Social networks have changed our daily life and they have the potential to significantly influence and support Requirements Engineering (RE) activities. Social network-based RE approaches will allow us to overcome limitations of traditional approaches and allow end users to play a more prominent role in RE. They are key stakeholders in many software projects. However, involving end users is challenging, particularly when they are not within organizational reach. The goal of our work is to increase end user involvement in RE. In this paper we present an approach where we harness a social network to perform RE activities such as elicitation, prioritization and negotiation. Our approach was applied in three studies where students used Facebook to actively participate in RE activities of different projects. Although there are limitations, the results show that a popular social network site can support distributed RE.

Requirements elicitation is widely seen as a crucial step towards delivering successful software. In the context of emerging cloud systems, the question is whether and how the elicitation process differs from that used for traditional systems, and if the current methods suffice. We interviewed 19 cloud providers to gain an in-depth understanding of the state of practice with regard to the adoption and implementation of existing elicitation methods. The results of this exploratory study show that, whereas a few cloud providers try to implement and adapt traditional methods, the large majority uses ad-hoc approaches for identifying consumer needs. There are various causes for this situation, ranging from consumer reachability issues and previous failed attempts, to a complete lack of development strategy. The study suggests that only a small number of the current techniques can be applied successfully in cloud systems, hence showing a need to research new ways of supporting cloud providers. The main contribution of this work lies in revealing what elicitation methods are used by cloud providers and clarifying the challenges related to requirements elicitation posed by the cloud paradigm. Further, we identify some key features for cloud-specific elicitation methods. Abstract-Requirements elicitation is widely seen as a crucial step towards delivering successful software. In the context of emerging cloud systems, the question is whether and how the elicitation process differs from that used for traditional systems, and if the current methods suffice. We interviewed 19 cloud providers to gain an in-depth understanding of the state of practice with regard to the adoption and implementation of existing elicitation methods. The results of this exploratory study show that, whereas a few cloud providers try to implement and adapt traditional methods, the large majority uses ad-hoc approaches for identifying consumer needs. There are various causes for this situation, ranging from consumer reachability issues and previous failed attempts, to a complete lack of development strategy. The study suggests that only a small number of the current techniques can be applied successfully in cloud systems, hence showing a need to research new ways of supporting cloud providers. The main contribution of this work lies in revealing what elicitation methods are used by cloud providers and clarifying the challenges related to requirements elicitation posed by the cloud paradigm. Further, we identify some key features for cloud-specific elicitation methods.

Meromictic lakes provide a physically stable environment in which proxies for potentially harmful cyanobacteria are exceptionally well-preserved in the sediments. In Sunfish Lake, a meromictic lake that has recently become the focus of citizen concern due to the apparent rise in cyanobacteria blooms, we used a multi-proxy paleolimnological approach pairing novel spectral (i.e., VNIRS) and molecular (i.e., qPCR) assessment tools to explore long-term cyanobacteria trends. We hypothesized that climate change over the past 50 years altered the Sunfish Lake environment to favour cyanobacteria dominance, resulting in an increased incidence of bloom events. Spectral and genetic results aligned to reveal an unprecedented abundance of cyanobacteria in modern times and coincided with warmer and wetter climatic conditions in the region. Our findings offer evidence for climate-driven shifts in cyanobacteria abundance and suggest that a shift towards warmer and wetter conditions supports the rise of cyanobacteria in lakes.

In software and requirements engineering, requirements elicitation is considered an essential step towards building successful systems. Despite extensive existing research in the field of distributed requirements engineering, the topic of requirements elicitation for cloud systems remains still uncovered. Cloud challenges (e.g., heterogeneous and globally distributed users, volatile requirements, frequent change requests) cannot always be satisfied by existing methods. We present a new approach for eliciting requirements for cloud services by analyzing advanced search queries. Our approach builds fuzzy Galois lattices for the terms that compose advanced search queries, thus enabling a thorough analysis of stored search data. This can support cloud providers in observing requirements clusters and new classes of cloud services, identifying the threshold for achieving satisfied consumers with a minimal set of requirements implemented, and thus designing novel solutions, based on market trends. Moreover, the Galois lattices approach enables large-scale consumers' involvement and ensures the elicitation of real requirements unobtrusively. Abstract-In software and requirements engineering, requirements elicitation is considered an essential step towards building successful systems. Despite extensive existing research in the field of distributed requirements engineering, the topic of requirements elicitation for cloud systems remains still uncovered. Cloud challenges (e.g., heterogeneous and globally distributed users, volatile requirements, frequent change requests) cannot always be satisfied by existing methods. We present a new approach for eliciting requirements for cloud services by analyzing advanced search queries. Our approach builds fuzzy Galois lattices for the terms that compose advanced search queries, thus enabling a thorough analysis of stored search data. This can support cloud providers in observing requirements clusters and new classes of cloud services, identifying the threshold for achieving satisfied consumers with a minimal set of requirements implemented, and thus designing novel solutions, based on market trends. Moreover, the Galois lattices approach enables large-scale consumers' involvement and ensures the elicitation of real requirements unobtrusively.

With the new trend of shifting from traditional architectures towards Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) today, the need to model integration becomes increasingly apparent. This study analyzes two main approaches for SOA integration modeling: using Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Service-oriented architecture Modeling Language (SoaML); having as a fundament a literature study, an evaluation between the two is made, based on a defined set of criteria. The results show where SoaML brings added advantages to UML and why it may be worth being used on a large scale. Abstract-With the new trend of shifting from traditional architectures towards Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) today, the need to model integration becomes increasingly apparent. This study analyzes two main approaches for SOA integration modeling: using Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Service-oriented architecture Modeling Language (SoaML); having as a fundament a literature study, an evaluation between the two is made, based on a defined set of criteria. The results show where SoaML brings added advantages to UML and why it may be worth being used on a large scale.