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Successful online auction platform depends on many factors. These factors amongst others include competent business models which can survive the world’s economic challenges, useful features to attract buyers and sellers, as well as intuitive and easy to learn interface to enhance user experience. The infamous eBay for example is considered the most successful e-auction platform which caters for various products, while artnet is reviewed as an e-auction dedicated to art with the highest revenue. eBay has the largest user base of all the online auction sites. Though it has some steep fees, it also has an easy-to-use interface that makes listing items simple. Although these e-auction platforms are attractive in so many ways, many Muslim consumers are increasingly aware of Islam as a way of life, and their responsibility to seek not just for halal products but also to use services which guarantee legitimacy of the transactions and conformant to Islamic business rules. This study presents Mazad, a Sharia compliant e-auction platform that offers processes and procedures that meet Sharia requirements, promotes benevolent behavior, as well as Islamic business ethics. In order to encourage Muslim and non-Muslim users alike to learn about specific e-auction features which are not available in conventional online auctions, this work emphasizes on the mapping of the sharia requirements of e-auctions and their implementation in Mazad by highlighting its user interface design. The user centered design principles as well as the “What You See Is What You Get” concept is used in designing Mazad, the sharia compliant e-auction platform.

Programming is an applied skill that requires a student to practice repeatedly before they can master a programming language. To assist students, the lecturer of a programming course needs to give lots of programming exercise and provide feedback to each student for their answers. This requires a lot of efforts and time from the lecturer, especially when the class is big. This paper discusses the findings of a study on students' perceptions towards the use of PC2, an online judge system, to check lab assignments in an introductory programming course. Data was collected from 162 first year students who answered an on-line questionnaire. The result showed that the students agree that PC2 allows them to get prompt feedback, that helps them to correct their program. They have to repeatedly correct and submit the solutions until they get ‘Yes (Accepted)’ feedback.

Student Centered Learning Environment is a learning environment that describes thinking methods about learning and teaching that emphasizes student responsibility in learning activities such as planning, interacting with lecturers and other students, doing research and evaluating learning. This means that students play an important and active role in learning. Applying the concept to Computer Science final year project requires students to be independent in carrying out activities related to the research literature, mastering software tools or libraries, designing, developing and testing software, and writing reports. Theoretically, a supervisor plays the role of an advisor to ensure the project is successfully completed within the designated timeframe. However, most of the time, students are often given the freedom to manage their project, sometimes without adequate guidance from supervisors. This is a rather complicated problem for moderate and weak students. For students to actively participate in their own learning they must possess self-monitoring and other meta-cognitive skills which are not necessarily inherent in every individual. A survey done in our faculty shows that Computer Science students face a number of problems in the course of accomplishing their final year project which include time management, anxiety, academicachievements, and capability of managing project and strategy to complete the project (listed according to factors that most affected them). This paper will discuss the role of the Final Year Project Supervision Management System in support of student-centered learning for final year project at the School of Computer Science. Mapping between system features and principles of student centered learning is also presented. The system has been developed to monitor students’ progress both in software development and report writing, as well as managing the process of allocating supervisors and examiners to students and grading.

In Computer Science Program run by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, students are required to develop a software prototype and write a dissertation for their final year project. Preliminary observation has shown that for the last five years, an increasing number of students failed to complete prototype development within the allocated time. Current practice uses a log book to document meetings and discussions between supervisors and students. Although a detailed schedule has been proposed, there is no monitoring process to trigger specific actions to make sure all deadlines are met. To improve project monitoring and supervision, a prototype of a web-based supervision management system was designed and developed. The initial prototype consists of three modules, namely user profile, project monitoring (of software development and report writing) and appointment setting. Once the prototype is completed, we plan to conduct a user acceptance test.

The term “block” in Block-Based Software Development (BBSD) refers to a software component that has the characteristics of reusable, composition, customizable and configurable. Based on the principles of component-based software development and end-user development, the objective of BBSD is to allow non-programmer known as end-user to build a new application by using a set of blocks by creating composite blocks, configuring and customizing for a specific application domain. In the current implementation, a Domain Initiator is responsible for identifying blocks’ specifications, which will be uploaded to the block store repository. Block developers can contribute to developing blocks using the Java programming language. Blocks for a specific domain are bundled as a JAR file. These blocks will be stored in a block store. The block store is a software repository that provides a sharing mechanism for domain driven blocks specification, cataloging, archiving, and distribution. Before the blocks submitted to the block store can be distributed to end-users, they are required to undergo the process of block verification and evaluation to ensure that they conform to the requirement specification. The submitted blocks will also need to be approved by the domain initiator before they are made available to the end users. This paper proposes the block-based evaluation methodology as well as the software tool which helps domain initiator in the process of blocks verification and evaluation. The proposed methodology consists of three types of validation namely Automatic Validation Approach, JSR-303 or JSR-349 standard bean Validation Specification, and the manual testing. The proposed methodology itself was verified through a case study using a list of blocks submitted to the block store repository.

