Business-oriented development of telecommunication services

The development of software for distributed systems, e.g. telecommunication services, is a complex activity. Numerous issues have to be resolved when developing such systems, examples of which are language/system heterogeneity and remoteness of components. Interface definition languages (IDLs) are used as the basis for addressing some of these issues. IDLs allow for the specification of the syntactic aspects of the interfaces of the components in the system to be made. Whilst lending itself to issues of heterogeneity and location transparency, dealing with IDL as the basis for system development is not without its problems. Two of the main problems with IDL are its lack of behaviour and its lack of abstraction. Thus designers should not be constrained to work within the syntactic notations used to implement their systems, nor should they be unaided in how they might better design their systems. In this paper we show how these issues are being addressed in the TOSCA project in its development of a service creation and validation environment

Conceptual models of urban environmental information systems - toward improved information provision

Cities are the hub of European society - for over a millennium, they are the locus of social, political and economic development. As the core of intensive and creative human activity, they are also the place where the environmental externalities that accompany rapid development are most visible. The environmental consequences of urban development have been recognised long ago, as in the case of London, where in 1388 legislation was introduced to control pollutant emissions (Lowenthal, 1990). Similar historical environmental regulations can be demonstrated for many cities in Europe. However, while for most of history those who govern the city (be it the sovereign, city elders or local government) where responsible for the control, mitigation and management of the common environment in the city, the last 30 years are a period of profound change. This is due to the trend toward improved participation in environmental decision making . a more inclusive and open approach to decisions that deal with the city commons. This change did not occurre overnight but rather gradually. For example, in the United Kingdom, it was the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 which introduced public scrutiny to changes in the urban form (Rydin, 1998), or the development of public involvement in environmental impact assessment of urban projects as developed in many countries throughout the developed world during the 1970s and 1980s (Gilpin 1995). These changes accelerate within the last three decades, and especially since the publication of .Our Common Future. (WCED and Brundtland 1987), the acceptance of the .Sustainable Development. principles and the Rio conference. A quiet (mini) revolution happened in Europe not long ago, toward the end of 1998 when the members of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) signed the .Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. - the Aarhus Convention (UN/ECE 1998). The convention is expected to come into force by the end of 2001, and calls the governments and public authorities to open up access to environmental information as a means to improve public participation in environmental decision making and awareness of environmental issues (UN/ECE, 1998). However, these declarations on the value and importance of environmental information do not match our level of understanding on the role of environmental information in decision making processes, and especially on the role of information in improving awareness and participation. Therefore, it is useful to take a step back, and to try and evaluate how environmental information and access to it and its use support public involvement in such processes. This paper is aimed to offer a framework that can assist us in the analytical process of understanding environmental information use. It focuses on public access and assumes that environmental information will be delivered to the public through the Internet. Such assumption is based on the current trend within public authorities is to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a major delivery medium and it seems that it will become more so in the near future (OECD 2000). The framework which this paper presents, is based on Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) study which unpacked some of the core issues relating to public access and use of environmental information (Haklay, 2001). Although the aim here is not to discuss the merits of SSM, but to focus on the conceptual models, some introduction to the techniques that are used here is needed. Therefore, the following section opens with introduction to SSM and its techniques. The core of the paper is dedicated to the development of conceptual models. After presenting the conceptual models, some conclusions about these models and their applications are drown

Engineering telecommunication services with SDL

If formal techniques are to be more widely accepted then they should evolve as current software engineering approaches evolve. Current techniques in the development of distributed systems use interface definition languages (IDLs) as a basis for the underlying communication and also as an abstraction tool. Object-oriented technologies [6] and the idea of engineering software through frameworks [5] are also widely accepted approaches in developing software. In this paper we show how the formal specification language SDL and associated tool support have been applied in the TOSCA1 project to engineer telecommunication services using these current techniques

e-Report Generator Supporting Communications and Fieldwork: A Practical Case of Electrical Network Expansion Projects

In this piece of work we present a simple way to incorporate Geographical Information System tools that have been developed using open source software in order to help the different processes in the expansion of the electrical network. This is accomplished by developing a novel fieldwork tool that provides the user with automatically generated enriched e-reports that include information about every one of the involved private real estates in a specific project. These reports are an eco-friendly alternative to paper format, and can be accessed by clients using any kind of personal device with a minimal set of technical requirements

NASA and the challenge of ISDN: The role of satellites in an ISDN world

To understand what role satellites may play in Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), it is necessary to understand the concept of ISDN, including key organizations involved, the current status of key standards recommendations, and domestic and international progress implementation of ISDN. Each of these areas are explained. A summary of the technical performance criteria for ISDN, current standards for satellites in ISDN, key players in the ISDN environment, and what steps can be taken to encourage application of satellites in ISDN are also covered

Internet-based 'social sharing' as a new form of global production: The case of SETI@home

Benkler ('Sharing Nicely', Yale Law Journal, 2004, Vol. 114, pp. 273-358) has argued that 'social sharing' via Internet-based distributed computing is a new, so far under-appreciated modality of economic production. This paper presents results from an empirical study of SETI@home (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), which is the classic example of such a computing project. The aim is to explain SETI@home participation and its intensity in a cross-country setting. The data are for a sample of 172 developed and developing countries for the years 2002-2004. The results indicate that SETI@home participation and its intensity can be explained largely by the degree of ICT access (proxied by the International Telecommunication Union's 'Digital Access Index'), as well as GDP per capita and dummy variables for major country groups. Some other variables, such as the Human Development Index, perform less well. Although SETI@home is a global phenomenon, it is never-the-less mostly concentrated in rich countries. However, there are indications of a slowly narrowing global SETI@home digital divide

Public environmental information: understanding requirements and patterns of likely public use

Public access to environmental information received much attention in the last decade. Recent developments promote access to this information through public telecommunication networks. This paper describes a Web-based survey that explored the requirements and needs of likely users of public environmental information systems for London: educated middle-class members of the public, with high interest in environmental issues and computer literacy. The survey demonstrated current information consumption patterns and the reasons to gather and use such information

Economic barriers to development : cost of access to internet infrastructure

The Internet is increasingly viewed as an "indispensable" resource for general development and economic growth (UNDP 1999). Its adoption by governments, organizations and individuals has resulted in the shrinking of spatial and temporal distances between different regions of the world, and has greatly facilitated the "free" and quick exchange of information. Such constrictions of time and space impact upon social and economic interactions at all levels of society. Furthermore, ramifications of this impact are felt by a society, group or individual irrespective of whether or not they use the Internet. The ability to access the Internet, and in particular the costs associated with such access, are therefore important points of consideration. Not only do these costs contribute to the disproportional spread of the Internet across the world's population; they also potentially contribute to uneven patterns of development within, and between countries

Analogue switch-off vs digital switch-on: rethinking policy strategies in the digital television era

In the last few decades, the traditional television landscape has come under pressure and the diffusion of digital television (DTV) services emerged as a hot issue. Especially for policy makers, access to DTV is considered a key element in the further development of the information society. Facilitating equal access for all to the new possibilities offered by digital television should be the central objective. In this context, policy makers are confronted with various challenges: How can they facilitate a smooth transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television? How should they handle digital dividend issues? In dealing with these topics, this article stresses the importance of a user-oriented approach