ICE-B 2006 Abstracts

Area 1 - Communication and Software Infrastructure
Full Papers Short Papers
Area 2 - Web and Mobile Business Systems and Services
Full Papers Short Papers
Area 3 - Business and Social Applications
Full Papers Short Papers

Area 1 - Communication and Software Infrastructure

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 9
Title:

INDIVIDUAL TARIFFS FOR MOBILE SERVICE BUNDLES - A Negotiation Calculation Tool
Authors:

Louis-François Pau and Hong Chen
Abstract: This paper aims to develop a bargaining model for calculation of individual tariffs for mobile service. In almost all publmic communication services today , tariffs are set unilateraly by the suppliers for some generic services ; the present and future emphasis on both unique content needs,and on service personalization, restrict the old tariffing principle to those users who only need basic universal services . Realizing this evolution , the ultimate goal is to provide a tool for computing individual tariffs. The paper first looks at the intrinsic drivers of individual tariffs both from sociological and economic perspectives. The paper proceeds further with a bargaining model for individual tariffs which is centered on user and supplier behaviours. The user, instead of being fully rational, has “bounded rationality” and his behaviours are not only subject to economic constraints but also influenced by social needs. The supplier can be either a firm (typically a communications service operator) or community ; each supplier has his own goals which lead to different behaviors. In the proposed solution, individual tariffs are decided through interactions between the user and the supplier. Game theory is employed to provide structured analyses of the interactions and tariff design. We developed a computational model based on the bargaining model. It can be used to determine the individual tariff between a firm and an individual user. Preliminary results, which are based on a music training service treated as a bundle of communications, content, and assistance , show that individual tariffs can be beneficial to both the user and the supplier.
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Paper Nr: 13
Title:

MESSAGE QUEUING MIDDLEWARE ON VPN AND ITS TRAFFIC CONTROL SCHEME - Modeling Asynchronous Message Queuing Communication on MPLS VPN
Authors:

Hiroshi Yamada and Akira Kawaguchi
Abstract: Message oriented middleware is being used as an advanced enterprise application integration tool. It can establish reliable asynchronous communication sessions between distributed application objects. In such enterprise communications, guaranteed message delivery is critical. In this paper, we consider message queuing communication on an MPLS VPN. In client VPN sites, a large amount of data is generated by computers and it is stored in the local message queue. Then data is processed, filtered, and sent to the remote message queue in the server VPN site. In the server VPN site, stored messages are dequeued and sent to the business application or database servers in the server VPN site. The data generating processes in the local VPN sites may be different. Data may be generated explosively during a short period in some local VPN sites. It is necessary to utilize the message queue resources in the whole VPN efficiently in order to avoid an overflow of messages and to guarantee the message delivery during such a bursty period. This paper describes a traffic control scheme that can adaptively change the rate at which data is sent from the local message queue in the VPN site to the remote message queue in the server VPN site. We created a OPNET simulation model that can precisely simulate the above control scheme on an MPLS VPN and showed its effectiveness through simulation studies.
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Paper Nr: 54
Title:

REPUTATION BASED INTELLIGENT AGENT NEGOTIATION FRAMEWORKS IN THE E-MARKETPLACE
Authors:

Malamati Louta, Ioanna Roussaki and Lambros Pechlivanos
Abstract: E-commerce is expected to achieve high market penetration if coupled with the appropriate technologies. Mobile Agent Technology (MAT) may enhance the intelligence and improve the efficiency of systems in the e-marketplace. Such a highly competitive and extremely dynamic market should encompass mechanisms for enabling users (Buyers) to find the most appropriate service providers (Sellers), i.e., those offering adequate quality services at a certain time period in a cost efficient manner. In this study, the Buyers’ decision on the “best” Seller is based on a weighted combination of the evaluation of the quality of the Sellers’ offer (performance related factor) and of their reputation rating (reliability related factor). Efficient negotiation frameworks are enhanced with a Sellers’ collaborative reputation mechanism, which helps estimating their trustworthiness and predicting their future behaviour, taking into account the Sellers’ past performance in satisfying the Buyers’ expectations. In essence, Sellers are rated with respect to whether they honoured or not the agreements they have established with the Buyers, thus introducing the concept of trust among the negotiators. The reputation mechanism considers both first-hand information (acquired from the Buyer’s past experiences with the Sellers) and second-hand information (disseminated from other Buyers’ based on their own past experiences with the Sellers), while spurious reputation ratings are taken into account.
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Paper Nr: 75
Title:

TOWARDS AUTOMATED SERVICE TRADING
Authors:

Manuel Resinas, Pablo Fernandez and Rafael Corchuelo
Abstract: The service-oriented architecture is a promising means to support outsourcing amongst real-time enterprises. In this context, SLAs (Service Level Agreements) are essential because they grant guarantees about how a service must be provided or consumed. We define service trading as the process of locating, selecting, negotiating, and creating SLAs. Although automating the service trading process is a key characteristic of a real-time enterprise, to the best of our knowledge it has not been completely addressed yet. In this article, we propose a conceptual framework for automated service trading. Therefore, our goal is not to implement a concrete architecture but to develop a framework that can be used to define, compare and analyse the interoperability of different service trading architectures. The novel contributions of this paper are threefold: we identify the roles and interactions that are necessary to carry out this automated service trading, we motivate and introduce the idea of trading protocols, and we define the elements that are necessary to support an automated decision-making in service trading.
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Paper Nr: 82
Title:

