Abstract: Geographic information has spawned many novel Web applications where global positioning system (GPS) plays important roles in bridging the applications and end users. Learning knowledge from users' raw GPS data can provide rich context information for both geographic and mobile applications. However, so far, raw GPS data are still used directly without much understanding. In this paper, an approach based on supervised learning is proposed to automatically infer transportation mode from raw GPS data. The transportation mode, such as walking, driving, etc., implied in a user's GPS data can provide us valuable knowledge to understand the user. It also enables context-aware computing based on user's present transportation mode and design of an innovative user interface for Web users. Our approach consists of three parts: a change point-based segmentation method, an inference model and a post-processing algorithm based on conditional probability. The change point-based segmentation method was compared with two baselines including uniform duration based and uniform length based methods. Meanwhile, four different inference models including Decision Tree, Bayesian Net, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Conditional Random Field (CRF) are studied in the experiments. We evaluated the approach using the GPS data collected by 45 users over six months period. As a result, beyond other two segmentation methods, the change point based method achieved a higher degree of accuracy in predicting transportation modes and detecting transitions between them. Decision Tree outperformed other inference models over the change point based segmentation method.

Abstract: Cloud Computing: Web-Based Applications That Change the Way You Work and Collaborate On-Line Computing as you know it has changed. No longer are you tied to using expensive programs stored on your computer. No longer will you be able to only access your data from one computer. No longer will you be tied to doing work only from your work computer or playing only from your personal computer. Enter cloud computingan exciting new way to work with programs and data, collaborate with friends and family, share ideas with coworkers and friends, and most of all, be more productive! The cloud consists of thousands of computers and servers, all linked and accessible to you via the Internet. With cloud computing, everything you do is now web-based instead of being desktop-based; you can access all your programs and documents from any computer thats connected to the Internet. Whether you want to share photographs with your family, coordinate volunteers for a community organization, or manage a multi-faceted project in a large organization, cloud computing can help you do it more easily than ever before. Trust us. If you need to collaborate, cloud computing is the way to do it. Learn what cloud computing is, how it works, who should use it, and why its the wave of the future. Explore the practical benefits of cloud computing, from saving money on expensive programs to accessing your documents ANYWHERE. See just how easy it is to manage work and personal schedules, share documents with coworkers and friends, edit digital photos, and much more! Learn how to use web-based applications to collaborate on reports and presentations, share online calendars and to-do lists, manage largeprojects, and edit and store digital photographs. Michael Miller is known for his casual, easy-to-read writing style and his ability to explain a wide variety of complex topics to an everyday audience. Mr. Miller has written more than 80 nonfiction books over the past two decades, with more than a million copies in print. His books for Que include Absolute Beginners Guide to Computer Basics, Googlepedia: The Ultimate Google Resource, and Is It Safe?: Protecting Your Computer, Your Business, and Yourself Online. His website is located at www.molehillgroup.com. Covers the most popular cloud-based applications, including the following: Adobe Photoshop Express Apple MobileMe Glide OS Google Docs Microsoft Office Live Workspace Zoho Office CATEGORY: Web Applications COVERS: Cloud Computing USER LEVEL: Beginner-Intermediate

Abstract: Web mashups are Web applications developed using contents and services available online. Despite rapidly increasing interest in mashups, comprehensive development tools and frameworks are lacking, and in most cases mashing up a new application implies a significant manual programming effort. This article overviews current tools, frameworks, and trends that aim to facilitate mashup development. The authors use a set of characteristic dimensions to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of some representative approaches.

Abstract: In the context of today's electronic media, social networking has come to mean individuals using the Internet and Web applications to communicate in previously impossible ways. This is largely the result of a culture-wide paradigm shift in the uses and possibilities of the Internet itself. The current Web is a much different entity than the Web of a decade ago. This new focus creates a riper breeding ground for social networking and collaboration. In an abstract sense, social networking is about everyone. The mass adoption of social-networking Websites points to an evolution in human social interaction.

Abstract: Ajax supports the development of rich-client Web applications, by providing primitives for the execution of asynchronous requests and for the dynamic update of the page structure and content. Often, Ajax Web applications consist of a single page whose elements are updated in response to callbacks activated asynchronously by the user or by a server message. These features give rise to new kinds of faults that are hardly revealed by existing Web testing approaches. In this paper, we propose a novel state-based testing approach, specifically designed to exercise Ajax Web applications. The document object model (DOM) of the page manipulated by the Ajax code is abstracted into a state model. Callback executions triggered by asynchronous messages received from the Web server are associated with state transitions. Test cases are derived from the state model based on the notion of semantically interacting events. We evaluate the approach on a case study in terms of fault revealing capability. We also measure the amount of manual interventions involved in constructing and refining the model required by this approach.

Abstract: AJAX is a very promising approach for improving rich interactivity and responsiveness of web applications. At the same time, AJAX techniques shatter the metaphor of a web "page" upon which general search crawlers are based. This paper describes a novel technique for crawling AJAX applications through dynamic analysis and reconstruction of user interface state changes. Our method dynamically infers a state-flow graph modeling the various navigation paths and states within an AJAX application. This reconstructed model can be used to generate linked static pages. These pages could be used to expose AJAX sites to general search engines. Moreover, we believe that the crawling techniques that are part of our solution have other applications, such as within general search engines, accessibility improvements, or in automatically exercising all user interface elements and conducting state-based testing of AJAX applications. We present our open source tool called CRAWLJAX which implements the concepts discussed in this paper. Additionally, we report a case study in which we apply our approach to a number of representative AJAX applications and elaborate on the obtained results.

Abstract: In common Web-based search interfaces, it can be difficult to formulate queries that simultaneously combine temporal, spatial, and topical data filters. We investigate how coordinated visualizations can enhance search and exploration of information on the World Wide Web by easing the formulation of these types of queries. Drawing from visual information seeking and exploratory search, we introduce VisGets - interactive query visualizations of Web-based information that operate with online information within a Web browser. VisGets provide the information seeker with visual overviews of Web resources and offer a way to visually filter the data. Our goal is to facilitate the construction of dynamic search queries that combine filters from more than one data dimension. We present a prototype information exploration system featuring three linked VisGets (temporal, spatial, and topical), and used it to visually explore news items from online RSS feeds.

Abstract: We introduce a set of integrated developments in web application software, networking, data citation standards, and statistical methods designed to put some of the universe of data and data sharing practices on somewhat firmer ground. We have focused on social science data, but aspects of what we have developed may apply more widely. The idea is to facilitate the public distribution of persistent, authorized, and verifiable data, with powerful but easy-to-use technology, even when the data are confidential or proprietary. We intend to solve some of the sociological problems of data sharing via technological means, with the result intended to benefit both the scientific community and the sometimes apparently contradictory goals of individual researchers.

Abstract: As the Web continues to grow, it has become increasingly difficult to search for relevant information using traditional search engines. Topic-specific search engines provide an alternative way to support efficient information retrieval on the Web by providing more precise and customized searching in various domains. However, developers of topic-specific search engines need to address two issues: how to locate relevant documents (URLs) on the Web and how to filter out irrelevant documents from a set of documents collected from the Web. This paper reports our research in addressing the second issue. We propose a machine-learning-based approach that combines Web content analysis and Web structure analysis. We represent each Web page by a set of content-based and link-based features, which can be used as the input for various machine learning algorithms. The proposed approach was implemented using both a feedforward/backpropagation neural network and a support vector machine. Two experiments were designed and conducted to compare the proposed Web-feature approach with two existing Web page filtering methods - a keyword-based approach and a lexicon-based approach. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach in general performed better than the benchmark approaches, especially when the number of training documents was small. The proposed approaches can be applied in topic-specific search engine development and other Web applications such as Web content management.

Abstract: Web applications routinely handle sensitive data, and many people rely on them to support various daily activities, so errors can have severe and broad-reaching consequences. Unlike most desktop applications, many web applications are written in scripting languages, such as PHP. The dynamic features commonly supported by these languages significantly inhibit static analysis and existing static analysis of these languages can fail to produce meaningful results on realworld web applications.Automated test input generation using the concolic testing framework has proven useful for finding bugs and improving test coverage on C and Java programs, which generally emphasize numeric values and pointer-based data structures. However, scripting languages, such as PHP, promote a style of programming for developing web applications that emphasizes string values, objects, and arrays.In this paper, we propose an automated input test generation algorithm that uses runtime values to analyze dynamic code, models the semantics of string operations, and handles operations whose argument and return values may not share a common type. As in the standard concolic testing framework, our algorithm gathers constraints during symbolic execution. Our algorithm resolves constraints over multiple types by considering each variable instance individually, so that it only needs to invert each operation. By recording constraints selectively, our implementation successfully finds bugs in real-world web applications which state-of-the-art static analysis tools fail to analyze.

