Tutorials

Tutorial 1: Applications of Self-organizing Social/Overlay Network in Widearea Collaborative Environments

Dr. Renato J. Figueiredo, Speaker: Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida
Date: Full-day Tutorial on Nov 13, 2008

Abstract

In this tutorial speakers will introduce attendees to "social virtual private networks" (Social VPN), a novel

system architecture which leverages existing social networking infrastructures to enable ad-hoc VPNs which are self-configuring, self-managing, yet maintain security against untrusted parties. The main objective of a social VPN system is simple, yet quite powerful: to securely interconnect Internet users, where peer-to-peer IP-layer network tunnel links are created, automatically, as a result of connections established through social network infrastructures. The key principles in this approach are: (1) self-configuring virtual network overlays enable seamless bi-directional IP-layer connectivity among parties linked by means of social connections; (2) social networking infrastructures greatly facilitate the establishment of trust relationships among parties, and these can be seamlessly integrated with existing public-key cryptography implementations to authenticate and encrypt traffic flows on overlay links end-to-end; and (3) social VPNs greatly facilitate the deployment of collaborative applications.

This tutorial will describe the architecture of such Social VPNs and a prototype implementation which integrates the Facebook API and the IP-over-P2P (IPOP) virtual network. It will be demonstrated the ability of the prototype to support existing, unmodified TCP/IP applications while transparently dealing with the increasingly common case of users connected to the Internet through Network Address Translators (NATs). Applications include secure desktop sharing (VNC, RDP), file system sharing (Samba), multicast-DNS resource discovery (Bonjour), voice-over-IP (Ekiga), and cycle sharing (Condor).

A wiki page for this tutorial can be found here.

Tutorial 2: Requirements Specification and Acceptance Testing of Collaborative Work Environments, Groupware, and CSCW Systems

Speaker: Dr. Hans-Ludwig Hausen, Fraunhofer, D-53754 St Augustin, Germany
Date: Tutorial on Nov 16, 2008 09:00 pm - 09:45 pm

Abstract

Software and systems engineering today is conducted usually in coordinated projects, distributed in time and location. The IT environments for such projects have to provide various features for sharing means and content; workflow has to be controlled and documents have to be managed to enable effective collaboration, communication and/or content handling. Moreover, in certain application domains one has to obey rules, regulations, norms or standards for work and/or businesses. As a consequence, compliance tests for Workflow Environments, Workspace Environments, Method Frameworks, or CSCW Toolkits and Groupware systems are often required to ensure the required capabilities. In other words one has to do an acceptance test for such systems.

How to do it? The proposed solution is to use a comprehensive quality specification and evaluation framework -comprising modelling of goals and objectives, procedures and artefacts, methods and tools, and characteristics and metrics for information systems, groupware systems or other CSCW support systems. In this framework speaker will discuss the various aspects of CSCW/Groupware systems.

Tutorial 3: Countering Spam in Online Communities and the Social Web

Speaker: Dr. James Caverlee, Department of Computer Science Texas A&M University and Dr. Steve Webb, PureWire, Inc.
Date: Tutorial on Nov 16, 2008 09:45 pm - 10:30 pm

Abstract

Web 2.0, online social networks, and the "social Web" phenomenon are key drivers in the continued reach and influence of the Internet. But the increasing reliance on user-contributed content, social annotations, and person-to-person social connections also places individuals and their computer systems at risk for abuse and exploitation at the hands of malicious spammers who seek to exploit the perceived social bonds inherent in Web 2.0. In this tutorial, speaker will identify a taxonomy of social spam, present concrete instances of social spam drawn from existing online communities, and illustrate the evolutionary nature of social spammers. Research difficulties in social spam include: detection of social spam in-thewild, adversarial (adaptive) classification, and evolution of spam production and delivery. Research in social spam defense techniques needs to address these challenges, e.g., in linking spam behaviors that cross domains and developing robust spam detectors in the presence of adaptation. Speakers will highlight the unique challenges facing online communities and the Social Web, drill down into recent successes in developing spam detection and spam mitigation algorithms and architectures, and promote a discussion of promising new avenues of anti-spam research for securing the future of the Social Web.