Keynote Address 2

Abstract

Computer-based developments over the last years have facilitated decision makers and problem solvers with numerous computational tools to support operational, tactical, and strategic levels of enquiry via the formation of collaborative virtual organizations. Current ITs are capable of supporting collaborative activities in the cyberspace. These cyber-enabled collaborations involve the emergence of multiple organizations that function as one unit through the use of their shared resources for the purpose of one or more identified goals. This cluster of collaborative organizations functioning as a unit towards an identified goal lasts for the lifetime of the identified goal. The fact that such collaboration is happening in cyberspace and that it has a transient life labels it as a virtual organization. On the other hand, the rapid developments in networking and resource integration domains have resulted in the emergence and in some instances to the maturation of distributed and collaborative paradigms such as Web Services, P2P, Grid and Cloud computing, data mashups and Web 2.0. During the last ten years, scientists have almost exclusively used these technologies for their own research and development purposes. Most of these developments are focused on developing the platforms and the communication and networking infrastructures for solving very complex problems. In this talk, the focus is shifting to more interdisciplinary application domains as possibly there is no better time to discuss about the inter-cooperation between virtual organizations using the ‘critical friend’ concept. The enabling nature of these technologies allows us to visualize the collaborative and synergetic use of next generation technology paradigms in a less conventional manner, which are currently problem focused. Specifically, current Web and Web 2.0 implementations and future manifestations will store and continuously produce a vast amount of distributed data, which if combined and analyzed through a collective and computational intelligence manner using next generation data technologies will make a difference in the virtual organizational setting and their user communities, which they cater for.