http://www.mdpi.com/journal/futureinternet Latest open access articles published in Future Internet at http://www.mdpi.com/journal/futureinternet http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/2/237 The Bitcoin network of decentralized payment transactions has attracted a lot of attention from both Internet users and researchers in recent years. Bitcoin utilizes a peer-to-peer network to issue anonymous payment transactions between different users. In the currently used Bitcoin clients, the full transaction history is available at each node of the network to prevent double spending without the need for a central authority, forming a valuable source for empirical research on network structure, network dynamics, and the implied anonymity challenges, as well as guidance on the future evolution of complex payment systems. We found dynamical effects of which some increase anonymity while others decrease it. Most importantly, several parameters of the Bitcoin transaction graph seem to have become stationary over the last 12–18 months. We discuss the implications. Future Internet 2013-05-07 5 2 Article 10.3390/fi5020237 237 250 1999-5903 2013-05-07 doi: 10.3390/fi5020237 Micha Ober Stefan Katzenbeisser Kay Hamacher http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/2/205 Emergency planners, first responders and relief workers increasingly rely on computational and communication systems that support all aspects of emergency management, from mitigation and preparedness to response and recovery. Failure of these systems, whether accidental or because of malicious action, can have severe implications for emergency management. Accidental failures have been extensively documented in the past and significant effort has been put into the development and introduction of more resilient technologies. At the same time researchers have been raising concerns about the potential of cyber attacks to cause physical disasters or to maximise the impact of one by intentionally impeding the work of the emergency services. Here, we provide a review of current research on the cyber threats to communication, sensing, information management and vehicular technologies used in emergency management. We emphasise on open issues for research, which are the cyber threats that have the potential to affect emergency management severely and for which solutions have not yet been proposed in the literature. Future Internet 2013-05-07 5 2 Review 10.3390/fi5020205 205 236 1999-5903 2013-05-07 doi: 10.3390/fi5020205 George Loukas Diane Gan Tuan Vuong http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/2/190 Norwegian authorities’ policy aims at securing an information society for all, emphasizing the importance of accessible and usable Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for everyone. While the body of research on young people’s use of ICT is quite comprehensive, research addressing digital differentiation in young people with disabilities’ use of ICT is still in its early days. This article investigates how young people with disabilities’ use, or non-use, of assistive ICT creates digital differentiations. The investigation elaborates on how the anticipations and stereotypes of disability establish an authoritative definition of assistive ICT, and the consequence this creates for the use of the Web by young people with disabilities. The object of the article is to provide enhanced insight into the field of technology and disability by illuminating how assistive ICT sometimes eliminates and sometimes reproduces stereotypes and digital differentiations. The investigation draws on a qualitative interview study with 23 young Norwegians with disabilities, aged 15–20 years. I draw on a theoretical perspective to analyze the findings of the study, which employs the concept of identity multiplicity. The article’s closing discussion expands on technology’s significance in young people’s negotiations of impairment and of perceptions of disability Future Internet 2013-05-07 5 2 Article 10.3390/fi5020190 190 204 1999-5903 2013-05-07 doi: 10.3390/fi5020190 Sylvia Söderström http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/2/168 A highly efficient self-provisioning interference management scheme is derived for 3G Home Node-Bs (HNB). The proposed scheme comprises self-adjustment of the HNB transmission parameters to meet the targeted QoS (quality of service) requirements in terms of downlink and uplink guaranteed minimum throughput and coverage. This objective is achieved by means of an autonomous HNB solution, where the transmit power of pilot and data are adjusted separately, while also controlling the uplink interference pollution towards the macro-layer. The proposed scheme is evaluated by means of extensive system level simulations and the results show significant performance improvements in terms of user throughput outage probability, power efficiency, femtocell coverage, and impact on macro-layer performance as compared to prior art baseline techniques. The paper is concluded by also showing corresponding measurements from live 3G high-speed packet access (HSPA) HNB field-trials, confirming the validity of major simulation results and assumptions. Future Internet 2013-05-02 5 2 Article 10.3390/fi5020168 168 189 1999-5903 2013-05-02 doi: 10.3390/fi5020168 Troels Kolding Pawel Ochal Niels Jørgensen Klaus Pedersen http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/2/140 This article presents and explains a methodology based on cryptanalytic and reverse engineering techniques that can be employed to quickly recover information from encrypted files generated by malware. The objective of the methodology is to minimize the effort with static and dynamic analysis, by using cryptanalysis and related knowledge as much as possible. In order to illustrate how it works, we present three case studies, taken from a big Brazilian company that was victimized by directed attacks focused on stealing information from a special purpose hardware they use in their environment. Future Internet 2013-04-25 5 2 Article 10.3390/fi5020140 140 167 1999-5903 2013-04-25 doi: 10.3390/fi5020140 Nelson Uto http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/2/128 An attractive advantage of mobile networks is that their users can gain easy access to different services. In some cases, equivalent services could be fulfilled by different providers, which brings the question of how to rationally select the best provider among all possibilities. In this paper, we investigate an answer to this question from both quality-of-service (QoS) and energy perspectives by formulating an optimisation problem. We illustrate the theoretical results with examples from experimental measurements of the resulting energy and performance. Future Internet 2013-04-19 5 2 Article 10.3390/fi5020128 128 139 1999-5903 2013-04-19 doi: 10.3390/fi5020128 Erol Gelenbe Ricardo Lent http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/2/113 In an indoor firefighter mission, coordination and communication support are of the utmost importance. We present our experience from over five years of research with current firefighter support technology. In contrast to some large scale emergency response research, our work is focused on the frontline interaction between teams of firefighters and the incident commander on a single site. In this paper we investigate the flaws in firefighter communication systems. Frequent technical failures and the high cognitive costs incurred by communicating impede coordination. We then extract a list of requirements for an assistant emergency management technology from expert interviews. Thirdly, we provide a system concept and explore challenges for building a novel firefighter support system based on our previous work. The system has three key features: robust ad-hoc network, telemetry and text messaging, as well as implicit interaction. The result would provide a complementary mode of communication in addition to the current trunked radio. Future Internet 2013-04-16 5 2 Article 10.3390/fi5020113 113 127 1999-5903 2013-04-16 doi: 10.3390/fi5020113 Markus Scholz Dawud Gordon Leonardo Ramirez Stephan Sigg Tobias Dyrks Michael Beigl http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/1/95 In this article, learning is studied in in situ applications that involve sensors. The main questions are how to conceptualize experiential learning involving sensors and what kinds of learning applications using sensors already exist or could be designed. It is claimed that experiential learning, context information and sensor data supports twenty first century learning. The concepts of context, technology-mediated experiences, shared felt experiences and experiential learning theory will be used to describe a framework for sensor-based mobile learning environments. Several scenarios and case examples using sensors and sensor data will be presented, and they will be analyzed using the framework. Finally, the article contributes to the discussion concerning the role of technology-mediated learning experiences and collective sensor data in developing twenty first century learning by characterizing what kinds of skills and competences are supported in learning situations that involve sensors. Future Internet 2013-03-19 5 1 Article 10.3390/fi5010095 95 112 1999-5903 2013-03-19 doi: 10.3390/fi5010095 Jari Multisilta Arttu Perttula http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/1/67 The locator/identifier split is an approach for a new addressing and routing architecture to make routing in the core of the Internet more scalable. Based on this principle, we developed the GLI-Split framework, which separates the functionality of current IP addresses into a stable identifier and two independent locators, one for routing in the Internet core and one for edge networks. This makes routing in the Internet more stable and provides more flexibility for edge networks. GLI-Split can be incrementally deployed and it is backward-compatible with the IPv6 Internet. We describe its architecture, compare it to other approaches, present its benefits, and finally present a proof-of-concept implementation of GLI-Split. Future Internet 2013-03-11 5 1 Article 10.3390/fi5010067 67 94 1999-5903 2013-03-11 doi: 10.3390/fi5010067 Michael Menth Matthias Hartmann Dominik Klein http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/1/56 This study examines the participation of African Americans on social networking sites (SNS), and evaluates the degree to which African Americans engage in activities in the online environment to mitigate social capital deficits. Prior literature suggests that compared with whites, African Americans have less social capital that can enhance their socio-economic mobility. As such, my research question is: do African Americans enhance their social capital through their participation on SNS? I use nationally representative data collected from the Pew Internet and American Life Project to explore the research question. The results suggest that the online environment is potentially a space in which African Americans can lessen social capital deficits. Future Internet 2013-03-06 5 1 Article 10.3390/fi5010056 56 66 1999-5903 2013-03-06 doi: 10.3390/fi5010056 Danielle Smith http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/1/46 Cyber-Physical-Human Systems (CPHS) combine sensing, communication and control to obtain desirable outcomes in physical environments for human beings, such as buildings or vehicles. A particularly important application area is emergency management. While recent work on the design and optimisation of emergency management schemes has relied essentially on discrete event simulation, which is challenged by the substantial amount of programming or reprogramming of the simulation tools and by the scalability and the computing time needed to obtain useful performance estimates, this paper proposes an approach that offers fast estimates based on graph models and probability models. We show that graph models can offer insight into the critical areas in an emergency evacuation and that they can suggest locations where sensor systems are particularly important and may require hardening. On the other hand, we also show that analytical models based on queueing theory can provide useful estimates of evacuation times and for routing optimisation. The results are illustrated with regard to the evacuation of a real-life building. Future Internet 2013-02-21 5 1 Article 10.3390/fi5010046 46 55 1999-5903 2013-02-21 doi: 10.3390/fi5010046 Antoine Desmet Erol Gelenbe http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/1/34 This article speculates on the future of privacy and electronic identities on the Internet. Based on a short review of security models and the development of privacy-enhancing technology, privacy and electronic identities will be discussed as parts of a larger context—an ecosystem of personal information and electronic identities. The article argues for an ecosystem view of personal information and electronic identities, as both personal information and identity information are basic required input for many applications. Therefore, for both application owners and users, a functioning ecosystem of personal information and electronic identification is important. For the future of the Internet, high-quality information and controlled circulation of such information is therefore argued as decisive for the value of future Internet applications. Future Internet 2013-01-14 5 1 Essay 10.3390/fi5010034 34 45 1999-5903 2013-01-14 doi: 10.3390/fi5010034 Lothar Fritsch http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/1/21 The term prosumer, first introduced by Toffler in the 1980s, has been developed by sociologists in response to Web 2.0 (the set of technologies that has transformed a predominantly static web into the collaborative medium initially envisaged by Tim Berners-Lee). The phenomena is now understood as a process involving the creation of meanings on the part of the consumer, who re-appropriates spaces that were dominated by institutionalized production, and this extends to the exploitation of consumer creativity on the production side. Recent consumption literature can be re-interpreted through the prosumer lens in order to understand whether prosumers are more creative or alienated in their activities. The peculiar typology of prosumption introduced by Web 2.0 leads us to analyze social capital as a key element in value creation, and to investigate its different online and offline forms. Our analysis then discusses the digital divide and critical consumerism as forms of empowerment impairment. Future Internet 2013-01-10 5 1 Article 10.3390/fi5010021 21 33 1999-5903 2013-01-10 doi: 10.3390/fi5010021 Roberta Paltrinieri Piergiorgio Esposti http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/1/1 Nowadays, research on Vehicular Technology aims at automating every single mechanical element of vehicles, in order to increase passengers’ safety, reduce human driving intervention and provide entertainment services on board. Automatic trajectory tracing for vehicles under especially risky circumstances is a field of research that is currently gaining enormous attention. In this paper, we show some results on how to develop useful policies to execute maneuvers by a vehicle at high speeds with the mathematical optimization of some already established mobility conditions of the car. We also study how the presence of Gaussian noise on measurement sensors while maneuvering can disturb motion and affect the final trajectories. Different performance criteria for the optimization of such maneuvers are presented, and an analysis is shown on how path deviations can be minimized by using trajectory