INTERPROM – A COLLABORATIVE FRAMEWORK DRIVEN BY BUSINESS NEEDS - Service Oriented Inter-Organisational Support for Business Processes in Collaborative Environments
Authors:

Carsten Huth, Norbert Völker, Olaf Hahnl and Björn Reinhold
Abstract: There is an increasing demand to support business cooperation between small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and major companies. The InterPROM system aims to address this need by providing a service-oriented, J2EE based collaborative platform. The system is build on top of a custom enterprise services bus (ESB) which can be connected across different organisations. InterPROM characteristics include decentralised replication and locking services, organisation directories divided into private and public sections, an elaborate security system and an application manager for the life cycle management of application instances. A unique feature is its integrated approach to project and workflow management. The InterPROM framework is being developed by a consortium of nine partners and co-founded by the European Union. The commercial lead of the project is with PAVONE AG, a medium sized software vendor specialising in the field of collaborative software environments, knowledge management and CRM solutions. Academic participants are the Universities of Essex (UK), Paderborn (Germany), and Varna (Bulgaria). The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Comp. (EADS) France acts as a pilot user for the project. This paper focuses on architecture and system design aspects of the InterPROM framework. It includes references to underlying technologies such as service oriented architecture (SOA) and J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) web applications.
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Paper Nr: 96
Title:

SAGA: AN ADAPTIVE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SECURE AVAILABLE GRID ON AD-HOC NETWORKS
Authors:

Manel Abdelkader, Noureddine Boudriga and Mohammad S. Obaidat
Abstract: Security management is a major issue in Grid computing systems. One approach to provide security is to implement techniques such as encryption and access control on all grid elements. The overhead generated by such an approach may however limit the advantages of Grid computing systems; particularly, when the network experiences different types of variations. This paper examines the integration of the notion of adaptive Grid service along with security management and accounting. It also provides a fault tolerance technique to build Grid systems that are intrusion tolerant.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 8
Title:

INTERNET-BASED EMBEDDED SYSTEM ARCHITECTURES - End-User Development Support for Embedded System Applications
Authors:

Miroslav Sveda and Radimir Vrba
Abstract: This paper presents an approach to industrial embedded system networking that offers a reusable design pattern for the class of Internet-based applications. It deals with an integrated networking framework stemming (1) from the IEEE 1451.1 smart transducer interface standard, which is an object-based networking model supporting among others publish-subscribe approach to group messaging, and (2) from the Internet Protocol (IP) multicast communication, mediating efficient and unified access to smart sensors through Internet. The kernel of this paper focuses on adaptations and tuning of those concepts and on their utilization for a gas pipes pressure measurement system as an application example. Furthermore, the contribution brings this scheme in form suitable not only for framework builders, but also for end-user developers.
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Paper Nr: 18
Title:

SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE TO MOBILE PHONES
Authors:

Elena Sanchez-Nielsen, Sandra Martín-Ruiz and Jorge Rodríguez-Pedrianes
Abstract: New business opportunities are being enlarged by mobile phones. Electronic commerce on mobile phones is an emerging expression of internet electronic commerce to provide sophisticated services to mobile users. The Web services technology has been proposed to support electronic commerce on wired networks. However, no significant research has been done to allow mobile phones acting as Web services requestor at runtime without prior knowledge of available services. In this paper, we propose a service oriented architecture to mobile phones. We introduce service managers as proxies between services providers and mobile devices in order to solve the limitations faced by direct access from mobile devices to Web services. We investigate the use of dynamic invocation interface as communication mechanism between service providers and service managers in order to compute service description and invocation at runtime. With this approach, we allow that service providers to create, update and change services at anytime and mobile users may locate new services without knowing the accessible services. We have implemented a first prototype with open source tools and basic service scenarios.
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Paper Nr: 83
Title:

INSTANT MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE - Through Network Management Support Systems and Software Agents Coordination
Authors:

José A. Folha, Bruno Marques, Jose Oliveira, Paulo Coelho and Raul Oliveira
Abstract: Enterprises need to automate manual and routine aspects of IT infrastructure management. In this paper a new concept that integrates different autonomous and management level applications through Instant Messaging protocol (XMPP) is introduced. This is achieved by means of a common management information model implemented in LDAP. A content language implemented in XML is also described, allowing autonomous application integration to carry out management tasks dynamically.
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Paper Nr: 31
Title:

E-BUSINESS WITH SOFTWARE SERVICES FOR SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING
Authors:

Sita Ramakrishnan and Subramania Ramakrishnan
Abstract: With steady changes to the global environmental agenda over the past two decades, manufacturing companies are driven to internalise environmental aspects of their businesses, both to meet local environmental regulations and to conform to emerging international standards and best practices. Information on environmental issues is crucial to assist companies in improving their environmental performance. We propose in this paper the emerging service-oriented approach for establishing e-business by enabling the linking of relevant enviRonmental information to business processes, and to foster the sharing of information between sustainable manufacturing companies. The links between the business functions of a manufacturing company and the environmental dimension of the business are analysed in the paper. Using these links, a simplified service-oriented software model is derived to deliver information on the life cycle environmental impacts of manufactured products. The proposed approach could provide a basis for developing innovative e-business with software services, which could assist manufacturing companies, both large and small, to realise improvements in environmental performance.
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Paper Nr: 56
Title:

LEVEL HASH TABLE RESOURCE DISCOVERY MECHANISM IN GRID ENVIRONMENT
Authors:

Weidong Liu, Song Jiaxing and Wang Yue
Abstract: Resource discovery is important in Grid. In this paper, a novel resource discovery mechanism based on level hash table is presented. The Grid resources are hashed into keys, and each LHT Node stores keys that could be mapped into resources registered on LHT Nodes of current sub-tree.We give the detail implementation of it and the simulation results show it works efficiently.
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Paper Nr: 59
Title:

USING A DEPTH TREE FRAMEWORK TO EVALUATE CHANGE IMPACTS OF MODIFICATIONS TO IT INFRASTRUCTURE
Authors:

Min Yang, Zhang Mi, Han Peng, Chen Haiguang, Zhou Xi, Dilin Mao and Chuanshan Gao
Abstract: In a business IT system, change is an engine of progress, as well as a source of doom. End user applications, operational disciplines, and IT vendors are major sources of continuous change. However, application software change control is a relatively mature process; many organizations implement IT infrastructure change manually, relying primarily on the IT staff's knowledge and expertise. Thus, an effective and efficient way to settle it is urgently needed. In this paper, we take a necessary first step toward the change management of IT infrastructure. Mainly along with utilizing a depth tree, termed with DTM in the following, to qualitatively get hold of the sequence of affected parts of IT infrastructure and trace the detailed propagation paths, it can also be relatively accurate to evaluate the quantitative influence to each implicative part and provide its benchmark-values corresponding to industrial experiences in business and techniques for the decision-makers.
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Area 2 - Web and Mobile Business Systems and Services

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 3
Title:

PACKET SCHEDULING AND PRICING BASED ON INFLICTED DELAY
Authors:

Ari Viinikainen
Abstract: An adaptive packet scheduling method is presented in this paper. The adaptive weights of a scheduler are chosen based on maximizing the revenue of the network service provider. The pricing scenario is based on the delay that a connection will inflict to other connections. The features of the adaptive weight updating algorithm are simulated, analyzed and compared to a constant weight algorithm.
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Paper Nr: 12
Title:

A MOBILE ELECTRONIC TOLL COLLECTION
Authors:

Chin Lin, Chih-Ching Li, Shuei-Mu Lin, Ling-Yan Bi and Li-Xin Xu
Abstract: When mobile communication has been vastly used, its particular characteristic is appreciated for the idea of mobile e-commerce (Me-commerce) in any electronic toll collection (ETC) applications. This paper establishes a new method of ETC using mobile cell phones integrating mobile communication with radio frequency (RF) communication adopting microprocessor control. A simple ETC system architecture and protocol for transactions among vehicles to toll stations to complete payment is presented. The proposed ETC contains e-transaction mechanism in hardware and software. A software flow through Internet is developed to link from toll station roadside units to car units. A car unit for vehicle, a pair of roadside units, and an e-Center are established. Data flow and interaction protocol are created. The proposed ETC system can be applied to toll different systems on freeways, bridges, parking lots for un-manned operation. The proposed system is designed with hardware circuit using microprocessors to match with software system.The preliminary test results on system performance verifies as a good solution for ETC applications.Some feasibility analysis is made with test support.The function capability for Me-commerce is also demonstrated.
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Paper Nr: 44
Title:

BLUE: A REPUTATION-BASED MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM TO SUPPORT C2C IN P2P BLUETOOTH NETWORKS
Authors:

Gianluca Lax and Giuseppe M. L. Sarne
Abstract: In this paper we propose a multi-agent system, called Blue, providing a reputation mechanism to promote mobile C2C commerce in large and highly dynamic environments based on the Bluetooth wireless technology. In such a scenarios, detecting malicious users assumes a great importance but traditional approaches to obtaining reputation of a user are unfeasible or meaningless. For this purpose, we propose a centralized reputation mechanism, used in a asynchronous way, to manage users’ reputation based on trade feedbacks (given by users) suitably weighted. Agents employ such a reputation mechanism to choose their trade counterparts trying to avoid malicious users. A number of experiments show the effectiveness of our proposal.
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Paper Nr: 52
Title:

THE QUEST FOR THE WEB SERVICES STACK
Authors:

Flávio O. Silva and Pedro F. Rosa
Abstract: The strong use of distributed applications is due to the fact that Internet and the Web are based on common and widely accepted standards. Web services can be the basis of the next generation of applications. Unfortunately if someone asks for the layers of the Web Services protocol stack, the answer cannot be given right away. Considering that this technology is emerging and its bases are being defined, different companies and working groups propose standards that come and go with the same speed. Another problem is that these groups provide their own vision about the stack and, finally, the widely available standards proposals makes this environment a standard’s Babel. In this paper we will run a quest in order to find the Web Services protocol stack, by putting together different standards and visions and finally providing an independent Web Services protocol stack.
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Paper Nr: 58
Title:

