Democratisation of Work through the application of Web 2.0 technologies

Under the influence of Web 2.0 Work (purposeful directed action) is democratised moving it away from productionistmetaphysics. Web 2.0 symbolises a cultural phenomenon summarised as a collection of emerging technologies andmethodologies that, in the enterprise, provides for a shift in the asymmetric distribution of power such that the technologicalhuman has access to mechanisms and processes that allow greater participation in formative decision-making. Thetechnological enterprise, through fostering Web 2.0 technologies, is able to offer the infrastructure the technological humancan use to build its own social networks. This provides an opportunity for employee to invest emotionally in the purposes andintentions of the enterprise

Towards a Structural Equation Model of Open Source Blockchain Software Health

The widespread use of GitHub among software developers as a communal platform for coordinating software development has led to an abundant supply of publicly accessible data. Ever since the inception of Bitcoin, blockchain teams have incorporated the concept of open source code as a fundamental principle, thus making the majority of blockchain-based projects' code and version control data available for analysis. We define health in open source software projects to be a combination of the concepts of sustainability, robustness, and niche occupation. Sustainability is further divided into interest and engagement. This work uses exploratory factor analysis to identify latent constructs that are representative of general public interest or popularity in software, and software robustness within open source blockchain projects. We find that interest is a combination of stars, forks, and text mentions in the GitHub repository, while a second factor for robustness is composed of a criticality score, time since last updated, numerical rank, and geographic distribution. Cross validation of the dataset is carried out with good support for the model. A structural model of software health is proposed such that general interest positively influences developer engagement, which, in turn, positively predicts software robustness. The implications of structural equation modelling in the context of software engineering and next steps are discussed.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figure

Virtualization Technology: Cross-VM Cache Side Channel Attacks make it Vulnerable

Cloud computing provides an effective business model for the deployment of IT infrastructure, platform, and software services. Often, facilities are outsourced to cloud providers and this offers the service consumer virtualization technologies without the added cost burden of development. However, virtualization introduces serious threats to service delivery such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, Cross-VM Cache Side Channel attacks, Hypervisor Escape and Hyper-jacking. One of the most sophisticated forms of attack is the cross-VM cache side channel attack that exploits shared cache memory between VMs. A cache side channel attack results in side channel data leakage, such as cryptographic keys. Various techniques used by the attackers to launch cache side channel attack are presented, as is a critical analysis of countermeasures against cache side channel attacks

Identifying Developer Engagement in Open-Source Software Blockchain Projects through Factor Analysis

The ubiquity of GitHub for software developers to coordinate software development in a community platform has resulted in a rich source of public data. Blockchain teams put open-source code as a founding principle since the release of Bitcoin and nearly all blockchain-based projects have code visible on GitHub. Developer engagement is known to be important to the health and viability of open-source software, yet has varying definitions and no standard method of measuring what constitutes engagement. This work uses exploratory factor analysis to identify dimensions that represent engagement in a community of open-source developers. We find that a latent factor composed of pull-requests, commits, comments, and authors based on a monthly average of the previous three months is a representation of Developer Engagement. A secondary factor consists of stars, forks, and total authors. Cross validation of the dataset is carried out with good support for the model

CORP: An algorithm to prevent unauthorized data modification using collaborative nodes

The COllaborative Redundant Processing (CORP) algorithm is an approach to prevent unauthorised modification of data in a decentralised and distributed computing environment. Built on Ki-Nga-Kopuku, a distributed and decentralised security model for Cloud Computing, where redundant nodes are functionally identical, the nodes collectively maintain consistency and integrity of processed data. If a single node is compromised and acts maliciously to modify data, other nodes detect the action. CORP extends the functionality of Ki-Nga-Kopuku and is developed mainly for a Cloud Computing context, but the concept can be used in any distributed and decentralised environment to provide consistency, integrity, and availability

Big Data Reference Architectures, a systematic literature review

Today, we live in a world that produces data at an unprecedented rate. The significant amount of data has raised lots of attention and many strive to harness the power of this new material. In the same direction, academics and practitioners have considered means through which they can incorporate datadriven functions and explore patterns that were otherwise unknown. This has led to a concept called Big Data. Big Data is a field that deals with data sets that are too large and complex for traditional approaches to handle. Technical matters are fundamentally critical, but what is even more necessary, is an architecture that supports the orchestration of Big Data systems; an image of the system providing with clear understanding of different elements and their interdependencies. Reference architectures aid in defining the body of system and its key components, relationships, behaviors, patterns and limitations. This study provides an in-depth review of Big Data Reference Architectures by applying a systematic literature review. The study demonstrates a synthesis of high-quality research to offer indications of new trends. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on the principles of Reference Architectures, the current state of Big Data Reference Architectures, and their limitations

Arguments for the Adoption of a Heuristic Approach to IS Research

The concept of heuristic developed by philosophers of science depicts a theoretical way of investigating the world of models and the problematic relations models may have to other models, to theories, and to empirical data. The heuristic is a set of abstractions elaborated as stories, interpretations, speculations, metaphors, and other forms of abstract speculations. The heuristic is a device for connecting entities through problem-based methods that allow for the assessment of the validity of theory. In this paper we describe a set of heuristics as a guide for IS research to develop a progressive problem shift. Positive and negative heuristics as a guiding framework in terms of evaluating a hypothetical critical realist research program are developed and presented as a set of methodological rules for the establishment of a progressive problem-shift

A Distributed Security Model for Cloud Computing

Security in Cloud Computing is an ongoing concern and so security mechanisms play an important role. While mechanisms for security in the Cloud exist, new vulnerabilities for Cloud is an ongoing issue. For this, we contend that a need for a new type of security mechanism and model is required. Therefore, we propose a conceptual, high-level view of a distributed security model for Cloud Computing. This paper is part of an ongoing longitudinal study in which the model is outlined and discusses how the proposed security model is distributed among Cloud servers. The distributed security model presents multiple sacrificial targets in an attack and consequently eliminates any single point of failure

A Generalized Threat Taxonomy for Cloud Computing

This paper presents a genre-based, generalized threat taxonomy for cloud computing. Cloud computing provides numerous possibilities and challenges but the nature of cloud computing exposes the resources of a cloud architecture to a wide range of threats. Presently, many potential threats, represented as security concerns, are known in a general sense but they are not classified specifically in relation to cloud services delivery. Therefore security concerns need identification and assessment and presented in a consistent and hierarchical form. We posit that to approach the issue in this way allows for more effective enforcement and therefore better resilience in a cloud architecture. We further posit that failure to effectively identify threats will lead to lower levels of trust, effectiveness and performance. The generalized threat taxonomy provides researchers with a framework through which risk factors and threats may be identified; and related against an overall picture of threat patterns

A cadaveric study of the anterolateral ligament: re-introducing the lateral capsular ligament.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to verify and characterize the anatomical properties of the anterolateral capsule, with the aim of establishing a more accurate anatomical description of the anterolateral ligament (ALL). Furthermore, microscopic analysis of the tissue was performed to determine whether the ALL can morphologically be classified as ligamentous tissue, as well as reveal any potential functional characteristics. METHODS: Three different modalities were used to validate the existence of the ALL: magnetic resonance imagining (MRI), anatomical dissection, and histological analysis. Ten fresh-frozen cadaveric knee specimens underwent MRI, followed by anatomical dissection which allowed comparison of MRI to gross anatomy. Nine additional fresh-frozen cadaveric knees (19 total) were dissected for a further anatomical description. Four specimens underwent H&E staining to look at morphological characteristics, and one specimen was analysed using immunohistochemistry to locate peripheral nervous innervation. RESULTS: The ALL was found in all ten knees undergoing MRI and all nineteen knees undergoing anatomical dissection, with MRI being able to predict its corresponding anatomical dissection. The ALL was found to have bone-to-bone attachment points from the lateral femoral epicondyle to the lateral tibia, in addition to a prominent meniscal attachment. Histological sectioning showed ALL morphology to be characteristic of ligamentous tissue, having dense, regularly organized collagenous bundles. Immunohistochemistry revealed a large network of peripheral nervous innervation, indicating a potential proprioceptive role. CONCLUSION: From this study, the ALL is an independent structure in the anterolateral compartment of the knee and may serve a proprioceptive role in knee mechanics