Personalisation and recommender systems in digital libraries

Widespread use of the Internet has resulted in digital libraries that are increasingly used by diverse communities of users for diverse purposes and in which sharing and collaboration have become important social elements. As such libraries become commonplace, as their contents and services become more varied, and as their patrons become more experienced with computer technology, users will expect more sophisticated services from these libraries. A simple search function, normally an integral part of any digital library, increasingly leads to user frustration as user needs become more complex and as the volume of managed information increases. Proactive digital libraries, where the library evolves from being passive and untailored, are seen as offering great potential for addressing and overcoming these issues and include techniques such as personalisation and recommender systems. In this paper, following on from the DELOS/NSF Working Group on Personalisation and Recommender Systems for Digital Libraries, which met and reported during 2003, we present some background material on the scope of personalisation and recommender systems in digital libraries. We then outline the working group’s vision for the evolution of digital libraries and the role that personalisation and recommender systems will play, and we present a series of research challenges and specific recommendations and research priorities for the field

Android forensics: Automated data collection and reporting from a mobile device

As Android smartphones gain popularity, industry and government will face increasing pressure to integrate them into their environments. The implementation of these devices on an enterprise can save on costs and add capabilities previously unavailable; however, the organizations that incorporate this technology must be prepared to mitigate the associated risks. These devices can contain vast amounts of personal and work-related data that can impact internal investigations, including (but not limited to) those of policy violations, intellectual property theft, misuse, embezzlement, sabotage, and espionage. Physical access has been the traditional method for retrieving data useful to these investigations from Android devices, with the exception of some limited collection abilities in commercial mobile device management systems and remote enterprise forensics tools. As part of this thesis, a prototype enterprise monitoring system for Android smartphones was developed to continuously collect many of the data sets of interest to incident responders, security auditors, proactive security monitors, and forensic investigators. Many of the data sets covered were not found in other available enterprise monitoring tools. The prototype system neither requires root access privileges nor exploiting weaknesses in the Android architecture for proper operation, thereby increasing interoperability among Android devices and avoiding a spyware classification for the system. An anti-forensics analysis on the system was performed to identify and further strengthen areas vulnerable to tampering. The results of this research include the release of the first open-source Android enterprise monitoring solution of its kind, a comprehensive guide of data sets available for collection without elevated privileges, and the introduction of a novel design strategy implementing various Android application components useful for monitoring on the Android platform

Cognition and the Web

Empirical research related to the Web has typically focused on its impact to social relationships and wider society; however, the cognitive impact of the Web is also an increasing focus of scientific interest and research attention. In this paper, I attempt to provide an overview of what I see as the important issues in the debate regarding the relationship between human cognition and the Web. I argue that the Web is potentially poised to transform our cognitive and epistemic profiles, but that in order to understand the nature of this influence we need to countenance a position that factors in the available scientific evidence, the changing nature of our interaction with the Web, and the possibility that many of our everyday cognitive achievements rely on complex webs of social and technological scaffolding. I review the literature relating to the cognitive effects of current Web technology, and I attempt to anticipate the cognitive impact of next-generation technologies, such as Web-based augmented reality systems and the transition to data-centric modes of information representation. I suggest that additional work is required to more fully understand the cognitive impact of both current and future Web technologies, and I identify some of the issues for future scientific work in this area. Given that recent scientific effort around the Web has coalesced into a new scientific discipline, namely that of Web Science, I suggest that many of the issues related to cognition and the Web could form part of the emerging Web Science research agenda

A Simple Web Platform Solution for M-Learning

Nowadays the role of educational platforms is more than obvious, thanks to websites and modern platforms like Microsoft SharePoint designed for e-learning. We consider that the next generation of learning platforms will be m-learning platforms. These kind of platforms offer first of all mobility for the potential users of PDAs, pocket PCs, smart phones and other modern mobile devices, discovered and developed in last years. One of the most important aspect of these manners of e-learning is the display mode. Classic systems like personal computers have a bigger screen, modern portable devices have a few inches screens and the problem is to adapt the structure of websites and platforms for pocket PC screens and in the same time to develop the capability to produce same experience and usefulness to all users.Platform, M-learning, Discussion Forum, Search Engine, JavaScript, IIS, Port Forwarding

Strategic Techniques for Enhancing Web Services Security in Cloud Computing Model

The 21st century has witnessed an integration of enterprise business process with emerging techniques in a quest to maximize opportunities and organisational strength. In spite of these, vulnerabilities and risks still abound due to the integration for an effective operational mechanism. Mitigating against these requires strategic techniques for enhancing web services security. It is on this background that this paper has been presented. A critical study of web services architecture and cloud computing model as an emerging technology has been given a succinct digest. Furthermore, an evaluation of recent trends in web services and cloud computing model security issues were x-rayed. The threat to web services application deployed in cloud computing were identified hence presenting strategic techniques for enhancing web services security as a proactive measure to enhancing enterprise success. This paper concludes by re-iterating the need to understanding various security threats and proactively and dynamically reacting to them. Keywords: Web Services, Cloud Computing, Cross Site Scripting, SQL Injection and Web Securit

Internet security for mobile computing

Mobile devices are now the most dominant computer platform. Every time a mobile web application accesses the internet, the end user’s data is susceptible to malicious attacks. For instance, when paying a bill at a store with NFC mobile payment, navigating through a city operating GPS on a smartphone, or dictating the temperature at a household with a home automation device. These activities seem routine, yet, when vulnerabilities are present they can leave holes for hackers to access bank accounts, pinpoint a user’s recent location, or tell when someone is not at home. The awareness of the end user cannot be trusted. Device vendors and developers must provide safeguards. An ongoing issue is that the present security standards are outdated and were never envisioned with mobile devices in mind. It can be suggested that security is only idling the progress of mobile computing. Still, many application developers and IT professionals do not adopt security standards fast enough to keep up-to-date with known vulnerabilities. The main goals of the next generation of security standards, TLS, will provide developers with greater security efficiency and improved mobile throughput. These proposed capabilities of the TLS protocol will streamline mobile computing into the forefront of security practices. The analysis of this report demonstrates concepts on the direction mobile security, usability, and performance from a development standpoint.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Quality-testing the legal Internet: finding law with the SOSIG Law Gateway

English language version of a preprint of an article by Steven Whittle, Information Systems Manager at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, published in Recht Bibliothek Dokumentation, the journal of the AjBD Arbeitsgemeinschaft für juristisches Bibliotheks-und Dokumentationswese