Hosam Farouk El-Sofany

E-government in Saudi Arabia: Barriers, Challenges and its Role of Development

This paper introduces some basic knowledge regarding to egovernment, which includes, the needs of society, development of e-government, and basic e-government concepts. The main objective of this research study is to illustrate some international development experiences to understand the benefit of e-government. Such experiences may serve as policy guidelines to the successful implementation of e-government to ensure overall development in Saudi Arabia. The study introduces the factors that determine the performance of e-government, and effective suggestions that help for improving e-government performance in K.S.A. The paper will conclude with quantitative analysis of responses obtained from a survey and questionnaire of some citizens and employees in public sector in Saudi Arabia.

Mobile Learning Platform Connected to Moodle Using J2ME

This paper presents a mobile learning platform (MLP) connected to a Moodle course management system build, using the Java2 Micro Edition (J2ME), developed in our Mobile Multimedia and Wireless Communication Lab (MMWCL). The MLP uses wireless communications (Bluetooth, WI-FI, WIMAX) to connect with the Moodle server. Later, after the connection is established with the server, the J2ME application will be able to provide the user with a bundle of services. These services include grades, course schedules, attendance records, course announcements, and university activities, as well as quality assessments.

Semantic-Web automated course management and evaluation system using mobile applications

Different types of e-assessment systems that are recognized at universities and based on the campus wireless have been developed. These systems help the students to use their Mobile Phones as learning media to access the information more easily from anywhere and at anytime. Seppala and Alamaki developed a mobile learning project for teacher training. Their study compared the effectiveness of internet, face-to-face and mobile based instructions. Al Masri has proposed a study to compare the effective strategy in paper-based assessment with mobile-based assessment for assessing university students in English literature. It has been found that students gained better scores in mobile phone-based test than in paper-based test. This paper aims to determine and measure the effects of mobile-based assessments on the perception, achievement levels and performance of the students in internet-assisted courses. The main functionalities and features of this paper are: Knowledge evaluation, automatic generation of exams, exam grading, communication, course management, and questions-bank database.

The Impact of XML Databases Normalization on Design and Usability of Internet Applications

Database normalization is a process which eliminates redundancy, organizes data efficiently and improves data consistency. Functional, multivalued, and join dependencies (FDs, MVDs, and JDs) play fundamental roles in relational databases where they provide semantics for the data and at the same time are the foundations for database design. In this study we investigate the issue of defining functional, multivalued and join dependencies and their normal forms in XML database model. We show that, like relational databases, XML documents may contain redundant information, and this redundancy may cause update anomalies. Furthermore, such problems are caused by certain dependencies among paths in the document. Our goal is to find a way for converting an arbitrary XML Schema to a well-designed one that avoids these problems. We extend the notion of tuple for relational databases to the XML model. We show that an XML tree can be represented as a set of tree tuples. We introduce the definitions of FD, MVD, and JD and new Normal Forms of XML Schema that based on these dependencies (X-1NF, X-2NF, X-3NF, X-BCNF, X-4NF, and X-5NF). We show that our proposed normal forms are necessary and sufficient to ensure all conforming XML documents have no redundancies.

Schema Design and Normalization Algorithm for XML Databases Model

In this paper we study the problem of schema design and normalization in XML databases model. We show that, like relational databases, XML documents may contain redundant information, and this redundancy may cause update anomalies. Furthermore, such problems are caused by certain functional dependencies among paths in the document. Based on our research works, in which we presented the functional dependencies and normal forms of XML Schema, we present the decomposition algorithm for converting any XML Schema into normalized one, that satisfies X-BCNF.

