Eduardo Zied Milian

Mauro M Spinola
email: mauro.spinola@usp.brrofranco@osite.com.br

Rodrigo F Gonçalves

André Leme Fleury
email: andreleme.fleury@gmail.com

AN ANALYSIS OF THE ADVANTAGES, CHALLENGES AND OBSTACLES OF CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION TO AN ACADEMIC CONTROL SYSTEM

Keywords: Cloud Computing, Software as a Service, Product Management

The evolution of cloud computing (CC) over the past few years is certainly one of the greatest advancements in the history of computing. However, for this technology to reach its potential there must be a clear understanding of the issues involved in its adoption. The purpose of this exploratory case study is to build an evaluation model that takes into account aspects such as the advantages, challenges and obstacles of adopting CC. To assess the feasibility and usefulness of such model, an Academic Control System (ACS) from an International School was analyzed. Such analysis enabled the development of recommendations, the provision of inputs and the suggestion of actions necessary to launch the ACS as a cloud service. The model revealed challenges regarding governance, human resources (HR) management, project management and organizational culture to deal with innovations and changes. Such challenges shall be taken into account in the cloud strategy. Also, security issues, business models, technical capacity, performance, service level agreements (SLA) are obstacles that organizations willing to provide such services must face. According to the model, the recommendations to overcome such challenges and obstacles include HR management good practices, risk management processes and well-defined decision making instances.

Introduction

Considered one of the greatest developments in the history of computing [START_REF] Marston | Cloud computing -The business perspective[END_REF], Cloud Computing (CC) has been gaining ground as a successful model as it promises economic savings, easiness of use and greater flexibility in the control of resource use, anytime and anywhere, while delivering the required computing power. The model's value proposition is that resources are no longer idle, as they almost used to the fullest (with lower unit costs) [START_REF] Kaisler | A Decision Framework for Cloud Computing[END_REF]. However, for this technology to reach its potential there must be a clear understanding of the various issues involved in its adoption, from the point of view of both providers and customers [START_REF] Kaisler | A Decision Framework for Cloud Computing[END_REF]. The purpose of this research is to investigate the applicability and usefulness of an evaluation model for the CC adoption, built under the scope of the study. The model considers aspects such challenges, obstacles and advantages of CC. Supported by the literature, these aspects were unfolded into issues involving governance, people management, project management, risk management and forms of investments, as well as into other topics related to design, development and marketing of software products to be offered with a service, within this new paradigm of computing.

Having started its operation in 2003, an International Education institution began modernizing its Information Technology (IT) area in 2009. As its growth exceeded 100% per year, the department, initially directed to academic needs, started meeting business requirements through the adoption of specific ERP modules and development of an Academic Control System (ACS), aiming at improving organizational processes and controls.

In light of the challenges to maintain the hardware and software infrastructure updated and secure and with the required availability, IT management currently rethinks the way in which these computing resources are acquired, developed and used, studying the feasibility of the adoption of CC.

IT managers believe that the internally developed ACS, as part of efforts to improve processes and controls, could become a product to meet common needs of international schools. As with the IT infrastructure, the International School is assessing the possibility of using CC. The ACS would open a new business opportunity for the organization, currently focused exclusively on the education segment, possibly with the setting up of a company with this specific purpose. Thus, this new product would be developed for the cloud, and it would be necessary to assess the issues inherent to this decision.

The main motivation of this case study was to examine the robustness of the proposed evaluation model, as well as to assist the International School in making decisions regarding the release of the ACS, seeking to identify the key advantages and potential obstacles for the adoption of CC, so that organizations can offer competitive, updated and effective products, with the most efficient use of its resources.

Literature Review

To achieve the proposed objective to work (construction of an evaluation model for the adoption of CC, investigating its applicability and its usefulness for the launch of the ACS as a cloud service), the authors searched the literature that examine major issues concerning the subject, as follow. Definition of Cloud Computing. Although many formal definitions have been proposed by academia and industry [START_REF] Vaquero | A break in the clouds: towards a cloud definition[END_REF][START_REF] Taurion | Cloud Computing: Transforming the World of Information Technology[END_REF][START_REF] Veras | Datacenter: Central component of the IT Infrastructure[END_REF][START_REF] Linthicum | Cloud computing and SOA convergence in your enterprise: a step-bystep guide[END_REF], the definition provided by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) [START_REF] Mell | The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing -Recommendations of the National Institute of Standards and Technology[END_REF] includes the main concepts commonly used in the CC community. According to NIST, "cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction." Table 1. Advantages of Cloud Computing.

ADVANTAGES DESCRIPTION

A1

Lower cost of customers' capital: Customers do not buy software or infrastructure (hardware and operating system, for example) in advance, but they pay for the access to those services over time [START_REF] Marston | Cloud computing -The business perspective[END_REF].

A2

Lower cost of providers' capital: CC can provide an almost immediate access to hardware resources with no upfront investments to its users, reducing the "time to market" for products from many companies [START_REF] Marston | Cloud computing -The business perspective[END_REF].

A3

Reduces deployment cycle: since applications are already deployed in SaaS vendors' sites. The SaaS model also allows cost savings in the large-scale operation of standardized business components [START_REF] Xin | Software-as-a-Service Model: Elaborating Client-side Adoption Factors[END_REF].

A4

Reduces cost of entry into new business: significantly reduces the cost of entry for small companies that can benefit from the business applications, previously available only to large corporations [START_REF] Marston | Cloud computing -The business perspective[END_REF].

A5

Reduces cost of business expansion or entry into new markets: CC makes it easier for businesses to expand their services according to customers' demands, since computing resources can be deployed very quickly and in accordance with needs [START_REF] Marston | Cloud computing -The business perspective[END_REF].

A6

Easier maintenance: the IS provider has greater flexibility to correct, improve or add new features as it has greater control of the application's configuration [START_REF] Sommerville | Software engineering[END_REF].

Table 2. Challenges of Cloud Computing adapted from [START_REF] Willcocks | Cloud Sourcing: Implications for Managing the IT Function[END_REF].

CHALLENGES DESCRIPTION

C1

Human Resources: in practice, the recruitment and retention of a high quality team, albeit small, is one of the biggest challenges of HR management. In general, there is a lot of demand for staff skilled to work with CC resources, requiring organizations to pay them slightly more than competitors, within a career plan, keeping them always challenged and stimulated.

C2

Changes in culture, values, guiding principles, beliefs: CC allows a change in the vision of the IT function. Traditionally, IT departments spend 60% to 80% of their efforts to keep their infrastructure running, resulting in little time to focus on business needs. With CC, IT can be quicker to respond to changing needs in business requirements. This challenge is enabling the change in the current situation of organizations, to achieve the skills to meet the business needs and the functions of architects and experts in CC.

C3

Project Management: it must be a core skill of the organization and not just the maintenance of a business resource. Candidates for the role of project manager are most likely found among relationship builders and technology evangelists. The creators of business systems, leaders, architects and specialized buyers must have an active role in projects with a strong technology or component of CC.

C4

Innovation: IT areas shall be designed to handle dynamic business contexts, which, among other tasks, are designed to innovate. Organizations still need to make big changes if they want to take advantage of the great innovations of technology/service providers in the cloud. Fundamental practices such as support the effective collaborative innovation and deepen the collaboration between areas of the organization can offer not only an operational IT but also business process and strategic innovations.

C5

Cloud evolution: IT executives need to focus on the reality of technical expertise and services, while ensuring that business managers have the correct perception of the necessary improvements to IT performance. Capacities to plan architecture, correct technical errors and facilitate contract management are particularly important. A greater proactivity in the delivery of strategic technologies for business and increased focus on needs are required.

Cloud computing services. Also according to NIST [START_REF] Mell | The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing -Recommendations of the National Institute of Standards and Technology[END_REF], the definition of CC includes three different service models: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). In the IaaS model, customers are allocated computing resources in order to run virtual machines consisting of operating systems and applications [START_REF] Chudnov | A view from the clouds[END_REF]. In the PaaS, consumers are allowed to write applications that run on the service provider's environment. The third model, SaaS, provide consumers with typical software applications running over the Internet. Google Apps Engine and Google Docs are, respectively, examples of PaaS and SaaS [START_REF] Vaquero | A break in the clouds: towards a cloud definition[END_REF]. The paradigm of cloud computing reinforces the assertion of Delone [START_REF] Delone | The DeLone and McLean model of information systems success: a ten-year update[END_REF], which to measure the overall success of IT, the service quality is more important than the quality of the information or the quality of the systems themselves.

O1

Strategic feasibility of procurement or provision of services: organizations may believe that certain information systems, depending on their criticality to the business and on the need to maintain them under their control, cannot be hired or offered in the cloud. This may occur when the system business rules can offer a competitive business advantage for that organization within the segment in which it operates. [START_REF] Chaves | Obstacles to Cloud Computing Adoption: A Delphi Study Conducted with Brazilian Professionals and Academics[END_REF].

