52 research outputs found

    Next Generation Business Ecosystems: Engineering Decentralized Markets, Self-Sovereign Identities and Tokenization

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    Digital transformation research increasingly shifts from studying information systems within organizations towards adopting an ecosystem perspective, where multiple actors co-create value. While digital platforms have become a ubiquitous phenomenon in consumer-facing industries, organizations remain cautious about fully embracing the ecosystem concept and sharing data with external partners. Concerns about the market power of platform orchestrators and ongoing discussions on privacy, individual empowerment, and digital sovereignty further complicate the widespread adoption of business ecosystems, particularly in the European Union. In this context, technological innovations in Web3, including blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies, have emerged as potential catalysts for disrupting centralized gatekeepers and enabling a strategic shift towards user-centric, privacy-oriented next-generation business ecosystems. However, existing research efforts focus on decentralizing interactions through distributed network topologies and open protocols lack theoretical convergence, resulting in a fragmented and complex landscape that inadequately addresses the challenges organizations face when transitioning to an ecosystem strategy that harnesses the potential of disintermediation. To address these gaps and successfully engineer next-generation business ecosystems, a comprehensive approach is needed that encompasses the technical design, economic models, and socio-technical dynamics. This dissertation aims to contribute to this endeavor by exploring the implications of Web3 technologies on digital innovation and transformation paths. Drawing on a combination of qualitative and quantitative research, it makes three overarching contributions: First, a conceptual perspective on \u27tokenization\u27 in markets clarifies its ambiguity and provides a unified understanding of the role in ecosystems. This perspective includes frameworks on: (a) technological; (b) economic; and (c) governance aspects of tokenization. Second, a design perspective on \u27decentralized marketplaces\u27 highlights the need for an integrated understanding of micro-structures, business structures, and IT infrastructures in blockchain-enabled marketplaces. This perspective includes: (a) an explorative literature review on design factors; (b) case studies and insights from practitioners to develop requirements and design principles; and (c) a design science project with an interface design prototype of blockchain-enabled marketplaces. Third, an economic perspective on \u27self-sovereign identities\u27 (SSI) as micro-structural elements of decentralized markets. This perspective includes: (a) value creation mechanisms and business aspects of strategic alliances governing SSI ecosystems; (b) business model characteristics adopted by organizations leveraging SSI; and (c) business model archetypes and a framework for SSI ecosystem engineering efforts. The dissertation concludes by discussing limitations as well as outlining potential avenues for future research. These include, amongst others, exploring the challenges of ecosystem bootstrapping in the absence of intermediaries, examining the make-or-join decision in ecosystem emergence, addressing the multidimensional complexity of Web3-enabled ecosystems, investigating incentive mechanisms for inter-organizational collaboration, understanding the role of trust in decentralized environments, and exploring varying degrees of decentralization with potential transition pathways

