Design and Development of a Concept-Based Multi-Document Summarization System for Research Abstracts    

This paper describes a new concept-based multi-document summarization system that employs discourse parsing, information extraction and information integration. Dissertation abstracts in the field of sociology were selected as sample documents for this study. The summarization process includes four major steps — (1) parsing dissertation abstracts into five standard sections; (2) extracting research concepts (often operationalized as research variables) and their relationships, the research methods used and the contextual relations from specific sections of the text; (3) integrating similar concepts and relationships across different abstracts; and (4) combining and organizing the different kinds of information using a variable-based framework, and presenting them in an interactive web-based interface. The accuracy of each summarization step was evaluated by comparing the system-generated output against human coding. The user evaluation carried out in the study indicated that the majority of subjects (70%) preferred the concept-based summaries generated using the system to the sentence-based summaries generated using traditional sentence extraction techniques.

Ou, Shiyan, Christopher Soo-Guan and Dion H. Goh. Journal of Information Science (2008). Articles>Information Design>Assessment>Metadata

Technical Communication Outsourcing: The Twelve Driver Framework Tutorial    

Almost all IT, engineering research, financial analysis, and manufacturing industries are confronted with a question: to outsource or not? The outsourcing and offshoring trend is inspired by success stories of huge cost savings, decreased time-to-market, and better quality. Simultaneously, outsourcing-gone-bad stories highlight how hidden costs exceed benefits, cross-cultural problems impact quality, and intellectual property risks shadow project lifecycles. Managers in companies are presented with a confusing picture for which there are no easy answers. Companies, vendors, and policymakers need a framework to understand the outsourcing phenomenon and plan implementation strategies for outsourced projects. At present, many companies go with the gut based on the experience of others and media reports. But very rarely are two technical documentation tasks alike and never are the concerns of two technical communication tasks the same. This tutorial presents the twelve driver framework and the driver-model percentage matrix to assess the benefits and risks of outsourcing a technical communication task. In the end, qualitative decision-making will determine an organization's decision about outsourcing, but the use of such a framework and related metrics will greatly enhance the quality of the final choice.

Padmanabhan, Poornima. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (2007). Journals>Project Management>Assessment>India

What Does a Good Web Page Need?

Starts to examine different pages, thinking about what items should appear on them, and considering issues such as consistency, usability, and accessibility.

Francis, Mark Norman. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Assessment

Acid Redux

I fully acknowledge that a whole lot of very clever thinking went into the construction of Acid3 (as was true of Acid2), and that a lot of very smart people have worked very hard to pass it. Congratulations all around, really. I just can’t help feeling like some broader and more important point has been missed.

Meyer, Eric. MeyerWeb (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Assessment

What You Need to Know If You Want a Job in Web Development

The true nature of Web development is a complicated metric to gage without being in the field for many years, and without reading about and listening to thousands who are in the field with you. It can be a frustrating experience for any one person graduating college and starting their career, or wanting to transition into a separate discipline. I decided to try and change that with some personal reflection.

Reindel, Brian. d'bug (2008). Careers>Web Design>Assessment

How to Manage Out of Date Content

Organizations are in urgent need of professional review processes for their intranets and public websites. Out of date content is growing year by year, and there are many horror stories about out-of-date content waiting to happen. It’s time for management to get serious and professionally manage their websites.

McGovern, Gerry. CMSwire (2008). Articles>Content Management>Editing>Assessment

The Sixty-Minute Guide to Evaluating Comparative Test Data

Mary wants to compare the average registration times between the two versions to see if the second version is faster than the first. The method typically used when comparing averages is called a t-test of independent means.

Hughes, Michael A. STC Proceedings (2008). Articles>Usability>Testing>Assessment

Measuring Website Performance: Part 1

Establishing a set of reliable metrics for measuring the performance of your web site in the real world is a key success factor. In the next few articles, we will explore what can be measured, how to do it, and how to turn that data into some useful intelligence for your business.

Shreves, Ric. Water and Stone (2004). Articles>Web Design>Assessment

Measuring Website Performance: Part 2

In this column we will continue with our examination of website metrics. Last column introduced the idea of performance metrics and the basics of what to measure. In this column I would like to go a little further into discussing the implications of those metrics.

Shreves, Ric. Water and Stone (2004). Articles>Web Design>Assessment

Measuring Website Performance: Part 3

Your web server archives the information needed to generate these numbers and many others. The raw data is stored on the server in what is known as a log file. The statistics referenced above are best accumulated through the use of a log analysis program to convert your hard-to-read server log files into an understandable format.

Shreves, Ric. Water and Stone (2004). Articles>Web Design>Assessment>Log Analysis

Web Design by Designers

Designers are, as a rule, a fussy bunch, and when it comes to their own business communications they’re even more so. Designing a website for an award-winning design firm verges on the impossible. A design firm’s web presence primarily serves as a tool to attract new business from a global community—and, secondarily, as a means to show off. Designers are by far their own worst critics, and their websites have to tread a fine line between being cutting-edge so as to attract young new business, and more traditional so as to appeal to established or more conservative businesses.