Abstract: Various embodiments are directed to an application management framework for web applications that may provide speed improvements, capability improvements, user experience improvements, increased advertising profit opportunities, and simplified application development to wide range of network devices. The described embodiments may employ techniques for containing, controlling, and presenting multiple web-based applications in a shared web browser application management framework. Sharing a web browser application management framework provides the capability for rapidly switching between applications, allows for multitasking, facilitates using a common set of input controls for applications, and makes it possible for applications to be available with little perceived startup ('boot') time. The described embodiments also provide incentives for web application users, web application developers, web application portal providers, and web advertising providers to share in transactions between one another.

Abstract: A system, method and various user interfaces enable association of advertising content with requested shared video content for access via a web-based video player. Advertising content is provided selectively in conjunction with playback of video content. Selection of how and where advertising is displayed is based on a flexibly managed balance between providing sufficiently noticeable opportunities to access advertising information and preserving a satisfying viewer experience in watching requested video content.

Abstract: We study the problem of efficiently computing diverse query results in online shopping applications, where users specify queries through a form interface that allows a mix of structured and content-based selection conditions. Intuitively, the goal of diverse query answering is to return a representative set of top-k answers from all the tuples that satisfy the user selection condition. For example, if a user is searching for Honda cars and we can only display five results, we wish to return cars from five different Honda models, as opposed to returning cars from only one or two Honda models. A key contribution of this paper is to formally define the notion of diversity, and to show that existing score based techniques commonly used in web applications are not sufficient to guarantee diversity. Another contribution of this paper is to develop novel and efficient query processing techniques that guarantee diversity. Our experimental results using Yahoo! Autos data show that our proposed techniques are scalable and efficient.

Abstract: A method and system for integrating web photo-services for a browser-enabled device is disclosed. The method and system include providing a server that communicates with the device over a network, and associating images stored on at least one photo-service site with a user account. Thereafter, an inventory of images stored on the device is received from the device, and an image-related web application is provided to the device over the network, where the web application requires access to the user's images. The method and system further include providing a list of the images associated with a user's account to the web application, wherein the list of images includes an image reference for each image and an indication of whether each image is stored on the device or on the photo-service site, such that the web application may perform at least one function on the user's images regardless of where the images are stored.

Abstract: Cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection errors are two prominent examples of taint-based vulnerabilities that have been responsible for a large number of security breaches in recent years. This paper presents QED, a goal-directed model-checking system that automatically generates attacks exploiting taint-based vulnerabilities in large Java web applications. This is the first time where model checking has been used successfully on real-life Java programs to create attack sequences that consist of multiple HTTP requests. QED accepts any Java web application that is written to the standard servlet specification. The analyst specifies the vulnerability of interest in a specification that looks like a Java code fragment, along with a range of values for form parameters. QED then generates a goal-directed analysis from the specification to perform session-aware tests, optimizes to eliminate inputs that are not of interest, and feeds the remainder to a model checker. The checker will systematically explore the remaining state space and report example attacks if the vulnerability specification is matched. QED provides better results than traditional analyses because it does not generate any false positive warnings. It proves the existence of errors by providing an example attack and a program trace showing how the code is compromised. Past experience suggests this is important because it makes it easy for the application maintainer to recognize the errors and to make the necessary fixes. In addition, for a class of applications, QED can guarantee that it has found all the potential bugs in the program. We have run QED over 3 Java web applications totaling 130,000 lines of code. We found 10 SQL injections and 13 cross-site scripting errors.

Abstract: Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications continue to grow in popularity, and have reportedly overtaken Web applications as the single largest contributor to Internet traffic. Using traces collected from a large edge network, we conduct an extensive analysis of P2P traffic, compare P2P traffic with Web traffic, and discuss the implications of increased P2P traffic. In addition to studying the aggregate P2P traffic, we also analyze and compare the two main constituents of P2P traffic in our data, namely BitTorrent and Gnutella. The results presented in the paper may be used for generating synthetic workloads, gaining insights into the functioning of P2P applications, and developing network management strategies. For example, our results suggest that new models are necessary for Internet traffic. As a first step, we present flow-level distributional models for Web and P2P traffic that may be used in network simulation and emulation experiments.

Abstract: On the newly programmable Web, mashups are flourishing. Designers create mashups by combining components of existing Web sites and applications. Although rapid mashup proliferation offers many opportunities, a lack of standarization and compatibility offers considerable challenges. IBM Sharable Code is an online service platform for developing and sharing situational Web 2.0 applications and mashups. The platform is based on an innovative domain-specific language that streamlines and standardizes the development and deployment of applications consuming and exposing Web APIs. Parts of the DSL and the resulting applications and mashups can be shared and reused by members of the IBM Sharable Code community. In this article, the authors offer an overview of the platform's architecture and the DSL language at its core.