smoothing techniques like the Kalman Filter. We finalize the paper with a discussion on how communications can be used to implement these schemes. Future Internet 2012-12-27 5 1 Article 10.3390/fi5010001 1 20 1999-5903 2012-12-27 doi: 10.3390/fi5010001 Juan-Bautista Tomas-Gabarron Esteban Egea-Lopez Joan Garcia-Haro http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/4/1086 The neutral point of view (NPOV) cornerstone of Wikipedia (WP) is challenged for next generation knowledge bases. A case is presented for content neutrality as a new, every point of view (EPOV) guiding principle. The architectural implications of content neutrality are discussed and translated into novel concepts of Wiki architectures. Guidelines for implementing this architecture are presented. Although NPOV is criticized, the contribution avoids ideological controversy and focuses on the benefits of the novel approach. Future Internet 2012-12-19 4 4 Article 10.3390/fi4041086 1086 1104 1999-5903 2012-12-19 doi: 10.3390/fi4041086 Clemens Cap http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/4/1069 Climate studies involve petabytes of spatiotemporal datasets that are produced and archived at distributed computing resources. Scientists need an intuitive and convenient tool to explore the distributed spatiotemporal data. Geovisual analytical tools have the potential to provide such an intuitive and convenient method for scientists to access climate data, discover the relationships between various climate parameters, and communicate the results across different research communities. However, implementing a geovisual analytical tool for complex climate data in a distributed environment poses several challenges. This paper reports our research and development of a web-based geovisual analytical system to support the analysis of climate data generated by climate model. Using the ModelE developed by the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) as an example, we demonstrate that the system is able to (1) manage large volume datasets over the Internet; (2) visualize 2D/3D/4D spatiotemporal data; (3) broker various spatiotemporal statistical analyses for climate research; and (4) support interactive data analysis and knowledge discovery. This research also provides an example for managing, disseminating, and analyzing Big Data in the 21st century. Future Internet 2012-12-14 4 4 Article 10.3390/fi4041069 1069 1085 1999-5903 2012-12-14 doi: 10.3390/fi4041069 Min Sun Jing Li Chaowei Yang Gavin Schmidt Myra Bambacus Robert Cahalan Qunying Huang Chen Xu Erik Noble Zhenlong Li http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/4/1049 To support scientific visualization of multiple-mission data from Mars, the Virtual Astronaut (VA) creates an interactive virtual 3D environment built on the Unity3D Game Engine. A prototype study was conducted based on orbital and Opportunity Rover data covering Santa Maria Crater in Meridiani Planum on Mars. The VA at Santa Maria provides dynamic visual representations of the imaging, compositional, and mineralogical information. The VA lets one navigate through the scene and provides geomorphic and geologic contexts for the rover operations. User interactions include in-situ observations visualization, feature measurement, and an animation control of rover drives. This paper covers our approach and implementation of the VA system. A brief summary of the prototype system functions and user feedback is also covered. Based on external review and comments by the science community, the prototype at Santa Maria has proven the VA to be an effective tool for virtual geovisual analysis. Future Internet 2012-12-13 4 4 Article 10.3390/fi4041049 1049 1068 1999-5903 2012-12-13 doi: 10.3390/fi4041049 Jue Wang Keith Bennett Edward Guinness http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/4/1037 While the current focus on how digital technology alters our conception of the self and its place in the broader perceived reality yields fascinating insight into modern issues, there is much to be gained by analyzing the presence of dualist and augmented reality discourses in a pre-digital era. This essay will examine the ontological interplay of textual dualist norms in the Russian and Soviet states of the 19th and early 20th centuries and how those norms were challenged by augmented claims embodied in rumors, refrains, and the spelling of names. By utilizing the informational concepts of mobility and asynchronicity, three Russian historical vignettes—the Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861, the documentation of Jews in Imperial Russia, and the attempts by Trotsky to realize Soviet symchka—demonstrate that not only are dualist discourses prevalent in periods outside of the contemporary, but also that the way in which those conflicts framed themselves in the past directly influences their deployment in today’s digital world. Future Internet 2012-12-10 4 4 Essay 10.3390/fi4041037 1037 1048 1999-5903 2012-12-10 doi: 10.3390/fi4041037 Jeremy Antley http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/4/1026 The growing complexities of software and the demand for shorter time to market are two important challenges that face today’s IT industry. These challenges demand the increase of both productivity and quality of software. Model-based testing is a promising technique for meeting these challenges. Traceability modeling is a key issue and challenge in model-based testing. Relationships between the different models will help to navigate from one model to another, and trace back to the respective requirements and the design model when the test fails. In this paper, we present an approach for bridging the gaps between the different models in model-based testing. We propose relation definition markup language (RDML) for defining the relationships between models. Future Internet 2012-11-26 4 4 Article 10.3390/fi4041026 1026 1036 1999-5903 2012-11-26 doi: 10.3390/fi4041026 Mathew George Klaus-Peter Fischer-Hellmann Martin Knahl Udo Bleimann Shirley Atkinson http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/4/1016 Cost reduction and a vastly increased potential to create new services, such as via the proliferation of the Cloud, have led to many more players and “end points”. With many of them being new entrants, possibly short-lived, the question of how to handle trust and privacy in this new context arises. In this paper, we specifically look at the underlying infrastructure that connects end-points served by these players, which is an essential part of the overall architecture to enable trust and privacy. We present an enhanced architecture that allows real people, objects and services to reliably interact via an infrastructure providing assured levels of trust. Future Internet 2012-11-19 4 4 Article 10.3390/fi4041016 1016 1025 1999-5903 2012-11-19 doi: 10.3390/fi4041016 Amardeo Sarma Joao Girao http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/4/1004 Semantic publishing offers the promise of computable papers, enriched visualisation and a realisation of the linked data ideal. In reality, however, the publication process contrives to prevent richer semantics while culminating in a "lumpen" PDF. In thispaper, we discuss a web-first approach to publication, and describe a three-tiered approach that integrates with the existing authoring tooling. Critically, although it adds limited semantics, it does provide value to all the participants in the process: the author, the reader and the machine. Future Internet 2012-11-08 4 4 Article 10.3390/fi4041004 1004 1015 1999-5903 2012-11-08 doi: 10.3390/fi4041004 Phillip Lord Simon Cockell Robert Stevens http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/4/971 Stuxnet was the first targeted malware that received worldwide attention forcausing physical damage in an industrial infrastructure seemingly isolated from the onlineworld. Stuxnet was a powerful targeted cyber-attack, and soon other malware samples were discovered that belong to this family. In this paper, we will first present our analysis of Duqu, an information-collecting malware sharing striking similarities with Stuxnet. Wedescribe our contributions in the investigation ranging from the original detection of Duquvia finding the dropper file to the design of a Duqu detector toolkit. We then continue with the analysis of the Flame advanced information-gathering malware. Flame is unique in thesense that it used advanced cryptographic techniques to masquerade as a legitimate proxyfor the Windows Update service. We also present the newest member of the family, called Gauss, whose unique feature is that one of its modules is encrypted such that it can onlybe decrypted on its target system; hence, the research community has not yet been able to analyze this module. For this particular malware, we designed a Gauss detector serviceand we are currently collecting intelligence information to be able to break its very specialencryption mechanism. Besides explaining the operation of these pieces of malware, wealso examine if and how they could have been detected by vigilant system administrators manually or in a semi-automated manner using available tools. Finally, we discuss lessonsthat the community can learn from these incidents. We focus on technical issues, and avoidspeculations on the origin of these threats and other geopolitical questions. Future Internet 2012-11-06 4 4 Article 10.3390/fi4040971 971 1003 1999-5903 2012-11-06 doi: 10.3390/fi4040971 Boldizsár Bencsáth Gábor Pék Levente Buttyán Márk Félegyházi http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/4/955 At once fearful and dependent, hopeful and distrustful, our contemporary relationship with technology is highly ambivalent. Using experiential accounts from an ongoing Facebook-based qualitative study (N = 231), I both diagnose and articulate this ambivalence. I argue that technological ambivalence is rooted primarily in the deeply embedded moral prescription to lead a meaningful life, and a related uncertainty about the role of new technologies in the accomplishment of this task. On the one hand, technology offers the potential to augment or even enhance personal and public life. On the other hand, technology looms with the potential to supplant or replace real experience. I examine these polemic potentialities in the context of personal experiences, interpersonal relationships, and political activism. I conclude by arguing that the pervasive integration and non-optionality of technical systems amplifies utopian hopes, dystopian fears, and ambivalent concerns in the contemporary era. Future Internet 2012-10-26 4 4 Article 10.3390/fi4040955 955 970 1999-5903 2012-10-26 doi: 10.3390/fi4040955 Jenny Davis http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/4/929 In semantic policy infrastructure, a Trusted Legal Domain (TLD), designated as a Super-Peer Domain (SPD), is a legal cage model used to circumscribe the legal virtual boundary of data disclosure and usage in the cloud. Semantic legal policies in compliance with the law are enforced at the super-peer within an SPD to enable Law-as-a-Service (LaaS) for cloud service providers. In addition, cloud users could query fragmented but protected outsourcing cloud data from a law-aware super-peer, where each query is also compliant with the law. Semantic legal policies are logic-based formal policies, which are shown to be a combination of OWL-DL ontologies and stratified Datalog rules with negation, i.e., so-called non-monotonic cq-programs, for policy representation and enforcement. An agent at the super-peer is a unique law-aware guardian that provides protected data integration services for its peers within an SPD. Furthermore, agents at the super-peers specify how law-compliant legal policies are unified with each other to provide protected data exchange services across SPDs in the semantic data cloud. Future Internet 2012-10-25 4 4 Article 10.3390/fi4040929 929 954 1999-5903 2012-10-25 doi: 10.3390/fi4040929 Yuh-Jong Hu Win-Nan Wu Kua-Ping Cheng Ya-Ling Huang http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/4/900 In this paper, we propose to view the concept of open government from the perspective of an ecosystem, a metaphor often used by policy makers, scholars, and technology gurus to convey a sense of the interdependent social systems of actors, organizations, material infrastructures, and symbolic resources that can be created in technology-enabled, information-intensive social systems. We use the concept of an ecosystem to provide a framework for considering the outcomes of a workshop organized to generate a research and development agenda for open government. The agenda was produced in discussions among participants from the government (at the federal, state, and local levels), academic and civil sector communities at the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the University at Albany, SUNY in April 2011. The paper begins by discussing concepts central to understanding what is meant by an ecosystem and some principles that characterize its functioning. We then apply this metaphor more directly to government, proposing that policymakers engage in strategic ecosystems thinking, which means being guided by the goal of explicitly and purposefully constructing open government ecosystems. From there, we present the research agenda questions essential to the development of this new view of government's interaction with users and organizations. Our goal is to call attention to some of the fundamental ways in which government must change in order to evolve from outdated industrial bureaucratic forms to information age networked and interdependent systems. Future Internet 2012-10-23 4 4 Article 10.3390/fi4040900 900 928 1999-5903 2012-10-23 doi: 10.3390/fi4040900 Teresa M. Harrison Theresa A. Pardo Meghan Cook http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/4/882 With the emergence of Web 2.0 (Blog, Wiki, RSS, YouTube, Flickr, Podcast, Social Networks, and Mashups), new ways of communicating, interacting and being on the Web have arisen. These new communication tools and strategies can radically change some specific work processes in communities, such as the work processes of an autarchy. Some authors emphasize the advantages of using Web 2.0 tools in autarchies; thus, we were interested in exploring the possibilities and constraints of implementing these tools in our region of Portugal, the Minho. Using a case study methodology, we aimed to find out about the possibilities of implementing Web 2.0 tools in autarchies through exploring the interest and motivation of autarchic collaborators in their use (our unit of analysis in autarchies). Information was gathered with the help of a questionnaire, the design of which was based on previous exploratory interviews and applied to four autarchic units in the Minho region. In each unit, three different target-groups were surveyed (Councilors, Information Systems (IS) Technicians, and General Staff), so that we could triangulate the data. Data analysis and results emphasized the interest and motivation of the autarchies in using Web 2.0 tools, as well as the main constraints that would be faced during Web 2.0 implementation. It also allowed us to establish some guidelines for adequate Web 2.0 implementation, including an “ideal” profile of the person responsible for the implementation process. Future Internet 2012-10-22 4 4 Article 10.3390/fi4040882 882 899 1999-5903 2012-10-22 doi: 10.3390/fi4040882 Rui Gomes Lígia Sousa http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/4/865 Sensor networks are estimated to drive the formation of the future Internet, with stream reasoning responsible for analysing sensor data. Stream reasoning is defined as