Newsletter
N 2 - Summer, 2004
Editorial: Welcome on the collaborative platform by Massimo 1
IPPOLITO
INTEROP Mallorca Workshop 2
INTEROP Knowledge Map: a tool for better coordination of research in 3
interoperability
INTEROP passed events 4
INTEROP next events 4
We are happy to present you INTEROP collaborative New specific functionalities that are not available
platform aimed at supporting virtual team working today will be developed along the project according
and dissemination of INTEROP Knowledge inside existing needs but also new needs using internal
and outside the Network. resource and/or using the results produced by the
INTEROP platform's crucial objective is indeed to considerable ZOPE's community of practice.
make available methods for collaborative work to be The Portal area, accessible from www.interop-
used by all project's members in order to integrate noe.org has been designed to provide a single point
the various research institutions, to take advantages of access to all relevant information and applications
of the knowledge produced by network's members for the interoperability communities of interest. The
and to make it open to all. main contents accessible from the public Portal are
In order to select the most appropriate tool, a formal currently:
software selection process has been implemented. INTEROP information (presentations of the
In particular, three main methods of collaboration project, flyer, project data, partners)
have been analysed: INTEROP Newsletters
asynchronous collaboration methods to allow INTEROP News
topics discussion among geographically Upcoming and passed events
distributed researches; Key sites
synchronous collaboration methods to allow Resources (public deliverables, workshop
web-conferences and application sharing; presentations,...)
knowledge management methods to allow Search tool
knowledge dissemination between partners
and long-distance training to allow knowledge The Portal will be improved and fed continuously with
dissemination. new information.
From this starting point, a list of functional We encourage you to check it regularly.
requirements has been defined by project members. For any information, do not hesitate to write to
Taking into account the ability of the various software .
to face and cover these requirements and the overall
costs (licences, customization and hosting), the Welcome on INTEROP Platform!
endorsed solution was ZOPE/PLONE, an Open
Source Content Management System, which covers Massimo IPPOLITO
much of the basic requirements. WP Leader of INTEROP Collaborative Platform
interop-noe.org
INTEROP is a Network of Excellence supported by the European Commission 1
For their second Workshop, INTEROP partners met
in Mallorca (Spain) from the 22nd to the 25th of May.
The event gathered more than 100 researchers over
the four days.
Four months after the launch of the project, in
Januray, the objectives of the Workshop were to:
make a checkpoint on on-going work;
continue the work;
plan and schedule next activities and
deliverables;
initialise inter-workpackages collaboration.
In addition to the working sessions dedicated to
workpackages, some inter-workpackage sessions, Cluster C2 working session animated by Jaana WAYRYNEN
also called "clusters" were scheduled. from KTH (Sweden)
The objectives of these sessions were to identify
The Workshop was also the occasion to present on-
possible synergies among issues that are addressed line the Collaborative Platform to all INTEROP
within each workpackage, decide whether joint work partners. On each day, after the working sessions,
or work synchronization on some identified topics is INTEROP partners participated to a tutorial: on
needed or not and under what form the inter- Enterprise Modelling, on Ontology and on
workpackage cooperation can be done (task force, Architecture & Platforms.
joint meeting, etc). These clusters prepare the The Plenary Session closed the Workshop on
evolution of the Network. Tuesday, May the 25th and partners made
Seven clusters have been implemented: appointment for next INTEROP Workshop in
C1 was dedicated to the requirements, September.
facilities, functionalities required for For some partners, a complementary day was
dissemination, training and actions towards devoted to the first Review Meeting with the Project
SMEs Officer and Reviewers.
C2 dealt with how the assessment can benefit
from the knowledge map and from the
methodological guidelines
C3 worked on genericity and variety of scales
of Enterprise Modelling and its related
supports
C4 tried to define what architectures are
needed for supporting ontology definition,
management, maintenance and so on
C5 was dedicated to the definition of methods
for INTEROP Knowledge base
C6 focused on model mapping and model
transformation
C7 main goal was to explicitate the
requirements for training activities by e-
learning regarding computer support and
especially regarding the support by INTEROP
collaborative Portal. Coffee-break at Mallorca Workshop
interop-noe.org
INTEROP is a Network of Excellence supported by the European Commission 2
In order to create the first version of the KMap, a
systematic and iterative approach was chosen. After
investigating and describing the data requirements
(contents), functional requirements (queries and
usages) and non-functional requirements (such as
One of the major objectives of the INTEROP project, e.g. security aspects), the KMap software
as all other Networks of Excellence funded by the architecture was defined. The KMap is intended to be
European Community, is to tackle the problem of a tool largely accessible to researchers working on
research fragmentation. Indeed, INTEROP aims at interoperability, inside INTEROP but also outside. For
having a long-term integration effect on the research this reason, the solution of a web accessible
in the field of interoperability and at building long knowledge base was chosen. The required
lasting collaborations and mechanisms for the technology was then determined (an Oracle
coordination of research. One of the tools that database, the JBoss Java application server and the
INTEROP will put in place to concur to this objective Apache web server). The implementation of the first
is the INTEROP Knowledge Map (KMap), which is system is underway and should be available around
under the responsibility of a specific integrating August 2004. A second iteration will refine it until
activity (IA1). The KMap aims at drawing a picture of October 2004.
the status of research in interoperability and to keep KMap contents
this picture up-to-date in the future. Within the first 18 and INTEROP classification framework
months of the project, a work package (WP1) will
create a first version of the KMap with the more
specific objective to provide a clear picture of Collaborations
Collaborations Projects
Projects
research performed inside the INTEROP project.
