Web archives: the future

T his report is structured first, to engage in some speculative thought about the possible futures of the web as an exercise in prom pting us to think about what we need to do now in order to make sure that we can reliably and fruitfully use archives of the w eb in the future. Next, we turn to considering the methods and tools being used to research the live web, as a pointer to the types of things that can be developed to help unde rstand the archived web. Then , we turn to a series of topics and questions that researchers want or may want to address using the archived web. In this final section, we i dentify some of the challenges individuals, organizations, and international bodies can target to increase our ability to explore these topi cs and answer these quest ions. We end the report with some conclusions based on what we have learned from this exercise

Framework for IoT Service Oriented Systems

The forth industrial revolution is here, and with it Industry 4.0, which translates in many changes to the industry. With the introduction of paradigms like Internet of Things, Cyber Physical Systems or Cloud Computing, the so called Smart Factories are becoming a main part of today’s manufacturing systems. The vf-OS Project, where this thesis falls, intends to be an Open Operating System for Virtual Factories where the overall network of a collaborative manufacturing and logistics environment can be managed and thus enabling humans, applications and devices to communicate and interoperate in an interconnected operative environment. This thesis intends to contribute to the vision that any kind of sensor or actuator plugged to the virtual factory network, becomes promptly accessible in the operative environment and the services that it provides can be accessed and used by any API composing the system. Finally, it also aims to prove that an IoT Service Oriented Sys-tem constituted of open software components can be of great assistance and provide numerous contributions to the emerging Industry 4.0 and consequently to the Factories of the Future. With that aim, this thesis will focus on the development of two out of five inter-connected applications that answer not only to different use case scenarios presented in the vf-OS but also provide solutions to answer a practical agriculture scenario, which uses mainly IoT devices and other cutting-edge technologies like cloud compu-ting and FIWARE

