José Maria N. David

WGWSOA: A Service-Oriented Middleware Architecture to support Groupware Interoperability

Collaborative Systems are applications that demand for the distribution support of their resources. Usually, middle-wares have been deployed as a development platform for such applications. In spite of manipulating objects (documents, meetings, agenda, discussion list, etc.) with same semantics, it is not possible for an application to access both objects and data of another distinguishable application, even though they have been built by the use of the same middleware platform. The complexity of this scenario becomes larger when we idealize a project that demand for the interoperability of groupware applications developed by the use of distinct middlewares. The goal of this paper is to present an architecture based on middleware services -named WGWSOA (Web-based Groupware Service Oriented Architecture) -for Collaborative Systems. From this architecture, we hope to offer specific services in order to leverage the interoperability concerns of such systems.

Towards pragmatic interoperability to support collaboration

Context: Many researchers have argued that providing interoperability support only considering the format and meaning (i.e. syntax and semantic) of data exchange is not enough to achieve complete, effective and meaningful collaboration. Pragmatic interoperability has been highlighted as a key requirement to enhance collaboration. However, fulfilling this requirement is not a trivial task and there is a lack of works discussing solutions to achieve this level of interoperability.Objectives: The aim of this study is to present a systematic review and mapping of the literature in order to identify, analyse and classify the published solutions to achieve pragmatic interoperability.Method: To conduct a systematic review and mapping in accordance with the guidelines proposed in the evidence-based software engineering literature.Results: Our study identified 13 papers reporting pragmatic interoperability computational solutions. The first paper in our set of selected papers was published in 2004; the main strategies used to address pragmatic interoperability issues were service discovery, composition and/or selection and ontologies. The application domain of the identified solutions was mainly e-business. In addition, most of the identified solutions were software architectures.Conclusion: Mature proposals addressing pragmatic interoperability are still rare in the literature. Although many works have discussed the importance of pragmatic interoperability, it is necessary that researchers report solutions that implement and evaluate pragmatic interoperability in order to make progress in this area.

Improving the selectivity of awareness information in groupware applications

Many awareness mechanisms in groupware systems have been searching to reduce the amount of information found in the workspace where activities develop. Several approaches and proposals found in literature are based on filter usage for best identifying and presenting information according to the users choices or previous ways of working. The goal of the paper is to present a strategy to both guide the selection of information from the group memory and support coordination actions in groupware applications. This proposal is based on filters and awareness profiles established by the participants in groupware activities.

Modden: An Integrated Approach for Model Driven Development and Software Product Line Processes

In a Software Product Line reuse should be considered from the artifacts conception stage and, when implemented, these artifacts can be part of a library to be further reused by every domain application. In a model-driven context an application development can be seen as a set of transformations that lead to a final system. However, during the transformation process reuse techniques are not usually considered. Modden is a SPL approach that uses model-driven techniques. Through the integration of these two approaches we aim to enhance model-driven techniques by the reuse of models, code, transformation rules and so on. As a result, Modden aims to leverage the reuse of these artifacts in different software development process phases. It comprises two processes, one to develop core assets and another to develop specific assets for the product line, a SPL UML profile and a model driven development supporting tool.

A Scientific Software Product Line for the Bioinformatics domain

CONTEXT Most specialized users (scientists) that use bioinformatics applications do not have suitable training on software development. Software Product Line (SPL) employs the concept of reuse considering that it is defined as a set of systems that are developed from a common set of base artifacts. In some contexts, such as in bioinformatics applications, it is advantageous to develop a collection of related software products, using SPL approach. If software products are similar enough, there is the possibility of predicting their commonalities, differences and then reuse these common features to support the development of new applications in the bioinformatics area. OBJECTIVES This paper presents the PL-Science approach which considers the context of SPL and ontology in order to assist scientists to define a scientific experiment, and to specify a workflow that encompasses bioinformatics applications of a given experiment. This paper also focuses on the use of ontologies to enable the use of Software Product Line in biological domains. METHOD In the context of this paper, Scientific Software Product Line (SSPL) differs from the Software Product Line due to the fact that SSPL uses an abstract scientific workflow model. This workflow is defined according to a scientific domain and using this abstract workflow model the products (scientific applications/algorithms) are instantiated. RESULTS Through the use of ontology as a knowledge representation model, we can provide domain restrictions as well as add semantic aspects in order to facilitate the selection and organization of bioinformatics workflows in a Scientific Software Product Line. The use of ontologies enables not only the expression of formal restrictions but also the inferences on these restrictions, considering that a scientific domain needs a formal specification. CONCLUSIONS This paper presents the development of the PL-Science approach, encompassing a methodology and an infrastructure, and also presents an approach evaluation. This evaluation presents case studies in bioinformatics, which were conducted in two renowned research institutions in Brazil.

WGWSOA- Implementing Collaboration Services in a Middleware Infrastructure

Groupware applications are usually built without considering the need to interoperate with other already existing applications. WGWSOA (Web-based groupware Service-Oriented Architecture) is a service-oriented infrastructure, which was designed to support web-based distributed groupware development. To fulfill interoperability requirement it offers both common and specific middleware services which need to be readily interoperable. On this project, a collaboration services has been developed aimed to evaluate interoperability aspects. However, fulfilling groupware interoperability, while considering only data and procedures, is not enough in this context. This paper describes WGWSOA middleware infrastructure, as well as the results obtained throughout its service development. In addition, requirements related to semantic interoperability are discussed aiming to enhance distributed groupware applications development as well as their execution.

