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Collaborative work is a necessary model in urban management, it helps support multiple departments of the municipal government to speed the response of urban incident. Effective information transmission and exchange are important to implement the synchronous work among the information systems in multiple departments of municipal government. This paper proposes an approach of building a collaborative system based on multi-agent mechanism, to support urban management. A multi-agent collaborative model, which combines centralized and distributed management architecture, was developed. The collaborative work system has been applied and proved.

With cooperation among the partners, the supply chain can coordinate its operations and improve the efficiency. The cooperated partners could collaboratively forecast demand and replenish product along the supply chain under the collaborative planning framework. The collaborative forecasting method studied is based on the Bayesian combination model in this paper. The collaborative forecasting model simulation is implemented using the actual order data of a retail item shared among the supply chain partners. The collaborative model is combined with three single forecasting methods, which include the simple moving average, the exponential smoothing and ARIMA methods. The simulation results show the effectiveness of collaborative forecasting method and improvement of forecasting accuracy in the supply chain.

Informatics tools are very important for project development in the civil engineering area. CAD – Computer Aided Design - tools are freely used in different project routines, but BIM – Building Information Modeling are gaining space to allow the development of objects with a larger number of parameters and permit a collaborative engineering. Besides, the PBL - Project Based Learning – tools can be effective for teaching, allowing students to combine prior knowledge and aggregates skills in a collaborative model in engineering area. The objective of the paper is analyzing software applications in a PBL activity focusing the results of CAD and BIM tools utilization in project development. The methodology adopted was a technical review and a case study of 21 PBL projects developed by students of a civil engineering graduation course. The results shows that PBL is a good strategy for project development, and BIM tools are more efficient when compared with CAD tools.

Enterprises and IT service providers are increasingly challenged with the goal of improving quality of service while reducing cost of delivery. Effective distribution of complex customer workloads among delivery teams served by diverse personnel under strict service agreements is a serious management challenge. Challenges become more pronounced when organizations adopt ad-hoc measures to reduce operational costs and mandate unscientific transformations. This paper simulates different delivery models in face of complex customer workload, stringent service contracts, and evolving skills, with the goal of scientifically deriving design principles of delivery organizations. Results show while Collaborative models are beneficial for highest priority work, Integrated models works best for volume-intensive work, through up-skilling the population with additional skills. In repetitive work environments where expertise can be gained, these training costs are compensated with higher throughput. This return-on-investment is highest when people have at most two skills. Decoupled models work well for simple workloads and relaxed service contracts.

Food cold chain (FCC) collaborative distribution (co-distribution) is an efficient way to solve the FCC distribution system infrastructure weak, high cost and low efficiency. In this paper cold chain distribution modes were classified and the applicable conditions of each collaborative model were also analysed to help the enterprise select collaborative models.

Nowadays, due to the complexity of the web environment, techniques of Web-based geospatial data sharing and interoperation services still face several common problems, e.g. service semantic ambiguity, lack of dynamic and flexible service composition, service exceptions are difficult to dispose etc. A two-level geospatial information service collaborative model namely Geospatial E-Institution & Geospatial Agent Model (GEI&GAM) is proposed in this paper by integrating achievements from four related techniques, i.e. services computing, autonomic computing, policy management and OGC geospatial information service specification. These methods cover from abstract service process description of geospatial e-institution to the service chain implementation of specific geospatial agent. Control model of geospatial e-institution and specific implementation mechanisms of geospatial agent are established to form the loosely coupled two-level service coordination system.

Life Sciences research extensively and routinely use external online databases, tools and applications for the implementation of computational pipelines. These applications are among the truly distributed and highly collaborative global systems in existence. Since the resources these applications use are designed to serve individual users, they adopt an all-or-nothing model in which users necessarily have to accept the entire response even though only a fraction of the response is relevant. In computational pipelines involving several databases and complex repeat operations, costs due to unnecessary data transmissions and computations could be significant enough to reduce productivity and make the applications sluggish. Since these resources are autonomous, and do not accept user instructions or queries, users are not able to customize their behavior in order to reduce network latency and wasteful computation or data transmission. Obviously, such a resource utilization and sharing model is wasteful and expensive. In this paper, our goal is to propose a new collaborative data integration and computational pipeline execution model for systems biology research. We show that in our envisioned model, arbitrary sites are able to accept user constraints and limited processing instructions to avoid wasteful computation resulting in improved overall efficiency. We also demonstrate that the proposed collaborative model does not breach site security or infringe upon its autonomy.

Under a Software Process Improvement (SPI) environment, all phases of a process improvement initiative involving establishing commitment, assessment or diagnosing, improvement plans generation, pilot implementation and improvements deployment, may be accomplished collaboratively by different groups inside an enterprise. Organizational, technical and processbased circumstances have an impact on process assessment and modeling practices. Based on a Model-based Collaborative Design, a strategy for collaborative process assessment and modeling is proposed. This collaborative support helps project managers in overcoming complexities and to create a common understanding of the process and products of a SPI initiative. Finally, a Rich Internet Application (RIA) is developed and applied to provide strong support for distributed project managers, to collaboratively assess and model their software process within a SPI project, the CEForSPI (Collaborative Environment For Software Process Improvement) prototype. This tool represents a collaborative strategy to support SPI teams in handling the different phases of a typical SPI lifecycle.

The web accelerated the way people collaborate globally distributed.With Google Wave, a rich and extensible real-time collaboration platform is becoming available to a large audience. Google implements an operational transformation (OT) approach to resolve conflicting concurrent edits. However, the OT interface is not available for developers of Wave feature extensions, such as collaborative model editors. Therefore, programmers have to implement their own conflict management solution. This paper presents our lightweight library called syncro. Syncro addresses the problem in a general fashion and can be used for Wave gadget programming as well as for other collaboration platforms that need to maintain a common distributed state.

Web-based simulation has its major application in teaching, education and collaborative model development. Keywords are virtual training environments (VTE), virtual classrooms, virtual labs and advanced distance learning [7, 4]. A VTE allows its participants to share editing and running of simulation models, to publish self-developed models and to collaborate in model development. The teacher (in the role of an administrator) can provide examples of good practice, templates as basis for further development and is able to supervise the participants of a simulation course.

In this paper the realization method of collaborative CAD is introduced, How to synchronize model is one of the key technologies of achieving collaboration CAD. The incremental transmission algorithm of accurate CAD model based on changed primitives is presented for replicated collaborative CAD system in this paper, which reduces greatly amount of model data transmission during the process of collaborative CAD. This algorithm effectively achieves rapid transmission of the CAD model in synchronized collaborative design, and guarantees the synchronization of collaborative model.

Based on mass related literature on enterprise network, the key influence factors are reduced to Trust, Control, Relationship and Interaction. Meanwhile, the specific contradiction matrices, judgment matrices and strategy collections based on TRIZ are constructed which make the connotation of contradiction matrices in TRIZ extended. Finally they are applied to the construction of the collaborative model on enterprise network based on Multi Agent System (MAS).

Anselin and Getis argue in their 1992 paper “Spatial statistical analysis and GIS” that the development of a toolbox of spatial analytic techniques should be directed by the scientists whose work defines the need for such a toolbox. The field of GIS has changed fundamentally since 1992 as a result of new technical developments, including a general move away from the map as the defining metaphor, the influence of the Internet and the World Wide Web, and changes in the practice of software engineering. Science as a whole has also changed, towards a more collaborative model that is more dependent on computational infrastructure. The impacts of space on the methodology of science are also better understood. The Anselin and Getis paper was remarkably prescient in its identification of the major issues that continue to affect the relationship between spatial analysis and GIS. Institutional issues continue to frame the relationship between GIS and spatial analysis, and are best addressed through partnerships.

The major functions of the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) cannot be accomplished without collaboration among sensor nodes. However, most of the work found in literature only focuses on a specific type of collaboration, associated with the accomplishment of a certain task, such as: sensing, signal processing, computing, routing, etc. In this paper, we present a graph-based model of collaborative work for WSNs. This model is called Wireless Sensor Networks Supported Cooperative Work (WSNSCW) and was created for the specific case of WSNs. We also present the formalization of some of the entities of the model and of its properties. This is a generic model that is being used as a basis for the development of a 3D web-based awareness tool for WSNs. In this paper, the model is applied to the specific case of a WSN created in a museum for artwork conservation.

Efficiency and timeliness of collaborative communication among geographically distributed design teams are vital to collaborative product design for synchronous exchange of product design information and faster product availability. This paper introduces a preliminary research work about P2P&VRML-based collaborative communication environment that attempts to support synchronous collaborative product design in the way of WYSiWiS (What You See is What i see). A prototype with communication means of document co-sharing & editing, draft co-drawing, instant message and VRML-based visualization space is developed on the basis of JXTA platform. Collaborative model modification is performed by cooperation between document co-editing space and VRML visualization.

This study proposes the context model based on multi-agent in learning environment. We show a collaborative model and a scenario among the agents for providing the adaptive learning service in ubiquitous environment. We design the context model based on the learner's learning states by defining domains for the context model. We also describe the examples for reasoning methods of the context model by using TRIPLE language for reasoning and collaborating between library agent and school agent. We explore possibilities of the context model through the presenting. The proposed context model based on multi-agent will be useful to support the adaptive learning service states for learners.

This paper will look at the Challenge Workshop, a knowledge transfer model on the inclusive design process based on the seven DBA Inclusive Design Challenges organised at the Royal College of Art (RCA) since 2000 by the author in collaboration with the Design Business Association, the leading trade association for designers in the UK. This mentored annual competition sees leading UK design firms work with consumers with severe disabilities to develop innovative, inclusive and aspirational product and service prototypes for the mainstream market. It will focus on how this collaborative model has been further developed into creative workshops of varying lengths and iterations in different contexts in the UK, Japan, Israel and Singapore to inspire and inform designers, engineers and others of the innovative possibilities of inclusive design and in the process change their perceptions. The paper will also describe how the workshop has been adapted to and addressed the different knowledge transfer challenges of each cultural context and will show examples of some of the outstanding design proposals that have emerged.

This paper presents a collaborative model for agricultural supply chains that supports negotiation, renegotiation, coordination and documentation mechanisms, adapted to situations found in this kind of supply chain – such as return flows and composite regulations. This model comprises basic building blocks and elements to support a chain’s dynamic execution. The model is supported by an architecture where chain elements are mapped to Web Services and their dynamics to service orchestration. Model and architecture are motivated by a real case study, for dairy supply chains.

Teachers using CSILE, a networked hypermedia system with a student-constructed communal database, evolved two distinct models of use, an Independent Research model and a Collaborative Knowledge-Building model. The Collaborative model showed superior gains in knowledge quality, the Independent model, superior gains in vocabulary. Regression analyses showed different patterns of relationship between process variables and outcomes, consistent with the hypothesized models. Although both models appear viable, the Knowledge-Building model makes fuller uses of the potential of new knowledge media.