Bolzano Traffic: An Example of Open ITS Deployment for Advanced Traveller Information Services

This paper aims to present the experience gathered in the Italian alpine city of Bolzano within the project“Bolzano Traffic”whose goal is the introduction of an experimental open ITS platform for local service providers,fostering the diffusion of advanced traveller information services and the future deployment of cooperative mobility systems in the region.Several end-users applications targeted to the needs of different user groups have been developed in collaboration with local companies and research centers;a partnership with the EU Co-Cities project has been activated as well.The implemented services rely on real-time travel and traffic information collected by urban traffic monitoring systems or published by local stakeholders(e.g.public transportation operators).An active involvement of end-users,who have recently started testing these demo applications for free,is actually on-going.

Characterization of Small-Scale Farmers and Assessment of Their Access to Crop Production Information in Selected Counties of Kenya

Small-scale farming accounts for 78% of total agricultural production in Kenya and contributes to 23.5% of the country’s GDP. Their crop production activities are mostly rainfed subsistence with any surplus being sold to bring in some income. Timely decisions on farm practices such as farm preparation and planting are critical determinants of the seasonal outcomes. In Kenya, most small-scale farmers have no reliable source of information that would help them make timely and accurate decisions. County governments have extension officers who are mandated with giving farmers advisory services to farmers but they are not able to reach most farmers due to facilitation constraints. The mode and format of sharing information is also critical since it’s important to ensure that it’s timely, well-understood and usable. This study sought to assess access to geospatial derived and other crop production information by farmers in four selected counties of Kenya. Specific objectives were to determine the profile of small-scale farmers in terms of age, education and farm size;to determine the type of information that is made available to them by County and Sub-County extension officers including the format and mode of provision;and to determine if the information provided was useful in terms of accuracy, timeliness and adequacy. The results indicated that over 80% of the farmers were over 35 years of age and over 56% were male. Majority had attained primary education (34%) or secondary education (29%) and most farmers in all the counties grew maize (71%). Notably, fellow farmers were a source of information (71%) with the frequency of sharing information being mostly seasonal (37%) and when information was available (43%). Over 66% of interviewed farmers indicating that they faced challenges while using provided information. The results from the study are insightful and helpful in determining effective ways of providing farmers with useful information to ensure maximum benefits.

Information service platform of forest pest forecast based on WebGIS

Taking Linkou Forestry Bureau, Heilongjiang Province, China as the demonstration plot and Dendrolimus pinidiatrea as an example, we developed a WebGIS-based information service platform for forest pest forecast using J2EE and ArcGIS Server technology. The service platform is able to predict the occurrence period, amount of pest, occurrence tendency, and pest zones in the B/S environment and realized the display, querying, analysis and editing of the spatial data and the automatically integrated control of multilevel Data,. Additionaly, the service platform offers the visualization of geographic service and predicted results. It provides a solution for prediction of forest pest and forest resource management.

Chaining Distributed Geographic Information Web Services Based on Ontology

To solve the problem of chaining distributed geographic information Web services （GI Web services）, this paper provides an ontology-based method. With this method, semantic service description can be achieved by semantic annotation of the elements in a Web service description language（WSDL） document with concepts of geographic ontology, and then a common under-standing about service semantics between customers and providers of Web services is built. Based on the decomposition and formalization of customer requirements, the discovery, composition and execution of GI Web services are explained in detail, and then a chaining of GI Web services is built and used to achieve the customer＇s requirement. Finally, an example based on Web ontology language for service （OWL-S） is provided for testing the feasibility of this method.

The college students' response to customized information services based on Library2.0 technologies at universities in Nanjing

Through a questionnaire survey of students’ response from 6 universities in Nanjing, this paper aims to determine their varying degrees of satisfaction about the customized information service based on Library2.0 technologies. In so doing, the authors carefully examined the data collected from the returned questionnaires about such key issues as the students’ perceptions about the customized information service via a Library2.0platform, self-initiated use experience of such a mechanism, their achieved information searching results vis-à-vis their expectations, etc. In addition, the authors also made a comparative study between information providers(i.e. librarians) and information consumers(i.e. students) at Chinese and American academic libraries.

Benign Interaction Between Rural Information Service and Farmers' Income

Based on the improvement of interactive relationship between rural information service system and farmers＇ income, accompanied by the serious restriction to its mutual promotion caused by such problems as asymmetric information, focusing on introduction of rural information service infrastructure while ignored the application of them, shortage of human resource on information and so on, this paper proposed corresponding measures respectively to promote the benign interaction development between rural information service and farmers＇ income.

