Information provenance for open distributed collaborative system

In autonomously managed distributed systems for collaboration, provenance can facilitate reuse of information that are interchanged, repetition of successful experiments, or to provide evidence for trust mechanisms that certain information existed at a certain period during collaboration. In this paper, we propose domain independent information provenance architecture for open collaborative distributed systems. The proposed system uses XML for interchanging information and RDF to track information provenance. The use of XML and RDF also ensures that information is universally acceptable even among heterogeneous nodes. Our proposed information provenance model can work on any operating systems or workflows.

Enhancing the dietary management of general practice patients through collaborative care: perspectives of general practitioners and dietitians

Aim:  To describe how general practitioners and dietitians view their role in the dietary management of cardiac patients and to provide insights on how to facilitate collaborative care.
Methods:  Two studies were conducted in Victoria (Australia) 2005–2006. Study One: semi-structured interviews with general practitioners. Study Two: cross-sectional quantitative surveys of general practitioners and dietitians. Study One: texts were analysed using the grounded theory approach. Study Two: frequency analysis was conducted and chi-squared test for independence was used to explore the impact of age, sex and consultation time on the role and reporting scales.
Results:  Study One: Themes arising from the interviews with 30 general practitioners showed their involvement in dietary management fell into three broad roles: ‘Influencing’, ‘Coordinator’ of referrals and dietary ‘Educator’. They described dietetic education as a process that included dietary assessment, education, application of behavioural change techniques and reporting back to general practitioners. Study Two: Respondents were 248 general practitioners (30% response) and 180 dietitians (60% response). General practitioners' counselling consisted mostly of advocating for dietary change, coordinating dietetic referrals and reinforcing dietitians' recommendations. General practitioners considered dietary education as the role of dietitians. Dietitians reported a much broader role in the management of patients with some overlap with general practitioners' roles.
Conclusions:   The findings indicate the need: (i) for more structured reporting to ensure general practitioners receive appropriate information to enable them to reinforce dietetic counselling and recommendations; and (ii) to streamline the communication process in order to expedite dietitians' reports to general practitioners.

Writing as tribal practice : revisiting online collaborative writing

Many teachers encourage sharing ideas and knowledge through collaborative group writing to build self-confidence in developing writers. However, some students do not appear to gain a sense of belonging in the collaborative experience. This evolving study explores online collaborative writing with the purpose of creating a 'third author' - the group (tribal) voice. One aim is to reclaim writing as a conscious collaborative act where meaning is attained only at the end of the thought-sharing process. Therefore, the process of writing is seen as more important than the product. A further aim is to observe how intensive writing collaboration will affect both the writers and the writing during the process. A group of language teachers from Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and the USA meet every two weeks in cyberspace for a two-hour intensive writing session. The group has met for the past three months. Different discourses appear to be fusing into a metamorphosed new hybrid author - the tribal group voice. These early findings suggest that such practices may assist learners who experience difficulty entering or contributing to collaborative writing or group-work tasks. Additionally, online group work may benefit, as no physical human contact exists to gain a sense of 'group'.

From continuous improvement to collaborative innovation : the next challenge in supply chain management

This paper considers the growing importance of inter-company collaboration, and develops the concept of intra-company continuous improvement through to what may be termed collaborative innovation between members of an extended manufacturing enterprise (EME). The importance of ICTs to such company networks is considered but research has shown that no amount of technology can overcome a lack of trust and ineffective goal setting between key partners involved in the cross-company projects. Different governance models may also impact on the success or otherwise of the network. This paper provides an overview of the main topics considered in this Special Issue

Collaborative improvement : interplay but not a game

Collaboration literally means working together. Collaborative improvement is an extension of continuous improvement and can be defined as a purposeful inter-company interactive process that focuses on continuous incremental innovation aimed at enhancing the collaboration’s overall performance. Developing collaborative improvement is a protracted and difficult process. Previous research has identified a number of factors affecting that process and suggested that it is not so much the individual factors, but rather their interplay that determines the successful development of collaborative improvement. This article reports research aimed at developing a deeper understanding of that interplay. Ten relationships between ten factors are presented and discussed. It appears that vision, approach, trust and commercial reality are the strongest factors. These factors are, however, influenced by, or affect the other factors, notably national culture, partner characteristics and competences, the use of power, individual behaviour and commitment. The way this interplay develops varies from case to case and has great influence on the development of collaborative improvement.

Managing commercially-focused collaborative R&D projects : preliminary findings from an Australian survey

Preliminary findings from a 2005 survey of Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) project leaders are presented. The results provide initial insights into the nature and outcomes of commercially-focused CRC projects. Such projects are modest in size and budget, are focused on producing new technologies, and are seen by the partners to be risky. Project teams tend to have the necessary project management capabilities and effective communication processes. The projects are experienced in positive terms by the partners, and positive collaboration experience is associated with positive project outcomes. The preliminary investigation of an initial sample is the first step in a more detailed analysis aimed at testing a theoretical model explaining the factors determining collaboration experience.