Exploring data sharing obligations in the technology sector

This report addresses the question: What is the role of data in the technology sector and what are the opportunities and risks of mandatory data sharing? The answer provides insights into costs and benefits of variants of data sharing obligations with and between technology companies

Towards Process Support for Migrating Applications to Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is an active area of research for industry and academia. There are a large number of organizations providing cloud computing infrastructure and services. In order to utilize these infrastructure resources and services, existing applications need to be migrated to clouds. However, a successful migration effort needs well-defined process support. It does not only help to identify and address challenges associated with migration but also provides a strategy to evaluate different platforms in relation to application and domain specific requirements. This paper present a process framework for supporting migration to cloud computing based on our experiences from migrating an Open Source System (OSS), Hackystat, to two different cloud computing platforms. We explained the process by performing a comparative analysis of our efforts to migrate Hackystate to Amazon Web Services and Google App Engine. We also report the potential challenges, suitable solutions, and lesson learned to support the presented process framework. We expect that the reported experiences can serve guidelines for those who intend to migrate software applications to cloud computing.Muhammad Aufeef Chauhan, Muhammad Ali Baba

Standards and Costs for Quality Management of E-Learning Services

The proportions of the technological development in the field of communications and information represent an irrefutable premise for significant changes in all the spheres of human life. Corroborated with the advance of the Internet recorded in the last decade, these changes form the perfect recipe for the emergence (ever since the '90s), functioning and development of flexible forms of labour at distance, using the technology of information and communication. Among the first domains where the impact of technology is very strong may be named education, marketing, advertising and commerce; the forms of manifestation are materialized in e-learning, cyber-marketing, online advertising and electronic commerce. But the simple use of technology does not automatically assure the success of the new forms of activity. These transformations of the traditional into digital, of the classic into virtual must be accompanied by the adequate support with respect to the quality of services, standards, platforms and the hardware and software technologies. If we are referring to the educational domain, we have to analyze the e-learning phenomenon or tele-education in its spectacular evolution in such a recent history. Quality represents a landmark of major importance in all the fields of modern society based on knowledge. From the perspective of tele-education, quality assurance must be focalized on three main directions: the quality of the actual educational process (class/course support, platform, technology, etc.); the quality of the instructor (professional training, qualification, specialization, pedagogic ability, teaching method, etc.); the quality of the person undergoing the course/class (training, knowledge thesaurus, involvement, accumulation wish, etc.). Also, like in any activity, quality standard reporting means an economic approach by quality costs. Theat means that the good product or quality services in e-learning are very strongly linked with educational multimedia production and good costs.quality, standards, e-learning, technology, cost

Cross-domain interoperability using federated interoperable semantic IoT/Cloud testbeds and applications: The FIESTA-IoT approach

This work is funded by the European Commission under the EU-H2020 Project Grant ”Federated Interoperable Semantic IoT/cloudTestbeds andApplications (FIESTA)” with the Grant Agreement No. CNECT-ICT-643943

Regulating competition in the digital network industry: A proposal for progressive ecosystem regulation

The digital sector is a cornerstone of the modern economy, and regulating digital enterprises can be considered the new frontier for regulators and competition authorities. To capture and address the competitive dynamics of digital markets we need to rethink our (competition) laws and regulatory strategies. The thesis develops new approaches to regulating digital markets by viewing them as part of a network industry. By combining insights from our experiences with existing regulation in telecommunications with insights from economics literature and management theory, the thesis concludes by proposing a new regulatory framework called ‘progressive ecosystem regulation’. The thesis is divided in three parts and has three key findings or contributions. The first part explains why digital platforms such as Google’s search engine, Meta’s social media platforms and Amazon’s Marketplace are prone to monopolization. Here, the thesis develops a theory of ‘digital natural monopoly’, which explains why competition in digital platform markets is likely to lead to concentration by its very nature.The second part of the thesis puts forward that competition in digital markets persists, even if there is monopoly in a market. Here, the thesis develops a conceptual framework for competition between digital ecosystems, which consists of group of actors and products. Digital enterprises compete to carve out a part of the digital network industry where they can exert control, and their strong position in a platform market can be used offensively or defensively to steer competition between ecosystems. The thesis then sets out four phases of ecosystem competition, which helps to explain when competition in the digital network industry is healthy and when it is likely to become problematic.The third and final part of the thesis brings together these findings and draws lessons from our experiences of regulating the network industry for telecommunications. Based on the insights developed in the thesis it puts forward a proposal for ‘progressive ecosystem regulation’. The purpose of this regulation is to protect and empower entrants from large digital ecosystems so that they can develop new products and innovate disruptively. This regulatory framework would create three regulatory pools: a heavily regulated, lightly regulated and entrant pool. The layered regulatory framework allows regulators to adjust who receives protection under the regulation and who faces the burdens relatively quickly, so that the regulatory framework reflects the fast pace of innovation and changing nature of digital markets. With this proposal, the thesis challenges and enriches our existing notions on regulation and specifically how we should regulate digital markets

Regulating competition in the digital network industry: A proposal for progressive ecosystem regulation

The digital sector is a cornerstone of the modern economy, and regulating digital enterprises can be considered the new frontier for regulators and competition authorities. To capture and address the competitive dynamics of digital markets we need to rethink our (competition) laws and regulatory strategies. The thesis develops new approaches to regulating digital markets by viewing them as part of a network industry. By combining insights from our experiences with existing regulation in telecommunications with insights from economics literature and management theory, the thesis concludes by proposing a new regulatory framework called ‘progressive ecosystem regulation’. The thesis is divided in three parts and has three key findings or contributions. The first part explains why digital platforms such as Google’s search engine, Meta’s social media platforms and Amazon’s Marketplace are prone to monopolization. Here, the thesis develops a theory of ‘digital natural monopoly’, which explains why competition in digital platform markets is likely to lead to concentration by its very nature.The second part of the thesis puts forward that competition in digital markets persists, even if there is monopoly in a market. Here, the thesis develops a conceptual framework for competition between digital ecosystems, which consists of group of actors and products. Digital enterprises compete to carve out a part of the digital network industry where they can exert control, and their strong position in a platform market can be used offensively or defensively to steer competition between ecosystems. The thesis then sets out four phases of ecosystem competition, which helps to explain when competition in the digital network industry is healthy and when it is likely to become problematic.The third and final part of the thesis brings together these findings and draws lessons from our experiences of regulating the network industry for telecommunications. Based on the insights developed in the thesis it puts forward a proposal for ‘progressive ecosystem regulation’. The purpose of this regulation is to protect and empower entrants from large digital ecosystems so that they can develop new products and innovate disruptively. This regulatory framework would create three regulatory pools: a heavily regulated, lightly regulated and entrant pool. The layered regulatory framework allows regulators to adjust who receives protection under the regulation and who faces the burdens relatively quickly, so that the regulatory framework reflects the fast pace of innovation and changing nature of digital markets. With this proposal, the thesis challenges and enriches our existing notions on regulation and specifically how we should regulate digital markets

A Framework to assess the value of web services

Large organizations often begin to adopt new software technologies prior to establishing appropriate value frameworks. This approach may produce sub-optimal investment decisions and technology adoption rates, and introduce excessive risk. In this thesis, a value-based framework is developed for assessing the impact of Web Services technology investments on business systems development. The value factors included in the framework are data management, application development and deployment, system integration, and response time to market opportunities