The European JourJournalnal for the InforInformaticsmatics Professional http://wwwhttp://www.upgrade-cepis.org.upgrade-cepis.org VVol.ol. VI, No. 5, October 2005 Computing Omnipresence <http://www.cepis.org> CEPIS, Council of European Professional Informatics Societies, is a non-profit organisation seeking to improve and promote high standards among informatics professionals in recognition of the impact that informatics has on employment, business and society. CEPIS unites 36 professional informatics societies over 32 European countries, representing more than 200,000 ICT professionals. CEPIS promotes <http://www.eucip.com> <http://www.ecdl.com> <http://www.upgrade-cepis.org> UPGRADE is the European Journal for the Informatics Professional, published bimonthly Vol. VI, issue No. 5, October 2005 at <http://www.upgrade-cepis.org/> UPGRADE is the anchor point for UPENET (UPGRADE European 2 Editorial NETwork), the network of CEPIS member societies’ publications, that currently includes the following ones: In The Fifth Anniversary of UPGRADE — Geoff McMullen (Presi- • Mondo Digitale, digital journal from the Italian CEPIS society AICA dent of CEPIS) • Novática, journal from the Spanish CEPIS society ATI • OCG Journal, journal from the Austrian CEPIS society OCG • Pliroforiki, journal from the Cyprus CEPIS society CCS Monograph: Computing Omnipresence • Pro Dialog, journal from the Polish CEPIS society PTI-PIPS (published jointly with Novática*) Publisher Guest Editors: José-Antonio Gutiérrez de Mesa, Daniel Rodríguez-García, and UPGRADE is published on behalf of CEPIS (Council of European Professional Miltiadis D. Lytras Informatics Societies, <http://www.cepis.org/>) by Novática <http://www.ati.es/novatica/>, journal of the Spanish CEPIS society ATI (Asociación 3 Presentation de Técnicos de Informática, <http://www.ati.es/>) An Outlook for Ubiquitous Computing: Computing Power Anywhere UPGRADE monographs are also published in Spanish (full version printed; summary, and in Any Device — José-Antonio Gutiérrez de Mesa, Daniel abstracts and some articles online) by Novática, and in Italian (summary, abstracts and Rodríguez-García, and Miltiadis D. Lytras some articles online) by the Italian CEPIS society ALSI (Associazione nazionale Laureati in Scienze dell’informazione e Informatica, <http://www.alsi.it>) and the Italian IT 8 The Critical Mass Problem of Mobile Ad-hoc Networks — Jörg Roth portal Tecnoteca <http://www.tecnoteca.it/> 14 Device and Context Influence on Wireless Infotainment Access: A UPGRADE was created in October 2000 by CEPIS and was first published by Novática Real World Story — Tacha Serif and George Ghinea and INFORMATIK/INFORMATIQUE, bimonthly journal of SVI/FSI (Swiss Federation of 20 The Problems of Printing in Server-Based Computing Environments Professional Informatics Societies, <http://www.svifsi.ch/>) — Luis Bengochea-Martínez Editorial Team 26 Using FOAF to Support Community Building — Brian Kelly and Chief Editor: Rafael Fernández Calvo, Spain, <[email protected]> Associate Editors: Leigh Dodds François Louis Nicolet, Switzerland, <[email protected]> 29 Towards Ubiquitous Computing with Quality of Web Service Sup- Roberto Carniel, Italy, <[email protected]> Zakaria Maamar, Arab Emirates, <Zakaria. Maamar@ zu.ac.ae> port — Yannis Makripoulias, Christos Makris, Yiannis Panagis, Soraya Kouadri Mostéfaoui, Switzerland, Evangelos Sakkopoulos, Poulia Adamopoulou Maria Pontikaki, and <[email protected]> , Athanasios Tsakalidis Editorial Board 35 The Open Source Software vs. Proprietary Software Debate and Its Prof. Wolffried Stucky, Former President of CEPIS Prof. Nello Scarabottolo, CEPIS Vice President Impact on Technological Innovation — Ricardo-José Rejas-Muslera, Fernando Piera Gómez and Juan-José Cuadrado-Gallego, Javier Dolado-Cosín, and Daniel Rafael Fernández Calvo, ATI (Spain) François Louis Nicolet, SI (Switzerland) Rodríguez- García Roberto Carniel, ALSI – Tecnoteca (Italy) 39 Localization in Ubiquitous Computing Using Acoustic Sensor Net- UPENET Advisory Board work — Carlos-Manuel De Marziani, Jesús Ureña-Ureña, Álvaro Franco Filippazzi (Mondo Digitale, Italy) Hernández-Alonso, Manuel Mazo-Quintas, Ana Jiménez-Martín, Rafael Fernández Calvo (Novática, Spain) Veith Risak (OCG Journal, Austria) Juan-Jesús García-Domínguez, José-Manuel Villadangos-Carrizo, Panicos Masouras (Pliroforiki, Cyprus) and Fernando-Javier Álvarez-Franco Andrzej Marciniak (Pro Dialog, Poland) 46 Portable System For Patient Monitoring With Wireless Technologies English Editors: Mike Andersson, Richard Butchart, David Cash, Arthur Cook, — José-Manuel Rodríguez-Ascariz, Luciano Boquete-Vázquez, Tracey Darch, Laura Davies, Nick Dunn, Rodney Fennemore, Hilary Green, Roger Harris, Michael Hird, Jim Holder, Alasdair