovation - Key Figures 2003-2004. ISBN: KI

NA 20735 C. 3. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the New Instruments of Framework Programme VI (Report of a High-level

Expert Panel chaired by Professor Ramon Marimon), http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/instruments_review/ 4. …http://www.ideal-ist.net/partnersearch.php Dina BERZINA, Lecturer/IST NCP co-ordinator, University of Latvia/NCP Latvia, Raina blvd. 19, LV1586, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +371 7229727, Fax: +371 7225039, e-mail: [email protected].



IST4BALT – OPPORTUNITIES FOR COOPERATION AND COLLABORATION

Alexander BERIOZKO, Jean BONNIN EDNES, Strasbourg, France

Keywords: information Society, Teleworking, Baltic States Abstract: IST4Balt will promote and coordinate FP6 Information Society Technologies (IST) activities in

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by dissemination actions, including conferences, workshops, demonstrations, training, technology and market studies. It will develop IST IDCs and organize seven all-Baltic conferences and nine workshops. IST4Balt will provide training to promote FP6 and IST and encourage submission of new proposals to the EC.

The project “Information Society Promotion in Baltic States (IST4Balt)” is a Coordination Action for the FP6 IST Priority. IST4Balt is a follow-up of the FP5 IST project “Teleworking as a Tool for Information Society Technologies Programme Promotion to Baltic States (TELEBALT)”, 2001-2003.

The main goal of the project is to promote the FP6 IST Priority to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia by implementing fast dissemination and awareness actions targeted on these EU New Member States (NMS).

IST4Balt will do technology studies and market review of the present situation with the IST in the three Baltic countries and provide (through IST4Balt Web-sites, News Journal, workshops, conferences and training course) relevant information and formulate appropriate recommendations to EU research and marketing telematics communities.

The project will select and demonstrate IST developed services and tools following IST Strategic Objectives:

2.3.2.6. Applications and services for the mobile user and worker; 2.3.2.3. Open development platforms for software and services; 2.3.2.7. Cross-media content for leisure and entertainment; 2.3.2.9. Improving Risk management; 2.3.2.10. e-Inclusion.

A system of three Information Dissemination Centers (IDCs) will be developed by the project (one IDC in each participating country). A system of IST4Balt Web-sites will be developed focused on particular application areas. Three issues of IST4Balt News Journal will be published yearly electronically and in hard copies.

The project will co-organize major international Baltic ICT events - three INFOBALT-IST4Balt conferences in Vilnius in October 2005-2007, three Baltic IT&T-IST4Balt conferences in Riga in April 2005-2007, and organize special IST training day inside the conference “Logistics and information technologies in international trade” in Tallinn in December 2005.

The project will organize seven IST4Balt technical/training workshops (six goal oriented technical workshops at the time of the conferences in Vilnius and Riga, and a training workshop in Kohtla-Jarve, Estonia). The workshops will be devoted to the promotion of the FP6 and the IST. They will show new FP6 opportunities for the Baltic countries and will contribute to launching IST project proposals.

IST4Balt will provide training measures on the IST and the FP6, demonstrating new intellectual, technical, educational and business opportunities for Baltic States as the EU NMS.

The project will initiate the creation of Trans-Baltic IST Association that will unite the IST4Balt participants with leading ICT organizations in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The association will coordinate joint efforts of the Baltic States in IST development focusing on integration to the EU. IST4Balt started in September 2004 and has the duration of 40 months. Alexander BERIOZKO, Project Manager, EDNES, 1A place des Orphelins, F-67000, Strasbourg, France, Phone: +33 (0)3 90240032, Fax: +33 (0)3 90240291, e-mail: [email protected]



IST DEVELOPMENT IN LATVIA

Janis GRUNDSPENKIS Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia

Keywords: information society, information society models Abstract: The paper deals with analysis of current situation of information society development in Latvia.

Structural features of information society are outlined. The IST development in Latvia is analysed using the basic characteristics of information society models such as technology and education.

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays we can observe an evolution from the industrial age to the information age. The evolution towards the information age causes the rise of the information society. In the information society all defining activities of human practice are based on information technology organized in information networks and centered around information processing [1]. Moreover, the information society requires not only abilities to use information technology and process information but also abilities to learn new knowledge and to get new skills. These changes cause emerging of a new type of intelligent work, so called “knowledge work”. The essence of knowledge work is turning information into knowledge through the interpretation of available non-standardized information for the purposes of problem solving and decision making. According to [2] “to make knowledge work productive is the great management task of this century”.

It is observed that new requirements and technologies influence the whole society in countries that are moving towards the information society. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the information society development in Latvia. Due to the expertise of the author the analysis is based on the subset of characteristics such as information society technology and education.

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATION SOCIETY MODEL OF LATVIA

In [3] the characteristics of information society models are given. These characteristics are grouped into four groups: technology, economics, welfare and social values. In this paper we focus on technology and education (the latest belongs to welfare). Technology has three dimensions: infrastructure (indicators are the number of Internet sites per 100 inhabitants and the number of mobile cell phones per 1000 inhabitants), production (indicators are export of high-tech production (% from total export) and E-commerce (the number of servers per 100000 inhabitants)), and knowledge (indicators are percent of Internet users and the number of university students which study mathematics and engineering, and are involved in research). One of the welfare dimensions is education (indicators are enrollment at schools, secondary schools and universities, and functional reading and writing skills).

The state of infrastructure in Latvia is characterized by numbers given in Table 1. One can conclude that infrastructure in Latvia develops rather quickly.

Table 6. Penetration of ICT

Indicators 2002 2005 PCs/100 19 33 Internet/100 6 25 Mobile Cell Phone/100 34,2 59 Enterprises which have at least one computer (%) 51 ≈ 75 Enterprises with Internet connections (%) 36 > 50

The structure of information technology sector in Latvia is shown in Figure 1. Analysis of given data allows to conclude that software development and information systems maintenance constitutes about 40% of the information technology sector. The software industry has been growing at a rate 15% yearly and ICT industry is regarded as the sector with the highest potential for future development [4].



Softwaremarketing

4%

Internet and E-commerce services

4%

Hardware manufacturing

9,7%

Hardware marketing

10,5%

Hardware maintenanceand repair

15,3%

Softwaredevelopment

24,2%

Tele-communications

13,8%

Consulting 3,2%

IS maintenance15,3%

Figure 1. The structure of information technology sector in Latvia

Interesting results have been obtained in result of analysis of labour market requirements. In Figure 2 the forecast of Latvian IT companies about professional qualification levels of IT specialists is presented. Graduates from universities may receive the fourth qualification level which, as a rule, is a technician or the fifth qualification level – engineer’s qualification. The present situation manifests that the number of applicants for professional studies is very small if compared with those who apply for bachelor’s and master studies. So, there is a gap between requirements of the labour market and possibilities from university side to satisfy these requirements.

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Figure 2. Distribution of qualification levels in IT sectors

Research should support production. It is needed to point out that research in Latvia in ICT, as a rule, is state financed. This is the weakest point in information society development in Latvia because share of investments for research is only 0,18% within GDP, and it is the lowest among all EU countries. Distribution of research areas financed by the state is given in Figure 3. Analysis of projects financed by the Latvian Council of Science in 2005 reveals the main research areas in ICT (Table 2).



Philosophy, sociology, psychology, pedagogy

6,27%

History3,10% Linguistics, history of

literature, study of folklore4,02%

Agriculture11,14%

Medicine10,60%

Molecular biology, microbiology,

biotechnology, virusology

7,15%

Biology, environment and land

9,95%

Technology (material, chemical, pharmacy)

4,76%Chemistry

10,42%

Physics,mathematics,

astronomy11,44%

Informatics5,71%

Mechanics,mechanical

engineering, energetics

7,61%

Forestry1,85%Economics, law

5,98%

Figure 3. State financing of research

Table 7. Projects financed by the Latvian Council of Science, year 2005

No Research area Number of projects

Financing, %

1. Applications of CS and IT 11 30,44 2. Electronics 8 20,76 3. Signal processing and communications 8 15,08 4. Artificial intelligence and knowledge based systems 8 13,49 5. System modelling and simulation 5 10,79 6. Software engineering and information systems 5 9,44

Total 45 The general education trend in Latvia is an increase in the number of people entering universities and other institutions of higher education. According to Central Statistics Bureau of Latvia in study year 2003/2004 there were 55 students per 1000 inhabitants (one of the highest rates if compared with other European countries). Unfortunately, distribution of students according to study programmes in 2003/2004 given in Figure 4 shows an unsatisfactory picture from the information society development point of view (from the total amount of students 126756 only 11% study engineering and technologies).

Services 3%

Teacher training and

education sciences

15%

Natural sciences and

art5%

Humanities and arts

7% Engineering and

technologies11%

Agriculture2%

Health and health care

3%Social sciences

54%

Figure 4. Distribution of students according to study programmes 2003/2004 At the present moment 12 institutions of higher education have study programmes in IT but about 90% of students are concentrated in 3 institutions: Riga Technical University, University of Latvia and Institute of Transport and Communications (see Table 3).



Table 3. Number of enrolled and graduates

University Number of enrolled

Number of graduates

1. Riga Technical University 1A. Computer Science and Information Technology 1B. Electronics and Telecommunications

961 / 40* 586 / 36 375 / 4

737 472 265

2. University of Latvia 220 / 38 202 3. Institute of Transport and Communications 0 / 455 105 4. Other Institutions of Higher Education 366 / 192 104

Total 1547 / 725 1148 *The first number corresponds to students whose studies are financed by the state, and the second number corresponds to those who pay for their education. More details about distribution of IT students according to different levels of study programmes are given in Table 4.

Table 4. Distribution of IT students according to study programmes

Study program Number of enrolled

Number of graduates

1. 1st level professional studies 168 / 76 85 2. Bachelor studies 824 / 396 578 3. 2nd level professional studies 189 / 113 95 4. Master studies 341 / 140 379 5. Doctoral studies 25 / 0 11

Total 1547 / 725 1148

To summarize the analysis of education dimension of information society development in Latvia we can conclude that the number of applicants for studies in IT is high, the number of doctoral students is growing, and there are high standards of education. At the same time serious threats exist: age and overload of experienced researchers and teachers, high rate of drop outs from doctoral studies, lack of sufficient amount of investments in research and higher education, the rather wide gap between requirements of labour market in connection with different qualification levels and the number of applicants for professional studies.

CONCLUSIONS

At the moment analysis of the basic characteristics of information society shows that some indicators are satisfactory while others are not. Infrastructure and software industry are developing pretty well. At the same time there are serious problems in research and higher education of IT sector in Latvia.

At the present moment it is hard to foresee the future of information society development in Latvia, namely, which economical and technological model of information society Latvia will follow. The main question is to which extent Latvia will be able to reach the needed level of technology, economy, welfare and social value dimensions of information society. Answer to the open question depends on many factors but mainly on the willingness of the government and the whole society to take advantages of our strengths, to use opportunities, to overcome weaknesses, and to avoid threats.

REFERENCES 1. Castells M. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. Blackwell, Oxford, 2000. 2. Information Technology for Knowledge Management (Borghoff U. M., Pareschi R. eds). Springer-Verlag,

Berlin, 1998. 3. Castells M. and Himanen P. The Information Society and the Welfare State. The Finnish Model. University

Press, Oxford, 2002. 4. Information and Communication Technology. Country Profile: Latvia. Technical Paper of International Trade

Centre UNCTAD/WTO. Geneva, 2003. Janis GRUNDSPENKIS, Dr.habil.sc.ing., professor, Riga Technical University, 1 Kalku Street, LV1658, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +371 7089581, Fax: +371 7089584, e-mail: [email protected]



THE EUROPEAN IST PRIZE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR INNOVATIVE COMPANIES AND ORGANISATIONS

Georges GRUNBERG

Euro-Case, France

Keywords: European IST Prize, Novel Products or Services, proposals Abstract: The objective of the European IST Prize (EISTP) is to promote European innovation and

entrepreneurship in IST, by providing public recognition and encouragement to companies that excel in turning technology and research results into products for the market. Its main theme is: "Novel products or services with a high information society technologies content, and clear market potential". Since 1995 the prize, with the support of the European Commission, is organised by Euro-CASE, the European Council of Applied Science and Engineering, a non-profit association of 18 European Academies, which ensures an effective and impartial evaluation of the received applications, The evaluation of the proposals are made by an EIST-P evaluation group consisting of 16 independent experts proposed by the various European Academies of Technologies, resulting in the selection of 50-70 Nominees and 20 Winners. Hereafter an EISTP Executive Jury, consisting of 18 executives nominated by Euro-CASE, proposes the three Grand Prize Winners, to be confirmed by the EC. From the inception in 1995 up to year 2004, over 3000 proposals have been submitted by candidates from 31 EU and Associated countries, 220 Winner Prizes from 23 countries and 30 Grand Prizes from 12 countries have been awarded. During the presentation some guidelines will be given for the potential candidates, and a brief description of the services offered to the Nominees and to the Winners will be presented.

PowerPoint presentation can be found on attached CD. Georges GRUNBERG, Adviser of Euro-Case (European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering), Association of European Academies of Technology, 28 Rue Saint Dominique, 75007, Paris, France, Phone: +33 1 53 59 53 40; Fax: +33 1 53 59 53 41; e-mail: [email protected]

e-LEARNING Parallel Session A1 2005


HOW TO INTRODUCE E-LEARNING ?

Jean - Claude MAROT JC consultants, France

Keywords: e-learning, strategies of introduction of e-learning, LMS Abstract: Currently, numerous major universities and training establishments are actively implementing

some type of e-learning project. However, many of them are quickly discovering some difficulties to perform successfully their projects. For example, they find that a significant gap existe between students that had registered for online courses compared to their actual completion. This observation has led several institutions to rethink their e-learning strategies and revisit the timeless question of how to introduce well e-learning. In this presentation, we will examine four strategies of introduction of e-learning :

strategy giving the greater role to the installation of online educational delivery application;

strategy of incorporation of Internet-based activities and assignments in traditional educational environment;

strategy based on the delivery of e-learning courses carefully designed; the multidimensional approach which aims to deal together the pedagogical and the

organizational problematics.

INTRODUCTION

The terms "distance learning" or "distance education", are commonly used to describe a pedagogical situation in which nearly all the interaction between the teacher and student takes place electronically. Electronic communication may take the form of audio, video, e-mail, chat, teleconferencing, and, increasingly, the Internet. With the growth of the Internet use for learning, the term "eLearning" trends to replace the terms "distance learning" and "distance education". In this presentation we will use all these terms to designate the same situation : teachers and distant students interacting for learning through mediated technologies, under the auspices of an institution.

THE TIMELESS QUESTION OF THE DISTANCE LEARNING PERFORMANCES

The majority of practitioners of distance education reports that students who successfully complete their e-learning courses perform the same or better than students in comparable courses that they taught in the traditional classroom. The most frequently mentioned indicators of the online courses success include the following :

Successful student performance. This category includes several specific indicators of student success (e.g., successful course completion, success on exam).

Student and teacher positive feedback

Use of online courses by learners. This category includes references to two specific indicators of student use : number of students registration, amount of student participation ..

Persistence of the learners : in average eigthy percent (80%) of drop out in some cases.

Currently, numerous universities and training establishments are actively implementing some type of e-learning project. However, many of them are quickly discovering some difficulties to perform successfully the latters. For example, they find that a significant gap existe between students that had registered for online courses compared to their actual completion.

This observation has led several institutions to rethink their e-learning strategies and revisit the timeless question of how to introduce successfully e-learning.

In this presentation, we will examine four strategies of introduction of e-learning.

I have illustrated it with typical situations met during my career.



THE FOUR STRATEGIES TO INTRODUCE E-LEARNING

The rapid review of the approaches regarding the introduction of e-learning, shows that :

1) the e-learning educational design teams put the stress :

whether on the features of tools and high-tech environments,

whether on the pedagogical features and course contents

2) these approaches are mainly based on :

a problematic of the interaction between students and teachers and/or between the users and the system. It is the approach from the point of view of the medium

a problematic of social appropriation of new practices. It is the approach from the organizational point of view.

If we cross these two groups of alternatives, we define four typical situations characterizing four strategies of introduction of e-learning :

1) strategy giving the greater role to the installation of online educational delivery application

(Learning Management System)

2) strategy of incorporation of educational technologies in traditional educational environment

3) strategy based on the delivery of e-learning courses carefully designed

4) the multi-dimensional approach which aims to deal together the pedagogical and the organizational matters.

THE LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS SOLUTION

A Learning Management System (LMS) provides the platform for online learning environment by enabling the management and delivery learning for a target audience. A good platform connects at least three types of interdependent users:

learners to the content they need and with the other users

teachers (instructors, tutors) to lead the training, share some applications, interact with the learners and allow more or less the participation of the distant students.

Training administrators to overall business goals

The two best known large commercial systems are Blackboard and WebCT, but there are many, many others and some, such as IBM's Lotus Workplace Collaborative Learning claim to be strong on collaborative learning features. There are also many open-source and free learning management systems some competing directly with the large commercial offerings and others focussing on unique features.

These e-learning applications include a great choice of functionalities. According to the learning project and related considerations (for example : compatibility with the existing systems), the selection schedule will not comprise the same criteria. It is therefore important to clearly identify what functionalities are needed from the point of view of each type of user and in regard with the project objectives. It is also recommended to test the selected device before the definitive choice. It is equally possible to rent some e-learning system or to evaluate a such e-learning mode by the way of an open-source software.

IS LMS A BEST WAY TO ADOPT E-LEARNING ?

In view of the abundance of pedagogical functionalities offered by the new online educational softwares, the decision makers are often tempted to choice this way in order to jump directly from traditional training to e-learning practices.

I will quote the case of a group of SMEs willing to train its staff management for e-commerce. Appealed by a provider of e-learning solutions, the training team convinced these SMEs to use a new



system of collaborative learning for its first experience of e-learning. This attempt has ended in failure. The main raisons of this failure were the following :

Technical raisons : unsuitability of some computer equipment used on workplaces, incompatibility with the operating systems of some SMEs

No mastery of the tool : due to the number of functionalities this tool use is complex. It turns out that the users (learners, teachers, tutors, administrators) were unsufficiently accustomed to exploit suitably all the system resources.

Inadequacy of pedagogical methods : the pedagogical methods of the trainers and tutors were modeled on their teaching experience in “same-time same-place” situation. This pedagogy was not suitable to elearning and the instructors did not create specific scenarios for collaborative learning context. It is a mistake to believe that the tool is going to create spontaneously the conditions of a collaborative work between peoples who did not work together usually.

In summary, this is not the tool -however sophisticateed it is- that facilitates the introduction and the adoption of the elearning. In order to be efficient, online educational applications have to be exploited by users aware, that is to say, users who have already an experience of pedagogical use of information technologies and who are able to design the relevant pedagogical scenarios.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES INCORPORATED IN TRADITIONAL ENVIRONMENT

Qualitative studies about experiences of traditional learning supplemented with information technology activities state that students progress from learning to use the technology for learning till constructing new knowledge within their personal knowledge structures.

For example, some experiences of traditional distance learning supplemented with Internet activities show adult students working together to overcome technical difficulties and supporting each other in learning to use the Internet activities of the course. They adjust their communication styles to converse with the other students, and to time their contributions so that they would be effective.

The observers suggest that these adult students gain a new sense of themselves through the Internet activities of the course, as their opinions are affirmed by others who respond to their messages and they become confident of their abilities to work and learn on-line. These students construct new meanings for the nature of computer-mediated communication and become excited about the new world they have discovered in cyberspace.

Moreover, these studies state that, in the same way, the teachers progress from learning to use the technology for teaching till making up new pedagogical methods incorporating.

A BLENDED LEARNING CASE

Here is an experience led within a secondary school that joints the traditional teaching and the use of communication technologies to learn (Figure 1).



Figure 1. Experience: English lessons at school.

This experience involves a close collaboration between three school-teachers of English operating in three different classrooms. While one of the teachers uses the internal videoconferencing of the establishment in order to insure simultaneously the course for a part of the pupils in each the three classrooms, the two other teachers insure, face to face in two separated premises, the courses for the part of the remaining pupils.

Only the pupils who don't have difficulties to learn English follow the mediated teaching. Pupils feeling difficulties to learn English are distributed in small groups with the two teachers remaining who insure a remedial teaching.

The pedagogical efficiency of this device has been controled during this experience. Today this new learning method - in progress - is called “ blended learning ”. As in our example, it combines the online learning elements and the classic teaching in traditional classroom.

CRITICAL ELEMENTS OF INNOVATION ADOPTION

The previous experience was promoted by a motivated educational design team. But, on the fringe of this pedagogical innovation, several problems had to be dealed : for example, the three teachers directly involved had to adjust their schedules of work, that also required the colleagues acceptance and the administration agreement. On the other hand, institutional rules to regulate the pedagogical usage of communication technologies and to support the individual initiatives of the teachers did not exist, and so on...

In brief, this experience had existed only thanks to the support of the director of the establishment. When he left, the experience has stopped despite its pedagogical interest.

To sum up, the approval and, ultimately, the success of an e-Learning initiative requires the building of a broad consensus within the players concerned (decision makers, influencers, end users). But, above all, the top management agreement and involvement is essential.

THE CREATION OF A TYPICAL ONLINE COURSE

The central peoples and skills of this strategy of e-learning introduction are the content provider and the developer. Throughout the entire development life cycle of the e-learning product the communication between the content provider and developer have to be continuous. We haven't time here to explain in detail all the development process of a typical online course. If you are interested,



you can find a rich information on this subject on the EASI-ISAE MediaMatch web site. (http://mediamatch.derby.ac.uk). Here are the basic steps of the development process described on this web site :

Practicalities

At this early stage few things are decided absolutely. The type of things that are discussed include : Identification of subject area and level Identification of target group Possible resources available Possible people and skills available to develop the material

Requirements

After the practicalities have been addressed it will be necessary to carry out a needs analysis. This will involve analysing the learning context, the learners, and the learning task. Once the needs analysis has been carried out the learning outcomes can be developed.

Decision to use e-learning

At this point the decision can be made regarding the delivery mechanisms.

Content development

At this stage the main academic content of the online course package will be developed, an instructional strategy will be proposed and initial storyboards will be drafted. In order to aid understanding, a visual prototype may also be developed. At this point the content provider and the developer or instructional designer will often work closely together. Working together should ensure that the advantages of using elearning are utilised, and the course package will be a true reflection of the capabilities of the media and not simply an on-screen book. Content development and program design often tend to overlap during development of educational material.

Design

In the design section the overall structure and content of the online course package is more tightly defined and storyboards are finalised. It is useful to think of the design as having Macro and Micro features.

Development

At this stage,the actual online course package can be now programmed into the computer. The graphics, sound and video can be finalised and where necessary converted to digital format suitable for the computer.

Testing

This stage is concerned with testing the online course package. Normally there is evaluation at all the stages to ensure that what we are doing is correct and fit for purpose. However, the completed computer program needs to be tested formally to iron out any 'bugs'. The real test though is user reaction.

Maintenance

Although some online course package can have a life expectancy of many years many will need occasional updating and amending.

CRITICAL ELEMENTS OF ELEARNING PRACTICES

Here is the example of a great company which comprise many establishments in France. Due to the fact that numerous women workers have difficulties to be away from their house in order to participate at the learning sessions in the training centers of the enterprise, the latter programs the development of series of various online courses accessible on the Intranet of the company. In parallel the company creates in each of its establishments a premises dedicated to self learning with equipment connected to the Intranet. In order to be suitable for the learner audience the development of the online courses



is carefully planned and controled, and the packages are meticulously tested with a sample group of users. One year after the implementation of the device, only one percent of the potential audience has successfully completed its training.

Two raisons explain this failure :

As it 's a matter of self learning system, there is not a human support for helping the learners in difficulties and to motivate them.

Due to the production constraints, and because the workers must left their workplace for learning, the direct managerial staff doesn't favour the participation of self-learning modules.

Indeed, one of the most important instructional elements of contemporary distance education is interaction. It is a widely held that a high level of interaction is desirable and positively affects the effectiveness of any distance education course.

We can identified three types of interaction: student-content, studentteacher, and studentstudent.

In traditional classroom instruction, the focus has been on student-teacher interaction. On the other hand, in the development of self-study materials (especially computer-based), the focus has been on student-content interaction. Since the use of computer networks, a new form of studentteacher interaction is rising up with the role of the tutor. At last, the recent interest in collaborative learning, the attention becomes to be devoted to student-student interaction, and the tutor involving appears again to be the key to promote this kind of interaction. Otherwise, the impact of the context appears also to take an essential part in the success of elearning. The managerial staff behavior in the previous case shows that the introduction of elearning on the workplace can involve organizational changes. And without these changings, the learning could be not effective.

THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL APPROACH

The multidimensional approach includes all the previous problematics. In particular, it aims to deal together the pedagogical and the organizational elements.

As we have seen previously in several examples, the difficulty to change the organizational process is often the main obstacle to the successful introduction of distance learning. It concerns particularly the introduction of elearning devices in corporate environments.

In comparison with the previous strategy focussed on the meticulous design of coursewares, the multidimensional approach considers as basic working hypothesis that the introduction of new system of online learning brings about both pedagogical and organizational changes, and that the latter often constitutes an essential condition of success of the project.

THE MAIN STEPS OF THE PROCESS

The process comprises nine stages. I'll describe shortly each of it (Figure 2.).



Figure 2. The main steps of the process.

Due to the possible organizational impacts of the introduction of elearning, the process have to be validated by the concerned leading decision makers. It is the main reason why one of the first action will be to constitute a steering committee gathering representatives of these peoples. The role this committee will be to validate the different stages of the process, and, if necessary, arbitrate at the technical and economical level, establish new rules, decide what it could be changed in the organization in order to facilitate or consolidate the new elearning practices, etc.

At the second stage the preliminary consists of create the teamwork. This team, as a whole, should be skilled in instructional design and development, creative design and development, web technologies, change management. At this stage the team must also determine notably the scope and the outcomes of the project.

At the third stage, the team will analyse the requirements and constraints for the various people involved (learners, teachers, tutors, managers, colleagues of the learners,...), the foreseen impacts on the practices and on the organization, the existing technologies and the news technologies to be implemented, the cost-benefit ratio,etc. Thus, the team will prepare the decision of the Steering Committee : is this project is relevant or not, and at what conditions ?

At the fourth stage the team will develop and test the online course contents as described in the previous approach.

At the fifth stage, in parallel with fourth stage, the experts in change management of the team will analyse the foreseen organizational impacts, determine notably the functioning rules and process to optimize the learning efficiency and the compatibility of the practices with the other requirements.

At the sixth stage, the team will prepare, start, follow up and evaluate a pilot experimentation. It consist, in particular, to choice a sample group of learners, inform and mobilize the concerned players, train them to the tools use... The experimentation will run in real conditions with the sample group of the learners. The evaluation of the experimentation will provide in particular new datas about the design of elearning courses, the impacts not foreseen on the practices and on the organization, etc...

At the seventh stage, basing their conclusions on the results of the previous evaluation, the teamwork and the Steering Committee representatives will determine notably how to improve the course delivery, the pedagogical methods, the organizational context, ... and at what conditions the project could be generalized. At this stage, the Steering Committee could decide to revisit the organizational



process. Thus, at the end of the ninetys (90s), Telecom Argentina had initiated the re-engineering of its training organization as the result of the introduction of a distance learning mediated system.

At the eighth stage, the whole device will be implemented at the pedagogical, technological and organizational level.

During the ninth stage, on-going procedures have to be set in place to maintain the site. The team should periodically check the content for freshness and accuracy and update accordingly.

The questions that should be asked include :

Does one have to update the course contents or improve the service ?

Is the service still available ?

What comments have been collected from the intended audience on the usefulness and/or usability of the site?

What comments have been collected from the intended audience on the interactions with the other learners and tutors ?

Has the intended audience changed ?

Does one have to improve the pedagogical methods or the training organisation ?

Has the media used to develop the site been updated so newer capabilities can be used on the site ?

CONCLUSION

With the expansion of distance education that go with the development of Internet use, the terms distance learning and Web-based courses are becoming synonymous. Beyond the logistical advantages of Internet, the growth of elearning encourages to innovate at the pedagogical level in order to be more efficient in the learning communities. But e-learning will not happen by just wishing it to happen or by implementation of sophisticated systems. It takes a lot of hard work to built a solid project, to get managers and end user adopt it and to proceed to the changes requested in the organization and pedagogical methods.

REFERENCES 1. AFT, Distance Education. Guidelines for Good Practice. Report prepared by the Higher Education Program

and Policy Council of the American Federation of Teachers, 2000. 2. EASI-ISAE Consortium. MediaMatch - help for teachers and CAL developers. University of Derby. Revised

September, 2000. http://mediamatch.derby.ac.uk/uk/l_select.htm 3. Daniel V. Eastmond. Adult Learners and Internet-Based Distance Education, 1998. 4. L. Michael Van Hoozer, Jr. Putting critical chain learning online. Paper Prepared by eLITE Think Tank, 2001. 5. Jean-Claude Marot, Anne Darnige. La téléformation. Presses Universitaires de France,"Que Sais-Je". Paris,

1996. 6. Ara A. Ohanian. Creating and sustaining a company consensus on your e-learning goals. Paper Prepared by

eLITE Think Tank, 2004. Jean-Claude MAROT, JC Consultants - BP 11 719 - 98 709 Mahina - Tahiti - French Polynesia - [email protected]; Office in France: 6-8, rue Jeanne d'Arc - 34190 - Brissac - France - [email protected]



MULTIMEDIA DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR HANDHELD MULTIMEDIA DEVICES

Bruno ZUGA, Atis KAPENIEKS, Armands STRAZDS Riga Technical University Distance Education Centre, Riga, Latvia

Nadja PIZIKA

Higher Colleges of Technology Abu Dhabi Men’s College, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Keywords: multimedia, internal/eternal representations, handheld multimedia devices Abstract: Multimedia offers an opportunity to include multiple representations in instructional material

and is assumed to foster a deeper understanding. Until a few years ago this has been almost the prerogative of desktop computers. Advances in nanotechnologies and computer technologies allowed to port desktop applications to handheld multimedia devices. The paper aims to explore multimedia design principles and their applications for handheld multimedia devices.

INTRODUCTION

Advances in computer and communication technologies have created a wide array of new possibilities for teaching and learning in different contexts. The widespread availability of handheld multimedia devices (HMD) and wireless networks hold a huge potential for technology enhanced learning. In particular, increasing of computational power, steady growth of memory capacity and increase in wireless data transmission rates allowed adaptation of wide variety of content for HMD that was previously available only on desktops. Moreover, integration of wireless connection capabilities directly in HMDs opened opportunities for accessing online resources, communication and collaboration in a mobile setting. Given all these achievements and combining them with a moderate price per state-of-the-art HMD it makes reasonable to find ways of how to use this type of technology for learning purposes. Unfortunately more often than not attempts to make a pedagogic application of the technology are led down by complex views of technology and simplistic views of social and pedagogic practices [1]. The issue is multidisciplinary; on the one hand it is determined by development of the technology and on the other supported by psychological/pedagogical research.

Important is the ability of HMD devices to reproduce multimedia and this can be exploited for creation of multiple external representations in a mobile setting. Multimedia has been successfully used to support learning on desktop computers for years. There has been also a substantial research carried out on educational value of multimedia. One of the most important tasks of multimedia enhanced learning research is to answer question of how to use multimedia to support learning in a most optimal, effective and efficient way. A number of theories have been created to assist analysis of multimedia and to create guidelines for improving media based learning scenarios. Cognitive load theory by Sweller [2] and cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML) by Mayer [3] turned out to be quite successful in analysing multimedia instructional material.

Based on these theories there has been created a number of principles for multimedia design. In this article we aim to explore a degree of relevancy and affordance of each multimedia principle to a mobile HMD platform, as well as outline future research questions.

COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO HMD MULTIMEDIA DESIGN

The CLT and the CTML apply cognitive theories to learning from media and multimedia in particular. While CLT includes a broader range of learning scenarios, the CTML uses the CLT to explain and enhance multimedia learning only. Both theories formulate a set of partly congruent principles that are summarised under the term “multimedia design principles”. The multimedia design principles (multimedia principle, contiguity principle, redundancy principle, modality principle, signalling principle, interactivity principle, personalisation principle, pre-training principle, voice principle and adaptivity principle) describe in detail how different representational codes and sensory modalities may be



combined effectively to improve the design of media-based learning. Cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML) is based on three assumptions – the dual channel assumption, the limited capacity assumption, and the active learning assumption. First according to the theory there are two separate information processing systems or channels (dual-channel assumption): a visual/pictorial channel and an auditory/verbal channel. The visual/pictorial channel processes pictures and written words. The auditory/verbal channel processes spoken words. Second, the theory assumes that humans are limited in the amount of information they can process in each channel at one time (limited capacity assumption). Third the theory assumes that learning is an active process in which the learner is engaging in attending to incoming information, selecting and organizing information into coherent verbal and pictorial representations, and integrating those with prior knowledge (active processing assumption) [4].

