Cooperative knowledge processing: the key technology for future organizations

Drawing from the challenges organizations are faced with today, there is a growing understanding that future market success, and long-term survival of enterprises will increasingly be related to the effectiveness of information technology utilization. This, however, requires to intertwine much more seriously organizational theory and research in information processing as it has been done before. Within this paper, we approached this aim from the perspective of radically decentralized, computerized enterprises. We further assume that organizations are increasingly processoriented, rather than applying to structuring organizations based on task decomposition and assignment. This scenario reveals that, due to the inherent autonomy of organizational units, the coordination of decentralized organizational activities (workflows, processes) necessitates a cooperative style of problem solving. On this basis, the paper introduces into the research area of cooperative knowledge processing, with a particular focus on multi-agent decision support systems, and human computer cooperative work. Finally, several important organizational applications of cooperative knowledge processing are presented that demonstrate how future enterprises can take great advantage from these new technologies.<br

Organisatorische Flexibilität durch Workflow-Management-Systeme?

Mit dem Einsatz von Workflow-Management-Systemen wird allgemein eine Verbesserung der organisatorischen Flexibilität verbunden. Das ist dann von wesentlicher Bedeutung, wenn, wie in der Dienstleistung, dem Kunden maßgeschneiderte Produkte angeboten werden sollen. Ausgehend von den theoretischen Grundlagen zur Flexibilität prozeßorientierter Organisationen untersucht der Beitrag anhand empirischer Daten die flexibilitätsrelevanten Eigenschaften von Workflow-Management-Systemen. Diese hängen wesentlich von der Integrationsfähigkeit der Systeme ab, die nach fall- und vorgangsspezifischen Daten getrennt beurteilt und insgesamt als weitgehend einseitig ("Import-Offenheit") angesehen werden muß: Zwar können Falldaten und externe Dienste leicht importiert werden, der Export von vorgangsbezogenen Daten und internen Diensten ist jedoch nur bedingt möglich. Das schränkt die organisatorische Flexibilität vor allem dann entscheidend ein, wenn Workflow-Management-Systeme abteilungs- und organisationsübergreifende Leistungsprozesse oder das "Customizing" von Produkten unterstützen sollen

Organisational Intelligence and Distributed AI

The analysis of this chapter starts from organisational theory, and from this it draws conclusions for the design, and possible organisational applications, of Distributed AI systems. We first review how the concept of organisations has emerged from non-organised "blackbox" entities to so-called "computerised" organisations. Within this context organisational researchers have started to redesign their models of intelligent organisations with respect to the availability of advanced computing technology. The recently emerged concept of Organisational Intelligence integrates these efforts in that it suggests five components of intelligent organisational skills (communication, memory, learning, cognition, problem solving). The approach integrates human and computer-based information processing and problem solving capabilities.<br/

Qualitatives, räumliches Schließen zur Kollisionserkennung und Kollisionsvermeidung autonomer BDI-Agenten

Die Trends und Veränderungen in der Logistik führen zu einem dezentralen Ansatz der Steuerungssysteme, um die Komplexität logistischer Systeme zu reduzieren. Softwareagenten, insbesondere BDI-Agenten (Belief-Desire-Intention), als Gegenstand dieser Arbeit, bieten aufgrund ihrer Eigenschaften geeignete Konzepte diesen Ansatz umzusetzen. Im räumlichen Kontext ist das Wissen der Agenten über ihre Umwelt häufig unsicher. Dieser Beitrag adressiert das Problem der autonomen, kollisionsfreien Bewegung von mehreren, interagierenden Agenten auf Basis von unsicherem Wissen im Kontext der Transportlogistik. Zu diesem Zweck bietet die Perspektive des qualitativ räumlichen Schließens geeignete Konzepte. Der Ansatz wird durch eine Multiagentensimulation in einem transportlogistischen Szenario, im Speziellen mit verschiedenen organisationstheoretischen Konzepten bezüglich des Verhaltens der Agenten ausgewertet

