Forum Session at the First International Conference on Service Oriented Computing (ICSOC03)

The First International Conference on Service Oriented Computing (ICSOC) was held in Trento, December 15-18, 2003. The focus of the conference ---Service Oriented Computing (SOC)--- is the new emerging paradigm for distributed computing and e-business processing that has evolved from object-oriented and component computing to enable building agile networks of collaborating business applications distributed within and across organizational boundaries. Of the 181 papers submitted to the ICSOC conference, 10 were selected for the forum session which took place on December the 16th, 2003. The papers were chosen based on their technical quality, originality, relevance to SOC and for their nature of being best suited for a poster presentation or a demonstration. This technical report contains the 10 papers presented during the forum session at the ICSOC conference. In particular, the last two papers in the report ere submitted as industrial papers

Elaboration of the Model of Formation of Readiness of Future Primary School Teachers to the Use of Learning-playing Technologies

The study characterizes the structural-functional model of formation of readiness of students of the specialty “Primary education” to using learning-playing technologies in the educational process. Among general modeling forms there was chosen the combined model (graphic descriptive scheme) of the structural-functional type. There was substantiated the main idea of modeling of the process of formation of future primary school teachers' readiness to using learning-playing technologies, especially, elaboration of such structural-functional model that would allow to improve the effectiveness of this process, to make it correspondent to social requirements and expectations from realization of New Ukrainian school principles. It was determined, that the object of modeling is the process of formation of readiness to using learning-playing technologies, realized within the general system of the professional training of future primary school teachers. The aim of the model creation was formulated: elaboration of the schematic construction that embodies the abstract structure and the real projected process and result. The theoretical-methodological approaches to the model projecting process were separated, namely: system, activity, personally oriented, competence. The main blocs of the elaborated structural-functional model were separated, especially, target, content, procedural and resulting

Semantic Component Composition

Building complex software systems necessitates the use of component-based architectures. In theory, of the set of components needed for a design, only some small portion of them are "custom"; the rest are reused or refactored existing pieces of software. Unfortunately, this is an idealized situation. Just because two components should work together does not mean that they will work together. The "glue" that holds components together is not just technology. The contracts that bind complex systems together implicitly define more than their explicit type. These "conceptual contracts" describe essential aspects of extra-system semantics: e.g., object models, type systems, data representation, interface action semantics, legal and contractual obligations, and more. Designers and developers spend inordinate amounts of time technologically duct-taping systems to fulfill these conceptual contracts because system-wide semantics have not been rigorously characterized or codified. This paper describes a formal characterization of the problem and discusses an initial implementation of the resulting theoretical system.Comment: 9 pages, submitted to GCSE/SAIG '0

Agents for educational games and simulations

This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications

Requirements traceability in model-driven development: Applying model and transformation conformance

The variety of design artifacts (models) produced in a model-driven design process results in an intricate relationship between requirements and the various models. This paper proposes a methodological framework that simplifies management of this relationship, which helps in assessing the quality of models, realizations and transformation specifications. Our framework is a basis for understanding requirements traceability in model-driven development, as well as for the design of tools that support requirements traceability in model-driven development processes. We propose a notion of conformance between application models which reduces the effort needed for assessment activities. We discuss how this notion of conformance can be integrated with model transformations

Theories about architecture and performance of multi-agent systems

Multi-agent systems are promising as models of organization because they are based on the idea that most work in human organizations is done based on intelligence, communication, cooperation, and massive parallel processing. They offer an alternative for system theories of organization, which are rather abstract of nature and do not pay attention to the agent level. In contrast, classical organization theories offer a rather rich source of inspiration for developing multi-agent models because of their focus on the agent level. This paper studies the plausibility of theoretical choices in the construction of multi-agent systems. Multi-agent systems have to be plausible from a philosophical, psychological, and organizational point of view. For each of these points of view, alternative theories exist. Philosophically, the organization can be seen from the viewpoints of realism and constructivism. Psychologically, several agent types can be distinguished. A main problem in the construction of psychologically plausible computer agents is the integration of response function systems with representational systems. Organizationally, we study aspects of the architecture of multi-agent systems, namely topology, system function decomposition, coordination and synchronization of agent processes, and distribution of knowledge and language characteristics among agents. For each of these aspects, several theoretical perspectives exist.

Networking in the food sector of regional economy

Purpose: The article aims to study the features and the directions of development of network interaction of subjects of the food sector in different regions of the economy. Design/Methodology/Approach: The use of different methodological approaches allowed us to formulate a holistic management concept for the development of a network of competences in the food sector of the regional economy. Findings: The study identified the subjects of such interaction, as well as features that allow them to unite into groups that form networks of competencies. Considering the food sector of the region's economy as a socio-economic system, noted its extreme structural complexity, which necessitates the development of special approaches to its management, or rather the need for structural management is presented. The format of such interaction is a network of competencies, representing a spatially localized socio-economic structure formed on the initiative of active subjects of the regional economy. Practical Implications: The results obtained can be used as a basis for designing a network form of development of the food sector of the region's economy, taking into account the nature of placement and interaction of participants, as well as allowing for effective use of their resource capabilities, experience and knowledge. Originality/Value: In order to overcome the problems associated with the formation of network identity, network management competence is proposed to use a structured approach allowing them to make targeted decisions based on objective conditions and institutional nature.peer-reviewe

The role of the service concept in model-driven applications development

This paper identifies two paradigms that have influenced the design of distributed applications: the middleware-centred and the protocol-centred paradigm, and proposes a combined use of these two paradigms. This combined use incorporates major benefits from both paradigms: the ability to reuse middleware infrastructures and the ability to treat distributed coordination aspects as a separate object of design through the use of the service concept. A careful consideration of the service concept, and its recursive application, allows us to define an appropriate and precise notion of platform-independence that suits the needs of model-driven middleware application development