Thesis (M.S. in Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation (MOVES))--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Don Brutzman, Curtis Blais. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-102). Also available online.

Οι τεχνολογίες των υπηρεσιών ιστού οδήγησαν στην εξέλιξη των ασύρματων δικτύων, με αποτέλεσμα να αναπτύσσονται ιδιαίτερα οι εφαρμογές του Mobile Web. Οι χρήστες του Mobile Web έχουν τη δυνατότητα να απολαμβάνουν τις υπηρεσίες του διαδικτύου χωρίς να απαιτείται κάποιος υπολογιστής γραφείου ή καλώδια, μόνον με τη χρήση μικρών φορητών συσκευών όπως τα κινητά τηλέφωνα. Είναι επιθυμητό όμως οι ιστοσελίδες που εμφανίζονται στην οθόνη του κινητού να έχουν την ίδια παρουσίαση με αυτές που εμφανίζονται στην οθόνη ενός υπολογιστή γραφείου ώστε να αυξάνεται η “εμπειρία” του χρήστη. Για να πραγματοποιηθεί αυτό διάφορες επιστημονικές ομάδες ασχολούνται με μεθόδους βελτιστοποίησης και προσαρμοστικότητας εφαρμογών για το Mobile Web. Έχουν καθοριστεί επιπλέον κάποια πρότυπα χαρακτηριστικά τα οποία οφείλουν να ακολουθούν οι σχεδιαστές και χρησιμοποιούνται συγκεκριμένες γλώσσες σήμανσης περιεχομένου όπως η WML (Wireless Markup Language), XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language), XHTML MP (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language Mobile Web). / The technologies of web services have led to the evolution of wireless networks and that results in the development of the applications of Mobile Web. The users of the Mobile Web have the opportunity to enjoy internet services without the need of a desktop computer or cables, just only with the use of mobile devices such as mobile phones. It is desirable, the web pages that come up in the screen of a mobile phone to have the same or almost the same representation with that of a desktop computer in order to increase the user experience. To make this a reality certain scientific groups try to ameliorate the applications of the Mobile Web. The designers use specific standards and also certain markup languages such as WML (Wireless Markup Language), XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) and XHTML MP (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language Mobile Web).

The Semantic Web, as the foreseen successor of the current Web, is envisioned to be a semantically enriched information space usable by machines or agents that perform sophisticated tasks on behalf of their users. The realisation of the Semantic Web prescribe the development of a comprehensive and functional layered architecture for the increasingly semantically expressive languages that it comprises of. A functional architecture is a model specified at an appropriate level of abstraction identifying system components based on required system functionality, whilst a comprehensive architecture is an architecture founded on established design principles within Software Engineering. Within this study, an argument is formulated for the development of a comprehensive and functional layered architecture through the development of a Semantic Web status model, the extraction of the function of established Semantic Web technologies, as well as the development of an evaluation mechanism for layered architectures compiled from design principles as well as fundamental features of layered architectures. In addition, an initial version of such a comprehensive and functional layered architecture for the Semantic Web is constructed based on the building blocks described above, and this architecture is applied to several scenarios to establish the usefulness thereof. In conclusion, based on the evidence collected as result of the research in this study, it is possible to justify the development of an architectural model, or more specifically, a comprehensive and functional layered architecture for the languages of the Semantic Web. / Computing / PHD (Computer Science)

This thesis is about a potential trade-off between integrity and long-term usability in the choice of file formats for preservation of text documents. Five common formats are discussed: plain text, PDF/A, Office Open XML Document, Open Document Text, and Markdown. The formats are compared with respect to four criteria related to integrity and usability and to the records continuum model: support by widely used software, stability, rendering of contents and reusability. It is concluded that no single format is optimal with respect to all four criteria, when it comes to preserving typical documents in a modern environment, with more or less complex formatting and document structure. Therefore, the feasiblity of using two or more formats for preservation of a single document (e.g. PDF/A combined with Markdown and/or Office Open XML) is discussed. It is necessary to weigh the importance of integrity and long-term usability against the costs of preserving documents in multiple formats. This is a two years master's thesis in Archival Science, Library and Museum studies.

Several tools have been developed for the authoring of intensional (context-sensitive) documents; for example. IHTML (Intensional HTML), IML (Intensional Markup Language). and ISE (Intensional Sequential Evaluator). However, at present, it is still very difficult to author intensional markup documents. To ease this difficulty. this thesis presents two new intensional authoring tools. IMP (Intensional Macro Processor) and ICC (Intensional C Compiler). IMP is a powerful yet easy to use macro processor embedded with a JavaScript engine. ICC in turn is an intensional extension to ANSI C. Several applications of IMP and ICC such as WIMPAS. intensional spreadsheet and CGI programming in ICC are discussed in this thesis to illustrate how IMP and ICC facilitate intensional authoring.

