Applying tropos to socio-technical system design and runtime configuration

Recent trends in Software Engineering have introduced the importance of reconsidering the traditional idea of software design as a socio-tecnical problem, where human agents are integral part of the system along with hardware and software components. Design and runtime support for Socio-Technical Systems (STSs) requires appropriate modeling techniques and non-traditional infrastructures. Agent-oriented software methodologies are natural solutions to the development of STSs, both humans and technical components are conceptualized and analyzed as part of the same system. In this paper, we illustrate a number of Tropos features that we believe fundamental to support the development and runtime reconfiguration of STSs. Particularly, we focus on two critical design issues: risk analysis and location variability. We show how they are integrated and used into a planning-based approach to support the designer in evaluating and choosing the best design alternative. Finally, we present a generic framework to develop self-reconfigurable STSs

Criminal Justice Collapse: The Constitution After Hurricane Katrina

The New Orleans criminal justice system collapsed after Hurricane Katrina, resulting in a constitutional crisis. Eight thousand people, mostly indigent and charged with misdemeanors such as public drunkenness or failure to pay traffic tickets, languished indefinitely in state prisons. The court system shut its doors, the police department fell into disarray, few prosecutors remained, and a handful of public defenders could not meet with, much less represent, the thousands detained. This dire situation persisted for many months, long after the system should have been able to recover. We present a narrative of the collapse of the New Orleans area criminal system after Hurricane Katrina. Not only did this perfect storm illuminate how unprepared our local criminal systems may remain for a severe natural disaster or terrorist attack, but it raised unique and underexplored constitutional questions. We argue that constitutional criminal procedure failed to serve its protective role during this emergency, while deferential rules rooted in federalism had the unanticipated effect of hindering provision of critical federal emergency assistance, and perhaps most important, longstanding local neglect rendered the system vulnerable to collapse. We conclude by imagining systems designed to safeguard the provision of criminal justice during emergencies

Criminal Justice Collapse: The Constitution After Hurricane Katrina

The New Orleans criminal justice system collapsed after Hurricane Katrina, resulting in a constitutional crisis. Eight thousand people, mostly indigent and charged with misdemeanors such as public drunkenness or failure to pay traffic tickets, languished indefinitely in state prisons. The court system shut its doors, the police department fell into disarray, few prosecutors remained, and a handful of public defenders could not meet with, much less represent, the thousands detained. This dire situation persisted for many months, long after the system should have been able to recover. We present a narrative of the collapse of the New Orleans area criminal system after Hurricane Katrina. Not only did this perfect storm illuminate how unprepared our local criminal systems may remain for a severe natural disaster or terrorist attack, but it raised unique and underexplored constitutional questions. We argue that constitutional criminal procedure failed to serve its protective role during this emergency, while deferential rules rooted in federalism had the unanticipated effect of hindering provision of critical federal emergency assistance, and perhaps most important, longstanding local neglect rendered the system vulnerable to collapse. We conclude by imagining systems designed to safeguard the provision of criminal justice during emergencies

The transformation of transport policy in Great Britain? 'New Realism' and New Labour's decade of displacement activity

In a 1999 paper, Goodwin announced ‘the transformation of transport policy in Great Britain’. His central point was that consensus was emerging among policy makers and academics based on earlier work including Transport: The New Realism, which rejected previous orthodoxy that the supply of road space could and should be continually expanded to match demand. Instead a combination of investment in public transport, walking and cycling opportunities and – crucially – demand management should form the basis of transport policy to address rising vehicle use and associated increases in congestion and pollution / carbon emissions. This thinking formed the basis of the 1997 Labour government’s ‘sustainable transport’ policy, but after 13 years in power ministers neither transformed policy nor tackled longstanding transport trends. Our main aim in this paper is to revisit the concept of New Realism and re-examine its potential utility as an agent of change in British transport policy. Notwithstanding the outcome of Labour’s approach to transport policy, we find that the central tenets of the New Realism remain robust and that the main barriers to change are related to broader political and governance issues which suppress radical policy innovation

