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Coordination and collaboration are naturally used by groups for carrying out activ�
ities and solving problems that require cooperation� However� getting a set of computer
agents to do the same has been a problem � primarily addressed by the AI community
and recently by the database community as work�ow and process management prob�
lems �e�g� in bu...
Similar publications
Purpose
This paper investigates the potential of dynamic process modelling as an approach for addressing the problem of information systems (ISs) evaluation in the context of organisational change.
Design/methodology/approach
A real‐life case study is discussed, showing how dynamic simulation models that incorporate the effects of a proposed IS on...
Citations
... In these systems, triggering events are usually defined in terms of data manipulation operations and transaction commands [37]. Eventdriven rules have also been employed for a variety of rule-based applications, including expert systems [4], workflow systems [9], collaborating agents [6,27], and middleware [15]. ...
Emerging ubiquitous computing network is expected to consist of a variety of heterogeneous and distributed devices. While web services technology is increasingly being considered as a promising solution to support the inter-operability between such heterogeneous devices via well-defined protocol, currently there is no effective framework reported in the literature that can address the problem of coordinating the web services-enabled devices. This paper considers a ubiquitous computing environment that is comprised of active, autonomous devices interacting with each other through web services, and presents an ECA (Event-Condition-Action)-based framework for effective coordination of those devices. Specifically, we first present an XML-based language for describing ECA rules that are embedded in web service-enabled devices. An ECA rule, when triggered by an internal or external event to the device, can result in the invocation of appropriate web services in the system. Subsequently, we consider the situation in which the rules are introduced and managed by multiple, independent users, and propose effective mechanisms that can detect and resolve potential inconsistencies among the rules. The presented ECA-based coordination approach is expected to facilitate seamless inter-operation among the web service-enabled devices in the emerging ubiquitous computing environments.
... It is impossible to assert with certainty whether an harmful interaction between rules will take place considering all database states and all possible action statements. This is why the approach to solving this problem has to contain some restriction, or simplification of the problem, for example to exclude the state of the database in the analysis, or to raise the abstraction of the analysis, as performed in [4], [10], [11], [12]. ...
Event-triggered real-time systems interact with the environment by executing actions in response to monitored events. Such systems may be implemented using event condition action (ECA) rules, which execute an action if the associated event occurs and a specified condition is true. However, the ECA rule paradigm is known to be hard to analyze with respect to correctness and timeliness, which is not conducive to the high predictability requirements typically associated with real-time systems. To still take advantage of the ECA rule paradigm when event-triggered real-time systems are developed, we propose an approach where systems are specified and analyzed in a high-level formal language (timed automata) and later transformed into the ECA rule paradigm. We especially focus on a high-level approach for specifying and analyzing composite event occurrences in timed automata.
... Using rules in the distributed environment has been researched in the context of providing autonomy for sites and also enhancing the performance of processing rules [Ceri92]. Cooperative information systems have also recently started to make use of rules as a glue-component for putting together heterogeneous systems [Bern97,Su95]. Some initial approaches toward using rules to integrate servers on the Internet have been experimented. ...
The Internet and the World Wide Web technologies have gained a tremendous amount of popularity among people and organizations because they provide a powerful means for people and organizations to share multi-media data, to do collaborative work, and to perform business transactions. At present, the Internet is no more than a multi-media data network, which provides tools and services for people to browse and search for data. It does not provide the facilities for automatically delivering the relevant information that are useful for decision making to people or applications. Nor does it provide the means for users to enter and share their "knowledge" that is useful for making the right decisions. This dissertation introduces the concept of a Web-based knowledge network which allows users and organizations not only to publish their multi-media data but also to specify their knowledge in terms of events, rules, and triggers that are associated with their data and application systems. Operations on data and application systems may post events to trigger the processing of rules. The knowledge network is constructed by a number of replicable software components, which can be installed at various network sites together with existing Web servers to form the knowledge Web servers. The knowledge Web servers provide several build-time facilities such as a graphical user interface that allows data providers to easily publish their knowledge based on the Active Object Model (AOM), a registration facility that dynamically creates forms which enable users to selectively subscribe to event notifications and connect them to remotely executable rules on the provider-site, a tool to manage the knowledge elements defined by users as providers and/or subscribers. Run-time facilities that 2 ...
... Small, simple, yet efficient databases might be needed for intelligent agents or their agencies for cooperative problem solving. To support a set of cooperative computer agents, Berndtsson, Chakravathy, and Lings (1997) proposed the use of active databases as an enabling technology for cooperative information systems. The business model of database management system might change in this case since the database services may be provided by third parties that are not owners of the intelligent agents. ...
Component-based e-commerce technology is a recent trend towards resolving the e-commerce challenge at both system and application levels. Instead of delivering a system as a prepackaged monolith system containing any conceivable feature, component-based systems consist of a lightweight kernel to which new features can be added in the form of components. In order to identify the central problems in component-based e-commerce and ways to deal with them, we investigate prototypes, technologies, and frameworks that will transcend the current state of the practice in Internet commerce. In this paper, we first discuss the current practices and trends in component-based electronic commerce based on the International Workshop on Componentbased Electronic Commerce. Then, we investigate a number of research issues and future directions in component-based development for electronic commerce. 1. Introduction E-commerce has been embraced by many as the new frontier of informat...
... In this thesis I have: @BULLET defined the interface between ISs with regard to supporting advanced types of cooperation strategies for CIS. The interface is based on a synthesis of research results from both the active database community (active capability) and the DAI community (speech acts, cooperation strategies), (Berndtsson et al., 1996a; Berndtsson et al., 1997b; Berndtsson et al., 1997c; Berndtsson et al., 1997a). @BULLET presented details of a novel approach for supporting task sharing, a key cooperation strategy within CIS (and DAI), using active capability. ...