Multimedia principle states that people learn better form multiple representations than just one: better from words and pictures than from words alone [3]; more deeply from animation and narration than from narration alone [5]. Having a solid research base the principle still raises a number of questions. The problem with the principle is that it has been studied mostly in laboratory settings where a learning time has been typically short. In any real setting especially mobile one there are more factors (e.g. social, motivational) involved that may eventually lead to a different results. Moreover on HMD platform due to the size of the screen designers will have to sacrifice some of the complexity of visual representation and leave out some details or present them sequentially. However material presentation in a sequential manner is in direct contradiction with a temporal contiguity principle[6]. Therefore it is desirable to use low complexity material for handheld visual displays. A verbal representation could be impaired by surrounding sounds of mobile setting more often than in classroom or office setting or even more; there might be situations where verbal representation is not appropriate. Finally it should be mentioned that the quality of produced sound in most cases will be worse than from desktop computers and will not be suitable to produce auditory representations with high fidelity/quality requirements.

Contiguity principle states that people learn better when corresponding words and pictures/animations/multiple visual representations are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen - spatial contiguity principle. People learn better when corresponding words/narrations and pictures/animations/multiple representations are presented simultaneously rather than successively – temporal contiguity principle. [3, 5] Spatial contiguity might be a challenge to implement on a HMD due to a low resolution of a device. The visual representation then has to be as simple as possible, but conveying the meaning envisaged by the instructional method. Temporal contiguity regarding verbal/pictorial representation on the other hand could be achieved with the same technology and effort as found on desktop PCs.

According to redundancy principle people learn better when redundant information or representation is rather excluded than included as in case with text, narration and animation: better learning from animation and narration than from animation, narration, and on-screen text [6]. Mayer uses redundancy in a more restricted sense and distinguishes additional coherence principle referring to exclusion of interesting but irrelevant parts from the material [3, 5]. The concept of redundancy is relative however [7]; what is being redundant to an expert might be just very well supporting novice (see more on adaptivity principle below). Given a limited visual display possibilities of handheld devices this principle should be observed due to technical constraints as well.

According to modality principle people learn better from pictures/animations and narrations (spoken texts) than from pictures/animations and on-screen texts. [3, 5, 6]. We hypothesize that there should not be many differences for the principle when applied to a mobile setting except for the technical implementation restrictions of certain representation.

According to signalling principle people learn better when material has a clear organisational structure and contains signals concerning how to process it [6, 8]. This principle could take several forms like for example; the text highlighting and colouring [9], dual mode dynamic representation synchronisation and highlighting [10]. This principle is applicable to mobile HMD devices just as to desktop computers. It can reduce effort for searching the proper information and assist in representation translation. However this effect looses its significance with the decreased resolution of the device as well as with decreased number of colours displayed.



According to interactivity principle learning could be improved when interactivity is added and students can interact with the material [11]. HMD devices can provide a somehow limited interactivity especially because of smaller size input devices. Basic interactivity however could be easily provided e.g. controlled speed of presentation. Mayer calls it a pacing effect explaining that people learn better if they are allowed to control the pace of presentation as opposed to situation when they can’t.

According to personalisation principle people learn better from a conversational narration than from formal narration [4, 6]. This principle could be implemented regardless whether the presentation is used on HMD or PC.

According to pre-training principle people learn better if component explanations are offered before multimedia presentation rather than after [6]. There are should be no much difference over the platform used.

According to voice principle [12] that states if agents are used people learn better from agents that speak in a human voice rather than a machine-synthesized voice. The effect should hold true also on an HMD device.

According to the adaptivity principle individual characteristics of the learner should be taken into account when designing multimedia instructional materials. Important individual characteristics are: learner knowledge level (prior knowledge) and his memory abilities [8]. The principle has a wider impact as it affects other principles described above by primarily producing a cognitive load in the working memory from already existing schemas in the learner’s mind, i.e. for the expert the presented information might become easily redundant [7]. Ideally, instructional materials should be adaptive with respect to prior knowledge and working memory abilities of the learner. Materials shaped that way seem to be holding a potential for improvement of multimedia instructional materials [13]. A main obstacle in producing such materials is to diagnose the learners’ individual characteristics accurately during the learning process and to adapt the instructional material accordingly. Exact measurement of learning characteristics and adoption of the material “on the fly” seems nearly impossible [13], still prior knowledge and working memory abilities have to be taken into account when designing multimedia presentations for HMDs. Failure to do so may result in ineffective instructional material.

CONCLUSIONS

Although aforementioned theories give a good overview of cognitive instructional approaches to multimedia design for mobile devices, still they lack a clear guidelines for principle application to case by case basis. There are also general research deficits of multimedia principle implementation in real-life scenarios with no or very little research done in trying to evaluate the value of multimedia principles applied to HMD devices. Due to HMD’s ability to provide teaching and learning outside classroom in different contexts it is especially important to explore validity of principles in a mobile setting with wide variety of learners. Reduced capability of mobile devices to produce sophisticated external representations however puts constraints on what could be delivered and how. Additional research should be carried out to specify optimal ways of instructional material presentation in these circumstances. Some of the research questions are as follows:

What is the minimum/optimal HMD screen resolution allowing the reasonable visual instructional material presentation for study purposes? What are optimal methods for sequential visual representation chunking when delivering highly detailed material? The last question is supposed to find a compromise between contiguity principle – necessity to keep all relevant information as close as possible and in the same time.

More research is needed to find out the degree of representation integration on the HMD screen as opposed to the successive representation change. There has been some studies done e.g. [14] [15]., but not for mobile platforms.

What would be a proper degree of interactivity for mobile scenarios on HMD devices? Are mobile devices suited for educational simulations games or the optimal degree interactivity should be limited to only pacing/segmenting of instructional material?

More research is needed to find out what should be the resolution and number of colours displayed on the device in order the signalling principle maintaining its significance.



Assuming constant progress in voice synthesis field it is worth trying to find out whether the voice effect decreases due to the increased voice quality.

REFERENCES 1. J. Roschelle, "Keynote paper: Unlocking the learning value of wireless mobile devices," Journal of Computer

Assisted Learning, vol. 19, pp. 260-272, 2003. 2. J. Sweller, Instructional design in technical areas. Camberwell: ACER, 1999. 3. Richard E. Mayer, Multimedia Learning. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 4. Richard E. Mayer, "The Promise of Multimedia Learning: Using the Same Instructional Design Methods

Across Different Media," Learning and Instruction, vol. 13, pp. 125–139, 2003. 5. Richard E. Mayer and Roxana Moreno, "Animation as an Aid to Multimedia Learning," Educational Psychology

Review, vol. 14, pp. 87-99, 2002. 6. Richard E. Mayer, "Elements of a Science of E-Learning," Journal of Educational Computing Research, vol.

29, pp. 297–313, 2003. 7. Slava Kalyuga, Paul Ayres, Paul Chandler, and John Sweller, "The expertise reversal effect," Educational

Psychologist, vol. 38, pp. 23-31, 2003. 8. Richard E. Mayer and Roxana Moreno, "Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning,"

Educational Psychologist, vol. 38, pp. 43-52, 2003. 9. Slava Kalyuga, P Chandler, and John Sweller, "Managing split-attention and redundancy in multimedia

instruction. Applied Cognitive Psychology," vol. 13, pp. 351-371, 1999. 10. H.-J. Jeung, P. Chandler, and J. Sweller, "The role of visual indicators in dual sensory mode instruction.,"

Educational Psychology Review, vol. 17, pp. 329-343, 1997. 11. Mireille Betrancourt, "The Animation and Interactivity Principles in Multimedia Learning," in Cambridge

Handbook of Multimedia Learning, Richard E. Mayer, Ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, in press. 12. Robert K. Atkinson, Richard E. Mayer, and Mary Margaret Merrill, "Fostering social agency in multimedia

learning: Examining the impact of an animated agent’s voice," Contemporary Educational Psychology, vol. 30, pp. 117-139, 2005.

13. Richard E Clark and David F Feldon, "Five Common but Questionable Principles of Multimedia Learning," in Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning, Richard E. Mayer, Ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, in press.

14. D. Bodemer, R. Ploetzner, I. Feuerlein, and H. Spada, "The active integration of information during learning with dynamic and interactive visualisations," Learning and Instruction, vol. 14, pp. 325-341, 2004.

15. Slava Kalyuga, Paul Chandler, and J. Sweller, "Levels of expertise and instructional design," Human Factors, vol. 40, 1998.

Bruno ZUGA, Researcher, Riga Technical University Distance Education Study Centre, Azenes 12, LV 1048, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +3717089216, Fax: +3717089187, e-mail: [email protected].



INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEMS

Tatiana RIKURE, Leonid NOVITSKY Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia

Keywords: ITS, e-learning, AI Abstract: This paper is about possibilities of using Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) technologies with

methodologies of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Expert Systems (ES) in e-Learning. Present situation in the e-Learning field is analysed, showing the necessity of new approaches to “vitalize” this field. ITSs are discovered as a possible solution to the present problem.

INTRODUCTION

There are many different Web learning tools and strategies and every method has appropriate name. However, the same terms seems to be used in radically different ways by different people [5]. To help clarify these discussions, let us consider some widely used terms.

E-Learning is a term referring broadly to technology-based learning, seems to focus on Web-based delivery methods, but often used in broader context [1,2,3,4,6]. In traditional academic institutions widely use “distance education” or “distance learning” – process, that connects learners and instructors who are in different locations. Distance education include at-distance delivery methods, such as correspondence, satellite broadcast, two way videoconferencing, videotape and CD-ROM/DVD delivery systems. With the connectivity of the Internet and a new generation of software applications, distance learning has evolved into a new model, which provides higher quality and more flexibility and which is called “distributed learning” [1,2,3,4,6].

Instructional computer programs are being developed since the early ‘70s. Rapid development of computer technologies, introduction of computers into schools and universities, and daily use of computers by people of different occupation, education and age, has made education a very important field to Artificial Intelligence (AI) researches. Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Intelligent Learning Environment, Knowledge-based Tutors, Intelligent Computer Assisted Instruction, are all, more or less, the synonyms for the using of computers in the process of teaching and learning by the aid of the methods and techniques of Artificial Intelligence [7].

E-LEARNING SOFTWARE TOOLS

Software tools, which are used for e-Learning practical realization, can be categorized by functions they address. There are several functional categories of software tools [6]:

Authoring Tools

Multimedia creation tools, used on an individual computer workstation by a multimedia professional to create media that can either stand-alone or be added as a module into a management system. Examples vary from simple tools like Microsoft PowerPoint to sophisticated, programmable tools like Macromedia’s Authorware and Director software.

Real-time Virtual Classrooms

A software product or suite that facilitates synchronous, real-time delivery of content or interaction by the Web, but is not necessarily intended to comprehensively measure performance over time or handle course administrative tasks. Placeware Auditorium and Centras’s Conference product are examples of real-time virtual classrooms.

Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Enterprise software used to manage learning activities through the ability to catalog, register, deliver, and track learners and learning. Within the learning management systems category, there exist at least 3 subsets of tools:



1. Course Management Systems (CMS)

An LMS that facilitates Web delivery and management for instructor-led topics (courses) and provides integrated tools for measuring outcomes and reporting progress for individual or groups of students.

2. Enterprise Learning Management Systems (ELMS)

An LMS that provides teams of developers a platform for content organization and delivery for a variety of content types.

3. Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS)

Multi-user enterprise software that allows organizations to author, store, assemble, personalize, and maintain learning content in the form of reusable learning objects.

With the wide variety of choices available on development tools and e-learning software, making the right choice can be a daunting task. Depending on an organization's needs, the technical considerations, costs and budget constraints are usually what make for the right choice. However, we need to distinguish between the technology for launching and tracking instructional activities from the instructional activities themselves. Technologies such as Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) are like vending machines. While it is important that they work well, what is more important is what they dispense. Having a LMS or a LCMS without effective online instruction will not produce any significant learning results, in spite of industry hype to the contrary.

E-LEARNING ANALYSIS

Yet, the e-learning industry is in crisis, and, there is a rapidly growing literature on “the failure of e-learning.” For example, a 2000 study of 40 Global companies by the Forrester Group found that, unless forced, the majority of workers in the study (68%) would not sign up for voluntary online courses. Even when online courses were compulsory, over 30% refused to sign up [8]. Another study indicated that, of those who do sign up for a course, between 50% and 80% never finish the course [9]. A recent detailed analysis of the literature (over 100 articles) on the failure of e-learning indicated many different problems at all stages of implementation [10].

To state that a specific e-learning initiative is a failure, suggests that the intended learning did not take place (although other types of failure may also be evident). In order to sort out the reasons for such a failure, we need to distinguish between the technologies and the learning activities. The problems of e-learning are not about the quality of the software that launches, tracks and reports on educational materials (although there are great variations in the features and quality of such software), but lie elsewhere. In Dr. G.Woodills’ view, there are several inter-related reasons for the failure of e-learning to date [10]. These include:

Speed to market

In the past several years there was a rush to market by vendors, and a rush to adoption by technophiles and early adopters in a number of large companies. For the most part, the e-learning industry has not bridged the gap between marketing to early adopters and the more skeptical and pragmatic majority of business executives and institutional leaders.

Focus on new technology, not on instructional design

I carried out an informal content analysis of the web sites of all 1004 “e-learning providers” in the directory found at www.brandonhall.com. The most startling result of my scan was finding that of the 1004 companies, only 73 mentioned learning theory, instructional design, instructional strategies, pedagogy, or teaching methods. Yet, 100% of the sites talked about their innovative technologies or services. While the term learning is used everywhere in the industry, there is little evident interest in or exploration of the nature of learning or teaching.

Boredom

The principal reason why most people have trouble suffering through an e-learning course is that there is usually nothing to do but read, look and take a multiple choice test. There are



usually no instructional activities that deeply engage the mind of the learners, and “interactivity” mostly consists of turning from one screen to another.

Lack of understanding of learning and teaching

The skill of a good teacher is in knowing the best thing to do to advance a given learner to the next stage of understanding a specific kind of learning task. Yet much e-learning content is not designed by educators and experienced educators are often not part of the development team.

Lack of understanding of the unique teaching advantages of electronic media

Teaching with interactive electronic media can produce learning environments that are unlike any that have been produced in traditional classrooms. The possibilities of world-wide (or local) collaboration with anywhere from two to millions of people on any topic raises the issue of how to build positive collective intelligence in a world that desperately needs it. The use of algorithms and massive storage and retrieval facilities allows the growth of “adjunct intelligence”, an external repository of knowledge that can improve human capabilities and performance.

Considering above mentioned reasons of the failure of e-learning, one of the possible solutions might be Intelligent Tutoring Systems using methodologies of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Expert Systems (ES).

INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEMS

Computers have been used in education for over 30 years. Computer-based training (CBT) and computer aided instruction (CAI) were the first such systems deployed as an attempt to teach using computers. In these kinds of systems, the instruction was not individualized to the learner's needs. Instead, the decisions about how to move a student through the material were script-like, such as “if question 1 is answered correctly, proceed to question 2; otherwise go to question 3''. The learner's abilities were not taken into account. While both CBT and CAI may be somewhat effective in helping learners, they do not provide the same kind of individualized attention that a student would receive from a human tutor [12,13]. For a computer based educational system to provide such attention, it must reason about the domain and the learner. This has prompted research in the field of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS).

ITSs offer considerable flexibility in presentation of material and a greater ability to respond to idiosyncratic student needs. These systems achieve their “intelligence'' by representing pedagogical decisions about how to teach as well as information about the learner. This allows for greater versatility by altering the system's interactions with the student. ITS is a system that provides individualized tutoring or instruction. Each ITS must have these three components:

knowledge of the domain (the topic or curriculum being taught);

knowledge of the learner (the student or the user of the ITS);

knowledge of teacher strategies (the methods of instruction and how the material shall be presented).

A student learns from an ITS by solving problems. The system selects a problem and compares its solution with that of the student and then it performs a diagnosis based on the differences. After giving feedback, the system reassesses and updates the student skills model and the entire cycle is repeated. As the system is assessing what the student knows, it is also considering what the student needs to know, which part of the curriculum is to be taught next, and how to present the material. It then selects the problems accordingly. Figure 1 shows the architecture of a ITS with its components and the way the components interact with each other [11].



Figure 1. The architecture of the ITS.

Methodologies of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Expert Systems (ES) can be used as a theoretical platform of ITS. For example, some ITS systems capture subject matter expertise in rules. That enables the tutoring system to generate problems on the fly, combine and apply rules to solve the problems, assess each learner's understanding by comparing the software's reasoning with theirs, and demonstrate the software's solutions to the participant's. Though this approach yields a powerful tutoring system, developing an expert system that provides comprehensive coverage of the subject material is difficult and expensive.

A common alternative to embedding expert rules is to supply much of the knowledge needed to support training scenarios in the scenario definition. For example, procedural task tutoring systems enable the course developer to create templates that specify an allowable sequence of correct actions. This method avoids encoding the ability to solve all possible problems in an expert system. Instead, it requires only the ability to specify how the learner should respond in a scenario. Which technique is appropriate depends on the nature of the domain and the complexity of the underlying knowledge.

APPROACHES TO PRACTICAL REALIZATION

Developing an ITS is a complex process involving much more than the design of a rule base. Problems facing developers include: how to extract the knowledge from human experts and how to organise and represent this knowledge to end users of the expert system in an efficient and meaningful way. ITSs and Expert systems have traditionally been developed with most of the knowledge buried in the program logic. This meant programmers were needed to maintain the expert rules. This approach made developing the rules slow, expensive and error prone. The key to a successful expert system is a flexible database that maintains the rules with tools that allow the experts to capture the rules directly. The expert logic must be stored in the database, not in the program logic. The interface used to transfer the knowledge from the expert to the database must be robust, easy to use, flexible and allow for easy validation.

Most current applications of ITSs and expert systems have been built from scratch using programming languages such as LISP and PROLOG. Developing complete Internet solutions or portals into existing applications can use code generators with ASP or ASP.net generated code to build applications quickly. Like multimedia authoring tools, ITS authoring tools can simplify the development of tutoring systems. Now a lot of popular commercial expert systems shells available, for example VP-Expert 2.0, ESHELL, ES/KERNEL, EXCORE, BRAINS, XPT-II, KBMS, AS IR EX and many others. Most ES tools contain similar features. Knowledge is generally represented as IF-THEN rules, and in newer tools knowledge can also be represented as frames. The reasoning methods include forward chaining and

Generate problem

Present problem

Compare solutions

Present feedback

Update student skills model

ITS solution Student solution

Student

ITS Curriculum



backward chaining. And, most tools have facilities for generating explanations of the application programs' reasoning.

Many systems attempt to provide instruction by simulating a realistic working environment in which the student can learn the task. There are many reasons for developing such systems, including the possible danger of training using the actual equipment and the lack of domain experts who can devote their expensive time to training novices. Therefore, a realistic simulated learning environment can reduce both the cost and the risks of training. At the extreme opposite of the simulation based tutors are those that teach knowledge in a decontextualized manner without attempting to simulate the real world. Many systems throughout the history of ITS research fall into this category. Some present ITSs’ examples from both above mentioned categories are listed in Table 1.

Table 1. Present ITSs’ examples.

Name Short description Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)

ACLS is an example of a simulation-based ITS – the tutor in which a student takes the role of team leader in providing emergency life support for patients who have had heart attacks. The system not only monitors student actions, but runs a realistic simulation of the patient's condition and maintains an environment that is reasonably faithful to the “real life” situation. Thus, the goal is not only to test the student's knowledge about the correct emergency procedures, but also to allow him to experience practicing those procedures in a more realistic manner than is possible in a traditional classroom [15].

Smithtown Some systems take a less rigorous approach to representing the environment; the situations presented are similar to the real world scenarios in which the knowledge could be applied, but they are not exact simulations. Smithtown takes this approach by providing a simulated setting for students to test hypotheses about economics. However, the underlying model of the environment is not an exact simulation of how the laws of economics would be applied in the real world [16].

the Design for Manufacturing Tutor

Another example of realization of the above mentioned approach [17].

The Geometry Tutor

This is an example of systems provide problems for the learner to solve without trying to connect those problems to a real world situation and are designed to teach abstract knowledge that can be transferred to multiple problem solving situations [18].

SHERLOCK This is an example of a cognitive tutor, which has tutorial actions associated with each state in the „effective problem space'”. A set of rules is a part of a runnable expert model and often serves double duty as knowledge of the domain and as the pedagogical module. If a student encounters difficulty, the specific remediation required can be determined from the expert model [19].

LISP tutor This is another example of an ITS that uses an analysis of expert behavior, encodes expert problem solvers' actions as production rules, and attempts to determine which rules the student is having difficulty applying [20].

The Pedagogical Explanation Generation (PEG) system

PEG system has an explanation planning component that uses a substantial domain knowledge base to construct answers to student queries in the domain of electrical circuits. ITSs of this type require a larger domain knowledge base and are sometimes referred to as knowledge based tutors. As a result of not having a strong model of skill acquisition or expert performance, these systems are forced to use general teaching strategies. They also place more emphasis on the communication and presentation system in order to achieve learning gains [21].

Coach This system teaches how to use UNIX mail. This is a procedural skill, and hence cognitive in nature. However, the emphasis of this system is also knowledge based and involves generating explanations and using general pedagogical tactics for generating feedback [22].

Generally, tutors that teach procedural skills use a cognitive task analysis of expert behavior, while tutors that teach concepts and frameworks use a larger knowledge base and place more emphasis on communication to be effective during instruction. There are exceptions to these rules, but they serve as useful guidelines for classifying ITSs.

CONCLUSIONS

According to one recent report on human resources for science and technology, Europe needs some 700,000 more researchers if it is to become a world-leading knowledge economy by 2010. The



question is – how? [14] New research in the field of Intelligent Tutoring Systems can help answer this question. ITS is not a new term, but the problem is still actual. In addition to the continuing work on ITS, one important research issue is to use methodologies of AI as a theoretical base of the ITS, as well as learning theory, instructional design, instructional strategies, pedagogy, and teaching methods. Seeing no really usable practical results, ITS is still perceived by many as a technology of the future, but the rapid growth of learning software and artificial intelligence is making it a viable option.

REFERENCES 1. PC Webopedia, www.sandybay.com/pc-web 2. CNET glossary, www.cnet.com/Resources/Info/Glossary 3. Net Lingo, www.netlingo.com 4. Internet Hyperglossary, www.windows95.com/connect/glossary.html 5. Chronicle of Higher Education, issue dated 12, 2001, Section: Information Technology. 6. R.H. Jackson, Defining e-Learning – different shades of “Online”, 2003. 7. Devedzic, V. Jerinic, L. and Radovic, D. The GET-BITS Model of Intelligent Tutoring Systems, International

Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning 2002. 8. L. Dublin, J. Cross. Implementing eLearning: getting the most from your e-learning investment. Presentation

at the ASTD International Conference, May 2003. 9. Michelle Delio (2000). Report: Online Training ‘Boring’. Wired News,

www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,38504,00.html 10. Dr. G. Woodill. Where is the Learning in E-learning? Operitel Corporation, 2004. 11. E. Thomas. Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/tutoringsystem/start.htm 12. B.S. Bloom. The 2 Sigma Problem: The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as One-to-One

Tutoring. Educational Researcher, 1984. 13. J. Beck, M. Stern, E. Haugsjaa. Applications of AI in Education. Journal “Crossroads”, Artificial Intelligence,

fall 1996-3. 14. IST Results - Using technology for learning & teaching science,

http://istresults.cordis.lu/index.cfm/section/news/tpl/article/BrowsingType/Features/ID/70609 15. C. Eliot and B. Woolf. An Adaptive Student Centered Curriculum for an Intelligent Training System. User

Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, 1995. 16. V. Shute, R. Glaser, and K. Raghaven. Inference and Discovery in an Exploratory Laboratory. Learning and

Individual Differences, Ackerman, P., R. Sterberg, and R. Glaser, eds., 1989. 17. E. Haugsjaa, and B. Woolf. 3D Visualization Tools in a Design for Manufacturing Tutor. In Proceedings of

Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, Boston, Mass, 1996. 18. Anderson, J., Boyle, C., and Yost, G. The Geometry Tutor. In Proceedings of the Ninth IJCAI, Los Angeles,

Morgan-Kaufmann, San Mateo, Calif, 1985. 19. Lajoie, S. and A. Lesgold. Apprenticeship Training in the Workplace: Computer-Coached Practice

Environment as a New Form of Apprenticeship. In Intelligent Instruction by Computer, Farr and Psotka, eds., Taylor & Francis, Washington, DC, 1992.

20. Anderson, J. and Reiser, B. The LISP Tutor. Byte, 10, 4, 1985. 21. Suthers, D. Answering Student Queries: Functionality and Mechanisms. In Proceedings of the 2nd

International Conference on ITS (ITS-92), Montreal, June, 1992. 22. Winkels, R., J. Sandberg, and J. Breuker. The Coach. In EUROHELP: Developing Intelligent Help Systems,

Breuker, J., ed., EC: Copenhagen, 1990. Tatiana RIKURE, Researcher, PhD student, Riga Technical University, Meza str. 1/3, LV-1049, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +371 7089096, Fax: +371 7089572, e-mail: [email protected] Leonid NOVITSKY, Prof., Head of the Department of Applied Systems Software, Riga Technical University, Kalku str. 1, LV-1658, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +371-9514066, Fax: +371-7089572, e-mail: [email protected]



POST-GRADUATE E-TRAINING FOR TEACHERS OF INFORMATICS OF RURAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Vyacheslav SHITIKOV, Jurij LAVENDELS Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia

Keywords: Distance learning, presentation tools, collaboration platform, network of partnership Abstract: The Programme combining both traditional classrooms and Internet-based activities for regular

post-graduate training for the teachers in informatics is developed, approved by the Ministry of Education and Science and implemented in Latvian Republic. The Programme is anticipated for teachers from rural schools, excludes embarrassing overnight staying on training site, improves teacher’s professional skills and helps to create county-wide network of partnership.

INTRODUCTION

Virtual collaborations (e-meetings, e-conferences etc.) are usually promoted mainly to technologically advanced high and medium level management with the profitable aim to save time and money for journeys. We have discovered that Internet-based collaborations could also be a great benefit for the ordinary inhabitants of the rural areas. The particular campaign carried out in Latvia by Riga Technical University (RTU) is described below.

The first precondition is that according to the local rules each school teacher (both secondary and primary) once in 3 years has to improve his/her professional skills attending special training courses. The duration of such courses has to be not less than 36 contact hours. In most cases such courses are provided in Riga - the capital of Latvia - and their duration is 5-6 days. It means that teachers from rural schools are forced to spend around a week away from home (the distance from Riga to the frontier areas is up to 300 km). For the majority of rural inhabitants it is very uncomfortable due to their lifestyle and daily duties.

The second precondition is that conventionally among the students of the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology of RTU there are many graduates of rural secondary schools. To a certain extent, it is because of regular 1-day seminars for the teachers of Informatics held by the Department of Informatics and Programming of RTU. The department provides the fundamentals of software for all year 1 students as well as a set of courses for the whole faculty.

The mentioned seminars have two basic aims. On the one hand, they are a part of the annual stump (presentations of University, Faculty etc.). But on the other hand, they are a good chance to talk about the problems and disadvantages of the future students being ready to study Informatics at the high school. So the main attention during these seminars was paid to the methodology and methods of teaching Informatics at the secondary school.

There were much more subjects for conversation than is possible to discuss during one day, but the attempts to prolong the event have immediately decreased the number of the participants from the regions as it had required from them to spend a night out of home.

The result of the two above mentioned preconditions was an idea to organize an official (recognized and approved by the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) of the Republic of Latvia) training course on the Internet. The idea has been supported by the MES and the Programme “E-course for practical computer using in teaching of programming and adopting of application programs” was developed. The programme was certified by the MES as a legal post-graduate training for the teachers of Informatics.

The rest of the article is devoted to our experience of creating a study group, its face-to-face instructions, “rolling-on’ Internet-base sessions, behaviors of “virtual participants”, a bit of statistics, an explanation of collateral effects, as well as conclusions and plans of further development.



INTERNET-BASED TRAINING

The programme consists of a 1-day introductory seminar in Riga, a set of Internet-based sessions and a final 1-day seminar in Riga. The implementation of the programme started in summer 2004. The core platform for Internet-based collaboration was Blackboard (http://www.blackboard.com/), the tool for presentation development - ScreenFlash (http://unflash.com/).

SELECTION OF THE TOOL FOR THE PRESENTATION DEVELOPMENT

It had been decided from the very beginning that all the materials of the presentation have to be “as alive as possible” that means not only showing the face of the presenter, but also providing:

the voice of the presenter, accompanying the moving pictures,

similar to hand-drawn pictures,

showing the execution of the application with additional comments on the image of the screen,

the ability to watch the presentations without any specific client-side software.

So the first task was to select the tools for design of the presentation which would allow recording the lecture. It was decided not to look for the best tool, but to use the fist that corresponds to the above mentioned requirements. The search has been stopped on ScreenFlash. It has been possible to play the recorded movie though a simple browser or to create an executable file (.exe).

KICK-OFF MEETING

The first face-to-face meeting is needed not only to go through the formalities (application form, signature etc.), but also to understand the local conditions in which participants will be working. Those are:

internet facilities (type of connection, broadband capacity, used e-mail client and browser),

the rights of the participants to install an additional software (in the institutional equipment as usually any new installation could be done only by the System Administrator),

the ability of access to the Internet not only from the schools, but also from home (for working at out-of-office time),

the previous experience of “chatting” and participation in forums.

The evaluation of the environment of the participants has discovered that many of them have mail-boxes from the public-wide e-mail providers (the local equivalent of “hotmail” and similar) with the limitation of the size of attachments. To a certain extent, it predefines the preparation of the presentations.

The last and the main task of the meeting is to explain the participants how the further work will be done.

PREPARATION OF THE PRESENTATIONS

The main issue was not as much to record a lecture, as to determine the optimal duration of one movie. To make sending presentations by e-mail possible, the initial limitation of the size of the file was set up to 5 MB (it is the maximum size of the attachments allowed by the majority of e-mail servers). In our case (recording using ScreenFlash) 5 MB are equivalent to 15-minutes long movies with sound accompaniment.

Later on when we proceeded only to downloading from our server and such kind of limitation was declined; it became clear that 15-minutes portion of recording is the most convenient also for the lecturer. Thus the theoretical part of the course consists of 15-minutes movies consolidated in blocks.



COLLABORATION PLATFORM AND SOME STATISTICS

We haven’t been searching for an appropriate collaboration platform, but simply utilized the solution which RTU offered at that moment – it was Blackboard.

We started with a short movie explaining how to use Blackboard and sent it by e-mail to all our participants together with the request to confirm that they had delivered, watched and understood the contents.

19% of our respondents did not respond to the first message at all (despite the fact that they had expressed interest during the kick-off meeting). Several telephone calls, e-mails and SMSs with reminders from our side also hadn’t helped to find them. It was an obvious simple probabilistic dropout that could be ignored for the evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the results.

The rest of the participants entered the Blackboard (following the instructions given in the movie) and left a comment on the e-forum that they are ready for the training. Later on the e-forum has become the main tool for the exchange of information.

13% of the participants who had started the e-course had sign out from it or postponed the training. The reason for that was either the lack of time, or the complexity of the issues considered, but no one had dropped the course due to the inconvenience of distance learning.

Therefore, 70% of the participants of the kick-off meeting have completed the course successfully.

LECTURES AND PRACTICAL EXERCISES

The initial idea of the project was to provide some kind of synchronous actions artificially. As it was essential for us to know the stage in which the participants are at the moment, they were asked to report on the specially opened e-forum every time they have fulfilled any action, e.g., downloaded the lecture, listened to it, asked the questions aroused etc. The new training materials had been put on the forum for downloading only after the majority of the participants had mastered the previous content. It seemed to us that in such a manner we could expect the most dynamic debates on the e-forum on the familiarized issues. However, later on due to the numerous requests from the participants who were doing well we gave up the artificial slowing of the progress; and the rest of the course went purely in an asynchronous mode. Nevertheless, that didn’t affect the activity of the participants on the e-forum. The reports on the performance, questions to the lecturer and internal discussions between the participants allowed the moderator to control the event completely.

In addition to pure informational materials (presentations and explanations) the course also includes a set of tasks for practical execution. In this case the executed tasks were sent to the evaluator via e-mails due to confidentiality. This simple solution was convenient and secures enough.

The primary idea of the project was to carry out the course partly in the offline mode and partly arranging real-time sessions. The first one was realized fully - Blackboard’s features like e-mails, repository of the learning materials, the forum etc. has been working perfectly. However, the establishment of the interactive session has failed because even the most advanced participants couldn’t install the client part of Blackboard which is necessary for online mode.

FINAL MEETING

The main goals of the final meeting are as following:

to introduce the participants with each other – during the virtual interactions some images of the participants have been formed and it was interesting for them to communicate face-to-face,

to bring to the end the training itself – to realize the troubles and mistakes in practical exercises (furthermore, to verify the authorship of the work),

to issue the certificates,

to make a SWOT analysis of the contents, the platform used and the methods applied.



The evaluation has showed that the implemented distance learning programme is very attractive for the participants, and the graduates of the course highly appreciated this approach. Incidentally, for many of them it was the first experience of cyberspace collaboration.

COLLATERAL CONSEQUENCE

Besides the primary objective (to improve the professional skills of the teachers) the implementation of the training on the Internet had a much unexpected additional effect, i.e., the desire of the participants to continue e-collaboration. People who live far from advanced technological and scientific centers could actively participate in joint efforts and feel their involvement in the solutions of outstanding problems.

This willing of e-collaboration has formed a unique infrastructure of partnership that allows us to plan country-wide experiments and implementations. This infrastructure will be used in a couple of future projects. We are intended to use the “human-technique structure” created not only for education, but also for various informational events as well as research.