Reactions of Generation Y to Luxury Hotel Twitter Promotions

Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks (Merriam-Webster, 2013). Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites (Evans, 2008). In today’s society, social media refers mainly to websites including (but not limited to) Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. The most popular and fastest growing of these social media venues is Twitter. Twitter was founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone. Since 2006, almost 200 million users across the globe have joined the site; over 140 million tweets are “tweeted” daily (Picard, 2011). Twitter took advantage of a niche in the market, allowing 140 characters to express an idea or emotion. Twitter has changed the media world as a news source, tweeting real-time information from stories that arise (Picard, 2011). In the lodging industry, methods of social media to promote hotels are becoming more popular. Twitter, in particular, has emerged as a “moment of truth” for a hotel, demonstrating how instantly and tactfully hotels react to the thoughts and opinions of former, current, and potential guests. Studies have also suggested that “online social life mirrors offline relationships in many ways” (Moore, p. 440). Therefore, Twitter accounts should be viewed as an extension of the hospitality business, in particular lodging, echoing the relationship a customer would feel upon arrival to the hotel. Hotel marketing teams have reached “great success by driving demand to hotels through increased online advertising and web optimization” (Chipkin, 2013). This has increased overall customer views of the hotel without affecting the rate strategy of the property or brand. Twitter presence could, potentially, help a patron decide between two hotels, “If a promotion, experience or package is unique, it definitely works to generate bookings and helps put you first in a consumer’s mind when they are choosing between two or three hotels,” says Rachel Harrison of Hyatt Andaz (Chipkin, 2013). Hotel companies worldwide are investing in their social media networks. Certain hotels (i.e. W Barcelona) are even hiring social media and marketing managers whose responsibilities include instant Twitter feedback (Appendix 1). The purpose behind this investment is to maximize these social media accounts, creating feedback from all potential guests, allowing them to react to both positive and negative word of mouth. Social media managers have recently encountered an opportunity; Generation Y is becoming a target demographic. As Generation Y enters the workforce and begins a career, the exposure to hotel brands and types will increase. Luxury hotel stays are becoming more financially reachable to these Generation Y guests because of their career advancements (Fields, 2013). This study will serve to evaluate the added benefits from the adoption of social media channels, particularly Twitter

A multiagent urban traffic simulation. Part II: dealing with the extraordinary

In Probabilistic Risk Management, risk is characterized by two quantities: the magnitude (or severity) of the adverse consequences that can potentially result from the given activity or action, and by the likelihood of occurrence of the given adverse consequences. But a risk seldom exists in isolation: chain of consequences must be examined, as the outcome of one risk can increase the likelihood of other risks. Systemic theory must complement classic PRM. Indeed these chains are composed of many different elements, all of which may have a critical importance at many different levels. Furthermore, when urban catastrophes are envisioned, space and time constraints are key determinants of the workings and dynamics of these chains of catastrophes: models must include a correct spatial topology of the studied risk. Finally, literature insists on the importance small events can have on the risk on a greater scale: urban risks management models belong to self-organized criticality theory. We chose multiagent systems to incorporate this property in our model: the behavior of an agent can transform the dynamics of important groups of them

Prosecuting Dark Net Drug Marketplace Operators Under the Federal Crack House Statute

Over 70,000 Americans died as the result of a drug overdose in 2017, a record year following a record year. Amidst this crisis, the popularity of drug marketplaces on what has been called the “dark net” has exploded. Illicit substances are sold freely on such marketplaces, and the anonymity these marketplaces provide has proved troublesome for law enforcement. Law enforcement has responded by taking down several of these marketplaces and prosecuting their creators, such as Ross Ulbricht of the former Silk Road. Prosecutors have typically leveled conspiracy charges against the operators of these marketplaces—in Ulbricht’s case, alleging a single drug conspiracy comprising Ulbricht and the thousands of vendors on the Silk Road. This Note argues that the conspiracy to distribute narcotics charge is a poor conceptual fit for the behavior of operators of typical dark net drug marketplaces, and that the federal “crack house” statute provides a better charge. Though charging these operators under the crack house statute would be a novel approach, justice is best served when the crime accurately describes the behavior, as the crack house statute does in proscribing what dark net drug marketplace operators like Ulbricht do