real time logical reasoning on large, noisy, heterogeneous data streams, aiming to support the decision process of large numbers of concurrent querying agents. In this research we exploited non-monotonic rule-based systems for handling inconsistent or incomplete information and also ontologies to deal with heterogeneity. Data is aggregated from distributed streams in real time and plausible rules fire when new data is available. The advantages of lazy evaluation on data streams were investigated in this study, with the help of a prototype developed in Haskell. Future Internet 2012-10-17 4 4 Article 10.3390/fi4040865 865 881 1999-5903 2012-10-17 doi: 10.3390/fi4040865 Adrian Groza Ioan Alfred Letia http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/852 The social trend is progressively becoming the key feature of current Web understanding (Web 2.0). This trend appears irrepressible as millions of users, directly or indirectly connected through social networks, are able to share and exchange any kind of content, information, feeling or experience. Social interactions radically changed the user approach. Furthermore, the socialization of content around social objects provides new unexplored commercial marketplaces and business opportunities. On the other hand, the progressive evolution of the web towards the Semantic Web (or Web 3.0) provides a formal representation of knowledge based on the meaning of data. When the social meets semantics, the social intelligence can be formed in the context of a semantic environment in which user and community profiles as well as any kind of interaction is semantically represented (Semantic Social Web). This paper first provides a conceptual analysis of the second and third version of the Web model. That discussion is aimed at the definition of a middle concept (Web 2.5) resulting in the convergence and integration of key features from the current and next generation Web. The Semantic Social Web (Web 2.5) has a clear theoretical meaning, understood as the bridge between the overused Web 2.0 and the not yet mature Semantic Web (Web 3.0). Future Internet 2012-09-21 4 3 Editorial 10.3390/fi4030852 852 864 1999-5903 2012-09-21 doi: 10.3390/fi4030852 Salvatore F. Pileggi Carlos Fernandez-Llatas Vicente Traver http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/830 Regulations in the Building Industry are becoming increasingly complex and involve more than one technical area, covering products, components and project implementations. They also play an important role in ensuring the quality of a building, and to minimize its environmental impact. Control or conformance checking are becoming more complex every day, not only for industrials, but also for organizations charged with assessing the conformity of new products or processes. This paper will detail the approach taken by the CSTB (Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment) in order to simplify this conformance control task. The approach and the proposed solutions are based on semantic web technologies. For this purpose, we first establish a domain-ontology, which defines the main concepts involved and the relationships, including one based on OWL (Web Ontology Language) [1]. We rely on SBVR (Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules) [2] and SPARQL (SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language) [3] to reformulate the regulatory requirements written in natural language, respectively, in a controlled and formal language. We then structure our control process based on expert practices. Each elementary control step is defined as a SPARQL query and assembled into complex control processes “on demand”, according to the component tested and its semantic definition. Finally, we represent in RDF (Resource Description Framework) [4] the association between the SBVR rules and SPARQL queries representing the same regulatory constraints. Future Internet 2012-09-11 4 3 Article 10.3390/fi4030830 830 851 1999-5903 2012-09-11 doi: 10.3390/fi4030830 Khalil Riad Bouzidi Bruno Fies Catherine Faron-Zucker Alain Zarli Nhan Le Thanh http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/807 Although the integration of sensor-based information into analysis and decision making has been a research topic for many years, semantic interoperability has not yet been reached. The advent of user-generated content for the geospatial domain, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), makes it even more difficult to establish semantic integration. This paper proposes a novel approach to integrating conventional sensor information and VGI, which is exploited in the context of detecting forest fires. In contrast to common logic-based semantic descriptions, we present a formal system using algebraic specifications to unambiguously describe the processing steps from natural phenomena to value-added information. A generic ontology of observations is extended and profiled for forest fire detection in order to illustrate how the sensing process, and transformations between heterogeneous sensing systems, can be represented as mathematical functions and grouped into abstract data types. We discuss the required ontological commitments and a possible generalization. Future Internet 2012-09-03 4 3 Article 10.3390/fi4030807 807 829 1999-5903 2012-09-03 doi: 10.3390/fi4030807 Sven Schade Frank Ostermann Laura Spinsanti Werner Kuhn http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/788 This paper describes the results of a collaborative effort that has reconciled the Open Annotation Collaboration (OAC) ontology and the Annotation Ontology (AO) to produce a merged data model [the Open Annotation (OA) data model] to describe Web-based annotations—and hence facilitate the discovery, sharing and re-use of such annotations. Using a number of case studies that include digital scholarly editing, 3D museum artifacts and sensor data streams, we evaluate the OA model’s capabilities. We also describe our implementation of an online annotation server that supports the storage, search and retrieval of OA-compliant annotations across multiple applications and disciplines. Finally we discuss outstanding problem issues associated with the OA ontology, and the impact that certain design decisions have had on the efficient storage, indexing, search and retrieval of complex structured annotations. Future Internet 2012-08-30 4 3 Article 10.3390/fi4030788 788 806 1999-5903 2012-08-30 doi: 10.3390/fi4030788 Jane Hunter Anna Gerber http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/776 Being familiar with all the benefits of e-Health and the strategic plan for the Slovenian health sector’s informatization, Telekom Slovenia and the Faculty of Medicine from the University of Maribor, along with other partners, have initiated an e-Health project. The project group is developing various e-Health services that are based on modern ICT (information and communications technology) solutions and will be available on several screens. In order to meet the users’ needs and expectations and, consequently, achieve the high acceptance of e-Health services, the user-centered design (UCD) approach was employed in the e-Health project. However, during the research it was found that conventional UCD methods are not completely appropriate for older adults: the target population of the e-Health services. That is why the selected UCD methods were modified and adapted for older adults. The modified UCD methods used in the research study are presented in this paper. Using the results of the adapted UCD methods, a prototype for a service named MedReminder was developed. The prototype was evaluated by a group of 12 study participants. The study participants evaluated the MedReminder service as acceptable with a good potential for a high adoption rate among its target population, i.e., older adults. Future Internet 2012-08-27 4 3 Article 10.3390/fi4030776 776 787 1999-5903 2012-08-27 doi: 10.3390/fi4030776 Emilija Stojmenova Bojan Imperl Tomaž Žohar Dejan Dinevski http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/762 In this article, key points are discussed concerning knowledge representation for clinical decision support systems in the domain of physical medicine and rehabilitation. Information models, classifications and terminologies, such as the “virtual medical record” (vMR), the “international classification of functioning, disability and health” (ICF), the “international classification of diseases” (ICD) and the “systematized nomenclature of medicine—clinical terms” (SNOMED CT), are used for knowledge integration and reasoning. A system is described that supports the measuring of functioning status, diversity, prognosis and similarity between patients in the post-acute stage, thus helping health professionals’ prescription of recommendations. Future Internet 2012-08-20 4 3 Article 10.3390/fi4030762 762 775 1999-5903 2012-08-20 doi: 10.3390/fi4030762 Laia Subirats Luigi Ceccaroni Felip Miralles http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/737 The increasing competition between manufacturers, the shortening of innovation cycles and the growing importance of resource-efficient manufacturing demand a higher versatility of factory automation. Service-oriented approaches depict a promising possibility to realize new control architectures by encapsulating the functionality of mechatronic devices into services. An efficient discovery, context-based selection and dynamic orchestration of these services are the key features for the creation of highly adaptable manufacturing processes. We describe a semantic service discovery and ad-hoc orchestration system, which is able to react to new process variants and changed contextual information (e.g., failure of field devices, requirements on the consumption of resources). Because a standardized vocabulary, especially for the description of mechatronic functionalities, is still missing in the manufacturing domain, the semantic description of services, processes and manufacturing plants as well as the semantic interpretation of contextual information play an important part. Future Internet 2012-08-14 4 3 Article 10.3390/fi4030737 737 761 1999-5903 2012-08-14 doi: 10.3390/fi4030737 Matthias Loskyll Ines Heck Jochen Schlick Michael Schwarz http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/719 This paper uses Social Network Analysis indexes to study Greek political blogs. The indexes describe bloggers’ community recommendations, centrality and bloggers’ attempt to form spheres of influence. Five Social Network Analysis indexes are used: incoming links, normalized betweenness, outgoing links, number of 1-cliques a blog belongs to, and size of blog’s ego-network. By recording 127 Greek political blogs, the paper finds that there are two distinct blog performance properties regarding connectivity: Only a few blogs serve as authority blogs having many incoming links and centrality, while a few others try to expand their influence territory by having many outgoing links and forming larger 1-cliques and ego-networks. Next, the paper associates the proposed indexes with blogs’ and users’ community activity. Authority blogs present high blog activity and users’ community activity, as well. These are recorded by large numbers of posts and comments to the blog posts, respectively. It is shown that blogs, which strive to expand their network by using many outgoing links are more likely to link to the authority blogs. Content analysis reveals that authority blogs provide news and information and promote discussion to a much higher degree compared to the overall Greek political blogosphere. Future Internet 2012-08-14 4 3 Article 10.3390/fi4030719 719 736 1999-5903 2012-08-14 doi: 10.3390/fi4030719 Kostas Zafiropoulos http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/700 In the recent past, the so-called “Web 2.0” became a powerful tool for decision making processes. Politicians and managers, seeking to improve participation, embraced this technology as if it simply were a new, enhanced version of theWorldWideWeb, better suited to retrieve information, opinions and feedbacks from the general public on subjects like laws, acts and policies. This approach was often naive, neglecting the less-obvious aspects of the technology, and thus bringing on significant security problems. This paper shows how, in the end, the result could easily be the opposite of what was desired. Malicious attackers, in fact, could quite easily exploit the vulnerabilities in these systems to hijack the process and lead to wrong decisions, also causing the public to lose trust in the systems themselves. Future Internet 2012-08-09 4 3 Article 10.3390/fi4030700 700 718 1999-5903 2012-08-09 doi: 10.3390/fi4030700 Marco Prandini Marco Ramilli http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/688 In Norway, it is a national goal to provide more patients with thrombolytic treatment. A referring hospital and a specialist hospital have implemented videoconferencing (VC) equipment to share knowledge and discuss stroke patients, regarding thrombolytic treatment. VC has only been used four times within the 19 months that the service has been available. The objective in this article is to increase the understanding of the contradiction between the need for knowledge-sharing through VC technology, as well as the reasons for low frequency of use when discussing stroke patients. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 professionals. The results illustrate how the technology per se is not the reason for the low frequency use. Health care is shaped by behavior, traditional rules, standards and division of labor. By using cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) as a framework, we illustrate the importance of understanding the historic way of performing an activity to be able to expand the treatment activity in the future. Future Internet 2012-08-06 4 3 Article 10.3390/fi4030688 688 699 1999-5903 2012-08-06 doi: 10.3390/fi4030688 Line Lundvoll Nilsen Terje Solvoll http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/672 This paper considers the impact of Stuxnet on cyber-attacks and cyber-defense. It first reviews trends in cyber-weapons and how Stuxnet fits into these trends. Because Stuxnet targeted an industrial control system in order to wreak physical damage, the focus is on weapons that target systems of that type and produce physical effects. The paper then examines the impact of Stuxnet on various domains of action where cyber-attacks play a role, including state-level conflict, terrorism, activism, crime, and pranks. For each domain, it considers the potential for new types of cyber-attacks, especially attacks against industrial control systems, and whether such attacks would be consistent with other trends in the domain. Finally, the paper considers the impact of Stuxnet on cyber-defense. Future Internet 2012-07-16 4 3 Article 10.3390/fi4030672 672 687 1999-5903 2012-07-16 doi: 10.3390/fi4030672 Dorothy E. Denning http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/646 Fixed and wireless networks are increasingly converging towards common connectivity with IP-based core networks. Providing effective end-to-end resource and QoS management in such complex heterogeneous converged network scenarios requires unified, adaptive and scalable solutions to integrate and co-ordinate diverse QoS mechanisms of different access technologies with IP-based QoS. Policy-Based Network Management (PBNM) is one approach that could be employed to address this challenge. Hence, a policy-based framework for end-to-end QoS management in converged networks, CNQF (Converged Networks QoS Management Framework) has been proposed within our project. In this paper, the CNQF architecture, a Java implementation of its prototype and experimental validation of key elements are discussed. We then present a fuzzy-based CNQF resource management approach and study the performance of our implementation with real traffic flows on an experimental testbed. The results demonstrate the efficacy of our resource-adaptive approach for practical PBNM systems. Future Internet 2012-07-04 4 3 Article 10.3390/fi4030646 646 671 1999-5903 2012-07-04 doi: 10.3390/fi4030646 Suleiman Y. Yerima Gerard P. Parr Sally I. McClean Philip J. Morrow http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/621 As the costs of healthcare services rise and healthcare professionals are becoming scarce and hard to find, it is imminent that healthcare organizations consider adopting health information technology (HIT) systems. HIT allows health organizations to streamline many of their processes and provide services in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. The latest technological trends such as Cloud Computing (CC) provide a strong infrastructure and offer a true enabler for HIT services over the Internet. This can be achieved on a pay-as-you-use model of the “e-Health Cloud” to help the healthcare industry cope with current and future demands yet keeping their costs to a minimum. Despite its great potential, HIT as a CC model has not been addressed extensively in the literature. There are no apparent frameworks which clearly encompass all viable schemes and interrelationships between HIT and CC. Therefore, analyzing and comparing the effectiveness of such schemes is important. In this paper we introduce the concept of “e-Health Cloud” highlighting many of its constituents and proposing building an e-health environment and elucidating many of the challenges confronting the success of the e-Health Cloud. We will also discuss different possible solutions to address challenges such as security and privacy. Future Internet 2012-07-04 4 3 Review 10.3390/fi4030621 621 645 1999-5903 2012-07-04 doi: 10.3390/fi4030621 Eman AbuKhousa Nader Mohamed Jameela Al-Jaroodi http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/3/618 We have collected five papers describing different aspects of web services and cloud computing. Cloud computing is the next stage of application interoperability and it is a logical extension of web services, both approaches being a variety of Service-Oriented Architecture. The papers cover security, migration, certification, and application development. Together, these papers provide a useful panorama of some of the issues of these two technologies. Future Internet 2012-06-27 4 3 Editorial 10.3390/fi4030618 618 620 1999-5903 2012-06-27 doi: 10.3390/fi4030618 Eduardo B. Fernandez http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/607 Smart homes are homes with technologically advanced systems to enable domestic task automation, easier communication, and higher security. As an enabler of health and well-being enhancement, smart homes have been geared to accommodate people with special needs, especially older people. This paper examines the concept of “smart home” in a technologically driven society and its multi-functional contribution to the enhancement of older people’s lives. Discussion then focuses on the challenges in the use of smart homes among older people such as accessibility and ethical issues. Finally, some implications and recommendations are provided. Future Internet 2012-06-19 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020607 607 617 1999-5903 2012-06-19 doi: 10.3390/fi4020607 Quynh Lê Hoang Boi Nguyen Tony Barnett http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/592 The main objective of this paper is to focus on how an integrated system based on Information Communication Technology (ICT) and face-to-face communication can increase participation in order to have a positive effect on quality of life, plans and decisions, and to discuss the many benefits which web-based public participation can bring to the planning process through a set of improvements to relations, quality and structure of cities in general and in this case example specifically. With the development of a transparent support system for collaborative decision-making processes, it is possible to identify a strategy for addressing gaps to reach collaborative decisions. Future Internet 2012-06-15 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020592 592 606 1999-5903 2012-06-15 doi: 10.3390/fi4020592 Chiara Garau http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/575 Routing services for outdoor areas are omnipresent and also three-dimensional (3D) visualization is quite common within this area. Recent research efforts are now trying to adapt well known outdoor routing services to complex indoor environments. However, most of the current indoor routing systems only focus on two-dimensional visualization, thus only one level can be depicted. Especially multi-level routes therefore lack visualization. Also, most of the (few) existing 3D indoor routing services utilize proprietary software or plugins, thus a widespread accessibility for those services by using common computers or mobile devices is not feasible. Therefore this paper describes the development of a web-based 3D routing system based on a new HTML extension. The visualization of rooms as well as the computed routes is realized with XML3D. Since this emerging technology is based on WebGL and will likely be integrated into the HTML5 standard, the developed system is already compatible with most common browsers such as Google Chrome or Firefox. Another key difference of the approach presented in this paper is that all utilized data is actually crowdsourced geodata from OpenStreetMap (OSM). Such data is collaboratively collected by both amateurs and professionals and can be used at no charge under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL). Our research combines user-generated geo content of the Web 2.0 with future Internet technology for the provision of a ubiquitously accessible 3D indoor routing application. Future Internet 2012-06-06 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020575 575 591 1999-5903 2012-06-06 doi: 10.3390/fi4020575 Marcus Goetz http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/563 Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) tools appear to enhance the possibilities offered by a collaborative approach to planning. The present paper analyzes both the results of experiences of the author and of those available in the literature, highlighting possible advantages and disadvantages. After a brief introduction to the meaning of e-democracy, the second part focuses on the role of ICT in collaborative planning, proceeding in the third part to an illustration of an initial panorama of knowledge gathered using ICT in such processes, while discussing criticisms and opportunities. The fourth part discusses the U-city paradigm as a driver of change in urban planning participation processes. Research perspectives are then outlined in the final part. Future Internet 2012-06-05 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020563 563 574 1999-5903 2012-06-05 doi: 10.3390/fi4020563 Francesco Rotondo http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/551 The advent and adoption of Web 2.0 technologies offers a powerful approach to enhancing the capture of information in natural resource ecology, notably community knowledge of species distributions. Such information has previously been collected using, for example, postal surveys; these are typically inefficient, with low response rates, high costs, and requiring respondents to be spatially literate. Here we describe an example, using the Google Maps Application Programming Interface, to discuss the opportunities such tools provide to conservation biology. Toad Tracker was created as a prototype to demonstrate the utility of this technology to document the distribution of an invasive vertebrate pest species, the cane toad, within Australia. While the technological aspects of this tool are satisfactory, manager resistance towards its use raises issues around the public nature of the technology, the collaborative (non-expert) role in data collection, and data ownership. We conclude in suggesting that, for such tools to be accepted by non-innovation adopters, work is required on both the technological aspects and, importantly, a cultural change is required to create an environment of acceptance of the shifting relationship between authority, expertise and knowledge. Future Internet 2012-05-24 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020551 551 562 1999-5903 2012-05-24 doi: 10.3390/fi4020551 David A. Newell Margaret M. Pembroke William E. Boyd http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/545 The social transformations brought about by the mobile internet are extensive. In discussing the broad range of these transformations—positioned as a shift from personal computing to pervasive computing—this editorial elaborates on the key contributions addressed by the articles in this special issue of Future Internet. These articles touch on topics such as the digital divide, the role of the mobile internet in revolutions like the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street movement, the development of site-specific and context-aware news, the incorporation of the internet into existing technologies like the automobile, and the utilization of the mobile internet to transform everyday spaces into game spaces. Future Internet 2012-05-23 4 2 Editorial 10.3390/fi4020545 545 550 1999-5903 2012-05-23 doi: 10.3390/fi4020545 Jason Farman http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/528 Technological developments and governments’ understanding of what citizens need usually determine the design of public online services. For successful implementation of e-Government services, governments have to place the user in the center of future developments, understand what citizens need and measure what increases citizens’ willingness to adopt e-government services. The paper uses the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the extended TAM, the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory and the important determinants of user acceptance perceived risk and trust, in order to describe teachers’ behavioral intensions to adopt e-Government services. A model containing trust and risk, along with cognitive, social and intrinsic factors is used to study the intentions of e-Government use by Greek primary and secondary education teachers. Two hundred and thirty teachers responded to an online survey. Findings reveal that cognitive and intrinsic factors have significant effects on intentions to use e-Government websites. Future Internet 2012-05-21 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020528 528 544 1999-5903 2012-05-21 doi: 10.3390/fi4020528 Kostas Zafiropoulos Ioannis Karavasilis Vasiliki Vrana http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/514 Little is known about the views of young patients themselves on interactive Web portal services provided by pediatric practitioners. We aimed to explore their perceptions of a real-world diabetes portal that offers facts and contact with peers and practitioners; e.g., discussion forums, blog tools, self-care and treatment information, research updates and news from local practitioners. Twelve young patients (ages 12–21, median 15 years), one boyfriend, 7 mothers and one father each wrote an essay on their experience from use of the portal. Their essays underwent qualitative content analysis. A major theme was “Helping and facilitating daily life with diabetes”, the portal was perceived as a place where contents are interesting, inspiring and may trigger users’ curiosity. There were three subthemes; “Ease of use in my everyday life,” which includes the perception that the portal was perceived as smooth and easy to enter and navigate whenever needed; that information was easy to understand for different groups of users. “Support via an exchange of experience,” includes the ability to contact peers being regarded advantageous. Some said that just reading others’ experiences can be helpful in terms of persevering; children could find peers in the same age group. “Evidence based information,” includes the perception of the portal being a useful and trustworthy source of facts on e.g., physical activity, blood glucose, medical devices, emotional wellbeing, food and nutrition, and other aspects that impact living with diabetes. Young users expressed positive perceptions towards the interactive web portal. Such services seem to have great potential for supporting young patients and significant others - intergrading for confidence. Future Internet 2012-05-18 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020514 514 527 1999-5903 2012-05-18 doi: 10.3390/fi4020514 Sam Nordfeldt Carina Berterö http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/488 While the Internet increasingly permeates everyday life of individuals around the world, it becomes crucial to prevent unauthorized collection and abuse of personalized information. Internet anonymization software such as Tor is an important instrument to protect online privacy. However, due to the performance overhead caused by Tor, many Internet users refrain from using it. This causes a negative impact on the overall privacy provided by Tor, since it depends on the size of the user community and availability of shared resources. Detailed measurements about the performance of Tor are crucial for solving this issue. This paper presents comparative experiments on Tor latency and throughput for surfing to 500 popular websites from several locations around the world during the period of 28 days. Furthermore, we compare these measurements to critical latency thresholds gathered from web usability research, including our own user studies. Our results indicate that without massive future optimizations of Tor performance, it is unlikely that a larger part of Internet users would adopt it for everyday usage. This leads to fewer resources available to the Tor community than theoretically possible, and increases the exposure of privacy-concerned individuals. Furthermore, this could lead to an adoption barrier of similar privacy-enhancing technologies for a Future Internet. Future Internet 2012-05-15 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020488 488 513 1999-5903 2012-05-15 doi: 10.3390/fi4020488 Sebastian Müller Franziska Brecht Benjamin Fabian Steffen Kunz Dominik Kunze http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/469 Cloud computing is a new paradigm that combines several computing concepts and technologies of the Internet creating a platform for more agile and cost-effective business applications and IT infrastructure. The adoption of Cloud computing has been increasing for some time and the maturity of the market is steadily growing. Security is the question most consistently raised as consumers look to move their data and applications to the cloud. We justify the importance and motivation of security in the migration of legacy systems and we carry out an analysis of different approaches related to security in migration processes to cloud with the aim of finding the needs, concerns, requirements, aspects, opportunities and benefits of security in the migration process of legacy systems. Future Internet 2012-05-08 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020469 469 487 1999-5903 2012-05-08 doi: 10.3390/fi4020469 David G. Rosado Rafael Gómez Daniel Mellado Eduardo Fernández-Medina http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/451 The latest improvements in geo-informatics offer new opportunities in a