Towards an open cloud marketplace: vision and first steps

As one of the most promising, emerging concepts in Information Technology (IT), cloud computing is transforming how IT is consumed and managed; yielding improved cost efficiencies, and delivering flexible, on-demand scalability by reducing computing infrastructures, platforms, and services to commodities acquired and paid-for on-demand through a set of cloud providers. Today, the transition of cloud computing from a subject of research and innovation to a critical infrastructure is proceeding at an incredibly fast pace. A potentially dangerous consequence of this speedy transition to practice is the premature adoption, and ossification, of the models, technologies, and standards underlying this critical infrastructure. This state of affairs is exacerbated by the fact that innovative research on production-scale platforms is becoming the purview of a small number of public cloud providers. Specifically, the academic research communities are effectively excluded from the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the evolution not to mention innovation and healthy mutation of cloud computing technologies. As the dependence on our society and economy on cloud computing increases, so does the realization that the academic research community cannot be shut out from contributing to the design and evolution of this critical infrastructure. In this article we provide an alternative vision that of an Open Cloud eXchange (OCX) a public cloud marketplace, where many stakeholders, rather than just a single cloud provider, participate in implementing and operating the cloud, thus creating an ecosystem that will bring the innovation of a broader community to bear on a much healthier and more efficient cloud marketplace

A Middleware for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) connects everyday objects including a vast array of sensors, actuators, and smart devices, referred to as things to the Internet, in an intelligent and pervasive fashion. This connectivity gives rise to the possibility of using the tracking capabilities of things to impinge on the location privacy of users. Most of the existing management and location privacy protection solutions do not consider the low-cost and low-power requirements of things, or, they do not account for the heterogeneity, scalability, or autonomy of communications supported in the IoT. Moreover, these traditional solutions do not consider the case where a user wishes to control the granularity of the disclosed information based on the context of their use (e.g. based on the time or the current location of the user). To fill this gap, a middleware, referred to as the Internet of Things Management Platform (IoT-MP) is proposed in this paper.Comment: 20 pages, International Journal of Computer Networks & Communications (IJCNC) Vol.8, No.2, March 201

Exploring the influence of e-Service Quality toward Customer Engagement Behavior via PLS-SEM: Findings from a hotel’s customer perspective

Covid-19 has a significant impact on the hotel's operations. The reopening process has begun, especially on the hotel website. Therefore, the hotel industry must understand the need to influence customers' choices through advanced I.T. This study is intended to explore the effect of t e-service quality on customer engagement behaviors via the SEM method with the PLS estimation technique with 247 respondents. The findings indicate that system availability is the most significant influence influencing customer engagement behaviors, followed by system efficiency, system privacy/security, and system fulfillment. This finding will help the hotel's manager boost customer engagement. Keywords: e-service quality, customer engagement, hotel industry, website. eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA CE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., U.K. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians), and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7i21.374

FACTORS INFLUENCING INTENTION TO USE E-GOVERNMENT SERVICES AMONG STUDENTS IN UNIVERSITAS SEBELAS MARET, INDONESIA

This study aims to examine the factors that influence the intention of students to use e-government. The study used a survey method with 102 students as respondents from various study departments at Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia, in 2021. The analysis was carried out using the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with the test R-square, path coefficients, outer loading, cross-loading, average variance extracted (AVE), Cronbach's alpha, and composite reliability. The results showed that students' desire to use or access e-government was positively and significantly influenced by students' trust in the government. Students trust to government is influenced by factors perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and security risk. The limitation of this research is that there is no analysis of the mediation test and moderation test

CHORUS Deliverable 2.2: Second report - identification of multi-disciplinary key issues for gap analysis toward EU multimedia search engines roadmap

After addressing the state-of-the-art during the first year of Chorus and establishing the existing landscape in multimedia search engines, we have identified and analyzed gaps within European research effort during our second year. In this period we focused on three directions, notably technological issues, user-centred issues and use-cases and socio- economic and legal aspects. These were assessed by two central studies: firstly, a concerted vision of functional breakdown of generic multimedia search engine, and secondly, a representative use-cases descriptions with the related discussion on requirement for technological challenges. Both studies have been carried out in cooperation and consultation with the community at large through EC concertation meetings (multimedia search engines cluster), several meetings with our Think-Tank, presentations in international conferences, and surveys addressed to EU projects coordinators as well as National initiatives coordinators. Based on the obtained feedback we identified two types of gaps, namely core technological gaps that involve research challenges, and “enablers”, which are not necessarily technical research challenges, but have impact on innovation progress. New socio-economic trends are presented as well as emerging legal challenges

A Model of Factors Influencing the Implementation of Artificial Intelligent in Crisis Management: A Case Study of National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority (NCEMA)

This paper outlines the development of a structural equation model focusing on factors influencing the implementation of AI in crisis management within the UAE National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority. Literature has identified 28 factors which are categorized into seven domains that influencing the implementation of AI in crisis management for the model. The model was constructed and evaluated using SmartPLS software. The model was evaluated at its measurement and structural components. The results revealed that at the measurement component, the model met all evaluation criteria. While, at the structural component, the relationship between 'CoV' and 'CrM' was statistically significant (T-statistic = 2.633, P-value = 0.009), indicating a robust connection. However, the links between 'ReF' and 'CrM' and 'LSM' and 'CrM' were not statistically significant (P-values = 0.999 and 0.949, respectively), suggesting limited impact on 'CrM.' Relationships between 'RoB,' 'IoT,' 'DeL,' and 'NLP' with 'CrM' showed moderate evidence but lacked statistical significance, possibly due to data limitations. Furthermore, the model demonstrated a strong fit, with an R-squared (R²) value of 0.761, explaining approximately 76.1% of the variance in "CrM" with the seven independent variables. Lastly, for predictive relevance, the "CrM" as a dependent construct displayed a Q² value of 0.608, indicating that around 60.8% of the variation in "CrM" is explained by the model beyond random chance, confirming its strong predictive value

Artificial Intelligence and Its Ethical Implications for Marketing

Goncalves, A. R., Pinto, D. C., Rita, P., & Pires, T. (2023). Artificial Intelligence and Its Ethical Implications for Marketing. Emerging Science Journal, 7(2), 313-327. https://doi.org/10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-02-01 --- Funding: This paper received support from the Management of Information Research Center (MagIC), project UIDB/04152/2020, and from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT Portugal), project DSAIPA/DS/0113/2019.Despite the recent developments in AI, ethical questions arise when consumers contemplate how their data is being treated. This paper develops a conceptual model building on the theory of acceptance, risk, trust, and attitudes towards AI to understand the drivers that lead consumers to accept AI, considering consumers' ethical concerns. The model was empirically tested with 200 consumers of AI marketing services. The findings reveal that perceived risk significantly impacts attitudes toward AI, ethical concerns, and perceived trust and suggest a significant association between perceived risk, ethical concerns, and social norms. This research provides important theoretical and managerial implications for the ethical aspects of AI in marketing by highlighting the ethical and moral questions surrounding AI's acceptance.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Artificial Intelligence and Its Ethical Implications for Marketing

Despite the recent developments in AI, ethical questions arise when consumers contemplate how their data is being treated. This paper develops a conceptual model building on the theory of acceptance, risk, trust, and attitudes towards AI to understand the drivers that lead consumers to accept AI, considering consumers' ethical concerns. The model was empirically tested with 200 consumers of AI marketing services. The findings reveal that perceived risk significantly impacts attitudes toward AI, ethical concerns, and perceived trust and suggest a significant association between perceived risk, ethical concerns, and social norms. This research provides important theoretical and managerial implications for the ethical aspects of AI in marketing by highlighting the ethical and moral questions surrounding AI's acceptance. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-02-01 Full Text: PD

The Evolving Dynamics of Digital Banking: An Indian Perspective

Purpose: The present research aims to explore the rapidly changing perception of the customers towards digital banking services provided by Indian banks. The constructs observed under the scope of this study were the awareness and behavioural aspects, perceived risk, usefulness, accessibility, trust and cost and time saving factor. The study attempts to evaluate how the satisfaction of customers with regards to digital banking services is affected by each of these constructs.Design/ Methodology/ Approach: In order to prepare a methodical approach to the research, detailed opinion about the satisfaction of the digital banking customers was collected through a self-prepared and self-administered structured questionnaire. The relationship between the constructs was attempted to be studied through a descriptive research design. Snowball sampling was adopted while collecting data through google form. G*power suggested the sample size to be 89. Structural equation model was assessed using Smart PLS software.Findings: The result of the study clearly indicates that the perception and acceptability of the customers for E-banking services in India varies with different age groups and occupation groups. The results also reveal that the perceived risk has a direct & significant impact on the satisfaction of customers while availing E banking services as compared to the other factors like perceived accessibility, trust, usefulness, ease of use and cost & time saving which have negligible or no impact on the satisfaction level of customers. Originality Value: It was observed that there has been a lot of research work on the importance of technology adoption and the factors that influence technology adoption in the Indian setting. However, there appears to be a research deficit in terms of understanding how customers feel about technology adoption, what they want from Indian banks and what factors are actually bothering them for absolute adoption of E-banking services. This research paper tries to fill that void in the literature

OpenDSU: Digital Sovereignty in PharmaLedger

Distributed ledger networks, chiefly those based on blockchain technologies, currently are heralding a next generation of computer systems that aims to suit modern users' demands. Over the recent years, several technologies for blockchains, off-chaining strategies, as well as decentralised and respectively self-sovereign identity systems have shot up so fast that standardisation of the protocols is lagging behind, severely hampering the interoperability of different approaches. Moreover, most of the currently available solutions for distributed ledgers focus on either home users or enterprise use case scenarios, failing to provide integrative solutions addressing the needs of both. Herein we introduce the OpenDSU platform that allows to interoperate generic blockchain technologies, organised - and possibly cascaded in a hierarchical fashion - in domains. To achieve this flexibility, we seamlessly integrated a set of well conceived OpenDSU components to orchestrate off-chain data with granularly resolved and cryptographically secure access levels that are nested with sovereign identities across the different domains. Employing our platform to PharmaLedger, an inter-European network for the standardisation of data handling in the pharmaceutical industry and in healthcare, we demonstrate that OpenDSU can cope with generic demands of heterogeneous use cases in both, performance and handling substantially different business policies. Importantly, whereas available solutions commonly require a pre-defined and fixed set of components, no such vendor lock-in restrictions on the blockchain technology or identity system exist in OpenDSU, making systems built on it flexibly adaptable to new standards evolving in the future.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure