Abstract This paper describes ePaper, a research prototype system of a personalized newspaper on a mobile reading device. The ePaper aggregates content (i.e., news items) from various news providers, classifies the news items according to concepts from a news domain ontology, and delivers an electronic newspaper to each subscribed user (reader). The system personalizes the content of the newspaper according to the user's profiles and preferences by applying ontological content‐based and collaborative filtering algorithms. The user's profile is updated implicitly and dynamically, based on the tracking of their reading. Beyond personalization, the ePaper can also provide the user with a “standard edition” of a selected newspaper, as well as browsing capabilities in a repository of news items. The layout of the newspaper is adapted to the specifications of the reading device and to the user's preferences. In this overview paper, we highlight the main research challenges involved in the development of ePaper and describe how we addressed them.

A new ontological-content-based method for ranking the relevancy of items in the electronic newspapers domain is proposed. The method is being implemented in ePaper, a personalized electronic newspaper research project. The content-based part of the filtering method of ePaper utilizes a hierarchical ontology of news items. The method considers common and "close" ontology concepts appearing in the user's profile and in the item's profile, measuring the hierarchical distance between concepts in the two profiles. Based on the number of common and related concepts, and their distances from each other, the filtering algorithm computes the similarity between items and users, and rank-orders the news items according to their relevancy to each user, thus providing a personalized newspaper.

We propose FOOM (Functional and Object-Oriented Methodology), an integrated methodology for information systems analysis and design, which combines two essential software-engineering paradigms: the functional/data approach (or process-oriented) and the object-oriented (OO) approach. System analysis phase, where user requirements are set and defined, includes functional analysis and data modeling activities. This phase produces a hierarchy of data flow diagrams (DFD) and an initial OO schema, which can be created directly or from an entity-relationship diagram (ERD). The design phase is performed according to the OO approach, producing a complete OO schema and a behavior schema. The seamless transition from analysis to design is enabled thanks to ADISSA methodology, which facilitates the design of the menus, forms and reports classes, and the system behavior schema, from the DFDs and the application transactions. The paper introduces the motivation for the combined approach, outlines the methodology, and presents an example that demonstrates it.

In information filtering (IF) systems, user long-term needs we expressed as user profiles. The quality of a user profile has a major impact on the performance of IF systems. The focus of the proposed research is on the study of user profile generation and update. The paper introduces methods for user profile generation, and proposes a research agenda for their comparison and evaluation.

Entity Relationship (ER) schemas include cardinality constraints, that restrict the dependencies among entities within a relationship type. The cardinality constraints have direct impact on application transactions, since insertions or deletions of entities or relationships might affect related entities. Application transactions can be strengthened to preserve the consistency of a database with respect to the cardinality constraints in a schema. Yet, once an ER schema is translated into a logical database schema, the direct correlation between the cardinality constraints and application transaction is lost, since the components of the ER schema might be decomposed among those of the logical database schema. We suggest to extend the Enhanced ER (EER) data model with integrity methods that take the cardinality constraints into account. The integrity methods can be fully defined by the cardinality constraints, using a small number of primitive update methods, and are automatically created for a given EER diagram. A translation of an EER schema into a logical database schema can create integrity routines by translating the primitive update methods alone. These integrity routines may be implemented as database procedures, if a relational DBMS is utilized, or as class methods, if an object-oriented DBMS is utilized.Request access from your librarian to read this article's full text.

An experimental comparison between two methods of designing a menu-tree interface for an information system is described. The ‘automatic’ method is based on the ADISSA methodology (architectural design of information systems based on structured analysis) according to which the interface is derived automatically from dataflow diagrams (DFD) as a by-product of the system analysis stage. In the ‘manual’ (‘conventional’) method the designer constructs an appropriate interface by applying common principles of interface design. The objective of the experiment is to find out which design method yields a better initial interface, before it is given to users for further improvements. The user's viewpoint is adopted i.e., the interface was evaluated subjectively. The hypothesis is that menutrees designed automatically are as good as those designed by people. The experiment included six information system development projects. One menu-tree interface was designed automatically for each system. Four others were designed manually by different designers who were assigned randomly to the systems. The five different interfaces of each system were given to 16 potential users for evaluation and comparison. Analysis of the results revealed no significant difference between the mean scores of the two types of interface. Noting that the automatic menus are obtained as a by-product of the system analysis stage, and that they can be improved by users during prototyping, it is concluded that the method provides a good start for the interface design.

A methodology for information system planning and selection among alternative solutions for computerization of an organization is presented. The methodology is composed of the following stages: Definition of the organizational processes and objectives. Definition of the computer-related goals set for each organizational objective. Definition of the alternative information system processes required for each of the computer-related goals. Identification of alternative systems to satisfy those information system processes and selection of the preferred system. Preparation of a request for proposal. Selection of the preferred alternative. The article describes in detail the first five steps of the methodology, along with an illustrative example.

The author focuses on the 1:1 dependency type and shows its significance in database design. Various situations involving 1:1 dependencies are analyzed and classified, and proper treatment of the dependency in those situations is suggested. These dependencies are treated at both the conceptual and the logical design levels. Decision rules are provided for the conversion of 1:1 dependencies into 1:n or n:1 dependencies. These are implemented with the system ADDS for automated database design.>

In conventional information systems development, consistency between requirements specifications and design is achieved by manual checking. The application of the transformational paradigm to the specification and design phases is proposed. Requirements are expressed in the ADISSA notation, using the ADISSA method, a transaction-oriented refinement of structured systems analysis. The control part of a transaction is transformed into a formal specification, the FSM (finite state machine) transaction, by applying a set of rules. The design stage is realized by an algorithm which compares the FSM transaction into simpler transactions and implements them with a hierarchical set of finite-state machines. Consistency between the formal specification and the result of the design is achieved by proving that the latter has the same behavior as the former.>