Buyers and sellers in e-commerce market such as e-auction form a virtual community. They use the feedback system to rate each other following a completed transaction and these ratings are used to build their reputation in the virtual community. Existing reputation systems can often be easily manipulated by forming cohesive group in giving fake user feedbacks to increase their respective reputation. This practice is a clear violation of Islamic business ethics. In addition, there is currently no real-time support for reputation system and this causes users to be misinformed on the reputation of a seller. To improve the reputation system this study developed a trust framework based on business Islamic ethics. In this paper, a trust model which evaluates conformance to nine Islamic business ethical codes is proposed to calculate users’ initial trust value based on their ethical behavior. The trust model proposed the Islamic business ethics algorithm which calculates the user compliance to Islamic business ethics (IBE) score based on trading partner’s feedbacks. Because of feedback frauds can still occur, this study introduces a cohesive group algorithm to track users who collaborate to give false feedbacks. The cohesive group algorithm applied k-core algorithms which is capable of determining the strength of the relationship of every user in the cohesive group. The cohesive group algorithm also proposed a cohesive score to determine the feedback reliability of every user’s transaction based on the user’s k-core and the highest k-core. In the group user reputation (trust score) is measured by considering the feedback reliability status for all transactions. A reputation prototype system for e-auction was developed as the test bed to validate the trust model through simulation of the set of initial experiments, showing the feasibility and benefit of the model.

Computer Science students are expected to acquire good programming skills. Both students and instructors accept that learning programming for first-year college students is fairly difficult. To assist students to achieve this goal, instructors will have to adopt a suitable design for programming courses. This paper reports on the design of a Computer Programming course based on the integrated course design approach, which was conducted by a research group at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia from the Faculty of Information Science and Technology. The course is designed to provide relevant teaching and learning activities, feedback, and assessment that will ultimately support the learning goals of students. The design will provide opportunities for preparation time, meaningful feedback, and a competitive feel to the course. The effectiveness of this approach is then evaluated via an online survey that was administered to first-year undergraduate students. The results obtained from 250 first-year students showed that the students were able to improve their programs with the utilization of PC 2 , as it allowed them to obtain prompt feedback. The use of PC 2 also gives them a competitive atmosphere, which motivates them to perform better. The survey results also indicate that the students used their time to prepare for lab sessions via tutorials and self-learning.

Computer programming requires skills in designing algorithms, understanding syntax, writing programs, as well as the ability to correct errors in order to produce good programs. These skills can be developed through a lot of practice on a continuous basis. The students’ proficiency in programming is measured by the number of exercises that can be solved correctly within a specified time frame. From past observations, it is discovered that most students were able to solve the problems given during laboratory sessions. However, their performances did not carry over to laboratory tests. This situation points to the possibility that the students might have not perform adequate self-practice in preparing for laboratory tests. In a student-centred learning environment, fulfilling the notional learning hours is essential to ensure that students are prepared to take their subsequent classes. Based on a constructivist learning framework, this article reports the development and evaluation of a prototype system to assist in self learning of programming. The online Auto-marking Programming Exercise System was developed based on the UVa Online Judge as benchmark. The system can provide real time feedback to students immediately after the students submit their programs. This instant feedback is an important characteristic of the constructivist approach to learning. This will help students learn programming in an effective way. The system is tested and evaluated for usability by selected users from among instructors and former students of computer programming course.

