Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy 7


Book Description

Astronomy isthemostancientsciencehumanshavepracticedonEarth. Itisascienceofextremesandoflargenumbers:extremesoftime–fromthe big bang to in?nity –, of distances, of temperatures, of density and masses, ofmagnetic?eld,etc.Itisasciencewhichishighlyvisible,notonlybecause stars and planets are accessible in the sky to the multitude, but also - cause the telescopes themselves are easily distinguishable, usually on top of scenic mountains, and also because their cost usually represent a subst- tialproportionofthenation’sbudgetandofthetaxpayerscontributionsto that budget. As such, astronomy cannot pass unnoticed. It touches on the origins of matter, of the Universe where we live, on life and on our destiny. It touches on philosophy as well as on religion. Astronomy is the direct c- tactofhumankindwithitsoriginsandtheimmensityofuniversalnature.It is indeed a science of observation where experimentation is practically - possible and which is ruled by mathematics, physics, chemistry, statistical analysis and modelling, while o?ering the largest number of veri?cations of the most advanced theories of fundamental physics such as general r- st ativity and gravitation. At the beginning of the 21 century astronomy is clearly a multidisciplinary activity touching on all aspects of science. It is therefore logical that in the past and still now, astronomy has attracted the most famous scientists, be they pure observers, mathematicians, physicists, biologists, experimentalists, and even politicians.




Best Practices for the Knowledge Society. Knowledge, Learning, Development and Technology for All


Book Description

It is a great pleasure to share with you the Springer LNCS proceedings of the Second World Summit on the Knowledge Society, WSKS 2009, organized by the Open - search Society, Ngo, http://www.open-knowledge-society.org, and held in Samaria Hotel, in the beautiful city of Chania in Crete, Greece, September 16–18, 2009. The 2nd World Summit on the Knowledge Society (WSKS 2009) was an inter- tional scientific event devoted to promoting dialogue on the main aspects of the knowledge society towards a better world for all. The multidimensional economic and social crisis of the last couple of years has brought to the fore the need to discuss in depth new policies and strategies for a human centric developmental processes in the global context. This annual summit brings together key stakeholders involved in the worldwide development of the knowledge society, from academia, industry, and government, including policy makers and active citizens, to look at the impact and prospects of - formation technology, and the knowledge-based era it is creating, on key facets of l- ing, working, learning, innovating, and collaborating in today’s hyper-complex world. The summit provides a distinct, unique forum for cross-disciplinary fertilization of research, favoring the dissemination of research on new scientific ideas relevant to - ternational research agendas such as the EU (FP7), OECD, or UNESCO. We focus on the key aspects of a new sustainable deal for a bold response to the multidimensional crisis of our times.




Interactive Storytelling


Book Description

This volume contains scientific papers and case studies presented at Interactive Sto- telling ’08: The First Joint International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS), held November 26–29, 2008, in Erfurt, Germany. Interactive Digital Storytelling (IDS) is a cross-disciplinary topic, which explores new uses of interactive technologies for creating and experiencing narratives. IDS is also a huge step forward in games and learning. This can be seen through its ability to enrich virtual characters with intelligent behavior, to allow collaboration of humans and machines in the creative process, and to combine narrative knowledge and user activity in interactive artifacts. IDS involves concepts from many aspects of Computer Science, above all from Artificial Intelligence, with topics such as narrative intelligence, automatic dialogue and drama management, and smart graphics. In order to process stories in real time, traditional storytelling needs to be formalized into computable models by drawing from narratological studies. As it is currently hardly accessible for creators and e- users, there is a need for new authoring concepts and tools supporting the creation of such dynamic stories, allowing for rich and meaningful interaction with the content.




Emerging Technologies for Semantic Work Environments: Techniques, Methods, and Applications


Book Description

Today's work is characterized by a high degree of innovation and thus demands a thorough overview of relevant knowledge in the world and in organizations. Semantic Work Environments support the work of the user by collecting knowledge about needs and providing processed and improved knowledge to be integrated into work. Emerging Technologies for Semantic Work Environments: Techniques, Methods, and Applications describes an overview of the emerging field of Semantic Work Environments by combining various research studies and underlining the similarities between different processes, issues and approaches in order to provide the reader with techniques, methods, and applications of the study.




NoSQL Data Models


Book Description

The topic of NoSQL databases has recently emerged, to face the Big Data challenge, namely the ever increasing volume of data to be handled. It is now recognized that relational databases are not appropriate in this context, implying that new database models and techniques are needed. This book presents recent research works, covering the following basic aspects: semantic data management, graph databases, and big data management in cloud environments. The chapters in this book report on research about the evolution of basic concepts such as data models, query languages, and new challenges regarding implementation issues.




HCI in Work and Learning, Life and Leisure


Book Description

Because of the fast developments in information and communication technologies (ICT), the ?elds of application of HCI and UE are broader than ever.




The Semantic Web - ISWC 2008


Book Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Semantic Web Conference, ISWC 2008, held in Karlsruhe, Germany, during October 26-30, 2008. The volume contains 43 revised full research papers selected from a total of 261 submissions, of which an additional 3 papers were referred to the semantic Web in-use track; 11 papers out of 26 submissions to the semantic Web in-use track, and 7 papers and 12 posters accepted out of 39 submissions to the doctorial consortium. The topics covered in the research track are ontology engineering; data management; software and service engineering; non-standard reasoning with ontologies; semantic retrieval; OWL; ontology alignment; description logics; user interfaces; Web data and knowledge; semantic Web services; semantic social networks; and rules and relatedness. The semantic Web in-use track covers knowledge management; business applications; applications from home to space; and services and infrastructure.




Computational Collective Intelligence. Semantic Web, Social Networks and Multiagent Systems


Book Description

Computational collective intelligence (CCI) is most often understood as a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) dealing with soft computing methods that enable group decisions to be made or knowledge to be processed among autonomous units acting in distributed environments. The needs for CCI techniques and tools have grown signi- cantly recently as many information systems work in distributed environments and use distributed resources. Web-based systems, social networks and multi-agent systems very often need these tools for working out consistent knowledge states, resolving conflicts and making decisions. Therefore, CCI is of great importance for today’s and future distributed systems. Methodological, theoretical and practical aspects of computational collective int- ligence, such as group decision making, collective action coordination, and knowledge integration, are considered as the form of intelligence that emerges from the collabo- tion and competition of many individuals (artificial and/or natural). The application of multiple computational intelligence technologies such as fuzzy systems, evolutionary computation, neural systems, consensus theory, etc. , can support human and other collective intelligence and create new forms of CCI in natural and/or artificial s- tems.