Bringing Statistical Methodologies for Enterprise Integration of Conversational Agents

Proceedings of: 9th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multiagent Systems (PAAMS 11). Salamanca, 6-8 April, 2011In this paper we present a methodology to develop commercial conversational agents that avoids the effort of manually defining the dialog strategy for the dialog management module. Our corpus-based methodology is based on selecting the next system answer by means of a classification process in which the complete dialog history is considered. This way, system developers can employ standards like VoiceXML to simply define system prompts and the associated grammars to recognize the users responses to the prompt, and the statistical dialog model automatically selects the next system prompt.We have applied this methodology for the development of an academic conversational agent.Funded by projects CICYT TIN2008-06742-C02-02/TSI, CICYT TEC 2008-06732-C02-02/TEC, CAM CONTEXTS (S2009/TIC-1485), and DPS2008-07029- C02-02.Publicad

Ontology modelling methodology for temporal and interdependent applications

The increasing adoption of Semantic Web technology by several classes of applications in recent years, has made ontology engineering a crucial part of application development. Nowadays, the abundant accessibility of interdependent information from multiple resources and representing various fields such as health, transport, and banking etc., further evidence the growing need for utilising ontology for the development of Web applications. While there have been several advances in the adoption of the ontology for application development, less emphasis is being made on the modelling methodologies for representing modern-day application that are characterised by the temporal nature of the data they process, which is captured from multiple sources. Taking into account the benefits of a methodology in the system development, we propose a novel methodology for modelling ontologies representing Context-Aware Temporal and Interdependent Systems (CATIS). CATIS is an ontology development methodology for modelling temporal interdependent applications in order to achieve the desired results when modelling sophisticated applications with temporal and inter dependent attributes to suit today's application requirements

Towards interoperability through inter-enterprise collaboration architectures

Most enterprise architectures published so far are capable of generating reasonably good descriptive models for individual enterprises to enable integration, organization and synchronization of enterprise elements: organizational structure, business processes, information systems and technology infrastructure, among others. However, research in this field applied to the extended enterprise or inter-enterprise architectures that takes into account the growing trend towards complex collaborative environments is very scarce. In this sense, this article seeks to analyze, link and synthesize the researches that has addressed the disciplines of enterprise architecture and business collaboration, in order to identify possible future research needs from the conceptualization made.Vargas, A.; Boza Garcia, A.; Cuenca, L. (2011). Towards interoperability through inter-enterprise collaboration architectures. En On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: OTM 2011 Workshops. 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Industrial automation systems - Requirements for enterprise-reference architectures and methodologies.: International Organization for Standardization (2000)Kosanke, K., Vernadat, F., Zelm, M.: CIMOSA: Enterprise engineering and integration. Computers in Industry 40, 83–97 (1999)Cuenca, L.: Marco arquitectónico para la propuesta IE-GIP. Extensión de la arquitectura CIMOSA. Aplicación a una empresa del sector cerámico. PhD thesis. Universidad Politécnica de ValenciaMolina, A., Panetto, H., Chen, D., Whitman, L.: Enterprise Integration and Networking: challenges and trends. Studies in Informatics and Control 16(4), 353–368 (2007)Ortiz, A., Lario, F., Ros, L.: Enterprise Integration—Business Processes Integrated Management: a proposal for a methodology to develop Enterprise Integration Programs. Computers in Industry 40, 155–171 (1999)Chalmeta, R., Campos, C., Grangel, R.: References architectures for enterprise integration. The Journal of Systems and Software 57, 175–191 (2001)Vernadat, F.: Enterprise modeling and integration (EMI): Current status and research perspectives. Annual Reviews in Control 26, 15–25 (2002)Williams, T., Li, H.: PERA and GERAM enterprise reference architectures in enterprise integration. Information Infrastructure Systems for Manufacturing, 1–27 (1998)Lankhorst, M.: Enterprise Architecture at Work: Modelling, Communication and Analysis. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)Arango, M., Londoño, J., Zapata, J.: Arquitectura empresarial- Una visión general. Revista Ingenierías Universidad de Medellín 9(16), 101–111 (2010)Bernard, S.: An introduction to enterprise architecture. AuthorHouse, Bloomington (2005)Cuenca, L., Ortiz, A., Boza, A.: Arquitectura de Empresa. Visión General. In: IX Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización, Gijón (2005)Maya, E.: Arquitectura empresarial: un nuevo reto para las empresas de hoy. Centro de Investigación de las Telecomunicaciones. 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PhD thesis Universidad Jaume I de Castello (2007)Scheer, A., Schneider, K.: ARIS – Architecture of Integrated Information. Handbook on Architectures of Information Systems. International Handbooks on Information Systems 3, 605–623 (2006)ISO/CEN 19439. Enterprise integration - Framework for enterprise modelling.: International Organization for Standardization (2006)Stadtler, H., Kilger, C.: Supply Chain Management and advance planning. Concepts, Models, Sofware and Cases Studies. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)Alarcón, F., Ortiz, A., Alemany, M., Lario, F.: Planificación Colaborativa en un contexto de varias Cadenas de Suministro: ventajas y desventajas. In: VIII Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización, Leganés, pp. 857–866 (2004)Alarcón, F.: Desarrollo de una Arquitectura para la definición del proceso de Comprometer Pedidos en contextos de Redes de Suministro Colaborativas. Aplicación a una Red compuesta por Cadenas de Suministro en los Sectores Cerámico y del Mueble. 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Some Issues on Ontology Integration