Advanced EPC Network Architecture Based on Hardware Information Service

Object traceability based on Radio Frequency Identification(RFID)is an important capability of the Internet of Things(IoT).GS1 EPCglobal,a de-facto standard in RFID technology,develops Electronic Product Code(EPC)network architecture,which mainly includes EPC Information Service(EPCIS),Object Name Service(ONS),and Discovery Service(DS).This architecture is used to capture and share standardized events representing various aspects on EPC object.However,the EPC network architecture also faces challenges;for example,the separate management of unrelated event data and master data may increase time consumption when an application extracts valuable information by combing them.A Hardware-Based Information Service(HIS)device is raised in this paper,which is installed on the specific EPC tagged object directly and this could alleviate the problem above.The HIS could store the event data and master data related to the EPC identifier centrally and the application could gain the basic information based on the data stored in the HIS without utilizing ONS,DS and EPCIS.

China's Information Consultancy Services

China’s opening,reform and economicdevelopment,as well as the worldinformation technology revolution,hasenhanced China’s information consultancyservice.Before 1978,China’s economy wasa product economy governed by a highly-centralized planning system with economicinformation basically based on statisticscollected from lower levels and planningcommands to lower levels.The annual productexchange meetings sponsored by specialeconomic departments became the mainchannels for information exchange,soinformation services basically failed to meetneeds.In 1979,China’s economy began itstransfer from a planned to a market one。

Evaluation of intelligent tourism information service capabilities:A case study of Hanzhong City

In the era of the rapid development of information technology,it is of great significance to study the combination of intelligent tourism industry and information industry and evaluate the intelligent tourism information service capabilities(ITISC).The purpose of this study is to explore a methodological approach of assessing ITISC,and offer insights into the theoretical investigation and practical development of ITISC.First,factor analysis is used to determine the object of intelligent tourism information service and the key evaluation items of ITISC.Next,analytic hierarchy process(AHP)is applied to the ITISC evaluation of Hanzhong City,a popular tourist attraction in China,as an example to verify the authenticity and operability of the index system.Then,importance-performance analysis is conducted to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of Hanzhong City’s ITISC construction and some corresponding measures are put forward.The findings suggest that only through the improvement of tourism public database,the establishment of big data analysis system and the application of various forms of mobile intelligent terminal can achieve the generalization of tourism information,seamless,instant,precise and interactive,which will be the development goal of intelligent tourism information service.

Adjusting the information service strategies according to users' requirements—A survey of the library users' information requirements in the four library systems of Zhejiang province

Based on a survey of the circumstances of the information requirements in social science from more than 3,800 library users in 48 libraries of the four major library systems in Zhejiang Province,this paper analyzes the present main characteristics of the users' requirements to the social science document information and puts forward some proposals for adjusting the document information service strategies for the library and information institutions.

A survey of public needs for government information service in libraries

Purpose:This paper describes a comprehensive user survey carried out in China to investigate public needs for government information service in libraries.It is expected to provide insights into the ways to help public libraries meet the user needs.Design/methodology/approach:The paper is founded on a survey among library users,librarians and non-library users.Paper questionnaires were distributed in the National Library of China and 32 provincial public libraries in China and electronic questionnaires were sent to non-library users.A total of 909 valid questionnaires were collected.Findings:A lot of attention is paid to policies,laws and regulations relating to common people’s work and lives such as science,technology,education,culture,finance,market supervision,health care,sports,urban construction and environment protection.A wide variety of government information resources is needed and information delivered to users shall be accurate and timely.Internet has become the main means of accessing government information and mobile phones the preferred Web access channel,while printed materials are considered important information sources.Users need assistance and training in the use of library information resources and services.Research limitations:The sample was limited to respondents from provincial-level public libraries,but city and county-level library users were not included.Practical implications:The survey results are beneficial for the Chinese public libraries to design service programs and improve their services.Originality/value:The paper is one of the comprehensive surveys on public needs for government information service in the Chinese libraries and some of die findings will be of wider interest for other libraries.

Library's industrial technology information service in science parks—Taking NSL's practice as an example

Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to explore how libraries can develop service and product strategies and the service support mechanism to provide industrial technology information service in science parks.Design/methodology/approach:The analysis is based on a case study of a large Chinese research library,National Science Library(NSL),the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS),in serving high-tech companies in Zhongguancun Science Park(Z-Park).Findings:NSL’s practices suggested that in serving business clients,libraries’ product and service strategies should be based on the understanding of users’ needs.Aside from those services that have been recognized by clients such as document retrieval & delivery and novelty search,libraries may expand their service and provide in-depth information analysis and consultation for some key clients.Moreover,a service and product development system should be established,which differentiates the libraries’ products and services from those of their competitors.In providing industrial technology information service,libraries need to construct the service support mechanism,publicize their service and learn to cooperate with clients to meet their demands for knowledge management and innovation.Research limitations:The generalizability of the findings is limited because they are based on an individual case study.Practical implications:Our service practices provide useful information for other libraries to expand their information service to high-tech companies in the new information environment.Originality/value:Z-Park is the first and one of the largest science and technology parks in China.Hence NSL’s practices in serving high-tech companies in Z-Park can be valuable to other libraries that intend to take up the similar service.

Information service of special libraries in China:Current status and prospect

The article firstly summarizes the structure and development of special libraries in China.Then,the best practices of the documentation,information and consulting services of the Chinese special libraries in the digital and networking environment are provided.It finally explores the approaches for the special libraries to offer new professional services in order to meet the needs for knowledge-based services.

A survey of public needs for digital information service in libraries and museums

Purpose:The purpose of the research is to investigate public needs for digital information service in the Chinese libraries and museums and seek ways to help these public service institutions improve their service to meet user needs.Design/methodology/approach:An online questionnaire survey was used to study the publicneeds for digital information service provided by libraries and museums.A total of 474 valid questionnaires were retrieved for analysis.Findings:The primary purpose of using the digital library and museum service was for knowledge acquisition,followed by work or class assignment and leisure and entertainment.Users need one-stop information service that provides information and service in a more integrated form and allows cross-database searching as well.Research limitations:A majority of the respondents were young and middle-aged people who often use the Internet.We would need to increase our sample size and include different groups of users such as children and retirees to make the sample more representative.Practical implications:Libraries and museums should collaborate to provide the users with one-stop digital information service.Meanwhile,the research can serve as a reference source for the future studies of digital library and museum service.Originality/value:Few studies were published on the public needs for digital library and museum service in China.This study bridges the gap and contributes to our understanding of the Chinese users’ needs for digital information service in libraries and museums.

User satisfaction-based quality evaluation model and survey analysis of network information service

On the basis of user satisfaction,authors made research hypotheses by learning from relevant e-service quality evaluation models.A questionnaire survey was then conducted on some content-based websites in terms of their convenience,information quality,personalization and site aesthetics,which may affect the overall satisfaction of users.Statistical analysis was also made to build a user satisfaction-based quality evaluation system of network information service.

China Telecom Forging An Empire of Comprehensive Information Services

The transformation of China Telecom starts from late 2004. General Manager Wang Xiaochu put forward the strategy of transforming into a comprehensive information services provider soon after he took the post and defined transformation as the core mission in the next several years in 2005.

A New Start for the Library and Information Services at CAS

The new modern library of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), situated in the central area of Science Town in Zhongguancun, Beijing, has just been put into operation. As the largest specialized library in China, the library has become one of paradises for China' s avid readers,offering a central repository and global gateway for the collection and dissemination of scientific and technical information.……

Research and Practice of Online Service Hall in Colleges and Universities

The needs of teachers and students, the requirements of educational modernization and informatization and the development of information technology promote the online service hall to become an important part of the smart campus. The online service hall is also a hot spot of information construction in universities in recent years. Taking China University of Geosciences (Beijing) for example, this paper probes into the problems and causes of the current difficulties of teachers and students in complicated school’s business process and puts forward the construction goal and ideas of the online service hall. A four-layer architecture which includes data layer, business service support layer, business service layer and presentation layer for service e-hall is designed and the organization and implementation steps of the online service hall are expounded. In addition, the extended applications such as integrated self-service printing terminal and electronic signature are considered. This paper can be used for reference for the construction and implementation of online service hall in other universities.

Evolutionary game analysis of information service quality control of e-commerce platforms under information ecology

Due to the information asymmetry and imperfect supervision system,the problem of information service quality of e-commerce platforms is becoming increasingly prominent.Based on the perspective of information ecology,this paper constructs a three-party evolutionary game model including merchants,e-commerce platforms and governments,and analyzes the dynamic process of the threeparty game under bounded rationality,thereby characterizing the behavior and optimal strategies of information service quality control.We carry out numerical simulation using data of the Pinduoduo platform.The results show that the cost of each party,control strength of e-commerce platforms,proportion of margin deducted and other factors are important factors affecting the quality of information service;Only when the sum of the costs of passive management of e-commerce platforms,penalties for merchants,and the additional revenue generated from the active management exceeds the cost of the active management of the e-commerce platforms,it ensures effective control over the quality of information service in a stable market environment.Finally,some suggestions are put forward to optimize the e-commerce information service quality control.