Value creation in software service platforms

In order to benefit from operating an IT service platform (e.g., SaaS platform), platform providers need to find a way to keep their existing users and application services active sources of value. However, the understanding of how to achieve that is limited due to the newness of this kind of business. This paper investigates whether all stakeholders of the platform ecosystem can generate sufficient value when participating in the platform. As stakeholders, we consider application service users, service developers, and service platform providers. We also analyse the interrelationship between these stakeholders. The analysis outcome is a value creation model that allows the calculation of the stakeholders’ values. The model also helps inferring the relative impact of different factors on the evolution of values of the software service platform stakeholders. Our simulation results confirm that all stakeholders of a service platform mainly benefit from a growing installed base of application users. However, in a mature market, a large service variety mainly benefits the service platform provider, while the other stakeholders obtain a reduced increase in their benefits. In particular, the utility growth of application users becomes constrained as the benefit from new connections with other users decreases and the number of new services used decreases. Similarly, the revenue of service developer decreases, making service development less profitable. Therefore, we can state that not only a large fraction of the value creation goes to the platform provider but also that the software service ecosystem can collapse, if no mutually beneficial pricing of services is implemented.     

Next POI Recommendation Based on Location Interest Mining with Recurrent Neural Networks

Journal of Computer Science and Technology - In mobile social networks, next point-of-interest (POI) recommendation is a very important function that can provide personalized location-based...     

云计算在智慧医院信息服务中的应用

随着医疗服务体系的发展和进步,越来越多的医院开始将云计算技术引入信息服务系统,使医院信息化建设得到了迅速发展。文章分析了云计算技术的特点及其在智能医院信息服务中的应用和影响,以期促进该技术在未来的发展和推广。     

Design of frameworks for self-adaptive service-oriented applications: A systematic analysis

Self-adaptive service-oriented Applications (Self-Apps) must be able to understand themselves or the environment in which they are executed, and propose solutions to meet changing conditions. The development of these applications is not a trivial task, since it encompasses issues from different research areas. Despite the importance of frameworks for Self-Apps, there is a lack of comprehensive analysis of how the design of such applications is performed, and regarding the standardization of concepts and coverage of minimum requirements for Self-Apps. The main contribution of this article is to present this comprehensive analysis, providing the state of the art for this subject. This analysis was built through a Systematic Mapping Study, based on a total of 65 studies, from which we identify the main attributes for Quality of Service (QoS), search strategies, and service management strategies employed in the design of frameworks for Self-Apps. The main aspects of requirements involved in the design of Self-Apps were pointed out to stakeholders. For example, these applications must implement a method for evaluation of QoS based on metrics. We also put forward the S-Frame, a modular solution that brings together the main features for the design of Self-Apps, and describe the main challenges concerning these applications.     

面向云计算应用层演化的隐私保护方法研究

云计算应用层中的组合服务具有演化属性,因此,隐私数据在服务组合过程中,用户的隐私数据可能会因为服务或服务流程的演化而暴露。根据服务演化的特征,以描述逻辑为基础,提出了一种面向云计算应用层演化的隐私保护方法。对隐私协议进行形式化描述;根据服务的演化特征,对服务的演化进行监控,保证满足用户的隐私需求;利用实例研究证明该方法的正确性与可行性。     

Telesurgery QoS improvement over SDN based on a Type‐2 fuzzy system and enhanced cuckoo optimization algorithm

Telemedicine is a new area based on the information and communication technology for collecting, storing, organizing, retrieving and exchanging medical information. One of the most important applications of telemedicine is indeed telesurgery in which an efficient telecommunication infrastructure between the surgery room and remote surgeons need to be established. One of the most important issues to be tackled in telesurgery is to find favorable links for routing as well as providing high Quality of Service (QoS). In this paper, an efficient model based on the hybridization of Type‐2 Fuzzy System (T2FS) and Cuckoo Optimization Algorithm (COA) over the Software Defined Networks (SDN) is proposed in order to achieve optimal and reliable routes for telesurgery application. Using T2FS, the fitness of the links is determined; then, a COA is conducted over the Constraint Shortest Path (CSP) problem to find the best routes. Delay is considered as a CSP problem which is satisfied by trying to find the paths with minimum cost. Due to the NP‐completeness of the CSP problem, an Enhanced COA (so‐called E‐COA) is proposed and utilized as a metaheuristic solver. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first SDN‐based communication model that applies both T2FS and E‐COA for assigning proper costs to the network's links, and solves the consequence CSP problem according to the QoS requirement for telesurgery. The model also recognizes and preserves the second‐best routes in order to keep the reliability for such a critical application. In addition to the simulations, the performance evaluation is also conducted on a real experimental scenario. Many comparisons are carried out between the proposed model and other conventional methods, and the evaluation study shows the superiority of the proposed model on all the three QoS‐related metrics, i.e. average end‐to‐end delay, packet loss ratio and PSNR.     

