`Four-Closure`: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook & Google are Driving Business Model Innovation.

This paper explores the rapid growth of four internet-based corporations and critiques the extent to which the Internet has developed from being simply a powerful tool and enabler of industry innovation to achieving status as a fully-fledged technology-based business ecosystem. The need to develop new management theories, tools and techniques to compete with the “Gang of Four” (Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook) are also discussed in some depth as well as providing a critique of traditional models/strategic approaches and more recent theories. This is considered to be an important area of research because as a new class of Internet company emerges incumbent firms in traditional industries will need to know how to prepare for the new challenges facing them. Key Words: Business ecosystem; platforms; catalyst; infomediaries; white space; blue ocean strategy

IREEL: remote experimentation with real protocols and applications over emulated network

This paper presents a novel e-learning platform called IREEL. IREEL is a virtual laboratory allowing students to drive experiments with real Internet applications and end-to-end protocols in the context of networking courses. This platform consists in a remote network emulator offering a set of predefined applications and protocol mechanisms. Experimenters configure and control the emulation and the end-systems behavior in order to perform tests, measurements and observations on protocols or applications operating under controlled specific networking conditions. A set of end-to-end mechanisms, mainly focusing on transport and application level protocols, are currently available. IREEL is scalable and easy to use thanks to an ergonomic web interface

When Should I Use Network Emulation?

The design and development of a complex system requires an adequate methodology and efficient instrumental support in order to early detect and correct anomalies in the functional and non-functional properties of the tested protocols. Among the various tools used to provide experimental support for such developments, network emulation relies on real-time production of impairments on real traffic according to a communication model, either realistically or not. This paper aims at simply presenting to newcomers in network emulation (students, engineers, ...) basic principles and practices illustrated with a few commonly used tools. The motivation behind is to fill a gap in terms of introductory and pragmatic papers in this domain. The study particularly considers centralized approaches, allowing cheap and easy implementation in the context of research labs or industrial developments. In addition, an architectural model for emulation systems is proposed, defining three complementary levels, namely hardware, impairment and model levels. With the help of this architectural framework, various existing tools are situated and described. Various approaches for modeling the emulation actions are studied, such as impairment-based scenarios and virtual architectures, real-time discrete simulation and trace-based systems. Those modeling approaches are described and compared in terms of services and we study their ability to respond to various designer needs to assess when emulation is needed

The Role of International Rules in Blockchain-Based Cross-Border Commercial Disputes

[excerpt] The concept of online dispute resolution (ODR) is not new. 1 But, with the advent of Web 3.0, the distributed web that facilitates pseudonymous and cross-border transactions via blockchain\u27s distributed ledger technology, 2 the idea of, and pressing need for, appropriate dispute resolution models for blockchain-based disputes to support this novel system of distributed consensus and trust of which blockchain proponents boast, is a primary concern in rapid development. 3 The common goal of each project is to utilize smart contracts to facilitate superior, quicker[,] and less expensive proceedings by eliminating so many of the tedious and protracted trappings of traditional arbitral proceedings, such as the sending and receiving of documents via courier. , Despite myriad approaches, all emerging blockchain-based dispute resolution services (BDR solutions) generally seek to bridge the divide between automated performance mechanisms, like smart contracts, and the human judgment traditionally required to settle legal disputes.5 How our existing legal frameworks must develop to ensure that smart contracts 6 facilitate, rather than frustrate, the parties\u27 intent is a critically important question to ask as the blockchain stack\u27s infrastructure and application layers are being built and, ultimately, scaled. Indeed, interest is high in the race to create alternative dispute resolution mechanisms to resolve disputes arising from blockchain-based commercial transactions that, due to the transnational, borderless, pseudonymous, and distributed nature of blockchain, clearly necessitate international solutions.

Blockchain: A disruptive technology

The blockchain is built upon a peer-to-peer network, and anyone willing to join the network can do it without asking permission from anyone. Blockchain technology allows the secure transfer of information, assets and money without a third-party intermediary, such as banks or other financial institutions. A blockchain can be used also as a backbone infrastructure for running smart contracts, particular decentralized applications which can be seen as computer programs executed by participants in a blockchain. Blockchain technologies will be used for financial products and have opportunities in all those fields, which requires transparency, immutability, certainty and certification. Blockchain technology is able to fundamentally transform the boundaries of organizations, thus challenging traditional assumptions about organizations being an ideal entity to manage market transactions. Drawing on market data, industry cases, anecdotes and academic frameworks, the authors analyze the drivers of digital trust in the crypto industry from historic, institutional, market and sociological perspectives

Bootstrapping Real-world Deployment of Future Internet Architectures

The past decade has seen many proposals for future Internet architectures. Most of these proposals require substantial changes to the current networking infrastructure and end-user devices, resulting in a failure to move from theory to real-world deployment. This paper describes one possible strategy for bootstrapping the initial deployment of future Internet architectures by focusing on providing high availability as an incentive for early adopters. Through large-scale simulation and real-world implementation, we show that with only a small number of adopting ISPs, customers can obtain high availability guarantees. We discuss design, implementation, and evaluation of an availability device that allows customers to bridge into the future Internet architecture without modifications to their existing infrastructure

MOOCs in Malaysia: a preliminary case study

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) in Malaysia are a very recent development. At the time of writing of this case study, there are only six higher education institutions that have embarked on a MOOCs initiative. The first Malaysian higher education institution announced its pilot MOOC offering in March 2013. In 2014, five more higher education institutions – four of them public universities and one, i.e. Open University Malaysia (OUM), a private open and distance learning (ODL) institution – began offering MOOCs on two different platforms. At the moment, these initiatives represent a preliminary phase in MOOCs, where Malaysia’s approach can be described as exploratory, focusing less on reaching the widest possible audience, making a significant mark globally or competing with established providers like Coursera, edX and Udacity, but more on learning to use web-based technology to complement current educational delivery systems at the higher education level and introducing MOOCs to the general Malaysian audience. (Introduction from authors

The 4s web-marketing mix model

This paper reviews the criticism on the 4Ps Marketing Mix framework, the most popular tool of traditional marketing management, and categorizes the main objections of using the model as the foundation of physical marketing. It argues that applying the traditional approach, based on the 4Ps paradigm, is also a poor choice in the case of virtual marketing and identifies two main limitations of the framework in online environments: the drastically diminished role of the Ps and the lack of any strategic elements in the model. Next to identifying the critical factors of the Web marketing, the paper argues that the basis for successful E-Commerce is the full integration of the virtual activities into the company’s physical strategy, marketing plan and organisational processes. The four S elements of the Web-Marketing Mix framework present a sound and functional conceptual basis for designing, developing and commercialising Business-to-Consumer online projects. The model was originally developed for educational purposes and has been tested and refined by means of field projects; two of them are presented as case studies in the paper.\ud \u