O2

Lack of technical capacity: implementing a CC environment is a major technical challenge. Complex software solutions have to be developed and available 24x7 [START_REF] Miller | Cloud computing: web-based applications that change the way you work and collaborate online[END_REF].

O3

Business model deficiencies: the economic viability of provider, its ability to thrive and continue in the activity may inhibit customers' willingness to use cloud products [START_REF] Miller | Cloud computing: web-based applications that change the way you work and collaborate online[END_REF].

O4

Security issues: Migration to any of CC models presents many security risks. In addition to physical security and to the security of organizations' data, there are technical, legal and policy issues [START_REF] Mather | Cloud security and privacy: an enterprise perspective on risks and compliance[END_REF]. The risk model must cover all aspects of security requirements, including physical security, data security and policy, technical and legal issues [START_REF] Mather | Cloud security and privacy: an enterprise perspective on risks and compliance[END_REF].

O5 Behavioral Tradition -Abandoning the traditional IT model:

There is an important cultural obstacle, which can generate mistrusts and uncertainties. This obstacle can be represented by customers' need to abandon the traditional IT model, in which physical and logical IT resources to support business organizations are more tangible [START_REF] Miller | Cloud computing: web-based applications that change the way you work and collaborate online[END_REF].

O6

Availability: services require an internet connection constantly available. Otherwise, these connection failures may result in the application unavailability [10] [13].

O7

Performance: applications may not work well with low-speed connections: which will result in the downtime or slowdown of the application or of some of its resources due to possible latency in the target analysis application data transfers [10] [13].

O8

Governance: As a result of technical and contractual complexity, consumers fear that unheard-of situations and consequent short time of maturations, providers are not prepared to deal with them satisfactorily, causing difficulties in the relationship [START_REF] Marks | Executive's guide to cloud computing[END_REF].

O9

Service level agreements (SLAs) and quality: these refer to providers' ability to ensure availability and have the resources to meet contingencies. They are provided for in the SLA, where compliance standards and penalties are defined [START_REF] Marks | Executive's guide to cloud computing[END_REF].

O10

Reliability: consumers expect CC environments to be reliable and that the availability of services and resources offered fully meet their needs, especially those related to critical business aspects. Thus, CC crucially depends on reliability; if consumers feel the system is not fully reliable, they become reluctant to use this service model [START_REF] Marks | Executive's guide to cloud computing[END_REF].

Advantages, challenges and obstacles to the adoption of CC. Marston [START_REF] Marston | Cloud computing -The business perspective[END_REF] considers that CC, by enabling the convergence to an environment where information can be accessed, notwithstanding the device used and the location, represents a major shift in computing and can offer significant advantages to adopting organizations. Table 1 shown the main advantages of CC, identified as A1 to A6, to facilitate the understanding of the recommendations presented in 4.

According to Willcocks et al. [START_REF] Willcocks | Cloud Sourcing: Implications for Managing the IT Function[END_REF], there are five major challenges that must be faced by those who currently use the traditional IT infrastructure model and who want to switch to CC. Challenges were identified as C1 to C5 in Table 2, in order to facilitate the understanding of the recommendations presented in 4.

The literature on CC offers studies [START_REF] Miller | Cloud computing: web-based applications that change the way you work and collaborate online[END_REF][START_REF] Marks | Executive's guide to cloud computing[END_REF][START_REF] Chaves | Obstacles to Cloud Computing Adoption: A Delphi Study Conducted with Brazilian Professionals and Academics[END_REF] which mention the difficulties to its adoption, represented by obstacles inherent to the computing model. The main obstacles, listed from O1 to O10, are shown in Table 3.

3

Research methodology

Research method. The research consisted of an exploratory case study. Based on the literature review, was identified advantages, challenges and obstacles relevant to the development of an evaluation model for the adoption of CC. These aspects are the basis for building the model, in which challenges and obstacles were grouped into four correlated action foci: organization, business model, human resources and security. These action foci grouped the recommendations of the action plan (Table 5), facilitating the understanding and its unfolding in the actions themselves.

Questionnaires were used to implement the analysis model. They were designed to investigate the qualitative aspects (advantages, challenges and obstacles) of the evaluation model. The result of these questionnaires applying, called Case Narrative (Fig. 1), were analyzed using knowledge of literature bounded by the model. The result of the analysis is a set of recommendations, which unfolds in the proposed action plan. In addition, the organization and its IT environment (personnel, systems, processes, etc.) have the relevant characteristics to enable the study. Following the definition of issues and research project, interviews were held with people who hold the following positions: IT manager, process and authorship engineer (manager), development coordinator (manager) and development analyst (coordinator).

Description of the target application. The IT infrastructure currently has ERP (Financial -billing) systems and the Academic Control System (ACS), which becomes, every day, more important in the operation of the organization. The application that will be the object of analysis is the ACS (candidate to move to the cloud).

Results and Action Plan

The construction of the Case Narrative (Fig. 1) resulted from the application of questionnaires to investigate the relevant topics of the target organization and the target application. Table 4 presents the advantages of using the CC found in the literature and adapted by the author based on what can be extracted from the Field Research and recorded in the Case Narrative.

Table 4. Recommendations for taking advantages of CC.

ADVANTAGES RECOMMENDATIONS A1 & A3

Lower customer capital: ACS provider shall promote its product to customers in the SaaS model, arguing that they will not need to purchase software or infrastructure, but will pay for access to services over time. This will result in reduced cost of fixed capital, dilution of service costs over time, allowing a quicker return on investment, and potentially, bringing significant cost savings.

A2

Lower providers' capital cost: CC, by providing almost immediate access to hardware resources with no initial investment for ASC provider, improving its "time to market". As it is an operating expense, it also helps drastically reducing the necessary investments to product launching.

A3

Reduces deployment cycle: ACS provider shall promote its product arguing that it is already deployed under the SaaS delivery model, reducing deployment time, parameterization and system "tuning" (ACS).

A4

Cost of entry into new business: ACS provider shall promote its product arguing that customers can drastically reduce the cost of entry into the market for international schools that benefit from the knowledge of existing ACS business rules.

A5

Cost of business expansion or entry into new markets: ACS provider shall promote its product arguing that CC makes it easier for customers to expand their services for purposes of business expansion or entry into new markets according to their strategic plan. This is because computational resources can be deployed very quickly, according to new needs, scaling them up or down dynamically, depending on customer's load, with minimal interaction with service providers (self-service).

A6

Easy maintenance: ACS provider has greater flexibility to correct, improve or include new features, as it has a greater control on the distribution and management of its applications, enabling agility in meeting the business needs of customers.

The recommendations were grouped in into four foci of correlated actions summarized in a preliminary action plan (Table 5) for further detail, with the definition of responsible parties, timeframes and indicators for monitoring and control.

Conclusions

The analysis model proved to be robust enough to capture the peculiarities (and desires) of the organization and compare them with literature. Its application enabled the formulation of recommendations, giving subsidies and presenting an action plan for the International School to be able to guide and implement its decisions, regarding the development and marketing of ACS as an application for CC. -Rely on outside legal assistance for the preparation of procurement contracts and offering of services associated with ACS.

-Solidly rely on technology partners and infrastructure providers, which shall preferably be large organizations, well known in the market, to be presented to business plan partners for the development and commercialization of the product. -Develop a plan to identify and mitigate risks inherent to the selected service model (own or outsourced infrastructure under the PaaS model).

Security C5 & O4

-Deploy an IT risk management through a set of processes, policies and structures, providing an insight into the organization of all risks involved in the service provision.

Although CC is a relatively new model for the delivery of IT resources, based on its proposal and use, is possible to see that the main issues addressed are the same of the traditional IT model found in organizations. Issues such as organizational strategy, governance, technical and legal training, information security, personnel management, project management, contract management are present and are the same as the vastly used IT model, although here seen from the perspective of CC.

The model identified good management practices, such as establishing communication channels between the hierarchical levels and owners, promoting innovation through collaboration between areas, establishing strategic and long-term partnerships with providers, establishing payment policies to retain people, setting processes and metrics for the development and performance of the product and treatment of risks as a structured process with clearly defined responsibilities and methods. These aspects should be taken into account by organizations wishing to offer cloud services.

Difficulties encountered in applying the model result from the different nature of the issues involved (for ex., governance, HR, security, etc.). Thus, applicator must have specific knowledge of these aspects, so that, when raised and analyzed, they produce the appropriate result.

Any generalization is limited since the study's focus is on a single application in a single organization. Aiming to generalize the findings of this work, further study of the model can be performed in different countries and with software vendors or service providers willing to use the cloud to offer their applications.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the construction of results.

-

  to reduce turnover of highly skilled people in CC.-Promote training in CC key technologies. Define processes, records and documentation of projects.-Plan, design and implement activities directly focused on the performance of ACS.-Establish metrics (indicators) to monitor and control the expected performance.

Table 3 .

 3 Obstacles for Cloud Computing adoption.

	OBSTACLES	DESCRIPTION

Table 5 .