wide range of territorial and environmental applications. In this general framework, a relevant issue is represented by earthquake early warning and emergency management. This research work presents the investigation and development of a simple and innovative geospatial methodology and related collaborative open source geospatial tools for predicting and mapping the vulnerability to seismic hazard in order to support the response planning to disastrous events. The proposed geospatial methodology and tools have been integrated into an open source collaborative GIS system, designed and developed as an integrated component of an earthquake early warning and emergency management system. Future Internet 2012-05-07 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020451 451 468 1999-5903 2012-05-07 doi: 10.3390/fi4020451 Maurizio Pollino Grazia Fattoruso Luigi La Porta Antonio Bruno Della Rocca Valentina James http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/430 An important aspect for the acceptance of Service-Oriented Architectures is having convenient ways to help designers build secure applications. Numerous standards define ways to apply security in web services. However, these standards are rather complex and sometimes overlap, which makes them hard to use and may produce inconsistencies. Representing them as patterns makes them easier to understand, to compare to other patterns, to discover inconsistencies, and to use them to build secure web services applications. Security patterns abstract the key aspects of a security mechanism and can thus be applied by non-experts. We survey here our work on security patterns for web services and their standards and we put them in perspective with respect to each other and to more fundamental patterns. We also consider other patterns for web services security. All the patterns described here have been previously published, we only show here one of them in detail as an illustration of our style for writing patterns. Our main purpose here is to enumerate them, show their use, and show how they relate to each other. Future Internet 2012-04-20 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020430 430 450 1999-5903 2012-04-20 doi: 10.3390/fi4020430 Eduardo B. Fernandez Ola Ajaj Ingrid Buckley Nelly Delessy-Gassant Keiko Hashizume Maria M. Larrondo-Petrie http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/413 The infrastructure of large networks is broken down into areas that have a common security policy called a domain. Security within a domain is commonly implemented at all nodes. However this can have a negative effect on performance since it introduces a delay associated with packet filtering. When Access Control Lists (ACLs) are used within a router for this purpose then a significant overhead is introduced associated with this process. It is likely that identical checks are made at multiple points within a domain prior to a packet reaching its destination. Therefore by eliminating ACLs within a domain by modifying the ingress/egress points with equivalent functionality an improvement in the overall performance can be obtained. This paper considers the effect of the delays when using router operating systems offering different levels of functionality. It considers factors which contribute to the delay particularly due to ACLs and by using theoretical principles modified by practical calculation a model is created. Additionally this paper provides an example of an optimized solution which reduces the delay through network routers by distributing the security rules to the ingress/egress points of the domain without affecting the security policy. Future Internet 2012-04-19 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020413 413 429 1999-5903 2012-04-19 doi: 10.3390/fi4020413 John N. Davies Paul Comerford Vic Grout http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/396 This paper investigates the properties of central or core political blogs. They can be located as clusters of blogs whose members have many incoming links. Other blogs form clouds around them in the sense that they link the core blogs. A case study records Greek political blogs and their incoming links reported through their blogrolls. The adjacency matrix from the blogs’ social network is analyzed and clusters are located. Three of them, those with the larger numbers of incoming links, may be considered to be central. Next, four measures of influence are used to test the influence of the central blogs. The findings suggest that there are many kinds of central blogs, influential and non-influential, and high influence does not always involve high hyperlinking. Future Internet 2012-04-19 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020396 396 412 1999-5903 2012-04-19 doi: 10.3390/fi4020396 Kostas Zafiropoulos Vasiliki Vrana Dimitrios Vagianos http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/372 Semantic Web Services (SWS) are Web Service (WS) descriptions augmented with semantic information. SWS enable intelligent reasoning and automation in areas such as service discovery, composition, mediation, ranking and invocation. This paper applies SWS to a previous protocol adapter which, operating within clearly defined constraints, maps SOAP Web Services to RESTful HTTP format. However, in the previous adapter, the configuration element is manual and the latency implications are locally based. This paper applies SWS technologies to automate the configuration element and the latency tests are conducted in a more realistic Internet based setting. Future Internet 2012-04-11 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020372 372 395 1999-5903 2012-04-11 doi: 10.3390/fi4020372 Sean Kennedy Owen Molloy Robert Stewart Paul Jacob Maria Maleshkova Frank Doheny http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/362 This article explores the ways in which collaboration between professionals using videoconferencing affects the e-health delivered to patients. In Norway, general practitioners (GPs) and specialists routinely hold videoconferences. Observations of 42 VC meetings, each lasting from 5 to 40 min, were analysed in terms of the interactions. In addition, five semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted, each lasting from 20 to 70 minutes. Statements were selected to illustrate the content of the interactions and how collaborative work affects the delivery of healthcare. Successful collaborative work provides practitioners with a new way of thinking: exchanging information and knowledge between levels of care in order to provide the best treatment for patients locally. The regularity makes the collaborative work a two-way achievement. GPs receive decision support and second opinions, and specialists receive information and opportunities to follow up. How the professionals manage their work (i.e., collaborating) may benefit their patients. The regular use of videoconferencing will furnish professionals with enhanced resources for the meeting of patients’ demands in the future. Regularly informing one another and exchanging knowledge, benefits the professionals by providing increased certainty with regard to their medical decisions, and it benefits the patients because they will feel satisfied with the competence of the specialists where they live. Future Internet 2012-04-02 4 2 Article 10.3390/fi4020362 362 371 1999-5903 2012-04-02 doi: 10.3390/fi4020362 Line Lundvoll Nilsen http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/347 The mapping of different aspects of urban phenomena and their relation to the physical cityscape has been greatly extended by the use of geomatics. The tradition to base reasoning on ‘understanding the world’ dates from the time of Aristotle. The extension plan for Barcelona (Eixample), developed by Cerdà, which opened the era of modern urban planning, was preceded by analyses of rich data, describing both detailed demographic issues and physical structures. The contemporary, postmodernist city planning continues this tradition, although a shift towards analyses of more human-related issues can be observed, covering, inter alia, citizens’ perception, cultural differences and patterns of human activities with regard to distinct social groups. The change towards a more human-related perspective and the inclusion of urban morphology analyses are direct consequences of this trend. The required data may be gathered within a crowd-sourcing participation process. According to communicative planning theory, communication with the wider public is indispensable in order to achieve the best results, and can be realized with the use of sophisticated IT tools. Evidence-based reasoning may be supported by images of significant aesthetic values, which inspire immediate reactions. Future Internet 2012-03-22 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010347 347 361 1999-5903 2012-03-22 doi: 10.3390/fi4010347 Małgorzata Hanzl Karol Dzik Paulina Kowalczyk Krystian Kwieciński Ewa Stankiewicz Agata Ł. Wierzbicka http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/322 Current cloud service offerings, i.e., Software-as-a-service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings are often provided as monolithic, one-size-fits-all solutions and give little or no room for customization. This limits the ability of Service-based Application (SBA) developers to configure and syndicate offerings from multiple SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS providers to address their application requirements. Furthermore, combining different independent cloud services necessitates a uniform description format that facilitates the design, customization, and composition. Cloud Blueprinting is a novel approach that allows SBA developers to easily design, configure and deploy virtual SBA payloads on virtual machines and resource pools on the cloud. We propose the Blueprint concept as a uniform abstract description for cloud service offerings that may cross different cloud computing layers, i.e., SaaS, PaaS and IaaS. To support developers with the SBA design and development in the cloud, this paper introduces a formal Blueprint Template for unambiguously describing a blueprint, as well as a Blueprint Lifecycle that guides developers through the manipulation, composition and deployment of different blueprints for an SBA. Finally, the empirical evaluation of the blueprinting approach within an EC’s FP7 project is reported and an associated blueprint prototype implementation is presented. Future Internet 2012-03-21 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010322 322 346 1999-5903 2012-03-21 doi: 10.3390/fi4010322 Dinh Khoa Nguyen Francesco Lelli Mike P. Papazoglou Willem-Jan van den Heuvel http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/306 This paper looks at the tandem technologies of cars and the Internet, and the new ways that they are assembling the social with the mobile Internet. My argument is two-fold: firstly, the advent of mobile Internet in cars brings together new, widely divergent trajectories of Internet; secondly, such developments have social implications that vary widely depending on whether or not we recognize the broader technological systems and infrastructures, media practices, flows, and mobilities in which vehicular mobile Internets are being created. Future Internet 2012-03-20 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010306 306 321 1999-5903 2012-03-20 doi: 10.3390/fi4010306 Gerard Goggin http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/285 This paper describes the results of an analysis of the OpenStreetMap (OSM) database for the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland (correct to April 2011). 15; 640 OSM ways (polygons and polylines), resulting in 316; 949 unique versions of these objects, were extracted and analysed from the OSM database for the UK and Ireland. In our analysis we only considered “heavily edited” objects in OSM: objects which have been edited 15 or more times. Our results show that there is no strong relationship between increasing numbers of contributors to a given object and the number of tags (metadata) assigned to it. 87% of contributions/edits to these objects are performed by 11% of the total 4128 contributors. In 79% of edits additional spatial data (nodes) are added to objects. The results in this paper do not attempt to evaluate the OSM data as good/poor quality but rather informs potential consumers of OSM data that the data itself is changing over time. In developing a better understanding of the characteristics of “heavily edited” objects there may be opportunities to use historical analysis in working towards quality indicators for OSM in the future. Future Internet 2012-03-20 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010285 285 305 1999-5903 2012-03-20 doi: 10.3390/fi4010285 Peter Mooney Padraig Corcoran http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/265 With the emergence of Web 2.0, new applications arise and evolve into more interactive forms of collective intelligence. These applications offer to both professionals and citizens an open and expanded access to geographic information. In this paper, we develop the conceptual foundations of a new technology solution called WikiGIS. WikiGIS’s strength lies in its ability to ensure the traceability of changes in spatial-temporal geographic components (geometric location and shape, graphics: iconography and descriptive) generated by users. The final use case highlights to what extent WikiGIS could be a relevant and useful technological innovation in Geocollaboration. Future Internet 2012-03-13 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010265 265 284 1999-5903 2012-03-13 doi: 10.3390/fi4010265 Stéphane Roche Boris Mericskay Wided Batita Matthieu Bach Mathieu Rondeau http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/253 This paper identifies the need for a secure military social networking site and the underlying research issues linked to the successful development of such sites. The paper further proposes a solution to the most basic issues by identifying and tackling known potential security threats to military personnel and their families. The paper further defines the base platform for this development to facilitate rapid sensemaking to inform critical communications and rapid decision making processes during abrupt governance and eco-system change, and how the plethora of information (termed as Big Data) on social networking sites can be analysed and harnessed. Underlying architectural issues, efficiency and complexity are explored and their future development is considered. Future Internet 2012-03-12 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010253 253 264 1999-5903 2012-03-12 doi: 10.3390/fi4010253 Debbie Garside Arjun Ponnusamy Steve Chan Richard Picking http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/238 Readability indices measure how easy or difficult it is to read and comprehend a text. In this paper we look at the relation between readability indices and web documents from two different perspectives. On the one hand we analyse how to reliably measure the readability of web documents by applying content extraction techniques and incorporating a bias correction. On the other hand we investigate how web based corpus statistics can be used to measure readability in a novel and language independent way. Future Internet 2012-03-12 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010238 238 252 1999-5903 2012-03-12 doi: 10.3390/fi4010238 Ludger Martin Thomas Gottron http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/216 This paper explores the use of Web 2.0 technologies for collaborative learning in a higher education context. A review of the