Ontology-based composition and matching for dynamic cloud service coordination

Recent cross-organisational software service offerings, such as cloud computing, create higher integration needs. In particular, services are combined through brokers and mediators, solutions to allow individual services to collaborate and their interaction to be coordinated are required. The need to address dynamic management - caused by cloud and on-demand environments - can be addressed through service coordination based on ontology-based composition and matching techniques. Our solution to composition and matching utilises a service coordination space that acts as a passive infrastructure for collaboration where users submit requests that are then selected and taken on by providers. We discuss the information models and the coordination principles of such a collaboration environment in terms of an ontology and its underlying description logics. We provide ontology-based solutions for structural composition of descriptions and matching between requested and provided services

Optimising resource costs of cloud computing for education

International audienceThere is a growing interest around the utilisation of cloud computing in education. As organisations involved in the area typically face severe budget restrictions, there is a need for cost optimisation mechanisms that explore unique features of digital learning environments. In this work, we introduce a method based on Maximum Likelihood Estimation that considers heterogeneity of IT infrastructure in order to devise resource allocation plans that maximise platform utilisation for educational environments. We performed experiments using modelled datasets from real digital teaching solutions and obtained cost reductions of up to 30%, compared with conservative resource allocation strategies

An approach for supporting distributed user interface orchestration over the Web

International audienceCurrently, a lot of the tasks engaged by users over the Web involve dealing with multiple Web sites. Moreover, whilst Web navigation was considered as a lonely activity in the past, a large proportion of users are nowadays engaged in collaborative activities over the Web. In this paper we argue that these two aspects of collaboration and tasks spanning over multiple Web sites call for a level of coordination that require Distributed User Interfaces (DUI). In this context, DUIs would play a major role by helping multiple users to coordinate their activities whilst working collaboratively to complete tasks at different Web sites. For that, we propose in this paper an approach to create distributed user interfaces featuring procedures that are aimed to orchestrate user tasks over multiple Web sites. Our approach supports flexible process modeling by allowing users to combine manual tasks and automated tasks from a repertoire of patterns of tasks performed over the Web. In our approach, whilst manual tasks can be regarded as simple instructions that tell users how to perform a task over a Web site, automated tasks correspond to tools built under the concept of Web augmentation (as it augments the repertoire of tasks users can perform over the Web) called Web augmenters. Both manual and automated tasks are usually supported by specific DOM elements available in different Web sites. Thus, by combining tasks and DOM elements distributed in diverse Web sites our approach supports the creation of procedures that allows seamless users interaction with diverse Web site. Moreover, such an approach is aimed at supporting the collaboration between users sharing procedures. The approach is duly illustrated by a case study describing a collaborative trip planning over the Web

Ten Years of Rich Internet Applications: A Systematic Mapping Study, and Beyond

BACKGROUND: The term Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) is generally associated with Web appli- cations that provide the features and functionality of traditional desktop applications. Ten years after the introduction of the term, an ample amount of research has been carried out to study various aspects of RIAs. It has thus become essential to summarize this research and provide an adequate overview. OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study is to assemble, classify and analyze all RIA research performed in the scienti c community, thus providing a consolidated overview thereof, and to identify well-established topics, trends and open research issues. Additionally, we provide a qualitative discussion of the most inter- esting ndings. This work therefore serves as a reference work for beginning and established RIA researchers alike, as well as for industrial actors that need an introduction in the eld, or seek pointers to (a speci c subset of) the state-of-the-art. METHOD: A systematic mapping study is performed in order to identify all RIA-related publications, de ne a classi cation scheme, and categorize, analyze, and discuss the identi ed research according to it. RESULTS: Our source identi cation phase resulted in 133 relevant, peer-reviewed publications, published between 2002 and 2011 in a wide variety of venues. They were subsequently classi ed according to four facets: development activity, research topic, contribution type and research type. Pie, stacked bar and bubble charts were used to visualize and analyze the results. A deeper analysis is provided for the most interesting and/or remarkable results. CONCLUSION: Analysis of the results shows that, although the RIA term was coined in 2002, the rst RIA-related research appeared in 2004. From 2007 there was a signi cant increase in research activity, peaking in 2009 and decreasing to pre-2009 levels afterwards. All development phases are covered in the identi ed research, with emphasis on \design" (33%) and \implementation" (29%). The majority of research proposes a \method" (44%), followed by \model" (22%), \methodology" (18%) and \tools" (16%); no publications in the category \metrics" were found. The preponderant research topic is \models, methods and methodologies" (23%) and to a lesser extent, \usability & accessibility" and \user interface" (11% each). On the other hand, the topic \localization, internationalization & multi-linguality" received no attention at all, and topics such as \deep web" (under 1%), \business processing", \usage analysis", \data management", \quality & metrics", (all under 2%), \semantics" and \performance" (slightly above 2%) received very few attention. Finally, there is a large majority of \solution proposals" (66%), few \evaluation research" (14%) and even fewer \validation" (6%), although the latter are increasing in recent years

Return Visits: A Review of how Web Site Design Can Engender Visitor Loyalty

Both the use of Web sites and the empirical knowledge as to what constitutes effective Web site design has grown exponentially in recent years. The aim of the current article is to outline the history and key elements of Web site design in an e-commerce context - primarily in the period 2002-2012. It was in 2002 that a Special Issue of ISR was focused on ‘Measuring e-Commerce in Net-Enabled Organizations.’ Before this, work was conducted on Web site design, but much of it was anecdotal. Systematic, empirical research and modeling of Web site design to dependent variables like trust, satisfaction, and loyalty until then had not receive substantial focus - at least in the information systems domain. In addition to an overview of empirical findings, this article has a practical focus on what designers must know about Web site elements if they are to provide compelling user experiences, taking into account the site\u27s likely users. To this end, the article elaborates components of effective Web site design, user characteristics, and the online context that impact Web usage and acceptance, and design issues as they are relevant to diverse users including those in global markets. Web site elements that result in positive business impact are articulated. This retrospective on Web site design concludes with an overview of future research directions and current developments

Semantic technologies: from niche to the mainstream of Web 3? A comprehensive framework for web Information modelling and semantic annotation

Context: Web information technologies developed and applied in the last decade have considerably changed the way web applications operate and have revolutionised information management and knowledge discovery. Social technologies, user-generated classification schemes and formal semantics have a far-reaching sphere of influence. They promote collective intelligence, support interoperability, enhance sustainability and instigate innovation. Contribution: The research carried out and consequent publications follow the various paradigms of semantic technologies, assess each approach, evaluate its efficiency, identify the challenges involved and propose a comprehensive framework for web information modelling and semantic annotation, which is the thesis’ original contribution to knowledge. The proposed framework assists web information modelling, facilitates semantic annotation and information retrieval, enables system interoperability and enhances information quality. Implications: Semantic technologies coupled with social media and end-user involvement can instigate innovative influence with wide organisational implications that can benefit a considerable range of industries. The scalable and sustainable business models of social computing and the collective intelligence of organisational social media can be resourcefully paired with internal research and knowledge from interoperable information repositories, back-end databases and legacy systems. Semantified information assets can free human resources so that they can be used to better serve business development, support innovation and increase productivity

Enabling Technologies for Web 3.0: A Comprehensive Survey

Web 3.0 represents the next stage of Internet evolution, aiming to empower users with increased autonomy, efficiency, quality, security, and privacy. This evolution can potentially democratize content access by utilizing the latest developments in enabling technologies. In this paper, we conduct an in-depth survey of enabling technologies in the context of Web 3.0, such as blockchain, semantic web, 3D interactive web, Metaverse, Virtual reality/Augmented reality, Internet of Things technology, and their roles in shaping Web 3.0. We commence by providing a comprehensive background of Web 3.0, including its concept, basic architecture, potential applications, and industry adoption. Subsequently, we examine recent breakthroughs in IoT, 5G, and blockchain technologies that are pivotal to Web 3.0 development. Following that, other enabling technologies, including AI, semantic web, and 3D interactive web, are discussed. Utilizing these technologies can effectively address the critical challenges in realizing Web 3.0, such as ensuring decentralized identity, platform interoperability, data transparency, reducing latency, and enhancing the system's scalability. Finally, we highlight significant challenges associated with Web 3.0 implementation, emphasizing potential solutions and providing insights into future research directions in this field

Liquid stream processing on the web: a JavaScript framework

The Web is rapidly becoming a mature platform to host distributed applications. Pervasive computing application running on the Web are now common in the era of the Web of Things, which has made it increasingly simple to integrate sensors and microcontrollers in our everyday life. Such devices are of great in- terest to Makers with basic Web development skills. With them, Makers are able to build small smart stream processing applications with sensors and actuators without spending a fortune and without knowing much about the technologies they use. Thanks to ongoing Web technology trends enabling real-time peer-to- peer communication between Web-enabled devices, Web browsers and server- side JavaScript runtimes, developers are able to implement pervasive Web ap- plications using a single programming language. These can take advantage of direct and continuous communication channels going beyond what was possible in the early stages of the Web to push data in real-time. Despite these recent advances, building stream processing applications on the Web of Things remains a challenging task. On the one hand, Web-enabled devices of different nature still have to communicate with different protocols. On the other hand, dealing with a dynamic, heterogeneous, and volatile environment like the Web requires developers to face issues like disconnections, unpredictable workload fluctuations, and device overload. To help developers deal with such issues, in this dissertation we present the Web Liquid Streams (WLS) framework, a novel streaming framework for JavaScript. Developers implement streaming operators written in JavaScript and may interactively and dynamically define a streaming topology. The framework takes care of deploying the user-defined operators on the available devices and connecting them using the appropriate data channel, removing the burden of dealing with different deployment environments from the developers. Changes in the semantic of the application and in its execution environment may be ap- plied at runtime without stopping the stream flow. Like a liquid adapts its shape to the one of its container, the Web Liquid Streams framework makes streaming topologies flow across multiple heterogeneous devices, enabling dynamic operator migration without disrupting the data flow. By constantly monitoring the execution of the topology with a hierarchical controller infrastructure, WLS takes care of parallelising the operator execution across multiple devices in case of bottlenecks and of recovering the execution of the streaming topology in case one or more devices disconnect, by restarting lost operators on other available devices