Abstract: BACKGROUND Clinical decision support systems can improve medical diagnosis and reduce diagnostic errors. Older systems, however, were cumbersome to use and had limited success in identifying the correct diagnosis in complicated cases.

Abstract: This study explored Metacognition and how automated instructional support in the form of problem-solving and self-reflection prompts influenced students' capacity to solve complex problems in a Web-based learning environment. Specifically, we examined the independent and interactive effects of problem-solving prompts and reflection prompts on college students' problem solving and writing within a Web-based instructional module. We found that students who received problem-solving prompts solved problems and wrote with more clarity than did students who did not receive problem solving prompts. Reflection prompts also positively influenced problem solving and writing, but only when students also received the problem solving prompts. This suggests that asking student to reflect on their work has a positive influence on students' problem solving, but only when they have clear understanding of what they are being asked to reflect on. Results are discussed relative to feedback and self-regulation theories.

Abstract: Lean knowledge management is today implemented mostly through wikis, which let users enter text and other data, such as files, and connect the content through hyperlinks. Easy setup and a huge variety of editing support are primary reasons for wiki use in all types of intranet- and Internet-based information sharing (see P. Louridas, "Using Wikis in Software Development," IEEE Software, Mar. 2006, pp. 88- 91). The drawbacks show up when you need to structure data as opposed to just edit text. Many wikis have tons of useful content, but the volume and lack of structure make it inaccessible over time. This is where semantic wikis enter the picture. Sebastian Schaffert and his colleagues describe them here and explain how to model wiki knowledge and content for improved usability. I look forward to hearing from both readers and prospective authors about this column and the technologies you want to know more about.

Abstract: Cross-site scripting (XSS) has emerged to one of the most prevalent type of security vulnerabilities. While the reason for the vulnerability primarily lies on the server-side, the actual exploitation is within the victim's Web browser on the client-side. Therefore, an operator of a Web application has only very limited evidence of XSS issues. In this paper, we propose a passive detection system to identify successful XSS attacks. Based on a prototypical implementation, we examine our approach's accuracy and verify its detection capabilities. We compiled a data-set of 500.000 individual HTTP request/response-pairs from 95 popular web applications for this, in combination with both real word and manually crafted XSS-exploits; our detection approach results in a total of zero false negatives for all tests, while maintaining an excellent false positive rate for more than 80% of the examined Web applications.

Abstract: Web applications have rapidly become a critical part of business for many organizations. However, increased usage of Web applications has not been reciprocated with corresponding increases in reliability. Unique characteristics, such as quick turnaround time, coupled with growing popularity motivate the need for efficient and effective Web application testing strategies. In this paper, we propose several new test suite prioritization strategies for Web applications and examine whether these strategies can improve the rate of fault detection for three Web applications and their preexisting test suites. We prioritize test suites by test lengths, frequency of appearance of request sequences, and systematic coverage of parameter-values and their interactions. Experimental results show that the proposed prioritization criteria often improve the rate of fault detection of the test suites when compared to random ordering of test cases. In general, the best prioritization metrics either (1) consider frequency of appearance of sequences of requests or (2) systematically cover combinations of parameter-values as early as possible.

Abstract: Over the last 40 years there has been a movement to increase opportunities for public participation in the decision and policy-making processes for design and planning projects. The emergence of online digital mapping systems and enhancements in Web technology to support sharing and collaboration have allowed the general public to generate their own spatial content via Web applications and other geospatially enabled devices. The resulting data from this recent phenomenon has been called Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). When facilitated through digital mapping interfaces, VGI can provide landscape architects and allied design professionals with local, detailed and spatial information that can be used to create a more informed design solution. This paper describes several digital interfaces the author has developed to elicit facilitated-VGI (f-VGI) over the past decade, and examines their use in community design projects and their lessons for implementing future f-VGI initiatives.

