weSPOT: A personal and social approach to inquiry-based learning

weSPOT is a new European initiative proposing a novel approach for personal and social inquiry-based learning in secondary and higher education. weSPOT aims at enabling students to create their mash-ups out of cloud based tools and services in order to perform scientific investigations. Students will also be able to share their inquiry accomplishments in social networks and receive feedback from the learning environment and their peers. This paper presents the research framework of the weSPOT project, as well as the initial inquiry-based learning scenarios that will be piloted by the project in real-life educational settings

Review of Web Mapping: Eras, Trends and Directions

Web mapping and the use of geospatial information online have evolved rapidly over the past few decades. Almost everyone in the world uses mapping information, whether or not one realizes it. Almost every mobile phone now has location services and every event and object on the earth has a location. The use of this geospatial location data has expanded rapidly, thanks to the development of the Internet. Huge volumes of geospatial data are available and daily being captured online, and are used in web applications and maps for viewing, analysis, modeling and simulation. This paper reviews the developments of web mapping from the first static online map images to the current highly interactive, multi-sourced web mapping services that have been increasingly moved to cloud computing platforms. The whole environment of web mapping captures the integration and interaction between three components found online, namely, geospatial information, people and functionality. In this paper, the trends and interactions among these components are identified and reviewed in relation to the technology developments. The review then concludes by exploring some of the opportunities and directions

Managing Workflows on top of a Cloud Computing Orchestrator for using heterogeneous environments on e-Science

[EN] Scientific workflows (SWFs) are widely used to model processes in e-Science. SWFs are executed by means of workflow management systems (WMSs), which orchestrate the workload on top of computing infrastructures. The advent of cloud computing infrastructures has opened the door of using on-demand infrastructures to complement or even replace local infrastructures. However, new issues have arisen, such as the integration of hybrid resources or the compromise between infrastructure reutilisation and elasticity. In this article, we present an ad hoc solution for managing workflows exploiting the capabilities of cloud orchestrators to deploy resources on demand according to the workload and to combine heterogeneous cloud providers (such as on-premise clouds and public clouds) and traditional infrastructures (clusters) to minimise costs and response time. The work does not propose yet another WMS but demonstrates the benefits of the integration of cloud orchestration when running complex workflows. The article shows several configuration experiments from a realistic comparative genomics workflow called Orthosearch, to migrate memory-intensive workload to public infrastructures while keeping other blocks of the experiment running locally. The article computes running time and cost suggesting best practices.This paper wants to acknowledge the support of the EUBrazilCC project, funded by the European Commission (STREP 614048) and the Brazilian MCT/CNPq N. 13/2012, for the use of its infrastructure. The authors would like also to thank the Spanish 'Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad' for the project 'Clusters Virtuales Elasticos y Migrables sobre Infraestructuras Cloud Hibridas' with reference TIN2013-44390-R.Carrión Collado, AA.; Caballer Fernández, M.; Blanquer Espert, I.; Kotowski, N.; Jardim, R.; Dávila, AMR. (2017). Managing Workflows on top of a Cloud Computing Orchestrator for using heterogeneous environments on e-Science. International Journal of Web and Grid Services. 13(4):375-402. doi:10.1504/IJWGS.2017.10003225S37540213

Knowledge visualizations: a tool to achieve optimized operational decision making and data integration

The overabundance of data created by modern information systems (IS) has led to a breakdown in cognitive decision-making. Without authoritative source data, commanders’ decision-making processes are hindered as they attempt to paint an accurate shared operational picture (SOP). Further impeding the decision-making process is the lack of proper interface interaction to provide a visualization that aids in the extraction of the most relevant and accurate data. Utilizing the DSS to present visualizations based on OLAP cube integrated data allow decision-makers to rapidly glean information and build their situation awareness (SA). This yields a competitive advantage to the organization while in garrison or in combat. Additionally, OLAP cube data integration enables analysis to be performed on an organization’s data-flows. This analysis is used to identify the critical path of data throughout the organization. Linking a decision-maker to the authoritative data along this critical path eliminates the many decision layers in a hierarchal command structure that can introduce latency or error into the decision-making process. Furthermore, the organization has an integrated SOP from which to rapidly build SA, and make effective and efficient decisions.http://archive.org/details/knowledgevisuali1094545877Outstanding ThesisOutstanding ThesisMajor, United States Marine CorpsCaptain, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Revealing the Vicious Circle of Disengaged User Acceptance: A SaaS Provider's Perspective

User acceptance tests (UAT) are an integral part of many different software engineering methodologies. In this paper, we examine the influence of UATs on the relationship between users and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, which are continuously delivered rather than rolled out during a one-off signoff process. Based on an exploratory qualitative field study at a multinational SaaS provider in Denmark, we show that UATs often address the wrong problem in that positive user acceptance may actually indicate a negative user experience. Hence, SaaS providers should be careful not to rest on what we term disengaged user acceptance. Instead, we outline an approach that purposefully queries users for ambivalent emotions that evoke constructive criticism, in order to facilitate a discourse that favors the continuous innovation of a SaaS system. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our approach for the study of user engagement in testing SaaS applications

On Big Data guided Unconventional Digital Ecosystems and their Knowledge Management

Establishing the reservoir connections is paramount in exploration and exploitation of unconventional petroleum systems and their reservoirs. In Big Data scale, multiple petroleum systems hold volumes and varieties of data sources. The connectivity between petroleum reservoirs and their existence in a single petroleum ecosystem is often ambiguously interpreted. They are heterogeneous and unstructured in multiple domains. They need better data integration methods to interpret the interplay between elements and processes of petroleum systems. Largescale infrastructure is needed to build data relationships between different petroleum systems. The purpose of the research is to establish the connectivity between petroleum systems through resource data management and visual analytics. We articulate a Design Science Information System (DSIS) approach, bringing various artefacts together from multiple domains of petroleum provinces. The DSIS emerges as a knowledge-based digital ecosystem innovation, justifying its need, connecting geographically controlled petroleum systems and building knowledge of oil and gas prospects

The Internet-of-Things Meets Business Process Management: Mutual Benefits and Challenges

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of connected devices collecting and exchanging data over the Internet. These things can be artificial or natural, and interact as autonomous agents forming a complex system. In turn, Business Process Management (BPM) was established to analyze, discover, design, implement, execute, monitor and evolve collaborative business processes within and across organizations. While the IoT and BPM have been regarded as separate topics in research and practice, we strongly believe that the management of IoT applications will strongly benefit from BPM concepts, methods and technologies on the one hand; on the other one, the IoT poses challenges that will require enhancements and extensions of the current state-of-the-art in the BPM field. In this paper, we question to what extent these two paradigms can be combined and we discuss the emerging challenges