 5 Action Plan to implement recommendations.

	ACTION FOCUS	ASPECT	ACTION TO BE PLANNED
	Organization C2, C4,	-Share organizational values, such as, for example, keeping channels of
		C5 & O8	communication that promote improvements, seeking greater efficiency and effectiveness.
			-Practice effective collaborative innovation between different areas
			involved with CC, such as development, marketing, human resources and
			interfaces with providers.
			-Demonstrate the commitment to develop, implement and improve the
			ability to offer ACS as a service, within the organization's business
			context and customers' needs.
			-Inform customers of sustainable strategies through decisions (medium
			and long terms) involving CC.
	Business	C5, O1,
	Model	O3 & O5

-Improve processes for the selection of providers based on technical and commercial criteria.


Jan Frick
email: jan.frick@uis.no

Improving Transport and Accessibility through new Communication Technologies

Keywords: public transport, usability, wireless communication

The accessibility of regions regarding transport is a clear advantage in terms of their social-economic development. New technologies may improve the utilization and usability of public transport on a large scale. The ITRACT project investigates this by developing and testing applications for wireless communication regarding public transport.

Introduction

Regions want to develop, and the accessibility of regions is a clear advantage in terms of their social-economic development. With new technologies, such as satellite and integrated sensor networks, transport and accessibility of remote areas and functionality of transport in urban areas can be improved in innovative ways. This is a development that is going on in many regions. [START_REF] Emmanouilidis | Mobile guides: Taxonomy of architectures, context awareness, technologies and applications[END_REF] It is partly related to and dependent of the local access of wireless communication in the region and partly to the availability of Internet access in general. There is also a clear difference on wanted functionality in urban versus rural areas. The urban issues might focus on reducing the effect of rush-hours, where the rural issues will focus more on how to make best use of less frequent public transportation. There is also a difference in need in the population as people commuting to work or studies will have different needs than other groups as retired people or tourists. This is not a new concept as futuristic writers have written about such functionality in several decades. One of the most famous is Isaac Asimov that wrote for the World Fair in 1964 on prediction for the future 40 years ahead. [START_REF] Asimov | Visit to the World's Fair of 2014[END_REF] But now personalized interconnected mobile gadgets are available with a fast increasing functionality. [START_REF] Klein | User-Aware Management of Prosumed Micro-services[END_REF][START_REF] Gubbi | Internet of Things (IoT): A vision, architectural elements, and future directions[END_REF]

The ITRACT project

The ITRACT project [START_REF] Frick | ITRACT[END_REF] was started in January 2012. It develops and test innovative tools for efficient, user-and environment-friendly transport networks across the North Sea Region. The aim is to create sustainable and inclusive regional economies and communities throughout the North Sea Region by improving the virtual and physical modes of transport on a large scale. The project is funded by the European Union "InterReg IVb NorthSea". (Interreg-IVb-NorthSea, 2014) The regions that participate are Groningen in Netherlands, Värmland in Sweden, Ems-Jade in Germany, Yorkshire in UK, and Rogaland in Norway. All regions participate with both county/ public transport administrator and university, except UK that have public transport administration only. The project started out with a process to involve users of public transport and through workshops establishing priorities in each region. These were then grouped by functionality and programs (apps) to be developed were decided. Then some of the universities developed an architecture and following database to provide the different apps with a common backbone and thus achieve a higher functionality that what stand-alone apps might alone. The regions then defined how apps could be grouped in tests for functionality and usability, and these tests are due late 2014. [START_REF] Frick | ITRACT[END_REF] The ITRACT project has during 2013 moved from the early stage of describing the need of the regions and brainstorming how to answer the prioritized issues. Now apps designed to be building blocks are under development and will be available for all regions as described in the defined priorities. These apps shall utilize WIFI communication to improve the public transport issues in the participating regions. The regions will test and utilize the apps in various ways depending on the need in each region.

Rogaland

Scheduling app

When ITRACT project started, it became clear that the public transport administrator in Rogaland County (Kolumbus) had a parallel activity in their own development process. In spring 2012 an app for scheduling was distributed for public use. It is available for iphone, android, and also available as a website. The scheduling app utilizes Google Maps and Google Transit Feed Spesification Reference, GTFS. The use of GTFS enables the scheduling app to connect to other transport data in other regions. The consequence is that if you want to plan a travel from University of Stavanger to a location at University of Oslo, then the planner tells you where to walk to the bus stop, when next bus is expected due to schedule, when you can transfer from bus to next train to Oslo, when you can transfer to the local Oslo bus, where to stop, and where to walk to final location. All based on where you are and published schedules. Since 2012 the GTFS has become a standard for these types of mobile systems as most public transport companies need to exchange data with neighbouring regions to provide users with transferability options from one location to the next. The scheduling app had so far more than 3000 scheduling request per day in 2014 in a population of 300 000. Then in April 2013 a real-time app was distributed. This one does not plan your travel, but it identifies where you are with bus stops closest to you, and then tells you which busses will connect at that stop and when they are expected including delays. This real time functionality is available for iphone/ ipad, android, and general website. But the real-time information is also on screens at bus stops and on a screen in the busses. The real-time app is the most popular app as it enables its users to optimize their time due to better knowledge on actual transport options. From the bus administrator, it can be seen as "High Resolution Supply Chain Management" similar to the model suggested by Volker Stich et al. [START_REF] Volker Stich | High Resolution Supply Chain Management -A Structural Model for Optimized Planning Processes based on Real-Time Data[END_REF]. Users tend to forget that a mobile app like this one includes much more that the map, locations, and time estimates that they see. Behind the scene are databases with schedules, locations, map references, historic data, and a continuous analysis of data and forecast of each bus that is in use. So included to the forecast presented to users, the drivers have a similar feedback on status versus schedule, and the bus administrators have a framework for allocating and optimizing all activities within the focus of published schedule. The scheduling app is a simple case compared to the infrastructure behind the real-time app. In the scheduling app we have a schedule plan with its locations a related expected time and map references, but in the real-time app we have added dynamic collection of data, historic comparison, and a continuous analysis to be presented to users depending on their location. It is a complex cybernetic system. The real-time app reached up to 220 000 update clicks per week in April 2014.

Real--time app

Figure 2: 2 iphone screen captures from Kolumbus real-time app

Flexible payment app

The flexible payment app was released in September 2013. It enables people with to enter a bus, pay with an iphone or android, and then show it to the bus-driver as one would do with a prepaid ticket. This sounds easy, but the price to pay depends on zones included in the travel. So locations of start and end points and the identification of the busroute are included in the calculation. In the future, a development to move most or all passengers to cash free system may be provided, but for the moment only a single ride payment is in place. Users of rebated monthly payment and similar reduced fare options still have to use a traditional ticket or card. The 3 apps have been very popular with estimated downloads of 80000 up to May 14 in a population of 300000. The local ITRACT project group used a group of students in 2013 with a questionnaire to look for feedback about functionality and usability. This gave surprisingly little negative comments on functionality or usability. A survey to university employees and students in June 2014 showed > 60% of respondents as transport app users. 60% also indicated that such apps might increase their use of public transport. Next issues will be to further test the usability and functionality of these 3 apps more in detail with both the users in the region and to compare as far as possible with apps developed at the other ITRACT partner universities. The purpose of this is to see if or how functionality and usability can be improved. A possibility is also to merge the apps. In addition, Rogaland County will test "Bus on Demand" or "Shared Ride" apps developed at the ITRACT partner universities. This is assumed to be able to offer an improved service for rural areas in periods of the day when busses have a lower frequency. A "Bus on Demand" app is supposed to run a planned route but collect and deliver passengers within an area close to the route. The route will then be run when a number of passengers have accumulated and passengers will get a response on when to expect to be collected. So this may become an app demanding to-way dialogue to group passengers and keep the flexibility. If this will work remains to see, but such an app is in development at ITRACT partners, and Rogaland county has such a functionality based on phones in a rural area of the county. Other results from the June 2014 survey are that 60% would like that their employer might prepay their travel so an payment app could confirm this, and that 40% would like automatic payment from the app when they boarded the bus. This is technical feasible as the mobile phones can be identified in a similar way as RFID tags. RFID has two main tag technologies, which is active with a battery or inactive without. [START_REF] Jones | RFID and AUTO-ID in Planning and Logistics[END_REF] The bus tickets or cards used contain RFID tags, and a similar identification can be made for phones. The registration within a certain distance from a reader is easy, but it may be more complex to register when a user is leaving if there are different zones with their own rate. And there is also a matter of security regarding tracking of user movements. Several comments in the June 2014 survey indicated wishes for better maps included where user location, the bus to take, and their destination could be seen in real-time. And this also relates to the possibility to track people issue.