Taking on a wider view: public value interests of construction clients in a changing construction industry

For financial and strategic reasons, public and semi-public construction clients increasingly depend on private parties to carry out public service delivery. They subcontract operational responsibilities to private parties while remaining socio-politically responsible for ensuring public values. Public administration literature mainly addresses the importance of procedural and performance values in safeguarding public values. However, safeguarding the quality of the built environment also requires a focus on product values. In this study, we aim to increase the understanding of the meaning and significance of public values in the daily practice of public construction clients and identify the challenges they face in commissioning these seemingly opposing values. A set of semi-structured interviews with the public administrators of a variety of public and semi-public construction client organizations in the Netherlands shows that both internal and external factors influence the collaborative practices between clients and contractors. This causes a value shift from an emphasis on procedural values to managing performance and product values, indicating that clients need to take on a wider view on public values. Six main public value dilemmas were found that complicate the task of developing an open, transparent and sustainable long-term client–contractor relationship. The current contractual system, however, lacks the flexibility to facilitate this product-based value view in construction.     

Integration framework for simulations and SCADA systems

Stricter requirements on the quality of industrial plant operation together with environmental limits and decreasing energy consumption bring more complex automation systems. The intelligent control techniques, which are based on approaches from diverse disciplines including statistics, artificial intelligence or signal processing, have been widely used during the last years and their benefits have been proved. They cannot be developed and tested without simulation models and access to online and historical data. This article proposes a platform for the integration of simulations and industrial SCADA systems supporting complex data access and simulation code re-use.The idea of the presented framework is to connect simulations, data sources, optimizers, other calculations and SCADA systems into one integrated environment seamlessly. A technical level of the framework provides integration of stakeholders and a semantic level captures engineering knowledge in inter-mapped ontologies and configures the technical level, which is often called model-driven configuration. The semantic level utilizes a formal model implemented as set of ontologies. The major contribution of the article are the layered model of the integration architecture and formulation of the integration requirements in the industrial automation domain. The proposed solution has been implemented and tested on a software prototype level. It is demonstrated on two use-cases covering both design and integration of simulation models from the industrial perspective. The proposed architecture is intended to be as general as possible, however it has been tested on signal-oriented simulators only. It is the main limitation of this contribution and it should be addressed in upcoming work.     

Performance Impacts of Web-Enabled Retail Services: An Empirical Study

Prior studies suggest that the growth in online retail is attributed to the effective implementation of media-rich and interactive services and functionalities that help overcome the para-social distance between customers and online retail stores. However, few studies have offered empirical evidence that demonstrates the specific impacts these interactive services and functionalities have on the financial performance of online retailers. Using data on the operations and financial performance of the top 500 online retailers in the U.S., this study investigates the impact that website features and functionalities have on sales performance and other intermediate performance measures. Our findings suggest that website features and functionalities have a significant direct impact on sales as well as an indirect impact through intermediate performance measures. Furthermore, our model identifies the specific performance measures that each website feature targets to improve.     

The implementation of an activity-based costing collaborative planning system for semiconductor backend production

While the market turns to an environment with low profit margins for semiconductor backend operations, it is hard for an independent firm to survive today. Forming strategic alliances or integrating an enterprise's internal firms by means of collaborative planning/operations to gain competitive advantage is inevitable. This paper presents the development of an activity-based costing collaborative production planning system (ABC/CPPS) to help production planners to estimate the manufacturing profit of semiconductor backend turnkey (combined IC assembly and testing) operational services at the early stage of order release to production line in a collaborative context. The estimation is under the real constraints of production resources. A predicate/transition net (Pr/Tr net) is used to simulate and implement the activity-based costing (ABC) model with the dynamic characteristics of a production line incorporated. A financial measure, profit, is used to supplement and indicate the consequence of the planning result and link the view to the enterprise's financial vision.