The National Archives of Singapore offers reference services to members of the public on questions related to Singapore’s history and heritage. However, with only two reference…
Abstract
The National Archives of Singapore offers reference services to members of the public on questions related to Singapore’s history and heritage. However, with only two reference officers stationed at the reference helpdesk at any one time, users may often have to queue to await servicing while the officers are busy attending to queries, telephone calls or retrieving physical documents. The Reference Enquiry Database was thus conceived to provide Web‐based access to ready reference information on frequently asked subjects by members of the public, thereby reducing waiting times for users, easing the workload of reference officers and allowing them more time to attend to more complex information needs. This paper provides the background and rationale for the system as well as discusses design and implementation issues.
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Dion H. Goh, Rebecca P. Ang and Parwatjit Sikand
Reusability is an important concept in software development because it provides many benefits, including shorter development cycles, increased software reliability and lower…
Abstract
Reusability is an important concept in software development because it provides many benefits, including shorter development cycles, increased software reliability and lower production costs. This paper describes the experiences of developing a portal of reusable components to support information retrieval teaching and research in a Master’s programme in information studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The portal contains the source code of these components and covers a variety of areas in the field of information retrieval such as algorithms and data structures for lexical analysis, indexing and ranking. The portal provides users with features to search or browse for code, contribute new code under appropriate categories, participate in threaded discussions and rate source code. The portal also contains document management features that allow co‐ordinators to evaluate contributions before publishing them for general access.
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Dion H. Goh and Rebecca P. Ang
Pay for performance (PFP) search engines provide search services for documents on the Web, but unlike traditional search engines, they rank documents not on content…
Abstract
Pay for performance (PFP) search engines provide search services for documents on the Web, but unlike traditional search engines, they rank documents not on content characteristics, but according to the amount of money the owner of a Web site is willing to pay if a user visits the Web site through the search results pages. A study was conducted to compare the retrieval effectiveness of Overture (a PFP search engine) and Google (a traditional search engine) using a test suite of general knowledge questions. A total of 45 queries, based on a popular game show, “Who wants to be a millionaire?”, were submitted to each of these search engines and the first ten documents returned were analysed using different relevancy criteria. Results indicated that Google outperformed Overture in terms of precision and number of queries that could be answered. Implications for this study are also discussed.
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Alton Y.K. Chua, Dion H. Goh and Rebecca P. Ang
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which Web 2.0 applications are prevalent in government web sites, the ways in which Web 2.0 applications have been used…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which Web 2.0 applications are prevalent in government web sites, the ways in which Web 2.0 applications have been used in government web sites, as well as whether the presence of Web 2.0 applications correlates with the perceived quality of government web sites.
Design/methodology/approach
Divided equally between developing and advanced economies, a total of 200 government web sites were analysed using content analysis and multiple regression analysis.
Findings
The prevalence of seven Web 2.0 applications in descending order was: RSS, multimedia sharing services, blogs, forums, social tagging services, social networking services and wikis. More web sites in advanced countries include Web 2.0 applications than those in developing countries. The presence of Web 2.0 applications was found to have a correlation with the overall web site quality, and in particular, service quality.
Research limitations/implications
This paper only covers government web sites in English. Emerging genres of Web 2.0 applications such as mashups and virtual worlds have not been included. Moreover the data were drawn solely from the public domain.
Practical implications
Decision makers and e‐government web developers may benchmark their own efforts in deploying Web 2.0 applications against this study. The numerous exemplars cited here serve as a springboard to generate more ideas on how Web 2.0 applications could be used and harnessed to improve the overall quality of government web sites.
Originality/value
This paper unites two research interests: Web 2.0 and web site quality. It also extends previous studies by investigating the suite of Web 2.0 applications found in government web sites around the world.
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Shiyan Ou, Christopher S.G. Khoo and Dion H. Goh
The purpose of this research is to develop a method for automatic construction of multi‐document summaries of sets of news articles that might be retrieved by a web search engine…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to develop a method for automatic construction of multi‐document summaries of sets of news articles that might be retrieved by a web search engine in response to a user query.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the cross‐document discourse analysis, an event‐based framework is proposed for integrating and organizing information extracted from different news articles. It has a hierarchical structure in which the summarized information is presented at the top level and more detailed information given at the lower levels. A tree‐view interface was implemented for displaying a multi‐document summary based on the framework. A preliminary user evaluation was performed by comparing the framework‐based summaries against the sentence‐based summaries.
Findings
In a small evaluation, all the human subjects preferred the framework‐based summaries to the sentence‐based summaries. It indicates that the event‐based framework is an effective way to summarize a set of news articles reporting an event or a series of relevant events.
Research limitations/implications
Limited to event‐based news articles only, not applicable to news critiques and other kinds of news articles. A summarization system based on the event‐based framework is being implemented.
Practical implications
Multi‐document summarization of news articles can adopt the proposed event‐based framework.
Originality/value
An event‐based framework for summarizing sets of news articles was developed and evaluated using a tree‐view interface for displaying such summaries.
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Alton Y.K. Chua and Dion H. Goh
This paper aims to examine a flagging but yet‐to‐be abandoned knowledge management (KM) project at a healthcare organisation in Asia through a case study approach.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine a flagging but yet‐to‐be abandoned knowledge management (KM) project at a healthcare organisation in Asia through a case study approach.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi‐structured interviews with a variety of stakeholders familiar with the project were conducted. Additionally, archival data in the form of email correspondences, presentation materials and web sites were collected to triangulate against the responses given by the interviewees.
Findings
The findings which are validated against a theoretical KM failure framework afford a nuanced perspective of how the failure factors identified in the framework were germane to the case.
