Willy Picard

Modeling Structured Non-Monolithic Collaboration Processes

Existing systems supporting collaboration processes typically implement a single, fixed collaboration protocol, and collaboration process takes place inside a single group. In this paper, we present a model which provides support for multiple collaboration protocols for non-monolithic collaboration processes, i.e. collaboration processes in which collaboration is spread among many groups. In the presented model, collaboration protocols include communicative, “acting”, and social aspects of collaboration processes, and the introduction of group actions provides support for group dynamics. Conditions that collaboration protocols have to fulfill to be valid are also presented.

MAPSS, a Multi-Aspect Partner and Service Selection Method

In Service-Oriented Virtual Organization Breeding Environments (SOVOBEs), services performed by people, organizations and information systems are composed in potentially complex business processes performed by a set of partners. In a SOVOBE, the success of a virtual organization depends largely on the partner and service selection process, which determines the composition of services performed by the VO partners. In this paper requirements for a partner and service selection method for SOVOBEs are defined and a novel Multi-Aspect Partner and Service Selection method, MAPSS, is presented. The MAPSS method allows a VO planner to select appropriate services and partners based on their competences and their relations with other services/partners. The MAPSS method relies on a genetic algorithm to select the most appropriate set of partners and services.

Social Protocols for Agile Virtual Teams

Despite many works on collaborative networked organizations (CNOs), CSCW, groupware, workflow systems and social networks, computer support for virtual teams is still insufficient, especially support for agility, i.e. the capability of virtual team members to rapidly and cost efficiently adapt the way they interact to changes. In this paper, requirements for computer support for agile virtual teams are presented. Next, an extension of the concept of social protocol is proposed as a novel model supporting agile interactions within virtual teams. The extended concept of social protocol consists of an extended social network and a workflow model.

Social Requirements for Virtual Organization Breeding Environments

The creation of Virtual Breeding Environments (VBE) is a topic which has received too little attention: in most former works, the existence of the VBE is either assumed, or is considered as the result of the voluntary, par- ticipatory gathering of a set of candidate companies. In this paper, the creation of a VBE by a third authority is considered: chambers of commerce, as organi- zations whose goal is to promote and facilitate business interests and activity in the community, could be good candidates for exogenous VBE creators. During VBE planning, there is a need to specify social requirements for the VBE. In this paper, SNA metrics are proposed as a way for a VBE planner to express social requirements for a VBE to be created. Additionally, a set of social re- quirements for VO planners, VO brokers, and VBE members are proposed.

Modeling Virtual Organization Architecture with the Virtual Organization Breeding Methodology

While Enterprise Architecture Modeling (EAM) methodologies become more and more popular, an EAM methodology tailored to the needs of virtual organizations (VO) is still to be developed. Among the most popular EAM methodologies, TOGAF has been chosen as the basis for a new EAM methodology taking into account characteristics of VOs presented in this paper. In this new methodology, referred as Virtual Organization Breeding Methodology (VOBM), concepts developed within the ECOLEAD project, e.g. the concept of Virtual Breeding Environment (VBE) or the VO creation schema, serve as fundamental elements for development of VOBM. VOBM is a generic methodology that should be adapted to a given VBE. VOBM defines the structure of VBE and VO architectures in a service-oriented environment, as well as an architecture development method for virtual organizations (ADM4VO). Finally, a preliminary set of tools and methods for VOBM is given in this paper.

