DECEMBER 2007 (Vol. 40, No. 12) p. 102
0018-9162/07/$31.00 © 2007 IEEE
Published by the IEEE Computer Society
Published by the IEEE Computer Society
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Maturing Usability: Quality in Software, Interaction and Value, Effie Law, Ebba Hvannberg, and Gilbert Cockton, eds. This book's essays supply an understanding of how current research and practice contribute to improving quality from the perspectives of software features, interaction experiences, and achieved value. Divided into three parts, the book analyzes how using development tools can enhance system usability and how methods and models can be integrated into the development process to produce effective user interfaces.
The essays address theoretical frameworks on the nature of interactions, techniques, and metrics for evaluating interaction quality, and the transfer of concepts and methods from research to practice. They also assess the impact a system has in the real world, focusing on increasing the value of usability practice for software development and on increasing value for users.
Springer; www.springer.com; 978-1-84628-940-8; 429 pp.
Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and David Lazer, eds. Developments in information and communication technology and networked computing over the past two decades have given rise to the notion of electronic government, which most commonly refers to the delivery of public services over the Internet. This volume argues for a shift from electronic government's narrow focus on technology and transactions to the broader perspective of information government—the information flows within the public sector, between the public sector and citizens, and among citizens—as a way to understand the changing nature of governing and governance in an information society.
The essays describe the interplay between recent technological developments and evolving information flows and the implications of different information flows for efficiency, political mobilization, and democratic accountability.
MIT Press; mitpress.mit.edu; 0-262-63349-3; 352 pp.
Character Recognition Systems: A Guide for Students and Practitioners, Mohamed Cheriet, Nawwaf Kharma, Cheng-Lin Liu, and Ching Y. Suen. This book provides practitioners and students with the fundamental principles and state-of-the-art computational methods for reading printed texts and handwritten materials. The authors present information analogous to the stages of a computer recognition system, helping readers master the theory and latest methodologies used in character recognition.
Each chapter contains major steps and tricks to handle the tasks described. Researchers and graduate students in computer science and engineering might find this book useful for designing a concrete system in OCR technology, while practitioners might find it a valuable resource for the latest advances and modern technologies not covered elsewhere in a single book.
Wiley-Interscience; www.wiley.com; 978-0-471-41570-1; 360 pp.
Digital Convergence—Libraries of the Future, Rae Earnshaw and John Vince, eds. The convergence of IT, telecommunications, and media is revolutionizing how information is collected, stored, and accessed. Digital information preserves content accuracy in a way other systems do not. High-bandwidth transmission from one place to another on the planet is now possible. Ubiquitous and globally accessible, information can be held and accessed just as easily on a global network as on a local personal computer or in a local library. Devices are increasingly intelligent and network-ready, while user interfaces become more adaptable and flexible. Digital intelligence is becoming seamless and invisible, enabling a greater focus on content and the user's interaction with it.
This revolution affects the development and organization of information and artifact repositories such as libraries, museums, and exhibitions, while also changing how physical and digital aspects are mediated. Digital convergence is bringing about changes that are substantial and likely to be long-lasting. This volume presents key aspects in the areas of technology and information sciences, from leading international experts.
Springer; www.springer.com; 978-1-84628-902-6; 416 pp.
This book explains how to distribute the application between the client and server—by using a nested MVC design, for example—while retaining the system's integrity. It also shows how to make the application flexible and maintainable using good, structured design to help avoid problems like browser incompatibilities. Above all, this book showcases the many advantages gained by placing much of the processing in the browser. Developers with prior Web technologies experience might find this book especially useful.
Manning; www.manning.com/crane; 1-932394-61-3; 680 pp.