CONCLUSIONS

First of all, the primary objective has been achieved - the post-graduate training of the rural teachers has run in the way which was the most convenient for them.

An additional result of the undertaken activity is the formation of a certain country-wide e-community. The members of this community feel absolutely equal in rights and are equally participating in the work irrespective of their site. Actually, they are originating a set of the supporting points capable to perform various activities.

This network of partners could expand at least in two dimensions:

on the first level by the new graduates of the programme,

on the second level the network could be expanded by the teachers of Informatics from the schools next to the supporting points of the first level. In this case the first-level partners will act as moderators.

Such network can cover almost the whole county and can be used not only for education, but also for different kind of evaluations and informational events.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Authors are grateful to Academician Janis Grundskenkis for comprehensive support and to Dr. Atis Kapenieks and Mr. Bruno Zuga for the concession of the access rights to the Blackboard system. Vyacheslav SHITIKOV, Docent, Riga Technical University, Meza 1/3, LV-1048, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +371-7089583, Fax: +371-7089572, e-mail: [email protected] Jurijs LAVENDELS, Ass. Professor, Riga Technical University, Meza 1/3, LV-1048, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +371-7089573, Fax: +371-7089572, e-mail: [email protected]



MULTIMEDIA LEARNING TOOLS FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

Augusts RUPLIS, Eriks PRIEDNIEKS, Rudolfs GULBIS

Riga Technical University, Latvia

Keywords: multimedia learning tools, Electrical Engineering and Electronics, Leonardo da Vinci pilot project Abstract: The multimedia learning tools is the output of Leonardo da Vinci Community Vocational Training

Action Programme pilot project. The title of project is “Improving Vocational Education in Electrical Engineering and Electronics” Nr 2002-LV/02/B/F/PP-138.002. It is a running project that ends on the 31st March 2005. There are five types of EEE learning tools: 6 computer programs to master the basic notions of electrical circuits; 2 programs for calculation of electric circuits; 6 programs for simulation of laboratory practice; 4 programs to master electrical o machines; 3 programs master the basic notions of electronics.

PowerPoint presentation can be found on attached CD. Augusts RUPLIS, Dr. habil., associated professor, RTU Distace Education Study Centre, Azenes 12, LV1048, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +371 9 334332; Fax: +371 7089187 ; e-mail: [email protected]



THE EU LEONARDO DA VINCI PROGRAMME PROJECT ORGANIC

Alexander BERIOZKO EDNES, Strasbourg, France

Richard MESSNARZ

ISCN, Graz, Austria Keywords: Innovation, Innovation Manager, Training Abstract: The new information society is creating a need of sharing knowledge. However, most of

companies are overloaded by information and at the same time are not able to manage innovation and knowledge properly. For this reason a new job profile is a need for companies. It is the Innovation and Knowledge Manager.

INTRODUCTION

Business organizations today need an innovation manager - a person who can identify the trends and achievements in technology, can mentally apply them to particular business, can foresee practical technology and market advantages and can develop a plan for implementation of such technology achievements.

What have to be theoretical knowledge and practical skills and experiences of such a person? Project ORGANIC, which association EDNES started recently, will try to answer such questions. For EDNES this is a new type of the project in another European programme. Project ORGANIC is implemented in a framework of theEuropean programme "Leonardo da Vinci". Leonardo programme deals with vocational training of many kinds. ORGANIC perfectly fits into programme goals and objectives: its purpose is to develop a "skill card" of innovation manager - a set of skills, pieces of knowledge, best cases, experiences which the person pretending to be an innovation manager should have.

The participants of the project ORGANIC are: ISCN (Austria); Danube Innovation Relay Centre (Austria); FGUVA (Spain); CIT (Slovenia); TecNet (Ireland); MTA Sztaki (Hungary); EDNES (France).

Each partner has his share of intellectual work and his share of workshops.

Imagine that in the future Europeans will have a skill card like a card with a chip, which stores your skill profile to fulfil specific professions, job roles, and tasks. It’s working like an ID card. This future scenario requires -

A standard way to describe a skill set for a profession, job, or specific task; A standard procedure to assess the skill and to calculate and display skill profiles.

Such a common set of skill sets in Europe is needed due to the free mobility of workers, and e.g. software engineering companies in Germany employ software engineers from Ireland, etc. European countries such as UK, The Netherlands, and France have already well established open universities which support APL (Accreditation of Prior Learning). In APL the skills of students are assessed, already gained skills are recognised, and only for the skill gaps a learning plan is established. The skill assessment bases on defined skill units and a skill profile displaying how much of the skill units are covered.

For developing the skill set of the Innovation Manager we base on the skills definition proposed by the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) in the UK for the NVQ (National Vocational Qualification)



standards [1, 2]. These models have been re-used and slightly modified by other countries when they started employing skill cards, and so we also base our work on these models.

SKILLS DEFINITION MODEL

A skills definition contains the following items (see Figure 1):

Domain Level / Job Role1:n

Unit1:n

n:1

Element

1:n

PerformanceCriteria

1:n

KnowledgeUnderstanding

Description

KnowledgeUnderstanding

Category1:n 1:1

Context1:n Range1:n

Note/Explanation1:n

Principle

1:n

1:n

Figure 1. The Skill Definition Model (1:n = one to many relationship).

Context (UK standards): A category of ranges; it represents some terminology used in a performance criterion that consists of different context, conditions or circumstances. A participant must be able to prove competence in all the different circumstances covered by the context.

Domain: An occupational category, e.g. childcare, first level management or software engineering.

Element (UK standards): Description of one distinct aspect of the work performed by a worker, either a specific task that the worker has to do or a specific way of working. Each element consists of a number of performance criteria.

Evidence: Proof of competence.

Knowledge and understanding category (UK standards): A category of knowledge and understanding descriptions.

Knowledge and understanding description (UK standards): A description of certain knowledge and understanding. To be judged competent in a unit a participant must prove to have and to be able to apply all the knowledge and understanding attached to it.

NVQ (UK based): The National Vocational Qualification standard of England, Wales and N. Ireland.

Performance criterion (UK standards): Description of the minimum level of performance a participant must demonstrate in order to be assessed as competent. A performance criterion may have relevant contexts.

Principle (UK standards): A statement of good intentions; it underpins all competent domain practice.

Range (UK standards): Description of a specific circumstance and condition of a performance criterion statement.



Qualification: The requirements for an individual to enter, or progress within a certain occupation.

Qualification / training levels: Five levels of qualification / training are defined by European legislation and this structure can be used for comparability of vocational qualifications from the different European countries.

Level 1: semi-skilled assistant performing simple work Level 2: basic employee performing complex routines and standard procedures Level 3: skilled professional with responsibility for others and performing independent

implementation of procedures Level 4: middle management & specialist performing tactical an strategic thinking Level 5: professional / university level

Job Role: A certain profession that covers part of the domain knowledge. E.g. domain = Innovation, job role = Innovation Manager.

Unit (UK standards): A list of certain activities that have to be carried out in the workplace. It is the top-level skill in the UK qualification standard hierarchy and each unit consists of a number of elements.

SKILLS ASSESSMENT MODEL

Step 1 – Browse a Skills Set: You select a set of skills or competencies, which are required by your profession or job using national standards or your company standards [4]. You browse different skills cards and select a job role you would like to achieve (Figure 2).

Step 2 – Register for Self Assessment with a Service Unit: This can be a service unit inside your own company (e.g. a personnel development department) or a skills card and assessment provider outside your company which offers skills assessment services. In case of the Innovation Manager Project the registration will automatically assign a predefined service unit.

Step 3 – Receive an Account for Self –Assessment and Evidence Collection: With the registration you automatically received an account to login to the working space in which you can go through the steps of online self assessment and the collection of evidences to prove that you are capable of certain performance criteria.

Figure 2. Basic steps of the skills assessment model



Step 4 – Perform Self Assessment: You log into the system , browse through the skills required and self assess performance criteria, whole elements or whole units with a standard evaluation scale of non-applicable, not adequate, partially adequate, largely adequate, and fully adequate. A skills gaps profile can be generated and printed illustrating in which areas your self assessment shows improvement potentials.

Testing of Skills (Addition to Step 4) – The system provides a multiple-choice test for each performance criteria so that you can check your capabilities as realistically as possible.

Step 5 – Collect Evidences: Before you want to enter any formal assessment you need to prove your skills by evidences. Evidences can be any electronic files (sample documents, sample graphics, results of some analysis, etc.) or any references with details (e.g. a certificate received from a certain institution). Evidences you can then link to specific performance criteria or whole elements of skills units.

Testing of Skills (Addition to Step 5) – In traditional learning schemes people have always needed to go to a learning institution (university, accreditation body, professional body, etc.) to take exams and they received a certificate if they pass. This traditional approach however is insufficient when it comes to measuring experience and (soft) skills learned on the job and fails to give recognition to skills gathered on the job. The APL (Accreditation of Prior Learning) approach, by contrast, collects so called evidences. Evidences can be certificates obtained in the traditional way, but also references from previous employers, materials from previous projects in which the person took ownership of results (e.g. a test plan) to prove their capability, as well as any kind of proof of competence gathered on the job. The assessors will then evaluate the evidences provided and not only rely on certificates and exams.

Step 6 – Receive Formal Assessment: Formal assessors are assigned by the service unit to the skills assessment. Once formal assessors log into the system they automatically see all assigned assessments. They select the corresponding one and can see the uploaded evidences. They then formally assess the evidences and assess the formal fulfilment of performance criteria, whole elements or whole units with a standard evaluation scale of non-applicable, not adequate, partially adequate, largely adequate, and fully adequate. In case of missing competencies they enter improvement recommendations, a well as learning options.

Step 7 – Receive Advise on Learning / Improvement Options: After the formal assessment the participants log into the system and can see the formal assessment results from the assessors, can print skills gaps profiles based on the assessor results, and can receive and print the improvement recommendations and learning options. If required, the generation of learning options can also be automated through the system (independent from assessor advises).

SKILLS HIERARCHY

Using the terminology outlined in the skills definition model and including the skills identified during the demand analysis at the beginning of the project, the following skills hierarchy for the job role innovation manager has been designed (Figure 3).



Knowledge AboutInnovation Mgmt.

Job RoleInnovationManager

Domain:Innovation

Skill Unit

Learning Elements:Introduction

Knowledge ManagementSkills Management

Customer Relationship ManagementNetworking

Market Research

CommunicationSkills

Skill Unit

Leraning Elements:Literacy in E-SkillsReporting & Presentation Skills

Team Working

Skill Unit

Learning Elements:Team CommunicationConflict ManagementDistributed Team Mgmt.Motivation BuildingCross Cultural Succes Factors

PersonalCharacteristics

Job RoleInnovationManager

Domain:Innovation

Skill Unit

Learning Elements:Knowledge about Personal Characteristics

Learning CultureCross-Cultural Skills

Case Studies

Skill Unit

Learning Elements:New MarketsNew StructuresNew Products and Services

ManagementSkills

Skill Unit

Learning Elements:Innovation Skills Needed in -- Innovation Project Management- Innovation Process Management- Corporate Innovation Management- Risk Management

Figure 3. The Skills Card for an Innovation Manager

CONCLUSIONS

The final version of the skill card design was adopted at the ORGANIC Editing Meeting in 2004.

There will be a lot of online activities during nearest 2 years of the project duration, including online forums and discussions [4]. The partners will meet for face-to-face discussions of the most important issues.



Project ORGANIC envisages a series of training workshops (for EDNES - in Baltic countries), where the skill card will be tested and refined. A three days long training workshop will be organized in April 2006 in the frame of the Baltic IT&T Forum 2006.

REFERENCES 1. CREDIT Project, Accreditation Model Definition, MM 1032 Project CREDIT, Version 2.0, University of

Amsterdam, 15.2.99 2. DTI - Department of Trade and Industry UK, British Standards for Occupational Qualification, National

Vocational Qualification Standards and Levels 3. M. Biro, R. Messnarz, Key Success Factors for Business Based Improvement, in: Software Quality

Professional Magazine, Volume Two, Issue Two, American Society for Quality, March 2000 4. ISO TR 15504 Part 2 / 5 - Reference Model, Exemplar Assessment Model, Management Category Definition,

1998 5. www.innovationmanager.org Alexander BERIOZKO, Project Manager, EDNES, 1A place des Orphelins, F-67000, Strasbourg, France, Phone: +33 (0)3 90240032, Fax: +33 (0)3 90240291, e-mail: [email protected].



JUSTIFYING THE COST OF SECURITY

Dmitry KRYUKOV, Eleonora LATISHEVA

Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia

Keywords: risk analysis, qualitative, quantitative Abstract: Two predominant risk analysis calculation methods are used: quantitative and qualitative risk

analysis. Common elements are threat identification, determining the value of assets and information and the data gathering. A quantitative risk analysis uses real numbers to assign cost to the threats, losses, and security measures that can be implemented. A qualitative risk analysis assigns degrees of severity, probability, potential loss, and effectiveness of a solution.

INTRODUCTION

The first step of hardening network infrastructure is to justify the cost of the hardening measures you want to take. Without the money, it doesn’t matter what you want to do, because you probably are not going to be able to do it. Security is not a cheap endeavour. Unfortunately, almost all of the security tasks fall well within the category of being a cost center, not a revenue center. One of the best methods to get the money required to implement these security solutions is to demonstrate the expenses that exploits and security failings will cost the company. This is known as performing a risk analysis. For example, if your network is down for one day as a result of viruses, how much money was lost as a result of employees not being able to work? Knowing or being able to demonstrate this cost can be the best method to justify spending the money one time to prevent the situation from occurring. Even this is not a perfect method, however. Unfortunately, sometimes the best way to get the money needed to fix security problems is after an exploit has cost money and caused pain to the company.

1. RISK ANALYSIS

A risk is the probability of a threat or exploits occurring in your environment. Risk analysis is a method assigning a cost-effective, relevant, and timely response to those threats. Because of the complexities involved in hardening your network infrastructure, it is easy to fall victim to applying too much, too little, or the wrong type of security in your environment. By performing a risk analysis, you can more effectively and efficiently mitigate those threats.

Risk analysis and risk assessment are two similar functions, but with some key differences. In the risk assessment, the objective is to define what level of risk something may have. The risk analysis builds upon the risk assessment with the objective being to demonstrate the security value of implementing the technology that mitigates the risk.

Risk analysis is vital to demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) of the security practices that you are undertaking. This section will provide the information that you need to justify the cost of the firewall or intrusion detection system that you want to implement. Without an effective risk analysis, it can be nearly impossible to justify spending the money that you require.

There are three main goals to performing a risk analysis:

Identify risks and threats. You need to identify the risks that exist to your environment. For example, if you are transmitting confidential data to an external partner, there is a risk involved in that data becoming compromised.

Quantify the impact of threats. You need to determine clearly and concisely the impact of a given threat. The overall impact is a combination of the financial and environmental impacts of a threat.

Define the balance between the cost of the impact and the cost of the security measure. You need to qualify and provide a comparison of the cost of an impact versus the cost of the



prevention or countermeasure to the impact. For example, if the cost of an impact is $50,000 and the cost of the solution is $200,000, it might not make financial sense to implement the solution.

Performing a risk analysis requires management support. If management will not support and act upon the results of the risk analysis, there really isn’t a point in performing one. It’s like installing locks on doors that no one ever bothers to lock.

Two predominant risk analysis calculation methods are used: quantitative risk analysis and qualitative risk analysis. Each method contains a distinct process to determine the risk. Both methods share some common elements, however—namely, the identification of threats, determining the value of assets and information, and the data gathering requirements [1].

2. THREAT IDENTIFICATION

As I mentioned, a threat is simply the possibility of an exploit or security incident occurring in your network. In order to analyze the risk of a threat, you have to identify the nature of the threat. This is because each threat carries with it a unique vulnerability method and associated risk result. Table 1 illustrates some common threats and their respective vulnerability methods and risk results. You need to evaluate your environment and identify all of the threats, vulnerability methods, and risk results that exist.

Table 1. Common Threats

Threat Vulnerability Method Risk Result Hacker Open services and application Unauthorized access to information User Misconfigured access permissions Unauthorized access to information Worms and virus Lack of anti-virus software Virus infection Attacker Lack of firewall protection Potential to access data or conduct a

denial of service Contractor Lax access security mechanisms Can gain access to trade secrets Attacker Poorly written applications and services Conduct a buffer overflow to gain

privilege escalation Remote user Lack of filtering and intrusion

detection/prevention mechanisms Ability to infect corporate network with worm/virus

Remote user/business partner

Lack of data encryption Allows intermediary parties to gain unauthorized access to information

Users Lack of content filtering software Exposes company to litigation from inappropriate content and allows unauthorized software to be downloaded

Once the risk result is identified, you need to determine the loss potential. Loss potential is simply what the company would lose if a risk was realized. This loss can be anything from corrupted data to destruction of systems and data, unauthorized access and disclosure of confidential or protected information, and a loss of productivity in your user community. Not all loss is immediate, however. Some loss is considered delayed loss. Delayed loss defines the negative effects of a risk over time as a result of the risk. For example, if a network outage resulted in enough loss that the company could not pay other bills and expenses, this would be a delayed loss.

3. DETERMINE THE VALUE OF ASSETS AND INFORMATION

Another common element to all risk analysis methods is the need to determine and assign a value to all assets and information. This is critical since the company needs to understand the value of the information and assets they are trying to protect, so that they can determine how much money is an appropriate amount to spend on protecting it. The easiest method for determining the value of assets and information is to identify the costs that it takes to acquire, develop, and maintain. The cost is not simply a matter of saying “Well, it would cost $3000 to replace the firewall if it was destroyed for some reason, so the value must be $3000.” You need to evaluate not only the actual asset repair or replacement costs, but also the cost in lost productivity, the value of any data that might be lost as a



result of the incident, and the labour costs associated with shipping, installing, configuring, and testing the new device. The total of all of these costs represents the true value of the asset and the information.

When assigning a value to information, you should consider the following:

What is the cost to acquire or develop the asset? This includes not only the purchase price, but the salary of all the man hours for research and development.

What is the cost to maintain and protect the asset? This includes the cost of maintenance contracts and the salaries for the man hours spent maintaining the asset.

What is the cost to replace the asset if lost? This includes not only the actual purchase price, but the cost of the implementation in salary and man hours.

What is the value of the asset to the owners and users? This is a more intangible value that represents how critical the asset is to the owners and users responsible for the asset.

What is the value of the asset to a competitor? This is a representation of the value that the intellectual property would have in the hands of a competitor. For example, if you are developing a new product and the data was compromised, it could have tremendous value to a competitor by allowing the competitor to see your product strategy and direction, enabling them to develop competitive solutions.

What are the liability issues if the asset is compromised? This is a representation of the legal and monetary liability that your company could be held for in the event of the asset being compromised. For example, how much could the company potentially lose in a lawsuit related to the asset?

What is the usefulness of the asset? This is an examination of how useful the asset is in regard to increasing productivity and/or revenue. For example, if you lost a server that allowed you to process twice as many orders as normal, the asset would be extremely useful.

The objective of assigning the value of the asset and information is to allow you to determine a value related to the cost associated with not protecting the asset. This allows you to answer the question “How much would it cost if we didn’t protect the asset?” The answer to this question allows you to determine the amount of money that might be able to be justified to protect the asset.

4. DATA GATHERING

The data gathering step is the most time-consuming aspect of risk analysis. This is because it requires you to perform a significant amount of research and calculations to gather the appropriate information needed for the risk analysis. You need to identify the following components for the risk analysis:

Estimate and assign the values to all assets and information that is to be protected. Identify each threat and corresponding risk. Estimate the loss potential. Estimate the frequency of the threat. Identify and recommend the relevant remedial measures.

5. QUANTITATIVE RISK ANALYSIS

A quantitative risk analysis uses real numbers in an attempt to assign a value to the costs of a threat and the cost of the security measures to protect against the threat. Each aspect of the risk analysis is quantified and assigned a value that is then used to determine the total and residual risks. This method has the benefit of attempting to determine the real costs associated with the threats and security measures so that management can make its determinations based on the actual costs. The downside of a quantitative risk analysis is that the very nature of security is a qualitative one. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to assign accurate numbers to all aspects of the risk analysis, which in turn can reduce the value and accuracy of a purely quantitative risk analysis. [1]



6. QUALITATIVE RISK ANALYSIS

Unlike a quantitative risk analysis, a qualitative risk analysis does not attempt to assign a cost to the threats, losses, and security measures that can be implemented. Instead, it assigns degrees of severity, probability, potential loss, and effectiveness of a solution in an attempt to define the impact of threats and responses. Qualitative risk analysis is a much more subjective method of risk analysis that relies on judgment, intuition, and experience as its risk analysis formula.

In general, you will gather together a team of specialists, who will examine a given scenario. Based on the scenario, each team member will assign a rank, for example from 1 (least severe) to 5 (most severe), to the threat and the vulnerability of assets based on the severity of the threat. Next each team member will assign a rank based on the probability of the threat occurring. After that, each team member will assign a rank to the potential loss to the company due to the threat. The final step is to assign a rank based on the protection mechanisms that can be used to mitigate the threat. This information is calculated and used to determine the relative severity, probability, and loss due to the threat. In addition, the recommended countermeasures are reviewed to determine the most effective countermeasure identified by the risk analysis team. For example, the team could evaluate the threat of an outside hacker gaining access to a web server. They would assign ranks to the severity of this threat, the probability of occurrence, and the potential loss to the company. Next, they would assign ranks to the effectiveness of various solutions—for example, implementing a firewall, IDS, and honeypot. Each individual’s results would be calculated to determine the overall degree of risk the team assigns to the threat as well as the most effective countermeasure for the threat. This information could then be used by management to determine whether they want to take the countermeasures recommended or not based on the relative risk of the threat. [3]

Because it is less precise than a quantitative risk analysis, a qualitative risk analysis tends to lend itself more to prioritization of risk than anything else. Table 2 provides a detailed breakdown of the difference between quantitative and qualitative risk analysis.

Table 2. Differences Between Quantitative and Qualitative Risk Analysis.

Attribute Quantitative Qualitative Requires complex calculations X High degree of guesswork X Can be automated X Provides a cost/benefit analysis X Uses objective metrics X Uses subjective metrics X Shows clear losses associated with threat X

7. PERFORM THE QUANTITATIVE RISK ANALYSIS CALCULATION

All of the preparation and planning of a quantitative risk analysis can be identified in a six-step process that should happen in every risk analysis and assessment. This is where we tie the identification of threats, the value of assets and information, and the data that we have gathered into a formal procedure that will allow us to determine the results of the risk analysis.

Before performing the steps required for the risk analysis calculation, it’s needed to define some terms [1,2]:

Exposure Factor (EF) The EF is the percentage of loss an incident can have on an asset.

Annualized Rate of Occurrence (ALO) The ALO is a value that represents the estimated possibility of an incident occurring within a year. The range for the ALO is 0.0 (never) to 1.0 (always). The ARO can be determined by performing the following calculation:

1 / number of years = ARO

For example, if an incident is expected to occur every 100 years, the ARO would be 0.01, or it would have a 1 percent chance of occurrence every year.



Single Loss Expectancy (SLE) The SLE is the dollar amount that is assigned to a single event that represents the company’s potential loss if an incident were to occur. The SLE is determined by performing the following calculation:

Asset value × EF = SLE

So if the asset is valued at $100,000 and an incident would result in an estimated 25 percent loss (the EF), the SLE would be $25,000.

Annualized Loss Expectancy (ALE) The ALE is the dollar amount that is assigned to a risk on an annual basis. The ALE is determined by the following calculation:

SLE × ARO = ALE

So if the SLE is $25,000 and the ARO is 0.5 (once every two years), then the ARE would be $12,500. The ALE value is what a company can use to determine the amount of money that it makes sense to spend on an annual basis (in this case, $12,500) to provide protection from the incident occurring.

The steps of a quantitative risk analysis are as follows [2]: 1. Assign the asset or information value as defined above.

a. What is the value of the asset to the company? b. What is the maintenance cost? c. For how much profit is the asset responsible? d. What is the value of the asset to the competition? e. What would the cost be to recover or re-create the asset? f. What is the cost to acquire or develop the asset?

2. Estimate the potential loss per risk. a. What is the cost of physical damage? b. What is the cost in lost productivity? c. What is the cost of confidential information being disclosed? d. What is the cost of recovering from an attack? e. What is the SLE for each risk scenario?

3. Identify the threats. a. Determine the likelihood of each risk occurring and where the threat may come from. b. Calculate the probability of an occurrence for each risk. c. Calculate the annualized rate of occurrence for each risk.

4. Determine the overall loss potential for each risk. a. Combine the potential loss and probability. b. Calculate the ALE using the information previously gathered for the SLE and ARO.

5. Identify the methods to mitigate each risk. a. Can you implement new hardware or software? b. Do you need to redesign your network? c. Do you need to change or improve procedures? d. Do you need to implement a training and education program? e. Do you need to implement some kind of detection methods to minimize the impact of

the risk? 6. Reduce, assign, or accept the risk.

a. Risk reduction Implement changes and/or spend money to reduce the risk occurrence.

i. Install the new hardware or software. ii. Change the network environment. iii. Improve your procedures.



iv. Implement a training and education program. v. Implement an intrusion detection mechanism to identity the risk.

b. Risk assignment Transfer the liability for the risk to other parties. i. Purchase insurance to transfer some or all of the risk.

c. Risk acceptance Accept the possibility of the risk while undertaking no actions to reduce or assign the risk.

Keep in mind that while we are attempting to provide quantitative values associated with risk and risk loss, we are relying on forecasting the potential of future events occurring. This is not an exact science, however, and while we do our best to provide as much accurate and correct information as possible, we cannot accurately predict the future. This is a level of expectation that you must set with upper management.

8. DETERMINING THE VALUE OF PROTECTION

Now that we have performed the risk analysis and identified the cost associated with a given threat, we need to determine the value of the protection and countermeasures to the threat. This allows us to determine the effectiveness of the security mechanisms that were implemented.

At the end of the day, whatever security mechanism you implement must be cost effective and the benefits must outweigh the cost. To determine whether this is the case, we can perform a cost/benefit analysis against the security mechanism. The calculation for this is

(ALE before implementing security mechanism) – (ALE after implementing security mechanism) – (annual cost of the security mechanism) = value of the security mechanism. [2]

For example, if the ALE of hacking a web server is $10,000 and after a firewall implemented to protect the web server the ALE is $2500 and the cost of maintaining and operating the firewall that is protecting the web server is $1000, then the value of the firewall is $6500. If this number is less than the ALE before implementing the security mechanism, which it is in this case, we have a cost effective security mechanism because it is saving us more than it would have cost us not to have it.

When you calculate the cost of the security mechanism, you have to be careful that you do not underestimate the full cost of the security mechanism. To ensure that this does not occur, make sure that you consider the following:

Product costs The raw product cost from the invoice.

Design and planning costs The costs associated with designing and planning a solution.

Testing and implementation costs The costs associated with testing and implementing the solution.

Modifications that need to be made to the environment The costs associated with needing to change the operating environment to support the solution—for example, needing to purchase an additional switch.

Compatibility with other security mechanisms The costs associated with integrating the security mechanism with your existing environment—for example, purchasing additional enterprise management plug-ins.

Maintenance costs The costs associated with maintaining, repairing, replacing, or updating the security mechanism.

Operating costs The costs associated with the operating and support of the security mechanism, which also includes training for the new mechanism.

Effects on productivity The costs associated with downtimes and outages related to the implementation of the security mechanism.

Not all of these costs occur on an annual basis. Some of these costs will occur only once, during the first year of implementation, causing the value of the security mechanism to increase in subsequent years. For example, if the ALE of a web server is $10,000 and the ALE after implementing a firewall is $2500 and the total cost of the firewall is $9000 ($4000 to purchase, $500 to design and plan, $500 to



test and implement, $1000 for modifications to the environment, $1000 in maintenance costs, $1000 in operating costs, and $1000 in lost productivity for the implementation) for the first year, the cost/benefit analysis is a loss of $1500. However, in subsequent years the costs associated with the purchase, design and planning, testing, modifications to the environment, and lost productivity for the implementation are no longer relevant. This means that the total cost of the firewall for the second year is only $2000. This means that the cost/benefit analysis for the second year is a value of $5500, and that over the course of two years the cost/benefit analysis is a value of $4000 and will only increase as more time goes by. This is commonly referred to as the return on investment (ROI).

9. PROVIDE THE RISK ANALYSIS RESULTS

Once you have conducted your risk analysis calculations, you need to present that information to management to determine what measures, if any, will be taken for a given risk. The objectives of the risk analysis results are to provide the following information:

The value of the assets The list of all threats The likelihood of occurrence of each threat The loss potential of each threat on an annual basis The recommended safeguards, countermeasures, and actions and the costs associated

You should be prepared to present this information in two formats. First, you need a detailed analysis that addresses all aspects of the risk analysis. Second, you need an executive summary that can be used by upper management to help them understand the issues and costs.

When you submit your risk analysis results, you need to make sure that you identify the residual risk as a mechanism of setting the appropriate expectations. We know that we cannot prevent 100 percent of threats and incidents 100 percent of the time. Residual risk is simply the amount of risk left over even after all the security mechanisms have been put in place.

CONCLUSIONS

Setting the appropriate level of perception and expectations can be a critical element in ensuring the success or failure of network infrastructure hardening efforts. If people do not know what they are to expect as a result of the security measures you will be implementing, it is a relative certainty that they will not be pleased with the results. To remedy this, it’s needed to set the appropriate level of perception and expectation of users by doing the following:

Eliminate user fear. Earn users’ trust. Communicate with users. Find champions. Be realistic.

Setting the expectations of management is another critical element in ensuring the success of your network infrastructure hardening efforts. The reason for this is simple. If management does not buy off on what you are trying to accomplish, you will not be successful. To do this, you should do the following:

Communicate with management. Earn the trust of management. Demonstrate the value proposition. Be realistic.

The most effective method to demonstrate the value of implementing security is to perform a risk analysis. The three goals of risk analysis are

Identify the threats and risks. Quantify the impact of the threats.



Define the balance between the cost of the impact of a threat and the cost of the security measure.

You can accomplish these goals through the use of a quantitative or qualitative risk analysis. You should first assign a value to the asset that you will be protecting. Next you need to estimate the potential loss for each risk and the threats to the assets. This will allow you to determine the overall loss potential for each risk. After that you need to identify the methods to mitigate each risk and then make a determination of whether the risk should be reduced, assigned, or accepted.

REFERENCES 1. NIST Computer Security Division's CSRC Home page - A Method for Quantitative Risk Analysis ,

http://csrc.nist.gov/nissc/1999/proceeding/papers/p28.pdf 2. WindowsSecurity homepage,

http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Risk_Assessment_and_Threat_Identification.html 3. JISC infoNet, Qualitative Risk Analysis, http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/InfoKits/risk-management/qual-analysis Dmitry KRYUKOV, PhD student at Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +3719162809, e-mail: [email protected] Eleonora LATISHEVA, Dr.sc.ing., Professor, Riga Technical University, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Institute of Applied Computer Systems, 1/3 Meza str., Riga, LV-1048, Latvia, Phone:+371 7089575, e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected].



LEARNING SET PREPARATION FOR ALTERNATIVE DIAGNOSTICS ALGORITHM

Vadim SHERMAN Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia

Keywords: data mining, alternative diagnostics algorithm, features importance,

features conjunctions enumeration Abstract: In the present paper questions about data set preparation for alternative diagnostic algorithm

are discussed. Diagnostic rule, which is used for object diagnostic, comes out in the result of learning set analysis. Diagnostic efficiency depends on how careful the learning set is prepared. Object description that consists of its characteristics is used as the base. This description is transformed into binary matrix, which allows sufficiently reduce time of processing. Binary matrix consists of object features that correspond to its characteristics form object description. There can be several features that correspond to one characteristic in binary matrix. Mathematical statistics methods are used for optimal features quantification. The diagnostic rule consists of object features and its conjunctions, which occur only for one alternative class, and don’t occur for the other. However, pure conjunction number is insufficient for complicated diagnostic tasks, so there are used conjunctions, which are most specific for one class and rarely occur in the other. The method for conjunction weight evaluation is offered in this paper; that is derived from information theory.

INTRODUCTION

Learning process is the most important stage of diagnostic algorithm use. Diagnostic rule, which helps in object diagnostics, is formed as the result of data analysis. Objects diagnostic efficiency fully depends on how thoroughly and carefully the learning sets are prepared.

Features conjunctions enumeration of objects is an efficient classification method, especially efficient in finding complicated features correlations. This method was developed by M.Bongard [1]. To simplify the classification, two types of alternative classes are usually defined, A and B [2]. All objects, which do not belong to class A, belong to class B. This simplification is by no means an obstacle for a more detailed classification. The classification may be continued, class B being divided into classes В1 and В2; В2, in its turn, into В2.1 and В2.2, etc.

If the class the objects belong to is known, these objects form the learning set. These are elements of class A as well as class B. The method presupposes that all the input data are given by one description. The description consists of different features of the objects, each feature having a limited number of values, reflecting answers to questions about the corresponding feature, formulated before.

Learning process is the investigation of learning data interactions, as well as diagnostic rule generation, based on the interactions found. Diagnostics or examination is attribution of a definite object to a class according to the generated diagnostic rule.

