Petros Stefaneas

Design by Constract (DBC) has influenced the development of formal specification languages that allow the mix of specification and implementation code, like Eiffel, the Java Modeling Language (JML) and Spec#. Meanwhile algebraic specification languages have been developing independently and offer full support for specification and verification of design for large and complex systems in a mathematical rigorous way. However there is no guarantee that the final implementation will comply to the specification. In this paper we proposed the use of the latter for the specification and verification of the systems design and then by presenting a translation between the two, the use of the former to ensure that the implementation respects the specification and thus enjoy the verified properties.

In this paper, we suggest the broader concept of proof-event, introduced by Joseph Goguen, as a fundamental methodological tool for studying proofs in history of mathematics. In this framework, proof is understood not as a purely syntactic object, but as a social process that involves at least two agents; this highlights the communicational aspect of proving. We claim that historians of mathematics essentially study proof-events in their research, since the mathematical proofs they face in the extant sources involve many informal components, often not completely formalizable, and convey some kind of semantic content calling for understanding and verification. We illustrate the application of this methodological approach in some outstanding historical cases, paying particular attention to the process of proof interpretation that makes a proof-event alive. Finally, we suggest a classification of proof-events, according to the conditions imposed upon problem solving. This enables us to...

The protection of the distribution of digital contents via mobile networks has been standardized by Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) with the proposition of the OMA Digital Rights Management System. When multiple licenses refer to the same content a decision ...

The new programming language Java carries object-orientation to extremes, treating all user-defined types as objects. We argue that this causes problems with readability, which we illustrate with examples. Java could have avoided these problems if it had gonstructs for modules and for non-object data-types.

Information Systems used in Education must take into account educational as well as technical aspects. Using educational information systems we must choose a balanced approach where: social, educational and technical aspects must participate in the "right mix", so that to meet the set requirement of the system in the prospect of having a positive summative evaluation.

Virtual career guidance - using distance education methods - can provide an educationally efficient and economically feasible way to support both students and counselors in the mutual interwoven role, thus improving the quality of careers' guidance provision. In this paper, we present a comprehensive account on educational and occupational issues pertinent to our "information technology era" and stress on the usefulness, for each student to be informed and exploit the virtual career guidance techniques, in preparing better his/her professional "route".

Institutions give an algebraic answer to the question what is a logic?. In our paper we inter- nalise "possible worlds semantics" and modal satisfaction to institutions with open formulæ (called open institutions) and fullfiling certain mild technical conditions. Modalities then can be defined on "top" of any such institution proving that modal extensions are not a privilege of certain logics - like the first order one - but can be generated over a much wider variety of institutions.

Nowadays more than ever, computer ethics and information law are particularly conducive to everyday applications. Stemming from this reality computer supported computer ethics is a promising area for research. Still, the complexity of issues involved and the different problems addressed on each individual occasion make this task a hard one. Formal methods is an area in computer science, which uses mathematics for the specification, design and verification of software and hardware systems. Usually, each formal method has its own semantics and depends on a particular logical system. Z, OBJ, VDM, CASL, B-Method, Petri Nets are few of the most well known formal methods. Most of the formal methods can be implemented in a computer. The advantage of using such methods is that they guarantee higher levels of correctness. In computer supported computer ethics, formal methods can be used to provide a report on where inconsistencies lie. For verification ([5]), the input may be a specification and a desired ethical property of a system, and the output may be either “Yes, the property is valid” or “The property is not valid”. Formal methodologies based on deontic logic provide a description and informal analysis of the commonalities in ethical discourse. For example, the logic model (DEAL) makes use of recent research in deontic, epistemic and action logic, and indicate - drawing on recent research in computer implementations of modal logic - how information systems that implement the proposed formalization may be developed [4]. Another interesting example is [2] (and [1]) where mechanized multi-agent deontic logics are considered as the appropriate vehicle for engineering trustworthy robots. Mechanically checked proofs in such logics can serve to establish the permissibility (or obligatoriness) of agent actions, and such proofs, when translated into English, can also explain the rationale behind those actions. As formal method they use the theorem prover Athena in order to encode a natural deduction system for a deontic logic. In our proposed paper, in addition to an overview, we will present a general framework for the formal methodologies of the computer supported computer ethics. This is based on the theory of institutions [3], an abstract model theoretic version of Tarki’s theory of truth. Without going into mathematical details we will describe the basic methodological principles and its potential applications. We claim that our approach can be combined with other approaches, as [7], thus providing new light into the promising relation among formal methods and computer ethics.

OMA-Digital Rights Management System is a standard proposed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) for protecting digital content distribution via mobile networks. To solve the decision problem, in the case that multiple licenses refer to the same content, OMA suggests a license choice algorithm. This algorithm ensures the fine grained consumption of contents. CafeOBJ is a new generation algebraic specification language. We apply the OTS/CafeOBJ method to formally model, specify and verify the above mentioned license choice algorithm. More specifically, we develop the mathematical model of the OMA decision algorithm as an OTS, a kind of transition system expressed in an equational CafeOBJ specification style. Finally, we verify that this algorithm fulfills the following safety property: Whenever a license is chosen for a given content, then the license is valid at that specific time.

