Juan C. Yelmo

A user-centric approach to service creation and delivery over next generation networks

Next Generation Networks (NGN) provide Telecommunications operators with the possibility to share their resources and infrastructure, facilitate the interoperability with other networks, and simplify and unify the management, operation and maintenance of service offerings, thus enabling the fast and cost-effective creation of new personal, broadband ubiquitous services. Unfortunately, service creation over NGN is far from the success of service creation in the Web, especially when it comes to Web 2.0. This paper presents a novel approach to service creation and delivery, with a platform that opens to non-technically skilled users the possibility to create, manage and share their own convergent (NGN-based and Web-based) services. To this end, the business approach to user-generated services is analyzed and the technological bases supporting the proposal are explained.

A Privacy-Considerate Framework for Identity Management in Mobile Services

The subscribers’ personal information and services that mobile operators are able to provide to Web developers offer new and exciting possibilities in numerous domains. However, bringing mobile information services to the Web to enable a new generation of mobile Web services presents several research challenges on identity and privacy management. In this paper, we describe a framework for identity management in mobile services that empowers users to govern the use and release of their personal information. Our framework is based on a brokering approach that intermediates between the mobile operator’s information services and the Web service providers. By leveraging on Web services, identity management infrastructure and privacy enhancing technologies, our framework provides an effective, privacy-considerate delivery of services over the mobile Web environment. This paper describes the design principles and architecture of the framework as well as the feasibility, applicability and user-experience evaluation we have carried out.

Self-service Privacy: User-Centric Privacy for Network-Centric Identity

User privacy has become a hot topic within the identity management arena. However, the field still lacks comprehensive frameworks even though most identity management solutions include built-in privacy features. This study explores how best to set up a single control point for users to manage privacy policies for their personal information, which may be distributed (scattered) across a set of network-centric identity management systems. Our goal is a user-centric approach to privacy management. As the number of schemas and frameworks is very high, we chose to validate our findings with a prototype based on the Liberty Alliance architecture and protocols.

Introducing formal notations in the development of object-based distributed applications

Although the benefits of the introduction of formal approaches in software development are well-recognized, in the case of distributed object-based applications, this introduction is not straightforward. We tackle this problem using currently available technology in a pragmatic manner and on several fronts. The first of these is by semantically strengthening the standard notion of interface into a contract and then using this contract notion at different structural levels; the second is by defining a life-cycle model incorporating architectural decomposition and concurrent development of the resulting components whose relations are specified as contracts; the third is by using standardized FDTs in the design of the more critical components. We show how these different fronts are connected and we illustrate briefly how the formalisations introduced can be used to advantage in the testing and prototyping activities of the life-cycle.

An Industrial Experience on LOTOS-Based Prototyping for Switching Systems Design

This paper summarizes the experience obtained in the definition of a LOTOS based development methodology and its pragmatic introduction in common industrial practice.

A TINA Based Prototype for a Multimedia Multiparty Mobility Service

The TINA architecture is emerging as an integrated approach to service and network control and management. The ACTS VITAL project aims to extend and refine the TINA architecture and validate it through the design, development and demonstration of a set of reusable components; the latter are used to realise services composed of multimedia, multiparty and mobility service features. This paper describes the results of the project’s first phase which resulted in field trials, focusing on the refinements and extensions with respect to TINA.

Guidance for the Development of Accessibility Evaluation Tools Following the Unified Software Development Process

Abstract Automated and semi-automated accessibility evaluation tools are key to streamline the process of accessibility assessment, and ultimately ensure that software products, contents, and services meet accessibility requirements. Different evaluation tools may better fit different needs and concerns, accounting for a variety of corporate and external policies, content types, invocation methods, deployment contexts, exploitation models, intended audiences and goals; and the specific overall process where they are introduced. This has led to the proliferation of many evaluation tools tailored to specific contexts. However, tool creators, who may be not familiar with the realm of accessibility and may be part of a larger project, lack any systematic guidance when facing the implementation of accessibility evaluation functionalities. Herein we present a systematic approach to the development of accessibility evaluation tools, leveraging the different artifacts and activities of a standardized development process model (the Unified Software Development Process), and providing templates of these artifacts tailored to accessibility evaluation tools. The work presented specially considers the work in progress in this area by the W3C/WAI Evaluation and Report Working Group (ERT WG).

Privacy and Data Protection in a User-Centric Business Model for Telecommunications Services

New business models have come up in different contexts such as the Internet and Telecommunications networks which have been grouped under the umbrella of the buzzword 2.0. They propose the opening up of service platforms in order to increase profits by means of innovative collaboration agreements with third parties. In this paper we go a step further and propose a business model for Telecommunications services where end-users actually become the collaborating third parties. This user-centric business model poses several privacy and data protection concerns that we analyze and for which we propose a solution.

Assessing Privacy Capabilities of Cloud Service Providers

Cloud computing provides well-known economic and technical advantages. However, the absence of knowledge on the privacy capabilities of service providers remains as one of the barriers for the adoption of cloud services. In this paper we describe a mechanism for the quantitative assessment of the privacy practices of different cloud service providers, so that their potential clients can compare among them and choose the one that better meets their requirements. We have validated our contributions in three different scenarios.

Creating and Modelling Personal Socio-Economic Networks in On-Line Banking

The banking industry is observing how new competitors threaten its millennial business model by targeting unbanked people, offering new financial services to their customer base, and even enabling new channels for existing services and customers. The knowledge on users, their behaviour, and expectations become a key asset in this new context. Well aware of this situation, the Center for Open Middleware, a joint technology center created by Santander Bank and Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, has launched a set of initiatives to allow the experimental analysis and management of socio-economic information. PosdataP2P service is one of them, which seeks to model the economic ties between the holders of university smart cards, leveraging on the social networks the holders are subscribed to. In this paper we describe the design principles guiding the development of the system, its architecture and some implementation details.