MacLeod, Pat Moody, Adam David Moss, Ignacio Bravo-Muñoz, and Pedro Martín-Sánchez Phil Parkin, Brian Robson 53 SIGLAS: A Practical Case of The Application of Ubiquitous Com- Cover page designed by Antonio Crespo Foix, © ATI 2005 puting in Warehouse Management — José-Julio González-Pozo and Layout Design: François Louis Nicolet Manuel Ortega-Cantero Composition: Jorge Llácer-Gil de Ramales 58 Ubiquitous E-Management of Indicators — Eladio Domínguez- Editorial correspondence: Rafael Fernández Calvo <[email protected]> Murillo, Ángel De Miguel-Artal, Beatriz Pérez-Valle, Áurea Advertising correspondence: <[email protected]> Rodríguez-Villanueva, and María-Antonia Zapata-Abad UPGRADE Newslist available at <http://www.upgrade-cepis.org/pages/editinfo.html#newslist> UPENET (UPGRADE European NETwork) Copyright © Novática 2005 (for monograph and cover page) © CEPIS 2005 (for editorial, and sections MOSAIC and UPENET) 61 From Pro Dialog (PIPS, Poland) All rights reserved. Abstracting is permitted with credit to the source. For copying, Computer Algebra Systems reprint, or republication permission, contact the Editorial Team Problems with A Heart-Shaped Curve — Leszek Jankowski and Adam The opinions expressed by the authors are their exclusive responsibility Marlewski ISSN 1684-5285 68 From Mondo Digitale (AICA, Italy) Web Engineering A Quality Model for Websites — Roberto Polillo Monograph of next issue (December 2005) * This monograph will be also published in Spanish (full version printed; summary, abstracts, and some The Semantic Web articles online) by Novática, journal of the Spanish CEPIS society ATI (Asociación de Técnicos de Informática) at <http://www.ati.es/novatica/>, and in Italian (online edition only, containing summary, (The full schedule of UPGRADE abstracts, and some articles) by the Italian CEPIS society ALSI (Associazione nazionale Laureati in Scienze is available at our website) dell’informazione e Informatica) and the Italian IT portal Tecnoteca at <http://www.tecnoteca.it>. Editorial Editorial In The Fifth Anniversary of UPGRADE It’s a pleasant duty to welcome readers to the fifth anni- CEPIS is particularly grateful to the Spanish society ATI versary edition of UPGRADE – the journal of CEPIS. We (Asociación de Técnicos de Informática) and the editors of hope that readers find it an interesting and useful read. Its its journal Novática for their contribution in editing and electronic presentation and international sourcing of mate- managing the publication of UPGRADE from its inception. rial are reflective of the international nature of CEPIS and Such a contribution is easy to ignore, but it has been of crucial of our commitment to the promotion of beneficial new tech- importance in getting the journal started. nologies. We all wish UPGRADE and its editorial team a very We remain committed to increasing the scope of mate- happy birthday and a fruitful future. We’re extremely grate- rial included in UPGRADE, both in terms of the sources of ful for the large amount of voluntary effort that goes into its material and the subjects covered. Encouraged by what we production, which is in the best tradition of CEPIS. We also have seen of UPGRADE, the Executive Committee of CEPIS wish all readers a prosperous and happy 2006. is developing a broader strategy for communications to its members, external stakeholders and partners and the world of IT users. That strategy, and UPGRADE’s place in it, will Geoff McMullen develop over the coming months. We intend to make our President of CEPIS publications more useful through this review. <president AT cepis DOT org> UP ENET UPGRADE European NETwork The network of CEPIS member societiesí publications Current partners: Mondo Digitale (AICA, Italy), Nov” tica (ATI, Spain), OCG Journal (OCG, Austria), Pliroforiki (CCS, Cyprus), Pro Dialog (PTI-PIPS, Poland) 2 UPGRADE Vol. VI, No. 5, October 2005 © CEPIS Computing Omnipresence Presentation An Outlook for Ubiquitous Computing: Computing Power Anywhere and in Any Device José-Antonio Gutiérrez de Mesa, Daniel Rodríguez-García, and Miltiadis D. Lytras This article, in addition to introducing this monography of Novática and UPGRADE, looks into the mobile communica- tions systems used in machine to machine communications (M2M). We see how wireless modules are proving to be the most appropriate technology for optimizing business processes in many industrial and service sectors. We also look at what we believe to be the two most interesting fields of M2M communications in terms of the ideas behind them and the innovative products they spawn: telemetry and telematics systems. As an annex to the article we offer a list of useful references on Ubiquitous Computing developer communities. Keywords: GPRS, GSM, J2ME, Mobile Devices,