IBeacon

New technologies with possible impact on communication and public transport arrive quite often. New this year is the IBEACON technologies that Apple computer implemented in its operation system 7 for iphone and ipad units. [START_REF] Mcfarland | How iBeacons could change the world forever[END_REF] It is a bluetooth based location recognition service. It enable mobile units to provide users to get relevant information when they come close to a sender. [START_REF] Griffin | Understanding tourists' spatial behaviour: GPS tracking as an aid to sustainable destination management[END_REF] Rogaland County made a similar "virtual reality" route in 2012. A scenic tourist route got signs along the road telling tourists which address to type on their phone, and then they could get a voice telling them about that location in several languages. The recent IBeacon technology can make such signs obsolete as the location of the user may push a similar message to the user provide the gadget have an app that is open for such information. Like a tourist may be told where to look for food or accommodation when approaching such offers. The IBeacon technology and similar may change or automate several functions in our surroundings. Examples may be automated payment as people access a bus or walk into a theatre, or registration as products in a supply-chain are passing a control-point. Location based apps may also be seen as a component in virtual reality and utilised in education. [START_REF] Willem | Avar+ : Audio-Visual Augmented Reality for Creative Learning[END_REF]

Conclusion

The rapid changing technologies in communication and related software provide us as users with more information at hand. This enables us to optimize our travels and thus may increase the use of public transport as waste of time in waiting may become reduced. Payment apps may also reduce the need for cash on busses and thus enable more efficient travels as seen from the driver. We may expect several new location oriented apps that can inform tourists, students, or citizens about what to see and what to do, even inform about the offers of the day in next shop. This functionality may also change other software tools that do not include location relation now. The perhaps most interesting issue is how these developments and their massive acceptance of the public may change public strategies from politicians or public planners. Related to public transport we may ask: Will such gadgets encourage more people to utilize public transport and therefore reduce rush-hour problems in urban areas and enable more frequent busses in rural areas?

Figure 1 :

 1 Figure 1: 3 iphone screen captures from Kolumbus scheduling app

Figure 3 :

 3 Figure 3: 2 iphone screen captures from Kolumbus flexible payment app


Átila Melo De Lira

Herbert Gonçalves Espuny

Pedro Luiz De Oliveira

Costa Neto

Reinaldo De

Araujo Lopes

Josimar Alcantara De Oliveira

HEALTH TOURISM IN BRAZIL: THE CITY OF TERESINA CASE

Keywords: tourism, public health, sustainable development

In recent years, the global growth of the economy contributed to the significant increase of tourism in the world, where the movement of foreign exchange earnings doubled in the last ten years, spreading its effects in Brazil, and particularly, growth in the Northeast region, globalization and other short term changes. This work aims to presents how a Brazilian state, among those with lower income per capita in the Federation, such as Piauí, has a health care system in its capital which is a benchmark in Northeastern Brazil, influencing positively health tourism in this regims. The research deals with issues involving tourism as a product and service, having as a result a cluster of health enterprises in the city of Teresina, whose economic expression justifies its importance as a generator of income, employment, science and technology and a promoter of sustainable development in that city.

Introduction

The State of Piaui in northeastern Brazil, that until recently was considered one of the most backward in the country, has currently been highlighted by actions that project positively it on the national scenario. One of these actions was cited in an article approved at the congress of APMS 2013 [START_REF] Buccelli | Education mediated by technology: strategy to spread high school learning in Piauí State, Brazil[END_REF].

According to the World Tourism Organization [START_REF]WTO -World Tourism Organization -Fecomercio Tourism and Business Council[END_REF], the global tourism lifted foreign exchange revenues at approximately U.S. $ 919 billion in 2010. There was a slowdown in this tourism sector in the light of the global economic crisis of 2008, which caused a certain instability of trust for future events. However, despite the crisis, a comparative analysis of the ten years prior to 2010 shows that the foreign exchange earnings with tourism in 2008 (U.S. $ 857.40 billion) was 92.67% higher than in 1999 ($ 445, 00 billion), demonstrating a significant growth. Still according to the OMT, between 1999 and 2010 the international flow of tourism in the world registered a growth of 49%, knocking the mark of 935 million trips in 2010, with an estimated 1.6 billion in 2020. Figure 1 illustrates the growth of the sector over the analyzed period.

Source: [START_REF]WTO -World Tourism Organization -Fecomercio Tourism and Business Council[END_REF] The same survey by [START_REF]WTO -World Tourism Organization -Fecomercio Tourism and Business Council[END_REF] provides important data from tourism sector in Brazil, where, in the same period, foreign exchange earnings have more than tripled from U.S. $ 1.81 billion in 1999 to $ 5.92 billion in 2010.

The Health Pole of Teresina has shown steady growth in recent years, becoming a regional reference center. A first diagnosis made by the Union of the Hospitals of Piauí shows that 30% of attended clients come from six other states of the federation, generating employment and income for the city [START_REF]TERESINA MUNICIPALITY Agenda 2015 Review[END_REF].

The beginning of a health cluster development can be observed with the formation of a production chain and linked services, bringing benefits in terms of cost reduction, quality improvement, training of qualified manpower, capital attraction and increase in employment and income. Such benefit extends to the Private Health Network, increasing its share in serving the population through an investment which reached US $ 47,5 million in 2011 [4].

With this, the main objective of this article is to demonstrate the contribution of health tourism as a tool for the opening and growth of companies, as well as a mechanism to help to ensure that companies efficiently assume their social function, contributing to the improvement of life quality in that region and being immediate inducer of Teresina's growth factor.

Another important point that this paper seeks to demonstrate in that tourism focused on health, especially in this case, allows such activity to be an aspect of good practice as part of the World Tourism Organization's Code of Ethics (ESDT ) [START_REF] Esdt | Ethics and Social Dimensions of Tourism[END_REF], as a principle for sustainability, because it avoids unnecessary travel. Indeed, the region of Teresina is located in the Northeastern Brazil, in an area where lacks several resources and requires internal migration for various reasons, including health.

Methodology

Using the proposition of [START_REF] Vergara | Methods of Research in Management[END_REF], it is possible to classify this research in two respects: by the final purpose and by the means of investigation.

As for the means of investigation, this research has an important bibliographic emphasis. Bibliographical because it holds a review of the available literature on the subject; a systematic survey of books, journal articles, theses and dissertations, and other publications on the subject, aiming to theoretically justify the thesis and help to analyze the collected data.

As for the purpose, the research is exploratory, descriptive and applied. Exploratory because there is little accumulated knowledge about the subject influencing a determined sector such as it is in Teresina health sector. There are few published works on the identification of variables in Tourism Health and the composition of clusters in the city influenced by Tourism Health.

This research is also descriptive, as it includes the collection and display of data representative of a given situation or phenomenon. According to [START_REF] Rudio | Introduction to the Scientific Research Project[END_REF], the purpose of this type of research is "to discover and observe phenomena, trying to describe them, classify them and interpret them." Also in respect of the purpose, it can be classified as applied, since it has practical purpose and is motivated by the need to demonstrate how Health Tourism in a particular geographical area of the country may lead to generation of employment and income.

Literature review

Definition of Tourism and its ratings

Tourism can be defined as a phenomenon that refers to a movement of people in their own country (domestic tourism) or crossing national borders (international tourism). This movement reveals elements, such as interactions, individual and group relationships, human comprehension, feelings, perceptions, motivations, pressure, satisfaction, notion of pleasure, etc. [START_REF] Wahab | Introduction to Tourism Management[END_REF].

According to [START_REF] Castelli | Hospitality: Innovation in Management in Service Organizations[END_REF], the comprehension of the current touristic phenomenon shall necessarily goes through an analysis of the meaning of travelling throughout history. Usually motivated by economic, political or military reasons, trips are made by people to different regions A trip is an action that comes from a context in which a determined time of history is inserted. Travelling is one of the components of the economic and social life, as well as of the world it is inserted. Each type of civilization ou society corresponds in a way to how they travel or welcome a traveller.

For [START_REF] Wahab | Introduction to Tourism Management[END_REF], the anatomy of the phenomenon is basically composed by the knowledge of three elements: man (human element as performer of tourism), space (physical element, where the act is taking place), and time (temporal element consumed by the trip and the stay). These respresent the conditions for the existance of the phenomenon.

However, other characterizing factors distinguish tourism from the simple act of travelling. These factors are related primarily to the objective and temporary nature of the displacement, and the use of touristic services and equipments, most importantly the notion of pleasure and recreation. [START_REF] Dornelas | [END_REF].

For [START_REF] Olímpio | Introduction to Tourism Study[END_REF], a revolution in traditional travelling concepts was performed by the tourictic phenomenon since the 19th century, when protestant minister Thomas Cook opened the first tourism agency in England.

Some countries, such as Italy, France and Spainformer colonialist and military powerswere able to stabilize their post-war capital account to a point in which this activity builds a real industry, with proper state organs and specific legislation, that regulates different aspects of tourism, such as social, economic, commercial and cultural, with the objective of expanding the touristic industry.