    Security considerations in the open source software ecosystem

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    Open source software plays an important role in the software supply chain, allowing stakeholders to utilize open source components as building blocks in their software, tooling, and infrastructure. But relying on the open source ecosystem introduces unique challenges, both in terms of security and trust, as well as in terms of supply chain reliability. In this dissertation, I investigate approaches, considerations, and encountered challenges of stakeholders in the context of security, privacy, and trustworthiness of the open source software supply chain. Overall, my research aims to empower and support software experts with the knowledge and resources necessary to achieve a more secure and trustworthy open source software ecosystem. In the first part of this dissertation, I describe a research study investigating the security and trust practices in open source projects by interviewing 27 owners, maintainers, and contributors from a diverse set of projects to explore their behind-the-scenes processes, guidance and policies, incident handling, and encountered challenges, finding that participants’ projects are highly diverse in terms of their deployed security measures and trust processes, as well as their underlying motivations. More on the consumer side of the open source software supply chain, I investigated the use of open source components in industry projects by interviewing 25 software developers, architects, and engineers to understand their projects’ processes, decisions, and considerations in the context of external open source code, finding that open source components play an important role in many of the industry projects, and that most projects have some form of company policy or best practice for including external code. On the side of end-user focused software, I present a study investigating the use of software obfuscation in Android applications, which is a recommended practice to protect against plagiarism and repackaging. The study leveraged a multi-pronged approach including a large-scale measurement, a developer survey, and a programming experiment, finding that only 24.92% of apps are obfuscated by their developer, that developers do not fear theft of their own apps, and have difficulties obfuscating their own apps. Lastly, to involve end users themselves, I describe a survey with 200 users of cloud office suites to investigate their security and privacy perceptions and expectations, with findings suggesting that users are generally aware of basic security implications, but lack technical knowledge for envisioning some threat models. The key findings of this dissertation include that open source projects have highly diverse security measures, trust processes, and underlying motivations. That the projects’ security and trust needs are likely best met in ways that consider their individual strengths, limitations, and project stage, especially for smaller projects with limited access to resources. That open source components play an important role in industry projects, and that those projects often have some form of company policy or best practice for including external code, but developers wish for more resources to better audit included components. This dissertation emphasizes the importance of collaboration and shared responsibility in building and maintaining the open source software ecosystem, with developers, maintainers, end users, researchers, and other stakeholders alike ensuring that the ecosystem remains a secure, trustworthy, and healthy resource for everyone to rely on

    Methodological approaches and techniques for designing ontologies in information systems requirements engineering

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    Programa doutoral em Information Systems and TechnologyThe way we interact with the world around us is changing as new challenges arise, embracing innovative business models, rethinking the organization and processes to maximize results, and evolving change management. Currently, and considering the projects executed, the methodologies used do not fully respond to the companies' needs. On the one hand, organizations are not familiar with the languages used in Information Systems, and on the other hand, they are often unable to validate requirements or business models. These are some of the difficulties encountered that lead us to think about formulating a new approach. Thus, the state of the art presented in this paper includes a study of the models involved in the software development process, where traditional methods and the rivalry of agile methods are present. In addition, a survey is made about Ontologies and what methods exist to conceive, transform, and represent them. Thus, after analyzing some of the various possibilities currently available, we began the process of evolving a method and developing an approach that would allow us to design ontologies. The method we evolved and adapted will allow us to derive terminologies from a specific domain, aggregating them in order to facilitate the construction of a catalog of terminologies. Next, the definition of an approach to designing ontologies will allow the construction of a domain-specific ontology. This approach allows in the first instance to integrate and store the data from different information systems of a given organization. In a second instance, the rules for mapping and building the ontology database are defined. Finally, a technological architecture is also proposed that will allow the mapping of an ontology through the construction of complex networks, allowing mapping and relating terminologies. This doctoral work encompasses numerous Research & Development (R&D) projects belonging to different domains such as Software Industry, Textile Industry, Robotic Industry and Smart Cities. Finally, a critical and descriptive analysis of the work done is performed, and we also point out perspectives for possible future work.A forma como interagimos com o mundo à nossa volta está a mudar à medida que novos desafios surgem, abraçando modelos empresariais inovadores, repensando a organização e os processos para maximizar os resultados, e evoluindo a gestão da mudança. Atualmente, e considerando os projetos executados, as metodologias utilizadas não respondem na totalidade às necessidades das empresas. Por um lado, as organizações não estão familiarizadas com as linguagens utilizadas nos Sistemas de Informação, por outro lado, são muitas vezes incapazes de validar requisitos ou modelos de negócio. Estas são algumas das dificuldades encontradas que nos levam a pensar na formulação de uma nova abordagem. Assim, o estado da arte apresentado neste documento inclui um estudo dos modelos envolvidos no processo de desenvolvimento de software, onde os métodos tradicionais e a rivalidade de métodos ágeis estão presentes. Além disso, é efetuado um levantamento sobre Ontologias e quais os métodos existentes para as conceber, transformar e representar. Assim, e após analisarmos algumas das várias possibilidades atualmente disponíveis, iniciou-se o processo de evolução de um método e desenvolvimento de uma abordagem que nos permitisse conceber ontologias. O método que evoluímos e adaptamos permitirá derivar terminologias de um domínio específico, agregando-as de forma a facilitar a construção de um catálogo de terminologias. Em seguida, a definição de uma abordagem para conceber ontologias permitirá a construção de uma ontologia de um domínio específico. Esta abordagem permite em primeira instância, integrar e armazenar os dados de diferentes sistemas de informação de uma determinada organização. Num segundo momento, são definidas as regras para o mapeamento e construção da base de dados ontológica. Finalmente, é também proposta uma arquitetura tecnológica que permitirá efetuar o mapeamento de uma ontologia através da construção de redes complexas, permitindo mapear e relacionar terminologias. Este trabalho de doutoramento engloba inúmeros projetos de Investigação & Desenvolvimento (I&D) pertencentes a diferentes domínios como por exemplo Indústria de Software, Indústria Têxtil, Indústria Robótica e Smart Cities. Finalmente, é realizada uma análise critica e descritiva do trabalho realizado, sendo que apontamos ainda perspetivas de possíveis trabalhos futuros