Engagement in collaborative networks

Collaborative networks is a new scientific discipline that covers the study of networks consisting of a variety of entities (e.g. organisations and individuals) that are largely autonomous, geographically distributed and heterogeneous in terms of their operating environment, culture, social capital and goals, but that collaborate to better achieve common or compatible goals (e.g. problem solving, production or innovation), and whose interactions are supported by computer network. Nowadays collaborative networks manifest in a large variety of forms. Moving from the classical supply chains format, characterised by relatively stable networks with well-defined roles and requiring only minimal coordination and information exchange, more dynamic structures are emerging in industry, science and services. Some of these organisational forms are goal-oriented, i.e. focused on a single project or business opportunity, such as the case of virtual enterprises. Others are long-term alliances established to facilitate the rapid formation of dynamic virtual organisations in response to business opportunities. However, in spite of the promising trends and growing interest in establishing collaborative networks in industry, services and research, and the increasing establishment of pre-existence long-term alliances of organisations and/or individuals, to act as breeding environments for fluid configuration/reconfiguration and creation of the collaborative networks, in practice the success of their operation is quite challenging. In fact, the success rate of collaborative networks falls much shorter than the expectations, and various empirical studies have surprisingly shown that failure to achieve successful collaborations nearly reaches 50% of the cases. This special issue addresses approaches and methods to support effective involvement and engagement of enterprises in industry collaborative networks. The success of collaboration requires better tuned reference models and frameworks, but also new mechanisms for readiness assessment, competence modelling, negotiation, value systems alignment, access to knowledge, etc. Within this context, this issue brings cutting-edge research carried out by some leading worldwide researchers in the area of collaborative networks. It gathers selected papers from the 9th IFIP International Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises (PRO-VE’2008), held in Poznan, Poland. This selection tried to comprise work on different issues related to collaborative networks in a way readers can have a more comprehensive vision about the area and their applications. The selection was based on a reviewing process carried out by some experts in the area and the eight selected papers were further revised and extended. The first paper, Competency modelling targeted on boosting configuration of virtual organisations, presents a comprehensive model to specify competencies of VBE member organisations via ontologies considering capabilities, capacities, costs and conspicuities. This model promotes more efficiency in VO formation, and thus increases organisations’ involvement in potential virtual organisations. The second paper, Supporting production processes with lightweight platforms, applies concepts from complexity theory and social patterns to create a model to identify requirements for dynamic supply chains, converting models to lightweight implementations to support the required flexibility. The third paper, Increased reliability in SOA environments through registry-based conformance testing of web services, presents a method for creating formal specifications to check whether the software systems that support the business processes of some collaborator actually behave as expected. This aims at having some guarantee in terms of the reliability of their prospective partners before committing to cooperation. The fourth paper, A method to analyse the alignment of core values in collaborative networked organisations, introduces an approach based on causal models and graph theory for the analysis of core values alignment in collaborative networks, focusing on virtual organisations breeding environment. This provides some basis to align the different values of partners in order to improve co-working. The fifth paper, Agreement negotiation support in virtual organisation creation – an illustrative case, presents a negotiation wizard to rapidly respond to

Dyng: A Multi-Protocol Collaborative System

Existing systems supporting collaboration processes typically implement a single, fixed collaboration protocol, and collaboration process takes place inside a single group. In this paper, we present in details the DynG prototype which provides support for multiple collaboration protocols for non-monolithic collaboration processes, i.e. collaboration processes in which collaboration is spread among many groups. Collaboration protocols used by the DynG prototype includes communicative, “acting”, and social aspects of collaboration processes, and the introduction of group actions provides support for group dynamics and helps to structure collaboration processes.

DynG : a protocol-based prototype for non-monolithic electronic collaboration

Existing systems supporting collaboration processes typically implement a single, fixed collaboration protocol, and collaboration process takes place inside a single group. In this paper, we present the DynG prototype which provides support for multiple collaboration protocols for non-monolithic collaboration processes, i.e. collaboration processes in which collaboration is spread among many groups, having different protocols depending on what the group is aimed at. Collaboration protocols used by the DynG prototype integrate communicative, “acting”, and social aspects of collaboration processes and must be semantically and structurally valid.

Reference Model for Performance Management in Service-Oriented Virtual Organization Breeding Environments

Performance management (PM) is a key function of virtual organization (VO) management. A large set of PM indicators has been proposed and evaluated within the context of virtual breeding environments (VBEs). However, it is currently difficult to describe and select suitable PM indicators because of the lack of a common vocabulary and taxonomies of PM indicators. Therefore, there is a need for a framework unifying concepts in the domain of VO PM. In this paper, a reference model for VO PM is presented in the context of service-oriented VBEs. In the proposed reference model, both a set of terms that could be used to describe key performance indicators, and a set of taxonomies reflecting various aspects of PM are proposed. The proposed reference model is a first attempt and a work in progress that should not be supposed exhaustive.

Adaptive Collaboration In Professional Virtual Communities Via Negotiations Of Social Protocols

Support for human-to-human interactions over a network is still insufficient, particularly for professional virtual communities (PVC). Among other limitations, adaptation capabilities of humans are not taken into account in existing models for collaboration processes in PVC. This paper presents a model for adaptive human collaboration. A key element of this model is the modeling of some social elements involved during the collaboration process. Processes are modeled as social protocols. A second contribution is the proposition of negotiation as a mean for adaptation of these protocols.