Mashup Ecosystems: Integrating Web Resources on Desktop and Mobile Devices

The Web is increasingly used as an application platform, and recent development of it has introduced software ecosystems where different actors collaborate. This collaboration is international from day one, and it evolves and grows rapidly. In web ecosystems applications are provided as services, and interdependencies between ecosystem parts can vary from very strong and obvious to loose and recondite. Mashups -- web application hybrids that combine resources from different services into an integrated system that has increased value from user perspective -- are exploiting services of the Web and creating ecosystems where end-users, mashup authors, and service providers collaborate. The term "resources" is used here in a broad sense, and it can refer to user's local data, infinite content of the Web, and even executable code. This dissertation presents mashups as a new breed of web applications that are intended for parsing the web content into an easily accessed form on both regular desktop computers as well as on mobile devices. Constantly evolving web technologies and new web services open up unforeseen possibilities for mashup development. However, developing mashups with current methods and tools for existing deployment environments is challenging. First, the Web as an application platform faces numerous shortcomings, second, web application development practices in general are still immature, and third, development of mashups has additional requirements that need to be addressed. In addition, mobility sets even more challenges for mashup authoring. This dissertation describes and addresses numerous issues regarding mashup ecosystems and client-side mashup development. To achieve this, we have implemented technical research artifacts including mashup ecosystems and different kinds of mashup compositions. The artifacts are developed with numerous runtime environments and tools and targeted at different end-user platforms. This has allowed us to evaluate methods, tools, and practises used during the implementation. As result, this dissertation identifies the fundamental challenges of mashup ecosystems and describes how service providers and mashup ecosystem authors can address these challenges in practice. In addition, example implementation of a specialized multimedia mashup ecosystem for mobile devices is described. To address mashup development issues, this dissertation introduces practical guidelines and a reference architecture that can be applied when mashups are created with traditional web development tools. Moreover, environments that can be used on mobile devices to create mashups that have access to both web and local resources are introduced. Finally, a novel approach to web software development -- creating software as a mashup -- is introduced, and a realization of such concept is described

The Construction of Locative Situations: the Production of Agency in Locative Media Art Practice

This thesis is a practice led enquiry into Locative Media (LM) which argues that this emergent art practice has played an influential role in the shaping of locative technologies in their progression from new to everyday technologies. The research traces LM to its origins at the Karosta workshops, reviews the stated objectives of early practitioners and the ambitions of early projects, establishing it as a coherent art movement located within established traditions of technological art and of situated art practice. Based on a prescient analysis of the potential for ubiquitous networked location-awareness, LM developed an ambitious program aimed at repositioning emergent locative technologies as tools which enhance and augment space rather than surveil and control. Drawing on Krzysztof Ziarek\u27s treatment of avant-garde art and technology in The Force of Art , theories of technology drawn from Science and Technology Studies (STS) and software studies, the thesis builds an argument for the agency of Locative Media. LM is positioned as an interface layer which in connecting the user to the underlying functionality of locative technologies offers alternative interpretations, introduces new usage modes, and ultimately shifts the understanding and meaning of the technology. Building on the Situationist concept of the constructed situation, with reference to an ongoing body of practice, an experimental practice-based framework for LM art is advanced which accounts for its agency and, it is proposed, preserves this agency in a rapidly developing field

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

WHAT DO USERS NEED? EXPLORING INFLUENCES ON THE ADOPTION OF MOBILE CONTENT AND THE DIFFERENCES AMONG CATEGORIES OF ADOPTERS

Businesses develop products and services with the goal of earning a satisfactory return on their original investment of time and capital. For their part, consumers seek out products and services that meet a recognized need. However, predicting the adoption rate of any new technology is an inexact science, and some businesses find themselves on the wrong side of the curve. The variables factoring into consumers’ purchasing decisions are manifold and contingent on a wider network of influences. This research suggests that a primary variable that influences consumers’ adoption of a technological innovation (in this case, mobile content) is the perception of 10 proposed Mobile Content Needs. The first goal of this research is to propose a framework for the relationships among the adoption of mobile content, users’ perception of their need for mobile content, and users’ innovativeness, which is a measure of the likelihood to adopt a new product. This research seeks to explore the differences among groups (categories) of adopters in the context of the perceived needs influencing their decision to adopt mobile content. In other words, it examines the prominence of particular mobile content needs for each of the five categories of adopters. This examination provides indirect evidence of how the mobile content adoption process evolves over time in relation to a specific innovation and within specific groups. This research is useful for those seeking to better understand the mobile content market in its totality, in particular the motivations driving different adopter groups. The results of this research may enable the development of more relevant, targeted content, with a surer knowledge of what a potential consumer needs at each stage of the adoption lifecycle. Similarly, this research offers a foundation for more extensive studies in the near future