Open governance is a political ideology which promotes the application of the open source and open content to the every-day practices of democratic governance. An example is legislation that is open to the general public: this openness allows citizens to express their views on the government directly and in large numbers, and the collection of their opinions benefits policy and those who implement it, the law makers, because they can base their decision-making on a wide range of tangible and specific data. These views, moreover, can suggest many different approaches of how open governance can merge with actual government. A most crucial factor though concerns how to succeed processing the vast amount of information within an open source environment.

Few days after the Greek parliamentary elections of the 4th of October of 2009 the newly elected socialist government launched the Greek OpenGov.gr initiative. The idea was to render OpenGov.gr a major reference point to Greek public sphere, a “virtual” meeting point of the government and the citizens. Some early initiatives included open calls for the filling of governmental posts and for participation in commentary forums formed in order to discuss and deliberate online over proposed legislation. It received major publicity since it was the first time in Greece that software tools and the Internet were openly offered to the public at a large scale to interact directly with the government. In a society that only 18,3% of its citizens have advanced or good Internet skills this initiative generated remarkable media attention. This led to an unexpectedly large civic participation: applications for certain positions or comments on legislation sometimes numbered several thousand. An interesting similar initiative is Labs.OpenGov.gr. This is an open innovation contest for the redesign of electronic government services. The response from the citizens was remarkable and the 15 best proposals that received top ranking are under consideration for adoption by the Greek e-state. The socialist party now in government has long being engaged in a number of similar projects while still in opposition.

In our paper we are going to present the political and technical impact the OpenGov.gr initiative has had so far, by exposing the considerable interest this initiative generated as this interest was recorded in the media, electronic and print, and an assortment of political information sources. It is obvious that OpenGov.gr is a top-down approach to open e-government. We are going to present its dynamic capabilities using stage models for transformation as a key potential accelerator for political change of the Greek governance. Also, we are going to present the impact that such initiatives may have to fight corruption and compare it with other countries.

Standards allow legal knowledge to become exploitable and can lead to fruitful data mining from Legal
Departments and individuals.  For example,  in the Estrella project:  using XML-standards [HBBB07],
all the main elements of an LKIF document may allow them to be referenced in other legal documents,
anywhere on the World Wide Web.
Legal  Documents  can  be  de
ned  as  formal  theories  over  a  speci
c  logic.  Formal  features  of  a  Legal
Document Management System (LDMS) should include versioning, metadata, security, as well as index-
ing and retrieval.  Formal methodologies involve also stages such as formal speci
cation and veri
cation
[Ste11].  We claim that the lifecycle of legal documents can be seen as a fruitful domain of applications
for both the above stages.
In our paper, we will advance on the theoretical point why such an organization of legal documents will
improve transparency, trust and will accelerate the award of justice.  We propose that the enrichment of an LDMS with specification and verification techniques stimulates the ground for many applications of information law, including areas such as IP rights, Big Data and public procurement law

Formal methods, while very promising, are being adopted by software/protocol engineers very slowly, as the industry has little motivation to move into this new, unknown territory. At the same time, new industrial standards are being released quite frequently, as standardization seems to be very popular among developers. In this paper we present the idea of blending formal methods with industry standards. We claim that this results in more concrete system design and extended property verification tools. The enhancement of industry standards with formal methodologies leads to better understanding of the designed environment, eliminates ambiguity and forces a certain level of precision into the specification. An extra benefit is that we can use one of the many algebraic specification languages in order to assist with property checking/verification.

While collaboration has always played an important role in many cases of discovery and creation, recent developments such as the web facilitate and encour-age collaboration at scales never seen before, even in areas such as mathematics, where contributions by single individuals have historically been the norm. This new scenario poses a challenge at the theoretical level, as it brings out the importance of various issues which, as of yet, have not been sufficiently central to the study of problem-solving, discovery, and creativity. We analyze the case of collective and web-based proof-events in mathematics, which share their temporal and social na-ture with every case of collective problem-solving. We propose that some ideas from cognitive architectures, in particular the notion of codelet — understood as an agent engaged in one of a multitude of available tasks — can illuminate our un-derstanding of collective problem-solving, and act as a natural bridge from some of the theoretical aspects of collective, web-based discovery to the practical concern of designing cognitively-inspired systems to support collective problem-solving. We use the Pythagorean Theorem and its many proofs as a case study to illustrate our approach.

With the help of the Internet, social networks have grown rapidly. This has increased security requirements. We present a formalization of social networks as composite behavioral objects, defined using the Observational Transition System (OTS) approach. Our definition is then translated to the OTS/CafeOBJ algebraic specification methodology. This translation allows the formal verification of safety properties for social networks via the Proof Score method. Finally, using this methodology we formally verify some security properties.

Service oriented architectures and event driven enviroments are becoming dominant over the web. Reactive Rules expressed by Rule Markup Languages are used to define the system’s reactions. In this paper we present a Hidden (Sorted) Algebra approach to some of the most common families of Reactive Rules. This semantics will allow the mapping between Rule Markup Languages and Behavioral Algebraic Specification Languages. Verification techniques for reactive rules, will provide automated reasoning capabilities and support the development of new rule based policies and trust models.