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

Semantic Integration Platform for Web Widgets’ Communication

Semantiline integratsiooni platvorm veebividinate suhtlemiseks on raamistik mashup-tüüpi veebirakendusel suhtlemise võimaldamiseks erinevate lõdvalt seotud veebikomponentide (veebividinate) vahel. Mashup-tüüpi rakendused kasutavad ja kombineerivad olemasolevaid veebiressursse, peamiselt erinevaid vidinaid (widgets ing. k.). Praegused mashup-platvormid ei toeta sõnumite vahetust vidinate vahel, kui vidinad on loodud ja hallatud erinevate loojate poolt ning ei mõista üksteiste poolt saadetud sõnumeid. See piirab tunduvalt keerukamate mashup-rakenduste loomist, kui ei ole võimalik kombineerida andmeid erinevatest allikatest (näiteks kolmandate osapoolte vidinate abil) nii, et neid allikaid oleks võimalik omavahel kombineerida, näiteks luua rakendusi, kus erinevad vidinad suudavad omavahel interaktiivselt andmeid vahetada. Antud magistritöö pakub välja lahenduse, mis integreeriks semantiliselt erinevate vidinate poolt saadetud andmed, nii et erinevad vidinad oleks võimelised omavahel andmeid jagama. Kõikide vidinate poolt vahetavate sõnumite andmeelemendid seotaks erinevate ontoloogia terminitega, mis võimaldaks sõnumite sisu masinloetavaks ja –arusaadavaks muuta, nii et saadetud sõnumitest oleks võimalik korjata kokku kõik vajalikud andmeelemendid, milleks oleks võimalik koostada uusi sõnumeid. See võimaldaks kombineerida erinevate vidinate poolt saadetud andmeid ja luua uusi sõnumeid erinevatest allikatest kombineeritud andmetest ning seejärel saata loodud sõnumid edasi nendele vidinatele, kelle jaoks on need andmed kasulikud. Lahendus vidinatevahelise koostöö hõlbustamiseks realiseeriti kasutades raamistikku OpenAjax Hub, mis on keskne sõnumite jaotur (hub ing. k.) lubamaks erinevatel vidinatel jaoturi külge kinnituda ja jaoturi kaudu omavahel sõnumeid vahetada. Jaoturi kasutamine võimaldab küll vidinatel omavahel sõnumeid vahetada, kuid ei lahenda probleemi, kui vidinad kasutavad sõnumite vahetamiseks erinevaid andmeformaate ja –struktuure. Lahendusena realiseeriti magistritöö raames eraldiseisev vidin (nimega Transformatsioonividin ehk Transformer Widget ing. k.), mis ühendub jaoturi külge ja agregeerib andmeelemente kõikidest sõnumitest, mida vidinad välja saadavad, ning genereerib uusi sõnumeid agregeeritud andmeelementidest, mida saab saata nendele vidinatele, mis oskavad kogutud andmeid vastu võtta ja neid kasutada. Magistrtöö raames defineeriti hulk reegleid, millega on võimalik kirjeldada sõnumite sisu ja määrata iga sõnumis esinev andmeelement vastavusse ontoloogia terminiga. Nende reeglite põhjal on võimalik luua rakenduse konfiguratsioone, mille põhjal transformatsioonividin oskab vidinate poolt saadetud sõnumeid interpreteerida ja neist andmeelemente koguda, mille põhjal uusi sõnumeid genereerida. Transformatsioonividina kasutatavust testiti näidisrakenduse peal, mis koosnes kolmest vidinast, mis omavahel otse suhelda ei osanud. Testi eesmärk oli teha kindlaks, kas transformatsioonividinat on võimalik sellelaadsete stsenaariumite puhul kasutada, kus olemasolevad vidinad ei saa üksteiste poolt saadetud sõnumitest aru. Testi käigus loodi näidisrakendusele sõnumite konfiguratsioon, mis kirjeldas vidinate poolt saadetud sõnumite semantika ja struktuuri, mis võimaldas transformasioonividinal vidinate poolt saadetud andmeid transformeerida vidinatele arusaadavale kujule, nii et kui üks vidin saatis sõnumi, mis sisaldas andmeid, mida mõni teine vidin oskas kasutada, siis transformatsioonividin genereeris saadud andmetest uue sõnumi ja saatis selle edasi vastavale vidinale. Näidisrakenduse test oli edukas ja kinnitas transformatsioonividina kasulikkust selliste probleemide lahendamisel.Semantic integration platform for web widgets communication is a framework for providing collaboration capabilities between loosely coupled Web components (called widgets) in a mashup-like Web application. Mashups are Web applications that allow reuse of excising resources by combining different widgets that use data from various sources in the Web. Current mashup platforms do not support collaboration between different widgets, especially if those widgets have been developed and maintained by different vendors and are not able to interpret messages sent by other widgets. This limits the creation of more sophisticated mashups if collaboration between different independent components is not possible where Web widgets could interactively share and exchange data between each other. This thesis tries to solve the problem of making the data published by a widget on a Web application available to all the other widgets on the Web application so that the widgets could share information with each other. That makes it possible to interactively combine data from various sources to allow collaboration between loosely coupled components on a Web application. The thesis proposes a solution for aggregating data from messages sent by different widgets to generate new messages to widgets which could use the combined data. The main problem is collecting useful data from the exchanged messages and transforming the collected data into new messages using various data structures and formats interpretable by widgets that are interested in that data. Integrating and sharing data from various sources is the main research problem in the field of semantic integration and this thesis proposes one solution for sharing data between independent Web widgets on a Web application. A solution of this problem proposed in the thesis is built on the OpenAjax Hub framework that provides the means for Web widgets to exchange messages between each other. OpenAjax Hub provides a central hub that allows messaging between widgets that connect to the hub and subscribe and publish related messages. The problem rises in the use of different data structures in messages exchanged by widgets developed by different vendors. Even though the widgets can use the hub for exchanging messages, the content of exchanged messages remains unknown for the widgets and they are not able to interpret the messages that are exchanged through the hub. The solution proposed and implemented in this thesis is a JavaScript application built as a Web widget that is connected to the OpenAjax messaging hub on a Web application to transform all the exchanged data to be interpretable to every widget in the application. The proposed widget is called Transformer Widget and it uses semantic integration to transform data. The Transformer Widget is connected to the hub as other widgets and, while staying invisible, it listens to all of the messages exchanged by other widgets. Using preconfigured mappings which help the Transformer Widget to identify data elements with their meanings in messages, it aggregates data elements to generate new messages that can be sent to widgets. Mappings describe the structure and the semantics of the messages that are being exchanged through the hub. Mappings contain descriptions of atomic data elements in the messages where each atomic data element is matched with a term in an ontology that describes the meaning of that particular data element. This allows automatic understanding of the content of the exchanged messages regardless of which data structures are used in the messages. It is then possible to collect atomic data elements from the received messages to generate new messages that can be sent to the widgets that could interpret those messages. This solution makes it possible to build complex Web applications (i.e. mashups) using independent Web components (e.g. widgets) that could collaborate and share data with each other

