Syndicated content in the Internet has been a huge success ever since the early days of RSS 0.9 and MyNetscape. Currently, it is the cornerstone of content push, ranging from podcasts to emerging Web 2.0 sites such as FriendFeed and Plexus. Unfortunately, the baffling simple technology that makes publication and subscription very simple and flexible, thus explaining in part its success, is also limiting its usefulness in more demanding applications. Current protocols, like RSS and Atom, allow anyone to easily publish or subscribe to feeds by using simple tools. These protocols prove quite adequate for the large majority of feeds, featuring a few subscribers and low data throughput. However, for high throughput users or highly popular feeds, they're less adequate, as the polling mechanism is expensive for the publisher. Seeds is an approach to feed caching and dissemination that leverages social networks in order to perform aggregation of interests and also to promote discovery. The actual feed distribution is done using peer-to-peer protocols.

O SIGON.2 é um sistema de informação real, suportado na web, para submissão, avaliação/aprovação, acompanhamento e auditoria de candidaturas a programas de financiamento para o desenvolvimento regional do Norte de Portugal. Preenchidos os formulários e carregados os anexos, as candidaturas são gravadas num base de dados central, que vai servir de suporte a todo o sistema de Back-Office, através do qual os membros da Entidade Gestora do Programa Operacional (EGPO) vão fazer a avaliação e aprovação das candidaturas, bem como acompanhar todas as tarefas ao longo da execução dos projectos e o controlo final, após o encerramento. Sistema desenvolvido em .NET, usando ASP, C# e SQL-Server2005. Neste projecto, era pedido a inserção (à posteriori) de dados relativamente à localização geográfica da obra proposta (localização esta que é distinta da localização da Entidade Promotora ou seus Parceiros) para se proceder, depois, à consulta directa e à análise estatística geo-referênciadas dos dados dessa BD de Candidaturas. Tal deve permitir mostrar, sobre mapas da região, vários indicadores de gestão. Note-se que a primeira tarefa (inserção da localização geográfica dosProjectos) tem uma componente tecnológica a resolver (como marcar o ponto para obter com rigor e segurança as Coordenadas Geográficas (latitude e longitude) do local) e uma componente metodológica (que pontos marcar).

The professionalism associated with an engineering discipline rests on several foundations, including a recognized body of knowledge, a code of ethics and practice, professional standards, and control over entry to the profession. Many of these foundations are provided by professional societies. When the term “software engineering” was first used at a NATO conference in Germany in 1968, its use was primarily metaphorical. During the ensuing 40 years, software engineering has steadily matured as an engineering discipline. This talk will describe this process, with special attention to the role played by the IEEE Computer Society.

Bio: Stephen Seidman is the 2007 Vice-President for Educational Activities, chair of the Educational Activities Board of the IEEE Computer Society. He has played a leading role in the Society's effort to develop a certification examination for software engineers, and he is currently playing a leading role in an effort to develop an international standard for certification of software engineers. Seidman is Dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Central Arkansas. He was the founding dean of the College of Computing Sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where he served as dean from 2001 to 2005. He was chair of the Department of Computer Science at Colorado State University from 1996 to 2001 and head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Auburn University from 1990 to 1996. From 1972 to 1990, Seidman was a faculty member at George Mason University, where he was a founding member of the Department of Computer Science. Seidman received a BS in mathematics from the City College of New York, and an MA and a PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan. His research interests are in software architectures and computing education, and he has published more than 50 technical papers. Seidman is a recipient of the IEEE Third Millennium Medal.