Precise service level agreements

SLAng is an XML language for defining service level agreements, the part of a contract between the client and provider of an Internet service that describes the quality attributes that the service is required to possess. We define the semantics of SLAng precisely by modelling the syntax of the language in UML, then embedding the language model in an environmental model that describes the structure and behaviour of services. The presence of SLAng elements imposes behavioural constraints on service elements, and the precise definition of these constraints using OCL constitutes the semantic description of the language. We use the semantics to define a notion of SLA compatibility, and an extension to UML that enables the modelling of service situations as a precursor to analysis, implementation and provisioning activities

German technology policy, innovation, and national institutional frameworks

The pattern of innovation in Germany is substantially different from that in the US and the UK. It is argued that German patterns of innovation - incremental innovation in high quality products especially in engineering and chemicals - require long-term capital, highly cooperative unions and powerful employer associations, effective vocational training systems and close long-term cooperation between companies and with research institutes and university departments. (The more radical high-technology innovation typical of the US and the UK benefits by contrast from less regulated market conditions.) These conditions are met by the incentives and constraints of the institutional framework in which companies located in Germany are embedded. It is suggested that German technology policy is appropriate to and important for this pattern of high-quality incremental innovation. Moreover, the institutional framework - especially the role of powerful business associations - can solve the collective action problems to which German-type technology policy would normally be exposed. -- Die Entwicklungsvoraussetzungen für Innovationen in Deutschland unterscheiden sich substantiell von dem entsprechenden Muster in den USA oder in Großbritannien. In dem Papier wird die Meinung vertreten, daß die in Deutschland vorherrschenden Formen von Innovationen - Entwicklungen in kleinen Schritten bei technischen und chemischen Spitzenprodukten - langfristiges Kapital, sehr kooperative Gewerkschaften und mächtige Arbeitgeberverbände, ein effizientes Berufsausbildungssystem und eine enge langfristige Zusammenarbeit zwischen Unternehmen einerseits und Forschungsinstituten bzw. Universitätseinrichtungen andererseits voraussetzt. (Den für die USA und Großbritannien typischen hochtechnologischen Basisinnovationen sind im Gegensatz dazu geringer regulierte Marktbedingungen förderlich.) Diese Bedingungen werden durch die Anreize und Beschränkungen des Institutionengefüges, in dessen Rahmen die Unternehmen in Deutschland arbeiten, erfüllt. Es wird in dem Papier die These vertreten, daß die Technologiepolitik in Deutschland angemessen und wichtig für den beschriebenen Innovationstyp ist. Darüber hinaus kann das Institutionengefüge - vor allem die mächtigen Unternehmensverbände - die collective-action- Probleme lösen, denen die in Deutschland vorherrschende Technologiepolitik normalerweise ausgesetzt wäre.

Norm-based and commitment-driven agentification of the Internet of Things

There are no doubts that the Internet-of-Things (IoT) has conquered the ICT industry to the extent that many governments and organizations are already rolling out many anywhere,anytime online services that IoT sustains. However, like any emerging and disruptive technology, multiple obstacles are slowing down IoT practical adoption including the passive nature and privacy invasion of things. This paper examines how to empower things with necessary capabilities that would make them proactive and responsive. This means things can, for instance reach out to collaborative peers, (un)form dynamic communities when necessary, avoid malicious peers, and be “questioned” for their actions. To achieve such empowerment, this paper presents an approach for agentifying things using norms along with commitments that operationalize these norms. Both norms and commitments are specialized into social (i.e., application independent) and business (i.e., application dependent), respectively. Being proactive, things could violate commitments at run-time, which needs to be detected through monitoring. In this paper, thing agentification is illustrated with a case study about missing children and demonstrated with a testbed that uses different IoT-related technologies such as Eclipse Mosquitto broker and Message Queuing Telemetry Transport protocol. Some experiments conducted upon this testbed are also discussed

European/Southern African Development Community (SADC) states' bilateral investment agreements (BITs) for the promotion and protection of foreign investments vs post‐apartheid SADC economic and social reconstruction policy

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. This article is (c) Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here. Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited.Purpose – This article aims to examine the sustainability of European and SADC states' practice of agreeing bilateral investment agreements (BITs) for the promotion and protection of foreign investments in light of the latter's recent inauguration of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) as a basic norm of regional customary international law and strategy for countering the social and economic legacy of apartheid rule on their territories for over half a century. Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken is textual analysis and deconstruction of emergent SADC BEE legislation, substantive BIT legislation provisions, dispute settlement mechanisms and emergent jurisprudence on the tensions between BEE policy and BIT obligations. Findings – The strong elements of exclusivity between European/SADC BIT dispute settlement mechanisms on the one hand, and the “ouster clauses” of SADC BEE legislation and regulations on the other, are mutually incompatible. This incompatibility threatens the sustainability of the EU/SADC states' BIT dynamic for the promotion and protection of foreign direct investments (FDIs). Originality/value – Demonstration of BEE as SADC's emergent basic norm of social reconstruction for countering the social and economic legacy of apartheid rule in affected states and implications of that for EU/SADC policy on the promotion and protection of FDIs