Amid the rapid growth of information today is the increasing challenge for people to survive and navigate its magnitude. Dynamics and heterogeneity of large information spaces such as the Web challenge information retrieval in these environments. Collection of information in advance and centralization of IR operations are hardly possible because…

Cloud computing is definitely a thing now, but it's not new and it's not even novel. Back when people were first learning about the Internet in the 1990s, every diagram that one saw showing how the Internet worked had a big cloud in the middle. That cloud represented the diverse links, routers, gateways, and protocols that passed traffic around in…

The "cyberinfrastucture" is a broad informational network that entails connections to real-time data sensors as well as tools that permit visualization and other forms of analysis, and that facilitates access to vast scientific databases. This multifaceted network, already a major boon to scientific discovery, now shows exceptional promise in…

Increasing instructor-student interactions and improving support personnel interventions with students positively affects their academic performance, retention, and graduation rates. This article discusses the Grade Performance Status (GPS) which is Northern Arizona University's new online, academic early alert tool for increasing instructor…

Describes an approach for linking geographically distributed collections of metadata so that they are searchable as a single collection. Describes the infrastructure, discusses advantages of using linked collections of authoritative metadata as an alternative to using a keyword-indexing search engine for resource discovery, and examines other…

The current version of the IP protocol, IPv4, is the most widely used protocol in computer networks. This article describes mechanisms that can be used to facilitate the transition to the new version of the IP protocol, IPv6, and examines usability, usefulness and manageability. Describes how some of these mechanisms were applied to the Greek…

Describes UKOLN's (United Kingdom Office for Library and Information Networking--a national center for support in network information management in the library/information communities) experimental system that allows digital object identifiers (DOIs) encoded as uniform resource names (URNs) to be resolved on behalf of Web browsers by Squid, a…

This kit was developed to assist the postsecondary education community's efforts to resolve the Year 2000 (Y2K) computer problem. The kit includes a description of the Y2K problem, an assessment of the readiness of colleges and universities, a checklist for institutions, a Y2K communications strategy, articles on addressing the problem in academic…

Multicasting is a necessity for a broadband metro-area-network; however security problems exist with current multicast protocols. A stateful multicast access control mechanism, based on MAPE, is proposed. The architecture of MAPE is discussed, as well as the states maintained and messages exchanged. The scheme is flexible and scalable. (Author/AEF)

Integrated distributed learning environments (IDLEs) have emerged with the Internet and the World Wide Web. They are primarily based on a collaborative learning instructional paradigm rather than the self-instructional model of multimedia authoring systems. As such, they make extensive use of the asynchronous and synchronous collaborative tools…

The Queensland Department of Education (Australia) developed a homesteading model as an alternative to the urban-built environment model of large multi-purpose networks. This resulted in the in-house development of a low-cost, stand-alone server and homepage. The charette technique was used to plan and design the Queensland Department of Education…

Presents an overview of the security architecture of the IP multimedia core network subsystem (IMS) of the third generation mobile system, known in Europe as UMTS. Discusses IMS security requirements; IMS security architecture; authentication between IMS user and home network; integrity and confidentiality for IMS signalling; and future aspects of…

Reports on one of the first projects in the United Kingdom which used the Internet to link schools with their local career service. Results of evaluations by staff and pupils in four secondary schools are discussed in terms of design features, access and communication issues, and further recommendations for development. (Author/AEF)

Explores Web page and Web site mortality rates, and considers two types of change: content and structural. Examines those constancy and permanence phenomena for different Web document classes. Suggests that, from the perspective of information maintenance and retrieval, the Web does not represent revolutionary change, that in some ways it is less…

Content-control proposals have been found to be more intrusive and restrictive than supporters of rating systems and filtering software claim. These systems often exceed claims in types of content restricted, numbers and types of people prevented from reaching content, technical changes required to public electronic networks, and burdens on…