A qualitative study of stakeholders' perspectives on the social network service environment

Over two billion people are using the Internet at present, assisted by the mediating activities of software agents which deal with the diversity and complexity of information. There are, however, ethical issues due to the monitoring-and-surveillance, data mining and autonomous nature of software agents. Considering the context, this study aims to comprehend stakeholders' perspectives on the social network service environment in order to identify the main considerations for the design of software agents in social network services in the near future. Twenty-one stakeholders, belonging to three key stakeholder groups, were recruited using a purposive sampling strategy for unstandardised semi-structured e-mail interviews. The interview data were analysed using a qualitative content analysis method. It was possible to identify three main considerations for the design of software agents in social network services, which were classified into the following categories: comprehensive understanding of users' perception of privacy, user type recognition algorithms for software agent development and existing software agents enhancement

The Public Archives at the NASA Michelson Science Center

This presentation describes the scientific data sets and user services accessible through the public archive at the Michelson Science Center (MSC). The MSC is charged by NASA with providing long-term data archiving capabilities for the Navigator Program, whose goal is to detect and characterize Earth like planets around stars other than the Sun. The archive makes extensive re-use of the component-based software architecture of the NASA IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA). It also re-uses IRSAs Configuration Management system, user support tools, and development and data ingestion processes

Enterprise application reuse: Semantic discovery of business grid services

Web services have emerged as a prominent paradigm for the development of distributed software systems as they provide the potential for software to be modularized in a way that functionality can be described, discovered and deployed in a platform independent manner over a network (e.g., intranets, extranets and the Internet). This paper examines an extension of this paradigm to encompass ‘Grid Services’, which enables software capabilities to be recast with an operational focus and support a heterogeneous mix of business software and data, termed a Business Grid - "the grid of semantic services". The current industrial representation of services is predominantly syntactic however, lacking the fundamental semantic underpinnings required to fulfill the goals of any semantically-oriented Grid. Consequently, the use of semantic technology in support of business software heterogeneity is investigated as a likely tool to support a diverse and distributed software inventory and user. Service discovery architecture is therefore developed that is (a) distributed in form, (2) supports distributed service knowledge and (3) automatically extends service knowledge (as greater descriptive precision is inferred from the operating application system). This discovery engine is used to execute several real-word scenarios in order to develop and test a framework for engineering such grid service knowledge. The examples presented comprise software components taken from a group of Investment Banking systems. Resulting from the research is a framework for engineering servic

Technical Foundations to Cut Down Administrative Red Tape: The Case of the Canton of Vaud

In this paper, we describe an analysis framework we developed in order to analyze the implementation of a simplification strategy in a Swiss Canton. This strategy is based on a participatory analysis of services and on the development of eGovernment foundations through the use of open standards and open source software. This framework takes into account both the supply side of administrative services and the user uptake. We will furthermore present preliminary results of our survey.eGovernment; foundations; e-Services; users; standardization; case study

Software for Wearable Devices: Challenges and Opportunities

Wearable devices are a new form of mobile computer system that provides exclusive and user-personalized services. Wearable devices bring new issues and challenges to computer science and technology. This paper summarizes the development process and the categories of wearable devices. In addition, we present new key issues arising in aspects of wearable devices, including operating systems, database management system, network communication protocol, application development platform, privacy and security, energy consumption, human-computer interaction, software engineering, and big data.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, for Compsac 201

Sign project telegenetics - providing remote genetic services in the cross-border region of Italy and Slovenia

This paper describes the telegenetics component of the SIGN project. Telegenetics is a subfield of telemedicine applied to clinical genetics. In the SIGN project, telegenetics aims to provide remote genetic services in the cross-border region of Italy and Slovenia. More specifically, the goal is to develop remote genetic services in areas without them and to provide best expertise in clinical genetics without the need to travel large distances (patients or professionals). The major telegenetics activities within the SIGN project are the development of remote genetic services: for genetic counseling, for expert to expert communication, and for communication between the partners of the project. To accomplish the activities, these major tasks had to be done: testing and selection of video-conferencing equipment and software for secure data sharing and exchange; development of work protocols; end-user education; installation, configuration and testing of necessary hardware, software and developed protocols; and evaluation of user satisfaction (both patients and genetic service providers). The preliminary evaluation results show promising user-satisfaction. They also highlight areas where further improvement of the remote services is possible

Microservices and Machine Learning Algorithms for Adaptive Green Buildings

In recent years, the use of services for Open Systems development has consolidated and strengthened. Advances in the Service Science and Engineering (SSE) community, promoted by the reinforcement of Web Services and Semantic Web technologies and the presence of new Cloud computing techniques, such as the proliferation of microservices solutions, have allowed software architects to experiment and develop new ways of building open and adaptable computer systems at runtime. Home automation, intelligent buildings, robotics, graphical user interfaces are some of the social atmosphere environments suitable in which to apply certain innovative trends. This paper presents a schema for the adaptation of Dynamic Computer Systems (DCS) using interdisciplinary techniques on model-driven engineering, service engineering and soft computing. The proposal manages an orchestrated microservices schema for adapting component-based software architectural systems at runtime. This schema has been developed as a three-layer adaptive transformation process that is supported on a rule-based decision-making service implemented by means of Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. The experimental development was implemented in the Solar Energy Research Center (CIESOL) applying the proposed microservices schema for adapting home architectural atmosphere systems on Green Buildings

Night optimised care technology for users needing assisted lifestyles

There is growing interest in the development of ambient assisted living services to increase the quality of life of the increasing proportion of the older population. We report on the Night Optimised Care Technology for UseRs Needing Assisted Lifestyles project, which provides specialised night time support to people at early stages of dementia. This article explains the technical infrastructure, the intelligent software behind the decision-making driving the system, the software development process followed, the interfaces used to interact with the user, and the findings and lessons of our user-centred approach

User Participation in Software Design via Social Media: Experiences from a Case Study with Consumers

User participation has proved to have many benefits in software development. The traditional methods for participation rely mainly on face-to-face meetings and are therefore not easily applicable to designing online services targeted at distributed consumers. Social media have become widely used among consumers and could thus offer many opportunities for involving users in software design. We present a case study in which a group of users participated for over six months in the process of designing a new online service via social media tools. The users played an active role in the development of the system, tailoring it to their own needs. Our results show that social media provide real possibilities for user involvement in software design and also shape some elements of the participation process. In social media, user contributions are mainly small and dispersed over time, but users can be involved almost continuously in the design process, thus enabling them to have a more active role in decision-making. Software development practices need to be modified so that small user contributions fit into the process