Paolo Luigi Scala

TMS for multimodal information processing

Many working processes are complex and composed by heterogeneous atomic tasks, e.g. editing, assembling data from different sources (as databases or laboratorys devices) with texts, images or learning objects, or submitting them to software components to retrieve information, to render them, re-format, submit to computations, and other types of information processing. All these processes heavily require procedural knowledge which is tacit as owned by experts of the working activity; they are complex and are extremely difficult to be modeled and automatized without having a flexible, multimodular evolutionary system in place. Support to information from different modalities increases the performance of a computer system originally designed for a task with a unimodular nature. In this paper, we discuss the idea of task management system (TMS) as a component-based system which offers a virtual workbench to search, acquire, describe and assemble computational agents performing single autonomous tasks into working processes. We sustain that TMS is a cutting edge platform to develop software solutions for problems related to workflow automatization and design. The architecture we propose follows the conceptual track of the TMS to allow composition and arrangement of atomic modules into a complex system. A configuration of the workflow can be implemented and extended with a set of task/components, chunks of activities which are considered basic elements of the workflow. By interacting with the TMS in editing mode, the workflow designer selects the relevant chunks from system repositories, drags them into a working system area and assembles them into a working process. As the main actor of the system, the workflow designer is provided with an environment resembling an artisan’s workshop, to let her/him select the relevant chunks from system repositories, drags them into a working area and assembles them into a working TMS instance, which represents the working process. Global interaction modality of the TMS instance is moulded and specialized on the base of the specific modalities of the task/components which have been retrieved from the system repositories and each time negotiated. Complex activities could be formally described, implemented and applied with a consequent advantage for personnel re-organization toward more conceptual activities.

Personalized web browsing experience

In this paper we propose a Web-based software system that allows the realization of a highly personalized Web browsing experience. The system is based on two relevant elements: the Intelligent Agent and the pCard document. The Intelligent Agent analyzes the Web sites visited by the users collecting information useful to her/his characterization and crosses such information with the personal preferences expressed by the user her/himself. The user profile is stored in a document written in pCard format that we have defined as an evolution of the vCard format.

A Collaborative System for Environment and Tourism Information Authoring and Web Publishing: An Institutional Case Study

Information intensive activities are usually carried out by heterogeneous work groups: collaboration is needed to reach a common goal that stems from different individual tasks such as data harvesting, aggregation and presentation, dealing with a large amount of highly fragmented information that could overload the working procedure nowadays adopted. Furthermore, the persons involved in such activities often operate from remote locations and in different times and are characterized by different skills and cultures. This requires that the workflow of the complete information cycle should be analysed to design the complex information system which can effectively support the diversified tasks fitting the requirements and habits of all the operators. A complex system can nowadays be developed by integrating already available components and by making them inter-operable. Environment heritage conservation and tourism promotion refer to a complex production chain where private companies and public institutions are involved with specific interests and skills. A relevant amount of the information needed and produced by their activities are referred to the territory, therefore is represented as geo-referenced data.

Knowledge management for designing business workflows through semantic compositions of web services

This paper presents a workflow management system called task management system (TMS) devoted to help end users to combine and integrate distributed tasks through visual composition strategies. The TMS is devoted to support human resources in performing their working activities and in exploiting their knowledge and expertise. The TMS network allows employees, who are experts of a specific domain, to design a workflow, to visually validate its execution and to execute it at use time. In particular, the paper describes how workflow designers use TMS to transform the task analysis documents prepared by domain experts into a description of the workflow. The retrieved components are web services that are available in remote or local repositories representing distributed knowledge bases of business tasks. The TMS offers transparent invocation methods for invoking services by means of a semantic discovery engine designed for exploiting a taxonomy of web services.

New Frontiers for WebGIS Platforms Generation

Team components are usually located in different physical structures and the workflow tasks, such as data harvesting, aggregation, elaboration and presentation, need a high quality and quantity of communication to deliver a result with high standard level. Designing and implementing an integrated system able to deal with large amount of highly heterogeneous data, to allow distributed data access and to provide collaboration between partners requires a deep analysis of the diverse requirements and habits of all the operators.

