Francisco Cortés

An empirical study of the driving forces behind online communities

Purpose – A large variety of online communities have emerged during the last years as a result of the challenges faced by both the business and scientific worlds. This trend has also been promoted by the development of internet and new Web 2.0 technologies. In this context, this paper is focused on the determinants of success of online communities. But, as a difference from other studies, these determinants are analyzed from the social network analysis perspective. Several constructs related to the community organization as a social network are proposed and their interrelations are hypothesized in a general research framework. The obtained results test the proposed model providing the most relevant antecedents of the project success.Design/methodology/approach – A case study based on Linux ports to non‐conventional processor and environments is used to test the proposed model. Structural equation modeling analysis is used to validate the structural proposed model.Findings – The main antecedents of online ...

The role of Internet in the development of future software projects

Purpose – The Internet has evolved, prompted in part by new Web 2.0 technologies, to become a more widespread platform for interaction, communication, and activism. Virtual communities, or groups of people informally bound together by shared expertise, synthesise this Internet evolution and the Web 2.0 technology. Users increasingly want to engage online with one another and with organisations of all kinds. These novel Internet‐based technologies dominate the new business models of the digital economy giving companies radical new ways to harvest the talents of innovators working outside corporate boundaries. One of the most illustrative examples of this new trend is the Open Source Software (OSS) projects development. This paper aims to analyse the structure and topology of the virtual community supporting one of the most successfully OSS projects, Linux. The objective is to provide conclusions for being successful in the development of future virtual communities. As companies learn to manage these virtua...

Internet in the development of future road‐traffic control systems

Purpose – Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are defined as new infrastructures that combine people, roads and vehicles over the basis of modern embedded systems with enhanced digital connectivity. ITS is fast becoming a reality, favored in their development by the use of the internet. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the feasibility of road‐traffic management systems, using the internet as the communication link.Design/methodology/approach – A literature review is presented to give a background in the progressive role that ITS and road safety and control applications play in society. The combination of internet and the ITS architecture is covered, and an electronic prototype providing web services for road‐traffic management is designed as an example. The scope of road traffic security research is extensive, and the use of artificial vision systems in road‐traffic analysis (technology which is on the basis of the developed prototype) is also discussed. The hardware and software characteristi...

Distributed urban traffic applications based on CORBA event services

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) in urban environments are based today on modern embedded systems with enhanced digital connectivity and higher processing capabilities, supporting distributed applications working in a cooperative manner. This paper provides an overview about modern cooperative ITS equipments and presents a distributed application to be used in an urban data network. As a case example, an application based on an embedded CORBA-compliant middleware layer and several computer vision equipments is presented. Results prove the feasibility of distributed applications for building intelligent urban environments.

A Wireless In-door System for Assisting Victims and Rescue Equipments in a Disaster Management

This paper presents a system based on electronic equipments, standard mobile phones and WLAN networks for managing evacuation routes, or for obtaining information about victims’ location and status, whenever a building collapses due to a disaster like earthquakes. The system is based on the standard Blue tooth specification to guarantee their application in indoor areas. The electronic equipments, their specifications and communication links, and the implications and viability of the entire system are analyzed in this work.

Analysis of embedded CORBA middleware performance on urban distributed transportation equipments

The increasing number of ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) equipment spread across cities offers tremendous possibilities in the development of distributed smart environments. A middleware layer located between the operating system and the final application can be used for the communication among the equipment to spontaneously act and cooperate among themselves. However, this middleware layer has also a computational cost that should be quantified as it can affect the main application. This paper defines a methodology for such quantification using as case example a modern ITS equipment related to vehicle tracking using artificial vision. Experimental results illustrate the proposed methodology.

A License Plate Extraction Algorithm Based on Edge Statistics and Region Growing

This paper presents a license plate extraction method for gray-scale images, based on a combination of edge statistics and a two-step seeded region growing algorithm. The proposed region growing algorithm uses a dual criterion based on edge density and gray-scale intensity affinity. The proposed method aims at achieving license plate segmentation that fits to the real plate boundaries better than existing methods. The robustness of the method has been tested with experimental results, including examples of low quality or poor-preserved plates and commercial or freight transport vehicles.

Multi-sensor integration in the vehicular system using the IEEE1451 Std.: A case study

The integration of the electronic equipments into the vehicular system has become a necessity to enhance safety in road transportation. The Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) make this integration possible. The IEEE Std. 1451 standardizes the interface and communication protocol between networked electronic equipments. This paper proposes the architecture to integrate the existing electronic equipments into the vehicular system using the IEEE 1451 standard. The vehicle propulsion module is used as a case example.

A new systemic methodology for lab learning based on a cooperative learning project

The idea of this paper consists of developing a new methodology based on a complex system that will be analyzed and programmed by several groups of students that must work openly and cooperatively to achieve a final global result. For this purpose, a personal digital assistant developed as an open hardware called OpenMoko has been selected. The paper details the experience of working with this system and highlights the main obtained benefits.

Identification of added value ITS services using concept mapping techniques

The evolution of electronics and the growing capabilities of in-vehicle and public infrastructure equipments make feasible the development of new value added services in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems. However, initiatives in this sense frequently failed due to the lack of agreement or coordination among service providers, public authorities and final users. This paper proposes a scientific method based on concept mapping techniques to extract these added value services. The main benefit of the proposed methodology is its ability to take into account the different points of view of the main actors involved in the field of transport. Obtained results provide general guidelines for future development of ITS services.