    24th Nordic Conference on Computational Linguistics (NoDaLiDa)

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    Journalistic Knowledge Platforms: from Idea to Realisation

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    Journalistiske kunnskapsplattformer (JKPer) er en type intelligente informasjonssystemer designet for å forbedre nyhetsproduksjonsprosesser ved å kombinere stordata, kunstig intelligens (KI) og kunnskapsbaser for å støtte journalister. Til tross for sitt potensial for å revolusjonere journalistikkfeltet, har adopsjonen av JKPer vært treg, med forskere og store nyhetsutløp involvert i forskning og utvikling av JKPer. Den langsomme adopsjonen kan tilskrives den tekniske kompleksiteten til JKPer, som har ført til at nyhetsorganisasjoner stoler på flere uavhengige og oppgavespesifikke produksjonssystemer. Denne situasjonen kan øke ressurs- og koordineringsbehovet og kostnadene, samtidig som den utgjør en trussel om å miste kontrollen over data og havne i leverandørlåssituasjoner. De tekniske kompleksitetene forblir en stor hindring, ettersom det ikke finnes en allerede godt utformet systemarkitektur som ville lette realiseringen og integreringen av JKPer på en sammenhengende måte over tid. Denne doktoravhandlingen bidrar til teorien og praksisen rundt kunnskapsgrafbaserte JKPer ved å studere og designe en programvarearkitektur som referanse for å lette iverksettelsen av konkrete løsninger og adopsjonen av JKPer. Den første bidraget til denne doktoravhandlingen gir en grundig og forståelig analyse av ideen bak JKPer, fra deres opprinnelse til deres nåværende tilstand. Denne analysen gir den første studien noensinne av faktorene som har bidratt til den langsomme adopsjonen, inkludert kompleksiteten i deres sosiale og tekniske aspekter, og identifiserer de største utfordringene og fremtidige retninger for JKPer. Den andre bidraget presenterer programvarearkitekturen som referanse, som gir en generisk blåkopi for design og utvikling av konkrete JKPer. Den foreslåtte referansearkitekturen definerer også to nye typer komponenter ment for å opprettholde og videreutvikle KI-modeller og kunnskapsrepresentasjoner. Den tredje presenterer et eksempel på iverksettelse av programvarearkitekturen som referanse og beskriver en prosess for å forbedre effektiviteten til informasjonsekstraksjonspipelines. Denne rammen muliggjør en fleksibel, parallell og samtidig integrering av teknikker for naturlig språkbehandling og KI-verktøy. I tillegg diskuterer denne avhandlingen konsekvensene av de nyeste KI-fremgangene for JKPer og ulike etiske aspekter ved bruk av JKPer. Totalt sett gir denne PhD-avhandlingen en omfattende og grundig analyse av JKPer, fra teorien til designet av deres tekniske aspekter. Denne forskningen tar sikte på å lette vedtaket av JKPer og fremme forskning på dette feltet.Journalistic Knowledge Platforms (JKPs) are a type of intelligent information systems designed to augment news creation processes by combining big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and knowledge bases to support journalists. Despite their potential to revolutionise the field of journalism, the adoption of JKPs has been slow, with scholars and large news outlets involved in the research and development of JKPs. The slow adoption can be attributed to the technical complexity of JKPs that led news organisation to rely on multiple independent and task-specific production system. This situation can increase the resource and coordination footprint and costs, at the same time it poses a threat to lose control over data and face vendor lock-in scenarios. The technical complexities remain a major obstacle as there is no existing well-designed system architecture that would facilitate the realisation and integration of JKPs in a coherent manner over time. This PhD Thesis contributes to the theory and practice on knowledge-graph based JKPs by studying and designing a software reference architecture to facilitate the instantiation of concrete solutions and the adoption of JKPs. The first contribution of this PhD Thesis provides a thorough and comprehensible analysis of the idea of JKPs, from their origins to their current state. This analysis provides the first-ever study of the factors that have contributed to the slow adoption, including the complexity of their social and technical aspects, and identifies the major challenges and future directions of JKPs. The second contribution presents the software reference architecture that provides a generic blueprint for designing and developing concrete JKPs. The proposed reference architecture also defines two novel types of components intended to maintain and evolve AI models and knowledge representations. The third presents an instantiation example of the software reference architecture and details a process for improving the efficiency of information extraction pipelines. This framework facilitates a flexible, parallel and concurrent integration of natural language processing techniques and AI tools. Additionally, this Thesis discusses the implications of the recent AI advances on JKPs and diverse ethical aspects of using JKPs. Overall, this PhD Thesis provides a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of JKPs, from the theory to the design of their technical aspects. This research aims to facilitate the adoption of JKPs and advance research in this field.Doktorgradsavhandlin