FEATURES IN PATTERN DEFINITION

Different features can be defined for each class of objects, each object in the given class having these features. This is called object description. Object description consists of questions which correspond to the object attributes forming the description, e.g. sex, address, sum, etc. Attributes are taken from the information available about all objects.

Each attribute from object description can be quantized into several different answers (features). As the result of quantization, several features correspond to an attribute, usually not more than 20. It can be reflected by means of the following ER diagram:



Feature

Object

Attribute

Figure 1. Relations between the concepts of object, tests and feature.

For example, to make a car insurance contract description, an insurance contract form, filled in in the process of making a contract, is used. It is easier to reflect the facts, which demand the answer ‘’yes” or ‘’no”, in binary form. For example,

Table 1. Simple fact coding

Fact Binary value

Client – juridical person 0

Sex – masculine 1

The client was guilty of a traffic accident 1 where «1» means «yes», and «0» means «no».

In case definite values correspond to an attribute, all the values are enumerated. In this case it is said that several features, or gradations correspond to the attribute. It is necessary to choose the enumeration of meanings comprising all the possible variants. That is why for some attributes it is necessary to foresee values that mean that there is no information, or information reliability about the attribute meaning.

Table 2. Discrete values coding

Vehicle model Binary value

Opel 0

Ford 1

. . . . . .

other 0

In the given case, attribute value is reflected by a binary vector, which can have only one value -«1».

If there exists an attribute range of meanings, the range is divided into intervals. Correct features gradation has essential influence upon diagnostics efficiency. Features quantization, correctly founded, demands mathematical statistics methods application [3, 4].

Table 3. Values range reflection

Engine capacity (V) Binary value

1 > V 0



Engine capacity (V) Binary value

1 ≤ V ≤ 1.8 0

1.8 < V ≤ 2.2 1

2.2 < V ≤ 3 0

V > 3 0

Using diagnostic algorithm with the directed learning, only specific object features take part in the enumeration set. That means, that the learning sample is different in every specific case. That is why it is appropriate to replace methods of mathematical statistics for features quantization with Shannon’s self-descriptiveness evaluation formula (see below). The question of optimal features quantization is particularly important in the tasks where the number of features is not high. In that case, features gradation is defined by the program method, looking for intervals with the highest weight.

FEATURES DIAGNOSTIC VALUE

In the method of conjunctions enumeration, features are not presupposed as statistically independent, as it is in other methods, for example, Bayesian or the probabilistic ratio logarithm. Bongard’s method is less efficient in case of a big volume of the data under diagnosis, as a small number of ‘’clear” conjunctions is defined, these conjunctions classifying only a small part of the learning set. Here, a ‘’clear” conjunction is the conjunction, which has combination of features met in the class under recognition quite often and never met in the opposite class.

That is why not only ‘’clear” conjunctions, but also significant conjunctions, which present in both classes, A and B, being more prevalent in class A, are used. This increases the flexibility of the method and allows to use it for a broader spectrum of tasks. However, it also demands definition of significance, or weight of the conjunction, which should be considered for one class (A) in respect to the other class (B).

To define the frequency of appearance (p and q) of a feature in every class, А and В, it is necessary to calculate how many times the feature appears in class А and in class В, and the value is divided by the number of learning objects in the given class. Feature appearance frequency can be estimated simply summarizing all units in binary matrix row, which corresponds to the given feature. Thus, p and q can be calculated by means of the following formula:

∑=

=AN

ii

A

pN

p1

1,

∑=

=BN

ii

B

qN

q1

1, (1)

where NA and NB a number of objects, correspondingly, in classes A and B.

In complicated cases of alternative diagnostics, when classes under recognition have similar symptomatology and, at the same time, there are groups of objects different from the point of view of symptomatology within every class, diagnostic programs efficiency significantly depends on the quantity of objects for learning. It is often necessary to input hundreds of objects of each class for learning.

Features conjunctions, which present in one class quite often and rarely present in the other, may give information useful for classification. However, to select these conjunctions and formulate the decision rule, it is first of all necessary to precise how to evaluate diagnostic value or weight of the conjunction (or a separate feature). In other words, it is necessary to define the method to calculate the weight of the conjunction, if it is known to appear in learning objects of class А (from the total number of objects NA) and in objects of class В (from the total number of objects NB).

Fundamental regulations of information theory allow defining conjunction weight more precisely. As the result of relative test entropy transformation to define the value of the given feature, when the



results of each object classification are known, the following formula of feature self-descriptiveness evaluation is formulated:

[ −+−−++

= )lg()(lglg1iiiiiiii

BAA NN

J νµνµννµµ

])lg()(lglg BAiiBiAi NNNN +++− νµνµ , (2)

where NA and NB - number of learning objects, respectively in classes A and B; iµ and iν - the number of objects in classes A and B, which have the feature i (i=1, 2, ..., l).

Separate features self-descriptiveness can be also calculated using simpler empirical ratio.

BINARY MATRIX OF FEATURES

In features conjunctions enumeration method all objects (learning as well as under diagnosis) are described with the help of one and the same binary matrix. It permits to efficiently encode the learning set so that it might be proceeded with the help of the computer. Learning set encoding in binary form by the method of conjunctions enumeration before its proceeding significantly increases program performance.

Binary matrix consists of objects descriptions, where a column in the matrix corresponds to every object. The attributes which form object description, form rows of the matrix. Thus, a binary matrix describing objects looks as follows:

Table 4. Binary matrix without attributes features gradation

Objects Attributes U1 U2 . . . Ui . . . Up

N1 1 1 . . . 0 . . . 1 N2 1 0 . . . 0 . . . 0 . . . . . . . . . Nn 0 1 . . . 0 . . . 1

where U – objects, p – number of objects, N – attributes, n – number of attributes.

In the given case, value «1» in row N1 of the matrix means that objects U1, U2 and Up have the characteristics, which is defined as attribute N1.

Several features usually correspond to one attribute, these features divide the range of attribute values into subsets or enumeration of possible values. Then the fact is reflected by a binary vector, where value «1» presents only once.

So, one attribute can be interpreted as a binary values vector, and multiple attributes – as a binary matrix. A binary matrix with features gradation, which can be used to describe learning set, is reflected in table 5.

Table 5. Binary matrix: attributes with features gradation

Objects Attributes Features U1 U2 . . . Ui . . . Up

1 1 1 . . . 0 . . . 1 2 0 1 . . . 0 . . . 0

. . . 1 0 . . . 1 . . . 1

N1

l1 1 1 . . . 0 . . . 0 . . . . . . . . . . . .

lj-1+1 0 0 . . . 0 . . . 1 lj-1+2 1 1 . . . 0 . . . 0 . . . 0 0 . . . 1 . . . 0

Nj

lj 1 1 . . . 0 . . . 0



. . . . . . . . . . . . ln-1+1 1 0 . . . 0 . . . 1 ln-1+2 1 1 . . . 0 . . . 0 . . . 1 0 . . . 1 . . . 0

Nn

ln 1 0 . . . 1 . . . 0 ,where lj – number of attribute Nj features.

It must be mentioned, that in practical tasks the total number of attributes features ln is at least several hundreds, e.g. ln ≥ 300.

BINARY MATRIX FORMING

Learning material contains all data about objects, according to the object description. In the process of decision rule generation, iterations of enumeration set are repeated n

mC times, which gives the value about 106, so to decrease rule generation time, it is preferable to eliminate non-informative attributes from the learning material.

An attribute is considered non-informative when the quantity of objects with the given attribute is less than d_min or more than d_max, where d_min and d_max are algorithm parameters. Non-informative attributes appear on the learning material too rarely or too often, that is why they are not characteristic for a class. Thus, there is no point in including them into the decision rule. For example, the following initial meanings of parameters can be preset: d_min =10%, d_max =90% [5].

It is reasonable, to make realization of features enumeration convenient, to divide features into two groups respectively to the classes of the classification, from the very beginning. The division is performed using the weight criterion, calculated from the following formula:

ε>B

A

NN

or ε>A

B

NN

, (3)

where NA – quantity of true features in the learning material in class A objects, NB – number of efficient features in the learning material in class B objects, ε - algorithm parameter which defines model of confidence.

The more is the feature weight, the more significant is the feature, i.e. its appearance frequency in one class objects differs significantly in comparison with the other class.

CONCLUSIONS

The work deals with the basic stages of learning sets preparation process for alternative diagnostics algorithm. Several methods, that provide for significant increase, efficiency and performance of the diagnostics are considered. Evaluation of features diagnostic value and use of significant features conjunctions allow the successful method application for complicated cases of diagnostics.

To describe learning sets a binary matrix is used, that is formed from the objects descriptions. One or several features in the binary matrix correspond to every attribute of an object from the image description. It is very important to make features gradation correctly, as it significantly influences the diagnostics efficiency, especially in the case when the number of features is not big. Non-informative features are not used in the diagnostics, that decreases the number of enumerations, and, as the result, the method performance is increased, that is very important for practical application, when the time for diagnostics is limited.

Examples used for illustration are taken from a practical task – insurance contract pattern description.

REFERENCES 1. Bongard M.M., The Problem of Recognition, Nauka, Moscow, 1967. 2. Sherman V., Alternative diagnostic algorithm for crediting task. In: Scientific Proceedings of Riga Technical

University, Computer Science, Applied Computer Systems, Series 5, Vol. 8, Riga, 2001 - p. 170-175.



3. Larsen R., Marx M., An Introduction to Mathematical Statistics and Its Applications, Prentice Hall, 2000. 4. Pyle D., Data preparation for data mining, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco, 1999. 5. Kozlov V.I., Labour protection methodology for man-machine systems. Zinatne, Riga, 1989. Vadim SHERMAN, M.sc.ing, PhD student, Riga Technical University, Meza 1/3, LV1048, Riga, Latvia, e-mail: [email protected]

e-LOGISTICS Parallel Session B1 2005


eLOGMAR-M PROJECT: APPLICATIONS OF THE ADVANCED IT- AND MOBILE SOLUTIONS IN TRANSPORT LOGISTICS

Leonid NOVITSKY Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia

Eberhard BLUEMEL

Fraunhofer Institute FhG/IFF, Magdeburg, Germany

Egils GINTERS Latvian Intelligent Systems Ltd., Riga, Latvia

Keywords: transport logistics, Web-based and mobile solutions Abstract: Application of Internet and Mobile Solutions for supporting business processes of cargo

transportation along the selected maritime freight route is described in this paper.

INTRODUCTION

Functioning of the market economy depends on the effective information provision of the transport services. It is really important to reach synchronization of business processes, cargo and data flows and integrity among different activities accompanying cargo transportation along the selected freight route. In 2004 the eLOGMAR-M project (Web-based and Mobile Solutions for Collaborative Work Environment with Logistics and Maritime Applications), funded by the Commission of the European Communities within the Sixth Framework Programme (DG INFSO), has been started. One of the goals of eLOGMAR-M project is to create a Web-portal for information providing to transport services’ consumers. The major idea from logistics point of view is to estimate a start-to-finish rate of cargo transportation and to select the most suitable supply chain.

THE MARITIME FREIGHT ROUTE AND TARGET GROUPS

The maritime freight route "Baltic Sea feeder ports - Western Europe hub port (Hamburg) - Mediterranean port (Thessaloniki) - Chinese ports" is selected as the subject of investigation and demonstration. The rapidly developing trade between Europe and Asia, the polarisation of producers in Asia and of consumers in Europe needs the improvement of supporting services along this transportation routes. Containerships present one half of the turnover measured in gross tonnage along the route “East Asia ↔ North-Western Europe”, with China being the largest producer of container traffic originating in Asian countries.

Special attention is also devoted to the study of maritime and logistics processes in the Baltic Sea Region as they form an integral part of the above mentioned freight route. This region has specific requirements: after the candidate countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) joined both the EU and NATO, they play the role of a new border between EU and CIS.

Actors from two major target groups are involved in cargo transportation process:

1) Transportation group: deep sea and feeder shipping lines, shipowners, terminal operators, block train operators, forwarding companies, multimodal transportation operators, freight brokers;

2) Transportation group: cargo owners, forwarding companies, traders.

APPROACH

We consider the following scheme to reach the major objectives of the eLOGMAR-M project (Figure 1):



Figure 1. General scheme.

Identification and integration phases serve as a technical and organisational platform to create a dynamic, collaborative, virtual pool (Web-portal) of the partners, operating along the selected maritime freight route. However, the phase of demonstration illustrates the applications of this platform in the sections of the selected maritime freight route “Europe – China”.

CONSORTIUM

17 partners from 9 countries are presented in the project's consortium: Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (FhG/IFF), Port of Hamburg Marketing and Transportation Freight Broker Company RTSB (Germany); Port of Kokkola (Finland); Maritime & Supply Chain Solutions Ltd. (U.K.); Thessaloniki Port Authority and TRD International (Greece); Logitrans Consult and Interbalt Maritime Agency (Estonia); IDC Information Technologies, Riga Technical University and Latvian Intelligent Systems (Latvia); Klaipeda State Seaport Authority and Sonex Computers (Lithuania); Warsaw University of Technology (Poland); China Harvest Development Ltd. and Beijing HOPE Software (China).

The combination of expertise of IT companies and transport and logistics enterprises enables solving problems related to the proposed area.

DEMONSTRATORS OF WEB-BASED AND MOBILE SOLUTIONS

Frames of demonstration Frames of demonstration are defined by the following factors:

1) Two environment friendly transport modes will be considered: Maritime transport (deep sea and short sea shipping and transhipment). Rail transport of freight.

2) Transportation of cargo in containers will be considered (the global container market is a very dynamic one).

Technical solutions for Web-portal and mobile access demonstration HTML (WHL) and PHP languages and MySQL DBMS will be used for Web-portal development and data storage. Two approaches of mobile access will be demonstrated:

Mobile phones.

Study and analysis of logistics and maritime transport processes

Study and analysis of IT- and Mobile Solutions

Study and analysis of legislation and regulations

Creating the opportunities for the training of specialists in transport logistics

Identification

Generalisation of studies and analysis of results, assessment criteria and customers requirements by using an Interactive

Web-site Integration

Setting up of demonstrators of an

Internet based Collaborative Work

Environment

Demonstration

Setting up of demonstrators of mobile access to Collaborative

Work Environment



Pocket PC devices (Personal Digital Assiatnt, PDA). Mobile phone (WAP protocols embedded into mobile phone, GPRS):

Restricted set of functions of Web-portal. Simplified way of information presentation on a screen. Simplified demonstration scenario

PDA: Practically the same set of functions as in Web portal and similar demonstration scenario. Changes in information presentation in comparison with Web-portal (limited resolution only).

Figure 2. Demonstration scheme.

Central DB – central data storage for web portal and mobile solution (My SQL DB).

Mobile actors – mobile users who get information over mobile devices.

Main functionality for mobile users: Personalized vessel traffic timetables. Information on vessel shipping and landing. Service and assignment management. Estimation of start-to-finish cargo rates and suitable carrier.

Mobile users can have the same functionality as the web users except, data representation on the screen. Keeping in mind the limitations of pocket devices (small screens, inconvenient typing) some web site modification will have to be done. Adapted information set that will be used by mobile users will be implemented. This software for pocket PC users can be installed on the same machine where the web portal will be installed.

As long both general web and mobile users need to have the same functionality and difference that we have is different way of accessing that data, we don’t need to separate data storage and we can have only one data storage, so Central DB in our figure now can be MySQL database where the data is stored. Pocket PCusers will get data from the same source as the portal for web users. The same way should act solution with mobile phones, as long there is specifics only in data representation and data transfer protocolsWAP.

Web-portal

Central

DB (MySQL)

Users

Cargo group

Transportation group

Internet Mobile actor 2

Mobile phone PDA Mobile

actor 1 Wi-Fi GPRS

Browser only

Browser only

WAP

http://www.balticIT.com

Bluetooth



Data connector (special software) will be integrated in the web site for pocket PC users as the data abstraction layer for the purpose of independent DB platform. This option will allow us to have light system modifications in that case if data store would change form MySQL to other data store platform, there will be no necessity to change the whole system.

No separate WML portal needed for pocket pc users as long they are able to use regular web sites on their pocket PC. WML portal probably would be useful for those users who will use mobile phones for accessing eLOGMAR-M WML portal. At this point separation with simplified version of full Web-portal could be useful. This part of the implementation is tightly related with a solution for mobile phones.

For pocket PC users Web-site can be implemented using HTML and PHP.

Therefore, two approaches for mobile users will be demonstrated: Mobile phones. Pocket PC.

Application of two technologies will be illustrated: HTML and PHP in the case of Pocket PC. WHL and WAP for mobile phones.

EXPLOITATION

The exploitation of results is very important for projects funded by the European Commission. For this reason, the consortium core partner group created the Baltic Sub-Regional Competence Centre (BSRCC) in Riga within the frameworks of the BALTPORTS-IT project.

BSRCC is the instrument to create and support a networked, collaborative virtual, organisation aimed at bringing together industrial users, universities and research institutions around the common topic of, e.g. “Logistics, IT-solutions and Simulation with Maritime Applications”.

Besides the further development and maintenance of the central office in Riga, branch office in Tallinn will be established under the eLOGMAR-M project.

The main tasks of BSRCC are:

To create a network of excellence and a training network aimed at bringing together industrial users, universities and research institutions around a common theme “IT-solutions and e-logistics for maritime applications”. Such a network would be used in future as a kernel for the next RTD projects, including EC activities.

To improve the systematic exchange of information between different organisations that are interested in virtual collaboration.

To provide the possibilities of regional specialists training by using Web-based open-distance courses.

To support the organisation of Internet conferences.

To introduce partners, operating in Freeport areas of the Baltic States, to the Western and Chinese experience and to the methodologies of privatisation and ports re-engineering processes based on modelling.

To provide distant access to simulation models, training materials and knowledge located in specialised servers.

The considerable experience of the co-ordinating organisation Fraunhofer FhG/IFF in creating different regional centres and branch offices will be used.

Special sessions will be organised by the consortium partners within the frameworks of:

European Simulation Multi-Conference (Riga, 2005).

International Conference "Logistics and IT-Solutions in International Trade" (Tallinn, 2005).



International Workshop HMS "Harbour, Maritime & Multimodal Logistics Modelling and Simulation" (2005).

CONCLUSIONS

eLOGMAR-M project is Coordination Action aimed at supporting logistics and maritime operations by Web-based and Mobile Solutions. Project objectives, consortium structure and general scheme of solutions are presented in the article.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The presented activity is supported by the eLOGMAR-M project funded under the IST Six Framework Programme of the European Commission.

REFERENCES 1. Bluemel, E. et al. Applications of Simulation and IT-solutions in the Baltic Port Areas of the Associated

Candidate Countries. JUMI, Riga, 2003. Eberhard BLUEMEL, Dr., Director of the Division of Virtual Development and Training, Fraunhofer Institute FhG/IFF, Sandtorstrasse 22, D-39106, Magdeburg, Germany, Phone: +49 (0) 391 / 4090 110, Fax: +49 (0) 391 / 4090 115, e-mail: [email protected] Leonid NOVITSKY, Prof., Head of the Department of Applied Systems Software, Riga Technical University, Kalku str. 1, LV-1658, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +371-9514066, Fax: +371-7089572, e-mail: [email protected] Egils GINTERS, Dr., Director of Latvian Intelligent Systems Ltd., Sveices str. 13, LV-2150, Sigulda, Latvia, Phone: +371- 7973784 , Fax: +371- 7970126, e-mail: [email protected]



E-LOGISTICS: INFORMATIZATION OF SLOVENIAN TRANSPORT LOGISTICS CLUSTER

Ales GROZNIK University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics,

Ljubljana, Slovenia Keywords: e-logistics, SCM, cluster, informatization, business renovation Abstract: In search of higher competitiveness, organisations are in search for innovative business

models, in order to foster economic benefits. In Slovenia, several clusters are being formed, including Slovenian Transport Logistics Cluster (STLC) as one of the most important cluster. Currently STLC is in the stage of dynamic growth, demanding business model formation and adequate informatization. The main goal of the paper is to present the informatization of STLC, bridging the gap between Supply Chain Management (SCM) and e-logistics. The result of informatization project is shown as homogenic and transparent business activity between cluster members. The purpose of STLC informatization are business model creation, standardization of business processes, cost cutting, improved business performance; operational times decrease, asset management, and shipment tracing which are the basics of economic competitiveness.

INTRODUCTION

Increased competitiveness in all industrial sectors sharpened by globalization and fall of global supply is forcing companies towards optimization of their business processes and new ways of mergers or partnerships with direct results in decreased business costs. With these strategic alliances new management strategies are formed as Clusters, Supply Chain Management (SCM), e-logistics, etc. Some authors are making references that logistics is “worth” 10% to 12% of GDP (Sahay, 2003). According to AMR research (Challenger, 2001), e-logistics has a potential of lowering costs by 10 %. Therefore it is not surprised that in last few years in high effective companies as Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, Digital Equipment Corporation, Xerox, Dell and Benetton Group top management is favorable to implement supply chains and e-logistics (Romano, 2003).

There is collection of literature indicating the importance of clusters and networks not only between firms, but along the value chain and across industries. The networks inherent in these clusters are integral for knowledge generation and diffusion, for technology transfer, for sharing risk and costs, for allowing firms to access new markets and opportunities and, finally, for building comparative advantage in the global market.

For all logistic companies it is assumed to control global logistic chain of their customers and therefore are dependent on successful implementation of informatization technologies which leads to decrease of inventory costs, better customer retention, asset management, etc. Prior to implementation of information technologies, STLC has to build up a business model. In the article informatization of STLC will be presented through the project Modeling, Analyzing and Renovation, Standardization and Informatization of business processes of the Slovenian Transport Logistics Cluster which is performed by Business Informatics Institute in Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

TRANSPORT LOGISTIC CLUSTER IN SLOVENIA

STLC was formed to compete with European logistic market. STLC is an association of 12 companies and 3 institutions: freight forwarding and shipping agencies, port services, ecological and university research institution. Currently, inside the STLC, transportation-logistics service suppliers assemble joint educational programs, market presentations, equipment acquisition and complete service developments. STLC vision is to create complete conditions for its members that will enable them to offer a full logistic support above and beyond the Slovene transportation route, towards the southern markets of central and south-eastern Europe. Slovenia will be with entrance in European Union on



1.May 2004 faced with higher competitiveness and only with homogenic cooperation between companies associated in STLC they can succeed in European market.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, LOGISTICS AND E-LOGISTICS

With development of information technologies and information knowledge, SCM and e-logistics were discovered as a close connection to Logistics. Successful integration of SCM depends on implementation of e-business in logistics called e-logistics. In last years companies are increasingly realizing that efficiency of their business is heavily dependent on the collaboration and co-ordination with their suppliers as well as with their customers (Hieber, 2002). In order to increase their competitiveness, they carefully manage the supply chain. A supply chain is the stream of processes of moving goods and services from the customer order through the raw materials stage, supply, production, and distribution of products to the customer. All organizations have supply chains of varying degrees, depending upon the size of the organization and the type of product manufactured. These networks obtain supplies and components, change these materials into finished products and then distribute them to the customer. Managing the chain of events in this process is what is known as supply chain management. Effective management must take into account coordinating all the different pieces of this chain as quickly as possible without losing any of the quality or customer satisfaction, while still keeping costs down. According to Chopra and Meindl (Chopra and Meindl, 2001) a supply chain consists of all stages involved, directly or indirectly, in fulfilling a customer request. A supply chain not only includes the manufacturer and suppliers, but also transporters, warehouses, retailers, and customer themselves. Within each organization, such as a manufacturer, the supply chain includes all functions involved in filling a customer request.

STLC’s supply chain is organized through transport companies, transport organizers, warehouses, and financial operators. Integration of SCM philosophy in logistic processes is naturally calling for advanced information system that will connect all companies involved in STLC. It will serve appropriate information inside (between STLC members) and outside the STLC (between STLC members, customers and suppliers) (Figure 1).

TLC

suppliers management customers

logistic

supply chain

information

Figure 1. The structure of STLC.



The root of SCM introduction into STLC is e-logistics. It is difficult to define e-logistics comprehensively because the potential impact of e-business on logistics and supply chain management is not yet fully understood. One possible definition is that e-logistics simply means processes necessary to transfer the goods sold over the internet to the customers (Auramo et. al., 2001). Other and more sophisticated aspect is that e-logistics is wide-ranging topic related to supply chain integration that has effect of eliminating intermediaries (such as wholesaler or retailers) and also fosters the emergence of new players like logisticians, whose role is to adapt traditional logistics chains to take into account the requirements of e-business. If we look wider, e-logistics means doing e-business inside of STLC between companies (B2B) and outside of it between STLC and customers (B2C) over the internet. This whole integration of e-business ensures that STLC from outside looks like one company even though it is composed of many. If we want to implement e-logistics philosophy in all companies inside the STLC we must renovate their business processes. Renovated processes are basics for implementing e-logistics through logistic processes and necessary for results that will show improvement through added value chain. Figure 1 shows how supply chain and logistics with appropriate information fulfill customers. To run appropriate information flow from customers to suppliers, among suppliers and among customers STLC needed all data on-line with e-logistics.

BUSINESS MODEL OF STLC

Business model can be defined as a model of a company while doing business in certain environment while certain environment is all that influences on business processes of a company as buyers, suppliers, etc. It also shows a system that from one side enables implementation of the business processes in terms of providing added values or goods to clients or users, and from another side assuring to different users on different levels inside the company optimal quantity of information and instructions needed for carrying out individual procedures or working processes and activities and at the third side gives stakeholders assurance of capital stability and capital profitability (Kovacic, 1998).

Business model determines business rules which everybody must be able to keep. In our case these rules must to be kept by STLC members who are: Viator & Vektor d.d., Intereuropa d.d., BTC d.d., Slovenske Železnice d.d., Luka Koper d.d. in Fersped d.d. To build the STLC business model we must determine AS-IS model which shows the present business processes of all STLC members. Many different methods and techniques can be used for modeling business processes in order to give an understanding of possible scenarios for improvement (Ould, 1995). IDEF0, IDEF3, Petri Nets, System Dynamics, Knowledge-based Techniques, Activity Based Costing and Discrete-Event Simulation are only some examples of business process modeling techniques widely used (Eatock et al, 2000). As noted by (Hommes, van Reijswound, 2000) the increasing popularity of business process modeling results in a rapidly growing number of modeling techniques and tools. However, the majority of simulation software implements a model using the discrete-event method. In Kettinger et al, 1997, an empirical review was made of existing methodologies, tools, and techniques for business process change. The authors also developed a reference framework to assist the positioning of tools and techniques that help in re-engineering strategy, people, management, structure, and the technology dimensions of business processes. However, relevance is far more important than completeness (Davenport, Prusak, 1998) and simple models are far more understandable for non-specialists. Process modeling tools must be capable of showing interconnections between the activities and conducting a decomposition of the processes. These tools must help users to conduct “what-if” analyses and to identify and map no-value steps, costs, and process performance (bottleneck analysis). They should be able to develop AS-IS and TO-BE models of business processes, which represent both existing and alternative processes. They must be validated and tested before implementation. They can be used to predict characteristics that cannot be directly measured, and can also predict economic and performance data that would otherwise be too expensive or impossible to acquire.

For the purpose of the project we used Flowchart technique with Optima! tool. The components of a business process are shown on Figure 2.



Departm

ent

Start of the process Activity

Direction

Decision or distribution

End of the process

No

Yes

Figure 2. Symbols used in Optima! Tool.

Viator &Vektor

Viator &Vektor

Orderacceptance

Organizationof

transportation

Realization oftransportation

Forwarding Warehousing

Figure 3. General processes at Viator&Vektor d.d.

If we look at AS-IS model (Figure 3) of Viator&Vektor d.d. as one of the member of STLC we can notice five general processes: Order Acceptance, Organization of transportation, Realization of transportation, Forwarding and Warehousing. Organization of transport furthermore (Figure 4) consists of Organization of transport with own transportation, Organization of transport with transportation of STLC members and Organization of transport with outsourced transportation. Other members of STLC have similar structure of general business processes.



Viator &Vektor

Organizationof

transportation

Organizationof trasnportwith own

transportation

Organizationof transport

withtransportation

of STLCmembers

Organizationof transport

withoutsourced

transportation

Figure 4. Subproces of Organization of transport.

Organization of transport at Viator&Vektor d.d. (Figure 4) is consisted from three different processes for the same task. Processes presented in Figure 3 and Figure 4 for Viator & Vektor are executed also in other organizations in STLC. The main problem is that those processes are in each organization executed in a different way. The main goal of the project is straight forward - standardization and renovation of existing processes.

Organizations that are involved in STLC differ on effectiveness of different processes from order acceptance to realization of transport. In STLC we must consider if specialization of organizations is better than generalization of them. Whatever decision STLC will take, it should be properly backed up with an analysis of business model and organizational changes, execution times, and business processes changes.

CONCLUSIONS

The goal of our project is business model creation, process renovation, examination and reengineering of current business policies procedures and activities. We believe the new paradigm can be embraced only by:

Creating an environment of technology, enlightenment and receptivity; Treat this as a holistic organizational transformation, not a technical issue; Challenger core assumptions and value propositions; Proactively establish a distinctive internet presence.

With this case it has confirmed that the analysis and carefully used simulation of business processes is useful since it provides insight view of policies, practices, procedures, organization, process flows and consequently shifts people's minds from functional to process organization.

Project Modeling, Analyzing and Renovation, Standardization and Informatization of business processes of the Slovenian Transport Logistics Cluster is in the first phase of generating an AS-IS model. The next step will be renovation of AS-IS model and creation of appropriate TO-BE model, on which business model will be built.

REFERENCES 1. Auramo J., Aminoff A., Punakivi M.: Research agenda for e-business logistics on professional opinions:

International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management; 2002; 32, 7; ANI/INFORM Global 2. Cooper J.: Strategy Planning in Logistics and Transportation. The Cranfield Management Research Series;

London: 1993. 261 p. 3. Chopra S., Meindl P.: Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning and Operation: 2001. 449 p.



4. Challener C.: E-Logistics and E-Transportation Log Into the Chemical Space: Chemical Market Reporter; Nov 19, 2001; 260, 19; ABI/INFORM Global

5. Davenport, T. H. and Prusak, L.: Working Knowledge, Harward Business School Press, Boston, 1998. 6. Eatock, J., Giaglis, G.M., Paul, R.J., and Serrano, A.: "The Implications of Information Technology

Infrastructure Capabilities for Business Process Change Success". In: Henderson, P. (Ed.), Systems Engineering for Business Process Change. Springer-Verlag, London, pp. 127-137, 2000.

7. Hieber R.: Supply chain management: a collaborative performance measurement approach, VDF Zurich, 2002

8. Hommes, B.-J., Reijswoud, V.: "Assessing the Quality of Business Process Modeling Techniques". 33rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Vol. 1, January 4-7, 2000, Maui, Hawaii.

9. James B. A: Handbook of Supply Chain Management, The St. Lucie Press/APICS Series on Resource Management, 2001

10. Kettinger, W.J., Teng, J.T.C., and Guha, S.: "Business process change: a study of methodologies, techniques, and tools", MIS Quarterly, 21: (1), 1997, pp. 55-80.

11. Ould, M.A.: Business Processes: Modelling and Analysis for Re-engineering and Improvement, John Wiley & Sons, New York [etc.], 1995.

12. Porter M. E.: On Competition. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1990. 496 p. 13. Pozar D: Posvetovanje notranja in zunanja logistika podjetja v logistični verigi; Ekonomsko poslovna fakulteta

Maribor, Inštitut za transport in logistiko, 2002 14. Romano P.: Co-ordination and integration mechanisms to manage logistics processes across supply

networks: Journal of Electrical Management Engineering, 14 February 2003 15. Sahay B. S.: Making Supply Chain Integration A Reality, [URL:

http://www.logisticsfocus.com/articles/article.asp], December 2003 16. Slovenski Transportno Logistični Grozd [URL: http://www.giz-tlg.si], December 2003 Ales GROZNIK, Assistant Professor, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics, Kardeljeva ploscad 17, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Phone: +386 1 5303 875, Fax: + 386 1 5892 698, e-mail: [email protected].



E-LEARNING METHODS DEVELOPMENT FOR TRAINING IN LOGISTICS INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Egils GINTERS Latvian Intelligent Systems, Sigulda, Latvia

Antonio GUASCH

Poliechnical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain

Leonid NOVITSKI Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia

Inara TREZINA

Latvian National Association of Freight Forwarders, Riga, Latvia Keywords: Logistics Information Systems, LOGIS MOBILE, e-learning, m-training Abstract: During implementation of analysis of harbours management systems in the framework of EC

funded projects INCO Copernicus AMCAI 0312 (1994-1997), INCO Copernicus DAMAC-HP PL976012 (1998-2000) and 5th Framework IST-2001-33030 BALTPORTS-IT (2001-2003) the situation was revealed that logistics managers at enterprises have lack of skills necessary for right exploitation of modern ICTE technologies. On the other hand data processing systems administrators have no enough knowledge on logistics and any social systems management. The article deals with development of vocational education and training methods from e-learning to m-consulting in the framework EC Leonardo da Vinci Phase II pilot projects set LOGIS LV-PP-138.003 (2000-2002) and LV/B/F/PP-172.001 LOGIS MOBILE (2004-2006). The role and place of the educational projects in whole consortium projects networking are discussed.

INTRODUCTION

Geographical position of the Latvian Republic determines that one of the most characteristic business sectors are transport and transit services, which exceed more than 16-17% of average annual state GDP. If we examine turnover of the Latvian ports, we can see that at least 80% of it constitutes transit cargo. As regards rail transportation 75% of all cargo transported by rail is also transit. Furthermore, Latvia has a unique possibility for oil and oil products transit through a long-distance pipeline. Also Latvian international road cargo transporters mainly work for the transit [1]. Therefore, national transport system’s alignment with single European transport and cargo transportation network is very important not only for Latvia but also for Europe. Since already more than ten years it was clear for many industry professionals and politicians that the moment when Latvia becomes fully-fledged member of the European Union is not far. In 1995, the Latvian Ministry of Transport accepted the National Transport Development Program (1996-2010) that foresees incorporation of Latvia into the European Union transport scheme. And in 1995, AMCAI 0312 (1994-1997) project received support from the European Commission INCO Copernicus program. The aim of the AMCAI project was to create mobile and competent scientists group for introduction with the information processing of the largest sea ports of the Western European states and management systems analysis. Specialists from the new European candidate states, as well as from Germany and Netherlands, joined the scientists group. The gained experience was used in the following projects (see Figure 1).

Within the framework of further INCO Copernicus project DAMAC-HP PL976012 (1998-2000) Ventspils Free Port Authority information flows were analysed and simulation model for Baltic Container Terminal business processes development was designed. The results proved that there are problems, which complicate introduction and application of difficult logistics systems in the companies. Logistics managers do not possess enough knowledge about modern information and telecommunication technologies and electronics (ICTE).



Figure 1. Application and Education tracks in joint research projects development.

In addition, data processing systems administrators’ understanding about logistics in general is limited with transport services. Moreover, coordination of both sides’ opinions is not very successful, as they do not want to recognize the problem. These problems are typical not only for Latvia, but also important in European and world scale. As a result, intelligent transportation systems and different other additional services introduction is complicated substantially.

FIRST STEP IN LOGIS PROJECT DEVELOPMENT – SUBSTANTIAL INNOVATION

In 2000, partners’ Consortium decided to divide its further activities into two directions: Education Track and Application Track. Application Track in the future served for modern technologies introduction in different logistics and transit companies, for example, Baltic Container Terminal, JSC Ventamonjaks and others, but Education Track was orientated at solving question of learning and skills development.

Taking into account the above mentioned, it was decided to work out a course program and training methodology in “Logistics Information Systems”, within the framework of the Leonardo da Vinci program project LOGIS LV-PP-138.003 (2000-2002) [2] that would involve experiences of both universities and transit companies. The aim of the course was to prepare specialists for solving problems in analysis, design and exploitation of logistics information processing systems.

The course program ensured (see Figure 2): • Practical knowledge in modern ICTE methods and use of modern techniques for logistics

information processing; • Equal qualification for every program participant which would improve its chances in the EU

labor market; • Possibility to obtain equal knowledge disregarding the social status of a participant; • Easy and unlimited (by time) access to training materials and tests; • Possibility to disseminate acquired knowledge between specialists, who solve logistics

problems and come from different sectors of economy.



Figure 2. Substantial innovation – first step in LOGIS project development.

In order to accomplish the project work package were invited CFLI (Italy), University of Genoa (Italy), the University of Technology of Delft (The Netherlands), Linköping University (Sweden), Latvian Intelligent Systems, Ltd., Latvian Transport Development and Education Association, Riga Technical University (Latvia), Ventspils College (Latvia) and Ventspils Freeport Authority (Latvia).

The course program: • Included overall principles of architectural analysis and design of logistics information

processing systems; • Provided insight into description of a physical structure of a goal system, emphasizing common

features and differences of its linguistics support, as well as hardware elements and topology variety;

• Described possibilities of using the Internet technologies and e-commerce techniques to improve quality of business processes;

• Examined modern simulation means, including use of different techniques in logistics information systems research;

• Analysed using of global positioning systems (GPS) and geographical information systems (GIS) to control utilization of transportation processes;

• Presented examples of existing logistics information systems.

Besides development of the course curricula, the following items were created within the LOGIS project:

• E-learning material in “Logistics Information Systems”; • Set of hardware and Learning Management System (LMS) software for publishing of training

appliances on the Internet; • Dissemination list and register of a potential target audience; • Teaching and training methodology; • Set of lectures and laboratory assignments.

It was the first step in LOGIS project development, which was named as Substantial Innovation. The aim of the step was to develop learning material, to study possible audience, as well as to develop e-learning environment, which could be used comfortably enough in the future projects.



LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM – BASEMENT FOR E-LEARNING DEVELOPMENT

In order to ensure successful dissemination and improvement of the prepared learning material, e-learning environment (Learning Management System (LMS)) was necessary. The following conditions were laid down for it:

• Automated course generation and e-learning material preparation;Textual and multimedia content;Customers self-registration and data protection;Tests generation;Test questions databases set generation;Databases cross linking;Automated multi session examination;

• Remote Web content management; • Variable search options and reports generation.

Each selected commercial LMS was evaluated by the following criteria: • Belonging to open source solutions; • Convenient maintenance; • Affordable price.

Unfortunately, it should be pointed out that not only five years before, but also now, it would not be easy to find the suitable LMS, which would answer the abovementioned requirements [3]. Now is should be stated that the decision to work out this unique LMS by own efforts was correct, otherwise LOGIS project development would be complicated.

Figure 3. Datalogical model of LMS LOGIS. LMS LOGIS datalogical model ( )DM is based on 5 data sets relationships:

>=< ExamTestCQuestionsLMDM DB ,,,, , (1) where: LM - e-learning material in different subjects; Questions - all test questions set;

DBC - course test questions data bases; Test - testing questions data bases; Exam - exam questions data bases.



LMS LOGIS can serve for e-learning process in a number of subjects. Accordingly, in order to check the knowledge there is all test questions setQuestions . Using this test questions set it is possible to

generate the separate subjects test questions set databases jDBC . Among these data bases there

are relationships, that allow questions exchange. From DBC it is possible to generate the separate

statistics tests set nTest , that are permanently accessible for e-learning participants, using LMS

LOGIS. Databases lExam are generated only during exam time and are accessible only for authorized audience during the certain time period. It possible to claim that:

QuestionsCExamTestJ

jDBln j

⊂⊂∨=U

1

(2)

MS Access and ASP technology were used for the creation of the first generation of LMS LOGIS. They are not considered as an optimal solution, however suitable enough for the convenient maintenance. Access to LMS is possible for any Internet user, which possess typical browsers supporting HTTP.

LOGIS project was successful, its results were used in more than 25 countries of the world and noticeable growth of the dissemination volume during the last 3 years is observed. However some problems still persist.

SECOND STEP IN LOGIS PROJECT DEVELOPMENT – TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION

The amount of knowledge regarding logistics information systems changes very quickly, because the same changes are typical for latest ICTE. The 2001 Annual Report of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions offers a global view of occupational conditions, gender issues included. Findings show that more than 2 in 5 workers said that they do not have enough time to do their job. In reality this means that they do not have enough time to do their jobs and upgrade their knowledge in the traditional way – in the classroom. This requires two solutions – reducing training time and bringing training out of the classroom. The research publication “Making Lifelong Learning a reality, June 2003” published by The European Association for the Education of Adults emphasizes bringing learning closer to home, using advanced ICTE technologies and modern training methods as one of the most important objectives for vocational education and training. In addition, the term “home” is used in the sense of “out of the classroom”. E-learning through the Internet on-line access and using PCs would only partially solve this problem, because the cost of buying PCs and using on-line Internet access is not always cost effective and convenient.

Therefore, the next step in learning development was technological innovation, which is involved in Leonardo da Vinci program project LOGIS MOBILE LV/04/B/F/PP-172.001 (2004-2006) “Competence Framework for Mobile On-site Accelerated Vocational Training in Logistics Information Systems – LOGIS MOBILE”. In order to reduce time for learning e-learning material is reduced and further is depicted in a form of concise training dictionary. Wider audience and more effective training at a workplace are ensured by Internet e-learning replacement with m-training and m-consulting. Access to learning environment is ensured by mobile telephone operated in GSM network. Any mobile phone that supports WAP 2.0 protocol can be used. As a communication channel GPRS connection is used (see Figure 4). The following organizations participate in the project: Latvian Intelligent Systems, Fraunhofer-Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (Germany), Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg (Germany), University of Barcelona (Spain), Politechnical University of Catalonia (Spain), Mettle Groupe France, Klaipeda University (Lithuania), JSC Ventamonjaks (Latvia), IDC Information Technologies (Latvia), Latvian National Association of Freight Forwarders, Riga Technical University (Latvia) and Warsaw University of Technology (Poland).



Figure 4. The layout of the LOGIS MOBILE learning system.

The concise m-training dictionary in Logistics Information Systems involves a concise version of the newest material in logistics information systems – hardware and software for logistics systems - warehousing, cargos identification and transportation, intelligent transport systems, the insurance of cargo, e-applications etc. All the material is divided in some categories. Each term will be combined with check questions to clarify the acquired skills of the participant. The designing of reference material will be based on exploitation of existing resources that is previous results of the LOGIS project. The basic idea is determining of terms set in logistics information systems using Internet search engines and analyzing materials acquired during previous project. Each expert submitting his terms, definitions and training questions set, which are evaluated through integral criterions choosing objects with highest integral values in total selection.

KD is the set of key definitions in Logistics Information Systems involved in dictionary.

UN

GR

GRKDKD1=

= , (3)

where >< GRKD is the set of terms belonging to the category GR , but N is total amount of the categories.

UM

i

GRi

GR KDKD1=

>=< , (4)

but GRiKD is the term selected and belonging to the set of terms >< GRKD . If we suppose that total

amount of references for this term acquired from main search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Vivisimo is GR

iKDI , but weight of the category GR determined by experts is GRW , then

>∈< KDKDGR

i , if it has )max( GRKD

xWI GRi

. (5)

The total amount of the terms involved in concise training dictionary MN × will not exceed 600 definitions in four wide spoken European languages. The checking question attached to each of terms has relationships with other checking questions combined with other definitions. It means that answering on current training question the applicant would check his knowledge in Logistics Information Systems more detailed.



LMS LOGIS MOBILE applies PHP tools to access the databases (see Figure 4), but for database designing mySQL is used. Information depiction is realised in WML language, which is supported by the information exchange protocol with the mobile telephone WAP.

CONCLUSIONS

At the end of the article two problems should be stressed out, which still influence and will influence learning development. First of all, it is contradiction between social and engineering sciences, obviously due to the different individual perception and thinking. In this case both specialist groups still have different views on logistics as a science. In that case it is possible to put parallels with information society concept, the essence meaning of which still developing. Secondly, there is no doubt that rapid ICTE development causes knowledge changes acceleration, which requires even more frequent knowledge supplement in any national economy’s sector. Accordingly, specialists and also students do not possess so much time to study volumes of information materials. Therefore training material reduction and modern ICTE technologies application should be considered, in order to improve learning coverage and accessibility. Leonardo da Vinci project LOGIS MOBILE is aimed to solution of the problems mentioned above.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The article is prepared with the support of EC Leonardo da Vinci program procedure B project LOGIS MOBILE LV/04/B/F/PP-172.001 (2004-2006) “Competence Framework for Mobile On-site Accelerated Vocational Training in Logistics Information Systems”.

REFERENCES 1. Transit (into Latvian). 2005. http://www.sam.gov.lv/branches/transit/character. 10/04/2005. 2. Ginters, E. and L.Krecere. 2003. LOGIS Network for Knowledge Dissemination in Logistics Information

Systems, HMS 2003, ISBN 9984-32-547-4, Riga, Latvia, September 8-20, 2003, pp.251-255. 3. EduTools. Course Management Systems. 2005. http://www.edutools.info/course/productinfo, 10/04/2005 Egils GINTERS, Dr.Sc.Ing., Director, Latvian Intelligent Systems, 13, Sveices Street, Sigulda, LV-2150, Latvia, Phone: +371-9266909, Fax: +371-7971026, E-mail: [email protected] Antonio GUASCH, Prof., Poliechnical University of Catalonia, Edifici U, C. Llorens i Artigas, 4-6, 2a planta, 08028 Barcelona, Spain, Phone: +34-93401-5780, Fax: +34-93401-5750, E-mail: [email protected] Leonid NOVITSKI, Prof., Riga Technical University, 1, Kalku Street, Riga LV-1658, Latvia, Phone: +371-7506944, Fax: +371-7315543, E-mail: [email protected] Inara TREZINA, Financial Manager, Latvian National Association of Freight Forwarders, 50 Ventspils Street, Riga LV-1002, Latvia, Phone: +371-7603483, Fax: +371-7601319, E-mail: [email protected]



CALYPSO: A NEW VISION OF TRANSPORT WITH CONTACTLESS TICKETING

Ralph GAMBETTA Temco GmbH, Konstanz, Germany

Keywords: Multiservice, payment, ticketing Abstract: Calypso technology allows to implement an electronic ticketing system which frees the back

office system from different administrative tasks. The high security level and the normative rules allow the realization of all forms of back office systems and further assure the interoperability among different ticketing systems in urban environments.

INTRODUCTION

Millions of Europeans ride on the subways, buses, trains or boats every day. Every city has its own tickets, a diversity that complicates the lives of city-dwellers. The diversity is also found in the means of payment: cash, bank cards or cheques. That is why the standardisation of access and payment is emerging in Europe, to simplify the city-dweller's life.

From a technological point of view, contactless smart cards are the best-suited carrier to achieve such goals. The possibility to have different applications on the same medium is an asset for users who can take advantage of a series of services using one single card.

The way to reach these goals has been through various European initiatives Long lasting efforts of various partners five countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, and Portugal), lead to the nowadays worldwide known Calypso technology. The developments within Calypso were carried out by transport and service operators, together with the banks and a wide range of industrial partners. The following outline will briefly describe Calypso technology.

CALYPSO - A FACILITATOR TO IMPLEMENT ELECTRONIC TICKETING SYSTEMS

Calypso implements an electronic ticketing system which frees the back office system from different administrative tasks. The high security level and the normative rules allow the realization of all forms of back office systems and further assure the interoperability among different ticketing systems. Key issues :

TRANSACTION TICKET / READER WITH A VERY HIGH SECURITY LEVEL

Beyond the current specification of the IOPTA norm which basically dealing with the certification of data contained in the card, Calypso achieves a reciprocal authentification of cards and terminals (reader, terminal,...) and guarantees through its high security level a customer protection. • Calypso guarantees the reciprocal authentification of cards and terminals. Herein the terminal

verifies that the card is a real one and the card verifies that the terminal is a real one. • Calypso is the only existing operational ticketing system which allows and realises this reciprocal

authentification. • In detail this authentification of the terminal by the card provides a very high and efficient customer

protection against fraudulent manipulations (e.g. e-purse debit) by some incorrect retailer.

TRANSACTION TICKET / TERMINAL OFFLINE FROM THE BACK OFFICE SYSTEM

• Calypso frees the back office system and the telecommunications network from the administration of real time information.



• Based on the patents « session ratification » it is possible to have offline complete (considering the data structure) and storable transactions, that allow the highest possible degree of rights on sides of the users and companies.

• The high security level of the transactions allows, that all memorised transactions are real and valid by maintaining the granted rights. This is of basic importance in the context of the common administration of electronic purses for instance.

• Management of different transport applications due to a high performance transport application • Allows the introduction of a field proven and implemented electronic ticketing system. >> No discrimination of transactions as they are equally treated and herewith alleviating the back office system from complicated verification processes.

ADAPTATION & FLEXIBILITY OF IMPLEMENTATION IN TERMS OF TIME AND SPACE

The position of Calypso in the front-end-part and the capacity of itself allow: • Adaptation to all existing systems.

From an existing system with paper tickets, magnetic stripe tickets as well as the migration from type A systems to type B ones, etc. ...

• Implementation fully in line with existing specifications and potentially extending them whenever necessary.

• SAM ITSO Calypso fulfils the requirements in the centre and the periphery of the system. • Interfaces with key criteria of other systems. • Flexible and progressive implementation option.

Switching from one technology to a fully contactless card system. No requirement to have a central system or a GPS-system or a data collection system.

• Complementary development to an extension of the transport network. The peripheral position of Calypso in the fare collection system facilitates explicitly the quantitative and qualitative extension of networks by maintaining the correct data flow towards the back office system.

• Provision of an autonomous development of fare systems. The performance of the transport application allows the realization of most fare options (zone, time, multimodal, best pricing, etc.) as well as most dedicated wishes of operators.

• Starts on top of a wide range of flexible media. Possibility to start with a specific memory or microprocessor card and to migrate to a uniform or hybrid medium at a later stage by maintaining the terminal infrastructure and different suppliers.

• Administrates interoperability. Among companies within a city or within cities and regions.

• Administrates other systems. Access control, working times, multiservice, city card,...

• Supports marketing options towards customers during the whole life time of the system without requiring any changes within the back office system.

Development of a personalised offer for customer management. Development of new services for customers: traveller information, parking, shopping,... Development of CRM.

>> Extension of the periphery without changing the existing back office system.



NORM COMPLIANT SPECIFICATION TO IMPLEMENT TECHNICAL INTEROPERABILITY

Due to the performance and homogeneity of applications developed by Calypso, due to the security profiles and the organisation of the data structure, it is possible to provide an interoperable fare offer among different transport operators. This means that Calypso technology can coexist with other implemented technologies.

Beyond the transaction: Contributions of Calypso to electronic ticketing systems

SOFTWARE STANDARD INTERFACE (API) IN TERMINALS

Interface between the application software of the terminal and the contactless coupler. • Transparent management of card commands for the application:

Each change of application will only be treated on the terminal level and does not necessitate to change the management of the cards.

• Guarantees the equal treatment of all cards. The API which is installed in all terminals guarantees a common interface with all cards and couplers.

• Allows an easier realisation and development of the terminal application.

The security architecture, which describes a secured data management for a ticketing system recommends options that allow an implementation of a security concept within the back office systems: • Development of keys and manufacturing of SAM; Guarantee of maintaining their secret when the

keys are defined and installed. • Detection system for all possible frauds; statistical search programmes in the net. • Black list management: dynamic management of this list in order to maintain the transaction times

and to avoid a terminal overload.

>>> Generic security protocol, which can be personalised by the operator and which allows him to define his own security protocols (fundamental with reference to interoperability).

SALES SYSTEM AND RELOADING (WITH CONTACT)

The Calypso specifications contain the norm 7816 – 4, which defines the overall contact guided transport protocol. This norm allows the reloading of Calypso cards on the existing reloading infrastructure and consequently reduces the investment cost when setting up the sales infrastructure. Besides this there is obviously the possibility to set up a contactless reloading infrastructure.

Use of existing public networks Financial institutes: cards for purchase and fidelity cards

Banks : Reloading via the bank ATMs Others : Phones

Reloading via telematic networks At home via the internet by use of simple couplers

Beyond the transaction: contributions of Calypso to the longevity / perennity of investment

Maintaining of international norms CALYPSO uses the following norms:

• ISO 7816 (parts 1 to 4) for the smart card application. • ISO 14 443 B for the contactless transmission. • ENV 1545 for the transport data dictionary, which defines data (e.g. information on the user and

payments effected,).

Real independence towards industry



Calypso technology is part of a real concurrence : • Licensed and non licensed (either via purchase of OEM components or via a license purchase)

companies can offer this technology in tenders. • The technology is distributed through a wide number of license holders, which can provide a wide

offer of compatible cards and terminals (CD97BX cards, CD light cards as well as directly developed cards by the industry companies which are compatible with the reference specifications of Calypso).

It is important to highlight that the variety of licensed companies allows to assign different parts of the ticketing system to different supplying companies. This leads to a significant investment cost reduction within tender procedures and the possibility to tender only single elements and components of a ticketing system. Dependencies from single companies are avoidable with this strategy. Calypso technology itself guarantees within this context the compatibility and functioning of all components even though provided by different industry suppliers.

SUPPORT THROUGH A USER GROUP

Calypso represents not only a set of specifications but also a group that exchanges reciprocally know how and experiences. The future technological developments will be integrated coherent to the Calypso spirit: • Support for all transport operators and service providers when preparing the implementation of an

electronic ticketing system. • Survey and assurance of upward compatibility of the products. • Guidance of technological developments in order to avoid a weakening of the Calypso principles

in future. • Wide participation within the standardisation and normalisation work.

CONCLUSIONS

Calypso technology, designed by public transport operators is already a widely spread contactless technology, and provided by numerous manufacturers. Based on tight specifications and standards, Calypso provides all technical requirements able to enhance urban mobility systems, requiring a multi-application management in an interoperable environment. The impacts of this system primarily focus on the payment of goods (stored value, electronic purse), on easier access to services for citizens and better data storage and processing for the services providers.

Today, the technology is already able to widen the field of applications, which are suitable for all kinds of multiservice environments:

• Ticketing for transport, parking, museums, etc. • Payment for shops, telephone, self-service machines, etc. • Booking for museums, cultural and sport events, etc. • Information on the services in the city and access to administrative environment for delivery of

certificates, payment of fines, etc.

Calypso technology is serving world-wide validated multiservice system based on a contact and contactless technology for payment, ticketing, identification, information, location and booking operations. Calypso implementations can be found in Lisbon, Paris, Porto, Nice, Naples, Brussels, Caracas, Montreal, Glasgow, Israel, Milan and many more cities around the world. Ralph GAMBETTA, Managing Director, Temco GmbH, Postfach 57 12, 78436 Konstanz, Germany, +49-7531-958854, +49-7531-958829, [email protected], www.calypsonet-asso.org



MOBILE SOLUTIONS IN TRANSPORT LOGISTICS

Alexey JURENOKS Riga Technical University, Latvia

Keywords: mobile, transport logistics, WiFi services Abstract: The paper is about capability of enabling a limited notion of mobile data recharging in areas

lacking suitable network coverage, such as coverage by GSM or WiFi services. In this paper Mobile Data Transport is explored, which is a term we are using to denote that data can be transported “physically” to locations beyond network coverage. There, the data can be used to “recharge” via wireless protocols, such as WiFi or Bluetooth. Respective networking capabilities are increasingly built into mobile phones, PDAs and similar mobile information systems. Due to the lack of network coverage, MDR would be limited to downloading specific information though.

INTRODUCTION

“Mobile solutions in transport logistics" has emerged as a topic of interest among researchers investigating mobile technology. Data recharging is about “developing a service and corresponding infrastructure that permits a mobile device of any kind to plug into the Internet at any location for any amount of time and as a result, end up with more useful data than it had before” [CFZ01].

I will speak about capability of enabling a limited notion of mobile data recharging in areas lacking suitable network coverage, such as coverage by GSM or WiFi services. Mobile phone network coverage (except mobile satellite services) often ceases a few kilometers outside town boundaries. Installing mobile satellite services is technically possible even at the remotest locations but can generally be assumed too expensive.

Being situated in an area lacking network coverage does not mean, however, that networked devices, such as mobile phones or personal digital assistants, are not carried around. Tourists exploring remote areas [5], for example, may carry them as part of their equipment. They may use mobile devices for travel-related purposes (e.g., electronic maps or guides) or simply as electronic diaries, generating content to be emailed to friends and family [1] once back in a connected area. Local residents may carry devices while commuting from rural/remote areas to metropolitan areas for work or leisure purposes.

I’m exploring Mobile Data Transport which is a term we are using to denote that data can be transported “physically” to locations beyond network coverage. There, the data can be used to “recharge” via wireless protocols, such as WiFi or Bluetooth. Respective networking capabilities are increasingly built into mobile phones, PDAs and similar mobile information systems. Due to the lack of network coverage, MDR would be limited to downloading specific information though.

MOBILE DATA TRANSPORT

Mobile Data Transport (MDT) resembles reviving the tradition of physical data transport as it was omnipresent before high-speed network connections became (almost) ubiquitous. A major enhancement is the use of wireless connectivity for easy data transfer between units. Assuming a single source of information (e.g., officially released information), MDT requires a base station (providing the data to be distributed), data packages (used to physically transport the data) and recharge stations (offering the data for downloading). Implementing basic MDT requires three different types of inter-connected components:

1. One “base station” installed at a depot (one per depot). A depot can be a bus station providing electronic timetables or a tourist resort providing “special offers”



2. One or more mobile “data packages” installed on carriers, such as buses, cars or even people (one per carrier). Other mobile devices are acting as carriers in the case of peer-to-peer based data transport.

3. One or more “recharge stations” which can be stationary (e.g., a bus stop) or non-stationary (mobile devices). Stationary devices should be self-managed, support external and internal power supply and provide wireless remote administration and configuration.

Data “travel” is organized as follows:

The base station provides the information to be distributed. Upon departure, carriers download the information onto the data packages they carry. The data is transferred to the data package via WLAN 802.11b, installed at the base station. Upon arrival at target destinations, the recharge data is uploaded using wireless data connections to the local “recharge station”. Transferring data can occur fully automated (“download the latest bus schedule” or “download all tourist information the other traveler is offering”) and does not necessarily require human intervention.

• Technically, data recharging could be accomplished by using Bluetooth-enabled devices, such as certain mobile phones, WiFi-enabled devices, such as high end PDAs and laptops, or even IrDA (Infra Red Connection), e.g., low end PDAs and laptops.

In what follows, we illustrate the concept by example of distributing electronic bus schedules to locations lacking network coverage.

APPLICATION SCENARIO: MOBILE DATA TRANSPORT ENABLING MOBILE TIMETABLE RECHARGING AT REMOTE BUS STOPS

It is a common experience among bus riders that bus stops do not provide accurate timetable information. Timetables might be out-dated, unusable or simply missing.

Being able to download (recharge) electronic timetables at bus stops would ease some of the problems as electronic timetables would not suffer from environmental impacts, such as humidity (Darwin which is located at Australia’s tropical top end enjoys up to 100% relative humidity during the wet season) and resulting mould, or vandalism, such as graffiti. Prospective or actual riders interested in the latest timetable could recharge their mobile devices at any participating bus stop or while riding the bus, simply by downloading the data. Updating electronic timetables can be automated, thus easing the maintenance problems associated with printed timetables.

MDR enabling mobile timetable recharging means we are looking at the following components: 1. One stationary “base station” installed at the bus depot (one per depot). 2. One or more mobile “data packages” installed on buses (one per bus). 3. Several stationary “recharge stations” built into or attached to solid bus stop components, such

as poles or shelters (one per bus stop).

Data “travel” is organized as follows:

1. The “base station” located at the bus depot maintains the most recent version of the bus schedule (e.g., regularly updated from back office servers).

2. Upon departure, buses download the most recent version of “their” timetable onto the data packages they carry. Buses and associated timetables are easily identified by route number. Recharge data is also available for download to riders traveling on the bus.

3. Upon arrival at a participating bus stop, the recharge data is uploaded using wireless data connections to the bus stop's “recharge station”.

Due to technical constraints, mobile data recharging at rural and remote bus stops would be limited to downloading timetable information and possibly other useful information, such as scheduled modifications to timetables, road construction in the near future or information relating to the bus stop’s physical location (nearby attractions, etc.).

Wireless access points embedded into bus stops could not only beacon timetable information but also their coordinates and other helpful information, such as information regarding nearby attractions. Such



additional information could be used to contribute to grassroots mobile infrastructure projects like the PlaceLab initiative [6]. Moreover, beacons embedded in solid poles would be well protected against vandalism.

RELATED WORK

“Emails on Wheels” [3] aims in a similar direction but pursues more specific objectives while using a different technological approach. year. In Paris, Mobitex installed a wireless system providing real time information about bus arrival times [7].

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH

I have illustrated Mobile Data Transport as a way to enable Mobile Data Recharging using mobile devices at locations that would not normally be covered by communication networks, such as WiFi or GSM. As discussed earlier, it is important to note that being situated in an area lacking network coverage does not mean networked devices were useless. Accordingly, we consider Mobile Data Transport as a way to provide additional benefit especially in large and sparsely populated countries like Australia. We have shown that technical requirements and implementation costs were reasonable. We are working on implementing a proof-of-concept version of the Mobile Data Transport concept exploring the timetable scenario.

We see peer-to-peer data transport among travelers as an interesting area for future research with enormous potential in advertising and “viral marketing” (see also [4]).

REFERENCES 1. Brown, B. & Chalmers, M. (2003). Tourism and mobile technology. Proceedings ECSCW 2003, pp. 335-354. Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2. Cherniack, M., Franklin, M. J. and Zdonik, S. (2001). Expressing User Profiles for Data Recharging. IEEE Personal Communication August 2001. 3. D’Monte, D. (2003). Email on wheels. IslamOnline.net. 4. Heinemann, A., Kangasharju, J., Lyardet, F., Mühlhäuser, M. (2003). Ad hoc collaboration and information services using information clouds. Proc. ASWN 2003, pp. 233-242. 5. Loker-Murphy, L. & Pearce, P.L. (1995). Young budget travelers: backpackers in Australia. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 819-843. 6. Schilit, B.; LaMarca, A.; Borriello, G.; Griswold, W.; McDonald, D.; Lazowska, E.; Balachandran, A.; Hong, J.; Iverson, V. (2003). Ubiquitous location-aware computing and the "Place Lab" initiative. First ACM Workshop on Wireless Mobile App. and Services on WLAN, 2003. 7. http://www.mobitex.com/pdf/Successtory_RATP.pdf Alexey JURENOKS, Researcher, PhD student, Riga Technical University, Meza str. 1/3, LV-1049, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +371 7089096, Fax: +371 7089572, e-mail: [email protected]



SIMULATION SYSTEM OF BCT

Yuri MERKURYEV, Vladimir BARDACHENKO, Andrey SOLOMENNIKOV Department of Modelling and Simulation, Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia

Fred KAMPERMAN

Baltic Container Terminal, Ltd., Riga, Latvia Keywords: Simulation, model, marine container terminal, economic efficiency, optimization. Abstract: The paper presents a general overview of simulation model (based on Rockwell Arena

simulation package) of Baltic Container Terminal featuring micro-operations of loading and discharging 20ft and 40ft, processing hatch covers, and restow containers. The paper illustrates model applicability to real-life tasks such as optimal resource allocation and choosing an optimal set of resources available.

INTRODUCTION

The Baltic Container Terminal Ltd. (further in the text referred to as the BCT) operates at the facilities of the sea port of Riga. It represents a fast growing container terminal servicing major international shipping lines, among them being Maersk Sea-Land, MSC, P&O Nedlloyd, KNSM, Kursu Line, NCL, CMA/CGM and others. Currently it processes about 150.000 TEU per year, yet seeing further growth. In country-wide economic context, the terminal plays an important role in merchandise transit through Latvia by connecting main European and overseas markets with Russia and other CIS countries.

The research in focus has been undertaken within the BALTPORTS-IT project “Simulation and IT-Solutions: Applications in the Baltic Port Areas of the Newly Associated States” of the IST Programme of the European Commission (2001-2003). The ultimate goal of this research is creation of an adequate flexible simulation model of basic operational elements of the Baltic Container Terminal (BCT). Such a model should rapidly address diverse what if situations and assist the management in decision-making with regard to the optimal resource allocation. Thus the model can be used for optimization of BCT operation. The discussed paper concentrates on logics of the basic technological and informational processes in BCT servicing operations. The modelling platform was chosen to be Arena 5.0 of Rockwell Software as this software is well-suited for modelling of statistically randomly distributed processes, which dominate in this model. This software allows also a good degree of dynamic visualization of the process logics, which makes the model easy to comprehend and operate for the users.

RESOURCES AND OPERATIONS

Figure 1 presents a structural scheme of resource types involved in vessel processing.

Ship at

Berth

1

QC Tr 20' Imp Yard 1

QC Tr

FL

QC Restow

QCHatchCovers

Discharge

YC 40' Import Yard2

Hatch Covers

Restow

Ship at Berth

20'- 40'Import

and Exportcontainers

20' Import containers

40' Import containers

40' Export Yard 6

20' Exp Yard 5

YC Tr QC

Ship at

Berth

1

FL Tr QC

HatchCovers

QCRestow

LoadingBerth 1QCHatch Covers

Restow

Ship at Berth

20'- 40'Import

and Exportcontainers

40' Export containers

20' Export containers

Figure 1. Overview of resources involved in the model. Notations: YC -Yard Crane, Tr -Trucks, QC - Quay Crane, FL - ForkLift.



The left-hand side of the figure above labeled Discharge depicts the sequence of processes involved in discharging containers off a vessel. The main element of the discharge sequence is the technological chain of delivery of 20ft and 40ft incoming (import) containers. Consequently, the right-hand part of the figure illustrates the process sequence of loading containers onboard. The additional two cycles of loading and discharging are dictated by the necessity of modelling operations involving hatch covers and restow containers.

RESOURCE UNIT LOGICS

In the model considered, resource units are represented by the quay crane QC, truck Tr, forklift FL, and yard crane YC (Figure 1.). The former two types of resource units work both with 20ft and 40ft containers, while the latter ones (i.e., FL and YC) are employed in processing 20ft and 40ft containers correspondingly. These two resource units should be monitored and with some time intervals be available for management corrections. Thus, having completed a single task (in a common case, processing a single container), the resource is ready for accept an external instruction and to switch to another process from its current operation even if it is not yet completed. This feature allows greater mobility of resources as current process might be cancelled and thus provides greater flexibility of the model.

