Hélder Gomes

Evolution of local e-government maturity in Portugal

In this article we present the results of a Web site content analysis of all Portuguese municipalities performed in 2013. A three-dimensional maturity model was used to categorize e-government development. The results are compared with others obtained in 2010 in order to characterize local e-government evolution in Portugal. The main conclusion of this study is that, although the results of municipalities have globally improved between 2010 and 2013, the gap between municipalities to what respects e-government development is also growing. Indeed, a non-negligible percentage of municipalities worsened their results in this period.

Privacy Policies in Web Sites of Portuguese Municipalities: An Empirical Study

In this article we present an empirical study of privacy policies at local government web sites in Portugal. Web sites of all the 308 Portuguese municipalities where surveyed for privacy policy manifests and a content analysis was performed on those documents. We concluded that privacy of citizens is clearly not a priority in Portuguese local government, since only 26% of the municipalities include privacy policy statements in their web sites and many of those documents exhibit significant gaps considering the information that a user would expect to find in a privacy policy. By raising the awareness to the need of improving privacy in local government web sites, our conclusions are useful for both academics and practitioners in the areas of e-government, privacy and local government

Compositional analysis of bacterial communities in seawater, sediment, and sponges in the Misool coral reef system, Indonesia

Sponge species have been deemed high microbial abundance (HMA) or low microbial abundance (LMA) based on the composition and abundance of their microbial symbionts. In the present study, we evaluated the richness and composition of bacterial communities associated with one HMA sponge (Xestospongia testudinaria; Demospongiae: Haplosclerida: Petrosiidae), one LMA sponge (Stylissa carteri; Demospongiae: Scopalinida - Scopalinidae), and one sponge with a hitherto unknown microbial community (Aaptos suberitoides; Demospongiae: Suberitida: Suberitidae) inhabiting the Misool coral reef system in the West Papua province of Indonesia. The bacterial communities of these sponge species were also compared with seawater and sediment bacterial communities from the same coastal coral reef habitat. Using a 16S rRNA gene barcoded pyrosequencing approach, we showed that the most abundant phylum overall was Proteobacteria. The biotope (sponge species, sediment or seawater) explained almost 84% of the variation in bacterial composition with highly significant differences in composition among biotopes and a clear separation between bacterial communities from seawater and S. carteri; X. testudinaria and A. suberitoides and sediment. The Chloroflexi classes SAR202 and Anaerolineae were most abundant in A. suberitoides and X. testudinaria and both of these species shared several OTUs that were largely absent in the remaining biotopes. This suggests that A. suberitoides is a HMA sponge. Although similar, the bacterial communities of S. carteri and seawater were compositionally distinct. These results confirm compositional differences between sponge and non-sponge biotopes and between HMA and LMA sponges.

An Integrated Service Solution for Digital Discount Coupons Processing

This paper describes a digital coupons management system that aims to dematerialize the couponing process since its origin (the Issuer) to its final state (the Consumer), passing by the Retailer of the product, and allowing to reduce costs, prevent frauds, improve the procedural efficiency and get knowledge about patterns of usage of coupons by consumer profiles. The system provides quality control of dematerialized coupons and Consumers mobile access, allowing the connection and integration with the information systems of Issuers and Retailers, which makes it an innovative system with a high degree of portability of its components.

Evaluating local e-government maturity in selected Iberoamerican countries

This paper describes an exploratory study aiming to assess e-government maturity of municipalities in selected Iberoamerican countries: Andorra, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Portugal and Spain. A geographical criterion was adopted to select the countries, and a demographic criterion was adopted to define the municipalities observed within those countries. Moreover, a three-dimensional maturity model was used to categorize and evaluate each municipal website. Then, we conclude that local e-government still has a substantial room for improvement in the community, or at least in the studied countries, and that population density seems to be associated with the preliminary results for local e-government maturity.

Authentication Architecture for Region-Wide e-Health System with Smartcards and a PKI

This paper describes the design and implementation of an e-Health authentication architecture using smartcards and a PKI. This architecture was developed to authenticate e-Health Professionals accessing the RTS (Rede Telematica da Saude), a regional platform for sharing clinical data among a set of affiliated health institutions. The architecture had to accommodate specific RTS requirements, namely the security of Professionals’ credentials, the mobility of Professionals, and the scalability to accommodate new health institutions. The adopted solution uses short-lived certificates and cross-certification agreements between RTS and e-Health institutions for authenticating Professionals accessing the RTS. These certificates carry as well the Professional’s role at their home institution for role-based authorization. Trust agreements between e-Health institutions and RTS are necessary in order to make the certificates recognized by the RTS. As a proof of concept, a prototype was implemented with Windows technology. The presented authentication architecture is intended to be applied to other medical telematic systems.