Co-authorship in the age of cyberculture: Open Educational Resources at the Open University of the United Kingdom

Locating Open Educational Resources (OER) as a phenomenon of cyberculture, this paper presents a reflection on the possibilities of co-authorship that are entailed in OER initiatives of different natures and settings within a large organisation. A selection of OER-related projects and activities carried out at the Open University of United Kingdom (UKOU) are examined from the perspective of a comparative framework proposed by Okada (2010). The framework identifies key features and differences between ‘Closed’ and ‘Open’ Education, that is, respectively, formal education, which takes place within the constraints of institutional Virtual Learning Environments, and informal education, which is gradually taking place more widely in cyberspace. The paper is introduced with a succinct discussion of the connection between cyberculture and the emergence of OER, followed by a presentation of the comparative framework adopted. The UKOU´s structure and methods are then presented, and various projects are discussed. The article concludes by proposing a brief commentary on the creative potential that is being unleashed at the very boundaries between formal and informal educational spaces that cyberculture is challenging

A Flexible Approach to Multi-party Business Process Execution on Blockchain

In modern business scenarios, more and more organisations have to deal with the critical requirements of trustworthiness and flexibility, when collaborating in multi-party business processes. This calls for new kinds of systems able to manage collaborative processes in untrusted and dynamic environments. Concerning the collaborative perspective, the Business Process Management discipline has provided effective and standardised solutions for a long time, now. Regarding the trustworthiness perspective, blockchain is advocated as one of the most prominent technologies to guarantee trust in a multi-party setting. However, while the immutability of blockchain provides transparent and secure proof of past business interactions, it hinders the flexibility of the business process execution, as the business logic regulating the process execution is immutably stored in the blockchain. On the other hand, flexibility is a property that is becoming crucial in such a setting due to the high dynamism of the business scenarios. In fact, it permits to modify a process at run-time to deal with internal or external changes. In this paper, we face this issue by proposing an architecture for the flexible blockchain-based execution of multi-party business processes. In our approach, business processes are modelled by BPMN choreography diagrams translated into code, whose execution state is then stored in the blockchain. Flexibility is achieved by decoupling the business process’s logic from its execution state, thus allowing run-time changes to the process execution without losing the fundamental properties of trust provided by the blockchain. To show the effectiveness of our approach, we provide a prototypical implementation, called FlexChain, and we use it on a case study from the healthcare application domain. The results obtained by the analysis of cost for the reported case study show the feasibility of the approach. In particular, major costs to sustain relate to one-time operations, such as the deployment and the run-time update of the model, while the most frequent actions are quite efficient

EEG/ERP Portal Security in New Technologies

Bezpečnost dat musí být zajištěna v EEG/ERP Portálu jak z technických, tak právních důvodů. Aplikace ukládá citlivé informace a musí být odolná proti neoprávněným akcím. Tato práce popisuje vylepšení bezpečnosti s použitím mechanismů zavedených v nových technologiích a pomocí odstraňování bezpečnostních slabin. Teoretická část zajišťuje uvedení do problematiky, popisuje jak právní aspekty, tak samotný projekt a principy zabezpečení. Poté je popsán proces migrace technologií, včetně nástrojů zavedených k umožnění tohoto kroku. Na základě analýzy bezpečnosti je poté přepracován proces autentizace a jsou opraveny nedostatky v autorizaci. Konečný stav je poté testován a vyhodnocen pro ověření způsobilosti portálu k veřejnému provozu.Katedra informatiky a výpočetní technikyObhájenoSecurity needs to be assured in EEG/ERP Portal for technical and legal reasons. The application stores sensitive data and has to be resistant against malicious actions. This thesis describes improving security by using features introduced in new technologies and by patching exploitable weaknesses. First, background information including legal aspects, project description and security principles are provided. Then the process of technology migration is described, including tools introduced to enable the transition. Following a security analysis, the authentication process is restructured and revealed authorization shortcomings are fixed. The final configuration is tested and evaluated to make sure the portal is suitable for wide use

Case Study: Analysing Parking Solution using Corda DLT Service

Blockchaini avaldamisest saadik, aastast 2008, on avalike jagatud andmebaaside kasutamine kogunud järjest rohkem populaarsust. Algselt krüptoraha platvormis Bitcoin kasutusel olnud Blockchaini on osapoolte poolt muudetud, et uurida selle kasutust eri valdkondades. Kiiresti pärast Bitcoin’i avaldamist saadi aru, et sellel on potentsiaali rohkemaks kui ainult krüptorahaks. Erinevate uurimisrühmade ja arenduste tulemusena jõuti välja tõdemuseni, et Blockchain oma algsel, avalikul kujul paljudesse valdkondadesse ei sobi. Näiteks ei ole see oma algsel kujul kasutatav meditsiiniandmete või fintantstehingute juures, kus privaatsus on kriitilise tähtsusega. Nii arendati välja privaatne jagatud andmebaaside tehnoloogia. Selle tehnoloogia suurim erinevus standardsest Blockchainist on, et transaktsioonid osapoolte vahel ei ole avalikud, vaid need jagatakse ainult osapoolte vahel. Seetõttu sai nüüd võimalikuks selliste valdkondade, nagu meditsiin, rahandus ja sõjandus, areng jagatud andmebaaside suunas. Kuigi teoreetilised alused ja kontseptsioon on privaatsetel jagatud andmebaasidel üsna lai, on nende rakendamine igapäevaelus hetkel pinnapealne. Käesolev lõputöö annab ülevaate ühest privaatselt jagatud andmebaasi teenusest Corda’st. Lisaks sellele analüüsitakse lõputöös privaatse jagatud andmebaasi ja hetkel laialt kasutusel oleva traditsioonilise andmebaasi tehnoloogiate erinevusi. Võrreldakse paradigmasid, tarkvara arhitektuuri, funktsionaalsusi ja kasutatavust erinevatest aspektidest. Lõputöö tulemusena valmis kaht eri paradigmat kasutava rakenduse arhitektuuri ja funktsionaalsuste analüüs. Toodi välja nende erinevuste, tugevuste ja nõrkuste loetelu ning kirjeldused.Since the proposal of public ledger system, Blockchain, back in 2008, there has been rapid development of ledger systems. Original Blockchain, that worked inside Bitcoin cryptocurrency platform, have been moder-ated by several different groups in order to make it usable in various environments. Soon after the release of Blockchain as a part of cryptocurrency mining process, people realized, that Blockchain's potential is much bigger. With different researches and implementation to support other functions than cryptocurrency, researchers found out that the architectural specification of Blockchain, namely that every transaction in the system is public, is not suit-able for various real life usecases, like medical data or stocks.Then distributed ledger technology(DLT) was introduced. This technology made private transactions, without mediator, possible. This meant that vast potential, that public ledger system had, was now possible to brought into real life usecases, without sacrificing the im-mutability property of public ledger. Although theoretical background for DLTs has gone a long way there are only few studies on the analyses of DLT in everyday applications. This thesis provides overview of one particular DLT system named Corda. In addition, thesis analyses architectural differences between application using DLT and traditional database type approach. The analyses cover fields like, programming paradigm, architectural design, functionality and usability of the two approaches. As an outcome of this thesis, two different case study applications are analysed in depth. In addition, their key differences are brought out and reasoned about. Furthermore, the discussion of benefits and drawbacks of each key aspect is brought out