A Service-Oriented Approach to Freight Routing in Intermodal Transport Systems

Determining optimal routes for given freight is a core decision inlogistics. In intermodal logistics, freight routing has to considerthe interfaces between different modes of transportation, such ashand-over offsets, load changes, and organizational procedures.We study this problem from the perspective of Service-OrientedComputing (SOC). We (1) propose representing intermodaltransport systems as a set of service offerings and customerdemand as service requests, (2) define freight routing as a servicecomposition problem, and (3) develop a composition algorithmfor transportation services

[email protected] - Agent Based Support of Clinical Processes

In this paper we present a system for agent-based support of clinical processes. We describe the basic engineering concept, along with specific simulation and testing scenarios for agent-based software engineering. Another important focus is the integration of existing agent or healthcare standards like FIPA, DICOM and HL7. Objectives of our research activities in this project are: a substantial increase of the efficiency of hospital process management as well as the development of a specific goal oriented requirements engineering methodology. As most important challenges of the healthcare domain we have identified on the one hand individualized, patient oriented processes in diagnostics, therapy, nursing and administration and on the other hand extremely distributed decision processes and strong local (individual) autonomy with a high degree of situational dynamics. The example scenario on „clinical trials“ illustrates how the system shall support distributed clinical processes and how it interacts with other multiagent systems within the Agent.Hospital Framework and hospital information systems in the eHealth Lab introduced in this paper. The system development is part of the German Priority Research Program (SPP) 1083 “Intelligent Agents and their application in business scenarios”

Process of change in organisations through eHealth: 2nd International eHealth Symposium 2010, Stuttgart, Germany, June 7 - 8, 2010 ; Proceedings edited by Stefan Kirn

Foreword: On behalf of the Organizing Committee, it is my pleasure to welcome you to Hohenheim, Stuttgart for the 2nd International eHealth Symposium which is themed 'Process of change in organisations through eHealth'. Starting with the inaugural event in 2009, which took place in Turku, Finland, we want to implement a tradition of international eHealth symposia. The presentations and associated papers in this proceedings give a current and representative outline of technical options, application potentials, usability, acceptance and potential for optimization in health care by ICT. We are pleased to present a high-quality program. This year we convey a unique opportunity for academic researchers and industry practitioners to report their state-of-the-art research findings in the domain of eHealth. The symposium aims to foster the international community by gathering experts from various countries such as Australia, Great Britain, Finland and Germany. A first step is done by this symposium which considers this interaction and delivers an insight into current advances made and open research questions. The organizers would like to take the opportunity to thank all the people which made the Symposium possible. We are pleased if both attendance to the 2nd International eHealth Symposium 2010 and reading of this proceedings give you answers to urging questions, a basis for critical discussions, references on interesting tasks and stimulations for new approaches. Table of Contents: Martin Sedlmayr, Andreas Becker, Hans-Ulrich Prokosch, Christian Flügel, Fritz Meier: OPAL Health - A Smart Object Network for Hospital Logistics // Rajeev K. Bali, M. Chris Gribbons, Vikraman Baskaran, Raouf NG Naguib: Perspectives on E-Health: the human touch // Falk Zwicker, Torsten Eymann: Why RFID projects in hospitals (necessarily) fail. Lesson from comparative studies // Nilmin Wickramasinghe, F. Moghimi, J. Schaffer: Designing an intelligent risk detection framework using knowledge discovery techniques to improve efficiency and accuracy of healthcare care decision making // Volker Viktor, Heiko Schellhorn: In search of an appropriate service model for telehealth in Germany // Simone Schillings, Julia Fernandes: Towards a reference model for telemedicine // Reima Suomi: Towards rewards awareness in health care information systems // Manuel Zwicker, Jürgen Seitz, Nilmini Wickramasingh: Adaptions for e-kiosk systems to develop barrier-free terminals for handicapped persons --