An Evaluated Certification Services System for the German National Root CA - Legally Binding and Trustworthy Transactions in E-Business and E-Government

National Root CAs enable legally binding E-Business and E-Government transactions. This is a report about the development, the evaluation and the certification of the new certification services system for the German National Root CA. We illustrate why a new certification services system was necessary, and which requirements to the new system existed. Then we derive the tasks to be done from the mentioned requirements. After that we introduce the initial situation at the beginning of the project. We report about the very process and talk about some unfamiliar situations, special approaches and remarkable experiences. Finally we present the ready IT system and its impact to E-Business and E-Government.Comment: 6 pages; 1 figure; IEEE style; final versio

A Business Ontology for supporting cross border cooperation between European Chambers of Commerce

The recent EU enlargement opens up new opportunities, but poses new issues to be addressed. In particular, in order to enable and support cooperation between firms from different countries, it is necessary to address interoperability issues. The LD-CAST project aims at enabling cross border cooperation between European chambers of commerce (CCs) for supporting the development of private company initiatives. The project objective is to build a European network of portals that will enable end users (mainly private companies) to access in a seamless mode services provided by public organizations registered in each portal. This paper briefly presents a cooperation framework for semantic interoperability mainly based on the following semantic technologies: ontology management, semantic annotation, and semantic search and discovery. Finally the business ontology produced in the course of the project is presented.The recent EU enlargement opens up new opportunities, but poses new issues to be addressed. In particular, in order to enable and support cooperation between firms from different countries, it is necessary to address interoperability issues. The LD-CAST project aims at enabling cross border cooperation between European chambers of commerce (CCs) for supporting the development of private company initiatives. The project objective is to build a European network of portals that will enable end users (mainly private companies) to access in a seamless mode services provided by public organizations registered in each portal. This paper briefly presents a cooperation framework for semantic interoperability mainly based on the following semantic technologies: ontology management, semantic annotation, and semantic search and discovery. Finally the business ontology produced in the course of the project is presented.Uninvited Submission

UXP Portal 2.0 Functional Requirements Specification

Cybernetica on välja töötanud toote Unified eXchange Platform (UXP), pakkumaks turvalist ja töökindlat organisatsioonidevahelist andmevahetuskihti. UXP Portal on universaalne klientrakendus üle UXP platvormi pakutavate teenuste tarbimiseks. UXP Portal’i esimese versiooni põhjal tehtud järeldused viisid vajaduseni arendada välja versioon 2.0.Käesolev bakalaureusetöö kirjeldab UXP Portal 2.0 arendusprotsessi käigusvalminud äriprotsesside modelleerimise ja funktsionaalsete nõuete spetsifitseerimise tööprotsessi ja tulemusi. Projekti tarkvaraarendusprotsessi aluseks on Rational Unified Process (RUP). Projekti raames valminud skeemid järgivad unifitseeritud modelleerimiskeele (UML) põhimõtteid. Nii talitluse kui ka süsteemi käitumise kirjeldamiseks on kasutatud kasutusmallimudeleid. Valminud kasutusmallimudelid on sisendiks arendusprotsessi järgnevatele tööülesannetele.Nõuete spetsifitseerimise muutis keeruliseks tõsiasi, et UXP Portalit arendatakse ettevõtte oma tootena ehk puudub konkreetne klient, kellega koostöös nõudeid välja selgitada. Sellest hoolimata võib välise interaktsioonidisaineriga toimunud koostöö põhjal hinnata, et funktsionaalsete nõuete spetsifikatsioon oli piisava detailsusastmega koostöö alustamiseks.Cybernetica has developed the Unified eXchange Platform (UXP) — an interoperability platform designed to serve as a secure and reliable data exchange infrastructure.UXP Portal is a component that serves as a universal client applicationfor accessing services over UXP infrastructure. Experience with the initial version of UXP Portal led to the development of version 2.0.This Thesis describes the process and the outputs of business process modelingand functional requirements specification for the development of UXP Portal 2.0.The development process is based on the Rational Unified Process (RUP). Themodels were created using Unified Modeling Language (UML) notation. Use-Case Models were developed for both the business and system level domains. The Use- Case Models will serve as an input for the implementation tasks.The requirements specification process was complicated by the fact that UXPPortal is developed as a product that has no direct customer to elicit requirements from. However, the requirements specification described in this Thesis proved to be sufficient for designing a user interface prototype in cooperation with an external interaction designer

