Dematerialization of information management processes

Trabalho de projecto de mestrado, Engenharia Informática (Arquitectura, Sistemas e Redes de Computadores), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2014Com o objectivo de expandir a diversidade de opções para os seus clientes, a Novabase tem interesse em explorar alternativas open source na área de enterprise search (ES), enterprise content management (ECM) e business process management (BPM). ES é um motor de busca composto por dois componentes, sendo o mais importante a pesquisa num índice invertido. Os candidatos são o Search Daimon [70], Solr [72] e ElasticSearch [21]. O Search Daimon é uma solução já muito completa, com muitas funcionalidades já feitas mas, não foi possível encontrar um manual ou o quer que seja que ajudasse a navegar e a modificar o código fonte e no excerto que vi, não estava comentado e foi difícil de ler. Uma alternativa de pesquisa open-source é o Lucene. O Lucene [51] é um motor de busca open source de muito elevada eficiência que trabalha sobre um índice invertido. É actualmente mantido pela Apache. O Solr [72] ´e um sistema que altera, melhora e diversifica a interface do Lucene permitindo usar o Lucene com um API REST e um conjunto de funcionalidades de alto nível. O Solr é desenvolvido pela Apache no qual, recentemente, foi lançada a funcionalidade de trabalhar em cloud. O ElasticSearch é um search engine que altera, melhora e diversifica a interface do Lucene permitindo usar o Lucene com um API REST. O Search daimon [70], pouco chega a ser considerado por causa da falta de informação sobre como trabalhar com ele sem ser com a interface gráfica. O Solr tem um manual muito completo [73], bem como o ElasticSearch [27]. As versões mais recentes do Solr permitem funcionar em cloud, o mesmo para o ElasticSearch. Aliás, o ElasticSearch sempre foi pensado para funcionar em cloud ao contrário do Solr que foi adaptado para funcionar em cloud. O ElasticSearch permite alterar muitas das suas opções incluindo adicionar e remover nós do swarm sem ser necessário reiniciar o servidor [28]. O Solr necessita de reiniciar sempre que existe uma alteração a fazer. Para pesquisa, o Solr só funciona usando uma query string. O ElasticSearch funciona com uma query string e também funciona com um objecto JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) bem estruturado [27]. O Solr usa JSON, Extensible Markup Language (XML) e comma-separated values (CSV) para alterar opções e para gravar dados. Destes dois, o ElasticSearch foi escolhido como sendo o melhor. Na parte de Enterprise content management (ECM), foram escolhidas as plataformas Nuxeo [55] e Alfresco [4]. Como critério, é necessário que os ECM tenham todas as versões open source. O Alfresco tem uma versão que necessita de uma licença paga mas o seu código é open source. O Nuxeo tem a versão completa, que permite usar o potencial todo do programa, disponível livre de custos. Sem contar com as interfaces como o utilizador (GUI) de que o utilizador tem acesso, ambos oferecem as mesmas funcionalidades com muito pequenas diferenças (ver quadros na sub-seccão “Comparing solutions” do 2.2.2). Embora o Alfresco community e o Nuxeo sejam muito parecidos, o Nuxeo desenvolveu uma ferramenta online paga, Nuxeo studio, que faz o mesmo que o Alfresco Enterprise. O Nuxeo studio [61] ´e um conjunto de ferramentas que oferecem um GUI [62] para controlar quase tudo no Nuxeo. Por causa da grande quantidade de semelhanças entre os dois e como os projectos em que ECM pode ser usado, torna-se impossível escolher qual dos dois é a melhor opção para o maior número de projectos. Mesmo assim, tendo em conta os vários parâmetros e caracteristicas do Nuxeo que estudei vs o equivalente do Alfresco e vice versa e com a nova vers˜ao do Nuxeo, concluo que o Nuxeo, embora não seja uma escolha ideal, é um ECM melhor pelas funcionalidades que tem, facilidade de personalização e pela organização e simplicidade. O ECM escolhido foi o Alfresco porque, independentemente que o Nuxeo seja melhor, se não for suficientemente conhecido, é o mesmo que não existir, independentemente do quão bom ele seja e estável, sem erros. O BPM decidido foi o que estava previsto na proposta inicial. Tendo já estes dados todos prontos, foi-me dada a tarefa de desenvolver um programa para integrar o ECM escolhido (Alfresco) com o BPM escolhido (jBPM). Durante a análise do jBPM, a empresa introduziu-me o Activiti como uma alternativa a ter a conta. Por estar a não usar um framework no primeiro projecto, um segundo projecto, baseado no primeiro, foi iniciado para executar o mesmo que o antecessor. Este projecto foi desenvolvido usando o primefaces e tinha, como um dos objectivos, comparar o Activiti e o jBPM. Com o prazo a acabar e por falta de informac¸ ˜ao dos superiores, este foi abandonado incompleto e o promeiro projecto foi retomado. No final, o primeiro projecto ficou uma prova de conceito para demonstrar uma possível interface muito versátil e muito personalizável que usa o Activiti (faltam algumas funcionalidades) ou o jBPM (suporte completo) como fonte para BPM e uma ligação CMIS para uma ligação ECM usando os dois para trabalho em equipa para desenvolver tarefas humanas.Enterprise content management (ECM) [77] appeared some years ago with the main purpose to reduce the amount of time dedicated to deal with the paperwork required to run a business. Assets were (and still are, for most companies) stored in large warehouses with strict sorting and very strict access rights. Without an ECM, when an employee requires a specific document, he would have to ask someone to search the document, get the document, and deliver the document to him, potentially, in a different building. Having an employee whose main purpose is to search and deliver company’s assets to whom requires them is probably not the most productive way of using an employee’s time. The ECM’s main work is to place a mirror to that repository and those employees who would run around delivering the documents (or copies of them) and manage the assets as if it was physical paper documents, except everything is digital while doing many other asset related tasks in the background. The usual setup is having an ECM working along an enterprise search backend and, optionally, a business process management (BPM) [15]. The enterprise search backend is responsible for indexing all search relevant information that exists in the ECM so that everything can be easily found with the known information about the thing. The BPM takes care of many internal system communications with the workflow management as its main feature

