Abstract: The World Wide Web (WWW) provides a new tool for experimental research. The Web experiment method differs in fundamental aspects from traditional laboratory and field experiments; therefore it can be used to validate previous findings. Web experiments offer (1) easy access to a demographically and culturally diverse participant population, including participants from unique and previously inaccessible target populations; (2) bringing the experiment to the participant instead of the opposite; (3) high statistical power by enabling access to large samples; (4) the direct assessment of motivational confounding; and (5) cost savings of lab space, person-hours, equipment, and administration. These and 13 other advantages of Web experiments are reviewed and contrasted with 7 disadvantages, such as (1) multiple submissions, (2) lack of experimental control, (3) self-selection, and (4) drop out. Several techniques and other detailed solutions are described that avoid potential problems or even turn them into useful features of Web experimentation.

Abstract: We propose a precise UML-based authoring method for Web applications. This authoring method is part of the UML-based Web Engineering (UWE) approach. Starting with a requirement analysis done by use cases technique, it focuses on the design phase. The conceptual model of the application is used as guideline for modeling the navigation space. From the navigation space model we derive, in a next step, a navigation structure model which shows how to navigate through the navigation space using access elements like indexes, guided tours, queries and menus. Finally, a presentation model is constructed based on the navigation structure model. It provides an appropriate UML notation to support sketching and storyboarding. In addition, we suggest to use UML interaction diagrams to represent the presentation flow. During the whole development process we identify steps that can be performed in an automatic way thus providing the basis for a generation mechanism for Web application design. The different models of the design process are represented by using a UML conform extension of UML for Web applications (UML profile). The authoring process is illustrated with an example: a Web–based conference review system. The strength of the presented Web engineering approach is given by the fact that we use exclusively the UML notation and techniques. Moreover, our specification of constraints with OCL (part of UML) allows augmenting the exactitude of the models. In the same way our methodology has a high degree of precision in the description of guidelines of the authoring process of Web application, which can even partially be automated.

Abstract: Web sites are becoming important assets for several companies, which need to incorporate sophisticated technologies into complex and large Web based systems. As a consequence, methodologies and tools are required for their design, implementation and maintenance. In particular the possibility for a site to evolve so as to provide updated and accessible information is a fundamental need. Web sites are considered the object of several analyses, focused on their structure and their history, with the purpose of supporting maintenance activities. Structural information may help understanding the organization of the pages in the site, while history analysis provides indications on modifications that do not correspond to the original design or that produce undesirable effects. A tool was developed to implement the analysis of Web site structure and evolution. Its application to some examples downloaded from the Web highlights several areas where the extracted information can improve the control on the maintenance phase and provide valuable support.

Abstract: In recent years, Web applications have become prevalent around the world. Many companies have developed or integrated their mission-critical applications using Web technologies. As Web applications become more complex, testing Web applications becomes crucial. We extend data flow testing techniques to Web applications. Several data flow issues for analyzing HTML and eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents in Web applications are discussed. An approach to supporting data flow testing for Web applications is presented. In our approach, the structural test artifacts of a Web application are captured in a Web Application Test Model (WATM) where each component of the Web application is treated as an object. The elements of an HTML or XML document are considered as structured variables within an object. Data flow test cases for Web applications are derived from flow graphs in five levels according to the types of definition-use chains for the variables of interest.

Abstract: Electronic commerce has recently shown enormous potential to take over a significant share of the sales market. There is a need to provide services that can reach individual computer users with different information profiles and levels of expertise. In this article the concept of Web assistants, human assistants working in an electronic Web shop, is presented. This human‐computer collaboration provides intelligent and adaptive services via an integrated communication media. A prototype of a Web assistant system has been implemented. While browsing through the system the user can call for human assistance should the need arise. Presents the results of a usability study performed on the prototype system. Recent commercial moves in the direction discussed in this article increase the importance of the usability study. The results are encouraging, especially when it comes to the attitude aspects of usability. The subjects were extremely enthusiastic about the concept of Web assistants and its implications. The human Web assistant who participated in the field trial highlighted the importance of user modelling. Although the system is mainly in the context of electronic commerce, it can be used in many other contexts. These include home automation, digital libraries, and technical support, to name a few.

