A Manager's Primer on e-Networking

Sample

Ludmila I. Kuncheva

This book about fuzzy classifier design briefly introduces the fundamentals of supervised pattern recognition and fuzzy set theory. Fuzzy if-then classifiers are defined and some theoretical properties thereof are studied. Popular training algorithms are detailed. Non if-then fuzzy classifiers include relational, k-nearest neighbor, prototype-based designs, etc. A chapter on multiple classifier combination discusses fuzzy and non-fuzzy models for fusion and selection.

Sample

Dieter Fensel

Ontologies have been developed and investigated for some time in artificial intelligence to facilitate knowledge sharing and reuse. More recently, the notion of ontologies has attracted attention from fields such as databases, intelligent information integration, cooperative information systems, information retrieval, electronic commerce, enterprise application integration, and knowledge management. This broadened interest in ontologies is based on the feature that they provide a machine-processable semantics of information sources that can be communicated among agents as well as between software artifacts and humans. This feature makes ontologies the backbone technology of the next web generation, i.e., the Semantic Web. Ontologies are currently applied in areas such as knowledge management in large company-wide networks and call centers, and in B2C, B2G, and B2B electronic commerce. In a nutshell, ontologies enable effective and efficient access to heterogeneous and distributed information sources. Given the increasing amount of information available online, this kind of support is becoming more important day by day. The author systematically introduces the notion of ontologies to the non-expert reader and demonstrates in detail how to apply this conceptual framework for improved intranet retrieval of corporate information and knowledge and for enhanced Internet-based electronic commerce. He also describes ontology languages (XML, RDF, and OWL) and ontology tools, and the application of ontologies. In addition to structural improvements, the second edition covers recent developments relating to the Semantic Web, and emerging web-based standard languages.

Sample

Berend Wierenga, Gerrit Bruggen

Marketing management support systems are designed to make marketing managers more effective decision makers in this electronic era. Developments in information technology have caused a marketing data explosion, but have also provided a powerful set of tools that can transform this data into applicable marketing knowledge. Consequently, companies are making major investments in such marketing decision aids. This book is the first comprehensive, systematic textbook on marketing management support systems. The basic issue is the question of how to determine the most effective type of support for a given marketing decision maker in a particular decision situation. The book takes a demand-oriented approach. Decision aids for marketing managers can only be effective if they match with the thinking and reasoning process of the decision makers who use them. Consequently, the important questions addressed in this book are: how do marketing managers make decisions; how can marketing management support systems help to overcome several (cognitive) limitations of human decision makers; and what is the most appropriate type of management support system for assisting the problem-solving methods employed by a marketing decision-maker?

Sample

Barbara A. Cherry

The Crisis in Telecommunications Carrier Liability addresses the important public policy issues underlying liability rules for common carriers in the context of telephone companies. These public policy concerns must be evaluated for their compatibility in achieving other public policy objectives, such as universal service, imposed on the telecommunications industry under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This book offers the industry and policymakers, as well as those hoping to influence the public policy process, both the means and recommendations for designing more appropriate liability rules in order to achieve the numerous social objectives for the telecommunications industry.