Grid-enabled Workflows for Industrial Product Design

This paper presents a generic approach for developing and using Grid-based workflow technology for enabling cross-organizational engineering applications. Using industrial product design examples from the automotive and aerospace industries we highlight the main requirements and challenges addressed by our approach and describe how it can be used for enabling interoperability between heterogeneous workflow engines

Software Agent Architecture for Managing Inter-Organizational Collaborations

The growing importance of cooperation among organizations, as a result of globalization, current market opportunities and technological advances, encourages organizations to dynamically establish inter-organizational collaborations. These collaborations are carried out by executing collaborative business processes among the organizations. In this work we propose an agent-based software architecture for managing inter-organizational collaborations. Two types of agents are provided: the Collaboration Administrator Agent and the Process Administrator Agent. The former allows organizations setting up collaborations. The latter allows organizations executing collaborative business processes. A Colored Petri Net model specifying the role, which an organization fulfills in a collaborative process, is used to carry out the behavior of the Process Administrator Agent that represents the organization. Planning and execution of the actions of the Process Administrator Agents are driven by a Colored Petri Net machine embedded to them. Thus, Process Administrator Agents do not require to have defined at design-time the protocols they can support. In addition, we propose a model-driven development method for generating Colored Petri Net models from a collaborative process model defined as interaction protocol. Finally, an implementation of the agent-based software architecture and methods based on model-driven development are presented.La creciente importancia de la cooperación entre las organizaciones, como consecuencia de la globalización, las oportunidades actuales de mercado y los avances tecnológicos, alienta a las organizaciones a establecer en forma dinámica colaboraciones inter-organizacionales. Estas colaboraciones se llevan a cabo mediante la ejecución de procesos de negocio colaborativos entre las organizaciones. En este trabajo de investigación se propone una arquitectura basada en agentes de software para la gestión de colaboraciones inter-organizacionales. La arquitectura provee dos tipos de agentes: el Agente Administrador de Colaboraciones y el Agente Administrador de Proceso. El primer agente permite a las organizaciones a establecer colaboraciones. El segundo agente habilita a las organizaciones ejecutar procesos de negocio colaborativos. El rol que una organización desempeña en un proceso colaborativo es especificado mediante un modelo de redes de Petri coloreadas. Este modelo es usado para dirigir el comportamiento del Agente Administrador de Proceso, el cual representa a una organización. La ejecución de los planes y las acciones del Agente Administrador de Proceso son dirigidas mediante una máquina de redes de Petri coloreadas embebida en el agente. Entonces, los Agentes Administrador de Proceso no requieren tener definido en tiempo de diseño los protocolos que dan soporte a su comportamiento. Adicionalmente, se propone un método basado en el desarrollo dirigido por modelos para la generación en forma automática de modelos de redes de Petri coloreadas a partir de un modelo de procesos de negocio colaborativo definido como protocolo de interacción. Finalmente, la implementación de la arquitectura y los métodos basados en el desarrollo dirigido por modelos son presentados.Fil: Tello Leal, Edgar. Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas; MéxicoFil: Chiotti, Omar Juan Alfredo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño (i); ArgentinaFil: Villarreal, Pablo David. Universidad Tecnologica Nacional. Facultad Regional Santa Fe. Centro de Investigacion y Desarrollo de Ingenieria En Sistemas de Informacion; Argentin

Illinois Digital Scholarship: Preserving and Accessing the Digital Past, Present, and Future

Since the University's establishment in 1867, its scholarly output has been issued primarily in print, and the University Library and Archives have been readily able to collect, preserve, and to provide access to that output. Today, technological, economic, political and social forces are buffeting all means of scholarly communication. Scholars, academic institutions and publishers are engaged in debate about the impact of digital scholarship and open access publishing on the promotion and tenure process. The upsurge in digital scholarship affects many aspects of the academic enterprise, including how we record, evaluate, preserve, organize and disseminate scholarly work. The result has left the Library with no ready means by which to archive digitally produced publications, reports, presentations, and learning objects, much of which cannot be adequately represented in print form. In this incredibly fluid environment of digital scholarship, the critical question of how we will collect, preserve, and manage access to this important part of the University scholarly record demands a rational and forward-looking plan - one that includes perspectives from diverse scholarly disciplines, incorporates significant research breakthroughs in information science and computer science, and makes effective projections for future integration within the Library and computing services as a part of the campus infrastructure.Prepared jointly by the University of Illinois Library and CITES at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaig

Towards a multi-actor theory of public value co-creation

This essay suggests changes to the theory of public value and, in particular, the strategic triangle framework, in order to adapt it to an emerging world where policy makers and managers in the public, private, voluntary and informal community sectors have to somehow separately and jointly create public value. One set of possible changes concerns what might be in the centre of the strategic triangle besides the public manager. Additional suggestions are made concerning how multiple actors, levels, arenas and/or spheres of action, and logics might be accommodated. Finally, possibilities are outlined for how the strategic triangle might be adapted to complex policy fields in which there are multiple, often conflicting organizations, interests and agendas. In other words, how might politics be more explicitly accommodated. The essay concludes with a number of research suggestions

Investigating the impact of networking capability on firm innovation performance:using the resource-action-performance framework

The author's final peer reviewed version can be found by following the URI link. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Purpose The experience of successful firms has proven that one of the most important ways to promote co-learning and create successful networked innovations is the proper application of inter-organizational knowledge mechanisms. This study aims to use a resource-action-performance framework to open the black box on the relationship between networking capability and innovation performance. The research population embraces companies in the Iranian automotive industry. Design/methodology/approach Due to the latent nature of the variables studied, the required data are collected through a web-based cross-sectional survey. First, the content validity of the measurement tool is evaluated by experts. Then, a pre-test is conducted to assess the reliability of the measurement tool. All data are gathered by the Iranian Vehicle Manufacturers Association (IVMA) and Iranian Auto Parts Manufacturers Association (IAPMA) samples. The power analysis method and G*Power software are used to determine the sample size. Moreover, SmartPLS 3 and IBM SPSS 25 software are used for data analysis of the conceptual model and relating hypotheses. Findings The results of this study indicated that the relationships between networking capability, inter-organizational knowledge mechanisms and inter-organizational learning result in a self-reinforcing loop, with a marked impact on firm innovation performance. Originality/value Since there is little understanding of the interdependencies of networking capability, inter-organizational knowledge mechanisms, co-learning and their effect on firm innovation performance, most previous research studies have focused on only one or two of the above-mentioned variables. Thus, their cumulative effect has not examined yet. Looking at inter-organizational relationships from a network perspective and knowledge-based view (KBV), and to consider the simultaneous effect of knowledge mechanisms and learning as intermediary actions alongside, to consider the performance effect of the capability-building process, are the main advantages of this research

Understanding Leadership in Public Collaborative Context

The paper aims to contribute to theory on collaboration through problematizing and exploring the complexity that characterizes leadership in collaborative contexts and to provide some generative conceptualizations to inform future empirical and conceptual development. It draws on a substantial review of leadership theory relevant to the context of public sector collaboration and provides examples from empirical research on collaboration over the last two decades in the UK and US respectively. It does so by identifying and developing key characteristics of the context, the nature of leadership in relation to context, and leadership agency pertaining to actors who actually make a difference in the process and outcomes of collaboration

The organization and management of the Virtual Astronomical Observatory

The U.S. Virtual Astronomical Observatory (VAO; http://www.us-vao.org/) has been in operation since May 2010. Its goal is to enable new science through efficient integration of distributed multi-wavelength data. This paper describes the management and organization of the VAO, and emphasizes the techniques used to ensure efficiency in a distributed organization. Management methods include using an annual program plan as the basis for establishing contracts with member organizations, regular communication, and monitoring of processes.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. SPIE Conference 8449: Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy

Effective performance management of inter-organisational collaborations through the construction of multiple identities

Although inter-organisational collaborations can offer better services, their performance management is complex and can often fail. Through the exploration of multiple (collaborative and non-collaborative) identities formed by partners, the paper offers guidelines for a more effective performance management of inter-organisational collaborations. More specifically, drawing upon a longitudinal qualitative study of a Greek inter-organisational collaboration, the findings of the research illustrate that both collaborative and non-collaborative identities can lead to better collaboration performance. Secondly, the study suggests that it is better to maintain the tension between stability and change within the collaborative process than resolve it. Finally, it offers four collaborative patterns for a more effective performance management of inter-organisational collaborations

Campus-based publishing partnerships: A guide to critical issues

Campus-based publishing partnerships offer the academy greater control over the intellectual products that it helps create. To fully realize this potential, such partnerships will need to evolve from informal working alliances to long-term, programmatic collaborations. SPARCâ s Campus-based Publishing Partnerships: A Guide to Critical Issues addresses issues relevant to building sound and balanced partnerships, including: Establishing governance and administrative structures; Identifying funding models that accommodate the objectives of both libraries and presses; Defining a partnershipâ s objectives to align the missions of the library and the press; Determining what services to provide; and Demonstrating the value of the collaboration. SPARCâ s Campus-based Publishing Partnerships will help libraries, presses, and academic units to define effective partnerships capable of supporting innovative approaches to campus-based publishing