Abstract: The 21st century is the age of the Internet and the World Wide Web. The Web revolutionizes the way we gather, process, and use information. At the same time, it also redefines the meanings and processes of business, commerce, marketing, finance, publishing, education, research, development, as well as other aspects of our daily life. The revolution is just beginning. Although individual Web based information systems are constantly being deployed, advanced issues and techniques for developing and for benefiting from Web intelligence still remain to be systematically studied. The article defines a new research field, namely Web Intelligence (WI) by giving a complete picture of WI related topics for systematic study on advanced Web technology and developing Web based intelligent information systems. Roughly speaking, WI exploits AI and advanced information technology on the Web and Internet. It is the key and the most urgent research field of IT for business intelligence.

Abstract: We believe that the future consists of nomadic people depending upon mobile appliances using World Wide Web protocols to communicate with services offered in real world places. Use of web protocols provides a ubiquitous communication infrastructure and allows interaction with the multitude of existing web-based services. Part of the challenge to realize our vision is to bridge the physical and virtual worlds by creating web representations for people, places, and things that interact virtually as they interact physically. We believe that an interesting set of new services can be provided by bridging the virtual and physical worlds in this way. This paper describes our experience with building a general place manager infrastructure useful for creating web representations for physical places. Although we leverage a general web presence architecture for building all different types of web presence, this paper focuses on the specific needs for building web representations for places.

Abstract: The Web is more and more used as a platform for full-fledged increasingly complex applications, where a huge amount of change-intensive data is managed by underlying database systems. From a software engineering point of view, the development of Web applications requires proper modeling methods in order to ensure architectural soundness and maintainability. Existing modeling methods for Web applications, however, fall short on considering a major requirement posed on today's Web applications, namely customization. Web applications should be customizable with respect to various context factors comprising different user preferences, device capabilities and locations in mobile scenarios, to mention just a few. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, a framework of requirements, covering the design space of customizable Web applications is suggested. Second, on the basis of this framework, existing approaches for developing customizable Web applications are surveyed and general shortcomings are identified pointing the way to next-generation modeling methods.

Abstract: The World Wide Web’s anticipated scope as an environment for knowledge exchange has changed dramatically Without major modifications to its primary mechanisms the Web has turned into a platform for distributed applications The originally simple and well-defined coarse-grained implementation model of the Web now hinders Web application development Fine-grained development artifacts, design patterns, and other well-established Software Engineering methods are hard to reuse in the Web after they have found their way into implementation resources The application of Software Engineering practice to development for the Web, which is also referred to as Web Engineering, and especially the systematic reuse of components for Web-application development at low-costs is a main goal to achieve This paper explains how the object-oriented and component-based WebComposition Markup Language (WCML) addresses these problems A systematic approach to code reuse is presented with the WebComposition Repository, which is an essential tool for retrieval and classification of large component sets The Repository’s architecture is crafted to support multiple representation and classification approaches It facilitates reuse in component-based Web Engineering

Abstract: Since 1990 the Web has changed from a distributed hypertext system to an efficient environment for application delivery. Due to the legacy of the Web implementation model the development, management, and evolution of complex Web applications suffer from the coarse-grained model-entities. The demands can not be achieved without the application of programming technology and software engineering practice to applications in the Web, which is also referred to as Web Engineering. It has been recognized that the gap between design models and the implementation model of the Web leads to a development process that is hard to maintain, because fine-grained design entities get lost in the coarse-grained implementation model. Therefore, the coarse-grained implementation model hinders the maintenance and reuse of parts of an application. In this paper, the impacts on Web Engineering due to the coarse-grained Web implementation model are discussed and typical solutions that are related to the above problems are introduced. Then, the object-oriented WebComposition Markup Language will be presented as basis for a generic approach to component-based Web-application development.

Abstract: The Nature of the WWW and Web Development. What is CM? Understanding the Tools that Support CM. Selecting a Tool. Deploying a Solution. Case Studies. Appendix: Process Templates.

Abstract: The World Wide Web offers unique teaching and learning opportunities. To take advantage of these opportunities, professors and designers need to understand not only how the Web can support learning but also how to design courses to make the most of Web capabilities.

