Foreword

Engineering activities are based on the development of new Knowledge (scientia), new 'made things' (techné), and/or new ways of working and doing (praxis). Scientia, Techné, and praxis are three important dimensions of a comprehensive conception of Engineering as a whole. Engineering, as Scientia, is mostly developed in academia; as techné, is practiced in industry generating technological innovations; and as praxis, is carried out in technical and non-technical organizations, supporting managerial activities and technical procedures, via methodical and methodological design and implementation. This is why Engineering provides one of the most solid academic and professional substrata for bridging among universities, industries and governments.
Publications and conferences related to Engineering are usually oriented to one of its three dimensions. While this is an adequate thing to do when disciplinary focus is sought, it does not represent Engineering as a whole and it misses the very important synergic relationships among the three kinds of engineering activities mentioned above. This is why a group of scholars, professionals, and consultants, in the field of engineering, considered the possibility of organizing a conference where presentations would not be reduced to one specific Engineering dimensions, but will foster the participation of academics, practitioners, and managers in the three dimensions of Engineering, in the same conference, so they can synergistically interact with each other. A consequence of this purpose is the organization of IMETI 2008, where submissions were accepted for the presentation of:

• New knowledge (Engineering as scientia);
• New products and services, i.e. technological innovations (Engineering as techné);
• New technical and managerial methods and methodologies (Engineering as praxis);
• New meta-engineering (Engineering of Engineering activities) knowledge, innovations, and methodologies.

The 5th International Conference on Cybernetics and Information Technologies, Systems and Applications (CITSA 2008) and The 6th International Conference on Computing, Communications and Control Technologies (CCCT 2008) have been organized in the context of IMETI 2008, because both are mainly oriented to Engineering and Technology. Both of them are International Multi-Conferences organized with the purpose of providing a communicational forum to researchers, engineers, practitioners, developers, consultants, and end-users of computerized, communications, and/or control systems and technologies in the private and the public sectors. This multi-disciplinary forum provides the opportunity to share experience and knowledge by facilitating discussions on current and future research and innovation.  Participants can explore the implications of relationships between new developments and their applications to organizations and society at-large.

One of the primary objectives of CITSA 2008, CCCT 2008 and, in general, IMETI 2008 is to promote and encourage interdisciplinary cross-fertilization and knowledge communication. They encourage systemic thinking and practice, including the analogical thinking that characterizes the Systems Approach, which is, in most cases, the required path to logical thinking, scientific hypothesis formulation, and engineering new design and innovation.
CITSA 2008 and CCCT 2008 are spin-offs from the International Conference on Information Systems, Analysis and Synthesis (ISAS), and the World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI) which are yearly events that have been held in the last 11 years as a forum for Information Systems researchers, practitioners, consultants, and users who have been interchanging ideas, research results, and innovations in the area of Information Systems. Analytical as well as synthetical thinking represent the conceptual and methodological infrastructures that support the papers presented in ISAS conferences. Synthetical thinking supported papers in the Information Systems area, as well as in its relationships (analogies, "epistemic things", "technical synthetical objects", hybrid systems, cross-fertilization, etc.) with other areas.
The Organizing Committees of IMETI/CITSA/CCCT 2008 invited authors to submit original works, analogy-based hypothesis, innovations, experience-based reflections and concepts, specific problems requiring solutions, case studies, and position papers that explore the relationships among the disciplines of computers, communication and control, and the social and industrial applications within these fields.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, we extend our heartfelt thanks to the 258 members of the Program Committees from 48 countries; to the 302 additional reviewers, from 58 countries; and to the 320 reviewers, from 50 countries, for their efforts in making the non-blind reviews; which contributed to the quality achieved in IMETI 2008. A total of 880 scholars, researchers, and professionals made 1949 reviews, which generated an average of 4.29 reviews per submission (454 submissions were received). Each registered author had access, via the conference web site, to the reviews that recommended the acceptance of their respective submissions. Each registered author could get information about: 1) the average of the reviewers’ evaluations according to 8 criteria, and the average of a global evaluation of his/her submission; and 2) the comments and constructive feedback made by the reviewers, who recommended the acceptance of his/her submission, so the author would be able to improve the final version of the paper.
In the organizational process of IMETI 2008, including CITSA 2008 and CCCT 2008, about 454 papers/abstracts were submitted. These pre-conference proceedings include about 115 papers that were accepted for presentation. The organizers of the invited sessions accepted about 26 papers from the papers/abstracts submitted directly to them by the respective authors. Consequently, these pre-conference proceedings contain a total of 141 papers, from 37 countries. We extend our thanks to the invited sessions’ organizers for collecting, reviewing, and selecting the papers that will be presented in their respective sessions. The submissions were reviewed as carefully as time permitted, but they were not formally refereed. It is expected that most of them will probably appear in a more polished and complete form in scientific journals.
We also extend our gratitude to Professor Patricio Franco and Professor Manuel Estrems, organizer and co-organizer of the "International Symposium on Manufacturing Systems and Technologies: ISMST 2008", for their scholarly quality and the performance they achieved in the organization of ISMST 2008. We are also grateful to the co-editors of these proceedings for the hard work, energy, and eagerness they displayed preparing their respective sessions. We express our intense gratitude to Professor William Lesso for his wise and opportune tutoring, for his eternal energy, integrity, and continuous support and advice as Honorary President of IMETI 2008, as well as for being a very caring old friend and intellectual father to many of us. Special thanks to Dr. C. Dale Zinn, for taking the responsibility as Program Committee Chair of CCCT 2008; Professor Michael Savoie as General Co-Chair of CITSA 2008 and CITSA 2008; and Professor José Aguilar asGeneral Co-Chair of CITSA 2008; Professor Sushil Archaya, and Dr. C. Dale Zinn as the Program Committee’s Co-Chairs of IMETI 2008; and Professor Andrés Tremante as theOrganizing Committee’s Co-Chair of IMETI 2008. We also wish to thank all the authors for the quality of their papers.

We also extend our gratitude to Maria Sanchez, Juan Manuel Pineda, Juan Pinto, and Dalia Sánchez, and Marcela Briceño for their knowledgeable effort in producing the hard copy and CD versions of the proceedings.

Professor Hsing-Wei Chu,
CITSA 2008 Program Committee Chair and CCCT 2008’s General Co-Chair

Professor José Ferrer,
CITSA 2008 Organizing Committee’s Co-Chair

Professor Belkis Sánchez,
CCCT 2008 Organizing Committee’s Chair

Professor Nagib C. Callaos,
IMETI 2008 Conference General Chair