Negotiation is a widespread business activity which is used to satisfy mutual interests to reach a consensus. With the advent of intelligent software agents, fully automated negotiation systems are achieved where negotiation is conducted between software entities without any human intervention. Of the significant challenge faced by developers is the construction of agent's proficiency to imitate human negotiators. There are a wide variety of negotiation approaches and tactics that have been proposed such as game theory, evolutionary, fuzzy and heuristic but they mostly rely on the utilitarian decision model which mainly target to maximize selfish-pleasure. Consequently, business bargains nowadays become more oriented to capital and revenue and very little attention is given to human ideals and ethics. To a certain extent this reflects the dominance of secularism in the world. In addition to contradicting the moral injunctions that Islam and most religions encourages, the assumptions behind self-maximization lacks the empirical prove. In contrast, altruism proved its persistence in between the participants engaged in many experiments. Inspired by the concept of Islamic leniency this paper propose a negotiation model that rely on altruistic utility instead of the dominant selfish utility. The proposed model is implemented through a web-based e-marketplace and then evaluated through a number of experimental tests. The results show the influence of altruism perception on the negotiation outcome and hence affect agent's behavior toward offering more affordable offers.

A key issue in the construction industry is that the atmosphere and working environment at construction sites are very different from the atmosphere in a typical office. The construction site workers are influenced by climatic factors, constraint of limited infrastructure for office, network and communication technology. Todays advanced mobile devices are very suitable for the construction industry because of its small size, easy to carry and have a wide range of support functions that can be leveraged into mobile applications to help workers in this industry carry out everyday tasks. However, some mobile applications are not very effective because their development is not based on the guidelines usability of mobile applications such as ISO9126, People At The Center of Mobile Application Development (PACMAD) model and Moe Usability Guidelines. The objective of the study is to identify usability elements of mobile applications for the construction industry as well as developing detailed usability guidelines of mobile applications based on the selected element for the construction industry. The methodology included theoretical study using content analysis and empirical study involving interviews mobile application developers to identify usability elements of mobile applications for the construction industry. The results of content analysis of seven model and usability guidelines shows thirteen elements are suitable to be adapted for the construction industry, namely the effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, ability to learn, get the attention of consumers, presentations, human-computer interaction, navigation, data are obtained from the map, installation, mobile context, security and assistance. Findings from the interviews are used to construct the detailed usability guidelines for development of mobile applications. Assessment guidelines by experts showed the proposed usability guidelines mobile applications are capable of providing guidance to application developers to implement its usability elements in the development of applications for the construction industry.

This paper centers on research of the user interface design of mobile commerce (m-commerce) focusing on the location of the songket business. The research is based on a comparison method between interfaces of location-aware m-commerce with different domains. The goal is to analyze the aspect of m-commerce interface design that has already been accepted by the user. 7C’s interface design elements have been selected as the guideline of the analysis. The comparison analysis of localization technique showed that four out of the seven elements are suitable for the guideline; namely Context, Customization, Communication and Connection. Research proved A-GPS technique suitable for application of songket localization. The outcome of the research is the user interface of location aware m-commerce based on multi user mental model specific to songket localization using A-GPS technique.

Utilitarian decision making is a far-famed mechanism that alleged to model humans decisions with the help of certain functions known as utility functions. Utilities metaphorically evaluate alternatives and approximate the satisfaction afforded by each. The utilitarian model is considered the fundamental basis of several artificial intelligence techniques such as game theory, evolutionary, heuristic, and fuzzy based approaches. It has been immensely utilized to develop various intelligent systems such as Decision Support Systems (DSS), Negotiation Support Systems (NSS), Multi Agent Systems (MAS), Shopbots, and proxy bidding systems. Well known that the utilitarian model has been developed based on the hypothesis of rationality and maximization which embodied some secular norms. Islam in the other hand has been derived from diverse set of provisions in which highly upholds tender values and pays significance to moral issues. As a consequence, this paper conducts a brief comparison and deduced two commons bases and four discrepancies. In the time Islam accepts utilitarian conception and do not mind the acquisitive behaves which considered essential in life success but satirically criticizes egoistic encouragement, non-satiation, and un-prioritized preferences. The Islamic objections on the utilitarian decision not necessarily meant the solid inapplicability but a reasonable treatment out to take place in order to be Islamic legitimated. Introducing the altruistic utility supposedly drops the egoistic objection and then a satiated lexicographic utility hoped to cancel the rest of contradictions. The adoption of those treatments ought to assist in developing intelligent systems that rely on Islamic legitimated decision method which upholds the Islamic moral injunctions. It is hoped that this research will provide the impetus for researchers to propose systems that rely on Islamic legitimate decision making.