Aw2SOA: An aspect-oriented awareness service for distributed groupware

This paper aims to present an awareness service, named Aw2SOA, which was developed in order to support distributed groupware design in WGWSOA environment. It is a middleware specific service which was implemented according to SOA principles and aspect-oriented concepts. In groupware literature, service-oriented approach is suggested aiming to solve reuse and evolution requirements. However, awareness support is fulfilled by similar functionalities implemented in different modules. As a result, activities related to the maintenance and evolution of this matter cannot be considered as easy tasks. WGWSOA (Web- based Groupware Service-Oriented Architecture) is based on middleware services for collaborative applications.

Rede de Ontologias: apoio semântico a linha de produtos de objetos de aprendizagem

The keynotes goal is to reflect on emergent opportunities for human Discovery (in science), Creativity (in art & industry), and Learning (in education) as processes often occurring serendipitously in individuals and in communities empowered by dynamic Web connections in the global village. These reflections seem to fit best with the mandate of the CBIE Conference: sustainable education.Este trabalho apresenta uma evolucao do assistente inteligente SAE para inferir e fornecer orientacao pedagogica coerente com varias metodologias educacionais, superando uma dificuldade tradicional para este tipo de software, alem de fornecer mais apoio ao ensino-aprendizagem personalizado.O artigo fundamenta-se nos resultados do processo de desenvolvimento de um ambiente web de aprendizagem, ja modelado em dissertacao de mestrado (CABRAL,2006). O sistema tem por objetivo facilitar o acompanhamento das atividades que envolvem a definicao e a elaboracao de pre-projetos de Trabalhos de Conclusao de Curso (TCC). Para atingir tal objetivo o sistema e baseado em uma camada de agentes inteligentes que atuam como colaboradores para execucao de todas as atividades necessarias ao desenvolvimento do TCC. Para que esses agentes atuem de forma satisfatoria no ambiente e necessario o estabelecimento de um processo de comunicacao que possibilite aos agentes agirem em um nivel conceitual mais proximo do ser humano. Dessa forma, este artigo expoe os resultados obtidos ao longo do desenvolvimento dos agentes computacioniais e seus mecanismos de comunicacao.Este artigo descreve o projeto de desenvolvimento de jogo educativo baseado em metodologias participativas, pelas quais estudantes da rede publica de ensino medio idealizam, projetam e desenvolvem prototipos de um jogo sobre Sistema Imunologico e virus da Dengue. O objetivo da pesquisa e verificar os impactos do processo sobre a aprendizagem dos estudantes.O objetivo deste artigo e apresentar resultados de estudo de um caso exploratorio, realizado junto aos alunos de uma Instituicao de Ensino Superior. Como resultados, foram levantados indicadores de avaliacao do Sistema de EaD e identificados problemas, segundo a percepcao dos alunos. A partir dos resultados destaca-se que a Universidade desconhece a metodologia ITIL® e que seria fundamental que fosse implantada uma estrategia do servico (fase inicial da ITIL®), conduzindo a melhoria continua do servico e da infra-estrutura da Universidade.O facil acesso as informacoes devido a difusao da internet possibilita o enriquecimento intelectual, mas por vezes acaba por ser um meio de usufruir do conhecimento de outrem sem mencionar seus creditos/direitos autorais, o que por fim acaba na configuracao do plagio. O plagio no meio academico e uma tarefa dificil de ser controlada, devido o grande numero de trabalhos que sao feitos por uma vasta quantidade de alunos e tambem pelo excesso de tarefas dos professores e pelo pouco tempo que conseguem dedicar para o controle da qualidade e autenticidade dos trabalhos. Com isso, e importante contar com softwares que auxiliem no processo de verificacao de indicios de plagio, desta maneira o presente trabalho vislumbra desenvolver uma nova ferramenta de analise de indicios de plagio bem como aprimorar o metodo DIP – Detector de Indicios de Plagio para auxiliar o docente na verificacao da autenticidade dos trabalhos.A Neuropedagogia promove o confronto sucessivo e simultâneo entre concepcoes tacitas, crencas e valores normativos com esquemas inovadores, criando um espaco entropico e poetico no âmbito da experiencia humana. A natureza da ciencia neuropedagogica exige um modelo fractal de construcao de mundo, sustentado pelo prazer da perplexidade. Busca-se a geratriz e as leis de formacao para atingir a unanimidade sobre o conceito de educacao de pessoas com alta dotacao humana, impossivel de se concretizar, sem o recurso das ideologias filosoficas, cientificas e tecnologias aliadas as eticas.In this talk I will elaborate on the development, implementation and evaluation of the use of online tools for learning, with special attention to games and gamification, sharing and collaboration.

Considering Context Elements in Pre-Meeting Systems

Research has been done in order to propose solutions that enhance interactions among participants and improve activity coordination in the meeting cycle. Some of these are related to pre-meeting phase conduction. We argue that collaboration could be enhanced if we supplied relevant context information through awareness mechanisms. This paper aims at evaluating context elements in an asynchronous Web-based pre-meeting application. As a result, a context framework is discussed in order to support awareness design in the meeting support applications domain

Designing collaboration through a web-based groupware infrastructure

Most groupware toolkits presented in the literature address some important collaborative concepts without considering the main advantages of toolkits. They also do not provide enough support for the necessary flexibility to address the social aspects related to cooperative activities usually accomplished by geographically dispersed groups. In this paper, we discuss the design requirements of a distributed infrastructure, in order to support the development of web-based groupware applications. We also describe the work carried out to convert an object-oriented groupware infrastructure, COPSE, to a web-based groupware infrastructure, COPSE-Web. The results from our work can be considered a step towards providing a distributed groupware architecture on the web.