Factors that influence touristic decisions

Every person is a potential tourist, but requires the act of travelling for tourism to exist. For that there are some conditions such as the will (animus) and the possibility [START_REF] Olímpio | Introduction to Tourism Study[END_REF]. The will can be originated by different causes, such as advertisements, status, habit, the physical, moral or intellectual convenience, seduction or interests in commerce, profit and health. Possibilities, however, involve factors that are out of the control of man, such as free time, money, transportation, among others.

Possibilities exist most commonly in higher social classes, therefore there is an association of privileged to tourism. Nowadays, however, with several facilities, social and popular tourism became more common.

Considering this, there are many reasons that lead a person to be a tourist, for example: business, religion, health, culture, education and pleasure.

According to [START_REF] Arrilaga | Introduction to Tourism Study[END_REF], the needs that tourism satisfy can be varied, for the causes are as diverse and subjective as the human body and soul's needs. The touristic motivations or subjective causes, can be classified as primary and secondary causes; direct and indirect; near and remote; individual and social.

• Primary and Secondary Causes The tourist, when he decided to travel, this usually has more that one cause. There is, however, one that is the most important and determines the trip, called primary. However, there are also secondary causes of less importance. For example, a person who takes a peregrination trip has as his primary cause the spiritual grace, but also has secondary causes, such as the possibilities of knowing new places, visiting famous monuments and resting.

• Direct and Indirect Causes A trip can occur due to an invitation or the desire to meet new places. Although, it can also involve indirect causes such as the habit of travelling or the social and economic level of the traveller.

• Near and Remote Causes An example of near cause of a trip is an advertisement of a travel agent, and a remote cause could be the memory of a previous trip.

• Individual and Social Causes Individual causes act on the person's decision to travel, while the social causes are influenced by some sector of the population. Practicing a sport may be an individual cause, and fashing trends or ideological affinities are social causes.

The search for the healing of a disease is, of course, the primary, direct, near and individual cause that moves Health Tourism, but often other causes come together and reinforce its economic and social importance.

Tourism classification

Tourism can be classified due to its modalities -Internal, External, Receptive, Intermediate and Quantitativeand about type -Vacation, Cultural, On Business, Sportive, Health and Religious [START_REF] Andrade | Tourism: Fundamentals and Dimensions[END_REF]. The Health Tourism, also known as Therapeutic Tourism, refers to the set of activities which achieve good physical and psychic conditions [START_REF] Rudio | Introduction to the Scientific Research Project[END_REF].

In relation to the city of Teresina and its health center in context, the modality to which it belongs, according to [START_REF] Rudio | Introduction to the Scientific Research Project[END_REF], is of a regional receptive center for people in health treatment with internal characteristics, because the temporary population flow is typically regional and from the country.

The internal relationship between tourism and economic science is expressed in terms of the touristic contribution to the economic development. With respect to this, [START_REF] Wahab | Introduction to Tourism Management[END_REF] wrote:

"Tourism is a phenomenon that moves capital of one country to the other, by people who dislocate to other places in order to consume a product or stay. They are potential consumers of a complex of goods and services that is offered with a specific objective. Tourism, through consumption and investment, affects different sectors of the economic system of a country, and it is believed that its multiplied effect is higher that the one observed in other sectors of economy, such as the industry...".

According to [START_REF] Baptista | Tourism: Strategic Management[END_REF], the advantages of tourism for a receptive country or state are : • Increase in revenue and currency through selling services and goods; • Creation of new revenues in various economic sectors; • Low investments in comparison with profit income; • Integration between different regions and populations, with diverse habits, gestures and languages.

It is possible to verify, with the citation above, that tourism does not only bring currency to a region or country, but also provides integration between different cultures, achievement that is one of the most important in a modern society and civilized world.

The economic impacts generated by a touristic activity may be characterized, as by [START_REF] Lage | Economy of Tourism[END_REF], in:

• Direct impacts: the total profit of touristic sector as a direct results of the product investment;

• Indirect impacts: the total income generated by the investment made by tourism sectors, in goods and services offered by the economy.

• Forced impacts: as a result from indirect and direct impacts of tourism, representing the levels of income increased in the economy; furthermore, part of this profit will be invested in goods and services produced internally, and represent the forced impact.

Case study

Teresina, a city with 836.475 inhabitants, has a complete network of health services, composed by a number of hospitals, clinics, policlinics, mixed units, and health posts and centers that belong to the state, to the city and to the private initiative, which makes the capital of Piaui an important medical center of various areas Due to these characteristics, as well as its location, 40% of the medical consultations are represented by people from the North and NorthEast, who travel to Teresina for medical care. This is an increasing tendency in the city, not ony due to the fact that there is a Medical College well known in the country, but also because of the high quality in services by the health professionals. In Teresina, today, surgeries such as heart and organ transplants, and neurologic surgeries, among others, are performed.

Due to its good location, Teresina became a so important Northeast Medical Center. In last years, the capital of Piauí has been highlighted nationally, being the health center that receives the higher number of patients from other regions [16].

The investments in the area are very expressive and, lately, the clinics have doubled in number. According to the city's statistics, there are 663 health establishments; 8 are hospitals, 181 are medical clinics and 170 are practices.

Table 1 shows the importance of the Health Center in the city of Teresina, as a generator of profit and jobs.

Table 1 -Establishments on Health Center by sub-area Source: [START_REF]TERESINA MUNICIPALITY Agenda 2015 Review[END_REF].

The chart above shows how the Health Center in Teresina has an expressive number of direct and indirect activities, connected to the health sector of the city. It is noted the beginning of health clusters, with the development of a productive chain with interconnected services, that brings benefits in terms of cost reduction, qualification, jobs, and academic formation. According to the regional station of work in Piaui, more them 15,000 jobs are directly involved in the health sector in Teresina.

In Teresina there are two factories of medicine and hospitalar materials: one of serum and one of masks, robes and gloves.

It is very significant that Teresina has respectively 181% and 280% more health establishments per 1,000 inhabitants than the other nearby state capital, as shown in Another factor that transforms the capital of Piaui in a Health Reference Center, was the development of the human resources in all levels: graduate, technician, auxiliary and administrative. In the graduate level, the courses offered are medicine, odontology, nursery, nutrition, social service, physical therapy, pharmacy, psychology, radiology and nutrition; in technician level the options are auxiliary in technical nursery, radiology, dental hygiene and consultant in odontology practice.

Conclusion

Tourism is generally understood as an activity involving leisure, but can also be associated to other finalities. In this article in particular, the importance of tourism was shown regarding health motivations, and how its management caused profitable and beneficial results to a city located in one of the poorest states in Brazil, away from the sea and lacking specific attractive leisure touristic motivations.

A combination of factors, such as geographic localization, opportunity vision and enterprise, made a new tourism center emerge, regarding health issues, which also represents the development os various activities that generate jobs, income, profit and development.

The main aim of this article was to describe this phenomenon, showing that good results may be obtained in unexpected places and conditions, as for ar a vision and a wish exist which can find possibilities for entrepreneurship in these situations.

It is intended that the example examined in this article can be an example and incentive for other governments and entrepreneurs in the sense that they can develop innovative projects of real utility in places that, in principle, present little or no conditions for these realizations.

Table 2 ,

 2 what is clearly a consequence of the existence of a health pole established in the Piauí State capital city.

Table 2 -

 2 Table comparing Piaui and other nearby capital.

Source: [16],[17].


Jean Carlos Cavaleiro

Elisângela De Moraes

Reinaldo De

Araújo Lopes

Pedro De Oliveira

Costa Neto

Reinaldo De Araújo

Elisângela Mônaco De Moraes

Pedro Luiz De Oliveira

Innovative Solution for Distance Education in a Developing Region

Keywords: Knowledge, Distance Education, Technological Restriction, Mobility

des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

Introduction

This paper describes one of the advances that the State of Piauí has had in recent years using the practicalities of Distance Education, with emphasis on an innovative solution developed to solve arising problems due to limitation, resulting from the unfeasibility of the use of broadband internet throughout the state and inaccessibility to computing equipment at homes. The State field of research has been for decades among those with the lowest HDI -Human Development Index in the country, with worse per-capita income and low investment in technology and infrastructure. This situation has been changing since 2007 as the State's GDP has grown above the national average, reaching in 2010, 22 billion Reais, and in 2012 reached 24 billion, according to IBGE [START_REF]Estado do Piauí[END_REF]; amount that represents 0.5% of National GDP. Located in the northeast of Brazil, Piauí has Teresina as its capital city, with an estimated population of 836 thousand people in 2013. It is the third largest state in the region and the tenth of Brazil, with a land area of 251 577 km2, corresponding to 2.9% of the national territory. Borders with five others Brazilian states: Maranhão, Ceará, Pernambuco, Bahia and Tocantins, as [START_REF] Piauí | Avaliação das Contas Regionais do Piauí[END_REF].