The first main objective of the KMap is to support a
Institutions,
periodic diagnostic of the extent of research Institutions,
collaboration and coordination among INTEROP groups,
groups,
partners. This diagnostic will allow formulating members
members
recommendations to strengthen this collaboration
and better orient the future research efforts of the Resu
Resultltss
Skills and
Skills and
various NoE partners in order to avoid gaps in
Competences
Competences
research topics, to join efforts of partners working on
the same topics and to avoid redundancies of efforts.
Doma
Domains
ins
The KMap will contain knowledge about existing
research and industry institutions, groups and
individuals with skills and competencies in
interoperability. Their collaborations, projects and
results (publications, products, software ...) will also
be described. In order to meaningfully compare these
elements, they have to be classified according to the
different interoperability research domains which they
address. For this reason, a classification framework
for interoperability research is needed. This common
framework will allow the identification of similar
research elements coming from the different research
communities involved in INTEROP (namely ontology,
enterprise modelling and software architecture and
platforms).
interop-noe.org
INTEROP is a Network of Excellence supported by the European Commission 3
The knowledge map, in the first phase, will mainly interoperability, offered an overview of both projects
contain knowledge about the research of partners of to the assistants. ATHENA summarized its Action
INTEROP and its access will be limited to INTEROP Line A "The vision on research and development in
partners. However, we intend to make it available interoperability in Europe" and Action Line B
rapidly to parties external to the project. This will "Interoperability Community Building", and INTEROP
allow researchers around Europe and around the presented its WP5 "Common Enterprise Modelling
world to take advantage of this tool for improving the Framework. Open issues and directions". A round
collaboration and reuse of results in research in the table on "Collaborative research and the
field of interoperability. Interoperability community in Europe by 2010"
The first recommendations obtained from the deepened in the importance of the transfer to the
knowledge map diagnostic are expected for industry, and the representatives of both projects
November 2005. concluded that this should be an area of
collaboration.
IFAC/INCOM'04, Salvador, Brazil, April 5th-7th
2004: Invited Session on "B2M Systems INTEROP Exchange Forum, University of
Interoperability: Modelling and benchmarking Issues". Geneva, Switzerland, July, 12th-16th 2004:
The purpose of the session was to bring together Researchers and PhD students meet to explore
researchers, engineers, standard developers and interoperability issues
practitioners interested in the advance of CE2004, Beijing, China, July, 27th-30th 2004:
Interoperability of Enterprise Systems. Two papers INTEROP special session
out of the seven presented were dedicated to the ECAI2004, Valencia, Spain, August 22nd-24th
integrated research done within INTEROP. 2004: INTEROP paper presentation at OLP
Workshop
CAiSE*04, Riga, Latvia, June 7th-8th, 2004: Open COLING2004, Geneva, Switzerland, August,
Workshop on `Enterprise Modelling and Ontologies 23rd-27th 2004: INTEROP paper presentation
for Interoperability': Exploring interoperability with Open Workshop, University of Kent,
experts. The topics presented were mainly those Canterbury, UK, September 7th-8th 2004:
coming from INTEROP: INTEROP paper presentation
- WP1: Knowledge Map for Enterprise Modelling, ODBASE'04 Conference Larnaca, Cyprus,
Ontology and Architecture & Platforms October 25th-29th 2004: INTEROP Dissemination
- WP5: Common Enterprise Modelling Framework Workshop
UEML V2.0 eChallenges 2004, Vienna, Austria, October
- WP8: Ontology-based integration of Enterprise 27-29, 2004: Session on US/Europe cooperation
Modelling and Architecture & Platforms on Interoperability
The workshop covered the two days, allowing a wide IST 2004, The Hague, Netherlands, November
and open debate on new, emerging ideas to take 15th 17th 2004: Networking Session
place in the cross-fertilizing area of Ontology and
Enterprise Modelling. INTEROP General Assembly, Luxemburg,
November, 22nd 25th 2004
ICE'2004, Sevilla, Spain, June, 15th, 2004: Joint
Workshop INTEROP/ATHENA on "Interoperability Impressum _______________________________
Editors: C.CONTANT ,M. IPPOLITO, HervANETTO, M. PETIT, G.
and the Global Market: Assessing the Present and ZANNIER, Martin ZELM
Consolidating the Way for the Near Future". ATHENA Review Board: G. DOUMEINGTS, JP. BOURRIES
IP and INTEROP NoE, which objectives are to Publishing Responsible: JP. BOURRIES
Graphic Designer: I. DURO
provide referential research, methods and Photographer : E. DIEUL
technological solutions toward seamless Contact:
interop-noe.org
INTEROP is a Network of Excellence supported by the European Commission 4
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