- Email: [email protected]
Collaborative computing technologies and systems
The Journal of Systems and Software 86 (2013) 1725–1726
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
The Journal of Systems and Software journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jss
Collaborative computing technologies and systems
Collaborative computing (Shen et al., 2008; Yong et al., 2009) over the Internet has been involving in multidisciplinary research cooperation. This special issue will focus on collaborative computing technologies and systems over networked environment. Computer supported cooperative work in design (CSCWD) involves the cooperation of multidisciplinary design teams. Previously computer supported communication amongst designers was typically via intranets or extranets but over the last decade the use of the Internet has become much more prevalent in supporting collaborative work. Thus the Internet phenomenon has significantly reshaped the research of CSCWD. The universal and nearly free accessibility has made it much easier for people to coordinate and carry out collaborative design jobs without any physical location boundaries. It has also created a number challenges especially in information security and privacy. This special issue devotes itself to the consideration of the such challenges and opportunities. The special issue reports recent advances in Internet-supported collaborative computing technologies and applications. Among 33 submissions, 9 papers were selected after two rounds of review by invited reviewers and guest editors. These papers address key challenges and opportunities for collaborative computing within a selection of application areas, namely collaborative teaching and learning; collaborative editing; and cooperative business reengineering. Two of the papers consider collaborative approaches within a teaching and learning environment. Three present novel developments in collaborative editing and four are concerned with business and process improvement through the use of advanced collaborative environments. The following two papers address collaborative techniques for learning and teaching environment. The first paper by Xiao reports a technique for promoting reflective thinking in group learning activities in two field studies. A collaborative tool that provides a dedicated virtual group space with no pre-structure has been developed. The findings on the design of the shared rationale space in a virtual group workspace and the effects of rationale awareness in the activities are fully illustrated. This paper has embedded collaborative computing techniques into learning and teaching environments. The second paper by Nawahdah and Inoue investigates the virtual teacher’s positions and orientations that lead to optimal learning outcomes in a mixed-reality environment. It introduces a new method to find out the effects of setting the vertical viewangle. Through the virtual teacher’s posture and position change, the collaborative computing techniques are effectively used in the virtual classroom.
0164-1212/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2013.03.058
The following three papers address collaborative approaches for advanced editing systems. The third paper by Rodrigues et al. discusses the use of knowledge to improve the recommender system of the Business Process Cooperative Editor (BPCE), a collaborative business process modelling tool. The concept of Knowledge Vectors and how they are applied to BPCE, balancing recommendations with the knowledge the recommender has on the subject of the evaluated model, are demonstrated. The effectiveness of using knowledge for recommender systems in this way is proven through a simulation. The fourth paper by Bravo et al. analyzes some usability and design issues by discussing strong and weak points of a system as a basis for the development of groupware tools to support Collaborative Programming. A study on work productivity and program quality is described and potential associations between ways of working and collaborating are analyzed. Specific characteristics of the program are also considered. An effective groupware system for collaborative programmers is presented following consideration of all these aspects. The fifth paper by Molina et al. proposes a domain-specific language (DSL) called CIAN (collaborative interactive application notation). To define this DSL, a metamodel was created to support the interactive groupware. By defining the syntax and semantics of this language, a new tool was implemented to use the metamodeling facilities provided by the Eclipse platform for interactive groupware applications. The rest four selected papers address collaborative approaches for business and process improvement over advanced collaborative environments. The sixth paper by Sun and Shen presents a secure storage model named Peer to Cloud and Peer (P2CP). A “hierarchy security” approach is set up to guarantee data security in P2CP storage model. It is proven that the speed and availability of P2CP is generally better than that of the pure Peer to Peer (P2P) model, the Peer to Server, Peer (P2SP) model or the cloud model. Through recognizing the strategic importance of globalization, government agencies are developing special economic trade zones (SETZ). The seventh paper by Trappey et al. presents a SETZ logistics hub model and system framework for linking manufacturers, to define the characteristics of different types of specialized trade zones, and briefly discusses some of the older types of trade models that are no longer competitive. The research has led to new logistics models and set the information system framework as a general reference for other governments, companies, and industrial sectors that intend to design export-oriented industrial parks that