Abstract: Responsiveness and scalability are important quality-of-service attributes for Web applications. Web sites that are slow, either because of poor responsiveness or lack of scalability, can produce customer dissatisfaction, loss of revenue and/or productivity, and potentially more serious consequences. To avoid these problems, it is important to know whether users will be able to access information in a timely fashion, whether the hardware will be able to handle the load, and whether the system will scale to meet projected demand before the system is deployed. This paper describes how to apply the techniques of Software Performance Engineering (SPE) to Web applications. We focus on using the SPE models to provide decision support during the software architectural design phase because the decisions made at that time have the largest effect on performance and scalability. A case study illustrates the application of these techniques to a typical Web application.

Abstract: Generally, a multitude of tools is used for the management of a Web application life cycle. It is highly desirable to provide an exchange format for such tools to enable interoperability. This paper presents an eXtensible Web Modeling Framework (XWMF), which applies the Resource Description Framework (RDF) to Web engineering to provide an interoperable exchange format. Our proposed framework makes use of one and the same (meta- ) data model to specify the structure and content of a Web application, to make statements about the elements of a Web application, and to reason about the data and metadata. XWMF is extensible, because schemata defining additional vocabulary to integrate new design artifacts can be added. The XWMF tools are able to convert the Web application (metadata) description into the corresponding Web implementation.

Abstract: From the Publisher: Web-based learning in academia and private industry – for both in-house training and as product offered to customers – is a rapidly expanding segment of the IT arena. This book gives you the business knowledge and tools you need to decide if web-based training can be a viable and profitable enterprise for your organization. This new book helps you achieve effective implementation of web-based learning by examining the required infrastructures, management tactics, business ramifications, and economic considerations you need to be aware of. It evaluates web-based learning as the emerging vehicle of distance learning, and it also addresses cost-benefit issues of implementing a web-based learning solution, how to market web-based learning, and the business process reengineering associated with web-based learning implementation.

Abstract: Accessibility and actuality are presented here as the real benefits of the WWW medium for the dissemination of geospatial information through maps. In addition, the Web allows different modes of using web maps that address different map use goals. An argument is made that a great deal of web map use research will be required to develop more effective cartographic tools to better serve the needs of the users. Part of this research will have to be directed towards the characteristics of the web map users and the nature of their questions. Currently, we are witnessing a significant diversification of the user profile combined with an exponential growth of the total number of Internet users worldwide. The global distribution of the Internet is still very uneven, but there are now signs that the geographical anomalies will be somewhat reduced in the years to come. There are a number of other problems and limitations with which users are confronted in their use of maps on the web. However, the Web already is the major medium for the dissemination of maps and it has a great potential for further growth. But, this growth will have to be accompanied by cartographic research.

Abstract: Modern WWW applications are highly integrated, rapidly changing, distributed multi-user systems which must take into account system and enterprise critical non-functional requirements. We present a twofold approach to Web engineering: the static part addresses all aspects that belong to the contents of pages, text and images, while the dynamic part deals with interaction with databases and other application systems. We focus on the static part, called document engineering. It involves the tasks of document design, authoring, and document production. Our approach to Web engineering will suggest the reusable components content, structure, navigation, and layout. We present SchemaText, an integrated software tool, that provides a schema-based approach to Web engineering. SchemaText implements the basic ideas of our methodology.

Abstract: This article discusses the World Wide Web as an advertising medium. Historically, the advertising industry has embraced new technologies, as evidenced by the growth of radio and television earlier in the 20th century. The World Wide Web, however, has not developed like other media. Traditional media have been based on an entertainment platform: the Web is almost exclusively an information based medium. This article compares and contrasts the Web with traditional advertising media and identifies five essential dimensions in which it must successfully compete to be considered a viable advertising medium.

Abstract: The centralized delivery-mechanism of the Web enables the construction of Web applications personalized for each user by using behavior analysis Current technologies suffer from the Web’s legacy and use Log file-analysis or collaborative filtering only to adapt the content to users’ needs Motivated by the results of collaborative filtering algorithms, we describe a construction approach based on the abstract concept of services To support the fine-grained concept we use the component-based WebComposition Markup Language to support reuse and seamless evolution of Web applications

Abstract: As society changes rapidly education has become a life long activity, demanding for more open access to instruction. Technological developments, such as hypermedia and global access to the Internet, and especially the World Wide Web, can be used as useful tools in the implementation of alternate, open modes of instruction. In this work, distance learning through the Web is investigated. The ways in which Web functionality may serve the educational purposes of a virtual classroom are examined. The main stakeholders of a Web-based course are identified and their roles in a virtual classroom setting are described. As the impact of the educational material in the effectiveness of the learning environment is of major importance, alternative models of learning and assessing are considered. As a case study, a Web-based course on computer architecture, developed at the Department of Informatics, University of Athens, is presented. The difficulties that the learners encounter in this open environment are identified and possible solutions are proposed.