Elam, Kimberly. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Articles>Web Design>Business Communication>Assessment

Why Designers Fail: The Report

Last week I announced a study on why designers fail - exploring the reasons why designers, and people who work with designers, believe designers don’t achieve the results they desire. I presented the results as UIE 13 last week, and as promised here is a summary. Prize winners will be announced soon. Many top reasons for failure are not typically considered design issues, such as collaboration skills, persuasion skills, and receiving critical feedback.

Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2008). Articles>Document Design>Assessment

Assessing Assessments: The Inequality of Electronic Testing

Computer and Internet based tests are used for a variety of purposes. From entering education or employment, to improving basic learning, people everywhere are taking electronically formatted tests. With the advancement of testing from traditional paper-based tests to technologically advanced electronic tests, people reap the benefits of easier access to tests, faster response times, and greater reliability and validity of tests. However, persons with disabilities are being left out of the picture and out of many typically-administered tests.

Lyman, Michael, Cyndi Rowland and Paul Bohman. WebAIM (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Assessment

Using JAWS to Evaluate Web Accessibility

This article is designed to help users who are new to JAWS learn the basic controls for testing web content, and to serve as a reference for the occasional JAWS user.

WebAIM (2005). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Assessment

Testování Přístupnosti Webových Stránek se Screenreaderem JAWS

Tento článek je českou verzí článku Using JAWS to Evaluate Web Accessibility. V textu jsou zmiňovány prvky stránky, které jsou součástí struktury webu WebAIM.org a nemusí se vyskytovat na stránce s touto verzí.

WebAIM (2005). (Czech) Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Assessment

Usando o Jaws Para Testar Acessibilidade

Este artigo destina-se a ensinar aos usuários não familiarizados com o JAWS os procedimentos básicos necessários a avaliar a acessibilidade do conteúdo web e servir como uma espécie de guia de referência para o usuário ocasional deste programa.

CSS para Webdesign (2005). (Portuguese) Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Assessment

Determining Readability: Readability and its Implications for Web Content Accessibility

One area of accessibility often overlooked is the readability of the content of your web pages. Not every user may be familiar with terms or terminology being used. Others may not have the same socio-political background, literacy skills or capacity to fully comprehend what it is you are saying. One goal of the content author then is to try and identify their target audience, and then ensures that they are not "writing over their heads".

WATS.ca (2006). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Assessment

Toys 'R' Rushed: A Cautionary Tale

Website critic Lou Rosenfeld is shopping for a baby present, but the website he's using is making his task tougher than it should be. Lou takes on www.toysrus.com.

Rosenfeld, Louis. CIO Magazine (2000). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Assessment

Intranet Communication vs. Traditional Communication

A way to measure return on investment (ROI) for your intranet is to answer two basic questions. How does the intranet increase the level and quality of communication? How does it replace traditional forms of communication? To develop such an ROI model, you need to be clear on the current level and type of communication within your organization.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2002). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Assessment

Intranet Review Toolkit

The Intranet Review Toolkit provides a comprehensive set of guidelines for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of corporate intranets. It contains a substantial set of heuristics, allowing a detailed intranet review to be conducted that focuses on a wide range of functionality, design and strategy.

Intranet Review Toolkit. Resources>Web Design>Intranets>Assessment

Quantitatively Test the Effectiveness of Your Home Page

Staff should be able to confidently, quickly and accurately step from the home page of the intranet towards the information they require. If staff can’t achieve this without resorting to search, the home page needs to be redesigned. This article explains a quick and effective technique for assessing whether your home page is an effective gateway to site content.

Barker, Iain. Step Two (2006). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Assessment

If You Can't Measure It, You Can't Manage It

Intranets don't self-organize. Without planned, centralized information architectures and clearly defined published processes, they become unproductive. Intranets often have applications that either don't work properly, are too difficult to learn, or have no clear business benefit. Applications, like content, must be able to establish a clear return on investment.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2003). Articles>Information Design>Intranets>Assessment

Laatua Verkkoon: Quality Criteria

The quality criteria are intended to act as a tool for developing and assessing public web services. The purpose of the quality criteria is: to act as a tool for developing and assessing public web services; to improve the quality of public web services for both users and producers; to increase the benefits from public web services.

Suomi.fi (2008). Articles>Web Design>Assessment>Scandinavia

Web Application Solutions: A Designer’s Guide  

Web Application Solutions is a guide that helps designers, product managers, and business owners evaluate some of the most popular Web application presentation layer solutions available today. We compare each solution through consistent criteria (deployment & reach, user interactions, processing, interface components & customization, back-end integration, future proofing, staffing & cost, unique features) and provide an overview, set of examples, and references for each.

Wroblewski, Luke. Functioning Form (2005). Articles>Web Design>Assessment

Corporate Blogs: Measure Their Value!

To date, ROI hasn't been applied to blogs. This is partly due to blogging recent introduction to the marketing mix. Many blogging experts have suggested calculating a blog ROI is impossible. As a professor, I teach students how to tie marketing to the bottom line. Calculating ROI for a blog should be no harder than calculating it for other marketing components. To place ROI measurements in context, you must first understand how blogs fulfill different business objectives.

Cohen, Heidi. ClickZ (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Assessment