1726
Collaborative computing technologies and systems / The Journal of Systems and Software 86 (2013) 1725–1726
incorporate modernized and globally oriented SETZ techniques. The collaborative computing technology for business supply chains is effectively explored. The eighth paper by Zhang et al. presents a collaborative workflow scheduling approach based on advance reservation and negotiation capability from the LRMS (Local Resource Manager System) of each cluster, and especially focuses on effective task mapping and resource allocation with a coordinated approach to minimize the makespan of workflow execution. The ninth paper by Stroele et al. models a multi-relational scientific social network where researchers may have four different types of relationships with each other. Using clustering techniques with maximum flow measure, the social structure is identified through researching communities in a way that allows evaluation of the knowledge flow in the Brazilian scientific community. By evaluating the temporal evolution of scientific social networks, new relationships can be effectively identified for any collaboration. We are grateful to Prof. Hans van Vliet for his tiredless support and guidiance. We appreciate all reviewers for their timely comments and critiques which have helped forge this special issue for our collaborative computing research communities. We must also thank all the authors’ contribution and support for this special issue on collaborative computing.
References Shen, W., Yong, J., Yang, Y., Barthès, J.-P.A., Luo, J., 2008. The Proceedings of 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 5236 , Springer. Yong, J., Shen, W., Yang, Y., 2009. Special issue on computer-supported cooperative work: techniques and applications. Information Sciences: An International Journal 179 (15), 2513–2514.
Jianming Yong a,∗ Weiming Shen b Anne James c a University of Southern Queensland Australia, Australia b National Research Council of Canada, Canada c Data Systems Architecture, Coventry University, UK ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J. Yong), [email protected] (W. Shen), [email protected] (A. James)
12 March 2013 13 March 2013 Available online 26 March 2013
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
The Journal of Systems and Software journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jss
Collaborative computing technologies and systems
Collaborative computing (Shen et al., 2008; Yong et al., 2009) over the Internet has been involving in multidisciplinary research cooperation. This special issue will focus on collaborative computing technologies and systems over networked environment. Computer supported cooperative work in design (CSCWD) involves the cooperation of multidisciplinary design teams. Previously computer supported communication amongst designers was typically via intranets or extranets but over the last decade the use of the Internet has become much more prevalent in supporting collaborative work. Thus the Internet phenomenon has significantly reshaped the research of CSCWD. The universal and nearly free accessibility has made it much easier for people to coordinate and carry out collaborative design jobs without any physical location boundaries. It has also created a number challenges especially in information security and privacy. This special issue devotes itself to the consideration of the such challenges and opportunities. The special issue reports recent advances in Internet-supported collaborative computing technologies and applications. Among 33 submissions, 9 papers were selected after two rounds of review by invited reviewers and guest editors. These papers address key challenges and opportunities for collaborative computing within a selection of application areas, namely collaborative teaching and learning; collaborative editing; and cooperative business reengineering. Two of the papers consider collaborative approaches within a teaching and learning environment. Three present novel developments in collaborative editing and four are concerned with business and process improvement through the use of advanced collaborative environments. The following two papers address collaborative techniques for learning and teaching environment. The first paper by Xiao reports a technique for promoting reflective thinking in group learning activities in two field studies. A collaborative tool that provides a dedicated virtual group space with no pre-structure has been developed. The findings on the design of the shared rationale space in a virtual group workspace and the effects of rationale awareness in the activities are fully illustrated. This paper has embedded collaborative computing techniques into learning and teaching environments. The second paper by Nawahdah and Inoue investigates the virtual teacher’s positions and orientations that lead to optimal learning outcomes in a mixed-reality environment. It introduces a new method to find out the effects of setting the vertical viewangle. Through the virtual teacher’s posture and position change, the collaborative computing techniques are effectively used in the virtual classroom.
0164-1212/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2013.03.058
The following three papers address collaborative approaches for advanced editing systems. The third paper by Rodrigues et al. discusses the use of knowledge to improve the recommender system of the Business Process Cooperative Editor (BPCE), a collaborative business process modelling tool. The concept of Knowledge Vectors and how they are applied to BPCE, balancing recommendations with the knowledge the recommender has on the subject of the evaluated model, are demonstrated. The effectiveness of using knowledge for recommender systems in this way is proven through a simulation. The fourth paper by Bravo et al. analyzes some usability and design issues by discussing strong and weak points of a system as a basis for the development of groupware tools to support Collaborative Programming. A study on work productivity and program quality is described and potential associations between ways of working and collaborating are analyzed. Specific characteristics of the program are also considered. An effective groupware system for collaborative programmers is presented following consideration of all these aspects. The fifth paper by Molina et al. proposes a domain-specific language (DSL) called CIAN (collaborative interactive application notation). To define this DSL, a metamodel was created to support the interactive groupware. By defining the syntax and semantics of this language, a new tool was implemented to use the metamodeling facilities provided by the Eclipse platform for interactive groupware applications. The rest four selected papers address collaborative approaches for business and process improvement over advanced collaborative environments. The sixth paper by Sun and Shen presents a secure storage model named Peer to Cloud and Peer (P2CP). A “hierarchy security” approach is set up to guarantee data security in P2CP storage model. It is proven that the speed and availability of P2CP is generally better than that of the pure Peer to Peer (P2P) model, the Peer to Server, Peer (P2SP) model or the cloud model. Through recognizing the strategic importance of globalization, government agencies are developing special economic trade zones (SETZ). The seventh paper by Trappey et al. presents a SETZ logistics hub model and system framework for linking manufacturers, to define the characteristics of different types of specialized trade zones, and briefly discusses some of the older types of trade models that are no longer competitive. The research has led to new logistics models and set the information system framework as a general reference for other governments, companies, and industrial sectors that intend to design export-oriented industrial parks that
1726
Collaborative computing technologies and systems / The Journal of Systems and Software 86 (2013) 1725–1726
incorporate modernized and globally oriented SETZ techniques. The collaborative computing technology for business supply chains is effectively explored. The eighth paper by Zhang et al. presents a collaborative workflow scheduling approach based on advance reservation and negotiation capability from the LRMS (Local Resource Manager System) of each cluster, and especially focuses on effective task mapping and resource allocation with a coordinated approach to minimize the makespan of workflow execution. The ninth paper by Stroele et al. models a multi-relational scientific social network where researchers may have four different types of relationships with each other. Using clustering techniques with maximum flow measure, the social structure is identified through researching communities in a way that allows evaluation of the knowledge flow in the Brazilian scientific community. By evaluating the temporal evolution of scientific social networks, new relationships can be effectively identified for any collaboration. We are grateful to Prof. Hans van Vliet for his tiredless support and guidiance. We appreciate all reviewers for their timely comments and critiques which have helped forge this special issue for our collaborative computing research communities. We must also thank all the authors’ contribution and support for this special issue on collaborative computing.
References Shen, W., Yong, J., Yang, Y., Barthès, J.-P.A., Luo, J., 2008. The Proceedings of 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 5236 , Springer. Yong, J., Shen, W., Yang, Y., 2009. Special issue on computer-supported cooperative work: techniques and applications. Information Sciences: An International Journal 179 (15), 2513–2514.
Jianming Yong a,∗ Weiming Shen b Anne James c a University of Southern Queensland Australia, Australia b National Research Council of Canada, Canada c Data Systems Architecture, Coventry University, UK ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J. Yong), [email protected] (W. Shen), [email protected] (A. James)
12 March 2013 13 March 2013 Available online 26 March 2013