Relational access control with bivalent permissions in a social Web/collaboration architecture

Abstract

We describe an access control model that has been implemented in the web content management framework "Deme" (which rhymes with "team"). Access control in Deme is an example of what we call "bivalent relation object access control" (BROAC). This model builds on recent work by Giunchiglia et al. on relation-based access control (RelBAC), as well as other work on relational, flexible, fine-grained, and XML access control models. We describe Deme's architecture and review access control models, motivating our approach. BROAC allows for both positive and negative permissions, which may conflict with each other. We argue for the usefulness of defining access control rules as objects in the target database, and for the necessity of resolving permission conflicts in a social Web/collaboration architecture. After describing how Deme access control works, including the precedence relations between different permission types in Deme, we provide several examples of realistic scenarios in which permission conflicts arise, and show how Deme resolves them. Initial performance tests indicate that permission checking scales linearly in time on a practical Deme website.

How is the Appropriate Use of Enterprise Social Media Determined? The Case of GCConnex Within the Canadian Federal Government

“…Although not all social media technologies are the same, there are several functionalities they generally have in common. Users can create content and selectively make it available to other users, join in online groups with other users to share information, explore their connections as well as those of others, and engage in conversations with users (Davies & Mintz, 2009;Kane, Alavi, Labianca, & Borgatti, 2014).…”

“…Measuring and achieving value in social media poses a challenge to many organizations because the value comes more from how people use social media (Davies & Mintz, 2009) than what it offers. Organizations are also beginning to recognize that many of the beneficial outcomes are more long-term and depend on how employees use the ESM systems and how these same systems influence the work environment (Hinchcliffe, 2015).…”

“…(Banker & Kauffman, 1988) Researchers should focus on the conditions for creating value. (Davies & Mintz, 2009) Value of social media comes from how people use it, more than what it offers. (Hinchcliffe, 2015) Benefits of ESM are dependent on how it influences the work environment.…”