BUKU ABSTRAK - Universiti Putra Malaysia

Science, Technology & Engineering
A Framework of Knowledge Management (KM) Strategies of Open Source
Software Development (OSSD) with Collaborative Environment
Dr. Rusli Abdullah
Modi Lakulu, Mohd. Hasan Selamat and Hamidah Ibrahim
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8946 6557; rusli@fsktm.upm.edu.my
The global economy crisis reveals the advantages of Open Source Software (OSS). Software developers
benefit not only from reduced cost of acquisition, but also access to source code and components. Feller and
Fitzgerald (2002) raised the critical questions on what life-cycle underpins the OSS model and what is the best
methodology to support the OSS as well as what toolkit support OSS methodology. Knowledge Management
System (KMS) is capable to manage knowledge and the best solution for sharing knowledge among developers
in terms of software development process. This study is to solve the problem and to formulate a Knowledge
Management System (KMS) framework for sharing OSS knowledge in software development. The formulation
of framework covers the major methodologies in software development but the development of prototype system
only focusses on SDLC from the planning phase until the maintenance phase. The development of the prototype
system uses a prototype approach. A survey was conducted on selected OSS developers in Malaysia to gauge
the developer’s awareness of OSS and to ascertain the usage of OSS tools in software development and finally
to analyse and validate the framework’s components. The results show the reliability using Rasch Method and
SPSS based on Cronbach Alpha is 0.97 and the reliability for both measurement is excellent. (Fisher 2007), Based
on three measurements (mean, reliability and percentage), 97.39% of the respondents agree for the framework
components respectively and this gives positive feedback to OSS tools in software development. Hence,
98.13% of the respondents agree that to manage OSS tools based on knowledge ontology according to software
development process can help to choose rightly and accelerate the software development. The contributions of
this study are to provide a mechanism for sharing OSSD knowledge and finally to create a third generation of
KM society in Malaysia.
Keywords: Knowledge management system, open source software (OSS), OSS development
New Technology to Determine Harvesting Date for the Oil Palm FFB
Prof. Ir. Dr. Wan Ishak Wan Ismail
Mohd. Hudzari Razali and Nader Kavandi
Faculty of Engineering, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8946 6408; wiwi@eng.upm.edu.my
This study introduced the new concept of image based measurement for modelling the oil palm fresh fruit
bunches (FFB) maturity prediction which enables to determine the correct time for harvesting. The experiments
procedure starts from collection of the fruitlets of FFB during unripe (black colour surface) until overripe (orange
colour surface) stage. The variety of oil palm is Tenera (Elaeis guineensis). The fruitlets were plucked from FFB
and analysed for oil mesocarp content by using the Soxhlet extractor machine. The calculations to determine the
mesocarp oil content was developed based on ratio of oil to dry mesocarp. The images were analysed for optical
properties of colour, namely hue, using the analysis software that was developed at our research laboratory.
Regression analysis of polynomial 2nd order equation method showed that the optical property of oil palm
fruit was significant in determining the oil from the mesocarp fruit, with respect to the degree of maturity. The
triangulation method was developed to estimate the optimum days for harvesting the FFB at the highest content
and quality of the oil. For commercialisation, the personal Digital Assistance (PDA) was used as a portable oil
palm maturity prediction device. The above prediction equations and triangulation table were downloaded to the
PDA.
Keywords: Prediction of day harvesting, mesocarp oil content, hue optical properties, camera vision, PDA
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