Abstract

Abstract

Abstract
The growth of the Internet and its associated technologies did open space for a new type of human interaction: virtual, social interaction environments. Nowadays, these virtual places are spread all over the Internet and are accessible to almost everyone. However, in these environments interaction is still mostly ad hoc, which is a drawback that, as pointed out by some authors, may lead to their future extinction. Therefore, the introduction of regulated interaction in these virtual interaction spaces may be a solution towards their organization and inherent increased credibility. In this paper we propose a model for interaction regulation and control for virtual, social interaction spaces, called Social Theatres. Social Theatres stand for the application of the theatrical metaphor to social virtual environments, intended to virtually reproduce some of the common useful people interaction contexts. Inside these environments, users become actors, playing previously well defined roles within a well known, commonly established virtual interaction scenario. The interaction between users becomes regulated and has to obey and follow very well established rules, flows and conversation protocols. This paper discusses the advantages of regulated interaction, presents the Social Theatre metaphor and proposes a software architecture for the implementation of these interaction spaces. A small case study of a regulated virtual interaction environment is also presented.

Abstract
The rapid proliferation of human population and the growth of consumption leaded to an increase of hazardous waste. This becomes a worldwide ecological and environmental challenge. According to last available statistics the estimated global municipal solid waste reached 2.02 billion tons. Unfortunately there is not only solid waste: vegetable oil, one kind of liquid waste, used in food manufacturing, is responsible for serious contamination of water resources. Its collection is profitable by recycling into biodiesel and is already regulated in some countries. However it faces several logistic issues. Major issues are related to collection delays, which lead to oil giveaway, and reduced collection [1,2]. This paper proposes a solution to some of these logistic problems introducing a system to manage cooking oil collection in order to increase collection profits. The developed system follows a defined oil collection plan in order to optimize collection routes, introducing a sensor network that triggers collection events to a central system overcoming the current collection delays and wastes. The system is being tested in a real scenario with a Portuguese cooking oil collection company.

Abstract
The ability to take advantage of the information society is becoming a must for everyone. Computer literacy is becoming more and more important for individuals as well as corporations. Therefore no efforts must be spared to integrate everyone in this new and exciting development, If for non-disabled persons this can be a challenge, for certain types of disabilities the effort of adaptation is huge. In this paper we focus on blind users. One of the current alternatives for blind users is based on specific hardware that tends to be limited in features and expansibility or very expensive. The other alternative is PC based software. This latest option, although very powerful, has also several disadvantages, namely the lack of practical mobility. In this paper we present a new approach the PalmPCs. PalmPCs are a cheap alternative compared to the hardware mentioned above, they are truly mobile, and they are widely available today. We argue that software can be written for these devices that satisfies the needs of the majority of the blind users. A small application for WindowsCE is presented in which the interface was specifically designed for blind users.

Abstract
The production of scientific publications is a cooperative activity that usually involves several authors. Current solutions of cooperative editors do not contemplate features such as references management and publications deposit. In this context, the authors have previously developed the PaperFlow platform that integrates the three main functionalities required to produce scientific publications: a cooperative text editor, a cooperative reference manager and a connector to scientific digital repositories. However, this approach did not included tools for a previous important stage: the conception of the scientific publications. This paper proposes an evolution of the original platform to accommodate the conception stage. For this purpose, the specification of PaperFlow/R includes new functionalities such as whiteboards, communication tools and versioning control that improve the cooperation abilities of the platform. © 2010 IEEE.