David Grosser

An analogy-based approach for predicting design stability of Java classes

Predicting stability in object-oriented (OO) software, i.e., the ease with which a software item evolves while preserving its design, is a key feature for software maintenance. In fact, a well designed OO software must be able to evolve without violating the compatibility among versions, provided that no major requirement reshuffling occurs. Stability, like most quality factors, is a complex phenomenon and its prediction is a real challenge. We present an approach, which relies on the case-based reasoning (CBR) paradigm and thus overcomes the handicap of insufficient theoretical knowledge on stability. The approach explores structural similarities between classes, expressed as software metrics, to guess their chances of becoming unstable. In addition, our stability model binds its value to the impact of changing requirements, i.e., the degree of class responsibilities increase between versions, quantified as the stress factor. As a result, the prediction mechanism favours the stability values for classes having strong structural analogies with a given test class as well as a similar stress impact. Our predictive model is applied on a testbed made up of the classes from four major version of the Java API.

Predicting software stability using case-based reasoning

Predicting stability in object-oriented (OO) software, i.e., the ease with which a software item can evolve while preserving its design, is a key feature for software maintenance. We present a novel approach which relies on the case-based reasoning (CBR) paradigm. Thus, to predict the chances of an OO software item breaking downward compatibility, our method uses knowledge of past evolution extracted from different software versions. A comparison of our similarity-based approach to a classical inductive method such as decision trees, is presented which includes various tests on large datasets from existing software.

Defining E-Services Using a Co-Design Platform: Example in the Domain of Instrumental E-Learning.

Purpose – One of the aims of expert knowledge management via information and communication technology is to improve the efficiency of knowledge transfer to non‐specialists, and to facilitate the implementation of service‐products that are adapted so as to be truly used. The aim of this paper is to describe an example in the domain of instrumental e‐learning.Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on activity theory, this article describes a methodology that aims to guide the design process along the lines of the usage process.Findings – The co‐design platform (CDP) allows the service designers and users to determine service‐product definitions together, to facilitate the emergence of their uses.Research limitations/implications – Some of the experiments are still in progress as the development is iterative.Practical implications – To illustrate this method, the authors have designed and implemented an instrumental learning e‐service for guitar music (e‐guitare).Originality/value – The CDP gives a greater un...

Managing Complex Knowledge in Natural Sciences

In many fields dependant upon complex observation, the structuring, depiction and treatment of knowledge can be of great complexity. For example in Systematics, the scientific discipline that investigates bio-diversity, the descriptions of specimens are often highly structured (composite objects, taxonomic attributes), noisy (erroneous or unknown data), and polymorphous (variable or imprecise data). In this paper, we present IKBS, an Iterative Knowledge Base System for dealing with such complex phenomena. The originality of this system is to implement the scientific method in biology: experimenting (learning rules from examples) and testing (identifying new individuals, improving the initial model and descriptions). This methodology is applied in the following ways in IKBS: 1 - Knowledge is acquired through a descriptive model that suits the semantic demand of experts. 2 Knowledge is processed with an algorithm derived from C4n.5 i order to take into account structured knowledge introduced in the previous descriptive model of the domain. 3 - Knowledge is refined through eth use of an iterative process to evaluate the robustness of the descriptive model and descriptions. The IKBS system is presented here as a elif science application facilitating the identification of coral specimens of the family Pocilloporidae.

From knowledge transmission to sign sharing: semiotic web as a new paradigm for teaching and learning in the future internet

In the 21st century, with the advent of ultra high-speed broadband networks (1Gb per second), the Internet will offer new opportunities for innovators to design qualitative services and applications. Indeed, the challenge of such e-services is not only on the technological aspects of Internet with new infrastructures and architectures to conceive. The reality is also on its human and multimedia content delivery, with innovative philosophies of communication to apply in this digital and virtual age. In the context of Teaching and Learning as a human-centered design approach, we propose a new paradigm for thinking the Web, called the Web of Signs, rather than the Web of things. It focuses on the process of making knowledge by sharing signs and significations (Semiotic Web), more than on knowledge transmission with intelligent object representations (Semantic Web). Sign management is the shift of paradigm for education with ICT (e-Education) that we have investigated in such domains as enhancing natural and cultural heritage. In this paper, we will present this concept and illustrate it with two examples issued from La Reunion Island projects in instrumental e-Learning (@-MUSE) and biodiversity informatics (IKBS). This Sign management method was experimented in the frame of our Living Lab in Teaching and Learning at University of Reunion Island.