    Selbstbestimmung, Privatheit und Datenschutz

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    In diesem Open-Access-Sammelband werden die aktuelle Herausforderungen für Privatheit und Datenschutz aufgezeigt, die durch die zunehmende Digitalisierung entstehen. Die Beitragsautoren analysieren, wie diese durch Governancemechanismen adressiert werden können. Als Alternative zu einem rein profitorientierten Digitalkapitalismus bzw. Digitalautoritarismus wird für einen eigenständigen europäischen Weg beim Datenschutz argumentiert, der auf eine gemeinwohlorientierte Technikentwicklung abzielt. Insbesondere befassen sich die Beiträge mit den Möglichkeiten für die Stärkung der Selbstbestimmung in der Datenökonomie und mit algorithmischen Entscheidungssystemen

    Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming

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    This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2022, which was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in June 2022. XP is the premier agile software development conference combining research and practice. It is a unique forum where agile researchers, practitioners, thought leaders, coaches, and trainers get together to present and discuss their most recent innovations, research results, experiences, concerns, challenges, and trends.  XP conferences provide an informal environment to learn and trigger discussions and welcome both people new to agile and seasoned agile practitioners. This year’s conference was held with the theme “Agile in the Era of Hybrid Work”. The 13 full papers and 1 short paper presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 40 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: agile practices; agile processes; and agile in the large

    An Approach to Guide Users Towards Less Revealing Internet Browsers

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    When browsing the Internet, HTTP headers enable both clients and servers send extra data in their requests or responses such as the User-Agent string. This string contains information related to the sender’s device, browser, and operating system. Previous research has shown that there are numerous privacy and security risks result from exposing sensitive information in the User-Agent string. For example, it enables device and browser fingerprinting and user tracking and identification. Our large analysis of thousands of User-Agent strings shows that browsers differ tremendously in the amount of information they include in their User-Agent strings. As such, our work aims at guiding users towards using less exposing browsers. In doing so, we propose to assign an exposure score to browsers based on the information they expose and vulnerability records. Thus, our contribution in this work is as follows: first, provide a full implementation that is ready to be deployed and used by users. Second, conduct a user study to identify the effectiveness and limitations of our proposed approach. Our implementation is based on using more than 52 thousand unique browsers. Our performance and validation analysis show that our solution is accurate and efficient. The source code and data set are publicly available and the solution has been deployed