The structure of a common resource unit logics incorporated in the model is represented in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2. Logical model of a resource unit. Once a resource unit is created on the initial start of the model, the internal program time is checked against the Working Time variable of the resource unit, that can be changed by external instructions (e.g., if the unit is idle, it might be employed by some external process with a high priority). If at the moment of an inquiry about the resource’s current status, the status is “idle”, after some time the inquiry is repeated, until the status is switched to a working mode. Then the resource allocation algorithm assigns to each resource its working schedule and code of operation (e.g., yard or berth number). Once the resource status is changed to “work-ready”, the algorithm inquiries location where this resource is necessary according to the previously assigned code. In case if the resource moves to the assigned location, but there is already no tasks to complete, it becomes idle (through the operational block Delay) for some time (depending on the management algorithm, it might be either constant or variable), after which the inquiry is repeated. This logic eliminates possible queues of resources. Moreover, during the delay time, the situation might change, so that upon the following inquiry the resource can be sent to another location. This flexibility closely corresponds to the real work situations at BCT, where every single resource unit can be switched from one location to another. While the resource unit is busy with its running task, its process normally follows a triangular distribution with preset parameters. By changing values of these parameters, it is possible to model productivity falls during night hours, when the electric light cannot fully compensate for the daylight; or, for instance, a productivity increase if the personnel is well educated and work teams are well formed.

MODELLING LOADING AND DISCHARGE OPERATIONS

Implemented block-schemes of sub-models of basic technological chains involved in container discharge (import chain) and loading (export chain) are illustrated in Figure 3 below. The figure is an excerpt from the model, which contains more of similar blocks and more than 700 directing, controlling and adjustable variables.

Re s o u rc e Un i t Tr ue

False

Is It Wo rk Ti m e ?

De l a y WT

As s i g n Va rs

As s ig n Ou p u tMatc h

Pro c e s s i n gCo n ta i n e rs

Re s Co n ta i n e rBa tc h

c o n ta in e rsSo u rc e o f

Resource unit returns

Tr ue

False

Wh e re Re s m u s t b e



3D Surface Plot (NP as fnct TR_Tt 5v*7526c)NP of the model = Distance Weighted Least Squares

30 25 20 15 10 5

extremums

Net Productivity(m/h)

Numberof trucks

Truck cycle (sec)

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Net Productivity distribution as a function of trucksnumber

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M a tc h 1 1 _ c q

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appearsThe Truck

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I S it FLif t ? at t he Yar dCont ainers ar e

20'ers import operations at Yard 1

TE1ret ur n_t

QCrane cycle = Tmatch11cq + TE11_cq +TE12_cqt + Tmatch12cq

+ TE13_ct + Tmatch13ct + TE14_ctf + TE1return_tTruck cycle = Tmatch12t + TE12_cqt

ForkL ift cycle = Tmatch13f + TE14_ctf + TE15_cf

The QC appears

posit ioninit ial

ret urns at t heQCrane

posit ioninit ial

ret urns at t heForkLif t

appearsThe ForkLif t FL

M A E R S KM A E R S K

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f or expor t20f cont ainers

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I S it ForkLif t ? M a tc h 5 3 _ c tq TE54_ct q

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ForkLift cycle = TE51_cf + Tmatch52cf + TE52_cft

+ TE53_ct + Tmatch53ct + TE54_ctq + TE56return_tTruck cycle = Tmatch52t + TE52_cft

QCrane cycle = Tmatch53q + TE54_ctq + TE55_cq

M a tc h 5 3 _ q r TE57_qr

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20'ers export operations at Yard 5

of 20ft container in Model 4Technological chains

Figure 3. Sample sub-models of basic technological chains of container discharge and loading.

The histograms of real statistical data and those of the model-generated values were verified by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, which indicated that model inputs and the output (NP) follows a distribution identical the real-life BCT data. As the model output is statistically identical to the observed real data of the BCT terminal, the inputs being also identical, the model represents a statistically reliable simulation (at least, with the given input and respective output values of the BCT terminal).

APPLICATION CASE 1: NET PRODUCTIVITY AS A FUNCTION OF NUMBER OF TRUCKS

The dependence of net productivity on number of trucks involved is going to be determined through a set of statistical experiments. The number of available trucks adversely affects the average time for moving each container, and consequently affects net productivity depending on the new average cycle time of a truck denoted Tt. In order to discover the dependence of NPm(TR) [NPm standing for Net Productivity of the model, moves/hour, and TR for the number of trucks available to the model], there were completed 142 vessel model cycle runs with 1-6 trucks accordingly. Thus, each set of trucks was tested in processing of 142 vessels. Figure 4 (right picture) portrays dependencies of NP(TR) and experimental histograms of NP(TR) and gives a rather full representation of the probabilistic nature of the dependency being studied. It could be seen here that the Net productivity is near to its maximal values when using 4 trucks. Probably, the BCT management followed the same logic when compiling workgroups of 3 trucks.

Figure 4. Dependence of Net Productivity on the number of tracks.



APPLICATION CASE 2: RESOURCE USE OPTIMIZATION

A set of available resources leads to the problem of an optimal choice of resource units for a given technological chain. Since any resource unit is involved in a logistic chain along with other resources, inevitable delays in technological operations as well as queues between resources units during load and discharge operations bring overall efficiency to a certain level, which sometimes is rather different from the efficiency of each separate resource unit.

Obviously, the upper productivity boundary of the whole logistic chain will not exceed productivity of the slowest resource in the chain. In order to know what the real predicted productivity value would be, we can use an adequate model of the processes to be studied.

The data obtained from the model allow estimating the real-life expected productivity and its statistical distribution for each combination of the resources in focus. Then, as a closer approximation for reality, for economic calculations the modeled productivity rather then nominal input resource productivity characteristics can be employed.

The criterion of economic efficiency of utilizing a certain combination of resources is calculated as a difference between the hourly income at given productivity (net of average fixed costs related to one hour of operation) and operating per-hour costs.

Now in order to obtain numerical results, we have to run the model with every possible set of resources (model run for 154 modeled vessels per each resource set) while monitoring the values of productivity. The number of containers on a certain vessel is modeled by random generators, whose statistical distribution was adjusted in accordance with real-life data.

The next step would be incorporating the newly found productivity NP values into the economic model of resource utilization. The total costs per given combination of resources are being subtracted from the hourly income of the terminal at the current productivity of operation. The remaining sum is considered to be the criterion of efficiency in focus whose maximal value is to be found. The described obtaining of data through modelling of each resource set’s productivity is illustrated on Figure 5.

Figure 5. Illustration of methodology for estimating resource distribution efficiency

The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test proved statistical identity between the real values statistics based on BCT database and the modelled performance with the chosen set of resources. The test results confirm statistical reliability of the model.

Finding optimal set of resources is based on parametric optimization of the model for a given set of statistical distributions of input data – 20 and 40ft containers, covers and restows. The histograms of related statistical distributions are shown on the left-hand side of Figure 5. For each consequent experiment the model parameters were changed (quay cranes QCi, YCj and n*TR trucks). The interaction of cranes and trucks in the given statistical environment yielded output performance statistics NPijn illustrated in Figure 6.

MAE

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Hist ogr am ( Real 142 Ships of BCT 16v*142c)

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BCT simulation model3D Scatterplot (Resource Combinations 3v*36c)

6, 98, 80

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Possible resource pools

Resource combinations

Categorized HistogramVariable: NetProd

Category: 0 NetProd real = 142*1*normal(x, 21.9756, 1.8038)Category: 1 NetProd model = 142*1*normal(x, 21.5928, 2.055)

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INPUT OUTPUT



Figure 6. Analysis of average efficiency criterion values and their 95% confidence intervals for all combinations of resources. The global optimum is found for the workgroup of 4 trucks, QC1, YC1.

CONCLUSIONS

Within the frames of the present paper the authors have proved the possibility of modelling complex logistical processes of the terminal using the simulation software. As partly discussed above, the model can be applied as a practical tool in assisting terminal management team in the following tasks:

1. Real time monitoring and visualization – when changes to the BCT database are periodically transmitted to the model, which are being graphically depicted.

2. Forecast – with the given input data the model is run for k times, which results in accumulated statistical averages, and confidence intervals for future decision-making.

3. Statistical what-if analysis – a support tool for the management and for training the personnel through simulating and analyzing diverse working situations

REFERENCES 1. Giribone, P., G.A. Bruzzone and A. Carbone. Harbour services and lay-out re-engineering by using

simulation. Proceedings of the International Workshop "Modelling and Simulation within a Maritime Environment", September 6-8, 1998, Riga, Latvia. Ed. by Yuri Merkuryev, Agostino Bruzzone and Leonid Novitsky. SCS, 1998. P. 3-7.

2. Pranevicius, H. and D. Makackas. Simulation of Stevedoring works in the Klaipaeda oil terminal. Journal of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Transport. Vol. XVII, No.5. 2002. P. 188-193.

3. Merkuryev, Y., V. Bardachenko, A. Solomennikov, and F. Kamperman. The Baltic Container Terminal Simulation System. Applications of Simulation and IT Solutions in the Baltic Port Areas of the Associated Candidate Countries. Ed. by E. Bluemel, J. Babot and L. Novitsky. Riga, JUMI Ltd, 2003. P. 47-83.

4. Merkuryev, Y., V. Bardachenko, A. Solomennikov, and F. Kamperman. Simulation-based resource pooling at the Baltic Container Terminal. Proceedings of International Workshops on Harbour, Maritime and Multimodal Logistics Modelling and Simulation, and Applied Modelling and Simulation. HMS2004 & AMS2004. September 16-18, 2004, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ed. by Agostino G. Bruzzone, Gerson Gomes Cunha, Luiz Landau and Yuri Merkuryev. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 2004. P. 16-24.

Yuri MERKURYEV, Head of the Department of Modelling and Simulation, Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +371-9454253, e-mail: [email protected] Vladimir BARDACHENKO, Senior Researcher, Department of Modelling and Simulation, Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +371-9118947, e-mail: [email protected] Andrey SOLOMENNIKOV, Junior Researcher, Department of Modelling and Simulation, Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia, e-mail: [email protected] Fred KAMPERMAN, Terminal manager, Baltic Container Terminal, Ltd., Riga, Latvia, [email protected]

Plot of Means and Conf. Intervals (95.00%)Criterion dependencies 2 from YC

QC1 80

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Optimal resource pool cosist of

PLENARY: THE 6FP IST − Plenary Session HOW TO PREPARE A PROPOSAL? 2005


HOW TO PREPARE A PROPOSAL FOR FP6

Elina ZICMANE CARSA; Brussels, Belgium

Keywords: FP6, proposal preparation Abstract: Preparing a proposal for FP6 is a long and quite complicated task that requires a lot of

precision, discipline and innovation in the same time. Before starting the writing process 6 main questions should be asked about the whole preparation cycle: 1. How do I find a call? 2. How do I know what is the Strategic Objective? 3. What is the best instrument for my proposal? 4. How do I find partners? 5. How do I write a proposal? 6. How do I submit? This paper will answer these questions, as well as give additional advices for success.

INTRODUCTION

Preparing a proposal for FP6 is a long and quite complicated task that requires a lot of precision, discipline and innovation in the same time. In order to complete it successfully, we should first situate it in the whole project cycle.

The Initial phase of a project starts with a project idea and need for additional EU financing in order to carry it out. The preparation phase that follows consists of identification of a call for participation, finding partners, writing the proposal and submitting it. The evaluation phase is when the EC with the help of independent external experts is assessing the proposal and ranking it according to 6 pre-defined criteria. If the proposal is successful and receives the EU financing, the negotiation phase follows. Finally, the consortium signs a contract with the EC and starts implementing the project. The real work begins only at this point.

When preparing a proposal, it is important to bear in mind all these phases of a project life cycle, as they will help to write it better: if we have a good project idea and we know in what way the evaluator and the EC as the future contracting party wish to see it described, if we can anticipate some of their questions, comments and suggestions and prepare the proposal accordingly, the success is ours.

In the ideal case, first of all there is a project idea, and then partners are found in order to create a complete consortium. Afterwards an appropriate call is found, and the proposal is elaborated and submitted according to the call requirements. However, in 2005 calls under the FP6 are not very frequent, therefore the work might start by several ideas or even areas of work that could be explored in a project, then finding a call and choosing the most suitable Strategic Objective of the call in the respective Work Programme. Next steps are finding the best instrument available for the Strategic Objective, forming a complete and balanced consortium, elaborating the proposal and submitting it.

Several questions might arise regarding these procedures: 1. How do I find a call? 2. How do I know what is the Strategic Objective? 3. What is the best instrument for my proposal? 4. How do I find partners? 5. How do I write a proposal? 6. How do I submit?

This paper will look for answers to these questions based on the example of the IST Work Programme and the forthcoming IST Call 5.



HOW DO I FIND A CALL?

There are several sources of information; however the best way to find a published call is to check the official Community Research & Development Information Service CORDIS (www.cordis.lu) and its thematic sites (for instance, www.cordis.lu/ist). CORDIS also provides e-mail news service and other facilities. In order to see what calls will be announced in future the best source is the respective Work Programme. IST Work Programme is published on CORDIS and regularly updated. You can always rely on the National Contact Point, as well as various news services.

HOW DO I KNOW WHAT IS THE STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE?

The call text provides the number and title of the Strategic Objective (SO). It is further detailed in the Work Programme. In other Work Programmes the SO might be called priority but it does not change the main principle: the proposal has to correspond fully to the SO and to be in line with overall objectives of the programme.

WHAT IS THE BEST INSTRUMENT?

There are 5 instruments available under the FP6: IP: Integrated project, STREP: Specific targeted research project, NoE: Network of excellence, CA: Coordination action, SSA: Specific support action. There are several other instruments designed specifically for SMEs.

The main idea is to find the most appropriate instrument available for the SO according to 4 criteria: its objective, required participation (partners), duration and available budget.

Integrated projects • Objective: Ambitious objective-driven research with a ‘programme’ approach • Partners: 10-20 participants from industry (incl. SMEs), research institutions, universities – and

in some cases potential end-users • Duration: 36-60 months • Budget: total EU contribution: €4-25M (average ~ €10M)

The IPs offer flexibility in their implementation, such as yearly update of workplan, possibility for competitive calls for enlargement of consortium.

Specific targeted research projects • Objective: Objective-driven research more limited in scope than an IP • Partners: 6-15 participants from industry incl. SMEs, research institutes, universities • Duration: 18-36 months • Budget: total EU contribution: €0.8-3M (average ~ €1.9M)

The STREPs have fixed workplan and fixed partnership for the duration

Networks of excellence • Objective: Durable integration of participants’ research activities • Partners: 6-12 participants from research institutions, universities, Mainly indirectly: industry –

through governing boards, etc. • Duration: 48-60 months (with continuous integration) • Budget: total EU contribution: €4-15m (average ~ €7M)

The NoEs offer flexibility in their implementation: yearly update of workplan, possibilities for enlargement of the consortium.

Coordination actions • Objective: Co-ordination of research activities • Partners: 13-26 participants from research institutions, universities, industry incl. SMEs • Duration: 18-36 months



• Budget: total EU contribution: €0.5-1.8M (average ~ €1M)

The CAs have fixed overall workplan and partnership for the duration.

Specific support actions • Objective: Support to programme implementation, preparation of future actions, dissemination

of results • Partners: 1-15 participants from research organisations, universities, industry incl. SMEs • Duration: 9-30 months • Budget: total EU contribution: €0.03-1M (average ~ €0.5M)

The SSAs have fixed overall workplan and partnership for the duration.

HOW DO I FIND PARTNERS?

Finding partners is a very delicate task, as the consortium is expected to be competent and complete, with clearly defined role for each partner. The first idea that comes to the mind is inviting the usual business and/or research partners. CORDIS offers a partner search programme that can be of great help. Last but not least, eventual partners can be contacted through other sources, such as Internet, various networking events and other meeting opportunities.

It is important to check the eligibility of partners: for IPs, NoEs, STREPs and CAs 2 mutually independent participants from the 25 EU Member States or Associated Candidate Countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey) are required along with the 3rd participant from the above countries or from an Associate State (Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland). The number of participants can be much higher, and in most cases it is strongly encouraged, as the European dimension is often of great value. The SSAs have no restrictions regarding the partners.

HOW DO I WRITE A PROPOSAL?

An important step to take before starting the writing process is registration. Early registration is suggested, as it will leave more time to the proposer for filling in the necessary forms and for the EC to see how many evaluators will be necessary and what should be their profile.

Upon the registration, the choice has to be made between online preparation / submission and offline preparation / online submission. The online preparation is suggested by the EC. For the offline preparation the EPTool has to be downloaded along with a package of A and B forms.

The proposal itself is divided into 2 main parts: A (administrative information and budget) and B (proposal text). These forms slightly differ depending on the instrument, therefore the example of a STREP will be used here.

PART A A1 form contains general information on the proposal, as well as its short summary. It is filled in by the Coordinator. A2 forms contain general information on the participants and are filled in by each of them, including the Coordinator. A3 form is the proposal budget and therefore requires further explanations.

When making the budget, 3 main points have to be considered: • There are 3 cost models that can be applied for each of the partners: FC, FCF and AC; • The budget has to be split up into 4 parts: RTD activities, demonstration activities, innovation-

related activities and management activities; • Each of these activities are granted up to a certain % of the overall budget, depending on the

cost model.

Cost models: • FC (full-cost): in this model all eligible direct and indirect costs are included. It is applicable to

all legal entities except physical persons.



• FCF (simplified full-cost): in this model all eligible direct costs are included, adding a flat rate of 20% for the indirect costs. It is applicable to SMEs, non-commercial, non-profit and international organisations.

• AC (additional-cost): in this model all eligible direct costs adding a flat rate of 20% for the indirect costs. It is applicable to physical persons, non-commercial, non-profit and international organisations.

Budget by activities: • RTD activities are all activities directly aimed at creating new knowledge. They are at the heart

of a STREP. • Demonstration activities are aimed at proving the viability of new technologies that offer a

potential economic advantage but which cannot be commercialised directly (for instance, testing of prototypes, etc.).

• Innovation-related activities include protection and dissemination of knowledge, impact studies, exploitation of results and take-up actions.

• Management activities consist of technical project management, coordination and reporting, as well as all other activities related to them.

The following table represents the maximum amount of EU grant:

Activities Maximum grant, FC/ FCF Maximum grant, AC

RTD 50% 100%

Demonstration 35% 100%

Innovation-related 50% 100%

Consortium management 100% (up to 7% of the EC contribution) 100% (up to 7% of the EC contribution)

A very useful tool for filling in these forms is Guide for Proposers that can be downloaded from each call page. The forms can take much longer time than expected, therefore it is important to fill them in as early as possible in order to leave to the last moment only slight corrections.

PART B There are some general rules before starting the Part B:

1. Language: the proposers are free to write in any official EU language but preferably in English. In case the proposal is written in some other language, its summary should be presented in English.

2. Explanations: The Guide for Proposers offers short description of the expected contents for each of the B parts. They are also mentioned in the B form. This description has to be followed thoroughly and every point well responded. A suggestion is to go beyond the requirements, thus showing good command of the project.

3. Volume: Likewise, the ideal number of pages per chapter is indicated. Do not exceed this number, unless it is really necessary!

4. Style: the text of proposal should be short, clear and concise, and the tables useful. The evaluators often have a very limited time for reading one proposal, therefore it should be facilitated.

5. Contents: the contents of proposal should prove that it is well-focused and well-planned and that the consortium has all the necessary resources for carrying it out.

The following are short descriptions of the 7 chapters that form the Part B. They are based on the EC requirements along with some advices from CARSA’s experience:



B.1 S&T objectives of the project and state of the art

This part describes in detail the proposed project’s S&T objectives, which should be achievable within the project, not through subsequent development, and should be stated in a measurable and verifiable form. The progress of the project work will be measured against these goals in later reviews and assessments. It also describes the state-of-the-art in the area concerned and how the proposed project will enhance the state-of-the-art in that area. The length: 3 pages.

B.2 Relevance to the objectives of the IST priority

This part describes in detail the manner how the proposed project’s objectives contribute to the scientific, technical, wider societal and policy objectives of the IST Priority as stated in the call. It should therefore show the relevance to the IST priority, to other programmes, such as eEurope, as well as to wider policies, such as the Lisbon strategy. The length: 3 pages.

B.3 Potential impact

This part will show the strategic impact that the project is expected to have, for example in reinforcing competitiveness or on solving societal problems. It is recommended to describe also impacts on regional (national) and European levels, as well as the contribution to various EU policies.

Furthermore, the proposer should describe the innovation-related activities, exploitation of the project results and various dissemination activities (of the project results / as a part of project goals). The added-value in carrying out the work at a European level should be shown: in most of the cases collaboration among several European countries is necessary for achieving the results of the project and for better dissemination and exploitation. This part also creates the link with the other existing national or international research activities. The length: 3 pages.

B.4 The consortium and project resources

This part describes the partners and their specific skills. It shows the complimentarity between participants and their roles in the project scheme. The opportunity of involving SMEs should be addressed in this part.

Furthermore, this part describes the human and material resources that will be deployed for the implementation of the project: the effort per partner, the necessary equipment and the composition of the budget.

An adequate detailed overall financial plan has to be included along with a STREP Project Effort Form. Finally, if the project foresees some sub-contracting or participation of other countries than the eligible, it has to be justified here.

B.5 Project management

This chapter describes the organisation, management and decision making structures of the project, as well as the plan for the management of knowledge, of intellectual property and of other innovation-related activities arising in the project. It shows, normally by a picture, the project management and coordination at various levels (Steering Committee, Project Coordination, Quality & other issues). The length: 5 pages.

B.6 Detailed implementation plan

The introduction shows the structure of the workplan (drawing) and explains how the plan will help to achieve the objectives. This part also identifies significant risks and contingency plans.

A breakdown per Workpackages (WP) follows. A WP represents a major sub-division of the project having a verifiable end-point, such as deliverable or milestone. All WPs are divided into tasks. Lists of deliverables and of WPs, as well as graphical presentation of the implementation (Gantt and Pert diagrams) have to be provided.

B.7 Other issues

The last chapter of the Part B shows the main ethical issues (directives and regulations, Ethical issues checklist), the gender issues (situating the gender theme in the context of the proposal, describing the overall gender policy), as well as contribution to other EC policies (other EC-policy related issues taken into account, engagement with actors beyond the research, synergies with education at all



levels). The Guide for Proposers is of great help for this chapter; however copying the text from it is not a solution. This part, in order to avoid useless phrases, requires a thorough reflection.

Once the proposal is written, it is preferable to cross-check it with the evaluation criteria set for the evaluators. It will help to see whether the proposal is relevant, provides S&T excellence, has a potential impact, shows high quality of the consortium and of the management and mobilises the necessary resources.

HOW DO I SUBMIT?

The online preparation and submission requires to PDF the B part and upload it to the server. The offline preparation involves packaging the A and B (PDF) parts using the EPTool, validating the package, and submitting from the submission page. Pressing the submission button validates the whole procedure. An acknowledgment of receipt is automatically generated and sent by e-mail to the Coordinator.

Some advices for the submission: • Register early: the passwords have to be changed before submitting, and it will help the EC to

choose evaluators. • Fill in all forms early, as this process takes a lot of time. • Submit early and submit often: one proposal can be submitted as many times as necessary. It

is the last submission before deadline that will count. Avoiding late submission means avoiding technical problems that often arise at the last moment.

For further information on the proposal preparation please see: • CORDIS web site • Work Programme • Guide for Proposers • Guide for Evaluators • IST Information desk • EPSS helpdesk and user guides • National contact points

Elina ZICMANE, Consultant, CARSA, Bd de la Cambre 52, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, Phone: +32 2 645 08 83, Fax: +32 2 648 70 77, e-mail: [email protected]

COLLABORATIVE WORKING Parallel Session A2 ENVIRONMENT 2005


COLLABORATIVE WORKSPACES FOR ENTITIES FROM NEW MEMBER AND ASSOCIATED STATES (NMAS) WHO WISH TO PARTICIPATE IN FUTURE FP6/7 RESEARCH ON E-WORK AND E-BUSINESS

Adam TUROWIEC 1) 2) 1) Institute of Communication and Information Technologies Ltd. (ITTI)

2) Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan – Dept. of Applied Informatics (UAM-DAI) Poland

Keywords: e-work, e-business, SME support, collaboration, virtual communities Abstract: The COMIST project, funded under FP6/IST, increases participation of NMAS organisations in

IST activities in eWork/eBusiness. COMIST implements a general collaboration and interaction environment through the instrument of virtual or networked communities already experimented with success within the AMI@Work Communities initiative launched in June 2004 by the European Commission with the support of the MOSAIC and SEEMseed projects. More than 600 participants from over 20 European countries have already registered to this initiative since March 2004. This presentation describes how the initiative works, how to join it, and what benefits are to be expected for organisations from NMAS who wish to collaborate within AMI@Work Communities.

COMIST increases participation of NMAS organizations in IST activities in eWork/eBusiness according to a systematic innovation approach. COMIST implements a general collaboration and interaction environment through the instrument of vital or networked communities already experimented with success within the AMI@Work Communities initiative launched in June 2004 by the European Commission with the support of the MOSAIC and SEEMseed projects. More than 600 participants from over 20 European countries have already registered to this initiative since March 2004.

COMIST focus is on strengthening the NMAS innovation system in the area of eWork and eBusiness and building strong integrative networking relations with IST. The COMIST working method is based on the MOSAIC project, and the two projects jointly support the AMI@Work family of communities (http://www.amiatwork.com). COMIST success is based on four main activities:

• aligning the role of NMAS organizations in Innovation Networks based on a systematic innovation approach,

• building a Network of Communities acting as “breeding ground” for innovation and collaboration,

• organizing events and communication channels for promoting the involvement of NMAS organizations,

• establishing collaboration-building infrastructure to facilitate partnering.

COMIST will result in a faster and wider collaboration among NMAS organizations and other entities from Member States, thus increasing the potential of collaborative innovation and discovering business opportunities in the enlarged EU. COMIST facilities access to EU research communities, appropriate partners and opportunities of participation to research projects for NMAS organizations, especially for SMEs.

COMIST has brought together a core team of partners, from NMAS and other Member States, with strong track record in community building, eWork and eBusiness RTD. Partners have coordinated roadmap projects and network activities under FP5 and FP6, like COCONE, Future Workspaces, ROADCON, CE-NET, VOSTER, VE-FORUM, SEEMseed and MOSAIC. More details can be obtained from http://www.mosaic-network.org. Adam TUROWIEC, Institute of Communication and Information Technologies Ltd. (ITTI) – Director, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan – Dept. of Applied Informatics (UAM-DAI), ul.Palacza 91a, 60-273 Poznan, Poland, Phone: +48618610073; Fax: +48618610579; e-mail: [email protected]



ADVANTAGES FROM THE COOPERATION AS A NEW WAY OF DOING BUSINESS

Kristine BERZINA, Gundars BERZINS University of Latvia

Keywords: cooperation, tourism, SMEs Abstract: There are several forms of cooperation that can be of choice for the collaboration between the

enterprises – formal, non-formal, public-private, private-private, public-public, horizontal-vertical and other ways each group of enterprises can choose. Within the paper authors will include theoretical background of cooperation as such as well as application of networking within the tourism sector SMEs more specifically emphasizing analyses of benefits that the cooperative enterprises can receive.

COOPERATION

Cooperation as such has a long history - as long as we can imagine existing of any matters. Cooperation is something that takes place in every field that we can research, but in this paper cooperation will be discussed from point of view of cooperation between enterprises and organisations.

From the point of view of economic and management science cooperation networks are somewhere in-between market and an enterprise as a body of hierarchy, it is in a way hybrid form for organising transactions [1;8]. The network rationale is that single organisation is unable or unwilling to cope with the complexity and risks in the environment [2] at least in the way that it is possible with a group of partners.

Cooperation network encompasses a set of enterprises and/or organisations in a certain net that can have a social, technologic, economic or other background. Obvious that enterprises and organizations are not forced to cooperate – that is one of choices that can be selected from different set of possible infirm relations in common with the possibility to choose partners for the cooperation. Thus cooperation network occurs when several enterprises have mutual objectives or common interests that serve as conjunctive link between these enterprises and organizations.

Cooperation networks consists not only from the companies involved, in networking theory they are called actors, but also activities, resources and bonds [4; 15], [ 5; 63-64]. Every company possesses a set of different resources that though interim activities can be either transformed or exchanged linking these firms in long-term relationships.

In general there are five main elements of the relationships that need to be examined while analysing cooperation networks [1;8] – mutual orientation, dependence in relationships, cooperation bonds, relationship-specific investments and such intangible matter as atmosphere of network relationship.

There are several possibilities for the choice of factors classifying cooperation. Taking as a basis for dividing abovementioned relationships, they can vary from collaborative to transactional links in the network. In transactional relationships main idea is the exchange of values, but in cooperative links lead to long-term relationships between partners.

The modes of cooperation can be depending on the distribution of the power between the partners in cooperation network – dominating or equal partnership networks. Nonetheless members of the cooperation networks are not completely dependent on each other.

Cooperation networks can be either formal or non-formal (informal) or somewhere in between – so called semi formal networks. Formal networks are more or less known to the public, there are contracts or other forms of agreements between partners, on the other extreme informal cooperation is based on trust and is more used by SMEs where you can be loyal to partner’s word.



Cooperation can be based on vertical networking between partners from different fields or on horizontal networking when competitors decide to cooperate.

Networks can involve academic, private sectors or combine public/private sectors as partners.

MODES OF COOPERATION IN LATVIAN TOURISM INDUSTRY

Looking to the case of Latvia it is very interesting to examine the tendency of development of cooperation over the time period from the beginning of 90’s when after a period of forced partnerships in many fields there was a need for independence in a business, too. Authors of the paper will analyse more in details Latvian tourism industry including different directly and indirectly related enterprises – hotels, guest houses, travel agencies, touropetaors, range of catering establishments, tourism transportation companies, tourism information centers, museums, palaces and other types of tourism enterprises.

For accommodation sector most frequent cooperation partner – for more then 4/5 from respondents - are travel agencies that provide hotels and guest houses with extra customers. Obvious that intermediates will take their commission but at the same time they build an international information channel even for a small hotel in countryside. Accommodation sector is quite active in horizontal cooperation with other establishments of this field, 70% fro all hotels are cooperation with each other either taking part in such formal networks as associations (Hotel and restaurant association, Country Holidays) or cooperating on informal bases between similar hotels for example sending the clients to partner in case of overbooking. Hotels are not too cooperative with catering sector (as there is a restaurant in the most of the hotels) as well as with attractions. Normally there is possibility to obtain information at the hotel, but most of the surveyed accommodation establishments have no closer cooperation.

All surveyed travel agencies cooperate with tourism transportation companies, providing in this way their customers with airline tickets, bus trips, car hire, journey by the ferry or cruise, or rail; and 88% of all these tourism intermediates cooperate with accommodation establishments. It is also possible to cooperate with touroperators and sell the tour packages without direct contact with different accommodations. Travel agencies are quite passive in cooperation with catering establishments.

Even thou catering sector establishments where not so extensively surveyed as the two abovementioned main tourism sectors, survey shows that catering establishments are not so active co-operators with other tourism companies. In the same way hey are not so active in horizontal cooperation – less then half are of catering establishments cooperate with similar enterprises.

Unlike catering establishments, transportation sector companies have gained use from horizontal cooperation reaching hundred percent level by having partnerships with similar companies or taking part in transportation associations. Transportation sector establishments thou few one in survey clearly show the tendency hat are not too active co-operators with tourism information centres and catering establishments.

All surveyed tourism information centers cooperate with accommodation establishments providing to the tourists possibility to book accommodation on the spot. Enough active partnership tourism information centers have with transportation companies (at least they see transportation companies are co-operators), different entertainment establishments, attractions, museums et cetera. Even thou there is association for tourism information centers, they are not too active for horizontal cooperation and cooperation with such tourism intermediates are travel agencies.

BENEFITS FROM INVOLVEMENT IN COOPERATION NETWORKS

Reason of such cooperation network existence of course is connected with the list of benefits that can be achieved with such cooperation partnerships – networks provide competitive advantage that can not or would be difficult to achieve for a separate enterprise or organisation. The motivation for involvement in networks can be either associated with gain of flexibility in our rapidly changing environment; to develop skills and resources for commercial success or achieve operating efficiency [2]. Dividing objectives of partnership formation there could be six groups – objectives connected



either with product, marketing and sales, research and technology, infrastructure, human resources and financing [6;1].

There are three groups of benefits that networks can offer – learning and exchange; business activity; and community [3]. Following learning and exchange benefits - knowledge transfer education, communication, development of new values, and facilitation of development of SMEs can boost advantages for business activity and community. Business activity advantages combine cooperation activities based on marketing, purchasing or production operations, increased entrepreneurial activity, inter-trading within the network, enhanced product quality and others, but benefits for community foster common community purposes, remain of income into the local community, increase community reinvents.

There is a lack of measured benefits from networks [3], most of all stated advantages are qualitative that are not easy to measure in quantitative way.

Summarising the importance and benefits of networks we will list success factors for cooperation – unite on common goal and objectives of the cooperation; clearly understand the motivation of the partners involved; make sure to develop agreement on common values and norms of cooperation between the partners; do not forget about your partner interests, so called win-win strategy; cooperation is a matter of trust; frequent information exchange; regularly organised meetings and mutual events.