Abstract: Using the simple, robust, Python-based Django framework, you can build powerful Web solutions with remarkably few lines of code. In Python Web Development with Django, three experienced Django and Python developers cover all the techniques, tools, and concepts you need to make the most of Django 1.0, including all the major features of the new release. The authors teach Django through in-depth explanations, plus provide extensive sample code supported with images and line-by-line explanations. Youll discover how Django leverages Pythons development speed and flexibility to help you solve a wide spectrum of Web development problems and learn Django best practices covered nowhere else. Youll build your first Django application in just minutes and deepen your real-world skills through start-to-finish application projects including Simple Web log (blog) Online photo gallery Simple content management system Ajax-powered live blogger Online source code sharing/syntax highlighting tool How to run your Django applications on the Google App Engine This complete guide starts by introducing Python, Django, and Web development concepts, then dives into the Django framework, providing a deep understanding of its major components (models, views, templates), and how they come together to form complete Web applications. After a discussion of four independent working Django applications, coverage turns to advanced topics, such as caching, extending the template system, syndication, admin customization, and testing. Valuable reference appendices cover using the command-line, installing and configuring Django, development tools, exploring existing Django applications, the Google App Engine, and how to get more involved with the Django community. Introduction 1 Part I: Getting Started Chapter 1: Practical Python for Django 7 Chapter 2: Django for the Impatient: Building a Blog 57 Chapter 3: Starting Out 77 Part II: Django in Depth Chapter 4: Defining and Using Models 89 Chapter 5: URLs, HTTP Mechanisms, and Views 117 Chapter 6: Templates and Form Processing 135 Part III: Django Applications by Example Chapter 7: Photo Gallery 159 Chapter 8: Content Management System 181 Chapter 9: Liveblog 205 Chapter 10: Pastebin 221 Part IV: Advanced Django Techniques and Features Chapter 11: Advanced Django Programming 235 Chapter 12: Advanced Django Deployment 261 Part V: Appendices Appendix A: Command Line Basics 285 Appendix B: Installing and Running Django 295 Appendix C: Tools for Practical Django Development 313 Appendix D: Finding, Evaluating, and Using Django Applications 321 Appendix E: Django on the Google App Engine 325 Appendix F: Getting Involved in the Django Project 337 Index 339 Colophon 375

Abstract: Traditionally, Web applications have had great limitations in the usability and interactivity of their user interfaces. To overcome these limitations, a new type of Web applications called rich Internet applications (RIAs) has recently appeared providing richer and more efficient graphical components similar to desktop applications. However, RIAs are rather complex and their development requires the designing and implementation tasks which are time-consuming and error-prone. Moreover, RIA development is a new challenge for the Web engineering methodologies requiring their modification and the introduction of other concerns. In this context, we propose a new approach called OOH4RIA which proposes a model-driven development process that extends OOH methodology. It introduces new structural and behavioural models in order to represent a complete RIA and to apply transformations that reduce the effort and accelerate its development. This RIA will be implemented on the promising Google Web toolkit (GWT) framework.

Abstract: How do you create and launch a vibrant social web application that people are motivated to use? Getting people to participate (and stay participating) is the key to any web-based strategy, but you have to do more than simply add features. This book teaches you how. By using real world examples and a bit of social psychology theory, this book provides a solid foundation for designing your next great web application. Packed full of information and best practices, this book will show you: · How to distinguish between different types of social web applications and the design challenges of each · The core reasons why people participate online, as individuals and as groups · How to prevent the Cold Start Problem -- when you build it...and they don't come. · How viral sharing works on sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Flickr · How to avoid PR nightmares that have plagued companies like Dell and Walmart · How to design for first-time users · How to grow your social web application from zero users to 1000, and beyond

Abstract: Annotated corpora of the size needed for modern computational linguistics research cannot be created by small groups of hand annotators. One solution is to exploit collaborative work on the Web and one way to do this is through games like the ESP game. Applying this methodology however requires developing methods for teaching subjects the rules of the game and evaluating their contribution while maintaining the game entertainment. In addition, applying this method to linguistic annotation tasks like anaphoric annotation requires developing methods for presenting text and identifying the components of the text that need to be annotated. In this paper we present the first version of Phrase Detectives (http://www.phrasedetectives.org), to our knowledge the first game designed for collaborative linguistic annotation on the Web.

Abstract: Increasingly large numbers of situational applications are being created by enterprise business users as a by-product of solving day-to-day problems. In efforts to address the demand for such applications, corporate IT is moving toward Web 2.0 architectures. In particular, the corporate intranet is evolving into a platform of readily accessible data and services where communities of business users can assemble and deploy situational applications. Damia is a web style data integration platform being developed to address the data problem presented by such applications, which often access and combine data from a variety of sources. Damia allows business users to quickly and easily create data mashups that combine data from desktop, web, and traditional IT sources into feeds that can be consumed by AJAX, and other types of web applications. This paper describes the key features and design of Damia's data integration engine, which has been packaged with Mashup Hub, an enterprise feed server currently available for download on IBM alphaWorks. Mashup Hub exposes Damia's data integration capabilities in the form of a service that allows users to create hosted data mashups.