Commercial Use of WS-PGRADE/gUSE

Although originally an academic and research product, the WS-PGRADE/gUSE framework is increasingly applied by commercial institutions too. Within the SCI-BUS project, several commercial gateways have been developed by various companies. WS-PGRADE/gUSE is also intensively used within another European research project, CloudSME (Cloud-based Simulation Platform for Manufacturing and Engineering). This chapter provides an overview and de-scribes in detail some commercial WS-PGRADE/gUSE based gateway implemen-tations. Two representative case studies from the SCI-BUS project, the Build and Test portal and the eDOX Archiver Gateway are introduced. An overview of WS-PGRADE/gUSE based gateways for running simulation applications in the cloud within the CloudSME project is also provided

Cadastral Systems Re-engineering in Urban Zimbabwe

Land is undoubtedly the most important resource in any country as it contributes to economic  development. The cadastre is a component of the land administration system (LAS) that is crucial for  managing land. It is thus of importance for a nation to have both a functional cadastral system for  determining parcel boundaries and a functional cadastral information system, for managing the land  parcels. The cadastral survey system and cadastre in Zimbabwe are largely manual with even the  lodgement of completed surveys for examination and approval still analogue. This has an impact on the  time it takes to complete a land transaction. Land can ideally drive the economy yet part of the value is  lost due to lengthy land transaction procedures. The land administration system is supposed to consist of value adding processes in which several actors interact in a workflow which creates new or transfers parcels. This workflow is associated with transaction costs, part of which can be employed for  maintenance of the cadastral information system. This article presents business processes for the land development process in Zimbabwe but focusing on City of Gweru (CoG) and City of Mutare (CoM)  municipalities as the major organisations under study. Municipalities in Zimbabwe are governed by the Regional Town and Country Planning Act, so such a single process and workflow model can fit into the cadastral information system of all municipalities in Zimbabwe with insignificant changes. The broader scope of this study is towards the design of a conceptual schema for automating the land administration system and particularly, the cadastre component, for municipalities in Zimbabwe. This study presents the workflows for the current land development system with CoG and CoM as the current focal points. Information on current automation efforts or reforms by other major municipalities to include Bulawayo, Kadoma and Kariba is also presented. The overall theme of this paper is to discuss cadastral reform through automation of cadastral processes in municipalities

Supply chain traceability using blockchain

Mestrado em Gestão MBARastreabilidade é a capacidade de rastrear a origem, a história e a distribuição de produtos numa cadeia logística. Para implementar rastreabilidade completa, é crucial estabelecer uma cadeia de custódia, normalmente definida como uma sequência de procedimentos que valida a propriedade e o controle de produtos ao longo da cadeia de logística. No mercado atual globalizado, as cadeias de logística podem abranger um grande número de países e fronteiras e exigir a interoperabilidade de numerosas organizações. Esta vastidão e complexidade impacta a competitividade dos negócios e dificulta a segurança, e a transparência da cadeia de logística. A implementação da rastreabilidade é fundamental para que as organizações possam posteriormente demonstrar a rastreabilidade, proveniência e integridade e conformidade do produto. A tecnologia Blockchain, com os seus atributos de descentralização, transparência e imutabilidade, tem sido apontada como destinada a revolucionar vários setores, com aplicação ao gerenciamento de cadeias de logística. O presente estudo começa pela revisão da literatura publicada para encontrar aspetos que influenciam o problema e segue a Metodologia de Pesquisa de Projeto para analisar os requisitos e propor uma solução para um sistema de gestão de cadeia de logística com melhor rastreabilidade. Os resultados da tese são artefactos de arquitetura, incluindo um contracto inteligente para Ethereum e um sistema de autenticação baseado em certificados, que permitem a implementação de um sistema de cadeia de logística suportado em Ethereum Blockchain que providencia aos seus utilizadores e ao consumidor final, as funcionalidades de proveniência, rastreabilidade e cadeia de custódia.Traceability is the ability to trace the origin, processing history, and the distribution of products in a Supply chain. In order to implement a complete traceability system, it is crucial to establish a chain of custody. Chain of Custody is typically defined as a sequence of procedures that validates the ownership and control of products along the supply chain. In the current global marketplace supply chains can span a huge number of countries and require interoperation of a multitude of organizations. This vastness of supply chains impacts business competitiveness since it adds complexity and can difficult securing traceability, chain of custody and transparency. In this work it is proposed a complete approach for organizations to be able to demonstrate traceability, provenance (proof of origin) and product integrity and compliance. Blockchain technology with its attributes of decentralization, transparency and immutability has been touted to revolutionize several industries, and most recently has been proposed for supply chain management (SCM). The present study reviews the published literature to find the aspects that influence the problem and then follows the Design Science Research Methodology to analyze the requirements and propose a solution to a more complete traceability in SCMs. The results of this thesis were architectural artifacts, including an Ethereum SC (Smart Contract) and a certificate-based authentication system. These deliverables would allow implementation of a supply chain system over the Ethereum Blockchain that can provide decentralized and trustful assurance of the provenance, chain of custody and traceability functionalities for the participants and consumers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio