Research activity in 1997
In the course of 1997 the research activity was oriented to the improvement of the conceptual framework supporting the design of coordination mechanisms and on the improvement of the related prototypes.
More specifically, the conceptual framework has been enlarged by articulating the notion of coordination mechanism in two main classes: those supporting the coordination of predefined activities which are characterized by versatile and partially specified protocols, and those supporting the dynamic part of cooperation which depends on the current context. In this respect, the notion of awareness mechanism has been introduced. Awareness is the key-word denoting the part of communication devoted to the sharing of information about the current situation among the cooperative actors.
As in the case of protocols and the related mechanisms, awareness mechanisms have to be versatile and incrementally specified by the actors themselves. To this aim an awareness model has been defined: it is based on a metaphor derived from natural sciences, namely the reaction-diffusion metaphor. This model helps identifying orthogonal linguistic constructs whose combination allows for the definition of an open-ended set of awareness mechanisms in accordance with users' needs.
The prototypes constructed previously (Ariadne and ABACO) have been re-implemented by enlarging the set of provided functionality, by using Java environments. This makes them open to be executed in a fully distributed architecture on the WEB. Moreover, a new component devoted to define and activate awareness mechanisms (called AW-Manager) has been designed. The conceptual integration of the frameworks supporting the two above mentioned classes of mechanisms has been specified and its implementation was started.
1997 Publications
C. Simone and M. Divitini. Integrating communication contexts to support coordination: the CHAOS project. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, An International Journal (to appear).
C. Simone and M. Divitini. Ariadne: supporting coordination through a flexible use of the knowledge on work processes. Journal of Universal Computer Science, vol. 3, no. 8, pp. 865-898, 1997.
C. Simone and S. Bandini. The Reaction-Diffusion metaphor for modeling Cooperative Work. Prestige Journal of Management and Research (PIMR), December 1997 (to appear).
C. Simone and S. Bandini. Compositional features for promoting awareness within and across cooperative applications. In Proc. ACM-GROUP'97, Phoenix (AZ), ed. S. C. Hayne and W. Prinz. ACM Press, pp. 358-367, 1997.
C. Simone and M. Divitini. LAP-based mechanisms for maintaining the contexts of cooperation. In 2nd International Workshop on "Communication Modeling", Veldhoven (NL), ed. F. Dignum and J. Dietz. CSR-TU- Eindhoven, pp. 105-116, 1997.
C. Simone and S. Bandini. Agents in the design of cooperative applications. In Proc. Workshop on "Social Agents in Web-based Collaboration" (associated with ECSCW '97), Lancaster (UK), ed. T. Kreifelts, G. Mark, A. Voss, and A. J. Borstad, 1997.
Software Products
ARIADNE: the prototype implements a notation to define coordination mechanisms to support the articulation of complex and coordinated activities.
ABACO: the prototype implements the run-time support of Ariadne on the basis of an agent architecture.
AW-MANAGER: the prototype implements an environment where to define and activate mechanisms supporting awareness capabilities within and across cooperative applications.
Research grants
Carla Simone was involved as research responsible in the joint project between the University of Milano and the Italian Telecom in order to design an intelligent business-to-consumer electronic commerce system, and in the joint project between the Department of Informatics and the Municipality of Torino in order to define a methodological framework supporting the redesign of administrtive processes.
Activity and role in the scientific community
C. Simone
Chair of the Foundation for the Cooperative Work Technologies (the steering committee of the ECSCW Conferences)
Member of the Program Committee of the 5th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW97),
Workshop-Chair within the Organizing Committee of ECSCW97,
Member of the Program Committee of the 2nd International Workshop on "Communication Modeling: the Language Action Perspective" (LAP'97),
Member of the Program Committee of the 2nd Italian Workshop on "Information Technologies and Work" (TIF'97)
Oral Presentations in Congresses and Conferences
C. Simone, 2nd International Workshop on "Communication Modeling: the Language Action Perspective" (LAP'97), Veldhoven, 9-10 June, 1997
C. Simone, Workshop on "Social Agents in Web-based Collaboration" (associated with ECSCW97), Lancaster (UK), 7th September, 1997
C. Simone, International ACM Siggroup Conference on Supporting Group Work (Group 97), Phoenix (USA), 16-19 November, 1997
C. Simone, Round Table on "Current trends on Information Technologies and Work" at the 2nd Italian Workshop on "Information Technologies and Work" (TIF'97)