Abstract: As computer hardware shrinks and lightens and as communications becomes cheaper and more widely available, we have new opportunities for software systems to support nomadic users of ubiquitous or pervasive computing services [16, 24]. We are interested in systems that support interaction with the physical world wherever users happen to be. More and more things in the physical world, such as our cars and domestic appliances, are becoming "smart". Users need a convenient framework in which they can benefit from the smart artifacts around them. Users can also benefit from services built for non-electronic entities that they encounter in their everyday lives, such as goods on the shelves of stores, paintings in galleries and items in the office. We think the physical world and the virtual world would both be richer if they were more closely linked.The approaching pervasiveness of web technology, new kinds of wireless networks, and cheaper portable devices provide an opportunity to construct a virtual bridge between mobile users and physical entities. At HP Labs we have been exploring this opportunity through an infrastructure to support "web presence" for people, places and things [14], and the "CoolTown" demonstrator applications that run on top of the infrastructure [4].In this paper we discuss how we provide mobile people and devices with web-based services for "things" --- the physical entities --- in their environment. Things become web-present by embedding web servers in them or by hosting their web-presence within a web server. To enable services for web things we need a system that connects things and services. We will outline a system that leverages the power of the Web as a basis for nomadic computing, then highlight one important subsystem that uses DNS technology to name web things in a scalable and context dependent fashion.Section 2 describes our use of the Web as 'just enough' middleware for nomadic computing, and describes web presence. Section 3 describes how we tackle the naming issues that arise in providing web presence for the things that mobile users encounter. Section 4 relates our work to that of others and concludes the paper.

Abstract: It has been recognized only recently that, like databases, web sites need models and schemes. Data-intensive web sites are best developed using a multi-level design approach proceeding from data design via navigation design to web-page design. Modern web-based information systems are no longer static in nature. Rather they are dynamic. Besides querying, they support workflow tasks and e-commerce transactions. The design of such systems needs to consider the underlying business process next to the data. Their integrated design has been mainly treated in an ad-hoc way so far. In this paper, we present a three-level schema architecture for the conceptual design of dynamic web-based information systems. We employ an object-oriented approach that integrates data and process management and complements previous approaches for the design of data-intensive web sites.

Abstract: This article is an introduction to the special issue of CyberPsychology and Behavior entitled Education, Hypermedia, and the World Wide Web. This article describes the methods for soliciting contributions and presents a brief overview of the authors and their articles. I also discuss some general themes that I gleaned from the authors’ contributions. A central theme that emerges from these articles is that the majority of web-based learning available presently is simply an extension of “ traditional” classroom instruction, which suffers from fundamental flaws. A contrasting theme, which also emerges, is that the World Wide Web, in conjunction with societal demands, can serve as the impetuous for a revolution in education, creating a more functional and student-centered system. Some of the applications introduced by practitioners/developers in these articles serve as models of such learning environments.

Abstract: The Web has become a ubiquitous environment for application delivery. To originally intended idea, as a distributed system for knowledge-interchange, has given way to organizations offering their products and services using the Web as a global point of scale. The centralized delivery-mechanism enables the construction of E-Commerce applications personalized for each user by using behavior analysis. Current technologies suffer from the Web's legacy and use Log file-analysis or collaborative filtering only to adapt the content to users' needs. Motivated by the results of collaborative filtering algorithms, we describe a construction approach based on the abstract concept of services. To support the fine-grained concept we use the component-based Web Composition Markup Language to support reuse and seamless evolution of E-Commerce applications.

Abstract: Web pages are often designed in ways that create new and needless barriers. For people with print disabilities this is maddening and frustrating. Laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act require many public and private entities to provide communications, including the Web, in formats that include the needs of Americans with disabilities. The purpose of this article is both to provide a brief insight into universal Web design and to point readers to resources that will be useful to libraries in becoming part of the Web solution rather than contributing to the Web problem.