Convergence du web et des services de communication

Les services de communication, du courrier postal à la téléphonie, en passant par la voix et la vidéo sur IP (Internet Protocol), la messagerie électronique, les salons de discussion sur Internet, les visioconférences ou les télécommunications immersives ont évolué au fil du temps. Un système de communication voix-vidéo sur IP est réalisé grâce à deux couches architecturales fondamentales : la couche de signalisation et la couche média. Le protocole de signalisation est utilisé pour créer, modifier et terminer des sessions multimédias entre des participants. La couche de signalisation est divisée en deux sous-couches - la couche de service et celle de contrôle - selon la spécification de l IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Deux systèmes de communication largement utilisés sont l IMS et SIP Pair-à- Pair (P2P SIP). Les fournisseurs de services, qui se comportent en tant qu intermédiaires entre appelants et appelés, implémentent les systèmes de communication, contrôlant strictement la couche signalisation. Or ces fournisseurs de services ne prennent pas en compte la diversité des utilisateurs. Cette thèse identifie trois barrières technologiques dans les systèmes de communication actuels et plus précisément concernant la couche de signalisation. I. Un manque d ouverture et de flexibilité dans la couche de signalisation pour les utilisateurs. II. Un développement difficile des services basés sur le réseau et les sessions. III. Une complexification du la couche de signalisation lors d un très grand nombre d appels. Ces barrières technologiques gênent l innovation des utilisateurs avec ces services de communication. Basé sur les barrières technologiques listées cidessus, le but initial de cette thèse est de définir un concept et une architecture de système de communication dans lequel chaque individu devient un fournisseur de service. Le concept, "My Own Communication Service Provider" (MOCSP) et le système MOCSP sont proposés, accompagné d un diagramme de séquence. Ensuite, la thèse fournit une analyse qui compare le système MOCSP avec les systèmes de communication existants en termes d ouverture et de flexibilité. La seconde partie de la thèse présente des solutions pour les services basés sur le réseau ou les sessions, mettant en avant le système MOCSP proposé. Deux services innovants, user mobility et partial session transfer/retrieval (PSTR) sont pris comme exemples de services basés sur le réseau ou les sessions. Les services basés sur un réseau ou des sessions interagissent avec une session ou sont exécutés dans une session. Dans les deux cas, une seule entité fonctionnelle entre l appelant et l appelé déclenche le flux multimédia pendant l initialisation de l appel et/ou en cours de communication. De plus, la coopération entre le contrôle d appel réseau et les différents pairs est facilement réalisé. La dernière partie de la thèse est dédiée à l extension de MOCSP en cas de forte densité d appels, elle inclut une analyse comparative. Cette analyse dépend de quatre facteurs - limite de passage à l échelle, niveau de complexité, ressources de calcul requises et délais d établissement de session - qui sont considérés pour évaluer le passage à l échelle de la couche de signalisation. L analyse comparative montre clairement que la solution basée sur MOCSP est simple et améliore l usage effectif des ressources de calcul par rapport aux systèmes de communication traditionnelsDifferent communication services from delivery of written letters to telephones, voice/video over Internet Protocol(IP), email, Internet chat rooms, and video/audio conferences, immersive communications have evolved over time. A communication system of voice/video over IP is the realization of a two fundamental layered architecture, signaling layer and media layer. The signaling protocol is used to create, modify, and terminate media sessions between participants. The signaling layer is further divided into two layers, service layer and service control layer, in the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) specification. Two widely used communication systems are IMS, and Peer-to-Peer Session Initiation Protocol (P2P SIP). Service providers, who behave as brokers between callers and callees, implement communication systems, heavily controlling the signaling layer. These providers do not take the diversity aspect of end users into account. This dissertation identifies three technical barriers in the current communication systems especially in the signaling layer. Those are: I. lack of openness and flexibility in the signaling layer for end users. II. difficulty of development of network-based, session-based services. III. the signaling layer becomes complex during the high call rate. These technical barriers hinder the end-user innovation with communication services. Based on the above listed technical barriers, the first part of this thesis defines a concept and architecture for a communication system in which an individual user becomes the service provider. The concept, My Own Communication Service Provider (MOCSP) and MOCSP system is proposed and followed by a call flow. Later, this thesis provides an analysis that compares the MOCSP system with existing communication systems in terms of openness and flexibility. The second part of this thesis presents solutions for network-based, session based services, leveraging the proposed MOCSP system. Two innovative services, user mobility and partial session transfer/retrieval are considered as examples for network-based, session-based services. The network-based, sessionbased services interwork with a session or are executed within a session. In both cases, a single functional entity between caller and callee consistently enables the media flow during the call initiation and/or mid-call. In addition, the cooperation of network call control and end-points is easily achieved. The last part of the thesis is devoted to extending the MOCSP for a high call rate and includes a preliminary comparative analysis. This analysis depends on four factors - scalability limit, complexity level, needed computing resources and session setup latency - that are considered to specify the scalability of the signaling layer. The preliminary analysis clearly shows that the MOCSP based solution is simple and has potential for improving the effective usage of computing resources over the traditional communication systemsEVRY-INT (912282302) / SudocSudocFranceF