Design and Implementation Strategies for IMS Learning Design

SIKS Dissertation Series No. 2008-27The IMS Learning Design (LD) specification, which has been released in February 2003, is a generic and flexible language for describing the learning practice and underlying learning designs using a formal notation which is computer-interpretable. It is based on a pedagogical meta-model (Koper & Manderveld, 2004) and supports the use of a wide range of pedagogies. It supports adaptation of individual learning routes and orchestrates interactions between users in various learning and support roles. A formalized learning design can be applied repeatedly in similar situations with different persons and contexts. Yet because IMS Learning Design is a fairly complex and elaborate specification, it can be difficult to grasp; furthermore, designing and implementing a runtime environment for the specification is far from straightforward. That IMS Learning Design makes use of other specifications and e-learning services adds further to this complexity for both its users and the software developers. For this new specification to succeed, therefore, a reference runtime implementation was needed. To this end, this thesis addresses two research and development issues. First, it investigates research into and development of a reusable reference runtime environment for IMS Learning Design. The resulting runtime, called CopperCore, provides a reference both for users of the specification and for software developers. The latter can reuse the design principles presented in this thesis for their own implementations, or reuse the CopperCore product through the interfaces provided. Second, this thesis addresses the integration of other specifications and e-learning services during runtime. It presents an architecture and implementation (CopperCore Service Integration) which provides an extensible lightweight solution to the problem. Both developments have been tested through real-world use in projects carried out by the IMS Learning Design community. The results have generally been positive, and have led us to conclude that we successfully addressed both the research and development issues. However, the results also indicate that the LD tooling lacks maturity, particularly in the authoring area. Through close integration of CopperCore with a product called the Personal Competence Manager, we demonstrate that a complementary approach to authoring in IMS Learning Design solves some of these issues

Intranet of the future: functional study, comparison of products and practical implementation