A Proposed Lightweight Cloud Security Framework to Secure Communications Between Internet of Things Devices

Cloud services can be categorized into Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), the Platform as a Service (PaaS) and the Software as a Service (SaaS). In (Iaas), the whole IT infrastructure can be delivered as a service. In (Paas), a virtual platform over the internet gives users the ability to develop and deploy applications. In (SaaS), it provides accessing an application through the internet on demand. In the (SaaS) layer, a single instance on the cloud for multiple users could be provided. Google Apps, one of the most powerful (SaaS) that is used by many institutes to provide a variety of Web-based applications for business, education, and government. Security in Cloud computing is an important and critical problem. Cloud service provider and the cloud service consumer should make sure that the cloud is safe enough from all the external threats so that the customer does not face any problem such as loss of data or data theft. Internets of Things (IoT) are small IP enabled devices that can cooperate to perform specific functions for various set of applications. This new emerging technology is strongly involved in applications that have direct impact on human welfare, such as business, education and government. Securing IoT device’s communications are becoming a must. In this paper a lightweight technique for secure and authentic communication between IoT devices. That lightweight technique is based on framework of ideas from virtual server, network management and cloud services.

Comparable and Analytical Study Between Some Security Issues in Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing appears as a computational model and a distributive architecture framework. The main objectives of cloud computing are to provide secure, quick, convenient data storage and net computing service, with all computing resources visualized as services and delivered over the Internet. The term “Cloud Computing” has been in the spotlights of IT, CS and CE specialists in the last years because of its potential to transform this industry. Security in Cloud Computing is an important and critical aspect, and has numerous issues and problem related to it. Cloud service provider and the cloud service consumer should make sure that the cloud is safe enough from all the external threats so that the customer does not face any problem such as loss of data or data theft. This research presents and classifies the factors that affect the security of the cloud then it explores the cloud security issues and problems faced by cloud service provider and cloud service consumer. The main goal of this research study is to introduce a comparable analysis for the proposed security issues, the security categories, and the cloud computing services.

Studying the effectiveness of using mobile cloud computing applications in learning

This research study mainly focused on the research of the application of cloud computing and mobile computing in the in E-learning environment. The objectives of this research paper are 1) to identify advantages and disadvantages associated with running cloud based applications on mobile devices, especially in the area learning. 2) to evaluate the performance and features that can expect from the use of cloud based application on a mobile device, what effects it will have on the device that runs, and 3) to analyze the results that can emerge when using cloud based applications on mobile devices. The study uses Cronbachs alpha to measure the validity and stability of the study questionnaire contents. We used the Spearman correlation and Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis to determine the impact of the dominating practices such as educational level, gender, age, and major on the variables of using cloud based applications on mobile devices.

Studying Security of Data in Cloud Computing Through Cryptographic Approach

Cloud computing is a set of IT services offered to users over the WWW on a rented base. Cloud computing has many advantages such as flexibility, efficiency, scalability, integration, and capital reduction. Moreover, it provides an advanced virtual space for organizations to deploy their applications and to run their systems. For secure communication over Cloud network, data can be protected by the method of encryption. Encryption exchanges that data by any encryption algorithm using the key in twisted form. Only user can access the key used to decrypt the encrypted data. The purpose of encryption is used to preventing leak or secrecy in communications. Encryption algorithms play a huge role in providing data security against bad and malicious attacks. This paper studies the basic concepts and analyzes the essentials of data security issues pertaining to Cloud Computing. Then we elaborate on each issue by discussing its nature. Specifically, we emphasize on issues of protecting data such as: data confidentiality, data integrity, data availability, securing data access, data auditing, enforcing the regulations and compliances regarding to data security and privacy.

Enhancing Software Quality by an SPL Testing based Software Testing

Software testing is a process of providing information that a software application or program meets the business and technical requirements that guided its design and development; and works as expected. Regardless of the environment (i.e. Structured or Object Oriented), software testing can also identifies important defects, flaws, or errors in the application code that must be fixed. Quality control involves the maintenance of quality in a product, particularly by comparing the performance of a product with a set of specifications. This paper introduces some basic knowledge regarding to software testing. The paper provides some new model that could improve quality of software testing as a mean to increase the overall quality of the product.