Review of Learning 2.0 Practices: Study on the Impact of Web 2.0 Innovations on Education and Training in Europe

Over the last few years, ¿web 2.0¿ or ¿social computing¿ applications like blogs, wikis, photo- and video-sharing sites, as well as online social networking sites and virtual worlds, have seen unprecedented take up. This has changed the way people access, manage and exchange knowledge, and the way they connect and interact. Younger people especially are using these tools and services as a natural way of extending their personal relations and as a means of keeping in touch with friends. This trend is accompanied by the emergence of structurally different learning styles, especially among young people. As a result, living, learning and working patterns have already changed significantly and are expected to change even more dramatically in the future. Education and training systems need innovative ways of fostering new skills for new jobs, taking into account the changing living, working and learning patterns in a digital society. So far, however, education and training systems have not, on the whole, reacted to these changes. Neither schools nor universities have seized the potential of digital media for enhancing learning and addressing their learners¿ needs. Due to the novelty of social computing, take up in education and training is still in an experimental phase. There are various diverse small-scale projects and initiatives all over Europe, which try to exploit social computing for a multitude of learning purposes, but research on enabling and disabling factors is scarce. This study is part of a collaboration project between the European Commission¿s Joint Research Centre (JRC-IPTS) and its Directorate General for Education and Culture (DG EAC). The objective is to investigate the innovative and inclusive potential of social computing applications in formal education by reviewing current practice. The report identifies, structures and analyses existing Learning 2.0 practice in Europe with a view to generating evidence on the impact of social computing for learning and its potential in promoting innovation and inclusion. It combines a review of research on Learning 2.0 with the collection of experience and good practice from a broad variety of cases.JRC.J.4-Information Societ

Quality-Assured and Sociality-Enriched Multimedia Mobile Mashup

<p/> <p>Mashups are getting more complex with the addition of rich-media and real-time services. The new research challenges will be how to guarantee the quality of the aggregated services, and how to share them in a collaborative manner. This paper presents a metadata-based mashup framework in Next Generation Wireless Network (NGWN), which guarantees the quality and supports social interactions. In contrast to existing quality-assured approaches, the proposed mashup model addresses the quality management issue from a new perspective through defining the Quality of Service (QoS) metadata into two levels: fidelity (user perspective) and modality (application perspective). The quality is assured from quality-aware service selection and quality-adaptable service delivery. Furthermore, the mashup model is extended for users to annotate services collaboratively. The annotation occurs in two ways, social tagging (e.g., rating and comments) and QoS attributes (e.g., device type and access network, etc.). In order to apply this network-independent metadata model into NGWN architecture, we further introduce a new entity named Multimedia Mashup Engine (MME) which enables seamlessly access to the services and Adaptation Decision Taking (ADT). Finally, our prototype system and the simulation results demonstrate the performance of the proposed work.</p