... @BULLET presented details of a novel approach for supporting task sharing, a key cooperation strategy within CIS (and DAI), using active capability. In particular, I have introduced a method for mapping task shared protocols expressed in high level speech acts to ECA rules (Berndtsson et al., 1997c; Berndtsson et al., 1997a). @BULLET shown that if ECA rules are to support task sharing protocols, then support for composite events and composite event restrictions are of crucial importance (Berndtsson et al., 1997c; Berndtsson et al., 1997a). ...
... In particular, I have introduced a method for mapping task shared protocols expressed in high level speech acts to ECA rules (Berndtsson et al., 1997c; Berndtsson et al., 1997a). @BULLET shown that if ECA rules are to support task sharing protocols, then support for composite events and composite event restrictions are of crucial importance (Berndtsson et al., 1997c; Berndtsson et al., 1997a). @BULLET shown how active capability can be applied to result sharing. ...
One important feature for the current and next generation of information systems is the ability to be able to cooperate. Information systems that are able to cooperate are referred to as cooperative information systems. The problem of moving the state of the art from information systems designed as islands of automation to cooperative information systems has primarly been addressed by the distributed artificial intelligence community and the database community. For example, the distributed artificial intelligence community has investigated cooperation strategies such as task sharing and result sharing, whereas the database community has developed techniques for interoperability over heterogenous databases. One characteristic of cooperative information systems is that no individual solution can satisfactorily support all required characteristics of cooperative information systems. This thesis takes the position that a synthesis of results from the distributed artificial intelligence community and the database community is a promising direction for developing cooperative information systems.
In this thesis, active capability (as defined within active databases) is considered as an important core technology for cooperative information systems. Active capability is supported by event condition action (ECA) rules with the following semantics: when an event E occurs, evaluate condition C, and if the condition is satisfied, then execute action A. The applicability of using ECA rules has primarly been explored within database systems and has recently initiated ECA related research within other research communities such as real-time and workflow.
This thesis focuses on what is required in an interface between information systems when using an active capability approach to supporting the major cooperation
strategies as formulated in distributed artificial intelligence. The significance of the work reported in this thesis concerns two major issues. First, advanced types of cooperation strategies such as task sharing and result sharing can now span the domains of database and distributed artificial intelligence architectures. Second, as this
work synthesizes and extends results from two different research communities, it provides a good foundation for using active capability as one of the core technologies for
cooperative information systems.
... A survey of similarities and di erences was reported in 2]. Other work has focused on applying active database technology to cooperative problem solving 9,19], strong and weak agency 1], and cooperation strategies 5,6,4]. ...
... For example, E 0(break?down) implies that E 0 was generated in context break-down. 4 Limitations of current ECA approaches 4 ...
... For example, E 0(break?down) implies that E 0 was generated in context break-down. 4 Limitations of current ECA approaches 4 ...
Interest has increased recently in synthesizing solutions to CIS problems by using results from the database and distributed AI communities. Such synthesis is not without its difficulties; results do not always transfer seamlessly to a new, complex domain. In this paper we highlight the difficulties encountered in our attempts to use event detection and subscription mechanisms (proposed in current active databases) for the problem of efficient result sharing in CIS. A solution to such problems is described, in the form of a refined, context based subscription mechanism. 1 Introduction Cooperative Information Systems (CIS) have been defined in the literature as two or more information systems (IS) [8]: ... that execute joint tasks to form a larger IS, called a Cooperative IS. We call an individual IS within a cooperative IS, a component IS. One characteristic of problems addressed within CIS is that researchers rely upon a combination of results from a number of areas, includ...
Multi-agent technology, a modern computer science tool, is widely used in developing intelligent systems. Agents in multi-agent system are autonomous and capable of doing tasks independently, however they share information with each other to achieve their respective goals. Information may be a result of task or a request to other agent to perform some task. To develop an integrated system, database forms basis. This paper presents the role of database in resource allocation problem in multi-agent environment. The aim of problem is to allocate funds to most deserving and competing funds seekers. Agents of multi-agent resource allocation system share information with back support of database. Agents are developed in Java Agent Development Framework (JADE). Instance of Java class in agents is used to interact with database. This methodology to integrate database and agents has been found useful in solving resource allocation problem.
This paper describes our approach and experiences of applying techniques in complex event processing to fleet management systems. Current fleet management systems do not have support for complex event processing, hence they are limited to reacting to simple events such as door open, and vehicle reached waypoint. We argue that fleet management systems can benefit from having support for complex event processing. In this paper we present an implemented fleet management system that supports complex event processing.
Active rules (i.e., event condition action rules, triggers) have been put forward as a technique for reacting to important events, and thereby avoiding polling or embedding rule processing in applications. Despite the promises of active rules technology, the usage of active rules is low in practice. It has often been claimed (by database researchers) that the reason why few active rules applications have been built is due to the lack of support in analysis and design phases. Hence, there are very few notations or guidelines available for software engineers who develop active rules applications.In this paper, we propose modelling templates for UML state-charts and UML-A statecharts for how software engineers can capture the fundamentals of active rules. By following the proposed modelling templates and notations for active rules, it will be easier for software engineers to develop applications that rely on active rules technology.
In this paper, we survey some of the recent developments in application modeling and concurrency control in Active DBMS (ADBMS). We first review the evolution of Active DBMS and different application areas of ADBMSs. Application modeling techniques for ADBMS applications have been surveyed after that. Then we discuss about the execution modeling and concurrency control in active DBMS - which is one of the most challenging areas in active database research. Several important active database research projects are also reviewed with mention of their contributions and current research directions pointed out by these projects.