Future intranet: functional study, comparison of products and practical implementation 1. Introduction The project has fulfilled three goals: 1) To perform a study of the functionalities which have to be covered in a modern intranet (web 2.0, unified communication, collaboration, etc) 2) To perform a comparison of tools of the market which can be used to implement intranets (commercial and open source products) 3) To test three of these tools (Oracle WebCenter, Liferay Portal and Microsoft SharePoint) and develop a prototype with Oracle WebCenter. In addition, it includes a research about the evolution of the Intranets among the time, as well as a work to discover the current state of this kind of platforms over the entire world. In this introductory research it is also convenient to include other topics which are not strictly technical involving the use of this Intranet. To be more concrete, there is an analysis of the importance of the human role and management of the Intranet, the process of deploying a new Intranet in an organization and methods to evaluate the performance of this new system.   2. Functional study The approach taken to fulfil this goal is to develop a theoretical model describing the relationship between the Intranet and its users, and a complete set of functionalities which could be covered in the Intranet of the future. These functionalities are categorized in groups. The project describes these groups and the functionalities included on them. 3. Comparison of products The project will describe and compare several technologies which can be used to develop an Intranet that we have previously modelled. The purpose here is to discover the strong points and weaknesses of each technology if it was used to develop the Intranet we desire. After having done such a review, the project focuses on three technologies and performs an extensive evaluation of them. Finally, an extensive comparison between these three technologies is done, highlighting where they offer better solutions and performance compared to the other possibilities. 4. Practical implementation The project focuses on three technologies: Oracle WebCenter, Liferay Portal and Microsoft SharePoint. Then, a prototype which covers a set of functionalities of the modelled Intranet has been built with Oracle WebCenter

A biography of open source software: community participation and individuation of open source code in the context of microfinance NGOs in North Africa and the Middle East

For many, microfinance is about building inclusive financial systems to help the poor gain direct access to financial services. Hundreds of grassroots have specialised in the provision of microfinance services worldwide. Most of them are adhoc organisations, which suffer severe organisational and informational deficiencies. Over the past decades, policy makers and consortia of microfinance experts have attempted to improve their capacity building through ICTs. In particular, there is strong emphasis on open source software (OSS) initiatives, as it is commonly believed that MFIs are uniquely positioned to benefit from the advantages of openness and free access. Furthermore, OSS approaches have recently become extremely popular. The OSS gurus are convinced there is a business case for a purely open source approach, especially across international development spheres. Nonetheless, getting people to agree on what is meant by OSS remains hard to achieve. On the one hand scholarly software research shows a lack of consensus and documents stories in which the OSS meaning is negotiated locally. On the other, the growing literature on ICT-for-international development does not provide answers as research, especially in the microfinance context, presents little empirical scrutiny. This thesis therefore critically explores the OSS in the microfinance context in order to understand itslong-term development and what might be some of the implications for MFIs. Theoretically I draw on the 3rd wave of research within the field of Science and Technology Studies –studies of Expertise and Experience (SEE). I couple the software ‘biography’ approach (Pollock and Williams 2009) with concepts from Simondon’s thesis on the individuation of technical beings (1958) as an integrated framework. I also design a single case study, which is supported by an extensive and longitudinal collection of data and a three-stage approach, including the analysis of sociograms, and email content. This case provides a rich empirical setting that challenges the current understanding of the ontology of software and goes beyond the instrumental views of design, building a comprehensive framework for community participation and software sustainability in the context of the microfinance global industry

Intranet of the future: functional study, comparison of products and practical implementation

Future intranet: functional study, comparison of products and practical implementation 1. Introduction The project has fulfilled three goals: 1) To perform a study of the functionalities which have to be covered in a modern intranet (web 2.0, unified communication, collaboration, etc) 2) To perform a comparison of tools of the market which can be used to implement intranets (commercial and open source products) 3) To test three of these tools (Oracle WebCenter, Liferay Portal and Microsoft SharePoint) and develop a prototype with Oracle WebCenter. In addition, it includes a research about the evolution of the Intranets among the time, as well as a work to discover the current state of this kind of platforms over the entire world. In this introductory research it is also convenient to include other topics which are not strictly technical involving the use of this Intranet. To be more concrete, there is an analysis of the importance of the human role and management of the Intranet, the process of deploying a new Intranet in an organization and methods to evaluate the performance of this new system.   2. Functional study The approach taken to fulfil this goal is to develop a theoretical model describing the relationship between the Intranet and its users, and a complete set of functionalities which could be covered in the Intranet of the future. These functionalities are categorized in groups. The project describes these groups and the functionalities included on them. 3. Comparison of products The project will describe and compare several technologies which can be used to develop an Intranet that we have previously modelled. The purpose here is to discover the strong points and weaknesses of each technology if it was used to develop the Intranet we desire. After having done such a review, the project focuses on three technologies and performs an extensive evaluation of them. Finally, an extensive comparison between these three technologies is done, highlighting where they offer better solutions and performance compared to the other possibilities. 4. Practical implementation The project focuses on three technologies: Oracle WebCenter, Liferay Portal and Microsoft SharePoint. Then, a prototype which covers a set of functionalities of the modelled Intranet has been built with Oracle WebCenter