Information visualisation and data analysis using web mash-up systems

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThe arrival of E-commerce systems have contributed greatly to the economy and have played a vital role in collecting a huge amount of transactional data. It is becoming difficult day by day to analyse business and consumer behaviour with the production of such a colossal volume of data. Enterprise 2.0 has the ability to store and create an enormous amount of transactional data; the purpose for which data was collected could quite easily be disassociated as the essential information goes unnoticed in large and complex data sets. The information overflow is a major contributor to the dilemma. In the current environment, where hardware systems have the ability to store such large volumes of data and the software systems have the capability of substantial data production, data exploration problems are on the rise. The problem is not with the production or storage of data but with the effectiveness of the systems and techniques where essential information could be retrieved from complex data sets in a comprehensive and logical approach as the data questions are asked. Using the existing information retrieval systems and visualisation tools, the more specific questions are asked, the more definitive and unambiguous are the visualised results that could be attained, but when it comes to complex and large data sets there are no elementary or simple questions. Therefore a profound information visualisation model and system is required to analyse complex data sets through data analysis and information visualisation, to make it possible for the decision makers to identify the expected and discover the unexpected. In order to address complex data problems, a comprehensive and robust visualisation model and system is introduced. The visualisation model consists of four major layers, (i) acquisition and data analysis, (ii) data representation, (iii) user and computer interaction and (iv) results repositories. There are major contributions in all four layers but particularly in data acquisition and data representation. Multiple attribute and dimensional data visualisation techniques are identified in Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0 environment. Transactional tagging and linked data are unearthed which is a novel contribution in information visualisation. The visualisation model and system is first realised as a tangible software system, which is then validated through different and large types of data sets in three experiments. The first experiment is based on the large Royal Mail postcode data set. The second experiment is based on a large transactional data set in an enterprise environment while the same data set is processed in a non-enterprise environment. The system interaction facilitated through new mashup techniques enables users to interact more fluently with data and the representation layer. The results are exported into various reusable formats and retrieved for further comparison and analysis purposes. The information visualisation model introduced in this research is a compact process for any size and type of data set which is a major contribution in information visualisation and data analysis. Advanced data representation techniques are employed using various web mashup technologies. New visualisation techniques have emerged from the research such as transactional tagging visualisation and linked data visualisation. The information visualisation model and system is extremely useful in addressing complex data problems with strategies that are easy to interact with and integrate

SECURING THE DATA STORAGE AND PROCESSING IN CLOUD COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

Organizations increasingly utilize cloud computing architectures to reduce costs and en- ergy consumption both in the data warehouse and on mobile devices by better utilizing the computing resources available. However, the security and privacy issues with publicly available cloud computing infrastructures have not been studied to a sufficient depth for or- ganizations and individuals to be fully informed of the risks; neither are private nor public clouds prepared to properly secure their connections as middle-men between mobile de- vices which use encryption and external data providers which neglect to encrypt their data. Furthermore, cloud computing providers are not well informed of the risks associated with policy and techniques they could implement to mitigate those risks. In this dissertation, we present a new layered understanding of public cloud comput- ing. On the high level, we concentrate on the overall architecture and how information is processed and transmitted. The key idea is to secure information from outside attack and monitoring. We use techniques such as separating virtual machine roles, re-spawning virtual machines in high succession, and cryptography-based access control to achieve a high-level assurance of public cloud computing security and privacy. On the low level, we explore security and privacy issues on the memory management level. We present a mechanism for the prevention of automatic virtual machine memory guessing attacks

Culture Online

Many Indigenous projects, such as language recording, use existing information technology (IT) resources for cultural sharing on the internet or storing culture on computer systems separate from the web to ensure privacy. However, existing resources are not always suitable for the needs of Indigenous users, and many very creative IT language projects are designed for material in a single language. This chapter documents the design of web resources used in the reclamation of the Dharug language of Sydney.1 We discuss a Web 2.0 framework for the creation of highly interactive websites that allow users to share these teaching techniques or materials between language groups. Such a framework should deal with the issues involved in teaching and learning Aboriginal languages, including the scarcity of speakers for many languages, the need for audio and video materials online, and the complexity of these languages, which requires novel teaching techniques. We also look at international projects that use technology to support community knowledge sharing spaces. These include engineered interfaces that enable users to physically ‘interact’ with images and computer-generated objects or to use mobile phones to project images and place audio information into the real world, thereby recreating past or future environments. Further, we look at web services that are being used to recreate the community of survivors of recent earthquakes and develop a learning space. Finally, the limited possibilities of existing work on text to speech and speech to text are presented. We relate this work to Australian Indigenous cultural projects and discuss how links might be made, especially with open source software