One of the features that put the state among the poorest in the country was the low qualification of labor, which, by the volume of students in rural areas, made it difficult the access to education. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics -IBGE [START_REF] Piauí | Avaliação das Contas Regionais do Piauí[END_REF], states that the State of Piauí has a population of approximately 3 million people, with 1 million inhabiting the rural area and 2 million in the urban area. In 2010, exactly 829 143 inhabitants were at school age, four to seventeen years old. Enrolled in high school, there were a total of 162 027 inhabitants, of whom 140 481 were students of public schools.

The low offer of regular high school courses occurs mainly by the lack of qualified professionals on most deprived regions and difficult of access in our country, one of them is the Rural Zone and the interior of Piauí. The geographical features and means of transportation available to residents of low density population communities form barriers for students to access the already existing high school.

The development then is conditional on growth of educational quality and the characteristics of the state were not conducive to that. Hence the difficulties require measures that make feasible the amenity to the student, independent of the type of access available to their city or community, thus respecting the express provision in the Federal Constitution, section II of Article 208, which guarantees as duty of the State "progressive universalization of free High School"and in Article 211, paragraphs 3 "the States and the Federal District shall act primarily in elementary and high school" and 4 "in the organization of their education systems, states and municipalities shall establish ways of collaboration in order to ensure the universalization of compulsory education".

To meet this challenge, the Government of Piaui, through the State Department of Education, conducts the implementation of High School Classes with Mediation of Technology, a project presented in APMS -2013 [START_REF] Buccelli | Educationmediated bytechnology: strategy to universalize secondary education in Piaui state, Brasil[END_REF], with the strong purpose of ensuring decent social conditions for these young people, offering them an education that enables the continuity of theirs studies, the construction and reconstruction of knowledge to the exercise of citizenship. The project has now, in 2014, the implementation of a new feature; the integration of virtual mobile learning environment, combined with a solution for distributing files on a large scale. This project aims to reduce social exclusion, minimize the digital exclusion reducing school dropouts thus expanding the quality of labor available in the region.

Methodology

This work has the characteristics of a case study held in Piauí State, aiming to present an innovative solution in distance education due to the existence of a technological constraint. For this, the necessary references were searched and the descriptive method was used for the presentation of the results.

DE -Distance Education

The story relates the existence of distance education for many decades, in some secular situations, having as main definition, the education model where the student and teacher are not in the same environment or physical space at the same time, being mediated by technological resources with the assistance of teams prepared for interaction. The concepts are numerous, but follow the same direction, as you can see below the definitions of some authors.

Yarmohammadian et al. [START_REF] Yarmohammadian | Evaluation of distance education programs based on the NADE-TDEC 2009-2010[END_REF], in an article published in Science Direct, says that, distance education is a method in which the student is not physically present in educational environments and classrooms. A traditional concept, in keeping with the origins of distance education, where it sought to offer large scale knowledge independent of the distance between students and educational institution. Over time the definition below complete the one mention above.

For Shin et al. [START_REF] Shin | Smartphones as smart pedagogical tools: Implications for smartphones as u-learning devices[END_REF] , distance education is a teaching model in which students can build knowledge anywhere and anytime, and for this it is enough to have learning objects , be mediated for integration to happen and consequently participate in an environment on which one can have an area of interaction.

This definition can now be considered a reflection of the evolution of information and communication technologies, where the construction and exchange of digital content, i.e. text, video or animations, becoming increasingly cheap and efficient.

Reinforcing this definition, Aretio [START_REF] Aretio | Educación a Distancia Hoy[END_REF] says that ICT -Information and Communication Technology has supported the main purpose of the distance education, which is decrease physical distance between teacher and student, and still provide competition on a Global level in the area of distance education. Hence the concerns in expanding investments in the area, for not suffer from already established models in the world.

Moore and Kearsley [START_REF] Moore | Educação a Distância: uma visão integrada[END_REF] states that, distance education is based on the planned learning that normally occurs in a different location from educational environments, which to the author requires special techniques of creation, organization and management, as well as communication through various technologiesDistance Education has expanded its importance to meet a suppressed demand for qualification of skilled labor, at various levels, free, professional, technical and upper level courses. Distance Education meets needs of countries with similar characteristics that of Bra-zil, where in some regions there is a lack of physical structures to meet the demands of education, lack of qualified teachers to work and where there are difficulties in locomotion, primarily in agricultural regions, and across the North and Northeast of the country. Consequently Distance Education has a role in social inclusion, bringing wide offer of quality education and flexibility demanded by the characteristics of the country.

4

Project description and evaluation

The antecedent

As described above, the Distance Education is a teaching model that by the distance between student and teacher requires mediation by various technological resources, and aligned with the characteristics of each region and or groups involved. The Internet has been the basis of the proliferation of distance education in the world, but in Brazil the quality of broadband internet does not meet the needs of the online content transfer. Either by the capability or the costs involved, underserved regions such as the State of Piauí would not be able to make use of this modality in case internet use was essential to its development.

In the already mentioned [START_REF] Buccelli | Educationmediated bytechnology: strategy to universalize secondary education in Piaui state, Brasil[END_REF], the authors presented the Project of Implementation of High School Classes with Technology Mediation in the State of Piaui, which constitutes the administrative-pedagogical alternative to attend graduating Elementary School students, from rural communities where there are no high school courses or the demand exceeds the number of places offered. The alternative was summed up in offering a High School course with differentiated and innovative methodology, with implementation of multimedia communication services (data, voice and image) and autonomy to cater the 224 municipalities in the eleven areas of development of the state; configuring a suppressed demand, thus aiming at social inclusion, taking quality education where there was none.

The model operates through a modern telecommunications platform, to offer the placement of modular curriculum series through video conferencing solution, including simultaneous access to Broadband Internet and allocation of multidisciplinary team to support pedagogical coordination in the implementation and operationalization of the project. The technologyconsist of Interactive Digital TV over IP via satellite VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) platform.

The model presented demonstrated the project scope and reinforced its goal, which was to offer regular quality education to the general population, consequently facing the challenge of limited budgets for infrastructure, overcomes the shortage of schools and teachers. The figure 1 describes visually the model: In this model presented, ministrant teachers interact remotely with teaching assistants and students, interconnected via satellite by multipoint Interactive Digital TV over IP, with an appropriate and necessary interactivity as illustrated in Figure 2.

Fig.2.Interaction between teacher and students

The continuity of the learning takes place through the development of activities at home, where students would access the lessons, solve the activities and would send through the platform to be corrected. This activity required that the students had some equipment in their homes, such as a computer with minimal configuration, broadband internet and domain on the use of these technologies.

These necessities became barriers for the presented model to become even more promising than already was. From this difficulty emerged the second stage of the project, object of this article, which consists in a distribution solution of files in large scale combined with virtual mobile learning environment, more specifically with the use of tablets, associated to the structure available to the courses.

Tablet project

The tablet project is a complement to the teaching model mediated by technology, proposed by the Government of the State of Piaui, consisting of a virtual mobile learning environment that will allow the student to access all courses content available on the tablets, even if it does not have internet connection. The student may attend classes, ask questions, contact teachers and do all exercises in offline mode. All data will be saved on the device. When going to the study center or outposts school for the mediated attended classes, students will have access to the wireless network (Wi-Fi), and on that moment, it can, not just download all data stored on the device, which will be sent to teachers, but still download new teaching materials for the next classes.

The project provides to the students of an educational institution in hand pedagogical content of all disciplines studied, gathered into a single mobile device, with a way to supplement regular classes or even a methodology for distance education courses that seeks to bring ways to expand the learning.

In providing education on a large scale, with thousands of students and hundreds of study centers, one of the difficulties is the distribution of educational content, where on Distance Education models, besides traditional texts, involves multimedia such as video files and learning interactive objects. To remedy this difficulty, in the face of lack of broadband internet in much of the state of Piauí, the project presented meets the need to associate the virtual learning environment to a service for the distribution of files on a large scale.

4.3

The operation of the model Technically, the large-scale distribution for mobile is summarized as a multicast data transfer service (distribution to multiple points simultaneously) via satellite including management and scheduling system via web interface. The model allows videos and files to be transmitted via satellite multicast from a central point and can be stored on local concentrator units (a computer in every room at a study center). Therefore, the downloaded content could be accessed locally, after the transfer, without the consumption of satellite interconnection bandwidth. It should be available centralizing units installed in the computers themselves available on each study center with service already configured. Access to data stored in each location can be done by mobile devices available to students and teachers through local wireless connection (WI -FI) to be offered as part of the complementary structural implementation of the educational process platform.

For the system to work, each polo being structured with the following requirements:

 Support for 802. The access points must be connected directly to the remote location gigabit switch with CAT6 UTP cables. Rooms far more than 100m from the switch, should use repeaters.

The project will be implemented in 2014, with students from Pronatec a Federal Government program, with technical courses in Administration, Agriculture, Nursing, Technology and Logistics, totaling 19,000 places. The budget for infrastructure of the study centers is estimated at € 923,720, comprising equipment and technologies deployed at the study centers so that they have the ability to access and exchange information on large scale.