Visual workflow composition through semantic orchestration of web services

There is an increasing request by organizations to allow people outside the IT department to create, shape and adapt the software artifacts they use as they do with real ones in their work practice. Moreover, organizations have recently become aware that they are part of a complex network of connections with partners, customers, and suppliers. This new consciousness has led them to the need for new ways to share their knowledge outside the organization borders. This paper capitalizes on the experience gained in the collaboration with a certification institution to propose a novel network of software environments, i.e., the Task Management System (TMS) network, and a web-service based architecture to support end users to exploit their knowledge and expertise in their daily work activities. In particular, the network allows the end users of an organization to design, execute, and check the execution of a workflow. The goal is not to automate the skills of the end users, but to assist them in their activity, permitting them to use the knowledge and expertise they possess. A prototype for the proposed architecture is currently under development, starting from the software environment dedicated to the design of workflows.

TMS for Multimodal Information Processing

Many working processes are complex and composed by heterogeneous atomic tasks, e.g. editing, assembling data from different sources (as databases or laboratorys devices) with texts, images or learning objects, or submitting them to processing components to retrieve information, to render them, re-format, submit to computations, and other types of information processing. All these complex processes are extremely difficult to be modeled and automatized without having a flexible, multimodular evolutionary system in place. Support to information from different modalities increases the performance of a computer system originally designed for a task with a unimodular nature. In this paper, we discuss the idea of task management system (TMS) as a component based system which offers a virtual workbench to search, acquire, describe and assemble computational agents performing single autonomous tasks into working processes. We sustain that TMS is a cutting edge platform to develop SW solutions for problems related to workflow automatization and design. The architecture we propose follows the conceptual track of the TMS to allow composition and arrangement of atomic modules into a complex system: a core configuration of the system can be extended with a set of task/components, chunks of activities which are considered basic to working flow composition. The workflow designer selects the relevant chunks from system repositories, drags them into a working system area and assembles them into a working process. Complex activities could be formally described, implemented and applied with a consequent advantage for personnel re-organization toward more conceptual activities.

Smart Technologies in Social Housing: Methodology and First Results of the HOST Project Experimentation Activities

The HOST project, funded by the Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme, aims at the realization of ICT tools for social inclusion, that are specifically designed to be integrated in the context of social housing and to encourage direct access to a package of services by elderly and/or fragile people, residing in these structures. The project has been implementing test versions of these tools in three European countries—France, Italy and UK—with the aim of analysing the results and establishing a shared view about the features of this type of applications, as well as producing three prototypes that should be released on the market within 2 years after project’s completion. Project objectives and initial results of the Italian experimentation phase are here presented.

ThePrimate® - HPW and NNs Ecosystem based on DDC⁺ classification oriented to singularities

ThePrimate® is an HPW [High Power Web] platform which allows dynamic classification of digital resources from european databases - including those coming from Europeana - the easy retrieval of data, reuse of items and methods based on enhanced tools, a deeper layer of attached information. The platform is strictly connected to Filamento®, an original IoT [Internet of Things] framework, determining a lattice of precisely identifiable talking objects in the real environment, related as digital items in a Network of networks (NNs). The structure of graph is founded on the keys of “affinity” and “proximity”, it is modifiable according to singular needs and reusable to many different issues. The circulation of resources among the users is reinforced by an original economic paradigm based on a virtual currency, determining self- sustaining.

Touristic valorisation:: a niche of interest for multimodal information exploitation

The aim of this work is the identification of proper tools for the multimodal delivery of information services on various types of terminals, in the context of a valorisation project for the National Park of Alta Murgia, Italy. An open source approach is proposed to the development of technological solutions that fit diverse aspects of the stakeholders needs, leveraging the dissemination of ICT resources and personal telecommunication terminals able to natively support the multimodal delivery of informative contents.