Tim French

The Big Picture, from Grids and Clouds to Crowds: A Data Collective Computational Intelligence Case Proposal for Managing Disasters

Much work is underway within the broad next generation technologies community on issues associated with the development of services to foster collaboration via the integration of distributed and heterogeneous data systems and technologies. Various technology-driven paradigms have emerged, including Web Services, Web 2.0, Pervasive, Grids and Cloud Computing. Recently, some new paradigms have emerged, including Situated Computing and Crowd Sourcing. In this exploratory paper, we aim to be visionary, thus, we offer an overview highlighting relationships between these paradigms, the goal is to present how these fit into the broader picture of IT. More specifically, to discuss how these could help coin and prompt future direction of their usage (integration) in various real-world scenarios. A disaster management scenario is presented to illustrate the big picture’s model architecture, as well as briefly discuss the potential impact resulting from the collective computational intelligence approach.

A lightweight model of trust propagation in a multi-client network environment: to what extent does experience matter?

The increasing growth in the application of global computing and pervasive systems has necessitated careful consideration of security issues. In particular, there has been a growth in the use of electronic communities, in which there exist many relationships between different entities. Such relationships require establishing trust between entities and a great deal of effort has been expended in developing accurate and reliable models of trust in such multi-client environments. Many of these models are complex and not necessarily guaranteed to give accurate trust predictions. In this paper we present a review of some of these models before proposing a simple, lightweight model for trust. The proposed model does not require the estimation of a large parameter set, nor make great assumptions about the parameters that affect trust.

Exploring the synergies between the object oriented paradigm and mathematics: a Java led approach

While the object oriented paradigm and its instantiation within programming languages such as Java has become a ubiquitous part of both the commercial and educational landscapes, its usage as a visualization technique within mathematics undergraduate programmes of study has perhaps been somewhat underestimated. By regarding the object oriented paradigm as a medium for conceptual exploration (rather than merely as a tool) the aim is to show how the close conceptual links between object orientation and certain mathematical structures such as rings and groups can be more fully realized, using a ready-made public-domain Java package.

Virtual Organisational Trust Requirements: Can Semiotics Help Fill The Trust Gap?

It is suggested that the use of the semiotic ladder, together with a supportive trust agent can be used together to better explicate “soft†trust issues in the context of Grid services. The contribution offered here is intended to fill a gap in current understanding and modelling of such issues and to support Grid service designers to better conceptualise, hence manage trust issues. The semiotic paradigm is intended to offer an integrative viewpoint within which to explicate “soft†trust issues throughout the Grid life-cycle. A computationally lightweight trust agent is described that can be used to verify high level trust of a Virtual Organisation. The potential benefits of the approach that is advocated here include the reduction of risk and potential improvements in the quality and reliability of Grid service partnerships. For these benefits to accrue, explicit “soft†as well as “hard†trust management is essential as is an integrative viewpoint.

Integrating the semiotic into UML via enhancing and cross- validating use case with an enriched domain model

Use case models are representation of the way in which users of the system interact with it. The UML specification driven approach to system development enable the use case model to be continuously refined and cross-validated from a number of system viewpoints. However, little has been done for validating the model against the organizational and workgroup setting in which the system will reside. This article aims to address this gap by the use of techniques derived from organizational semiotics for validating use case models against a wider aspect of organizational culture and meaning making at the organizational, workgroup and actor level of abstraction. Such approach will enhance the system development by providing “goodness of fit†between system model and organizational values and beliefs.

A Pragmatic and Musically Pleasing Production System for Sonic Events

We describe a novel application for sonic events namely their generation via mathematical functions implemented on a universal all purpose Java platform. Their design is driven by a set of requirements that arise in recognition-based authentication systems. We show that our approach has potential advantages as compared with traditional alphanumeric and other password systems. Our intention is to demonstrate that by leveraging familiar musical dimension and aesthetics human memorability, pleasure and pragmatics are enhanced. We demonstrate and briefly discuss one exemplar generative approach that has been specifically designed in order to fulfil the requirements implied by authentication systems. It is hoped that this work serves to stimulate debate and further activity in the field of computer generated sonics

Enriching the object-oriented paradigm via shadows in the context of mathematics

It is well-known that few object-oriented programming languages allow objects to change their nature at run-time. In this paper we discuss the need for object-oriented programming languages to reflect the dynamic nature of problems, particularly those arising in a mathematical context. It is from this context that we present a framework, together with a Java-like implementation of that framework, that realistically represents the dynamic and evolving characteristic of problems and algorithms.

A Novel Anonymity Quantification and Preservation Model for UnderNet Relay Networks

With the wide spread of Internet applications in both the surface net (Internet) and Darknet, the necessity to safeguard privacy and anonymity has become more prominent than ever. In an attempt to assure untraceability and undetectability between entities, as part of the communication process, traditional confidentiality mechanisms have proved insufficient to address attacks against those principles. In addition, different international laws and cross-continental cybercrimes become immune from being affected by a global public policy on how data traffic should be treated. In this article, a holistic view of anonymity preservation approaches and techniques is given with emphasis on the partial articulation of a novel anonymity preservation model based on infrastructure elements, circuit attributes and adversarial engagement rates on clustered and unindexed portions of the cyberspace.

Modelling Self-Led Trust Value Management in Grid and Service Oriented Infrastructures: A Graph Theoretic Social Network Mediated Approach

Current developments in grid and service oriented technologies involve fluid and dynamic, ad hoc based interactions between delegates, which in turn, serves to challenge conventional centralised structured trust and security assurance approaches. Delegates ranging from individuals to large-scale VO Virtual Organisations require the establishment of trust across all parties as a prerequisite for trusted and meaningful e-collaboration. In this paper, a notable obstacle, namely how such delegates modelled as nodes operating within complex collaborative environment spaces can best evaluate in context to optimally and dynamically select the most trustworthy ad hoc based resource/service for e-consumption. A number of aggregated service case scenarios are herein employed in order to consider the manner in which virtual consumers and provider ad hoc based communities converge. In this paper, the authors take the view that the use of graph-theoretic modelling naturally leads to a self-led trust management decision based approach in which delegates are continuously informed of relevant up-to-date trust levels. This will lead to an increased confidence level, which trustful service delegation can occur. The key notion is of a self-led trust model that is suited to an inherently low latency, decentralised trust security paradigm.

Preparing computing students for culturally diverse e-mediated IT projects

In this paper we present an account of an undergraduate team‐based assignment designed to facilitate, exhibit and record team‐working skills in an e‐mediated environment. By linking the student feedback received to Hofstede’s classic model of cultural dimensions we aim to show the assignment’s suitability in revealing the student’s multi‐cultural context. In addition to anecdotal evidence we also present a quantitative analysis that shows that the desired learning outcomes have been met. In a further discussion we show how the qualitative data collected can be used to quantitatively determine a cultural fingerprint of the groups that is useful to predict the team’s suitability for a given task in a real‐world project.