The Semantic Web, as the foreseen successor of the current Web, is envisioned to be a semantically enriched information space usable by machines or agents that perform sophisticated tasks on behalf of their users. The realisation of the Semantic Web prescribe the development of a comprehensive and functional layered architecture for the increasingly semantically expressive languages that it comprises of. A functional architecture is a model specified at an appropriate level of abstraction identifying system components based on required system functionality, whilst a comprehensive architecture is an architecture founded on established design principles within Software Engineering. Within this study, an argument is formulated for the development of a comprehensive and functional layered architecture through the development of a Semantic Web status model, the extraction of the function of established Semantic Web technologies, as well as the development of an evaluation mechanism for layered architectures compiled from design principles as well as fundamental features of layered architectures. In addition, an initial version of such a comprehensive and functional layered architecture for the Semantic Web is constructed based on the building blocks described above, and this architecture is applied to several scenarios to establish the usefulness thereof. In conclusion, based on the evidence collected as result of the research in this study, it is possible to justify the development of an architectural model, or more specifically, a comprehensive and functional layered architecture for the languages of the Semantic Web. / Computing / PHD (Computer Science)

The Internet is a vastly under-utilised resource, only used for half of the IT story. Describe the Internet in two words and many might say ‘sharing knowledge’. But sharing information is more accurate. It’s just that all the principle ways we use the Internet — the Web, email and media streaming — happen to be examples where information is in the form of knowledge. But IT — Information Technology — has another side: the realm of software programming where information means the dynamic control of how things work. The Internet is the driving force in the IT industry, so why isn’t it also known for sharing control? True, there are examples of specialised, one-off software applications interfacing with each other via the Internet, but there has yet to be any systematic and universal attempt to exploit the potential of the Internet for control-IT in the way we have seen it for knowledge-IT. Taking the strengths of the Web model as a starting point, this thesis proposes a parallel, dynamic world to the Web called The Mesh. In the same way that the Web seamlessly connects databases of the world to provide a global font of knowledge, the Mesh would connect software of the world to provide a global means of control. The Mesh would embody all the successful, empowering features of the Web. Everyone would have a say in how things work, mirroring Web 2.0’s user-generated content but for software instead of media. In being a universally integrated design approach for device control, the Mesh would encompass a number of research areas working on the control issue at the big picture level. It would address the problems of universal usability and ubiquitous computing. It would also provide solutions in agent-based systems and grid computing. But many features of the Mesh would simply be unique. They would change the way we go about software design, leading to new opportunities for users, programmers and manufacturers alike. The key to everything is design simplicity. A concept demonstrator has been developed as an integral part of this research project. It shows that the Mesh is both feasible and practical. Examples of programs run in the concept demonstrator are discussed, showing exactly how the Mesh would be built and how it would work. / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2007

Thesis (PhD.(Information Science))-University of Pretoria, 2008. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references.

A variety of markup languages exist for formatting text and exporting to HTML. These languages are tailored to the needs in a specific context by specialising tags, selecting tags and limiting the number of possible distinctions to a subset of what is available in HTML. However, limiting the number of possible distinctions creates problems when changes occur in the context. The real world is ever-changing, thus that which models it must be able to reflect the changes in the operational environment to remain relevant and satisfactory. Incorporating new requirements and adjusting to the changes in requirements means adapting and evolving. This thesis explores giving document authors the possibility to extend and modify the repertoire of available markup tags when new user requirements demand it. What is presented is a prototype which allows the user to tailor the markup and also adapt it to changes in the environment. The system allows users to create their own set of markup tags, annotate their documents with them, and export a generated XML document. Users create the tag and assign a meaning to it, when changes occur in the requirements they can be implemented by modifying the tags, extending the repertoire by adding tags, or changing the meaning of a defined tag.

<p>This thesis explores content design – an area which encompasses the practices and the conceptions of the description, organisation and manipulation of digital content. The overall aim was to identify and examine principles, methods and tools appropriate for content design within the humanities and the social sciences. Another purpose was to investigate the limitations and opportunities of the identified methods and tools by means of modelling and applications of prosopographical materials, designed for research and teaching in history of education.</p><p>The prosopographical collection consists of three different kinds of sources: transcriptions from biographical reference books, written biographical accounts and digitalised archival sources, such as enrolment registers. These resources were encoded according to the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) guidelines with the purpose to denote specific structures and semantic features of the content. The thesis demonstrates how the prosopographical collection, stored in a master file in TEI/XML format, was encoded and organised and then further transformed, migrated and manipulated by other tools and to other platforms. This resulted in several examples of applications demonstrating a broad range of uses for research and teaching in history of education and alike.</p><p>One conclusion is that the TEI guidelines serve well as a valuable tool for the markup of rather complex historical materials designed for multiple purposes: for qualitative analyses, and as input to multivariate statistical analyses, and for migration into relational databases. Another conclusion is that such digital collections, provided with markup, could be treated as research tools themselves, because they lend themselves much more than simply access, retrieval or reading. In this prosopographical collection, the markup contributes to make explicit the underlying theories and thus provides scholars, teachers and students with tools to reuse and rearrange the content for other kinds of uses in other areas. </p>