Cloud Computing is a topic that has gained momentum in the last years. Current studies show that an increasing number of companies is evaluating the promised advantages and considering making use of cloud services. In this paper we investigate the phenomenon of cloud computing and its importance for the operation of ERP systems. We argue that the phenomenon of cloud computing could lead to a decisive change in the way business software is deployed in companies. Our reference framework contains three levels (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and clarifies the meaning of public, private and hybrid clouds. The three levels of cloud computing and their impact on ERP systems operation are discussed. From the literature we identify areas for future research and propose a research agenda.

In this paper, we compare two approaches for exploring large,rnhierarchical data spaces of social media data on mobile devicesrnusing facets. While the first approach arranges thernfacets in a 3x3 grid, the second approach makes use of arnscrollable list of facets for exploring the data. We have conductedrna between-group experiment of the two approachesrnwith 24 subjects (20 male, 4 female) executing the same set ofrntasks of typical mobile users" information needs. The resultsrnshow that the grid-based approach requires significantly morernclicks, but subjects need less time for completing the tasks.rnFurthermore, it shows that the additional clicks do not hamperrnthe subjects" satisfaction. Thus, the results suggest thatrnthe grid-based approach is a better choice for faceted searchrnon touchscreen mobile devices. To the best of our knowledge,rnsuch a summative evaluation of different approaches for facetedrnsearch on mobile devices has not been done so far.

One of the key factors that hinders integration of distributed, heterogeneous information systems is the lack of a formal basis for modeling the complex, structured knowledge that is to be exchanged. To alleviate this situation, we present an approach based on core ontologies. Core ontologies are characterized by a high degree of axiomatization and formal precision. This is achieved by basing on a foundational ontology. In addition, core ontologies should follow a pattern-oriented design approach. By this, they are modular and extensible. Core ontologies allow for reusing the structured knowledge they define as well as integrating existing domainrnknowledge. The structured knowledge of the core ontologies is clearly separated from the domain-specific knowledge. Such core ontologies allow for both formally conceptualize their particular fields and to be flexibly combined to cover the needsrnof concrete, complex application domains. Over the last years, we have developed three independent core ontologies for events and objects, multimedia annotations, and personal information management. In this paper, we present the simultaneousrnuse and integration of our core ontologies at the example of a complex, distributed socio-technical system of emergency response. We describe our design approach for core ontologies and discuss the lessons learned in designing them. Finally, we elaborate on the beauty aspects of our core ontologies.

The lack of a formal event model hinders interoperability in distributed event-based systems. Consequently, we present in this paper a formal model of events, called F. The model bases on an upper-level ontology and pro-vides comprehensive support for all aspects of events such as time and space, objects and persons involved, as well as the structural aspects, namely mereological, causal, and correlational relationships. The event model provides a flexible means for event composition, modeling of event causality and correlation, and allows for representing different interpretations of the same event. The foundational event model F is developed in a pattern-oriented approach, modularized in different ontologies, and can be easily extended by domain specifific ontologies.

Networked graphs are defined in this paper as a small syntactic extension of named graphs in RDF. They allow for the definition of a graph by explicitly listing triples as well as by SPARQL queries on one or multiple other graphs. By this extension it becomes possible to define a graph including a view onto other graphs and to define the meaning of a set of graphs by the way they reference each other. The semantics of networked graphs is defined by their mapping into logic programs. The expressiveness and computational complexity of networked graphs, varying by the set of constraints imposed on the underlying SPARQL queries, is investigated. We demonstrate the capabilities of networked graphs by a simple use case.