Sign Management for the Future of e-Education: Examples of Collaborative e-Services in a Living Lab (Invited Paper)

From a European technological and industrial perspective of the 20th century, Knowledge Management (KM) was viewed as the next step towards reaching a smart knowledge-based economy. But today, in the 21th century of big data and fast moving information, we argue that KM is not enough for reaching a qualitative human-based post-industrial society. We need a broader view in order to understand user needs and respond to their personal desires. In this endeavor, Living labs are a good way to reposition creative people at the center of technologies. But we need also methodologies and tools to accompany the transition from a competitive economy to a more sustainable society. We experimented this move at University of Reunion Island in the domain of e-education. We conceived a new paradigm called Sign Management (SM) for enhancing content producers with multimedia tools on a Creativity Platform. A methodology for co-designing educational e-services was applied in both natural (biodiversity) and cultural (music) domains in order that linear knowledge transmission lets place to an iterative know-how sharing approach between teachers and learners. This sign-based methodology serves as a condition for opening the era of Semiotic Web (Web of Signs) over Semantic Web (Web of Things). The objective is to co-create qualitative educational e-services with people based on a more natural/artificial and intelligent approach in the frame of Living labs.

From knowledge to sign management on a Creativity Platform

In the field of E-learning, the goal of researchers in knowledge acquisition and transmission is to produce e-services that are genuinely useful, that is to say, perfectly adapted to their end-uses. Here, we will deal with the specificities of learning how to play a musical instrument for which the quality of learning depends on the quality of teaching methods. In this context, semantic management of tacit and explicit knowledge from experts and books is not enough. Knowledge engineers must also capture live interpretations of expert musicians to illustrate the lesson to be learned. To enhance these significations, Sign management is a concept that has more relevance than Knowledge management: it aims at indexing multimedia contents (i.e. annotations) on different on/off-line supports with formalized textual information (i.e. scores) in order to better share interpretations and viewpoints. In this paper, we explain our concept of Sign management in the new digital and relational ecosystem. We then describe an iterative method based on a Creativity Platform that establishes end-uses as the criterion by which e-services are developed. The Creativity Platform serves to better understand the transformation of a given tool (proposed offer) into an instrument (motivated demand), which, in turn, motivates the supply that is produced to meet the demand. We illustrate our method based on activity theory by using an example of instrumental e-learning, the e-guitar project. Finally, we discuss the pragmatic results of our co-design experience with end-users.

Knowledge Management in Environmental Sciences with \( \mathcal{I}\mathcal{K}\mathcal{B}\mathcal{S}: \) : Application to Systematics of Corals of the Mascarene Archipelago

Systematics, the scientific discipline that deals with listing, describing, naming, classifying and identifying living organisms is a central point in environmental sciences. Expertise is becoming rare and for future biodiversity studies relying on species identification, environmental technicians will only be left with monographic descriptions and collections in museums.

The IKBS-DARWIN research & learning system for sharing biodiversity knowledge of tropical islands

This paper describes an emergent collaborative project between the Universities of Reunion (Institut de Recherches en Mathematiques et Informatique Appliquees - IREMIA) and Mauritius (Virtual Centre for Innovative Learning Technologies - VCILT) to make scientific research results in insular tropical environment available to a wider audience, create awareness and contribute to a better protection of this environment. On the long term, the project also aims at developing a strong regional competency kernel through the use of technology as a tool to encourage the development, documentation and use of indigenous information and knowledge about tropical islands environment: evaluate what is available, how it can be preserved, strengthened, amplified or improved through the introduction of ICT and how it could participate, in the basket of globalisation, as our share for a common identity. The authors show how enhancement and dissemination of research results can be achieved by a combination of an upstream strategy based on IKBS, a generic software for building knowledge bases on the Internet in natural sciences, and a downstream one, based on a pedagogical approach borrowed from the DARWIN world. The final outcome expected for the overall IKBS-DARWIN project is a transversal bilingual (French-English) research and educational portal, supporting enhancement online activities in several related domains at several levels of competency, from researchers and graduate students to undergraduate students, associations or communities of practice.

Improving Dissimilarity Functions with Domain Knowledge, Applications with IKBS System

Some of the fundamental and theoretical issues in Knowledge Discovery in Database (KDD) rely on knowledge representation and the use of prior and domain knowledge to extract useful information from data. In many data exploration algorithms, dissimilarity functions do not use domain knowledge for the cases comparison. The Iterative Knowledge Base System (IKBS) has been designed to improve generalization accuracy of exploration algorithms through the use of structural properties of domain models. A general mathematical framework for utilizing structural properties of the domain model encompassing the definition of a Dissimilarity Function for Structured Descriptions is proposed. Applications are conducted with the help of IKBS on a set of databases from the UCI machine learning repository and on structured domain definition data.