REFERENCES 1. Eirik Vatne, Micael Taylor “The Networked Firm in a Global World. Small firms in new environments”,

Ashgate, England, 2000, 353 p. 2. David W. Cravens, Nigel F. Piercy “Relationship marketing and cooperative networks in service

organizations”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Volume 5, Number 5 , 1994, p. 39-53 3. Allison Morson, Paul Lynch, Nick Johns “International tourism networks”, “International Journal of

Contemporary Hospitality Management” Volume 16 Number 3 2004 p. 197-202 4. Henrikki Tikkanen „Networking Approach to the Industrial Business”, Turku, Kirjapaino Grafia Oy, 1997 5. Joakim Wallenklint „A Managerial Perspective on Small-Firm Network Organisations”, Lulea University of

Technology, 2001 6. „Cooperaton and partnerships in tourism: a global perspective”, WTO Spain, 2003, p. 1-23 Kristine BERZINA, PhD student, Lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Latvia; Riga, Latvia, e-mail: [email protected] Gundars BERZINS, PhD student, Financial Director, Lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Latvia; Riga, Latvia, e-mail: [email protected]



LATVIAN RESEARCHERS MOBILITY CENTRE AND PORTAL – NEW TOOLS TO PROMOTE RESEARCHERS AND THEIR EMPLOYERS

Arnis KOKOREVICS Latvian Researchers Mobility Centre,

Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, Riga, Latvia

Keywords: Researchers, International mobility, Intersectoral mobility Abstract: The EU strategic initiative “Mobility Strategy for the European Research Area” proposes the

support and promoting of researchers’ international and intersectoral mobility. The European Network of Mobility Centres (ERA-MORE), the Latvian Researchers Mobility Centre and its portal (http://www.eracareers.lv/) have been established to provide free of charge information service (legal and administrative issues, daily life) and personal assistance to mobile researchers and their families, and also their employers.

INTRODUCTION

The competitive research and technical development (RTD) sphere calls for involving the necessary quantity of human resources having the necessary qualification and skills. The situation of human resources in RTD in Europe over the recent years raises a series of concerns [1], especially comparing to its main competitors: the USA and Japan:

• a lower proportion of workforce in RTD, particularly in industry; • brain drain of young scientific and technological personnel from Europe to the USA; • decreasing number of young people in Europe attracted to careers in RTD; • underused potential of women in scientific careers in Europe.

The wide range of political, economic, social and organizing reasons provides the basis for this negative situation. The change of the value hierarchy and public spirit in modern society also must be taken into account, especially for young generation, which must decide on the choice of profession and career development.

This situation calls for an urgent action in order to maintain and increase Europe’s competitive position. Reacting to the decisions of the Lisbon Summit (March 2000), the European Commission and Council set up the vision and work programme of the European Research Area (ERA) in 2000 [2, 3]. The need for more abundant and more mobile human resources for the creation of a knowledge-based Europe is emphasized among other issues. This includes the introduction of a European dimension to scientific careers, making Europe more attractive to researchers from the rest of the world and bringing together the scientific communities, companies and researchers of Western and Eastern Europe. Mobility represents one of the essential factors of the transfer of scientific knowledge and the acquisition of the necessary skills. This mandate leads to the adoption of the strategic initiative “Mobility Strategy for the European Research Area (ERA)” in 2001 [1, 4].

The two dimensions of mobility have been taken into account: • the international mobility - geographic and regional dimension – the mobility between the EU,

candidate countries, and countries associated in FP6, involvement of third countries’ nationals to researches in ERA;

• the intersectoral mobility – between business (industry) and academia, between public and private-funded research organizations and vice-versa.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER OF RESEARCHERS MOBILITY

The specific obstacles and barriers of mobility encountered by researchers and their families depend strongly on the duration of the stay (short-term of typically a few months to a year; medium-term of



about 2-5 years; or long-term) and the stage of the career in which the mobility is undertaken [1]. The barriers are social, cultural and linguistic, as well as economic, often due to the lack of the recognition of qualification and the relevant social and economic information. The legal situation is also distinctly different for third country researchers than for EU citizens. It should be noted that researchers from young EU countries are facing additional obstacles, because the largest part of old EU counties sets up transition periods for offering their labour market for personnel from young EU countries.

The mobility of researchers is connected with a wide range of legal and administrative issues. As noted by “The High-Level Expert Group on Improving Mobility of Researchers” [5], the priority directions for providing information, improvement of legal environment and removing of obstacles and barriers will be the following:

• admission to the country (visas) and access to employment (work permits); • social security rights (including pension rights) and fiscal issues (taxation); • financial issues and financial support; • return and career development; • intellectual property rights (IPR), especially for intersectoral mobility; • recruitment conditions and methods; • family issues (maternity leave, day-care), especially for young researches; • gender issues.

This concerns both incoming and outgoing, and also returning researchers.

The EC admits that the interregional mobility within ERA will manifest itself also as a “brain drain” in less developed regions, and the same activities must be applied in order to avoid these negative indications by actively promoting mobility both to and from these regions [1]. Certainly, this aspect is also currently urgent for Latvia and other Eastern European countries.

The researchers’ mobility between the public and private sectors will certainly contribute to the RTD and innovations sphere. The information technology sphere will be viewed as a sphere, where contacts between both sectors are very close and the exchange of highly skilled professionals, including researchers, is especially essential.

A special approach should be applied to promote the researchers mobility processes between the public (mainly universities and academic institutions) and private (industry, service, and business) sectors, irrespective whether they occur as international mobility or proceed within the borders of one country. In some aspects, the intersectoral mobility is close to returning of researchers after the participation in international mobility actions. In both cases, it is necessary to find employment vacancies, researchers can lose some of their acquired benefits and professional status, and they will have to start their career development in some step again. The differences in labour relations, culture, career development, confidentiality of research results, and the pressure of publication for evaluation and intellectual property protection make it difficult to move from one sector to another.

PROMOTING OF RESEARCHERS MOBILITY

The goals of the mobility strategy proposed by the European Commission’s are the creation of a favorable environment for the mobility of researchers in the ERA, attracting younger people to research, making better use of the potential of women in science, attracting high-quality third country researchers and encouraging European researchers residing outside the EU to return in order to take full advantage of the global knowledge. It aims at building up the research competence and excellence within the ERA. The support and promoting of researchers' mobility will be realized as a Special Support Action within the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) under the guidance of the Research Directorate Generale. This process will be viewed also in the context of establishing a common labour market in the EU.

The establishment of the European Network of Mobility Centres (ERA-MORE) and the European Researcher’s Mobility Portal (European RMP) has been proposed as appropriate tools to achieve these goals within the initiative. The network of national centres and portals with its services will cover



the ERA region and provide free of charge services to mobile researchers before, during and after their stay abroad:

• collected information about fellowships and grants, research job opportunities database, anonymous CV database about researchers – employment searchers,

• information service to incoming, outgoing and returning researchers (information about the legal and administrative issues related to researchers mobility, practical information about daily life issues),

• personal assistance to mobile researchers and their families ensuring the support to the legal and administrative procedure, the working and living environment for mobile researchers,

• analysis of the situation in each country regarding mobility issues, identification of the obstacles for mobility, preparation of recommendations to eliminate the obstacles for mobility.

The European RMP (http://europa.eu.int/eracareers/index_en.cfm) was launched on 10 July 2003 [6]. It is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the 33 countries participating in FP6, and will be the main information dissemination tool.

The ERA-MORE network was officially launched by the European Commissioner Philippe Busquin during the International Conference “Brain drain, brain gain: new challenges” (June 30, 2004, Paris) [7]. Bringing together 200 centres in 33 countries, this new instrument should help to improve information and practical assistance to researchers and their families. ERA-MORE forms a part of the growing suite of services aimed at supporting the researchers’ mobility in the EU. It will be noted that there are also other tools (including Internet services), which allow utilizing the facilities offered by the EU institutions and the potentialities of the free common EU market: EURES, Solvit, YourEurope (in Latvian: TavaEiropa), Socrates, Ploteus and others.

As noted in the report of the European Commission [8], the manifold achievements and the experience gained both on the Community and national levels have been attained regarding the promotion of intersectoral mobility during the first two years of the implementation of the mobility strategy. Such achievements are as follows:

• education of students, doctoral candidates and scientists with the knowledge of the business aspects of RTD, entrepreneurship and project management ;

• financial support to spin-offs and enterprises established by universities and scientists, to setting up of innovative enterprises;

• keeping of researchers’ rights to pension and promotion during their work in industry, rights to return to universities;

• measures for recognizing the research work carried out in the private sector in lieu of a doctoral degree;

• special programmes, which support the staff transfer between companies and science.

Practically in all involved countries, there are special financial schemes and funding channels, which support joint research programmes and market activities, where representatives of industry on the one part and universities and public research institutes on the other part are involved. The “Market Oriented Investigations” programmes and “National Innovation Programme” will be also regarded as such tools in Latvia.

LATVIAN RESEARCHERS MOBILITY CENTRE AND PORTAL

The newly established Latvian Researchers Mobility Centre (Latvian RMC) is a part of this ERA-MORE. The Latvian Researchers Mobility Portal (Latvian RMP - http://www.eracareers.lv/) will operate in close cooperation with the European Researcher’s Mobility Portal and other national mobility portals. The Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, designated by the Latvian Ministry of Education and Science, realizes the project “Latvian Researchers Mobility Centre: establishing and operation” (RESMOB-LATVIA) as a FP6 Special Support Action starting on 1 January, 2005. The main goals of the project to improve the situation and the conditions regarding researchers' mobility will be as follows:

• operation of the Latvian Researchers Mobility Portal (Latvian RMP) in English and Latvian;



• establishing of a national-scale mobile researchers support system to provide personal assistance through the Central Help Desk and through advisory bodies with trained personnel and the circle of contact persons at the site (universities, scientific centres, etc.);

• organizing of information dissemination channels around the Latvian RMP; • preparation and continuous up-dating of information dossiers, which will reflect all issues

regarding incoming, outgoing and returning mobile researchers (legal and administrative regulations, daily life issues);

• dissemination of the targets and activities of ERA-MORE towards society, especially the researchers' community.

• a national steering group, composed of intersectional experts, will be set up to analyze the situation of researchers' mobility and its obstacles, and to prepare recommendations for policy makers and institutions responsible for the policy development.

We predict to involve a wide range of researchers, their employers and research institutions in the activities of the Latvian RMC. The information dissemination and exchange with the purpose to strengthen the possession of information are relevant both to the representatives of employers and employees – potential mobile researchers. The employers will be interested both in the possibility of finding an employee abroad, and the services of the centre and portals to solve practical problems related to the employment of specialists from abroad. RTD specialists will be interested in finding appropriate researchers’ positions and new facilities for their further career. Special attention will be paid to the collection and dissemination of information relevant to returning researchers. We hope that the Latvian Researchers Mobility Centre and Portal will be an essential career resource for the Latvian scientific community and highly skilled specialists.

As the most promising co-operation partners for information dissemination, societies and associations of the Latvian scientific community and industry branches will be regarded, as well as the organizations and institutions dealing with supporting actions: development agencies, technological and innovation centres, etc. Especially urgent is the co-operation with partners in high-tech fields (information technologies, telecommunications, pharmacies, etc.),

CONCLUSIONS

The European Network of Mobility Centres (ERA-MORE) as well as the European and national portals will be relevant and valuable tools to promote the international and intersectoral mobility of researchers and therefore to mobilize appropriate highly skilled human resources in the spheres of RTD within the European Research Area. Different initiatives both on the Community and national levels form an excellent basis for the development of further actions, for benchmarking, and the identification of both mobility obstacles and examples of good practice.

The newly established Latvian Researcher’s Mobility Centre and Portal together with cooperation partners will be an essential information resource and personal assistance system for mobile researchers (incoming, outgoing and returning), their families and their employers in Latvia.

REFERENCES 1. Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament: A Mobility Strategy for the

European Research Area. Brussels, 20.06.2001. COM(2001) 331 final (CELEX No. 52001DC0331). 2. Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social

Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Towards a European Research Area. Brussels, 18.1.2000. COM(2000) 6 final (CELEX No. 52000DC0006).

3. Council Resolution of 15 June 2000 on establishing a European area of research and innovation. Official Journal C 205, 19/07/2000 (CELEX No. 32000Y0719(01)).

4. Council Resolution concerning the reinforcement of the mobility strategy within the European Research Area (ERA). Official Journal C 367, 21/12/2001 (CELEX No. 32001G1221(01)).

5. The High-Level Expert Group on Improving Mobility of Researchers. Final Report. April 4, 2001. 6. A vital career link for researcher. Researcher’s Mobility Portal. RTDInfo, 2003, Special edition - August. 7. Commission officially launches European network of mobility centres (RCN 22254). CORDIS Focus, 2004,

No. 249.



8. Commission Staff Working Paper. Second Implementation Report on “A Mobility Strategy for the European Research Area”. Brussels, 1.4.2004. SEC(2004).

Acknowledgement: The Latvian Researchers Mobility Centre and the Latvian Researchers Mobility Portal have been established and operate based on the financial support received from the European Community and the Latvian Ministry of Education and Science. The project RESMOB-LATVIA has received funding from the Community’s Sixth Framework Programme, as a Special Support Action.

Disclaimer: The information in the publication reflects only the author’s views, and the Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Arnis KOKOREVICS, Dr.chem., Project leader, Latvian Researchers Mobility Centre, Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, 27 Dzerbenes str., LV-1006, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +371-7553591, e-mail: [email protected]



FP6 AS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED DEVELOPERS AND SUPPLIERS OF MOBILE SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS

Peter FRENCH Cybercom Group, Linköping, Sweden

Keywords: mobile services, mobile applications, innovation, SME Abstract: The SIMS project is an EU-funded initiative whose focus is small and medium enterprises

(SMEs) that develop innovative mobile services and applications (MSAs). They are well known for generating the creative MSAs that business and society need and want. However, in common with many SMEs they face significant challenges as they develop and mature. The aim of the SIMS project is to stimulate the development and use of mechanisms to support their innovation activities.

INTRODUCTION

The market for services and applications for the mobile user and worker has begun to develop, giving rise to excellent prospects of wealth creation by a large number of firms, most of them Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs). These firms act as suppliers of innovative services, enhancing the leisure and working lives of citizens all over the world. Local supply opportunities will sit side by side with global potential.

All SMEs are presented with innovation opportunities, the push towards Ambient Intelligence will be a big factor for the mobile services and applications sector, where firms face significant challenges in innovating to match market opportunities. Measures need to be taken that will create an environment supporting the sustainability of these companies. The need for this support is a concern at national, regional and pan-European levels.

FOCUS

The focus of the SIMS project is on SMEs that develop and supply innovative solutions to providers of mobile services and applications (MSA). They are well known for generating the creative, user-oriented mobile services and applications that business and society need and want. In common with many SMEs, they face significant challenges as they develop and mature. We aim to stimulate the development and use of mechanisms to support their innovation performance, including involvement in FP6/7 activities. SIMS are conducting studies of the demands of such SMEs for innovation support, the supply of information and other resources that they need and the channels through which this support is provided.

SCOPE

SIMS scope addresses the varied circumstances of SMEs in all parts of Europe, including the New Member States. It considers many avenues that can be taken to improve innovation, with special attention to the way FP6/7 can be a suitable enabler.



The MSA-SME in its environment

As this shows, an MSA-SME operates by transforming primary inputs into goods and services that are delivered to its customers, who use MSAs as part of their business and host them in a variety of ways. The figure also highlights that the MSA developers are subject to pressures, such as constraints in the form of regulations and technical evolutions (e.g., the launch of Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS)). Typically some support services are available to them. In many countries this is limited to financial or advisory support.

The box below illustrates the MSA-SME as part of a process.

KEY PLAYERS

The figure below illustrates the relationships between the key players in the MSA arena.

Tech.Standards

Application Trends

Research

Skills

Consultants

Colleges

Publishers

Agencies

MSA-SMEs

Large MSArelated firms

(Buyers)

Sources Channels Users (Demand)

The main players are:

• the buyers of MSAs (including mobile network operators (MNOs), mobile service providers, enterprises and suppliers of mobile network infrastructure)

• sources of the primary information and other resources needed by innovating MSA developers • channels that collect the outputs of the sources and make it available to users in a

condensed/filtered/augmented form



• MSA developers, of which MSA-SMEs form a subset.

PROJECT PROCESS AND THEMES

The SIMS project are addressing the following tasks:

• Identify Players and their Challenges and Opportunities • Engage with Stakeholder Representatives • Highlight Significant Factors and Special SME Needs • Propose and Evaluate Beneficial Developments • Create Awareness of Issues and Opportunities • Define a Roadmap of Initiatives

Our work is based upon the themes discussed below.

• FP6 – an opportunity for MSA-SMEs

Many FP6-IST projects will invest substantially in the R&D needed for success in the MSA market. We see this project boosting diffusion of these results in a number of ways, with the main aim of encouraging the MSA-SMEs and the firms that support their innovation processes to benefit from interacting with FP6-IST projects.

• Accessing External Expertise

Few would doubt the potential for MSA-SMEs to enhance their performance by accessing external expertise, services and sources of information but their precise priority needs have not been ascertained. SIMS aims to make substantial progress in this context.

• Knowledge Supply

Currently the MSA development knowledge supply market is ill-defined as is data about its usage and available channels. Finding channels and matching them to individual needs is a challenge in too many instances. SIMS aims to structure and boost knowledge supply.

• Engaging the Players

The issues within the SIMS focus require inputs from all MSA stakeholders: users, buyers, developers, innovation support companies and agencies. Engagement with people from each of these categories will be a key SIMS success factor. We will meet them, get feed-back and widely disseminate our findings.

CURRENT FINDINGS AND RESULTS

Recent work on the SIMS project has investigated the challenges, trends and opportunities that face MSA-SMEs as they seek to innovate. It has also examined their key knowledge requirements and their current use of external sources and channels to support innovation and product development. Our research included interviews and group discussions with 35 organisations – mainly MSA-SMEs – across six European markets, and highlighted the following findings: MSA-SMEs represent a significant segment of the European MSA developer market. These companies anticipate substantial future growth in the mobile arena, accompanied by major changes for MSA-SMEs themselves – as a result of business growth and diversification as both the companies and the market mature. However, the advent and roll-out of 3G is viewed as a gradual migration from 2G and 2.5G technologies, rather than a revolution that will result in significant changes in the MSA market. Many MSA-SMEs are very small organisations – with up to 25 staff, perhaps – and have only limited funds for discretionary research activities. The majority of their innovations are incremental, customer-led developments, following a highly intensive phase of innovation at start up. Despite the lack of resources for long term research, many MSA-SMEs are taking an increasingly



formal approach to product development, and recognise the value of effective knowledge management systems in addressing innovation challenges. Standardisation and regulation would be welcomed by MSA-SMEs, provided that innovation is not stifled as a result. For example, the existence of multiple mobile platforms and operating systems is seen as an important barrier to be overcome for those applications whose functionality is dependent on the terminal platform. In addition, MSA-SMEs expressed a need for standardisation of the interfaces to operators’ support systems – billing and location services systems, for example – to create more of a “plug and play” environment. Great importance is attached to relationships with other players in the supply chain. This includes buyers such as MNOs, and potential partners such as other developers or systems integrators. The strategic importance of relationships and partnerships was a recurring theme of the research, as was the value placed on industry networking events as a source of relevant and beneficial information to support innovation. Regarding partnerships, our research revealed that a number of MSA-SMEs are benefiting from links with universities, both directly through collaborative research and innovation activities, and through other beneficial business links. Key challenges for MSA-SMEs fall into a number of areas: • technical: in addition to the problems caused by multiple mobile platforms, operating systems and

operator environments, MSA-SMEs highlighted the lack of readily available technical information from MNOs and manufacturers. The lack of such information means that it is more difficult to make both product development and business-related decisions.

• commercial: key commercial challenges concern the relationship between MSA-SMEs and buyers, chiefly MNOs, and the availability of funding. In particular, it is clear that the relationship between MSA-SMEs and MNOs is not functioning as well as perhaps both parties would like. Neither the business models nor the value chains are well established, and there is a relative imbalance of power between the large operators and the mainly very small MSA developers. Regarding funding, many MSA-SMEs encounter problems in terms of identifying and getting access to private and public sources of funding, and they face additional costs and difficulty when applying for that funding.

• innovation and knowledge management: challenges and risks concerning innovation include achieving a balance between innovation and product delivery, and identifying the window of opportunity for a particular product or service. External sources and channels of information and knowledge to support innovation are available. However, there are some barriers to the effective use of such resources; this may be due to difficulties in identifying appropriate resources, lack of funds to purchase external services, and/or the fact that external resources do not always have better technical knowledge than the MSA-SMEs’ own staff.

NEXT STEPS

The SIMS Project is being conducted by a consortium of six contractors from Ireland, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK. It will continue until the middle of 2006 and is partially funded by the Information Society Technologies part of the EU’s Framework Programme for Science and Technology. Its web address is www.sims-eu.com

In the next phases of the project we will be developing and validating a series of specific actions which could be taken at a European level to address some of the key issues and challenges highlighted by the research to date. Examples may include:

• solutions to address the inability of small MSA developers to access EU funding • the potential for the development and maintenance of a managed European knowledge

resource aimed at MSA-SMEs • options to enable the managers of hi-tech SMEs to adopt a more strategic approach.

All stakeholders that the project has been in contact with have very well received the initiative taken by SIMS. Encouragement and a will to continue interactions with the project are generally expressed as a result of our contact. The benefit for individual MSA Developers and Channels can be summarized as follows:



• Networking opportunities with peers and knowledge about partners/competitors/suppliers • Identification of business opportunities / challenges • Re-evaluate own position in value chain • Understanding FP6/7 opportunities such as finding possible partners, accessing results

influence coming calls and procedures

REFERENCES 1. The SIMS website www.sims-eu.com 2. SIMS Project Consortium, SIMS Deliverable 2.3 - Key MSA innovation knowledge issues, 2005. Peter FRENCH, Business Development, Cybercom, Teknikringen 1F, S-583 30, Linköping, Sweden, Phone: +46-13-210651, Fax: +46-13-213578, e-mail: [email protected]



APPLICATION AND INTEGRATION OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS IN E- NEIGHBOURHOOD

A. KAKLAUSKAS, G. KAKLAUSKAS, Mindaugas KRUTINIS Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania

Keywords: e-neighbourhood, e-voice, e-kvarter Abstract: Electronic neighbourhood is, in its simplest form, the conduct of neighbourhood activities on the

Internet. Today the term is used rather freely to describe any situation or solution that has made the migration from real world to the Internet.This paper discovers electronic neighbourhood and related activities.

ELECTRONIC NEIGHBOURHOOD

A neighbourhood (in British English) or neighborhood (in American English) is a geographically localised community located within a larger city or suburb. The residents of a given neighbourhood are called neighbours (or neighbors), although this term may also be used across much larger distances in rural areas. Traditionally, a neighbourhood is small enough that the neighbours are all able to know each other. However in practice, neighbours may not know one another very well at all.

Electronic neighbourhood is, in its simplest form, the conduct of neighbourhood activities on the Internet. Today the term is used rather freely to describe any situation or solution that has made the migration from real world to the Internet.

IT is not only some fancy new technology that makes it possible to rationalise work. IT is now the basis for societal development in the so-called ‘network society’. Urban development in the network society is based on two aspects of the city: the digital city and the physical city. On one hand the digital city is taking over functions that traditionally belonged to the physical city. Several functions are being carried out by means of information technology without any kind of physical artefacts. On the other hand IT is becoming part of the infrastructure of the physical city in the form of ‘intelligent’ artefacts and architecture that function as interfaces for digital information. Similarly urban planning is experiencing a change of paradigms in the form of new types of urban regeneration and urban planning: conventional functional plans are being extended by extremely complex, flexible models in which representative democracy is combined with partnerships and active participation and rational thinking is combined with reflective thinking on the part of all players in the city context. In this change the involvement of users is intensified and the professionals are given new roles, the result being not only better physical solutions but also a spin-off benefit in the form of new networks between the various players who are essential in the development of new solutions [5].

E-VOICE

The project E-VOICE [15] intends to concentrate on e-democracy/e-government in order to try and renew the political information, communication and interaction processes between elected politicians, the administration and the citizens – including young people - on a local and/or regional level at various locations in the North Sea Region with the support of the 'new' media (internet, e-mail, sms, i-mode, etc.) in combination with the 'old' media (television, radio, (mobile) telephone, newspapers, etc). Some possible examples are [15]:

• the organisational development of digital office hours – citizens get the opportunity to pose questions to mayor, aldermen and/or council members by e-mail or by direct communication via the internet and web-tv;

• online townhall: e.g. experimental broadcasts of the yearly local-council budgetary meeting; • digital debates and online panel discussions for citizens; • electronic neighbourhood groups.



E-KVARTER

The Electronic Neighbourhood project (the e-kvarter) is part of major research into the impact of information technology (IT) on urban development and urban planning. IT is not only some fancy new technology that makes it possible to rationalise work. IT is now the basis for societal development in the so-called ‘network society'. Urban development in the network society is based on two aspects of the city: the digital city and the physical city. On one hand the digital city is taking over functions that traditionally belonged to the physical city. On the other hand IT is becoming part of the infrastructure of the physical city in the form of ‘intelligent' artefacts and architecture that function as interfaces for digital information [9].

FUNCTIONS OF E-NEIGHBOURHOOD

Electronic neighbourhood involve a lot of functions. As example, the short description of Home Monitoring, electronic version of the Neighbourhood Watch and Intelligent home is following:

• BT Home Monitoring is a complete protection system for home that alerts inhabitants to potential emergencies - wherever they are. Wireless sensors link to an Internet monitoring service. This sends alerts via fixed line phone, text message and email to inhabitants and a list of nominated contacts if there is a threat to home. BT Home Monitoring offers round the clock protection for home and family. The following advantages BT Home Monitoring is giving for inhabitants [12]:

• Home protection - place sensors around your home to detect intruders or the threat of fire (fire detection requires smoke detectors - sold separately).

• Personal protection - panic alarm function allows people inside your home to summon help in an emergency.

• Intruder deterrence - loud internal warning siren deters potential intruders. • Simple to install - designed for easy self-installation. No need for complex wiring, all

components pre-programmed for immediate use. • Real time response - alerts by fixed line phone, text message or email tell you if your home is

under threat (call charges apply). • Control and assurance - build a network of trusted friends and neighbours who'll also receive

alerts, an 'electronic neighbourhood watch'. • Remote monitoring - see the status of your home online any time, from anywhere. • Expands to fit any home - the starter kit suits a small to medium sized home. Add up to 28

sensors to suit your property.

A new, electronic version of the Neighbourhood Watch concept was praised by local authorities and community safety groups around the country for successfully tackling crime and the fear of crime. The AlertBox, which is about the size of a paperback book, uses a secure network of state-of-the-art radio technology which allows neighbours to contact each other instantly via electronic messages. The whole community can be warned of nuisance callers or suspicious persons at the touch of a single button. The system also allows neighbours to call each other in the event of an emergency, such as fire or accident, while they wait for the emergency services.

The system is already being trialled by a number of local authorities, including the London Borough of Barnet, as well as Rhondda Cynon Taf Community Safety Partnership, which has provided AlertBoxes for a local primary school, magistrates' courts and a doctor's surgery. Neighbourhood Watch itself - is not an alterative to the emergency services but it does offer a valuable back-up and peace of mind. Knowing that you just have to press one button to alert your neighbours to a nuisance caller or to call for help, is something that vulnerable people, such as the elderly or those who live alone, will really value [13].

WEB-BASED EXPERT AND DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN NEIGHBOURHOOD ACTIVITIES

Expert systems today generally serve to relieve a ‘human’ professional of some of the difficult but clearly formulated tasks. The expert systems cultivated within cyberspace universes for



neighbourhood activities enable executives to incorporate relevant best practices and benchmarking applications into the daily activities of the neighbourhood residents. The description of a few experts systems is following.

Developing a contaminated site can be costly and time-consuming. There are literally hundreds of decisions to take – investigation and remediation can be biological, chemical, geophysical or hydrological, and new techniques are being developed all the time. Norisc, a consortium of European research groups, companies and regulators, has made the process much easier by creating a piece of expert system to guide the user through this process. It draws on a huge quantity of data including contamination profiles from different industries, EU and US legislation, and an inventory of techniques with their costs and outcomes. Designed for use by regulators, consultants and developers, the software supports evaluation of a site, risk assessment and the choice of remediation method. It has been tested in four European cities, showing that it can reduce the cost of redeveloping contaminated sites by half, and the time taken to carry out a risk assessment by up to 80% [1].

OSCAR (Optimised Expert System for Conducting Environmental Assessment of Urban Road Traffic) is a European project [2] that addresses the major problem of road traffic congestion and the resulting air pollution in urban areas. The quality of life of the citizen is expected to diminish in several ways as a result of the growth in urban traffic, including increased journey times, deterioration in air quality and health of vulnerable groups, and decreased economic efficiency of industry and business. In terms of air quality it is recognised that limit values for NO2 and PM10 will be difficult to meet in many European urban areas. Current environmental assessment models, however, cannot adequately address complex traffic situations and micro-scale dispersion patterns observed in urban streets [2].

TSG (Developing a Streetspace Reallocation Tool) was funded under the EPSRC/DTLR FIT research programme to examine the feasibility of developing a design tool and expert system, that will lead to higher quality and more innovative streetscape designs. Aimed primarily at the designer and decision maker, the tool would bring together a number of functionalities: (i) a GIS-based design tool with CAD capabilities, incorporating broad and detailed knowledge/data relating to road casualties, land uses etc; (ii) a formal approach to the assessment and balancing of street user needs; (iii) a systematic approach to streetspace reallocation; (iv) detailed information on elements of the street, and (v) examples of good practice drawn from across Europe. The study identified potential markets for such a tool, with interest heightened as a result of skill shortages, the recent sharp increase in guidance and the need to take a more comprehensive approach to street design issues.

EXPERT SYSTEM SUPPORT IN THE SOCIAL SERVICES FIELD

Svensson [17] concludes the success of expert system support in the social services field was much helped by three factors:

1. The regulation, especially its volume, complexity and completeness; Svensson [17] foresees a trend towards computerizable legislation also in other fields so as to make it possible to roll out the practical successes of expert systems also to these fields.

2. The changing professional status of the general assistance worker; Svensson [17] believes the expert systems have empowered a previously deskilled group with declining status.

3. An increased scrutiny and an increasingly rigorous control structure, rendering municipalities financially responsible for faulty decisions. Svensson [17] clearly illustrate the complex issue of introducing automated tools into the administration. While reasons of economy, equality before the law and openness can be advanced to support the use, there are still a number of issues that speak against it. Especially notable is the shift from theoretical/principal to pragmatic argumentation. This means trust is an important issue. In the Dutch social services, it seems trust in the ICT tools at a certain point in time exceeded trust in the “manual” system.

TRADE CONTROL AND EXPERT SYSTEM

TRACES (TRAde Control and Expert System) is the first pan-European e-government application in the field of food safety. It consists in a single central database to track the movement of animals and



certain types of products. The new system will benefit all authorities and economic operators concerned by the animal trade by, among other things [18]:

• Improving the amount and quality of information – as well as the exchange of information between national and EU authorities – in order to trace animal movements.

• Providing a system of electronic veterinary certificates enabling trade operators to enter the relevant information online.

• Managing lists of establishments in non-EU countries that are authorised to export products of animal origin to the EU, while also managing rejected consignments at EU borders.

• Enabling improved controls on public and animal health and on animal welfare. • Centralising risk assessments of potential disease outbreaks.

MODEL FOR TELEDEMOCRACY

The five elements of the Dutch "model for teledemocracy" are described as follows [20]:

• STEP 1: INFORMATION. Starting point: a concrete proposal, probably by local or national government, about a certain topic, like building a new highway or cutting down a forest or whatever. Plus independent background information on this topic, including pro's and con's as uttered by all parties involved, like governments and action groups and individual citizens. For this part of the information, the editors are responsible. They provide also links to all existing sources of information available on the Internet on the topic, being supplied by the parties involved. For the content of these sources, the editors are not responsible. The objective editorial information should be provided by independent information-brokers. People like university-professors, judges or journalists. This could even be a new profession, the "referendarists", people not being tied to government or to commerce and analyzing local and regional problems and their possible solutions. They would formulate the referendum questions and construct the voting options.

• STEP 2: DEBATING. Mailing lists and news groups about the current topic. Everyone concerned can join the debate. Possibility to bring up new alternatives for the current proposal. Also - possibility to bring up new topics for new teledemo-debates/votings. Before a topic is accepted, the one who proposed it must raise a basic amount of people supporting the proposal, in order to prevent a flood of voting-demands that can not be handled.

• STEP 3: INDIVIDUAL VOTING-ADVICE. The current topic is cut into several sub-questions or sub-aspects by the editorial team, which the voter answers off-line or on-line, stating his view on the importance and ranking of these sub-aspects. The answers are clustered by fuzzy logic or expert system and turned into an individual voting-advice, getting back on screen on-line, consisting of detailed sentences, each representing a cluster. Basically it is an overview of voters' values on the subject. It is his/her importance ranking of the underlying issues at stake, like being more concerned about preventing environmental damage or being more concerned about cutting costs. Including an advice as on how to vote regarding the proposal at stake (which may be ignored of course).

• STEP 4: COLLECTIVE VOTING-ADVICE. All individual voting-advices of all voters are clustered into graphics, showing how many and what kind of people agree with or oppose the current topic and why. For example: a majority of voters in age-group 35-45 years and zip-code 1000-1200 is againt the proposal because they think environment is going to be damaged in the current proposal. This step is accomplished using pseudo-identities from which the personal information is stripped away, leaving only the essential general data such as postal code and age-group. This procedure allows for use in governmental decison-making without violating indivual privacy, that is, without revealing individual voting behaviour.

