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iTEC Project
Title: ITEC-D10_2_V1-1 041102012.Docx
implementation mechanisms according to this analysis. We describe below the results of applying
the above-mentioned methodology to the design of the SDE, identifying the design decisions taken
for each level:
• Level 1. Definition of the Object of Decision. From the four decision targets identified in
MCDM (choice, sorting, ranking and describing the items), the SDE addresses the
relevance calculation and ranking of elements according to their estimated utility. It should
be noted that we have both to identify candidate resources to perform an activity and to
provide a sorted list of resources according to their relevance.
• Level 2. Criteria modelling (definition of families of criteria). To identify the factors to
take into account for relevance calculation, we thoroughly analysed all the properties of
each resource type included in the semantic model to select those that may have an actual
impact in resource selection. Once the collection of relevant properties was selected, we
drew up a document to be presented to the Control Board to be discussed with the aim of
providing an indication of the importance of each factor (cf. Appendix II). We then defined
for each of the selected properties a formal criterion enabling the quantitative evaluation of
the resource according to that property, as stated by the methodology. According to the
formal definition of criterion in Section 1.2.1.1, the SDE will take as the general evaluation
scale the interval . In this way, the criterion will take a value within this interval when
considering users’ ratings or explicit numerical values (e.g. tool, people or event ratings,
tool functionality, people’s expertise). For other criteria, we will adopt as a general rule the
following solution: criterion will take value if the option analysed has the worst
possible rating; if the criterion cannot be assessed because there is not enough
information available; and if the option is totally relevant according to criterion .
For example, the criterion of the cost factor applied to a tool ( ), will be assigned value
when the tool is completely free of charge in the corresponding Technical
Setting;
when cost information is not available; and
when tool usage
is not free. Besides, when the object being assessed has some relevance according to a
given criterion, this will always take a value in the range , to stress the difference
between a clearly not recommended object ( ) and other objects. There are two
basic strategies to compute these values:
o Based on the number of properties (non-weighted properties): given a non-weighted
property 13 on which we will establish a criterion, we measure how many relevant
values are included in the resource.
(4)
This strategy is used, among others, for the criterion associated with the factor
language applied to tools ( ). According to it, if a LARG Context is developed in
English and Spanish, the assigned value will be
for a tool
13 A non-weighted property is a property defining a specific characteristic of the resource without taking into
account specific numerical values. It supports relations such as resource X is available in language L or is
targeted to audience A.
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