The word integration has been used with different meanings in the ontology field. This article aims at clarifying the meaning of the word “integration” and presenting some of the relevant work done in integration. We identify three meanings of ontology “integration”: when building a new ontology reusing (by assembling, extending, specializing or adapting) other ontologies already available; when building an ontology by merging several ontologies into a single one that unifies all of them; when building an application using one or more ontologies. We discuss the different meanings of “integration”, identify the main characteristics of the three different processes and proposethree words to distinguish among those meanings:integration, merge and use

Eco Global Evaluation: Cross Benefits of Economic and Ecological Evaluation

This paper highlights the complementarities of cost and environmental evaluation in a sustainable approach. Starting with the needs and limits for whole product lifecycle evaluation, this paper begins with the modeling, data capture and performance indicator aspects. In a second step, the information issue, regarding the whole lifecycle of the product is addressed. In order to go further than the economical evaluations/assessment, the value concept (for a product or a service) is discussed. Value could combine functional requirements, cost objectives and environmental impact. Finally, knowledge issues which address the complexity of integrating multi-disciplinary expertise to the whole lifecycle of a product are discussing.EcoSD NetworkEcoSD networ

The evaluation and the effectiveness of project management in transformational e-government projects

This paper forms part of an ongoing research of a PhD degree to describe, critically evaluate and examine the underlying barriers and challenges in large e-Government initiatives. The paper invites technology to be incorporated and inculcated into the art and science of project management, and be part of a passable solution as opposed to being distinct and separate from it. The tools used have to increase the novelty (art and science) of project management through human interaction, and empower the project manager and aiding his capacity in delivering the expected outcomes. Due to inadequate implementations of project management procedures and processes, many large information technology systems (ITS) projects failed. This becomes a characteristic and encompasses e-Government project initiatives, due to ambitious program changes, major innovations, large transformations, enterprise wide solutions, collaboration across organizations’ governments and private sectors, and the implementation of unprecedented (or ambitious) solutions. This research paper critically analyses and summarises a list of e-Government challenges and barriers arising from an e-Government survey administered on behalf of the World Information Technology and Services Association (WITSA) which represents the national technology associations in 70 countries. It compares these challenges to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), which is the North American standard in project management methodology. In addition, it highlights the weaknesses in PMBOK to address these challenges and offers a technology-enabled enhancement to the Project Initiation Phase, the area identified as being particularly weak and inadequate in addressing e-Government initiatives and requirements