Currently, the Internet which provides a set of interconnected networks has made it possible for individuals and businesses to conduct business transactions electronically. Various internet-based business models have been realized including e-auction, e-shops, e-procurement, e-mall, virtual enterprises, and e-marketplaces, just to name a few. Instead of using the traditional medium, more consumers now prefer to use the Internet as it provides numerous advantages for the consumers such as elimination of the extra cost caused by middlemen. Specifically, e-auction or electronic auction has received tremendous attention from both buyers and sellers. Although the concept of auction or al-muzayadah in general is allowed in Islam, however the conversion of traditional auction to internet-enabled setting has change the way it is conducted, especially in e-auction environment that uses proxies and software agents to bargain on behalf of human users. Studies indicated that some electronic auctions are not Syariah compliant hence Muslim users are exposed to prohibited features like riba (interest), maisir (gambling) or gharar (uncertainty). Thus in this paper we propose a Syariah compliant electronic auction conceptual framework. The study found eight characteristics that do not comply with Syariah principles, which are identification verification, product description, payment method, bidding fee, closing period, starting price, auction fee and payment by third party. Based on the findings, a conceptual framework and system architecture for e-auction is developed to address the issues of non-compliancy with the Syariah rules. The framework is validated by a panel of Syariah experts using Delphi technique. The conceptual framework can become the basis for a Syariah compliant electronic auction model for commercial use. However the model for commercial use needs to be evaluated and verified by appropriate Syariah bodies such as Majlis Fatwa Malaysia

Dynamic establishment of a web service's Service Level Agreement (SLA) document that maintains end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) requirements has been identified as a cause of delay in developing web service based solutions. This is because service providers and consumers are usually engaged in a time consuming negotiation process. In order to accelerate the negotiation process, this paper proposes an agent-based conceptual framework for web service SLA negotiation which enables a single service provider to negotiate with multiple web service consumers at the same time. A utility-based negotiation strategy is used by negotiation agents to make decisions at all phases. A 3-tier multi-agent-based system prototype was developed to validate the framework. Web service consumers and providers use the front end GUI-based application to input their requirements preferences which we converted into WS-Policy compliant documents used in the negotiation. The actual negotiation processes are managed and conducted by software agents representing consumers and providers at the back-end system. Simulation results show that 90% of the negotiations are successful.

This paper describes a proposed Student Mobile Organizer application to help university students in organizing their college and personal activities. The application is designed to run in a netbook with Linux Ubuntu operating system. The application will be integrated with a university server, which is a case study at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). The integration allows the application to retrieve data from the server to improve the capability of the application system with additional functions. The examples of the data are lecture's schedule, university announcement and important university dates. All the retrieved data is placed in the student's schedule. In order to develop the integrated organizer, a methodology is proposed, that will cover from requirements until implementation. A framework to support the system is also proposed. This paper ends with conclusion and discussion that describe the benefits, disadvantages and suggestions to complete the organizer's features.

This study explains the concepts of an electronic marketplace (e-marketplace) and the types of e-marketplaces in today’s computing environment that is facilitated and driven by the Internet. The concept of software agent and the different types of agents which may exist in an e-marketplace application in the current setting of the global economy is also discussed. Specifically the idea of using mobile agents in the implementation of an e-marketplace is investigated. This article also introduces an example of a mobile agent-based e-marketplace which offers secure infrastructure services. The complex and challenging computing environment in which agents operate requires efforts in the standardization and management of agents.

Services Science Management and Engineering (SSME) is a new field that recognizes the importance of the services sector. It has created a worldwide movement in terms of curriculum development both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In Malaysia several universities have offered masters programmes in SSME. In UKM itself efforts are still under way to develop a Masters programme in SSME. Realizing the fact that research and teaching are two sides of the same coin, a research initiative in the area of SSME has been undertaken by the formation of a service science group currently hosted by members of the Faculty of Information Science and Technology. This paper reports the research agenda formulated by the group and the challenges faced in realizing the agenda.

A university faces many challenges in equipping graduates with the right skills and attitudes that will make them employable. The shift from the predominantly manufacturing based industries to the service based one is a source of one such challenge. Focusing on the Faculty of Information Science and Technology, it is contended that there is a need to examine its current curriculum and methods of instruction so as to ensure that future graduates will be suitable for this new economy. In this position paper, based on the model of the T-shaped professional and drawing insights from the newly developed field of Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME), it is proposed that a combination of approaches is undertaken in restructuring the curriculum so that future graduates from the faculty in particular, and the university in general, will be ready to face the challenges posed by the new era of services.

