The growing interest in virtual organizations by both the research and industry sectors is the main motivation behind compiling this collection of original contributions as an introduction to this subject. The book primarily addresses the design and development of infrastructures for industrial Virtual Enterprises (VEs); however, the architecture described and several of the tools and design approaches presented are generic enough to be applied to other kinds of virtual organizations. The key areas described in the book include: Reference architectures; Safe communications; Distributed...

Knowledge and Technology Integration in Production and Services presents novel application scenarios for balanced distributed and integrated systems based on knowledge and up-to-date technology and provides a great opportunity for discussion of concepts, models, methodologies, technological developments, case studies, new research ideas, and other results among specialists. It comprises the proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information Technology for BALANCED AUTOMATION SYSTEMS in Manufacturing and Services (BASYS'02), which was sponsored by the...

A research agenda for collaborative networks Purpose. Many practical application experiments and pilot cases nowadays provide evidence on what works and what still remains as a challenge for collaborative networked organizations (CNOs). The fast evolution of the information and communication technologies and in particular the so-called Internet technologies, also represents an important motivator for the emergence of new forms of collaboration. However, most efforts in this area are highly fragmented, considering only some partial facets and not a holistic perspective that would be required....

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th IFIP WG 5.5 Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises, PRO-VE 2014, held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in October 2014. The 73 revised papers were carefully selected from 190 submissions. They provide a comprehensive overview of identified challenges and recent advances in various collaborative network (CN) domains and their applications, with a particular focus on the following areas in support of smart networked environments: behavior and coordination; product-service systems; service orientation in collaborative networks;...

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th IFIP WG 5.5 Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises, PRO-VE 2012, held in Bournemouth, UK, in October 2012. The 61 revised papers presented were carefully selected from numerous submissions. They provide a comprehensive overview of identified challenges and recent advances in various collaborative network (CN) domains and their applications with a particular focus on the Internet of Services. The papers are organized in topical sections on service enhanced products; service composition; collaborative ecosystems; platform...

Collaborative Networks for a Sustainable World Aiming to reach a sustainable world calls for a wider collaboration among multiple stakeholders from different origins, as the changes needed for sustainability exceed the capacity and capability of any individual actor. In recent years there has been a growing awareness both in the political sphere and in civil society including the bu- ness sectors, on the importance of sustainability. Therefore, this is an important and timely research issue, not only in terms of systems design but also as an effort to b- row and integrate contributions from...

Collaborative Networks A Tool for Promoting Co-creation and Innovation The collaborative networks paradigm offers powerful socio-organizational mec- nisms, supported by advanced information and communication technologies for p- moting innovation.

They provide a comprehensive overview of identified challenges and recent advances in various collaborative network (CN) domains and their applications, with a particular focus on the following areas in support of smart networked environments: behavior and coordination;

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th IFIP WG 5.5 Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises, PRO-VE 2017, held in Vicenza, Italy, in September 2017.
The 68 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 159 submissions. They provide a comprehensive overview of identified challenges and recent advances in various collaborative network (CN) domains and their applications, with a strong focus on the following areas: collaborative models, platforms and systems for data-rich worlds; manufacturing ecosystem and collaboration in Industry 4.0; big data...