Establishing the Foundation of Collaborative Networks

Establishing the foundation of Collaborative Networks The need for computer-assisted collaboration, which originally manifested decades ago in manufacturing to establish small business-oriented networks of organizations in forms of supply chains or extended enterprises, is by now extended into a large number of other areas. While today production and service provision constitute the main areas of application for Collaborative Networks (CNs) worldwide, during the last decade virtual scientific laboratories, inter-enterprise collaborative engineering, crisis management, virtual institutes and virtual learning communities among others, are also rising within the wide spectnlm of application areas in need of CNs. These developments emphasize the urgency for establishing a sounder foundation for collaborative networks, namely in terms o/, theoretical principles and formal models, capturing the concepts, entities, behaviors, and operations of the CNs, and developing technology-independent infrastructure architecture, tools and methodologies. Further to the shorter-term, goal-oriented. and opportunity-based virtual organi­ zations, nowadays a variety of long term "strategic" association / coalition of organizations have emerged. These associations, earlier called clusters or clubs, act as the breeding environments for virtual organizations, and provide the necessary conditions and mechanisms to prepare their members towards dynamic and fluid establishment of potential opportunity-based virtual organizations. A good collection of active va Breeding Environments (VBEs) and Professional Virtual Communities (PVCs) can be found in various regions of the world.

While today production and service provision constitute the main areas of application for Collaborative Networks (CNs) worldwide, during the last decade the paradigm is extending to many new application areas. These developments emphasize the need for establishing a sounder foundation for collaborative networks, namely in terms of theoretical principles and formal models, capturing the concepts, entities, behaviors, and operations of the CNs, and developing technology-independent infrastructure architectures, tools and methodologies.

As a new scientific discipline, research on different aspects of CNs is gaining momentum. As a result of many research projects and pilot applications, a large number of new challenges are identified everyday, in need of innovative solutions, which require holistic, multi-disciplinary approaches.

This book contains a number of selected articles from PRO-VE 2007, the eighth Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises held in Guimarães, Portugal, which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and the Society of Collaborative Networks (SOCOLNET). PRO-VE is well known as the most focused scientific and technical conference on Collaborative Networks, offering a major opportunity for the presentation and discussion of the latest research developments and industrial practice case studies. In line with the vision of IFIP and SOCOLNET societies, the PRO-VE Conference offers a forum for collaboration and knowledge exchange among experts from different regions of the world. With the steady growth of the PRO-VE community, this platform has offered a base for consolidation of the foundation of Collaborative Networks.

The articles included in this book represent a comprehensive overview of recent advances in various domains and lines of research and development on collaborative networks. There is a special emphasis on the CN topics related to trust aspects, performance and valuesystems, VO breeding environments, VO creation, e-contracting, collaborative architectures and frameworks, professional virtual communities, interoperability issues, business benefits, and case studies and applications in industry and services.

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