literature exploring the strengths and weaknesses of Web 2.0 technology is presented, and a conceptual model of a Web 2.0 community of inquiry is introduced. Two Australian case studies are described, with an ex-poste evaluation of the use of Web 2.0 tools. Conclusions are drawn as to the potential for the use of Web 2.0 tools for collaborative e-learning in higher education. In particular, design and integration of Web 2.0 tools should be closely related to curriculum intent and pedagogical requirements, care must be taken to provide clear guidance on both expected student activity and learning expectations, and there is a clear need to develop, support and encourage strong interaction both between teachers and students, and amongst the students themselves. Future Internet 2012-03-07 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010216 216 237 1999-5903 2012-03-07 doi: 10.3390/fi4010216 Kristin den Exter Stephen Rowe William Boyd David Lloyd http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/179 In this work, we address the use of object recognition techniques to annotate what is shown where in online video collections. These annotations are suitable to retrieve specific video scenes for object related text queries which is not possible with the manually generated metadata that is used by current portals. We are not the first to present object annotations that are generated with content-based analysis methods. However, the proposed framework possesses some outstanding features that offer good prospects for its application in real video portals. Firstly, it can be easily used as background module in any video environment. Secondly, it is not based on a fixed analysis chain but on an extensive recognition infrastructure that can be used with all kinds of visual features, matching and machine learning techniques. New recognition approaches can be integrated into this infrastructure with low development costs and a configuration of the used recognition approaches can be performed even on a running system. Thus, this framework might also benefit from future advances in computer vision. Thirdly, we present an automatic selection approach to support the use of different recognition strategies for different objects. Last but not least, visual analysis can be performed efficiently on distributed, multi-processor environments and a database schema is presented to store the resulting video annotations as well as the off-line generated low-level features in a compact form. We achieve promising results in an annotation case study and the instance search task of the TRECVID 2011 challenge. Future Internet 2012-02-22 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010179 179 215 1999-5903 2012-02-22 doi: 10.3390/fi4010179 Robert Sorschag http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/161 This article focuses on user experiences on reading location-aware news on the mobile platform and aims to explore what experiences this kind of locative journalism generates and how such experiences change the users’ social interaction with news. We produced a specially designed mobile application and tailored news stories specific to this project called LocaNews in order to explore participants’ relation to the content in this journalistic format. The result is generated through a field study and a questionnaire of 32 people to find out how they experience the news presented in this format. The user participants’ responses are analyzed based on their news experiences, contextualizing places and their social interaction with the news within this form of journalism. Results showed that the local, semi-local and non-local user approaches the locative news in a different manner, but that the average user found this kind of news more interesting and more informative than ordinary news. The participants also have a problem identifying this as journalism, rather than an information service. Future Internet 2012-02-21 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010161 161 178 1999-5903 2012-02-21 doi: 10.3390/fi4010161 Kjetil Vaage Øie http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/142 The mobile internet expands the immersive potential of storytelling by introducing electronic games powered by portable, location-aware interfaces. Mobile gaming has become the latest iteration in a decades-long evolution of electronic games that seek to empower the player not just as an avatar in a gameworld but also as a co-author of that gameworld, alongside the game’s original designers. Location-aware interfaces allow players to implicate places in the physical world as part of their gameworld (and vice versa) for the first time. In addition to empowering the player as a co-author in the process of constructing a compelling gameworld, then, mobile games eschew linear narrative structures in favor of a cooperative storytelling process that is reliant in part on the player’s experience of place. While such an author-player “worldmaking” approach to storytelling is not new, mobile games evolve the process beyond what has yet been possible within the technical and physical constraints of the traditional video gaming format. Location-aware interfaces allow mobile games to extend the worldmaking process beyond the screen and into the physical world, co-opting the player’s sensory experiences of real-world places as potential storytelling tools. In our essay, we theorize the unique storytelling potential of mobile games while describing our experience attempting to harness that potential through the design and implementation of our hybrid-reality game University of Death. Future Internet 2012-02-17 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010142 142 160 1999-5903 2012-02-17 doi: 10.3390/fi4010142 Ben S. Bunting Jacob Hughes Tim Hetland http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/110 Cloud-based applications require a high degree of automation regarding their IT resource management, for example, to handle scalability or resource failures. This automation is enabled by cloud providers offering management interfaces accessed by applications without human interaction. The properties of clouds, especially pay-per-use billing and low availability of individual resources, demand such a timely system management. We call the automated steps to perform one of these management tasks a “management flow”. Because the emerging behavior of the overall system is comprised of many such management flows and is often hard to predict, we propose defining abstract management flows, describing common steps handling the management tasks. These abstract management flows may then be refined for each individual use case. We cover abstract management flows describing how to make an application elastic, resilient regarding IT resource failure, and how to move application components between different runtime environments. The requirements of these management flows for handled applications are expressed using architectural patterns that have to be implemented by the applications. These dependencies result in abstract management flows being interrelated with architectural patterns in a uniform pattern catalog. We propose a method by use of a catalog to guide application managers during the refinement of abstract management flows at the design stage of an application. Following this method, runtime-specific management functionality and management interfaces are used to obtain automated management flows for a developed application. Future Internet 2012-02-15 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010110 110 141 1999-5903 2012-02-15 doi: 10.3390/fi4010110 Christoph Fehling Frank Leymann Jochen Rütschlin David Schumm http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/92 Web service technology provides basic infrastructure for deploying collaborative business processes. Web Service security standards and protocols aim to provide secure communication and conversation between service providers and consumers. Still, for a client calling a Web service it is difficult to ascertain that a particular service instance satisfies—at execution time—specific non-functional properties. In this paper we introduce the notion of certified Web service assurance, characterizing how service consumers can specify the set of security properties that a service should satisfy. Also, we illustrate a mechanism to re-check non-functional properties when the execution context changes. To this end, we introduce the concept of context-aware certificate, and describe a dynamic, context-aware service discovery environment. Future Internet 2012-02-14 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010092 92 109 1999-5903 2012-02-14 doi: 10.3390/fi4010092 Marco Anisetti Claudio A. Ardagna Ernesto Damiani Fulvio Frati Hausi A. Müller Atousa Pahlevan http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/83 The rise of mobile phones and social media may come to be historically coupled with a growing atmosphere of dissent that is enveloping much of the globe. The Arab Spring, UK Riots, Occupy and many other protests and so-called “flash-mobs” are all massive gatherings of digitally-connected individuals in physical space; and they have recently become the new normal. The primary role of technology in producing this atmosphere has, in part, been to effectively link the on and the offline. The trend to view these as separate spaces, what I call “digital dualism”, is faulty. Instead, I argue that the digital and physical enmesh to form an “augmented reality”. Linking the power of the digital–creating and disseminating networked information–with the power of the physical–occupying geographic space with flesh-and-blood bodies–is an important part of why we have this current flammable atmosphere of augmented revolution. Future Internet 2012-01-23 4 1 Essay 10.3390/fi4010083 83 91 1999-5903 2012-01-23 doi: 10.3390/fi4010083 Nathan Jurgenson http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/65 Urban planning has a considerable impact on the economic performance of cities and on the quality of life of their populations. Efficiency at this level has been hampered by the lack of integrated tools to adequately describe urban space in order to formulate appropriate design solutions. This paper describes an ontology called LBCS-OWL2 specifically developed to overcome this flaw, based on the Land Based Classification Standards (LBCS), a comprehensive and detailed land use standard to describe the different dimensions of urban space. The goal is to provide semantic and computer-readable land use descriptions of geo-referenced spatial data. This will help to make programming strategies available to those involved in the urban development process. There are several advantages to transferring a land use standard to an OWL2 land use ontology: it is modular, it can be shared and reused, it can be extended and data consistency maintained, and it is ready for integration, thereby supporting the interoperability of different urban planning applications. This standard is used as a basic structure for the “City Information Modelling” (CIM) model developed within a larger research project called City Induction, which aims to develop a tool for urban planning and design. Future Internet 2012-01-06 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010065 65 82 1999-5903 2012-01-06 doi: 10.3390/fi4010065 Nuno Montenegro Jorge C. Gomes Paulo Urbano José P. Duarte http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/42 In response to disparate advances in delivering spatial information to support agricultural extension activities, the Extension Activity Support System (EASY) project was established to develop a vision statement and conceptual design for such a system based on a national needs assessment. Personnel from across Australia were consulted and a review of existing farm information/management software undertaken to ensure that any system that is eventually produced from the EASY vision will build on the strengths of existing efforts. This paper reports on the collaborative consultative process undertaken to create the EASY vision as well as the conceptual technical design and business models that could support a fully functional spatially enabled online system. Future Internet 2012-01-04 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010042 42 64 1999-5903 2012-01-04 doi: 10.3390/fi4010042 Kim Lowell Lindsay Smith Ian Miller Christopher Pettit Eloise Seymour http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/22 It is vital to understand what kind of processes for learning that Geovisual Analytics creates, as certain activities and conditions are produced when employing Geovisual Anlytic tools in education. To understand learning processes created by Geovisual Analytics, first requires an understanding of the interactions between the technology, the workplace where the learning takes place, and learners’ specific knowledge formation. When studying these types of interaction it demands a most critical consideration from theoretical perspectives on research design and methods. This paper first discusses common, and then a more uncommon, theoretical approach used within the fields of learning with multimedia environments and Geovisual Analytics, the socio-cultural theoretical perspective. The paper next advocates this constructivist theoretical and empirical perspective when studying learning with multiple representational Geovisual Analytic tools. To illustrate, an outline of a study made within this theoretical tradition is offered. The study is conducted in an educational setting where the Open Statistics eXplorer platform is used. Discussion of our study results shows that the socio-cultural perspective has much to offer in terms of what kind of understanding can be reached in conducting this kind of studies. Therefore, we argue that empirical research to analyze how specific communities use various Geovisual Analytics to evaluate information is best positioned in a socio-cultural theoretical perspective. Future Internet 2011-12-30 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010022 22 41 1999-5903 2011-12-30 doi: 10.3390/fi4010022 Linnea Stenliden Mikael Jern http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/1 The OpenStreetMap (OSM) project is a prime example in the field of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). Worldwide, several hundred thousand people are currently contributing information to the “free” geodatabase. However, the data contributions show a geographically heterogeneous pattern around the globe. Germany counts as one of the most active countries in OSM; thus, the German street network has undergone an extensive development in recent years. The question that remains is this: How does the street network perform in a relative comparison with a commercial dataset? By means of a variety of studies, we show that the difference between the OSM street network for car navigation in Germany and a comparable proprietary dataset was only 9% in June 2011. The results of our analysis regarding the entire street network showed that OSM even exceeds the information provided by the proprietary dataset by 27%. Further analyses show on what scale errors can be reckoned with in the topology of the street network, and the completeness of turn restrictions and street name information. In addition to the analyses conducted over the past few years, projections have additionally been made about the point in time by which the OSM dataset for Germany can be considered “complete” in relative comparison to a commercial dataset. Future Internet 2011-12-29 4 1 Article 10.3390/fi4010001 1 21 1999-5903 2011-12-29 doi: 10.3390/fi4010001 Pascal Neis Dennis Zielstra Alexander Zipf http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/379 In this paper we provide a critical overview of the state of the art in human-centric intelligent data management approaches for geographic visualizations when we are faced with bandwidth limitations. These limitations often force us to rethink how we design displays for geographic visualizations. We need ways to reduce the amount of data to be visualized and transmitted. This is partly because modern instruments effortlessly produce large volumes of data and Web 2.0 further allows bottom-up creation of rich and diverse content. Therefore, the amount of information we have today for creating useful and usable cartographic products is higher than ever before. However, how much of it can we really use online? To answer this question, we first calculate the bandwidth needs for geographic data sets in terms of waiting times. The calculations are based on various data volumes estimated by scholars for different scenarios. Documenting the waiting times clearly demonstrates the magnitude of the problem. Following this, we summarize the current hardware and software solutions, then the current human-centric design approaches trying to address the constraints such as various screen sizes and information overload. We also discuss a limited set of social issues touching upon the digital divide and its implications. We hope that our systematic documentation and critical review will help researchers and practitioners in the field to better understand the current state of the art. Future Internet 2011-12-20 3 4 Review 10.3390/fi3040379 379 396 1999-5903 2011-12-20 doi: 10.3390/fi3040379 Arzu Coltekin Tumasch Reichenbacher http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/362 Following a discussion on the semantics of the term “ontology”, this paper discusses some key points concerning the ontology of the Strategic Environmental Assessment procedure applied to city Masterplans, using sustainability as a reference point. It also assumes the implementation of Guidelines of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia as an experimental context, with the objective of proposing the SEA ontology as an important contribution to improve SEA’s effectiveness. Future Internet 2011-12-20 3 4 Article 10.3390/fi3040362 362 378 1999-5903 2011-12-20 doi: 10.3390/fi3040362 Sabrina Lai Corrado Zoppi http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/344 Sharing data across diverse thematic disciplines is only the next step in a series of hard-fought efforts to ensure barrier-free data availability. The Plan4all project is one such effort, focusing on the interoperability and harmonisation of spatial planning data as based on the INSPIRE protocols. The aims are to support holistic planning and the development of a European network of public and private actors as well as Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). The Plan4all and INSPIRE standards enable planners to publish and share spatial planning data. The Malta case tackled the wider scenario for sharing of data, through the investigation of the availability, transformation and dissemination of data using geoportals. The study is brought to the fore with an analysis of the approaches taken to ensure that data in the physical and social domains are harmonised in an internationally-established process. Through an analysis of the criminological theme, the Plan4all process is integrated with the social and land use themes as identified in the CRISOLA model. The process serves as a basis for the need to view sharing as one part of the datacycle rather than an end in itself: without a solid protocol the foundations have been laid for the implementation of the datasets in the social and crime domains. Future Internet 2011-12-20 3 4 Article 10.3390/fi3040344 344 361 1999-5903 2011-12-20 doi: 10.3390/fi3040344 Saviour Formosa Vincent Magri Julia Neuschmid Manfred Schrenk http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/319 Using landscape objects with geo-visualisation tools to create 3D virtual environments is becoming one of the most prominent communication techniques to understand landscape form, function and processes. Geo-visualisation tools can also provide useful participatory planning support systems to explore current and future environmental issues such as biodiversity loss, crop failure, competing pressures on water availability and land degradation. These issues can be addressed by understanding them in the context of their locality. In this paper we discuss some of the technologies which facilitate our work on the issues of sustainability and productivity, and ultimately support for planning and decision-making. We demonstrate an online Landscape Object Library application with a suite of geo-visualisation tools to support landscape planning. This suite includes: a GIS based Landscape Constructor tool, a modified version of a 3D game engine SIEVE (Spatial Information Exploration and Visualisation Environment) and an interactive touch table display. By integrating the Landscape Object Library with this suite of geo-visualisation tools, we believe we developed a tool that can support a diversity of landscape planning activities. This is illustrated by trial case studies in biolink design, whole farm planning and renewable energy planning. We conclude the paper with an evaluation of our Landscape Object Library and the suite of geographical tools, and outline some further research directions. Future Internet 2011-12-20 3 4 Article 10.3390/fi3040319 319 343 1999-5903 2011-12-20 doi: 10.3390/fi3040319 Subhash Sharma Christopher Pettit Ian Bishop Pang Chan Falak Sheth http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/298 The advances in sensor network, linked data, and service-oriented computing has indicated a trend of information technology, i.e., toward an open, flexible, and distributed architecture. However, the existing information technologies show a lack of effective sharing, aggregation, and cooperation services to handle the sensors, data, and processing resources to fulfill user’s complicated tasks in near real-time. This paper presents a service-orientated architecture for proactive geospatial information services (PGIS), which integrates the sensors, data, processing, and human services. PGIS is designed to organize, aggregate, and co-operate services by composing small scale services into service chains to meet the complicated user requirements. It is a platform to provide real-time or near real-time data collection, storage, and processing capabilities. It is a flexible, reusable, and scalable system to share and interoperate geospatial data, information, and services. The developed PGIS framework has been implemented and preliminary experiments have been performed to verify its performance. The results show that the basic functions such as task analysis, managing sensors for data acquisition, service composition, service chain construction and execution are validated, and the important properties of PGIS, including interoperability, flexibility, and reusability, are achieved. Future Internet 2011-12-19 3 4 Article 10.3390/fi3040298 298 318 1999-5903 2011-12-19 doi: 10.3390/fi3040298 Haifeng Li Bo Wu http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/281 Test Driven Development (TDD) is a critical agile software development practice that supports innovation in short development cycles. However, TDD is one of the most challenging agile practices to adopt because it requires changes to work practices and skill sets. It is therefore important to gain an understanding of TDD through the experiences of those who have successfully adopted this practice. We collaborated with an agile team to provide this experience report on their adoption of TDD, using observations and interviews within the product development environment. This article highlights a number of practices that underlie successful development with TDD. To provide a theoretical perspective that can help to explain how TDD supports a positive philosophy of software development, we have revised Northover et al.’s conceptual framework, which is based on a four stage model of agile development, to reinterpret Popper’s theory of conjecture and falsification in the context of agile testing strategies. As a result of our findings, we propose an analytical model for TDD in agile software development which provides a theoretical basis for further investigations into the role of TDD and related practices. Future Internet 2011-12-14 3 4 Article 10.3390/fi3040281 281 297 1999-5903 2011-12-14 doi: 10.3390/fi3040281 David Parsons Ramesh Lal Manfred Lange http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/248 Since 1997, the Victorian Resources Online (VRO) website (http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/vro) has been a key means for the dissemination of landscape-based natural resources information via the internet in Victoria, Australia. The website currently consists of approximately 11,000 web pages, including 1900 maps and 1000 downloadable documents. Information is provided at a range of scales—from statewide and regional overviews to more detailed catchment and sub-catchment levels. At all these levels of generalisation, information is arranged in an organisationally agnostic way around key knowledge “domains” (e.g., soil, landform, water). VRO represents a useful model for the effective dissemination of a wide range of natural resources information; relying on partnerships with key subject matter experts and data custodians, including a “knowledge network” of retired land resource assessment specialists. In this paper, case studies are presented that illustrate various approaches to information and knowledge management with a focus on presentation of spatially contexted soil and landscape information at different levels of generalisation. Examples are provided of adapting site-based information into clickable maps that reveal site-specific details, as well as “spatialising” data from specialist internal databases to improve accessibility to a wider audience. Legacy information sources have also been consolidated and spatially referenced. More recent incorporation of interactive visualisation products (such as landscape panoramas, videos and animations) is providing interactive rich media content. Currently the site attracts an average of 1190 user visits per day and user evaluation has indicated a wide range of users, including students, teachers, consultants, researchers and extension staff. The wide range of uses for information and, in particular, the benefits for natural resource education, research and extension has also been identified. Future Internet 2011-11-09 3 4 Article 10.3390/fi3040248 248 280 1999-5903 2011-11-09 doi: 10.3390/fi3040248 Mark Imhof Matthew Cox Angela Fadersen Wayne Harvey Sonia Thompson David Rees Christopher Pettit http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/228 The research project “Grassroots GIS” focuses on the development of low-cost mapping and publishing methods for slums and slum-upgrading projects in Manila. In this project smartphones, collaborative mapping and 3D visualization applications are systematically employed to support landscape architectural analysis and design work in the context of urban poverty and urban informal settlements. In this paper we focus on the description of the developed methods and present preliminary results of this work-in-progress. Future Internet 2011-10-20 3 4 Article 10.3390/fi3040228 228 247 1999-5903 2011-10-20 doi: 10.3390/fi3040228 Philip Paar Jörg Rekittke http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/204 Virtual globes, i.e., geobrowsers that integrate multi-scale and temporal data from various sources and are based on a globe metaphor, have developed into serious tools that practitioners and various stakeholders in landscape and community planning have started using. Although these tools originate from Geographic Information Systems (GIS), they have become a different, potentially interactive and public tool set, with their own specific limitations and new opportunities. Expectations regarding their utility as planning and community engagement tools are high, but are tempered by both technical limitations and ethical issues [1,2]. Two grassroots campaigns and a collaborative visioning process, the Kimberley Climate Adaptation Project case study (British Columbia), illustrate and broaden our understanding of the potential benefits and limitations associated with the use of virtual globes in participatory planning initiatives. Based on observations, questionnaires and in-depth interviews with stakeholders and community members using an interactive 3D model of regional climate change vulnerabilities, potential impacts, and possible adaptation and mitigation scenarios in Kimberley, the benefits and limitations of virtual globes as a tool for participatory landscape planning are discussed. The findings suggest that virtual globes can facilitate access to geospatial information, raise awareness, and provide a more representative virtual landscape than static visualizations. However, landscape is not equally representative at all scales, and not all types of users seem to benefit equally from the tool. The risks of misinterpretation can be managed by integrating the application and interpretation of virtual globes into face-to-face planning processes. Future Internet 2011-10-20 3 4 Article 10.3390/fi3040204 204 227 1999-5903 2011-10-20 doi: 10.3390/fi3040204 Olaf Schroth Ellen Pond Cam Campbell Petr Cizek Stephen Bohus Stephen R. J. Sheppard http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/3/185 This study assesses differences within the African American population with respect to internet activity. Using survey data, we find wide variations within the population. While some segments of African Americans are indeed less likely to perform certain activities on the internet, we note that certain segments of the African American population are reporting more internet activity than other racial groups. These ‘haves’ score high not just in comparison to their African American peers, but to the US American population as a whole. We suggest a move away from the digital divide/digital inequality models and a move towards thinking of greater or lesser Information and Communication Technology (ICT) usage as conditioned by the instrumental needs of population groups. We term this a digital practice model. Future Internet 2011-07-20 3 3 Article 10.3390/fi3030185 185 203 1999-5903 2011-07-20 doi: 10.3390/fi3030185 Roderick Graham Danielle Taana Smith http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/3/175 This paper presents a case study of the design issues facing a large multi-format virtual conference. The conference took place twice in two different years, each time using an avatar-based 3D world with spatialized audio including keynote, poster and social sessions. Between year 1 and 2, major adjustments were made to the architecture and design of the space, leading to improvement in the nature of interaction between the participants. While virtual meetings will likely never supplant the effectiveness of face-to-face meetings, this paper seeks to outline a few design principles learned from this experience, which can be applied generally to make computer mediated collaboration more effective. Future Internet 2011-07-06 3 3 Article 10.3390/fi3030175 175 184 1999-5903 2011-07-06 doi: 10.3390/fi3030175 Andrew Sempere http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/2/159 Usually, test automation scripts for a web application directly mirror the actions that the tester carries out in the browser, but they tend to be verbose and repetitive, making them expensive to maintain and ineffective in an agile setting. Our research has focussed on providing tool-support for business-level, example-based specifications that are mapped to the browser level for automatic verification. We provide refactoring support for the evolution of existing browser-level tests into business-level specifications. As resulting business rule tables may be incomplete, redundant or contradictory, our tool provides feedback on coverage. Future Internet 2011-06-03 3 2 Article 10.3390/fi3020159 159 174 1999-5903 2011-06-03 doi: 10.3390/fi3020159 Rick Mugridge Mark Utting David Streader http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/2/144 In 2009, just 27% of American teens with mobile phones reported using their devices to access the internet. However, teens from lower income families and minority teens were significantly more likely to use their phones to go online. Together, these surprising trends suggest a potential narrowing of the digital divide, offering internet access to those without other means of going online. This is an important move, as, in today’s society, internet access is central to active citizenship in general and teen citizenship in particular. Yet the cost of this move toward equal access is absorbed by those who can least afford it: Teenagers from low income households. Using survey and focus group data from a national study of “Teens and Mobile Phone Use” (released by Pew and the University of Michigan in 2010), this article helps identify and explain this and other emergent trends for teen use (as well as non-use) of the internet through mobile phones. Future Internet 2011-05-13 3 2 Article 10.3390/fi3020144 144 158 1999-5903 2011-05-13 doi: 10.3390/fi3020144 Katie Brown Scott W. Campbell Rich Ling http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/2/130 A population register is an inventory of residents within a country, with their characteristics (date of birth, sex, marital status, etc.) and other socio-economic data, such as occupation or education. However, data on population are also stored in numerous other public registers such as tax, land, building and housing, military, foreigners, vehicles, etc. Altogether they contain vast amounts of personal and sensitive information. Access to public information is granted by law in many countries, but this transparency is generally subject to tensions with data protection laws. This paper proposes a framework to analyze data access (or protection) requirements, as well as a model of metadata for data exchange. Future Internet 2011-04-18 3 2 Article 10.3390/fi3020130 130 143 1999-5903 2011-04-18 doi: 10.3390/fi3020130 Olivier Glassey http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/2/117 As a member of the Annex 1 countries to the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Japan is committed to reducing 6% of the greenhouse gas emissions. In order to achieve this commitment, Japan has undertaken several major mitigation measures, one of which is the domestic measure that includes ecologically friendly lifestyle programs, utilizing natural energy, participating in local environmental activities, and amending environmental laws. Mitigation policies could be achieved if public responses were strong. As the internet has increasingly become an online platform for sharing environmental information, public responses to the need for reducing greenhouse gas emissions may be assessed using available online tools. We used Google Insights for Search, Google AdWords Keyword Tool, and Google Timeline View to assess public responses in Japan based on the interest shown for five search terms that define global climate change and its mitigation policies. Data on online search interests from January 04, 2004 to July 18, 2010 were analyzed according to locations and categories. Our study suggests that the search interests for the five chosen search terms dramatically increased, especially when new mitigation policies were introduced or when climate change related events were organized. Such a rapid increase indicates that the Japanese public strongly responds to climate change mitigation policies. Future Internet 2011-04-01 3 2 Article 10.3390/fi3020117 117 129 1999-5903 2011-04-01 doi: 10.3390/fi3020117 Sengtha Chay Nophea Sasaki http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/2/87 Multimedia streaming means delivering continuous data to a plethora of client devices. Besides the actual data transport, this also needs a high degree of content adaptation respecting the end users’ needs given by content preferences, transcoding constraints, and device capabilities. Such adaptations can be performed in many ways, usually on the media server. However, when it comes to content editing, like mixing in subtitles or picture-in-picture composition, relying on third party service providers may be necessary. For economic reasons this should be done in a service-oriented way, because a lot of adaptation modules can be reused within different adaptation workflows. Although service-oriented architectures have become widely accepted in the Web community, the multimedia environment is still dominated by monolithic systems. The main reason is the insufficient support for working with continuous data: generally the suitability of Web services for handling complex data types and state-full applications is still limited. In this paper we discuss extensions of Web service frameworks, and present a first implementation of a service-oriented framework for media streaming and digital item adaptation. The focus lies on the technical realization of the services. Our experimental results show the practicality of the actual deployment of service-oriented multimedia frameworks. Future Internet 2011-04-01 3 2 Article 10.3390/fi3020087 87 116 1999-5903 2011-04-01 doi: 10.3390/fi3020087 Sascha Tönnies Benjamin Köhncke Patrick Hennig Ingo Brunkhorst Wolf-Tilo Balke http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/1/67 This article presents a comparison of main characteristics of the Next Generation Networks (NGN) and Future Generation Internet (FGI). The aim is to discuss and compare two approaches to Future Networks (FN) and services: the evolution of NGN, and the revolutionary approach of a new FGI. We present both frameworks from the services point of view as they are delivered to the end-user, as well as from the architectural point of view. We compare selected properties of both approaches to explain commonalities and differences. Their challenges are similar: managing the quality of experience, mobility, security, scalability and providing openness to applications. Based on this comparison, we evaluate possible areas for future convergence in the approach of the two architectures to the Future Network concept. Our analysis shows that despite their different backgrounds, the internet’s FGI and telco’s NGN are not that different after all. The convergence of the two approaches therefore seems the only logical way forward. Future Internet 2011-03-04 3 1 Article 10.3390/fi3010067 67 86 1999-5903 2011-03-04 doi: 10.3390/fi3010067 Eugen Mikóczy Ivan Kotuliak Oskar van Deventer http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/1/49 Enterprises are now connected internally and externally to other Enterprises via the Internet in ways that are increasingly difficult to manage, especially as these interconnections become more dynamic. Current methods of coordinating the effects of change as they propagate through these networks of connections are not likely to scale. What is needed is a new paradigm for how the Internet supports such coordination. Indeed, the Internet should and could provide fundamental coordination functions that are missing today. In this paper, we describe how such a “Coordinated Internet” would work (this paper is an expanded version of [1]). The key functionality of a Coordinated Internet would be that the Internet actively watches what people do (analogous to search completion on desktops today), correlates these activities, and actively notifies people when and how their current tasks affect and are affected by the activities of other people. This would be accomplished by standard coordination functions implemented as a common Internet layer that can be used as a utility by more specialized applications. Such a Coordinated Internet would revolutionize enterprise management, for all enterprises, large and small, corporate and personal. For example, static workflows would become obsolete for all but the the most routine processes. Some solutions provide existence proofs of such a coordination substrate, such as the Redux solution in concurrent engineering, which we describe herein. However, foundational research remains to be done in the new field of Coordination Engineering in order to reach the goal of a future Internet in which coordination functions are fundamental. Future Internet 2011-02-17 3 1 Article 10.3390/fi3010049 49 66 1999-5903 2011-02-17 doi: 10.3390/fi3010049 Charles Petrie http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/1/31 Networks are evolving toward a ubiquitous model in which heterogeneous devices are interconnected. Cryptographic algorithms are required for developing security solutions that protect network activity. However, the computational and energy limitations of network devices jeopardize the actual implementation of such mechanisms. In this paper, we perform a wide analysis on the expenses of launching symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic algorithms, hash chain functions, elliptic curves cryptography and pairing based cryptography on personal agendas, and compare them with the costs of basic operating system functions. Results show that although cryptographic power costs are high and such operations shall be restricted in time, they are not the main limiting factor of the autonomy of a device. Future Internet 2011-02-14 3 1 Article 10.3390/fi3010031 31 48 1999-5903 2011-02-14 doi: 10.3390/fi3010031 Helena Rifà-Pous Jordi Herrera-Joancomartí http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/1/14 In this article, a security extension for the HiiMap Next Generation Internet Architecture is presented. We regard a public key infrastructure which is integrated into the mapping infrastructure of the locator/identifier-split addressing scheme. The security approach is based on Threshold Cryptography which enables a sharing of keys among the mapping servers. Hence, a more trustworthy and fair approach for a Next Generation Internet Architecture as compared to the state of the art approach is fostered. Additionally, we give an evaluation based on IETF AAA recommendations for security-related systems. Future Internet 2011-02-01 3 1 Article 10.3390/fi3010014 14 30 1999-5903 2011-02-01 doi: 10.3390/fi3010014 Oliver Hanka Michael Eichhorn Martin Pfannenstein Jörg Eberspächer Eckehard Steinbach http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/1/1 Security should be integrated into future networks from the beginning, not as an extension. Secure identities and authentication schemes are an important step to fulfill this quest. In this article, we argue that home networks are a natural trust anchor for such schemes. We describe our concept of home networks as a universal point of reference for authentication, trust and access control, and show that our scheme can be applied to any next generation network. As home networks are no safe place, we apply Trusted Computing technology to prevent the abuse of identities, i.e., identity theft. Future Internet 2011-01-07 3 1 Article 10.3390/fi3010001 1 13 1999-5903 2011-01-07 doi: 10.3390/fi3010001 Holger Kinkelin Ralph Holz Heiko Niedermayer Simon Mittelberger Georg Carle http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/2/4/662 Service platforms using text-based protocols need to be protected against attacks. Machine-learning algorithms with pattern matching can be used to detect even previously unknown attacks. In this paper, we present an extension to known Support Vector Machine (SVM) based anomaly detection algorithms for the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Our contribution is to extend the amount of different features used for classification (feature space) by exploiting the structure of SIP messages, which reduces the false positive rate. Additionally, we show how combining our approach with attribute reduction significantly improves throughput. Future Internet 2010-12-21 2 4 Article 10.3390/fi2040662 662 669 1999-5903 2010-12-21 doi: 10.3390/fi2040662 Martin Güthle Jochen Kögel Stefan Wahl Matthias Kaschub Christian M. Mueller http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/2/4/645 Scientific writing is an essential part of a student’s and researcher’s everyday life. In this paper we investigate the particularities of scientific writing and explore the features and limitations of existing tools for scientific writing. Deriving from this analysis and an online survey of the scientific writing processes of students and researchers at the University of Paderborn, we identify key principles to simplify scientific writing and reviewing. Finally, we introduce a novel approach to support scientific writing with a tool called SciFlow that builds on these principles and state of the art technologies like cloud computing. Future Internet 2010-12-06 2 4 Article 10.3390/fi2040645 645 661 1999-5903 2010-12-06 doi: 10.3390/fi2040645 Frederik Eichler Wolfgang Reinhardt http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/2/4/635 CWM Global Search is a meta-search engine allowing chemists and biologists to search the major chemical and biological databases on the Internet, by structure, synonyms, CAS Registry Numbers and free text. A meta-search engine is a search tool that sends user requests to several other search engines and/or databases and aggregates the results into a single list or displays them according to their source [1]. CWM Global Search is a web application that has many of the characteristics of desktop applications (also known as Rich Internet Application, RIA), and it runs on both Windows and Macintosh platforms. The application is one of the first RIA for scientists. The application can be started using the URL http://cwmglobalsearch.com/gsweb. Future Internet 2010-12-03 2 4 Article 10.3390/fi2040635 635 644 1999-5903 2010-12-03 doi: 10.3390/fi2040635 Alexander Kos Hans-Jürgen Himmler http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/2/4/624 Predicting current and potential species distributions and abundance is critical for managing invasive species, preserving threatened and endangered species, and conserving native species and habitats. Accurate predictive models are needed at local, regional, and national scales to guide field surveys, improve monitoring, and set priorities for conservation and restoration. Modeling capabilities, however, are often limited by access to software and environmental data required for predictions. To address these needs, we built a comprehensive web-based system that: (1) maintains a large database of field data; (2) provides access to field data and a wealth of environmental data; (3) accesses values in rasters representing environmental characteristics; (4) runs statistical spatial models; and (5) creates maps that predict the potential species distribution. The system is available online at www.niiss.org, and provides web-based tools for stakeholders to create potential species distribution models and maps under current and future climate scenarios. Future Internet 2010-11-11 2 4 Article 10.3390/fi2040624 624 634 1999-5903 2010-11-11 doi: 10.3390/fi2040624 Jim Graham Greg Newman Sunil Kumar Catherine Jarnevich Nick Young Alycia Crall Thomas J. Stohlgren Paul Evangelista