VALS WP7 – Dissemination. Status at Salamanca final meeting

[EN]This presentation was made in the Final VALS project meeting in Salamanca (Spain) at February 11th – 12th 2016. It is devoted to present the current state of the dissemination of VALS project

Cloud service localisation

The essence of cloud computing is the provision of software and hardware services to a range of users in dierent locations. The aim of cloud service localisation is to facilitate the internationalisation and localisation of cloud services by allowing their adaption to dierent locales. We address the lingual localisation by providing service-level language translation techniques to adopt services to dierent languages and regulatory localisation by providing standards-based mappings to achieve regulatory compliance with regionally varying laws, standards and regulations. The aim is to support and enforce the explicit modelling of aspects particularly relevant to localisation and runtime support consisting of tools and middleware services to automating the deployment based on models of locales, driven by the two localisation dimensions. We focus here on an ontology-based conceptual information model that integrates locale specication in a coherent way

Context-aware and automatic configuration of mobile devices in cloud-enabled ubiquitous computing

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00779-013-0698-3. Copyright @ Springer-Verlag London 2013.Context-sensitive (or aware) applications have, in recent years, moved from the realm of possibilities to that of ubiquity. One exciting research area that is still very much in the realm of possibilities is that of cloud computing, and in this paper, we present our work, which explores the overlap of these two research areas. Accordingly, this paper explores the notion of cross-source integration of cloud-based, context-aware information in ubiquitous computing through a developed prototypical solution. Moreover, the described solution incorporates remote and automatic configuration of Android smartphones and advances the research area of context-aware information by harvesting information from several sources to build a rich foundation on which algorithms for context-aware computation can be based. Evaluation results show the viability of integrating and tailoring contextual information to provide users with timely, relevant and adapted application behaviour and content

Understanding the barriers to virtual student placements in the Semester of Code

The Semester of Code initiative organised virtual placements for university students around Europe, working on authentic business problems using open source software. The project was welcomed by stakeholders, and many companies and open source foundations became involved. However, the response from students was disappointing. In this paper we examine the reasons for this, discussing the results of the evaluation work carried out. Finally, we consider the implications of our work for student placements and the Knowledge Alliance European Union programme.La iniciativa Semester of Code organiza prácticas virtuales para estudiantes universitarios de toda Europa, trabajando en problemas reales de empresas que emplean software de código abierto en sus procesos de negocio. El proyecto fue bienvenido por todos actores involucrados, entre los que se encuentran varias empresas y fundaciones relacionadas con el software libre. Sin embargo, la respuesta por parte de los estudiantes fue menor de lo esperado. En este artículo se examinan las razones de ello, se discuten los resultados de la evaluación que se ha llevado a cabo. Finalmente, se reflexiona sobre las implicaciones del trabajo realizado para las prácticas en empresas de los estudiantes y el Programa Knowledge Alliance de la Unión Europea

A cloud resource management model for the creation and orchestration of social communities

Managing resources, context and data in mobile clouds is a challenging task. Specific aspects of spontaneity, large interaction space and dynamic interaction share a metaphorical resemblance to chemistry, chemical reactions and solutions. In this paper, it is argued that by adopting a nature-inspired chemical computing model, a mobile cloud resource management model can be evolved to serve as the basis for novel service modelling and social computing in mobile clouds. To support the argument, a chemistry inspired computation model, Chemistry for Context Awareness (C2A), is extended with Higher Order Chemical Language (HOCL) and High Level Petri-net Graph (HLPNG) formalisms. A scenario and simulation-based evaluation of the proposed model, focusing on two applications dynamic service composition and social communities identification, is also presented in this paper. The formal encoding of C2A validates its assumptions, enabling formal execution and analysis of context-based interactions that are derived using C2A principles

VALS: Virtual Alliances for Learning Society

[EN] VALS has the aims of establishing sustainable methods and processes to build knowledge partnerships between Higher Education and companies to collaborate on resolving authentic business problems through open innovation mediated by the use of Open Source Software. Open Source solutions provide the means whereby educational institutions, students, businesses and foundations can all collaborate to resolve authentic business problems. Not only Open Software provides the necessary shared infrastructure and collaborative practice, the foundations that manage the software are also hubs, which channel the operational challenges of their users through to the people who can solve them. This has great potential for enabling students and supervisors to collaborate in resolving the problems of businesses, but is constrained by the lack of support for managing and promoting collaboration across the two sectors. VALS should 1) provide the methods, practice, documentation and infrastructure to unlock this potential through virtual placements in businesses and other public and private bodies; and 2) pilot and promote these as the “Semester of Code”. To achieve its goals the project develops guidance for educational institutions, and for businesses and foundations, detailing the opportunities and the benefits to be gained from the Semester of Code, and the changes to organisation and practice required. A Virtual Placement System is going to be developed, adapting Apache Melange, and extending it where necessary. In piloting, the necessary adaptations to practice will be carried out, particularly in universities, and commitments will be established between problem owners and applicants for virtual placements

Engineering context-aware systems and applications:A survey

Context-awareness is an essential component of systems developed in areas like Intelligent Environments, Pervasive & Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence. In these emerging fields, there is a need for computerized systems to have a higher understanding of the situations in which to provide services or functionalities, to adapt accordingly. The literature shows that researchers modify existing engineering methods in order to better fit the needs of context-aware computing. These efforts are typically disconnected from each other and generally focus on solving specific development issues. We encourage the creation of a more holistic and unified engineering process that is tailored for the demands of these systems. For this purpose, we study the state-of-the-art in the development of context-aware systems, focusing on: (A) Methodologies for developing context-aware systems, analyzing the reasons behind their lack of adoption and features that the community wish they can use; (B) Context-aware system engineering challenges and techniques applied during the most common development stages; (C) Context-aware systems conceptualization

Linked USDL Privacy: Describing Privacy Policies for Services

As the provision of services and the use of personal data expands, the need for services to explicitly detail what personal data a service handles and in which manner becomes paramount in order to achieve a fully transparent, ethical and personalized user experience. Services usually require access to sensitive information and may distribute this information to third parties. Service consumers need to be informed about the ways their data are used and about the actors involved in this process. Universal service descriptions that can be used to cover any business service are required to provide interoperability. In this paper, we describe our work on the privacy module for the Linked Unified Service Description Language (USDL). We expand the language by introducing a new module that allows the specification of privacy properties for business services. We have considered recent advances in data protection for its creation and provide a method, accompanied by a software tool, to examine the validity of privacy policy descriptions with Linked USDL Privacy module

SensoMan: Social Management of Context Sensors and Actuators for IoT

Sensor networks that collect data from the environment can be utilized in the development of context-aware applications, bringing into sight the need for data collection, management, and distribution. Boards with microcontrollers, such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi, have gained wide acceptance and are used mainly for educational and research purposes. Utilizing the information available via sensors connected to these platforms requires extended technical knowledge. In this work, we present a sensor management framework, SensoMan, that manages a collection of sensors spread in the environment connected to microcontroller boards. We present the framework’s architecture, a method for sensor data management, and a prototype system. Sensor data can also trigger the execution of actions on actuators. Thus, we further propose a rule engine as well as social connectivity following a scheme where sensors and their data can be shared among users. Our work shows that the creation of such a system is feasible and can use simple equipment (e.g., sensors, controller plugs) that can be replicated in other environments. The use of SensoMan is demonstrated via two scenarios that show its potential in combining simple tools that do not require an extended learning curve. A small-scale user study was also performed