Cloud Computing to Automate Information Units

This article will address the main technical aspects that facilitate the use and growth of computer technology in the cloud, which go hand in hand with the emergence of more and better services on the Internet and technological development of the broadband. Finally, we know what is the impact that the cloud computing technologies in the automation of information units.

Auctioning versus grandfathering in cap-and-trade systems with market power and incomplete information

We compare auctioning and grandfathering as allocation mechanisms of emission permits when there is a secondary market with market power and firms have private information on their own abatement technologies. Based on real-life cases such as the EU ETS, we consider a multi-unit, multi-bid uniform auction. At the auction, each firm anticipates its role in the secondary market, either as a leader or a follower. This role affects each firms’ valuation of the permits (which are not common across firms) as well as their bidding strategies and it precludes the auction from generating a cost-effective allocation of permits, as it occurs in simpler auction models. Auctioning tends to be more cost-effective than grandfathering when the firms’ abatement cost functions are sufficiently different from one another, especially if the follower has lower abatement costs than the leader and the dispersion of the marginal costs is large enough.

The Promise of Access: Hope and Inequality in the Information Economy

In 2013, a series of posters began appearing in Washington, DC’s Metro system. Each declared “The internet: Your future depends on it” next to a photo of a middle-aged black Washingtonian, and an advertisement for the municipal government’s digital training resources. This hopeful discourse is familiar but where exactly does it come from? And how are our public institutions reorganized to approach the problem of poverty as a problem of technology? The Clinton administration’s ‘digital divide’ policy program popularized this hopeful discourse about personal computing powering social mobility, positioned internet startups as the ‘right’ side of the divide, and charged institutions of social reproduction such as schools and libraries with closing the gap and upgrading themselves in the image of internet startups. After introducing the development regime that builds this idea into the urban landscape through what I call the ‘political economy of hope’, and tracing the origin of the digital divide frame, this dissertation draws on three years of comparative ethnographic fieldwork in startups, schools, and libraries to explore how this hope is reproduced in daily life, becoming the common sense that drives our understanding of and interaction with economic inequality and reproduces that inequality in turn. I show that the hope in personal computing to power social mobility becomes a method of securing legitimacy and resources for both white émigré technologists and institutions of social reproduction struggling to understand and manage the persistent poverty of the information economy. I track the movement of this common sense between institutions, showing how the political economy of hope transforms them as part of a larger development project. This dissertation models a new, relational direction for digital divide research that grounds the politics of economic inequality with an empirical focus on technologies of poverty management. It demands a conceptual shift that sees the digital divide not as a bug within the information economy, but a feature of it.

Prospects and Opportunities. New Technology Trends yield new opportunities for Libraries and Information Centers

A number of important trends currently impact libraries. Academic libraries face the fundamental shift of collections toward ever increasing proportions of electronic content; public libraries continue to see vigorous interest in print materials, now supplemented by demand to provide e-books for lending. Breeding will explore these and other trends and describe some of the technologies available and emerging to help libraries meet the challenges involved in this context.

Possibilities and problems of teaching the history of the present time through media and information literacy.

Le système éducatif encourage une histoire positiviste, ordonnée, unilatérale et universelle; par l´incorporation de le découpage chronologique de l´histoire en quatre étapes. Mais, est-ce qu´il serait posible que les élèves puissent étudier leur propre présent? Mon commuication poursuit d´exposer, comme Saab affirmait, le présent est “le point de départ et d´arrivée de l´enseignement de l´histoire détermine les allers et les retours au passé”. La façon d´approcher l´enseignement de l´histoire est confortable. Il n´y a pas de questions, il n´y a pas de discussions. Cette vision de l´histoire interprétée par l´homme blancoccidental-hétérosexuel s´inscrit dans le projet de la modernité du Siècle des Lumières. Par conséquent, cette histoire obvie que nous vivons dans una société postmoderne de la suspicion, de la pensée débile. En ce qui concerne la problématique autour de la pollution audiovisuelle et la façon dont les enseignants et les élèves sont quotidiennement confrontés à ce problème. Par conséquent, il est nécessaire de réfléchir à la question de l´enseignement de l´histoire quadripartite. Actuellement, les médias et les nouvelles technologies sont en train de changer la vie de l´humanité. Il est indispensable que l´élève connaisse son histoire presente et les scénarioshistoriques dans l´avenir. Je pense en la nécessité d´adopter une didactique de l’histoire presente et par conséquent, nous devons utiliser la maîtrise des médias et de l´information. Il faut une formation des enseignants que pose, comme Gadamer a dit: “le passé y le présent se trouvent par une négociation permanente”. Una formation des enseignants qui permette de comprendre et penser l´histoire future / les histoires futures. À mon avis, si les élèves comprennent la complexité de leur monde et leurs multiples visions, les élèves seront plus tolérantes et empathiques.

Design and implementation of an enterprise application integration solution for science and research outcomes information management using guaraná technology

This document presents an Enterprise Application Integration based proposal for research outcomes and technological information management. The proposal addresses national and international science and research outcomes information management, and corresponding information systems. Information systems interoperability problems, approaches, technologies and integration tools are presented and applied to the research outcomes information management case. A business and technological perspective is provided, including the conceptual analysis and modelling, an integration solution based in a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) and the integration platform to execute the proposed solution. For illustrative purposes, the role and information system needs of a research unit is assumed as the representative case.

Researching the Use of Communication Technologies in Higher Education Institutions in Portugal

This paper describes a research which main purpose was identifying and characterizing the use of Communication Technologies by Portuguese Public Higher Education Institutions to support learning activities. An analysis model was created and used to develop a nationwide online survey used to collect data from students, teachers and institutional managers. The results show that institutional policies and resources are in place and being used to support learning; learning management systems and interpersonal communication technologies are intensely used and widely adopted; and that there are gender differences as far as the students' use of Communication Technologies is concerned. The results of this project provide a useful insight on the use of Communication Technologies by Portuguese Public Higher Education Institutions and give valuable information for ongoing decision making processes regarding the institutional adoption and development of learning models that take advantage of these technologies.

Disabling and Enabling Technologies for Learning in Higher Education for All : Issues and Challenges for Whom?

Integration, inclusion, and equity constitute fundamental dimensions of democracy in post-World War II societies and their institutions. The study presented here reports upon the ways in which individuals and institutions both use and account for the roles that technologies, including ICT, play in disabling and enabling access for learning in higher education for all. Technological innovations during the 20th and 21st centuries, including ICT, have been heralded as holding significant promise for revolutionizing issues of access in societal institutions like schools, healthcare services, etc. (at least in the global North). Taking a socially oriented perspective, the study presented in this paper focuses on an ethnographically framed analysis of two datasets that critically explores the role that technologies, including ICT, play in higher education for individuals who are “differently abled” and who constitute a variation on a continuum of capabilities. Functionality as a dimension of everyday life in higher education in the 21st century is explored through the analysis of (i) case studies of two “differently abled” students in Sweden and (ii) current support services at universities in Sweden. The findings make visible the work that institutions and their members do through analyses of the organization of time and space and the use of technologies in institutional settings against the backdrop of individuals’ accountings and life trajectories. This study also highlights the relevance of multi-scale data analyses for revisiting the ways in which identity positions become framed or understood within higher education.

Identification technologies to support Alzheimer contexts

Alzheimer's disease makes great demands on care by assistants, due to the fact that they cannot distract their attention from patients while they are at the same time managing records. For that reason, technologies to complement this process need to be adapted. In this work we present a proposal to adapt identification technologies: Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) and Near Field Communications (NFC), focusing especially on the last one. We fuse both technologies and apply them to an Alzheimer's day center. Patients are tagged with two kinds of labels: 13.56Mhz.Mifare for NFC and UHF for RFID. With the first one we tag the context, which means patients, devices (displays, exercise books, etc) and places. With a simple interaction, which involves touching tags with mobile phones, it is possible to manage the information easily. Moreover, with RFID, we localize each patient by the simple act of their passing by an antenna placed in the doors.

Layered Information Modeling and a Knowledge Organization Paradigm: Inherent Classification and the Design of Interoperable Systems

In knowledge technology work, as expressed by the scope of this conference, there are a number of communities, each uncovering new methods, theories, and practices. The Library and Information Science (LIS) community is one such community. This community, through tradition and innovation, theories and practice, organizes knowledge and develops knowledge technologies formed by iterative research hewn to the values of equal access and discovery for all. The Information Modeling community is another contributor to knowledge technologies. It concerns itself with the construction of symbolic models that capture the meaning of information and organize it in ways that are computer-based, but human understandable. A recent paper that examines certain assumptions in information modeling builds a bridge between these two communities, offering a forum for a discussion on common aims from a common perspective. In a June 2000 article, Parsons and Wand separate classes from instances in information modeling in order to free instances from what they call the “tyranny” of classes. They attribute a number of problems in information modeling to inherent classification – or the disregard for the fact that instances can be conceptualized independent of any class assignment. By faceting instances from classes, Parsons and Wand strike a sonorous chord with classification theory as understood in LIS. In the practice community and in the publications of LIS, faceted classification has shifted the paradigm of knowledge organization theory in the twentieth century. Here, with the proposal of inherent classification and the resulting layered information modeling, a clear line joins both the LIS classification theory community and the information modeling community. Both communities have their eyes turned toward networked resource discovery, and with this conceptual conjunction a new paradigmatic conversation can take place. Parsons and Wand propose that the layered information model can facilitate schema integration, schema evolution, and interoperability. These three spheres in information modeling have their own connotation, but are not distant from the aims of classification research in LIS. In this new conceptual conjunction, established by Parsons and Ward, information modeling through the layered information model, can expand the horizons of classification theory beyond LIS, promoting a cross-fertilization of ideas on the interoperability of subject access tools like classification schemes, thesauri, taxonomies, and ontologies. This paper examines the common ground between the layered information model and faceted classification, establishing a vocabulary and outlining some common principles. It then turns to the issue of schema and the horizons of conventional classification and the differences between Information Modeling and Library and Information Science. Finally, a framework is proposed that deploys an interpretation of the layered information modeling approach in a knowledge technologies context. In order to design subject access systems that will integrate, evolve and interoperate in a networked environment, knowledge organization specialists must consider a semantic class independence like Parsons and Wand propose for information modeling.

Approche basée sur des patrons pour concevoir des logiciels d’enseignement adaptés aux technologies du Web

Les applications Web en général ont connu d’importantes évolutions technologiques au cours des deux dernières décennies et avec elles les habitudes et les attentes de la génération de femmes et d’hommes dite numérique. Paradoxalement à ces bouleversements technologiques et comportementaux, les logiciels d’enseignement et d’apprentissage (LEA) n’ont pas tout à fait suivi la même courbe d’évolution technologique. En effet, leur modèle de conception est demeuré si statique que leur utilité pédagogique est remise en cause par les experts en pédagogie selon lesquels les LEA actuels ne tiennent pas suffisamment compte des aspects théoriques pédagogiques. Mais comment améliorer la prise en compte de ces aspects dans le processus de conception des LEA? Plusieurs approches permettent de concevoir des LEA robustes. Cependant, un intérêt particulier existe pour l’utilisation du concept patron dans ce processus de conception tant par les experts en pédagogie que par les experts en génie logiciel. En effet, ce concept permet de capitaliser l’expérience des experts et permet aussi de simplifier de belle manière le processus de conception et de ce fait son coût. Une comparaison des travaux utilisant des patrons pour concevoir des LEA a montré qu’il n’existe pas de cadre de synergie entre les différents acteurs de l’équipe de conception, les experts en pédagogie d’un côté et les experts en génie logiciel de l’autre. De plus, les cycles de vie proposés dans ces travaux ne sont pas complets, ni rigoureusement décrits afin de permettre de développer des LEA efficients. Enfin, les travaux comparés ne montrent pas comment faire coexister les exigences pédagogiques avec les exigences logicielles. Le concept patron peut-il aider à construire des LEA robustes satisfaisant aux exigences pédagogiques ? Comme solution, cette thèse propose une approche de conception basée sur des patrons pour concevoir des LEA adaptés aux technologies du Web. Plus spécifiquement, l’approche méthodique proposée montre quelles doivent être les étapes séquentielles à prévoir pour concevoir un LEA répondant aux exigences pédagogiques. De plus, un répertoire est présenté et contient 110 patrons recensés et organisés en paquetages. Ces patrons peuvent être facilement retrouvés à l’aide du guide de recherche décrit pour être utilisés dans le processus de conception. L’approche de conception a été validée avec deux exemples d’application, permettant de conclure d’une part que l’approche de conception des LEA est réaliste et d’autre part que les patrons sont bien valides et fonctionnels. L’approche de conception de LEA proposée est originale et se démarque de celles que l’on trouve dans la littérature car elle est entièrement basée sur le concept patron. L’approche permet également de prendre en compte les exigences pédagogiques. Elle est générique car indépendante de toute plateforme logicielle ou matérielle. Toutefois, le processus de traduction des exigences pédagogiques n’est pas encore très intuitif, ni très linéaire. D’autres travaux doivent être réalisés pour compléter les résultats obtenus afin de pouvoir traduire en artéfacts exploitables par les ingénieurs logiciels les exigences pédagogiques les plus complexes et les plus abstraites. Pour la suite de cette thèse, une instanciation des patrons proposés serait intéressante ainsi que la définition d’un métamodèle basé sur des patrons qui pourrait permettre la spécification d’un langage de modélisation typique des LEA. L’ajout de patrons permettant d’ajouter une couche sémantique au niveau des LEA pourrait être envisagée. Cette couche sémantique permettra non seulement d’adapter les scénarios pédagogiques, mais aussi d’automatiser le processus d’adaptation au besoin d’un apprenant en particulier. Il peut être aussi envisagé la transformation des patrons proposés en ontologies pouvant permettre de faciliter l’évaluation des connaissances de l’apprenant, de lui communiquer des informations structurées et utiles pour son apprentissage et correspondant à son besoin d’apprentissage.

10th European Conference on Information Systems Management

The 10th European Conference on Information Systems Management is being held at The University of Evora, Portugal on the 8 /9 September 2016. The Conference Chair is Paulo Silva and the Programme Chairs are Prof. Rui Quaresma and Prof. António Guerreiro. ECISM provides an opportunity for individuals researching and working in the broad field of information systems management, including IT evaluation to come together to exchange ideas and discuss current research in the field. This has developed into a particularly important forum for the present era, where the modern challenges of managing information and evaluating the effectiveness of related technologies are constantly evolving in the world of Big Data and Cloud Computing. We hope that this year’s conference will provide you with plenty of opportunities to share your expertise with colleagues from around the world. The keynote speakers for the Conference are Carlos Zorrinho from the Portuguese Delegation and Isabel Ramos from University of Minho, Portugal. ECISM 2016 received an initial submission of 84 abstracts. After the double blind peer review process 25 aca demic papers, 7 PhD research papers, 3 Masters research paper and 5 work in progress papers have been ac cepted for publication in these Conference Proceedings. These papers represent research from around the world, including Belgium, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Sweden, The Netherlands, UK and Vietnam.

Exploiting the environment for structural health monitoring: Strategies, algorithms, and technologies

A densely built environment is a complex system of infrastructure, nature, and people closely interconnected and interacting. Vehicles, public transport, weather action, and sports activities constitute a manifold set of excitation and degradation sources for civil structures. In this context, operators should consider different factors in a holistic approach for assessing the structural health state. Vibration-based structural health monitoring (SHM) has demonstrated great potential as a decision-supporting tool to schedule maintenance interventions. However, most excitation sources are considered an issue for practical SHM applications since traditional methods are typically based on strict assumptions on input stationarity. Last-generation low-cost sensors present limitations related to a modest sensitivity and high noise floor compared to traditional instrumentation. If these devices are used for SHM in urban scenarios, short vibration recordings collected during high-intensity events and vehicle passage may be the only available datasets with a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio. While researchers have spent efforts to mitigate the effects of short-term phenomena in vibration-based SHM, the ultimate goal of this thesis is to exploit them and obtain valuable information on the structural health state. First, this thesis proposes strategies and algorithms for smart sensors operating individually or in a distributed computing framework to identify damage-sensitive features based on instantaneous modal parameters and influence lines. Ordinary traffic and people activities become essential sources of excitation, while human-powered vehicles, instrumented with smartphones, take the role of roving sensors in crowdsourced monitoring strategies. The technical and computational apparatus is optimized using in-memory computing technologies. Moreover, identifying additional local features can be particularly useful to support the damage assessment of complex structures. Thereby, smart coatings are studied to enable the self-sensing properties of ordinary structural elements. In this context, a machine-learning-aided tomography method is proposed to interpret the data provided by a nanocomposite paint interrogated electrically.

Edge and Big Data technologies for Industry 4.0 to create an integrated pre-sale and after-sale environment

The fourth industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, has rapidly gained traction in businesses across Europe and the world, becoming a central theme in small, medium, and large enterprises alike. This new paradigm shifts the focus from locally-based and barely automated firms to a globally interconnected industrial sector, stimulating economic growth and productivity, and supporting the upskilling and reskilling of employees. However, despite the maturity and scalability of information and cloud technologies, the support systems already present in the machine field are often outdated and lack the necessary security, access control, and advanced communication capabilities. This dissertation proposes architectures and technologies designed to bridge the gap between Operational and Information Technology, in a manner that is non-disruptive, efficient, and scalable. The proposal presents cloud-enabled data-gathering architectures that make use of the newest IT and networking technologies to achieve the desired quality of service and non-functional properties. By harnessing industrial and business data, processes can be optimized even before product sale, while the integrated environment enhances data exchange for post-sale support. The architectures have been tested and have shown encouraging performance results, providing a promising solution for companies looking to embrace Industry 4.0, enhance their operational capabilities, and prepare themselves for the upcoming fifth human-centric revolution.