Expected results

It is hoped that the project will be one of the options to minimize the barriers to enlarge Distance Education in the country, which is the low level of digital inclusion of the population, especially the focus population of this study, in the rural area of the state of Piauí. At the heart of the 21st century many Brazilians still do not have Internet access, especially broadband. Even with current levels stating that the country is expanding the number of Internet users, the North and Northeast regions do not correspond to that statistic. The problem becomes even more severe in areas of difficult access, in the interior of the country, demanding governments to increase efforts to ensure universalization of the education, as seen throughout the article, and Distance Education as means to that end. The main benefit of the project is precisely to meet the educational deficiency, allowing that students without internet access can be integrated into programs of distance education.

The project intends to assist students of technical courses, minimizing the difficulties of this study model by the absence of necessary equipment such as internet, computer and digital knowledge. As a means of social inclusion, investment in education and improvement in learning processes, has led the state of Piauí to superior outcomes comparing to national average, such as; GDP growth, the results of evaluations of the quality of public education in the state, and its own generation of income and wealth in the State, being boosted by investment in qualified labor.

Conclusion

In the present article was presented and discussed a proposal to be implemented in 2014 in the distance education in the state of Piauí, in courses Pronatec of the Federal Government . The project aims to reduce the impacts of the digital exclusion present in some areas, by lack of infrastructure in rural areas and in all North and Northeast of Brazil. The lack of broadband internet is resolved with the large-scale distribution of equipment via mobile digital media, such as the tablet. The model is operated with Wifi access at the supported study centers, where students download the mobile devices with the content of the lessons, such as texts, videos and activities, studying retrospectively in an offline mode, solve the activities and unload it at the study centers, sending them for correction and receive new material. This action brought the possibility of securing access to the study material even without internet access, bringing digital social inclusion by enabling access to quality education and with proven efficacy in the country and in the world.

The expected results are still projections, since the project is in implementation phase, but is expected to improve learning, motivation from the student, reducing school dropout, adding value to the labour force available in the area, attending on a large scale, underserved regions with low cost.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig.1.Ministering teachers

  11n 2.4 GHz;  Interface 1000Base-T RJ-45 connector for LAN connection;  128 MB RAM;  40 simultaneous accesses;  Data Rate at 300 Mbps physical layer;  Support for WPA/WPA2 Enterprise;  Supports MIMO (multiple-input multiple output) 2x3;  3 to 5 dBiomni antennas;  Desirable support 802.11s (mesh) in the firmware.

Figure 3

 3 Figure 3 illustrates the use of the equipment described.

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig.3. Illustration of the use of tablet


Hélcio Raymundo
email: helcioru@uol.com.br

Oduvaldo Vendrametto
email: oduvaldov@uol.com.br

João Gilberto Mendes

Dos Reis

Knowledge Management in Public Transportation: Experiences in Brazilian Bus Companies

Keywords: Bus companies, KM, KMS, Public transportation

The Brazilian public transportation system is composed of small and medium size companies. These companies may not be prepared to thrive in a competitive environment because, generally, these firms are managed like a family business. Thus, Knowledge Management (KM) can be defined as an efficient and simple way to solve day-to-day problems and drive the quality of services. Knowledge Management System (KMS) is a business process developed to encompass a basic investigative process, which consists of a synthetic diagnosis of the general conditions and the establishment of programs aimed at the generation of improvements based on the reduction and or elimination of wastefulness. This paper presents KM methodology (KM and KMS) applied in three case studies in Brazilian bus companies. The results indicate that application of this methodology allows companies to reach a competitive advantage. This paper is a result of consulting services in these companies.

Introduction

Brazil is the largest country in Latin America (8.5 million sq. km), with a population of almost 200 million inhabitants. In 2013, Brazil was the 7th economy in the world [START_REF]The world fact book[END_REF], considering the GNP in purchasing power parity (US 2.5 trillion dollars), behind the US, China, India, Japan, Germany and Russia.

The Brazilian public transportation system encompasses rail services (tram / metro systems and trains) and bus services. In the eight major Brazilian cities, including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, there are tram/metro systems, while trains operate, in general, in metropolitan areas. All the rail services are operated by large public companies that carried 2.60 billion passengers in 2012 [2]. On the other hand, bus services are extremely popular and the preferred method of transport in Brazil. Over 19.23 billion passengers are carried per year by around 3,870 operators with a fleet of 183.1 thousand buses. The bus services can be divided into three main categories, as shown in Table 1. The bus services are operated by small and medium size companies, normally family companies. Family businesses are a predominant type of organization in various industries in Brazil, and contribute significantly in economic and social terms, employing over 60% of the available workforce [START_REF] Almeida | Implantação do processo de sucessão em uma empresa familiar de transportes: Desafios e contradições[END_REF]. There are specific traits that are seen as characteristics of Brazilian family companies, such as the trend toward informality, centralism, the non-acceptance of methodical management, tends to paternalism in labor relations and "the aversion to risk and lack of managerial maturity" [START_REF] Almeida | Implantação do processo de sucessão em uma empresa familiar de transportes: Desafios e contradições[END_REF]. As a consequence, family businesses in general and private operators of bus services in particular, face many difficulties in management, failing to adapt to new market demands. This occurs because the business owners tend to centralize decisions and be disinclined to radical changes, especially those that represent a break with traditional culture and work habits.

In this context, considering the several aspects involved and what really matters to solve the day-to-day problems in bus companies, knowledge management (KM) and knowledge management systems (KMS) were tested as useful tools to understand, interpret, analyze and provide feasible solutions. The literature of this field is vast, which, however, does not avoid the establishing of practical applications that can benefit family businesses from the theoretical foundations.

Thus, a strong conceptual basis was found from a comprehensive historical view, in terms of: "knowledge is a broad and abstract notion that has defined the epistemological debate in western philosophy since the classical Greek era" and "in the past few years, however, there has been a raging interest in treating knowledge as a signifi-cant organizational resource" [START_REF] Alavi | Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues[END_REF].

Following this conceptual basis, the state of art of KM and KMS and an organized guide of tangible applications [START_REF] Gamble | Knowledge Management: A State of the Art Guide[END_REF]. Additionally, useful elements are shown, teaching how to cope with changes in the business in the everchanging environment and how to apply KM and KMS through technological means [START_REF] Botha | Coping With Continuous Change in the Business Environment: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Technology[END_REF].

It was also possible to learn the way to apply KMS in different levels of communication technology, even without them, in an eye-to-eye relationship with the "owners" of the knowledge in a company [START_REF] Maier | Knowledge Management Systems: Information and Communication Technologies for Knowledge Management[END_REF]. In turn, by means of a literature review, consolidates and updates the majority of concepts until now found in the above references and allows a broader understanding of the concept of KM [START_REF] Anand | Understanding knowledge management: a literature review[END_REF].

Finally, the practical application of KM is connected with the theoretical basis and [START_REF] Dalkir | Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice[END_REF] while Hislop analyzing it used in business until recently, produces a critical analysis of the importance and benefits of KM [14], serving as one of the guides for the methodology developed and applied in this paper.

Under these conditions, it can be said that the purpose of this paper is to describe a typical application of the KM methodology, according to the concept that KM and KMS can be represented by the strategies and processes designed to identify, capture, structure, value, leverage, and share an organization's intellectual assets to enhance its performance and competitiveness [14]. This methodology is based on two critical activities: (1) capture and documentation of individual explicit and tacit knowledge; and (2) its dissemination within the organization [START_REF] Anand | Understanding knowledge management: a literature review[END_REF].

With the purpose of testing the methodology proposed, three case studies were conducted in Brazilian bus companies. These enterprises operate in the Brazilian public transportation system and this research is a result of a consulting service provided to them.

Methodology

Three bus companies were studied to show KM methodology application in operations of Public Transportation. These companies were coded A, B and C. The criterion used to select the enterprises was to choose those to which KM methodology was applied, regardless of type, size and location.

Considering that this research was a result of a consulting service, the five stages of the investigative process were made, following KM techniques: (1) Characterization of the Problems, (2) Diagnosis, (3) Suggested Solutions, (4) Proposed Actions and (5) Analysis of Results.

Characterization of the Problems: this step is sought for troubleshooting, related to problems generally demonstrated through the manifestation of its more harmful effects. Thus arises what here can be called "Fact Generator" or "Main Problem".

Diagnosis: is to find evidence by identifying the origins of problems through their symptomatic manifestations. Similar to a process of determining by examining the nature and circumstances of a problematic condition, Diagnosis also could be defined as: (1) a decision reached from such an examination; (2) an analysis of the cause of a problem or situation; or (3) an answer to a problem situation.

Suggested Solutions: are actionable solutions, applications to be discussed. Sometimes, even adequately proven in the Diagnosis, there are difficulties in evaluation and consolidation of the solutions and their relationship with the Suggested Solutions, due to the incorrect interpretation of the way of combatting the problems. In this step, whenever necessary, the consultant must reiterate the tactical and/or strategic character of the Suggested Solutions.

Proposed Actions: the Suggested Solutions are implemented and monitored in their effective implementation and measurement of qualitative and quantitative indicators of interest. The retrospective evaluation of indicators of interest can then perform analysis "before/after".

Analysis of Results: the results are demonstrated by the evolution of the indicators of interest, confirmation of problems resolution and benefits achieved.

Case Studies

The Table 2 shows general information about the companies studied. The selected companies are operating in different cities and regions of Brazil. Company A still has its headquarters in São Paulo, whose metropolitan area is the largest in Brazil. Companies B and C are functioning in small and midsize cities located in the countryside of Minas Gerais.

Case 1

The "Main Problem" of company A was the loss of 10% of the passengers in a few of its lines by the action of illegal transportation. Company A was well organized in a consolidated structure and presented a reasonable level of professionalization. Thus, the Diagnosis phase indicated that in accordance with the results of an opinion poll of passengers and drivers, this pointed to a mismatch between the service provided and the desired service. The Suggested Solution was to change the service in order to provoke direct competition with illegal transportation.

The Government Agency placed itself publicly against the illegal transportation, while maintaining a contradictory policy to "legalize" these services. In doing so, the Government Agency could not approve the Suggested Solution. This would have consisted of, among other actions, the implementation in the lines most effected by the competition of express services with air conditioning minibuses, only for seated passengers at peak hoursatin a higher level of offer than the usual. The minibuses would initially be hired for subsequent operation in "leasing" or permanent acquisition.

A pilot test of a week was performed (Test 1) only with the normal company fleet of common buses, as if they were minibuses, resulting in a recovery of about 5% of passengers. The Government Agency, however, did not approve Test 1. Then another solution was developed (Test 2), consisting of: (1) Maintenance of the official timesheet, rigorously fulfilling the programming; (2) Use of solely brand new vehicles, equipped with "suggestion boxes". (3) Ensuring of a sufficient fleet of vehicles on standby in the garage, in order to fix problems related to congestions, vehicle breakdowns or overcrowding; and (4) Designation of the best drivers and conductors properly uniformed and instructed to treat passengers as preferred customers.

The recovery of demand in the Test 2 was less than the Test 1, reaching a maximum of 2%. The comparison of the tests, however, was revelatory. The Test 1 provoked a small addition of costs, of 1% to 2%. The Test 2, on the other hand, showed an increase of more than 10% of costs.

Under these conditions, an opinion poll was performed and revealed, considering all the suggestions and criticism from passengers, that it was clear that the improvement of quality was welcome, but most of them (more than 50%) wanted in the morning peak hours more speed, agility and comfort. The passengers' opinions also showed that drivers and conductors were attentive and well-intentioned, but seemed not to understand the needs of passengers.

As a result of these tests, the company opened two fronts. An internal one, with extra costs limited to 2%, applying customer service training for drivers and conductors and changing operational procedures to provide increased reliability and regularity to their services. The second front, external, branched out in two actions: (1) addressed to the Government Agency, assisting them in monitoring the services; (2) had an institutional character, and involved the participation of a representative of the Board of Directors at meetings and forums held by the NTU (Brazilian National Association of Urban Transport Companies) and ANTP (National Association of Public Transport) related to discussion and dealing with solutions to illegal transportation.

As a result, the company A, even having not fully recovered the lost demand, has absorbed part of the illegal transportation impacts by reducing costs and is better prepared to face the problem of competition with them. The most important aspect however is that the enterprise had learned a new way of coping with their problems from their own experience and their internal resources.

Case 2

The "Fact Generator" of the company B was related to the management. The Bus company was a small one, with a low degree of professionalization and a fleet of buses aged between 4 and 5 years. They implemented a computerized system of control, at the request of the minor owner. The senior partner, however, could not "feel" any type of economy generated by the new system, in spite of considering it "revolutionary".

The Diagnosis phase revealed that the computerized system, in fact, did not reduce costs, but accelerated additions of new controls of little or no use. Besides, it was possible to verify that profitability was satisfactory, but had decreased in recent years, due to the adjustment of fares lower than the growth of the costs and due to the growth in the wastefulness level in the company. The latter event was related to their (informal) police, represented by the following beliefs:

-"Old buses serve only to "drink" oil and squander tires and parts" (the words of the head of maintenance); and -"Drivers and conductors are a breed that there's no way to control" (the words of the head of operations).

Based on the simple principle that there is no administration without controls and controls must generate actions, firstly it was established what should be controlled. Under this principle, the Suggested Solution was to transform the new computerized system into a supporting decision-making system and to implement a program to reduce the wastefulness.

Low-cost programs were also deployed, such as 5S, a supplier management program and some specific training actions for mechanics. In the operational area, the drivers were updated through training in safe driving.

In a second phase, the partners defined which indicators would be monitored and the goals to be pursued. This process was discussed with the head of maintenance, head of operations and staff representatives of each area of the company. In three months, adverse trends were reversed with a reduction of costs between 10% and 20%. Overcoming this phase, the company B implemented a program of fleet renewal and today is experiencing an increase in profitability levels.

Case 3

The company C operated lines of low profitability. It was also experiencing a lack of resources to pay off short-term commitments and a high level of debt. This was due to the implementation of financial reorganization, which was poorly conducted, and was still in progress. As a result, there were difficulties for the renewal of the fleet (buses with an average age of 7 years).

The Diagnosis phase showed 75% of revenue committed to the operational activities and a vicious circle represented by:

-The aging of the fleet increased the operation and maintenance costs and decreased the cost of depreciation; -The reduction of depreciation cost was never compensated by the increases in costs of operation and maintenance; and -The loss of income reflected in the day-by-day of the bus company, represented by high production losses.

As the situation became critical, the company renewed part of the bus fleet using finance in unfavorable terms, paying high interest rates, which made financial costs grow, increasing the pressure of rising costs and preventing future purchases of new. The Suggested Solution recommended was to "break" this vicious circle through:

-Implementation of a recovery program to reduce the debts supported by a complete austerity in the use of resources of the company;

-Monitoring and control of each line in order to improve performance measured by the indicators of (a) passengers carried per distance travelled by the fleet and (b) passengers per bus per day; -Management actions to improve the schedules of the lines; -Applying training at all levels of the workforce; -Management of suppliers in order to obtain price reductions -Management to reduce indirect costs (insurance, taxes, fees etc.); and -Implementation of a fleet management system. These measures should be implemented and evaluated. Every 10% reduction in expenditure meant the possibility of buying a new bus. If the average age was reduced by 3 or 4 years an immediate reduction of 15% of the costs would be obtained.

The enterprise implemented the measures suggested and today has a commitment of 60% of revenue with the operation and the average age of the fleet has dropped to 4.5 years. It was not planned, but there was an increase of 5% in demand for better quality of services and reduction of production losses. A quality program was initiated recently and has revealed opportunities for additional reduction of costs.

Conclusion and Outlook

The cases showed the applied methodology of KM. Even in the case of partial implementation of the Suggested Solutions, the application of KM always generates some kind of benefit to the companies, putting them in more favorable positions in terms of corporate training, profitability, competitiveness and reduction of wastefulness.

It's possible to come to the conclusion that KM methodology is a tool which helps to utilize some available resources of bus companies in a smart and efficient way to achieve higher business goals in a productive fashion. It was also shown that it's possible, with low cost or nearly no cost, to reach the development of new opportunities, creating value, obtaining competitive advantages and improving performance to attain the objectives of bus companies and their emerging needs, as indicated in references [START_REF] Gamble | Knowledge Management: A State of the Art Guide[END_REF], [START_REF] Botha | Coping With Continuous Change in the Business Environment: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Technology[END_REF], [START_REF] Maier | Knowledge Management Systems: Information and Communication Technologies for Knowledge Management[END_REF], [START_REF] Anand | Understanding knowledge management: a literature review[END_REF], [START_REF] Dalkir | Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice[END_REF], and [START_REF] Hislop | Knowledge Management in Organizations: A Critical Introduction[END_REF].

Under these conditions, it is recommended that further studies should be done and more cases should be developed to confirm the results showed here and allow the consolidation of a KM methodology that can be applied to the majority of bus companies in the world.

Table 1 .

 1 The Brazilian Bus Transportation Systems in Figures of 2011

		Passengers		Fleet of
	Services	Carried	Companies	Buses
		(billion)	(units)	(thousands)
	International and Interstate (a)	0.13	260	18.7
	Intercity (b)	1.40	1,810	57.0
	City and Metropolitan (c)	17.70	1,800	107.4
	Total	19.23	3,870	183.1
	Source: Adapt [3], [4] [5], and [6]

Table 2 .

 2 General Characterization of Selected Bus Companies

	Bus	Size	Number	Main	Market	City or Region
	Company		of Garage	Service	Share(%) (1,000 inhabitants)
	(A)	300	1	Urban	10	> 20,000
	(B)	30	1	Urban	100	75
	(C)	25	1	Urban	10	250