Generic unified modelling process for developing semantically rich, dynamic and temporal models

Models play a vital role in supporting a range of activities in numerous domains. We rely on models to support the design, visualisation, analysis and representation of parts of the world around us, and as such significant research effort has been invested into numerous areas of modelling; including support for model semantics, dynamic states and behaviour, temporal data storage and visualisation. Whilst these efforts have increased our capabilities and allowed us to create increasingly powerful software-based models, the process of developing models, supporting tools and /or data structures remains difficult, expensive and error-prone. In this paper we define from literature the key factors in assessing a model’s quality and usefulness: semantic richness, support for dynamic states and object behaviour, temporal data storage and visualisation. We also identify a number of shortcomings in both existing modelling standards and model development processes and propose a unified generic process to guide users through the development of semantically rich, dynamic and temporal models

A knowledge hub to enhance the learning processes of an industrial cluster

Industrial clusters have been defined as ?networks of production of strongly interdependent firms (including specialised suppliers), knowledge producing agents (universities, research institutes, engineering companies), institutions (brokers, consultants), linked to each other in a value adding production chain? (OECD Focus Group, 1999). The industrial clusters distinctive mode of production is specialisation, based on a sophisticated division of labour, that leads to interlinked activities and need for cooperation, with the consequent emergence of communities of practice (CoPs). CoPs are here conceived as groups of people and/or organisations bound together by shared expertise and propensity towards a joint work (Wenger and Suyden, 1999). Cooperation needs closeness for just-in-time delivery, for communication, for the exchange of knowledge, especially in its tacit form. Indeed the knowledge exchanges between the CoPs specialised actors, in geographical proximity, lead to spillovers and synergies. In the digital economy landscape, the use of collaborative technologies, such as shared repositories, chat rooms and videoconferences can, when appropriately used, have a positive impact on the development of the CoP exchanges process of codified knowledge. On the other end, systems for the individuals profile management, e-learning platforms and intelligent agents can trigger also some socialisation mechanisms of tacit knowledge. In this perspective, we have set-up a model of a Knowledge Hub (KH), driven by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT-driven), that enables the knowledge exchanges of a CoP. In order to present the model, the paper is organised in the following logical steps: - an overview of the most seminal and consolidated approaches to CoPs; - a description of the KH model, ICT-driven, conceived as a booster of the knowledge exchanges of a CoP, that adds to the economic benefits coming from geographical proximity, the advantages coming from organizational proximity, based on the ICTs; - a discussion of some preliminary results that we are obtaining during the implementation of the model.

Middleware Technologies for Cloud of Things - a survey

The next wave of communication and applications rely on the new services provided by Internet of Things which is becoming an important aspect in human and machines future. The IoT services are a key solution for providing smart environments in homes, buildings and cities. In the era of a massive number of connected things and objects with a high grow rate, several challenges have been raised such as management, aggregation and storage for big produced data. In order to tackle some of these issues, cloud computing emerged to IoT as Cloud of Things (CoT) which provides virtually unlimited cloud services to enhance the large scale IoT platforms. There are several factors to be considered in design and implementation of a CoT platform. One of the most important and challenging problems is the heterogeneity of different objects. This problem can be addressed by deploying suitable "Middleware". Middleware sits between things and applications that make a reliable platform for communication among things with different interfaces, operating systems, and architectures. The main aim of this paper is to study the middleware technologies for CoT. Toward this end, we first present the main features and characteristics of middlewares. Next we study different architecture styles and service domains. Then we presents several middlewares that are suitable for CoT based platforms and lastly a list of current challenges and issues in design of CoT based middlewares is discussed.Comment: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352864817301268, Digital Communications and Networks, Elsevier (2017

Middleware Technologies for Cloud of Things - a survey

The next wave of communication and applications rely on the new services provided by Internet of Things which is becoming an important aspect in human and machines future. The IoT services are a key solution for providing smart environments in homes, buildings and cities. In the era of a massive number of connected things and objects with a high grow rate, several challenges have been raised such as management, aggregation and storage for big produced data. In order to tackle some of these issues, cloud computing emerged to IoT as Cloud of Things (CoT) which provides virtually unlimited cloud services to enhance the large scale IoT platforms. There are several factors to be considered in design and implementation of a CoT platform. One of the most important and challenging problems is the heterogeneity of different objects. This problem can be addressed by deploying suitable "Middleware". Middleware sits between things and applications that make a reliable platform for communication among things with different interfaces, operating systems, and architectures. The main aim of this paper is to study the middleware technologies for CoT. Toward this end, we first present the main features and characteristics of middlewares. Next we study different architecture styles and service domains. Then we presents several middlewares that are suitable for CoT based platforms and lastly a list of current challenges and issues in design of CoT based middlewares is discussed.Comment: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352864817301268, Digital Communications and Networks, Elsevier (2017

Coordination approaches and systems - part I : a strategic perspective

This is the first part of a two-part paper presenting a fundamental review and summary of research of design coordination and cooperation technologies. The theme of this review is aimed at the research conducted within the decision management aspect of design coordination. The focus is therefore on the strategies involved in making decisions and how these strategies are used to satisfy design requirements. The paper reviews research within collaborative and coordinated design, project and workflow management, and, task and organization models. The research reviewed has attempted to identify fundamental coordination mechanisms from different domains, however it is concluded that domain independent mechanisms need to be augmented with domain specific mechanisms to facilitate coordination. Part II is a review of design coordination from an operational perspective

Designing and managing Organizational Interoperability with organizational capabilities and roadmaps

This paper discusses organizational interoperability issues in through the study of two cases. Then it presents a framework which can help to design and manage this interoperability, by driving the development of “organizational capabilities”.Organization learning, Functional interoperability

Leveraging Semantic Web Technologies for Managing Resources in a Multi-Domain Infrastructure-as-a-Service Environment

This paper reports on experience with using semantically-enabled network resource models to construct an operational multi-domain networked infrastructure-as-a-service (NIaaS) testbed called ExoGENI, recently funded through NSF's GENI project. A defining property of NIaaS is the deep integration of network provisioning functions alongside the more common storage and computation provisioning functions. Resource provider topologies and user requests can be described using network resource models with common base classes for fundamental cyber-resources (links, nodes, interfaces) specialized via virtualization and adaptations between networking layers to specific technologies. This problem space gives rise to a number of application areas where semantic web technologies become highly useful - common information models and resource class hierarchies simplify resource descriptions from multiple providers, pathfinding and topology embedding algorithms rely on query abstractions as building blocks. The paper describes how the semantic resource description models enable ExoGENI to autonomously instantiate on-demand virtual topologies of virtual machines provisioned from cloud providers and are linked by on-demand virtual connections acquired from multiple autonomous network providers to serve a variety of applications ranging from distributed system experiments to high-performance computing

An active, ontology-driven network service for Internet collaboration

Web portals have emerged as an important means of collaboration on the WWW, and the integration of ontologies promises to make them more accurate in how they serve users’ collaboration and information location requirements. However, web portals are essentially a centralised architecture resulting in difficulties supporting seamless roaming between portals and collaboration between groups supported on different portals. This paper proposes an alternative approach to collaboration over the web using ontologies that is de-centralised and exploits content-based networking. We argue that this approach promises a user-centric, timely, secure and location-independent mechanism, which is potentially more scaleable and universal than existing centralised portals