The development of Location Based Services (LBS) applications specifically on mobile devices requires research into various fields of studies which include cartography, map visualization techniques, mobile graphic engine and wireless network support. Mobile devices however pose limitations such as small screen size, low resolution, limited memory and processing power for map display and navigation. In this study, a generic framework which serves as a guide for developing map-based mobile applications has been proposed. It takes into consideration the constraints of mobile devices and discusses methods to overcome the problems which include visualization techniques, Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) and TinyLine SVG, mobile cartography concepts. A prototype application for finding point of interest in a university campus was developed using the framework as a guide. This application is intended for use on mobile devices equipped with Java and Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) supports. Generalisation technique has been adapted in map display to avoid cluttering, while the concept of mobile cartography such as colour, symbol, and context was applied in map generation. This study explores the potential of SVG and TinyLine SVG for image display in mobile devices. The application prototype was developed using Java 2 Mobile Edition (J2ME) package, TinyLine SVG software development kit, Servlet technology and MySQL database management system.

Rapid growth and expansion of information and communication technology (ICT) have set the pace for an electronic revolution leading to adoption of e-marketplace within the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Locally, this growth in ICT promises to further bolster the SMEs' position as the engine of growth for the Malaysia economy. However, there are various challenges and issues in setting up an e-marketplace in developing countries which appear to impede the growth of e-marketplace. In this paper, the realities of e-business adoption in Malaysian wood based products industry are discussed. This leads to the proposal of an integrated e-marketplace framework. This framework integrates different types of business mechanisms to facilitate in the trading of wood-based products in Malaysia. These mechanisms comprise of a third-party intermediary portal, mobile agent-based multi-attribute reverse auction and an e-negotiation feature that incorporates the use of the short messaging system service.

E-auction is a process where buyers and sellers are able to bid for products via online intermediaries or portals. In a B2B marketplace, buyers usually initiate requests for products or services via a Request for Quotation (RFQ). The potential sellers compete to offer quality products or services at the best price they can afford. Multi-attributes reverse auction which include non-price attributes has been identified as a promising auction mechanism for B2B e-marketplace. Results obtained from preliminary case studies conducted on local companies involved in the wood based industry revealed that there is a need for a multi attributes reverse auction for a B2B e-marketplace. These results, coupled with a review of literature and existing e-auction sites results in a framework that will serve as a methodology for the development of an e-auction portal tailored for the wood- based industry.

Rapid growth and expansion of information and communication technology (ICT) have set the pace for an electronic revolution leading to adoption of e-marketplace within the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The advent of Internet offer many business firms new opportunities and benefits. Thus ICT promises to even further bolster the SMEs’ position as the engine of growth for the Malaysia economy. However, there are various challenges and issues in setting up an e-marketplace in developing countries which appear to impede the growth of e-marketplace. We discuss the realities of electronic marketplaces for developing countries and illustrate the concept by designing an e-marketplace prototype to facilitate trade in wood-based products of Malaysia. Social and technical issues are highlighted and future directions are recommended.

Nowadays, auction marketplace are conducted online and executed via electronic channels. Taking one step further, online auction e-marketplace adopted software agent technology in the bidding process. A mobile agent-based e-auction marketplace must fit the concept of halal trade and following Shari’ah law in order to fulfill muslim community needs and must offer secure and trustworthy trading environment. Nevertheless, mobile agent raises issues concerning the protection of platform/host and malicious attacks from a variety of intervening that might alter the information its carries. This paper investigate the requirement of trusted and secure online auction in line with Shari’ah transaction rules using the mobile agent technology by proposing a security architecture for mobile-agent based e-auction marketplace. This paper also investigates possible online auction frauds that can affect bidding process and focused on bid shielding and shill bidding. At the end of this the paper, security architecture for mobile agent-based e-auction marketplace in Shari’ah compliant environment is presented.

Cloud computing is an emerging platform for e-learning in current and future learning management system. Many e-learning cloud computing models have been proposed to support e-Learning. However using e-Learning environment for teaching computer programming requires a platform equipped with special applications such as programming workbook, program automatic marking and plagiarism detection, centralised logbook for monitoring students’ work and performance, online development environment, etc. Furthermore there are issues of education management rules in e-learning cloud that needs to be addressed such as teaching content management, course management, examination, performance management, student management, instructors’ workload management. These elements are taken into consideration in designing the proposed architecture for Programming Education Environment as Cloud Computing Services.