    Emerging Technologies

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    This monograph investigates a multitude of emerging technologies including 3D printing, 5G, blockchain, and many more to assess their potential for use to further humanity’s shared goal of sustainable development. Through case studies detailing how these technologies are already being used at companies worldwide, author Sinan Küfeoğlu explores how emerging technologies can be used to enhance progress toward each of the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and to guarantee economic growth even in the face of challenges such as climate change. To assemble this book, the author explored the business models of 650 companies in order to demonstrate how innovations can be converted into value to support sustainable development. To ensure practical application, only technologies currently on the market and in use actual companies were investigated. This volume will be of great use to academics, policymakers, innovators at the forefront of green business, and anyone else who is interested in novel and innovative business models and how they could help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. This is an open access book

    Diseño y desarrollo de una arquitectura de Internet de las Cosas de nueva generación orientada al cálculo y predicción de índices compuestos aplicada en entornos reales

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    [ES] El Internet de las Cosas (IoT) ha experimentado un gran crecimiento en los últimos años. El incremento en el número de dispositivos, una mayor miniaturización de la capacidad de computación y las técnicas de virtualización, han favorecido su adopción en la industria y en otros sectores. Asimismo, la introducción de nuevas tecnologías (como la Inteligencia Artificial, el 5G, el Tactile Internet o la Realidad Aumentada) y el auge del edge computing preparan el terreno, y formulan los requisitos, para lo que se conoce como Internet de las Cosas de Nueva Generación (NGIoT). Estos avances plantean nuevos desafíos tales como el establecimiento de arquitecturas que cubran dichas necesidades y a la vez resulten flexibles, escalables y prácticas para implementar servicios que aporten valor a la sociedad. En este sentido, el IoT puede resultar un elemento clave para el establecimiento de políticas y la toma de decisiones. Una herramienta muy útil para ello es la definición y cálculo de indicadores compuestos, que representan un impacto en un fenómeno real a través de un único valor. La generación de estos indicadores es un aspecto promovido por entidades oficiales como la Unión Europea, aunque su automatización y uso en entornos de tiempo real es un campo poco explorado. Este tipo de índices deben seguir una serie de operaciones matemáticas y formalidades (normalización, ponderación, agregación¿) para ser considerados válidos. Esta tesis doctoral plantea la unión de ambos campos en alza, proponiendo una arquitectura de Internet de las Cosas de nueva generación orientada al servicio de cálculo y predicción de indicadores compuestos. Partiendo de la experiencia del candidato en proyectos de investigación europeos y regionales, y construyendo sobre tecnologías open source, se ha incluido el diseño, desarrollo e integración de los módulos de dicha arquitectura (adquisición de datos, procesamiento, visualización y seguridad) como parte de la tesis. Dichos planteamientos e implementaciones se han validado en cinco escenarios diferentes, cubriendo cinco índices compuestos en entornos con requisitos dispares siguiendo una metodología diseñada durante este trabajo. Los casos de uso están centrados en aspectos de sostenibilidad en entornos urbano y marítimo-portuario, pero se ha destacado que la solución puede ser extrapolada a otros sectores ya que ha sido diseñada de una manera agnóstica. El resultado de la tesis ha sido, además, analizado desde el punto de vista de transferencia tecnológica. Se ha propuesto la formulación de un producto, así como una posible financiación en fases de madurez más avanzadas y su potencial explotación como elemento comercializable[CA] La Internet de les Coses (IoT) ha experimentat un gran creixement en els últims anys. L'increment en el nombre de dispositius, una major miniaturització de la capacitat de computació i les tècniques de virtualització, han afavorit la seua adopció en la indústria i en altres sectors. Així mateix, la introducció de noves tecnologies (com la Intel·ligència Artificial, el 5G, la Internet Tàctil o la Realitat Augmentada) i l'auge del edge computing preparen el terreny, i formulen els requisits, per al que es coneix com a Internet de les Coses de Nova Generació (NGIoT). Aquests avanços plantegen nous desafiaments com ara l'establiment d'arquitectures