• STEP 5. VOTING. Voter is granted permission to the Web-page, c.q. authenticated to vote on the current topic, by his/her passport-data. The city he lives in gives him a public key for voting-rights. A permanent voting-key is made out of this data, using the pseudo-identity idea developed by DigiCash among others. This process garantees that the the voting-system



knows that the voter is permitted to vote but that the system does not know what the voter votes.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION GIS AND WEB-BASED COMMUNITY DECISION SUPPORT

Public participation GIS and Web-based community decision support is described in this section from attitude of different worldwide known researchers and practicians.

Kingston (Kingston, 2003) demonstrates the potential for linking GIS-based spatial microsimulation decision support systems (SDSS) to Virtual Decision-Making Environments (VDMEs) to allow local policy makers as well as the general public to explore local policy problems and become more involved in the public participation processes. Kingston (Kingston, 2003) addresses some technical aspects of the linkage of spatial microsimulation modelling frameworks to VDMEs. It also deals with the wider implications that such a linkage may have to local governance procedures. It will therefore be of interest to local government policy makers and practitioners as well as to researchers interested in the prospects of policy simulation models for the enhancement of local democracy.

MicroMaPPAS

Kingston (Kingston, 2003) described MicroMaPPAS (Micro-simulation Modelling and Predictive Policy Analysis System), which is an SDSS under development for Leeds City Council. The innovative feature of this system is the use of spatial microsimulation techniques for the enhancement of local policy decision making. Kingston (Kingston, 2003) presented examples of how MicroMaPPAS can be used for the impact assessment of local policies. It is shown how policy makers can use the system to gain insights on the socio-economic polarisation within the city in order to make informed policy decisions. The “public” that is involved in using this system is primarily the officers of the local council. Nevertheless, Kingston (Kingston, 2003) also argues the case for the extension of the system enabling local community groups to use the tool as a mechanism for obtaining National and European funding for community regeneration projects. It also allows for public feedback to elected officials on the design of policies to ameliorate local socio-economic problems. In particular, it is argued, given that MicroMaPPAS is being developed in JAVA, that it can be put on the Internet and linked to VDMEs. It is suggested that systems such as MicroMaPPAS can be used to inform the general public about the potential of local policies and to enhance, in this way.

OPEN DIGITAL ADMINISTRATION

Open Digital Administration is used for consolidates information (about citizens, companies, projects, regulations, procedures, guidance etc. including a range of diverse information: e-mail, video and other data files), consolidates solutions (a parent case handling solution with optional specialised subsystems (i.e. dealing with building permits, Geographical Information Systems etc.)), consolidates user interface and user access (implying one common user interface for all general solutions) and integrates administrative and knowledge processes used both in the public and the private sector.

The idea behind this consolidation is to make one basic system or set of principles, which suits the needs of both employees, other authorities, citizens, companies and organisations. The means of user access will differ (normally Lotus Notes or Internet browses), the authorisation for information will differ (what am I allowed to see) and the solutions will differ (case handling, self-service, education etc.), but it is based at the same kernel.

THE BENEFITS OF THE OPEN DIGITAL ADMINISTRATION

For citizens, companies and networkers: better, cheaper and higher quality information; self service ("One-Stop-Shopping" most services as seen from the users can be found in one place. Electronic mail and forms gives far quicker means of communication and the digital architecture makes it possible to simplify the forms making them easier and quicker to fill out. The dynamic form guides the user through an optimal process (best practice). Forms gives the user direct and secure access to own cases by digital signature) and new democratic means of expression (the direct access, through e-mail, to the political representatives will be already in place. In the future it will be possible to establish



electronic debate forums where the citizens can get in a dialogue with each other and the politicians about specific subjects, for example local area planning).

For administrations and citizens, companies and networkers: better real time overview for both citizens, public and private users at the same time (regulations, information about persons and projects etc.); better case handling (deadlines, work flow. Exactly because it will be possible to send electronic documents from one case worker to another and to build in automatic alarms, which alerts the employee when a deadline is getting near, the work process becomes easier and faster. The simplified forms results in fewer errors and hereby quicker processing); closer contact with the citizen (electronic mail, forms and direct access to own cases); better means of education/reduction/lifelong learning through flexible tele-education; better overview of bottlenecks and critical paths in the whole administration (usually the goal is to link together different forms from several organisations. Today many applications to one organisation demand support documents from one or more third party organisation and therefore the total service time is not only measured through one application but a series of applications for one and the same "citizen-case". The relationship of those forms is deciding the total service time for a citizen’s application for a service).

Above measures will lead to a number of important changes in the relationship between citizen and civil servants.

INFO-KIOSKS FOR E-SERVICES

The main concept behind the introduction of the e-kiosk network is to offer essential e-public and business services to customers in a highly accessible and user-friendly way. Citizens will be able to use the e-kiosk network for a whole range of services, including taking care of banking business, payment of electricity, water bills, online bus reservation and ticketing, registration of births and deaths, payment of house tax and other fees/charges, sending and reading e-mail, online shopping, sending SMS messages to GSM/WAP phones worldwide and doing business with government offices. With special regard to the latter, the e-kiosk network also will be able to include a reader for the electronic identification card, making business with government offices. In the furthers future it is hoped that the e-kiosk network will also have the facility for people to make travel arrangements, including the printing out of tickets upon payment.

The e-kiosk network also can provide local services grouped into themes. These can be related to local businesses, local service providers, local and national government offices. Use of the e-kiosk network can be mostly free of charge, with only sending e-mail and surfing the Web subject to any fees.

INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) are capable of opening up new ways of achieving sustainable mobility in our communications and information society. ITS include Travel and Traffic Management Systems (pre-trip travel information, route driver information, route guidance, ride matching and reservation, traveller services information, traffic control, incident management, travel demand management, emissions testing and mitigation), Public Transportation Operations Systems (public transportation management, route transit information, personalised public transit, public travel security), Electronic Payment Systems, Commercial Vehicles Operations Systems (commercial vehicle electronic clearance, automated roadside safety inspection, onboard safety monitoring, commercial vehicle administration process, hazardous materials incident response, freight mobility), Emergency Management Systems (emergency notification and personal security, emergency vehicle management), Advanced Vehicle Control and Safety Systems (longitudinal collision avoidance, lateral collision avoidance, intersection collision avoidance, vision enhancement for collision avoidance, safety readiness, pre-crash restraint deployment), etc.

ITS can contribute to reduce the number of accidents, their severity, and the time taken for the emergency services to provide rescue response. The most significant applications include speed management (warning, driver feedback, control) and driver and vehicle monitoring. Many applications will increase the safety of vulnerable road users, particularly children, elderly people, and the disabled. Some examples include:



• Adaptive speed control. • Incident detection and warning systems. • Faster emergency response times. • Camera systems for speed and traffic signal enforcement. • Automatic traffic control for pedestrians and cyclists. • Weather and microclimate monitoring. • Anticollision system. • Enhanced vision systems. • Congestion is a major problem for all groups of users is a major goal of ITS programs.

INTEGRATION OF E-NEIGHBOURHOOD INTELLIGENT AND INSTITUTIONAL SYSTEMS

The knowledge systems would be more useful if it drove decision support systems. Computational and analytical models could be applied to the information in the knowledge base so as to support decision-making. Some modules could be applied to the knowledge base so as to make recommendations. Also decision support systems can facilitate the analysis, retrieval, and dissemination of explicit knowledge. This explicit knowledge consists of all documents, accounting records, and data stored in computer memories. Explicit knowledge refers to codified knowledge that is transmittable in formal, systematic language and is easily transferred by using Information Technology.

INTELIGENT DSS AND EXPERT DSS

For example, the integrated expert and decision support systems have been called intelligent DSS (IDSS), knowledge-based management support systems (KMMS), expert DSS (EDSS), expert support systems (ESS) and knowledge-based DSS. Various forms of this integration have been examined and a variety of system architectures have been proposed. Moreover, based on a broad classification of current types of information systems, Mentzas (1994) identified some of the essential features for intelligent decision making support. According to King (1990) the ES component in earlier systems was used to develop a domain specific knowledge base with the DSS serving as an "information resource", providing factual data and models for the analysis of the problem at hand. Research attempts have enhanced the role of the expert system component to an intelligent frontend to the DSS. These two dimensions generate four basic architectures, named (somewhat arbitrarily as) "loosely coupled systems", "merged subsystems", "intelligent interfaces" and "expert command languages".

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Environmental Planning Tasks. IWBS Report 114. Hg.,"IBM, Wissenschaftliches Zentrum, Institut für Wissensbasierte Systeme. Stuttgart".

56. [5] http://www.karch.dk/udgivelser/publikationer/content/88/rudiger_uk.pdf 57. [6] The Electronic Neighbourhood, urban regeneration in the Outer Nørrebro South district:

http://www.hut.fi/events/ecaade/E2001presentations/15_05_holmgren.pdf 58. [7] Jepson W. & Chan R.: Urban Simulation: an Innovative Tool for Interactive Planning and Consensus

Building (www.multigen.com) 59. [8] Planning and Urban Design, paper 2, CASA (http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/urbanplan.pdf) 60. [9] http://www.karch.dk/udgivelser/publikationer/showArticle.asp?intArticleID=68&strLanguage=UK 61. [10] http://www.hut.fi/events/ecaade/E2001presentations/15_05_holmgren.pdf 62. [11] http://www.sics.se/~mahmoud/ICities/Annex%20I.pdf 63. [12] http://www.bt.com/homemonitoring/index.jsp 64. [13] Electronic Neighbourhood Watch' - tackling fear of crime http://www.alertbox.co.uk/media.htm#A06 65. [14] http://www.intelligenthometechnologies.com/ 66. [15] http://www.vibamt.dk/Interreghome.nsf/0/bf86de719a39c87ec1256d050035f1db?OpenDocument 67. [16] http://www.homerdixon.com/download/conversation_paul_martin.pdf 68. [17] The Use of Legal Expert Systems in Administrative Decision Making http://www.idea-

group.com/downloads/excerpts/193070819xBookEx.pdf 69. [18] http://europa.eu.int/ida/servlets/Doc?id=1822 70. [19] C. Niculae, S. French. Bringing understanding in societal decision making: explaining and

communicating analyses? http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/108069484/ABSTRACT 71. [20] Citizen participation in politics and the new systems of communication.

http://home.snafu.de/mjm/CP/cp.html 72. [21] http://www.free-definition.com/Neighbourhood.html 73. [22] Randall, T.A., Churchill, C.J., and Baetz, B.W., "A GIS-based Decision Support System for

Neighbourhood Greening", Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 2003, Vol. 30, p. 541-563. http://www.pion.co.uk/ep/epb/abstracts/b30/b12970.html

Prof. A. KAKLAUSKAS, Prof. G. KAKLAUSKAS, M. KRUTINIS, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Sauletekio al. 11, LT-10223 Vilnius, Lithuania, e-mail: [email protected]

PRESERVATION AND ACCESS TO CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC RESOURCES Parallel Session B2 USING NEW IST 2005


IST4BALT PROJECT DEVELOPMENT IN ESTONIA AND NEW EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Konstantin BARANOV Director of Inforing AS, Estonia

Keywords: IST4Balt in Estonia, Job IS Abstract: IST4Balt project development in Estonia by Inforing AS. Formation and development of basic

Internet pages of the project in three languages (Estonia, English, Russian). Main aims of the project and basic information about Inforing AS. Development of E-Labour Exchange within the framework of IST4Balt project. E-consulting points (ECP): special program and Internet pages for SME association, State labour exchange officer, employment firms, psychological practical work, for training and professional growth of Youth, studying of foreign languages and so on. Formation and development of electronic consulting office. Publication of information about the project in all Inforing AS editions. Issue of IST4Balt project Journal, nr.3: articles, information about conferences, workshops. Organization of workshop in Kohtla-Jarve, Estonia.

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT INFORING AS

Publishing house Inforing AS was invited September, 2004 to participation in project Ist4Balt. Inforing Limited is a commercial company, registered under the Estonian law in Tallinn, Estonia, in 1994. Inforing Ltd. headquarter is located in Kohtla-Järve city and has representation in Tallinn (capital of Estonia) and Riga (capital of Latvia) and has representatives in Lithuania and Finland. Inforing Ltd. has very professional staff : 25 persons in Kohtla-Järve and 15 persons in other cities. The turnover of the company per year is approximately 15 000 000 Estonian Crowns and is increasing every year. Inforing Ltd is one of the biggest publication houses and Internet information provider in Estonia.

The company issues one newspaper and four magazines in Estonian, Lithanian, Latvian, Finnish and Russian languages and supports information about Estonian news, business, sport, art, science, education and communication technologies on Internet. The Internet newspaper "Infopress" includes main information about the company editions, registration systems for unemployed people, special registration system for study of public poll and gives more attention to the information of City government and local business.

MAIN GOALS OF THE IST4BALT PROJECT IN ESTONIA

Main methods of telematics and new employment opportunities: the main goal of the project in Estonia is to promote Information Society Technologies (IST), to introduce new methods of teleworking, telematics and using of its for new employment opportunities.

Demonstrations of IST objectives and opportunities: the project will provide demonstrations of IST objectives, opportunities, developed telematics products and relevant results to Estonian telematics community.

Study of situation with IST in Estonia:the project has to study of the present situation with IST development in Estonia and will formulate appropriate recommendations to EDNES for research and marketing communities. Organization of contacts with local research institutes and state departments. Searching of New projects: the project will encourage submission of new project proposals to the EC. Publication of information about the project in all Inforing AS editions. Issue of IST4Balt project Journal, nr.3 : articles, information about conferences, workshops. Organization of workshop in Kohtla-Jarve, Estonia.



INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT ON INTERNET

Preparation the IST4Balt website for installation on Internet. During period between January of 2005 and April of 2005 the project managers of Inforing AS have prepared more then 20 pages with information about the project goals.

Internet web site with general directions: information about main participants of the project, the project development goals and plans , information about Job sites and news.

IST4Balt job exchange (e-Job Exchange for Baltic States) pages were designed for installation on Internet in FIVE languages: Estonian, English, Lithuanian, Latvian and Russian, because of millions of population of Baltic States speak today in Russian only.

The website consists of information parts about different organizations and companies are engaged in job services.

Development of the project during next three months foresees design and installation of Internet pages about new teaching programs and methods, team work and teleconferences, including special e-Consulting office with e-Consulting Points(ECP).

IST4BALT JOB INFORMATION SYSTEM

All work on development information system concerning problems of employment includes three basic stages. The first stage is executed and includes (three language versions: Estonian, English, Russian):

a) Development of information system for three Baltic States - The information on the basic electronic labour exchanges of the Baltics and Europe - The brief information on the labour legislation of Estonia - The brief information on stock exchanges work and firms on employment of Estonia - The brief information on curriculums and improvements of professional skill of Estonia - Other helpful information

b) Development of registration - search system - Registration and search of vacancies - Registration and search of the summary - Automatic system of dispatch of new offers

- Advertising work of information system in editions of firm

The first stage of formation of information system is completed. It is necessary to execute two following stages. The second stage includes: a) Expansion of information system to 5 languages with addition Lithuanian and Latvian languages. b) Expansion of registration - search system to 5 languages with addition Lithuanian and Latvian languages. c) Increase of volume of the information on all positions of information system. e) Creation of e-Consulting office system with ECPs. Konstantin BARANOV, IST projects manager, Inforing AS, Uus 20, Uus 20 ,Jõhvi, 41533; Phone + 372178679, Fax: + 3723326102; e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]



MEDIATECA INTENDED FOR RESEARCHERS (MIR) – 4 IN 1

Victor C. SIBIRSCHI The State University of Moldova, Chisinau, Moldova

Keywords: electronic publications, databases, information systems, open access, digital library Abstract: describes the successful implementation of a joint MRDA / CRDF sponsored project that

creates a process for the electronic access and updating of scientific literature published in Moldova. The project was specifically created to support the development of an information infrastructure for education and the sciences in Moldova. Information is acquired and stored in the form of electronic bibliographic records and full-text databases, with access provided through public domain software using LAN and WAN. The project's goals were accomplished with the establishment of a web-based information portal that provides access to Moldavian scientific publications and information supporting scientific research.

The basis for electronic access to the scientific information in Moldova is the Mediateca Intended for Researchers (MIR), created on the initiative of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova and with financial support of grant N. MX2-3027 from CRDF. Our Internet address is http://www.mir.acad.md. In the framework of MIR we have utilized information technology for the preparation, storage, review, searching and updating of the metadata and full-text of scientific publications of the Moldavian scientists in non-relational text databases [1-11].

Our Mediateca is registered in Open Archives Forum, UNESCO’s collection of scientific digital library services (from this link our site was visited more than 480 times – more than any Moldova and Romania Internet resources registered on UNESCO) and in UNESCO program of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) [12].

Our information is of proven interest to scientists worldwide and such numbers testify: • The English page of MIR was visited more than 9655 times by scientists from Moldova,

Romania (14.81%), USA, Germany, France, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Great Britain, Russia, Norway, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Switzerland, India, United Arab Emirates (UАE), Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Iran, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Australia, Canada, Latvia, South African Republic, Algeria, Horvatia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Israel and Brazil.

• The Russian page of Mediateca was visited more than 9650 times by scientists from Moldova, Romania (13.86%), USA, Germany, Russia, Hungary, Latvia, Great Britain, France, Turkey, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Australia and Israel.

• The Romanian page of Mediateca was visited more than 9500 times by scientists from Moldova, Romania (15.07%), USA, Germany, France, Russia, Spain, Belgium, Sweden and Great Britain.

Operative access to the scientific information and, most of all, to new publications, is a necessary practicality for all scientists and experts irrespective of the fields in which they work. Scientific institutes have access to the electronic information and use it, as demonstrated by how positively it is reflected in the quality and results scientific research process and its financial support.

Proposed system provides development of technology of preparation, accommodation, access granting and updating of the information on scientific publications issued in Moldova in form of bibliographic and textual databases. It is supposed to use CDS/ISIS DB as a software toolkit via Z39.50 data transfer protocol. This format is recommended by the ISO-2709 standard, intended for the exchange of bibliographic information. The information system project realization will result in development of software for both data storage and manipulation within a database and representation of items of information about scientific journals and articles, published in Moldova. The system will have comprehensive open interface that will allow flexible access for local and external networking users.



For further development of the information system is supposed to improve the mechanism of dialogue with a database, to continue accumulation of the information and, in the long term, to capture all basic scientific editions of Moldova.

The creation of such system represents a doubtless step forward in the development of both information technologies and information infrastructure of the Academy of Sciences and will offer new bibliographical services for all scholars of Moldova.

Content of our Mediateca based on CDS/ISIS DB. CDS/ISIS in its basis has free-ASCII format most adequately representing structured non-numerical data in the form variable length records. Such a format represents in the best way bibliographic information and it is recommended by the international ISO-2709 standard, intended for exchange of bibliographic information on magnetic carriers. Among its characteristics is high efficiency of data processing, low hardware requirements and computing resources. The system is a non-commercial product and there is some experience of work with it in ASM. WWWISIS is a system developed and distributed by BIREME/PAHO/WHO, specially designed to act as a server for ISIS data bases in a WWW client/server environment. It provides functions for searching and data entry operations over ISIS data bases. WWWISIS operates as a server through the WWW Common Gateway Interface (CGI). The development and application of WWWISIS interfaces allow data exchange through the INTERNET. This DB has four parts:

• old publications in Moldavian scientific journals, books, manuals, collections and on conferences was in Moldova

• new publications in mir.acad.md journal ISSN 1681 – 7676 • ETD of Moldavian scientists (structure of this table you can see in [1]) • software created in Moldova.

Services of our Mediateca based on MySQL DB. This DB contents from: • our visitors • our subscribers • our links • our news

On MySQL DB will be base web-site of the first international conference of Balkan and Black Sea countries on digital library and electronic publications. This conference will be Chisinau in august 2005.

The research described in this publication was made possible in part by Award No. MM1-3039 of the Moldavian Research and Development Association (MRDA) and the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation for the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (CRDF).

REFERENCES 1. Mediateca for the scientists of Moldova: results and prospects. Buletinul Academiei de Stiinte a Republicii

Moldova, Matematica, N 2(42), 2003, pp. 123-134. Tamara C. Sibirschi, Victor C. Sibirschi, Gregory K. Youngen

2. First proposal from Moldova in the field of IST in the FP6 (Russian). III International Conference “Information technologies – 2003” Kishinev, 7-11 April, 2003, Tamara C. Sibirschi, Victor C. Sibirschi

3. Prospects of creation of the electronic publications systems for science. In Abstracts of the First International Conference “Information Technologies – 2001”. V.I. Perju-Editor, Chisinau, 2001, p.41, Victor C. Sibirsky, P. Bogatencov, G. Secrieru, L. Kozlenco, А. Altuhov

4. Academic electronic publishing system implementation in Moldova. WISTCIS Workshop, 21-22 June, 2001, «Telematics and networking support in environmental and natural hazard research and monitoring». Abstracts, pp. 26-27. Chisinau, Evrica, 2001. G.Secrieru, Victor C. Sibirsky,P. Bogatencov, L. Kozlenco, A.Altuhov, Gregory K. Youngen

5. Creation of an information system on scientific publications of Moldova. In Abstracts of the Third All-Russian Conference "Digital Libraries: Advanced Methods and Technologies, Digital Collections", RCDL'2001, p. 42. Petrozavodsk, 2001. Victor C. Sibirsky, G. Secriery, P. Bogatencov, L. Kozlenco, A. Altuhov, Gregory K. Youngen



6. Electronic library for scientific publications accumulation in Moldova. International 2nd Conference “Information technologies – 2002” Chisinau, April 10-13, 2002. Abstracts. Chisinau. 2003, p. 87. Victor C. Sibirsky, A. Altuhov, P. Bogatencov, L. Kozlenco, G. Secrieru, Gregory K. Youngen

7. Generic Portal for Scientific Publications Access. International 2nd Conference “Information technologies – 2002” Chisinau, April 10-13, 2002. Abstracts. Chisinau. 2003, p. 140. P. Bogatencov, S. Ginculova, G. Secrieru, L. Kozlenco, Victor C. Sibirsky

8. Principles of construction of information system "The Scientific Publications of Moldova" on the basis of the integrated information-communication infrastructure. Proceedings of the Centre of Automation and Metrology of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova. Chisinau. 2003, pp. 98-107, A. Altuhov, P. Bogatencov, G. Secrieru, Victor C. Sibirsky, L. Kozlenco

9. Site of scientific publications from Moldova (Russian). Conferinţa Internaţională „Ştiinţa, Businessul, Societatea: evoluţii şi intercorelări în condiţiile integrării în spaţiul economic european” (12 – 14 February 2004). Volume 1. ASE, Kishinev. 2004, pp. 51-54. Tamara C. Sibirsky, Victor C. Sibirsky, Gregory K. Youngen

10. Information support for Moldova science and educations. The Second Conference of the Mathematical Society of the Republic of Moldova dedicated to the 40 anniversary of the foundation of the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of ASM. Chisinau, August, 17-19, 2004, pp. 295-297, Victor C. Sibirsky, Tamara C. Sibirsky, Gregory K. Youngen

11. Virtual scientific information in Moldova. The Second Conference of the Mathematical Society of the Republic of Moldova dedicated to the 40 anniversary of the foundation of the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of ASM. Chisinau, August, 17-19, 2004, pp. 297-299, Victor C. Sibirsky, Tamara C. Sibirsky, Gregory K. Youngen

12. Revolutionary steps in Moldova in the field of ETD. International 6th Conference ETD, 2003, Berlin, Constantin V. Gaindric, Tamara C. Sibirschi, Victor C. Sibirschi, Gregory K. Youngen

Victor SIBIRSCHI, As.Prof., Dr., The State University of Moldova, Al.Mateevici 60, MD - 2009, Moldova, Phone: (373 22) 739966, Fax: (373 22) 738646, e-mail: [email protected]



NEW APPROACH OF HOW TO PROTECT AUTHOR RIGHTS IN KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

Armands STRAZDS Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia

Keywords: IPR, intellectual property rights, author rights, zime, security, encryption, decryption, hashing Abstract: This paper deals with the issue of how to effectively protect the intellectual property rights in the

advanced ICT environment-enriched society (knowledge society). The new – iZIME – approach is based on usage of modern hashing algorithms in combination with a patented standardized visualization technology of electronically produced message digests called ZIME.

INTRODUCTION

Creativity and innovation are the new drivers of the world economy. Ever more creativity and innovation-based products are stored or transferred (data sets, files, streams) using today’s electronic media. Each of these products can be or is a subject for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

Intellectual property plays an important role in an increasingly broad range of areas. This requires a unified property marking standard definition applicable to all kinds of electronically stored or transferred data. Authors publishing their IPR products over the internet protecting them solely with the copyright notice are certainly not using all the potential of the contemporary informatics.

Modern eCommerce systems with their fundamental need of transferring sensitive data through the public networks already implement a set of strong fraud-protection algorithms and schemes. Some of them like the digital signature algorithms are almost predetermined to be used with the IPR protection mechanisms. But since the appearance of hashing technique there always has been a missing link: digital signatures are data blocks or very large, for the human eye unreadable numbers. This is where ZIME-technology can be of help. Based on a centuries-proofed ornamental, for our eye highly readable, information visualization technique, resembling ancient heraldic signs or personal seals (see also: www.zime.lv), it offers an excellent way to complement digital signing technologies.

In context of globalization processes, an effective author rights protection system is the foundation of how country is developing its intellectual capital. One of the main issues in the course of becoming a strong player of innovation field is: security given to the author assuring that nobody would (and could) claim rights for the IPR-product created by her which would allow publishing and distributing IPR-products as widely as possible or rational.

What are the challenges of IPR protection in virtual environments?

One of the main challenges in protection of IPRs is that intellectual property is mostly intangible by its nature. There can be no protection for the idea itself but only for its defined electronic representation.

Further a challenge is worldwide inconsistency of standard practices. There has to be developed a system allowing to protect IPRs of ideas in a digital environment regardless of how they can or have been protected outside it.

As an important challenge we consider also the fact that patents, trademarks and copyrights are all products of the industrial society and are not meant for safeguarding the information-based products.

In www-era there is a need for an intellectual property rights system, which is able to give credit where, and when, it is due.

The new approach: iZIME (Idea-ZIME)

Modern algorithms provide us with the possibility to represent any portion of information (like a business idea, but also cultural and scientific resources) in a standardized manner. This kind of information representation does not allow insight into the information itself, but only verifies its



consistency. The iZIME approach makes use of the so called “hashing” algorithms in order to protect (seal) the intellectual property and at the same time give credit (verify) it electronically on demand.

Metadata to encode into iZIME

In order to verify IPRs for a specific idea iZIME has to be able to supply Information about the author or authors of this idea and the time iZIME is created, which is the starting time of author rights protection for the particular idea.

The standard iZIME would contain the following metadata (a set of parameter-value pairs): • Messages_Count: 1 • Message1_Length: 48 • Message1: Encode ideas into ZIME in order to protect them. • Authors_Count: 1 • Author_1_ID_Length: 12 • Author_1_ID: 311270-13727 • Timestamp: 200504071230 • CA_ID: ZIME CA

“Hashing”

A "hash" is a relatively short string of bits that results from running the full message through a "hashing" algorithm. Such hashing algorithms are designed to produce a value that is unique for all different messages run through the algorithm. The probability of two different messages resulting in the same hash must be extremely low. Any minor change in the message must result in a distinctively different hash, ensuring data integrity. Of course, hashes are one-way.

With iZIME system, the full message runs through the hashing algorithm (md5, DWD or similar) resulting in a 64 bits long string. Function produces 18.446.744.073.709.551.616 = 16^16 unique hash numbers. The probability of two different messages resulting in the same hash is extremely low. Any minor change in the message must result in a distinctively different hash, ensuring data integrity

Storing data to the database

After the electronic hash is being generated, a new record with the following attributes can be stored into the iZIME database:

• Unique ID: 000000000001 • Message Hash: 0123456789ABCDEF • Author’s Identity Nr.: 311270-13727 • Timestamp: 200504071230 • CA ID: ZIME CA

Note that message itself is never stored to the iZIME database, which means that only the author herself or the person who has access to the metadata of the iZIME can verify that iZIME successfully – simply by creating the identical iZIME.

Keywords

Certain iZIME database systems can also require keywords to be stored together with every iZIME record. This could be good for various implementation reasons such as searches, statistics, commercial services, etc.

Example of iZIME Keywords:

IPR, intellectual property rights, author rights, zime, security, encryption, decryption, hashing



Visualizing iZIME

Message digests can be visualized using the patented ZIME® technology as described in the Anatomy of ZIME by Armands Strazds and Modris Tenisons, 2003. iZIME by definition is ZIME with stored IPR information in a standardized manner (using metadata).

This is one of the possible iZIME visualization styles:

iZIME ID: 000000000001 Hash: 0140CFBEBEE5E5C0 Author: Armands Strazds Creation time: 07.04.2005 12:30 CA: ZIME CA

Distributing iZIME

iZIME can be distributed by the electronical or physical means. Certification authorities (CA) can publish iZIMEs on the centralized iZIME public server and give commercial and/or non-commercial access to them. The thumb law states that the more the IPR owner distributes iZIMEs in a physical and/or virtual form, the more effective protection of the author rights she gains.

Verifying iZIME

Author is responsible of storing the encoded information (including all metadata) in a safe (even physical) location. Only a person possessing all metadata can reproduce iZIME to proof its consistency.

Commercial or non-commercial?

Everyone may have a non-commercial access to iZIME server in order to verify intellectual property information against one selected iZIME. All other services (like e.g. searches over the whole database, statistical information, etc.) may be commercial.

Why is iZIME efficient?

The safety of iZIME is defined through it’s underlying algorithms. Many of the modern hashing algorithms (like e.g. SHA) are considered extremely safe: “there's no way to reconstruct the original message from the hash, any more than a sausage can be turned back into a pig.” (Greg Goebel, Contemporary Cryptology, 2004)

CONCLUSIONS

In virtual environments iZIME could be of the same legal protection strength as a patent, trademark or copyright in real environment. In order to achieve that iZIME has to be accepted by the wide (internet) community but also by governments and legal institutions. A good step to achieve that was made already in the year 2000 when ZIME technology was first presented to the wider public on the World Exhibition EXPO 2000 in Hannover. During the 5 months runtime of this event almost 300.000 personal ZIMEs were created and the internet site of this event - www.zime.lv - still lives on today allowing ZIME encoding and generation for everybody. Authors of ZIME technology continue to come up with new proposals of the application forms for their product, one of them is certainly IPR protection with iZIME and many others can follow.



REFERENCES 1. Armands Strazds, Modris Tenisons. Anatomy of ZIME, 2003. 2. Greg Goebel. Contemporary Cryptology. Public Domain, 2004. 3. SC Magazine website, an information security online magazine – provides information on wireless security

issues, http://www.scmagazine.com 4. NIST, Computer Security Resource Center, http://csrc.nist.gov/publications 5. Internet: http://www.zime.lv Armands STRAZDS, M.A./Researcher, Riga Technical University, Kr. Valdemara 109-1, LV-1013, Riga, Latvia, Phone: +3719183261, e-mail: [email protected]



Afterword

Information about the workshop “IST 6th Framework programme – great opportunity for cooperation and collaboration” issues is available on http://www.balticit.com/ist4balt.

All PowerPoint presentations which had been presented during the workshop can be found on the attached CD.



Author Index

BARANOV Konstantin............................. 125

BARDATCHENKO Vladimir ...................... 91

BERIOZKO Alexander......................... 17, 46

BERZINA Dina........................................... 12

BERZINA Kristine.................................... 103

BERZINS Gundars .................................. 103

BLUEMEL Eberhard.................................. 66

BONNIN Jean............................................ 17

FRENCH Peter ........................................ 111

GAMBETTA Ralph .................................... 84

GINTERS Egils.................................... 66, 77

GROZNIK Ales .......................................... 71

GRUNBERG Georges............................... 22

GRUNDSPENKIS Janis ............................ 18

GUASCH Antonio...................................... 77

GULBIS Rudolfs ........................................ 45

JURENOKS Alexey ................................... 88

KAKLAUSKAS A. .................................... 116

KAKLAUSKAS G. ................................... 116

KAMPERMAN Fred................................... 91

KAPENIEKS Atis ...................................... 31

KOKOREVICS Arnis ............................... 106

KRUTINIS Mindaugas .............................116

KRYUKOV Dmitry ......................................52

LATISHEVA Eleonora................................52

LAVENDEL Jurij.........................................41

MAROT Jean – Claude..............................23

MERKURYEV Yuri.....................................91

MESSNARZ Richard..................................46

NOVITSKY Leonid.........................35, 66, 77

PIZIKA Nadja .............................................31

PRIEDNIEKS Eriks ....................................45

RIKURE Tatiana ........................................35

RUPLIS Augusts ........................................45

SHERMAN Vadim......................................60

SHITIKOV Vyacheslav...............................41

SIBIRSCHI Victor.....................................127

SOLOMENNIKOV Andrey .........................91

STRAZDS Armands...........................31, 130

TREZINA Inara ..........................................77

TUROWIEC Adam...................................102

ZICMANE Elina..........................................96

ZUGA Bruno .............................................31

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