VARIABLE QUANTITY MARKET CLEARING ALGORITHMS
Authors:

Jarrod Trevathan and Wayne Read
Abstract: Market clearing is the process of matching buy and sell bids in securities markets. The allocative efficiency of such algorithms is important, as the Auctioneer is typically paid a commission on the number of bids matched and the volume of quantity traded. Previous algorithms have concentrated on price issues. This paper presents several market clearing algorithms that focus solely on allocating quantity among matching buy and sell bids. The goal is to maximise the number of bids matched, while at the same time minimise the amount of unmatched quantity. The algorithms attempt to avoid situations resulting in unmarketable quantities (i.e., quantities too small to sell). Algorithmic performance is tested using simulated data designed to emulate the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) and other world stock markets. Our results show that it is difficult to avoid partial matchings as the complexity of doing so is NP-complete. The optimal offline algorithm for partial quantity matching is used as a benchmark to compare online matching strategies. We present three algorithms that outperform the ASX’s strategy by increasing the number of bids matched, the amount of quantity matched, and the number of bids fully matched.
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Paper Nr: 76
Title:

A CRM-BASED PRICING MODEL FOR M-COMMERCE SERVICES
Authors:

Gulfem Isiklar, Mehmet Uner and Ayşe Başar Bener
Abstract: Mobile network operators (MNOs) and service providers need flexible pricing mechanisms in order to fulfill next generation business models. Heavy competition in the wireless market place increases the importance of designing the most effective business models and developing long-term relationships with customers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an effective tool in order to pursue long-term relationship with profitable customers. In this article, we focus on proposing a simple and robust pricing model for mobile commerce services based on CRM approach. This mechanism enables operators to satisfy the needs of their existing customers and to achieve the maximum revenue and utilization rate on their current customer portfolio as well. Our aim in this research is to come up with a unit price for each mobile service/product class by taking the issues of social welfare maximization into consideration. The CRM implementation in the proposed model further allows MNO to better understand its customers and hence to direct its marketing plans to a specific target market. Analytical and simulation results demonstrate the implementation and the effectiveness of the suggested approach.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 25
Title:

COMPETENCE M-EVALUATION: AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK
Authors:

Ricardo Colomo Palacios, Angel Garcia Crespo and Marcos Ruano
Abstract: Competence Management Systems have become crucial elements for the Information Technologies strategy in many companies. The changes originated due to the new mobility capabilities in both working environment and technologies, have not been incorporated to any support system that integrates the competential paradigm and mobile technology. This paper introduces a tool, based on HR-XML standard, to feed competence evaluation with data or evidences that help to fit performance evaluations to the actual performance of the employees. Mobility capabilities in performance evaluation involve an innovative contribution to current Competence Management Systems that, due to their lack of flexibility, hinder the full development of the capability to include evidences wherever they may take place, whether it is at work, at client’s office or in a recruitment interview.
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Paper Nr: 66
Title:

SMALL SCREEN RENDERING WEB-BROWSER COMPARISON - When Web Content is Too Large to Fit the Screen
Authors:

António Pacheco, Carlos Serrão, Carlos Costa and Ferreira Dias
Abstract: During the past few years the web has changed and something which has been developed primarily for desktop computers can now be accessed from everywhere using portable and mobile devices. However, these new devices have some serious limitations in terms of screen size and computational power, just to mention a few. In order to display web pages designed for desktop-sizes monitors, some small screen web browsers provide different approaches for this problem – however, these approaches have limitations. In this paper, we have performed tests to five different small screen rendering web-browsers (Pocket Internet Explorer, Minimo, NetFront, Opera, Opera Mini) while rendering some relevant web sites.
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Paper Nr: 67
Title:

A METHOD FOR EVALUATING E-BUSINESS EFFECTIVENESS - A Study of eBusiness Capability in Mainland China
Authors:

Jian Chen, Christine Mingins and Yan Deng
Abstract: Business of all kinds is increasingly being conducted on-line, potentially dissolving the boundaries between local, national and global entities. Enterprise Information Portals are a vital tool for doing business over the internet. No matter how sophisticated a company’s traditional business model is, its eBusiness capability is only as effective as its online presence. It is to be expected that companies of developed companies will perform better than companies in developing countries in this respect. This work establishes a method and process for evaluating the effectiveness of eBusiness capabilities. The method was applied to measure the current status of eBusiness portals of Mainland Chinese IT companies, compared with those of companies based in developed countries. A benchmark was established by analysing the EIPs of leading international companies and developing a method of evaluating eBusiness capability from an external, client viewpoint. The benchmark was then used to determine the degree of difference between Chinese companies on the basis of size, region, and business focus. This is the first systematic study on the effectiveness of e-business applications of Mainland Chinese companies. The method and process described in this work can be used to develop benchmarks and perform comparative evaluations of eBusiness capability for any business sector.
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Paper Nr: 68
Title:

NOTIFICATION SERVICES FOR MOBILE AND WIRELESS TERMINALS - A Class of Services Appropriate for Mobile Scenarios
Authors:

Michael Decker and Rebecca Bulander
Abstract: We introduce the concept of a notification service and show that while simple this class of services is especially suited for mobile scenarios and many useful mobile services can be considered as notification services.
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Paper Nr: 69
Title:

SPECIFIC CHALLENGES FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES (SME) IN M-BUSINESS - A SME-suitable Framework for Mobile Services
Authors:

Michael Decker, Gunther Schiefer and Rebecca Bulander
Abstract: It seems to be a widely accepted notion that Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) play an important economic and social role and often contribute to innovation. But at the present situation the development and operation of a service to be used with mobile and wireless terminals (mobile service) is not bearable for most of them due to technical reasons and the market structure. In this article we will discuss the SME-specific obstacles in m-business. We will also propose a technical framework as remedy for this situation.
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Paper Nr: 11
Title:

AN E-COMMERCE APPLICATION IN CHINA
Authors:

Yong Xu and Chin Lin
Abstract: This paper proposes a new stock-jobbing system named Stock-Master system which based on the SMS(Short Message System) of PSTN. For the real-time Stock Exchange, this system expands the system and the protocol of PSTN(Public Switched Telephone Network) SMS. It adds the trade module of CTSI(Chinese Terminal Service Interface) server, operation trade gateway and professional CP(Content Provider) system. This system adopts the terminal ID（Identification）identification, encrypted 3DES, and the exclusive connection serial number. All these techniques are used to ensure the security of the stock exchange. This paper describes the frame, the physical topology structure, the function and the security design of this system, and analyses its advantages and disadvantages in detailed.
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Paper Nr: 28
Title:

DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT IN THE MOBILE ENVIRONMENT
Authors:

Yrjo Raivio and Sakari Luukkainen
Abstract: Number of Internet capable mobile phones is growing with rapid space. However, the data consumption is still very low in the mobile community. The existing business models for sharing mobile multimedia have not worked properly, and new solutions are looked for. In the mobile environment Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a key enabler for novel business models like Superdistribution, a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) type of Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) delivery chain. DRM is a concept that defines the access rights to the copyrighted digital media. It does not only include encryption technologies but the whole architecture, content formats, commerce and usage monitoring. In this paper we evaluate novel m-Commerce business models supported by the latest mobile DRM specifications, and we give recommendations how they should be applied to the mobile environment in order to create a healthy business opportunity for all players in the industry.
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Area 3 - Business and Social Applications

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 24
Title:

MODELING THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL NETWORKS
Authors:

Victor Kryssanov, Frank J. Rinaldo, Evgeny L. Kuleshov and Hitoshi Ogawa
Abstract: Modeling human dynamics responsible for the formation and evolution of the so-called social networks – structures comprised of individuals or organizations and indicating connectivities existing in a community – is a topic recently attracting a significant research interest. It has been claimed that these dynamics are scale-free in many practically important cases, such as impersonal and personal communication, auctioning in a market, accessing sites on the WWW, etc., and that human response times thus conform to the power law. While a certain amount of progress has recently been achieved in predicting the general response rate of a human population, existing formal theories of human behavior can hardly be found satisfactory to accommodate and comprehensively explain the scaling observed in social networks. In the presented study, a novel system-theoretic modeling approach is proposed and successfully applied to determine important characteristics of a communication network and to analyze consumer behavior on the WWW.
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Paper Nr: 33
Title:

TELEMEDICINE ADOPTION AND DIFFUSION: THE CASE OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Authors:

Nabeel Al-Qirim
Abstract: This research was initiated to explore telemedicine (TM) adoption and diffusion in healthcare organizations in the UAE. According to the exploratory findings of this research, the research endeavored to achieve two main targets. Initially, it was revealed that the telemedicine phenomenon was not that extensive in the UAE in the sense there was no self initiated TM networks or specialty TM centers as such. According to this finding the researcher attempted to explore the perceptions of healthcare professional in the UAE about their attitudes and behavior towards adopting the TM technology in their organizations using a theoretical construct extended from the technological innovation literature. Secondly, the existing TM initiatives in the UAE were initiated in cooperation with Mayo Clinic to have complete multimedia TM system for tele-consultations (second opinion). The effectiveness of this approach is also examined in this research. The research discusses the research findings in the light of the overall literature highlighting further implications and suggesting ways where TM could be pushed forward in the UAE. What is yet to be seen in the UAE context is the initiation of self governed specialty TM systems and networks.
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Paper Nr: 36
Title:

AN ADAPTIVE SYSTEM TO CONTROL CONSUMER ELECTRONICS BASED ON EARTHQUAKE EARLY WARNING
Authors:

Kokawa Takashi, Ryota Sakamoto, Hitoshi Ogawa and Victor Kryssanov
Abstract: In Japan, earthquakes happen on a regular basis. There is an earthquake early warning system operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency. By sensing P-waves, it can notify people a few seconds before the earthquake reaches them. Since only few seconds are left, it is often difficult for people to act with consideration on who is where at the moment, what consumer electronics should be turned off, and how to ensure a family’s safety in their house. We developed a system that supports people with control of network-connected home appliances when an earthquake occurs. The system utilizes three types of control rules: general, family-related, and personalized for each type of consumer electronics. As there can often be operational conflicts if applying the rules simultaneously, a conflict-resolving mechanism is implemented, based on an optimisation algorithm for weighted constraint satisfaction problems. A pilot study of the system deployment is described, and its results are briefly discussed in the light of the related work. Conclusions are drawn, and future plans are outlined.
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Paper Nr: 50
Title:

INTERNET ADVERTISING AND THE HIERARCHY OF EFFECTS
Authors:

Regina Schlee and Anthony Schlee
Abstract: Internet advertising has been considered by many advertisers as a medium of direct response. Though this classification was appropriate in the early years of internet advertising when consumers were expected to click on 468x60 banners, current technology and high bandwidths now allow much greater creative flexibility. Nevertheless, search engine advertising continues to take the largest share of online advertising budgets. The challenge for internet advertising is to be able to take on additional roles in the hierarchy of effects model of communications besides the call to action. This study examines data collected in two cases that document therole ofonline display ads on consumer behavior.Online advertising can take on a variety of roles: brand building, creating consumer interest, as well as calling for a direct response. The results of this analysis are exploratory but point to the need of considering different forms of internet advertising as serving a variety of functions in hierarchy of effects models of communications.
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Paper Nr: 64
Title:

CUSTOMISING E-LEARNING-PROCESSES - Towards a Decision Support System for the Individual Selection of E-Learning Services in Academic Teaching Processes
Authors:

Jan Vom Brocke, Christian Buddendick and Nico Albrecht
Abstract: This paper presents a method supporting decisions for the selection of information systems in the context of electronically supported teaching and learning. Existing approaches are supplemented by considering individual context factors and teachers’ configuration desires. The supported selection process ranges from the specification of situational characteristics of the teaching process to an individual selection of required e learning services. Thanks to a process-oriented approach, functionalities of e-learning systems as well as non-automated activities are identified. This comprehensive approach enables teachers to select an information system appropriate for an individually planned learning scenario, which further consists of both automated and non-automated parts.
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Paper Nr: 70
Title:

KNOWLEDGE-BASED SALES ADVISORY: EXPERIENCES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Authors:

Dietmar Jannach and Markus Zanker
Abstract: This paper summarizes our experiences gained from several industrial advisory applications that were devel- oped with the knowledge-based ADVISOR SUITE framework over the last years and gives an outlook on future extensions of the presented system. In the ‘experiences’ section of the paper, we first address aspects related to the development of such appli- cations, such as knowledge engineering, software maintenance, or testing. In addition, we describe the main requirements for such an advisory application to be perceived as an intelligent, value-adding service by the end users and finally summarize the results of an industrial study on how advisory applications are able to influence the buying behavior of online shoppers. The second part of the paper discusses current and future extensions of our system. The main lines of research addressed in this section are ‘Extended debugging support’, ‘Automated extraction of product data from web sources’, ‘Log mining and advanced data analysis’, and ‘Community-adapted advisory systems’.
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Paper Nr: 71
Title:

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT SERVICE FOR PEER-TO-PEER ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURES
Authors:

Michele Amoretti, Matteo Bisi, M. C. Laghi, F. Zanichelli and G. Conte
Abstract: The high potential of P2P infrastructures for enterprise services and applications both on the intranet (e.g. project workgroups) and on the Internet (e.g. B2B exchange) can be fully achieved provided that robust trust and security management systems are made available. This paper presents the reputation system we have devised for our P2P framework which supports secure role-based peergroups and service interactions. Our system includes decentralized trust and security management able to cope with several threats. In the paper the underlying analytical model is presented together with a simulation-based evaluation of the robustness against malicious negative feedbacks.
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Paper Nr: 81
Title:

BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT THROUGH AUTOMATIC WORKFLOW MODELING
Authors:

Carlos R. Lopes and Jony Melo
Abstract: Advances in Information Technology have created opportunities for business enterprises to redesign their information and process management systems. The redesigned systems will likely employ some form of workflow management system. This is not surprising since businesses in any segment, can benefit from workflow management. Workflow management systems exactly enact business processes described in a process description language. Despite the advertising claims of many companies, current workflow systems require a software developer to construct the workflows using a process description language. In order to make this task easier, in this paper we describe an algorithm for automatic generation of workflow that uses Artificial Planning Techniques. Moreover, we present a case of study based on the implementation developed.
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Paper Nr: 92
Title:

B2C VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES: TYPOLOGY AND ASSOCIATED BENEFITS - An Exploratory Qualitative Study
Authors:

Imène Ben Yahia
Abstract: Researches in Marketing tend to design any community belonging to the Website of the company as a brand community. Through a qualitative study, this article describes, interprets and classifies B2C virtual communities and thus removes the confusion between virtual brand communities and B2C virtual communities. The empirical results put also up to date three types of perceived benefits by the participants, associated to these communities. The perceived benefits seem to depend on the object of the community, on its orientation as well as on the nature of the participants’ behaviours. The paper finishes with the managerial implications.
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Paper Nr: 93
Title:

USING DATA REPLICATION TECHNIQUES TO MAINTAIN DATA CONSISTENCY IN SUPPLY CHAIN APPLICATIONS
Authors:

Jiri G. Feuerlicht, Richard White and Glen MacLarty
Abstract: Supply chain applications typically involve sharing of large amounts of information across a number of partner organizations. Examples of supply chain applications are common in manufacturing, healthcare and global trade. Such applications can involve a large number of partners in different locations with various levels of connectivity, ranging from high-speed Internet to unreliable and slow dial-up connections. Maintaining data consistency in supply chain applications is an essential requirement as the loss of data consistency results in poor quality and unreliable information. Current supply chain applications mostly rely on EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) or similar electronic messaging standards to ship data between partner organizations. In general, little attention is paid to ensuring that data remains consistent as it is propagated and updated along the supply chain. In this paper we first discuss the requirements for data consistency in supply chain applications and then briefly describe a data consistency management framework based on data replication. We use Freight Forwarding and Customs Brokerage (FFCB) applications examples to illustrate our discussion.
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Paper Nr: 95
Title:

A NEW APPROACH FOR THE TRUST CALCULATION IN SOCIAL NETWORKS
Authors:

Mehrdad Nojoumian and Timothy Lethbridge
Abstract: This paper aims at the trust calculation in social networks by addressing some major issues: Firstly, the paper evaluates a specific trust function and its behaviors, and then it focuses on the modification of that trust function by considering diverse scenarios. After that, the paper proposes a new approach with a specific functionality. The main goals are to support good agents strongly, block bad ones and create opportunities for newcomers or agents who want to show their merit in our society although we can not judge them. Finally, a mathematical discussion by a new trust function is provided with ultimate results.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 17
Title:

SMART DIFFUSION OF GOVERNMENT CONTENTS
Authors:

Elena Sanchez-Nielsen and Francisco Chavez-gutierrez
Abstract: Podcasting provides a new way for government agencies of any size to extend their reach and information delivery to citizens. Currently, this technology is being used as an effective and inexpensive tool to deliver audio and video content on mobile devices and personal computers. Their essence is focused on creating multimedia content for audiences that want to listen/view when they want, where they want and how they want. In this paper, we focus our vision on to distribute public hearings and sessions of parliaments in an efficient and effective way to citizens. In order to provide customized content subscriptions according to citizens’ preferences, we propose a semantic framework based on thesauri tools to describe the content of audiovisual information. In particular, we introduce three new components in traditional podcasting systems: (i) catalogue, (ii) fragmentation and (iii) customized delivery. Using these elements, we can establish how to present podcasting results according to customized user content features and how to reduce the size of multimedia segments to be downloaded and therefore, the quantity of information to be processed. This paper describes how this framework is being built on plenary sessions of the Parliament of the Canary Islands.
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Paper Nr: 19
Title:

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND BODY GESTURES AS METAPHORS FOR B2C INTERFACES - An Empirical Study
Authors:

Dimitris Rigas and Nikolaos Gazepidis
Abstract: This paper describes an initial survey and an experiment that investigate the use of facial expressions and body language in e-Business applications. Our aim in this research is to investigate the usability aspects of B2C interfaces that utilise speech, non-speech, avatars with facial expressions and gestures in addition to the typical visual graphical metaphors that are currently used. The initial survey was performed with 25 users and the main experiment with 42 users. Results were encouraging and enabled us to understand some of the research issues involved in the use of multimodal metaphors in e-Business. The results indicated that avatars with facial expressions were most preferred by users for e-transactions and the full animated body was the second most preferred option by the users. The text was the least preferred option. These findings enabled us to understand several design issues of multimodal systems for e-Business applications. For example there were issues of multimodal presentation and combination of the different modalities, e.g. speech, avatars, facial expressions, graphics, and text.
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Paper Nr: 20
Title:

ENHANCING TECHNICAL TRAINING QUALITY - Complementing the e-Learning Solutions with Virtual Laboratories
Authors:

Joanna Kosinska and Jacek Kosinski
Abstract: Nowadays, while the evolution of computer science technologies is amazing, the companies’ CEOs face the challenge of keeping their employees competence on the highest level. In order to enjoy high prestige, the managing directors have to craft an innovative corporate image. This is not possible with the lack of suitably trained staff. E-learning offers modern ways of training employees, but to benefit from it, it has to be properly deployed and ensure that learners gleaned good knowledge, fully understood the material and what is most important gained proper practical skills. The virtual laboratories included in e-Learning platforms fill the gap arose from the lack of practical exercises that are available in instructor-led trainings. Moreover, the individuals have the ability to do exercise by oneself and develop their practical skills when they want. This paper presents an original project of a virtual laboratory developed at the Department of Computer Science AGH-UST. The virtual networking laboratory is an e-Learning platform extension, aiding the process of computer network training.
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Paper Nr: 21
Title:

THE GREEK SCHOOL NETWORK - Structure, Design Principles and Services Offered
Authors:

Nikolaos Xypolitos, Michael Paraskevas and Emmanouel Varvarigos
Abstract: The Greek School Network (GSN) is a closed educational network that offers advanced telematic and networking services to all units of primary and secondary education schools and administration offices in Greece. The main objective of GSN is the implementation of a network infrastructure for the interconnection of the school laboratories and the provision of a wide range of network and telematic services to students and teachers. The GSN separates its telematic services to two major groups: the centralized services and the end-user services. The purpose of this paper is to describe the GSN structure, the services it provides, and its design and operational principles.
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Paper Nr: 61
Title:

THE STRUCTURE OF PATENT AUTHORSHIP NETWORKS IN JAPANESE MANUFACTURING COMPANIES
Authors:

Kohei Tsuda, Frank J. Rinaldo, Victor Kryssanov and Ruck Thawonmas
Abstract: Technological and research strategies are becoming more significant as they create future value in the market. The core of these strategies is the creation of patents, which help eliminate or contain competition. Companies seek to learn the research strategies of their competitors. At the same time, all companies try to hide their own strategies but they generally cannot, because patents have to be filed and therefore exposed at a patent office and even made globally (e.g. via the WWW) accessible on-line. Part of the technological strategy of a company can be determined by observing the patents it files, their timing and their authors. There have been many studies about patents reported in the literature, with most of them focusing on the connectivities existing in co-citation, co-patent networks. In the presented work, the focus is on the inventors. Given the patent files of a company, one could possibly predict the company’s current and future research and production strategies. Furthermore, if the inventors are known, the human resources of the corresponding companies could naturally be scrutinized. The latter would allow to estimate the mechanism prevailing in the process of patent creation at a specific company. A novel approach to analyze the professional activities of company inventors is proposed and applied to determine the inventive strategy of Japanese manufacturing companies. The presented results can be used to optimize knowledge and recourse management within a company.
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Paper Nr: 77
Title:

SUCCESS FACTORS OF MOBILE CRM PROJECTS – AN OVERVIEW - Description of Objectives and Success Factors of Mobile CRM Projects
Authors:

Matthias Hartel and Rebecca Bulander
Abstract: Mobile Customer Relationship Management (mCRM) frames the interface between business and client by supporting mobile actors using mobile terminals with mobile business processes. Experiences from the CRM background show difficulties in the implementation phase. Two reasons are responsible for these difficulties: poor execution of the project and unattainable project objectives. Therefore achievable objectives and success factors of mCRM projects are identified in this article, analysing scientific publications and best-practice cases. Initially the potential project objectives are discovered. Following the success factors of mCRM projects are determined and finally the achieved goals in projects are ascertained.
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Paper Nr: 14
Title:

TESYS: E-LEARNING APPLICATION BUILT ON A WEB PLATFORM
Authors:

Dumitru Burdescu and Cristian Mihaescu
Abstract: This paper presents a Web platform on which we developed an e-Learning application. The platform represents a web framework in which web applications may be developed. On the platform an e-Learning application is deployed. The e-Learning application brings together professors and students in a collaborative environment managed by secretaries and supervised by administrators. This paper introduces a novel Web application frame based on MVC. This frame separates the business logic from the view and model. Employed technologies, software architecture and software development process improve and ensure the application maintainability, scalability and performance.
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Paper Nr: 30
Title:

EXPLORING REQUIREMENTS FOR E-LEARNING PROFESSIONALS
Authors:

Myeonggil Choi
Abstract: Rapid progress of IT technology made a new type of online based learning system, called electronic (e)-learning, born, and it is now considered to be a key driving force of next generation for the growth of industry. Recently, the needs for competent professionals who can lead the growth of e-learning industry are recognized to be in pressing. This paper presents requirements which the e-learning professionals, which are instructional designers, developers, and project managers (PM) & consultants, respectively, should be educated and trained to be marketable in competitive e-learning markets. To identify the requirements for each professional group respectively, we first investigated lots of literatures relevant to e-learning, curricula of universities and educational institutions, and job searching websites. Through the investigations, we could single out no small number of items which were considered to be necessary for e-learning professionals, and they were broken down into three categories, which were fundamental, professional, practical requirements. Then they were reviewed by a group of e-learning professionals to see whether they were properly singled out and classified. From this procedure, a phase of Delphi method was used and totally 42 requirements were created. Among the 42 items, to identify requirements especially important for each professional group, respectively, and to estimate the priorities of each item among the items which were selected as requirements, we gathered data through questionnaire survey. The requirements which were presented in this paper will provide useful guidelines or criteria in designing curriculum of e-learning education for e-learning instructional designer, developer, project manager and consultant.
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Paper Nr: 90
Title:

SELLING MOBILE APPLICATIONS: THE DIFFERENCE WHAT PEOPLE BUY AND WHAT PEOPLE TRY
Authors:

Jazilah Jamaluddin, Reuben Edwards and Paul Coulton
Abstract: One of the few devices where people around the world always carry with them is mobile phone. Mobile phones are not only used to make phone calls but they are also increasingly used to send text messages and download ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers, video clips and games. Consumers are spending a lot of money to access different types of mobile content, enabling the mobile industry to gain high revenue every year. This development has raised the question of what types of content are consumers downloading and to what extend are they willing to pay for the content. Therefore, this paper analyses the current market of mobile content by looking at the range of mobile content being offered to consumers and the business aspects associated with each of them. Then, it evaluates the payment methods of mobile content before analyzing the survey results. Finally, it concludes by recommending the market to review and evaluate the current business models to provide a more flexible and better payment method to benefit everyone in the market.
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