An Adaptive Framework for Improving the Effectiveness of Virtual Enterprises in the Supply Chain

This thesis describes a research project that develops an adaptive framework for improving the effectiveness of virtual enterprises in the supply chains in Mongolia. The research takes empirical and quantitative approach to study the phenomenon of virtual enterprises. Based on a literature review, the factors that influence organisations to join in virtual enterprises are studied by a higher-order factor analysis. As a result, agility is identified as one of the main benefits organisations can gain by joining a virtual enterprise temporarily and changes in business performance are conceived as the measures of effectiveness. Next, a taxonomy of enterprises is developed with five distinguishing clusters that achieve differing levels of agility and business performance. This study suggests that enterprises that are monitoring changes in their business environment take most advantage of agility and achieve the best levels of performance. These findings then allow an adaptive framework based on common reference architectures to be developed as a main contribution of this study. The framework includes a breeding environment as a ‘pool’ of prepared enterprises with the ability to form temporary collaborations to react responsively, rapidly and effectively to the fast-changing opportunities. A structural equation model was used to examine the model fit with the supporting hypotheses, based on the observed data. Then, a powerful clustered expectation maximisation algorithm was applied to the analysis of the grouped enterprises. Finally, a simulation-based case study was conducted to validate the developed framework. The results provide rich empirical evidence of the beneficial impact of virtual enterprises on agile supply chains. The research provides rich empirical evidence of the beneficial impact of virtual enterprises on agile supply chains. It also provides theoretical and managerial insights that can be used to strengthen the drivers, enablers and capabilities that enhance the effectiveness of virtual enterprises collaboration in agile supply chains that can be translated to a global context. These are major contributions the ‘body of knowledge’ in themselves, but the research also adds usefully to the study of applied research methodologies in the area

Axmedis 2005

The AXMEDIS conference aims to promote discussions and interactions among researchers, practitioners, developers and users of tools, technology transfer experts, and project managers, to bring together a variety of participants. The conference focuses on the challenges in the cross-media domain (which include production, protection, management, representation, formats, aggregation, workflow, distribution, business and transaction models), and the integration of content management systems and distribution chains, with particular emphasis on cost reduction and effective solutions for complex cross-domain problems

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

Modern Information Systems

The development of modern information systems is a demanding task. New technologies and tools are designed, implemented and presented in the market on a daily bases. User needs change dramatically fast and the IT industry copes to reach the level of efficiency and adaptability for its systems in order to be competitive and up-to-date. Thus, the realization of modern information systems with great characteristics and functionalities implemented for specific areas of interest is a fact of our modern and demanding digital society and this is the main scope of this book. Therefore, this book aims to present a number of innovative and recently developed information systems. It is titled "Modern Information Systems" and includes 8 chapters. This book may assist researchers on studying the innovative functions of modern systems in various areas like health, telematics, knowledge management, etc. It can also assist young students in capturing the new research tendencies of the information systems' development

A Semantic Wiki-based Platform for IT Service Management

The book researches the use of a semantic wiki in the area of IT Service Management within the IT department of an SME. An emphasis of the book lies in the design and prototypical implementation of tools for the integration of ITSM-relevant information into the semantic wiki, as well as tools for interactions between the wiki and external programs. The result of the book is a platform for agile, semantic wiki-based ITSM for IT administration teams of SMEs