Essays on the co-evolution between strategies and technologies

Sensitivity, Innovation Attitudes, and Perseverance as the Strategic Foundations of Exaptation. Functions, Modular Architectures, and Technological Evolvability. A Generalized NK-Framework to Study the Co-Evolution Between Industry Dynamics and Artefact’s Architecture. Local Technological Evolution & University-Industry Collaboration

Tools for Data Governance

This article describes the challenges of data governance in terms of the broader framework of knowledge commons governance, an institutional approach to gov- erning shared knowledge, information, and data resources. Knowledge commons governance highlights the potential for effective community- and collective-based governance of knowledge resources. The article focuses on key concepts within the knowledge commons framework rather than on specific law and public pol- icy questions, directing the attention of researchers and policymakers to critical inquiry regarding relevant social groups and relevant data “things.” Both concepts are key tools for effective data governance

Managing Modularity of Service Processes Architecture

The world is increasingly turbulent with shorter and shorter technological life cycles and more and more frequent changes in customer demand. This situation implies that flexibility and agility are crucial for producers of products and services. Much effort has been directed toward understanding innovation and the ways in which management can increase the value of innovation efforts. As a consequence, suggestions emphasizing different aspects of innovation and creativity have been put forward. However, the value of architectural knowledge for innovation is increasingly recognized as crucial with modular architectures proposed as one way of increasing the rate of innovation by introducing flexibility and agility without sacrificing efficiency. Modularity is a way to design a system with the intent of reducing its complexity by decomposing the system and reducing interdependencies between the subsystems of the system through standardized interfaces. Systems designed in this way allow for greater flexibility through recombination; however, they retain efficiency by means of standardization and scale economies from the reuse of components. For this reason modular architectures present an interesting solution to the dilemma of whether to invest in innovation or in efficiency. The topic has received much attention in the face of demands from customers for increasingly heterogeneous products and services. However, an important aspect to keep in mind is that, while decomposition is a powerful way of reducing complexity, most real systems remain only nearly decomposable (Simon, 1962) or loosely coupled rather than uncoupled (Orton & Weick, 1990)...

Natural Communication

In Natural Communication, the author criticizes the current paradigm of specific goal orientation in the complexity sciences. His model of "natural communication" encapsulates modern theoretical concepts from mathematics and physics, in particular category theory and quantum theory. The author is convinced that only by looking to the past is it possible to establish continuity and coherence in the complexity science

A resource allocation mechanism based on cost function synthesis in complex systems

While the management of resources in computer systems can greatly impact the usefulness and integrity of the system, finding an optimal solution to the management problem is unfortunately NP hard. Adding to the complexity, today\u27s \u27modern\u27 systems - such as in multimedia, medical, and military systems - may be, and often are, comprised of interacting real and non-real-time components. In addition, these systems can be driven by a host of non-functional objectives – often differing not only in nature, importance, and form, but also in dimensional units and range, and themselves interacting in complex ways. We refer to systems exhibiting such characteristics as Complex Systems (CS). We present a method for handling the multiple non-functional system objectives in CS, by addressing decomposition, quantification, and evaluation issues. Our method will result in better allocations, improve objective satisfaction, improve the overall performance of the system, and reduce cost -in a global sense. Moreover, we consider the problem of formulating the cost of an allocation driven by system objectives. We start by discussing issues and relationships among global objectives, their decomposition, and cost functions for evaluation of system objective. Then, as an example of objective and cost function development, we introduce the concept of deadline balancing. Next, we proceed by proving the existence of combining models and their underlying conditions. Then, we describe a hierarchical model for system objective function synthesis. This synthesis is performed solely for the purpose of measuring the level of objective satisfaction in a proposed hardware to software allocation, not for design of individual software modules. Then, Examples are given to show how the model applies to actual multi-objective problems. In addition the concept of deadline balancing is extended to a new scheduling concept, namely Inter-Completion-Time Scheduling (ICTS. Finally, experiments based on simulation have been conducted to capture various properties of the synthesis approach as well as ICTS. A prototype implementation of the cost functions synthesis and evaluation environment is described, highlighting the applicability and usefulness of the synthesis in realistic applications

Einstein vs. Bergson

On 6 April 1922, Einstein met Bergson to debate the nature of time: is the time the physicist calculates the same time the philosopher reflects on? Einstein claimed that only scientific time is real, while Bergson argued that scientific time always presupposes a living and perceiving subject. On that day, nearly 100 years ago, conflict was inevitable. Is it still inevitable today? How many kinds of time are there

Einstein vs. Bergson

On 6 April 1922, Einstein met Bergson to debate the nature of time: is the time the physicist calculates the same time the philosopher reflects on? Einstein claimed that only scientific time is real, while Bergson argued that scientific time always presupposes a living and perceiving subject. On that day, nearly 100 years ago, conflict was inevitable. Is it still inevitable today? How many kinds of time are there

Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science

The last two decades have seen two significant trends emerging within the philosophy of science: the rapid development and focus on the philosophy of the specialised sciences, and a resurgence of Aristotelian metaphysics, much of which is concerned with the possibility of emergence, as well as the ontological status and indispensability of dispositions and powers in science. Despite these recent trends, few Aristotelian metaphysicians have engaged directly with the philosophy of the specialised sciences. Additionally, the relationship between fundamental Aristotelian concepts—such as "hylomorphism", "substance", and "faculties"—and contemporary science has yet to receive a critical and systematic treatment. Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science aims to fill this gap in the literature by bringing together essays on the relationship between Aristotelianism and science that cut across interdisciplinary boundaries. The chapters in this volume are divided into two main sections covering the philosophy of physics and the philosophy of the life sciences. Featuring original contributions from distinguished and early-career scholars, this book will be of interest to specialists in analytical metaphysics and the philosophy of science