que cobrisquen aquestes necessitats i resulten, alhora, flexibles, escalables i pràctiques per a implementar serveis que aporten valor a la societat. Ací, el IoT pot resultar un element clau per a l'establiment de polítiques i la presa de decisions. Una eina molt útil en aquest sentit és la definició i càlcul d'indicadors compostos, que representen un impacte en un fenomen real a través d'un únic valor. La generació d'aquests indicadors és un aspecte promogut per entitats oficials com la Unió Europea, encara que la seua automatització i ús en entorns de temps real és un camp poc explorat. Aquest tipus d'índexs han de seguir una sèrie d'operacions matemàtiques i formalitats (normalització, ponderació, agregació¿) per a ser considerats vàlids. Aquesta tesi doctoral planteja la unió de tots dos camps en alça, proposant una arquitectura d'Internet de les Coses de nova generació orientada al servei de càlcul i predicció d'indicadors compostos. Partint de l'experiència del candidat en projectes d'investigació europeus i regionals, i construint sobre tecnologies open source, s'ha inclòs el disseny, desenvolupament i integració dels mòduls d'aquesta arquitectura (adquisició de dades, processament, visualització i seguretat) com a part de la tesi. Aquests plantejaments i implementacions s'han validat en cinc escenaris diferents, cobrint cinc índexs compostos en entorns amb requisits dispars seguint una metodologia dissenyada durant aquest treball. Els casos d'ús estan centrats en aspectes de sostenibilitat en entorns urbà i marítim-portuari, però s'ha destacat que la solució pot ser extrapolada a altres sectors ja que ha sigut dissenyada d'una manera agnòstica. El resultat de la tesi ha sigut, a més, analitzat des del punt de vista de transferència tecnològica. S'ha proposat la formulació d'un producte, així com un possible finançament en fases de maduresa més avançades i la seua potencial explotació com a element comercialitzable[EN] The Internet of Things (IoT) has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. The increase in the number of devices, greater miniaturization of computing capacity and virtualization techniques have favored its adoption in industry and other sectors. Likewise, the introduction of new technologies (such as Artificial Intelligence, 5G, Tactile Internet or Augmented Reality), together with the rise of edge computing, are paving the way, and formulating the requirements, for what is known as the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT). These advances pose new challenges such as the establishment of proper architectures that meet those needs and, at the same time, are flexible, scalable, and practical for implementing services that bring value to society. In this sense, IoT could be a key element for policy and decision making. A very useful tool for this is the definition and calculation of composite indicators, which represent an impact on a real phenomenon through a single value. The generation of these indicators is an aspect promoted by official entities such as the European Union, although their automation and use in real-time environments is a rather uncharted research field. This type of indexes must follow a series of mathematical operations and formalities (normalization, weighting, aggregation...) to be considered valid. This doctoral thesis proposes the union of both fields, proposing a new generation Internet of Things architecture oriented to the calculation and prediction of composite indicators. Based on the candidate's experience in European and regional research projects, and building on open source technologies, the design, development and integration of the modules of such architecture (data acquisition, processing, visualization and security) has been included as part of the thesis. These approaches and implementations have been validated in five different scenarios, covering five composite indexes in environments with disparate requirements following a methodology designed during this work. The use cases are focused on sustainability aspects in urban and maritime-port environments, but it has been highlighted that the solution can be extrapolated to other sectors as it has been designed in an agnostic way. The result of the thesis has also been analyzed from the point of view of technology transfer. A tentative product definition has been formulated, as well as a possible financing in more advanced stages of maturity and its potential exploitation as a marketable elementLacalle Úbeda, I. (2022). Diseño y desarrollo de una arquitectura de Internet de las Cosas de Nueva Generación orientada al cálculo y predicción de índices compuestos aplicada en entornos reales [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/19063
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