Practical implications
By exposing these factors, administrators and managers in the healthcare industry who intend to implement KM projects can be better informed of the risks involved. For researchers, this paper serves as a call for a greater inquiry into KM projects in the healthcare industry that are facing impending failures.
Originality/value
This paper reveals that KM project failure is a reality with which administrators, managers and researchers have to reckon.
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Zhong Tang, Dion Hoe-Lian Goh, Chei Sian Lee and Yihao Yang
This paper aims to confront the rising threat of deepfake videos, focusing on the limited research on deepfake detection strategies among seniors. The study thus investigates…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to confront the rising threat of deepfake videos, focusing on the limited research on deepfake detection strategies among seniors. The study thus investigates seniors’ video credibility conceptualizations and identifies their deepfake detection strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employed semi-structured interviews with 20 seniors aged 55 to 70. Areas covered include their perceptions of video information credibility and identification strategies undertaken. Qualitative content analysis was conducted to interpret interview responses.
Findings
Seniors emphasized the importance of objectivity, trustworthiness, believability, reliability and truthfulness in terms of video credibility. Regarding strategies for assessing video credibility, seniors employed five categories: character appearance, non-human visuals, audio, personal knowledge and external sources.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on human-oriented deepfake detection strategies by uncovering diverse methods employed by seniors. It enhances the understanding of how individuals assess video credibility in the context of deepfakes. Furthermore, this study offers practical and applicable strategies for real-world deepfake detection.
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Ming Yin Ming, Dion Hoe‐lian Goh, Ee‐Peng Lim and Aixin Sun
A web site usually contains a large number of concept entities, each consisting of one or more web pages connected by hyperlinks. In order to discover these concept entities for…
Abstract
A web site usually contains a large number of concept entities, each consisting of one or more web pages connected by hyperlinks. In order to discover these concept entities for more expressive web site queries and other applications, the web unit mining problem has been proposed. Web unit mining aims to determine web pages that constitute a concept entity and classify concept entities into categories. Nevertheless, the performance of an existing web unit mining algorithm, iWUM, suffers as it may create more than one web unit (incomplete web units) from a single concept entity. This paper presents two methods to solve this problem. The first method introduces a more effective web fragment construction method so as reduce later classification errors. The second method incorporates site‐specific knowledge to discover and handle incomplete web units. Experiments show that incomplete web units can be removed and overall accuracy has been significantly improved, especially on the precision and F1 measures.
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Liuyu Huang, Dion Hoe-Lian Goh and Stella Xin Yin
Public service announcements (PSAs) have been shown to be effective instruments that raise awareness, educate society, and change behaviors and attitudes. Many governments and…
Abstract
Purpose
Public service announcements (PSAs) have been shown to be effective instruments that raise awareness, educate society, and change behaviors and attitudes. Many governments and organizations have utilized PSAs on social media to promote online safety among children and youth. However, we have limited understanding of the range of topics that these PSAs address and how they present their content to audiences. This study provides an inventory of the types of online safety topics that current PSAs address and a catalogue of the types of persuasive features employed by PSAs.
Design/methodology/approach
A content analysis of 220 YouTube PSA videos on online safety was conducted. Various topics under the umbrella of online safety were identified. Guided by the prospect theory and exemplification theory, different persuasive features employed in the PSAs were sought.
Findings
The findings highlight that the primary focus of these PSAs is on online safety behaviors and general instructions on online hygiene. Interestingly, nearly half of the videos employ a neutral frame, while a significant portion provides no evidential support. Additionally, video length was associated with the number of views and likes it gathered but not with the number of comments.
Originality/value
The inventory of PSAs can help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers better understand the type of content being produced and disseminated online as well as identify topics that are either over or under-represented. Further, the catalogue of the types of persuasive features employed by PSAs would be helpful in guiding research, practice, and policymaking in the context of creating effective online safety videos.
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Dion Hoe-Lian Goh, Chei Sian Lee, Quan Zhou and Hang Guo
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how perceived usability and user characteristics influence the intention to use a crowdsourcing application for finding potentially…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how perceived usability and user characteristics influence the intention to use a crowdsourcing application for finding potentially trafficked children. As part of this effort, the authors also attempt to uncover the usability concerns surrounding the use of this application.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors first describe Zhongxun, which is the application used in the present paper. Next, they conducted a survey eliciting usability perceptions of Zhongxun. A total of 287 participants were recruited for the survey which used constructs adapted from the Computer System Usability Questionnaire as well as various demographic variables. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to ascertain factors influencing intention to use Zhongxun. Participants' qualitative feedback was also analyzed to derive themes pertaining to areas of improvement.
Findings
The results showed that system usefulness was the factor that most positively influenced intention to use Zhongxun, followed by information quality and interface quality. Interestingly, a higher level of education was negatively associated with intention to use the application. Qualitative feedback suggested various ways of improving Zhongxun's functionality. Participants recommended the incorporation of gamification mechanisms as a new feature of the application. Cultivating awareness of Zhongxun was also suggested as a means to attract new users.
Practical implications
The work can help inform the design of crowdsourcing applications for finding missing and potentially trafficked children, as well as similar systems. Implications include the need for simplicity of design, communication strategies to attract new and retain existing users, and instilling confidence in the quality of crowdsourced contributions.
Originality/value
Prior research in evaluating the usability of crowdsourcing applications has been performed but not in the context of finding missing and potentially trafficked children. The task of finding such children is markedly different from previous usage contexts and could impact perceptions of usability and usefulness. Hence, the present study attempts to plug this research gap.