Conference Link: http://www.ice-b.org

Foreword: We warmly welcome you to ICE-B 2008 - the International Conference on E-Business, which is held, this year, in Porto, Portugal. This conference reflects a growing effort to increase the dissemination of recent research results among professionals who work on the e-business field. ICE-B is integrated as one of the modules of the ICETE conference, which occurs concurrently with ICE-B. The major goal of ICETE is to bring together researchers, engineers and practitioners interested in information and communication technologies, including e-business, wireless networks and information systems, security and cryptography, signal processing and multimedia applications. These are the main knowledge areas that define the four component conferences, namely: ICE-B, SECRYPT, SIGMAP and WINSYS, which together form the ICETE joint conference. In the program for ICETE, we have included keynote lectures, tutorials, papers, and posters to present the widest possible view on these technical areas. With its four tracks, we expect to appeal to a global audience of the engineers, scientists, business practitioners and policy experts, interested in the research topics of ICETE. All tracks focus on research related to real world applications and rely on contributions not only from Academia, but also from industry, with different solutions for end-user applications and enabling technologies, in a diversity of communication environments. The four volume set of proceedings demonstrate a number of new and innovative solutions for ebusiness and telecommunication, and demonstrate the vitality of these research areas. ICETE has received 440 papers in total, with contributions from more than 40 different countries, from all continents, which demonstrates the success and global dimension of ICETE 2008. To evaluate each submission, a double blind paper evaluation method was used: each paper was reviewed by at least two experts from the International Program Committee, in a double-blind review process, and most papers had 3 reviews or more. In the end, 174 papers were selected for oral presentation and publication, corresponding to a 39% acceptance ratio. Of these only 77 were accepted as full papers (17% of submissions) and 97 as short papers. Additionally, 87 papers were accepted for poster presentation. These acceptance ratios demonstrate that ICETE 2008 strives to achieve a high quality standard which we will keep and enhance in order to ensure the success of next year conference, to be held in Milan/Italy. A short list of about thirty papers will be also selected to appear in a book that will be published by Springer. We would like to emphasize that ICETE 2008 includes several outstanding keynote lectures, which are relevant to today’s lines of research and technical innovation. These talks are presented by distinguished researchers who are internationally renowned experts in all ICETE areas, and their contributions heighten the overall quality of our Conference. A successful conference involves more than paper presentations; it is also a meeting place, where ideas about new research projects and other ventures are discussed and debated. Therefore, a social event including a conference diner/banquet has been planned for the evening of July 28 in order to promote this kind of social networking. We would like to express our thanks, first of all, to all authors including those whose papers were not included in the program. Next, we would like to thank all the members of the program committee and reviewers, who helped us with their expertise, dedication and time. We would also like to thank the invited speakers for their invaluable contribution, in sharing their vision and knowledge. Lastly, but certainly not least, we give our deep appreciation to the secretariat and to all the other members of the organizing committee, whose diligence in dealing with all organizational issues were essential to a collaborative effort of a dedicated and highly capable team. We hope that you will find these proceedings interesting and to be a helpful reference in the future for all those who need to address the areas of e-business and telecommunications. Enjoy the program and your stay in Porto. (More)

Volumes: