Networked Collaborative Environment Research Articles

Secure data sharing in collaborative network environments for privacy-preserving mechanisms

In today’s world where everything is linked, shared network settings are necessary to share info between companies. However, making sure that data is safe and private in these kinds of settings is very hard. This paper describes a new way to share data safely, focusing on privacy-protecting features that keep private data safe while making it easier for people to work together.To keep data safe at different steps of sharing and processing, the suggested answer uses a mix of cryptography, access controls, and anonymization techniques. Unauthorized access is stopped and privacy is kept by encrypting data both while it is being sent and while it is being stored. Access controls are also used to make sure that only people who are allowed to can see or change private data. These controls are based on rules that have already been set. Also, methods like differential privacy are used to make privacy even better by adding noise to question results. This stops individual records from being identified while still allowing useful analysis. Together, these methods make it possible to share data safely and privately, which encourages cooperation without jeopardizing accuracy or privacy.Overall, this method provides a complete framework for dealing with the tricky issues of data security and privacy in collaborative network settings. It lets businesses share information freely while still following strict privacy rules and keeping private data from getting into the wrong hands or being shared without permission.

Perception-based high quality distributed virtual reality

Virtual reality has great potential to enable remote collaborative work from anywhere in the world. Developing virtual reality into a platform suitable for natural interaction and immersive collaboration requires the experience to be reliably stable. For a networked collaborative environment, perceived smoothness of motion is limited by the tick rate, that is, the frequency at which information is distributed. As tick rate increases, motion will appear increasingly smooth; however, excessive tick rates may introduce additional load on a network without any perceptible benefit to a user. This paper details two visual psychophysics experiments (N_1 = 16, N_2 = 11) carried out to evaluate participant sensitivity to tick rate in virtual reality. The influence of three variables, velocity, complexity, and digital medium were investigated. Both velocity and digital medium displayed a significant effect, whilst complexity did not show significance. A model was then built and validated from the results of these experiments. The model predicts for average walking speed within the desktop condition, that 90% of the population will perceive motion to be smooth at 56 Hz, whilst this 90% threshold lies at 113 Hz for the VR condition. This model can predict participant perception of tick rate under given conditions, enabling networks to intelligently optimise participant experience without adding unnecessary further load on the network.

Digital Platform Ecosystem Dynamics: The Roles of Product Scope, Innovation, and Collaborative Network Centrality

This research highlights the circulative nature of digital platform ecosystem dynamics. Investigating these dynamics, we examine the mutual influence between participants’ product scope and product innovation over time and probe the moderating role of co-created collaborative networks. We distinguish between two types of product innovation: new product development and existing product updates. Our longitudinal analysis of the Hadoop software ecosystem indicates that participants covering a broader scope of the platform’s technological layers are less likely to develop new products but more likely to update existing products. In turn, participants with more frequent new product development are more likely to expand their product scope, whereas those with more frequent existing product updates are less likely to pursue scope expansion. Participants’ centrality in the ecosystem’s collaborative network amplifies the bidirectional link between product scope and existing product updates but weakens the link between product scope and new product development. Our findings offer a theoretical and practical understanding of temporal dynamics between participants’ product scope choices and different forms of product innovations in the co-created collaborative network environment.

Assessement of Enterprise Interoperability Maturity Level through Generative and Recognition Mo

In a globalized and networked society, enterprise interoperability is a key factor of success for enterprises in their effort to maximize their own added values and to exploit the market opportunities. The sustainable enterprise interoperability is a continuous challenge of the networked collaborative environment. By making business decisions, managers have to take into account the maturity level of their own enterprise and of others’ with whom they get involved into businesses. Maturity level of enterprise interoperability has been defined by the Framework for Enterprise Interoperability (FEI), standardized by CEN EN ISO 11354. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to assess maturity levels of enterprise interoperability (MLEI) through latent factor analysis (LFA) and generative and recognition models applied to the categories and features defined by FEI. Given an enterprise interoperability maturity matrix we have trained a stochastic neural network, namely Restricted Bolzmann Machine (RBM) to learn the MLEI. Our research seeks to answer the following questions: whether the maturity level assessed by evaluators correlate with the maturity levels recognized by RBM trained in a supervised learning representation, and how to model recognition matrix of MLEI by using maturity level correlations between observed performances (inputs) and latent or hidden factors that influence the correct assessment. We considered a maturity level correlation matrix representing the enterprise features as defined in FEI in addition to a set of latent factors, representing the type of maturity level of each individual enterprise. Our proposal is based on a generative and a recognition model using deterministic non-linear functions in a Bayesian setting. The model has been tested on artificial data by training a RBM. Experiments on artificial data sets of enterprises proved that our proposal is a reliable approach that can be further developed into a methodology and extended for the design of adaptive learning agents. In the perspective of the Future Internet, such agents may successfully assist human evaluators in the tedious and time consuming process of the assessment of MLEI in real settings.

ACTS: An Ant Colony Based Transmission Scheduling Approach for Cloud Network Collaboration Environment

In traditional cloud computing research, it is often considered that the network resources between edge devices and cloud platform are sufficient, and the symmetry between the upward link from edge devices to the cloud platform and the downward link from cloud platform to edge devices is definite. However, in many application scenarios, the network resources between edge devices and cloud platform might be limited, and the link symmetry may not be guaranteed. To solve this problem, network relay nodes are introduced to realize the data transmission between edge devices and the cloud platform. The environment in which network relay nodes that can cooperate with the cloud platform is called cloud network collaborative environment (CNCE). In CNCE, how to optimize data transmission from edge devices to cloud platform through relay nodes has become one of the most important research topics. In this paper, we focus on the following two influencing factors that previous studies ignored: (1) the multi-link and multi-constraint transmission process; and (2) the timely resource state of the relay node. Taking these factors into consideration, we design a novel data transmission scheduling algorithm, called ant colony based transmission scheduling approach (ACTS). First, we propose a multi-link optimization mechanism to optimize the constraint limits. This mechanism divides the transmission into two links called the downlink relay link and uplink relay link. For the downlink relay link, we use the store-and-forward method for the optimization. For the uplink relay link, we use the min–min method for the optimization. We use the ant colony algorithm for the overall optimization of the two links. Finally, we improve the pheromone update rule of the ant colony algorithm to avoid the algorithm from falling into a local optimum. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed approach has better results in transmission efficiency than other advanced algorithms.

Simulation Model to Estimate Emotions in Collaborative Networks

In recent years, the research on collaborative networks has been pointing to the need to put more emphasis on the social interactions of its participants, along with technical features, as a potential direction to finding solutions to prevent failures and potential conflicts. In this context, a modelling framework called Collaborative EMOtion modelling framework (C-EMO), conceived for appraising the collaborative network emotions that might be present in a collaborative networked environment, is presented, and an implementation approach, based on system dynamics and agent-based simulation modelling techniques, for estimating both the collaborative network emotional state and each member’s emotions, is described. The work is divided in two parts: the first considers the design of the models and the second comprises the transformation of these conceptual models into a computer model, providing the proposed simulation model. In order to validate the simulation model, and taking into consideration the novelty of the research area, experiments are undertaken in different scenarios representing several aspects of a collaborative environment and a sensitivity analysis and discussion of the results is performed.

Non‐R&D innovation and firms’ new product performance: the joint moderating effect of R&D intensity and network embeddedness

Non‐R&D innovation increasingly plays a critical role in explaining firms’ new product performance. Yet, there has been little research on the consequences and contingent mechanisms of non‐R&D innovation for firms embedded in collaborative network environments. To address this research gap, we investigated a conceptual framework of non‐R&D innovation using data drawn from Chinese manufacturing firms. First, we found that non‐R&D innovation positively affects firms’ new product performance. Second, we discovered that high R&D intensity positively strengthens the impact of firms’ non‐R&D innovation on new product performance. Third, we provided critical analysis of the role of non‐R&D innovation in promoting new product performance, accomplished by enhancing R&D investment while simultaneously improving the degree of network embeddedness. Our findings extend both the non‐R&D innovation literature and open innovation literature while providing managers with several key recommendations.

UAV IoT Framework Views and Challenges: Towards Protecting Drones as "Things".

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have enormous potential in enabling new applications in various areas, ranging from military, security, medicine, and surveillance to traffic-monitoring applications. Lately, there has been heavy investment in the development of UAVs and multi-UAVs systems that can collaborate and complete missions more efficiently and economically. Emerging technologies such as 4G/5G networks have significant potential on UAVs equipped with cameras, sensors, and GPS receivers in delivering Internet of Things (IoT) services from great heights, creating an airborne domain of the IoT. However, there are many issues to be resolved before the effective use of UAVs can be made, including security, privacy, and management. As such, in this paper we review new UAV application areas enabled by the IoT and 5G technologies, analyze the sensor requirements, and overview solutions for fleet management over aerial-networking, privacy, and security challenges. Finally, we propose a framework that supports and enables these technologies on UAVs. The introduced framework provisions a holistic IoT architecture that enables the protection of UAVs as “flying” things in a collaborative networked environment.

A fog-based privacy-preserving approach for distributed signature-based intrusion detection

Intrusion detection systems (IDSs) are the frontier of defense against transmissible cyber threats that spread across distributed systems. Modern IDSs overcome the limitation of hardware processing power by offloading computation extensive operations such as signature matching to the cloud. Moreover, in order to prevent the rapid spread of transmissible cyber threats, collaborative intrusion detection schemes are widely deployed to allow distributed IDS nodes to exchange information with each other. However, no party wants to disclose their own data during the detection process, especially sensitive user data to others, even the cloud providers for privacy concerns. In this background, privacy-preserving technology has been researched in the field of intrusion detection, whereas a collaborative intrusion detection network (CIDN) environment still lacks of appropriate solutions due to its geographical distribution. With the advent of fog computing, in this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving framework for signature-based intrusion detection in a distributed network based on fog devices. The results in both simulated and real environments demonstrate that our proposed framework can help reserve the privacy of shared data, reduce the workload on the cloud side, and offer less detection delay as compared to similar approaches.

Rigorous or tolerant: The effect of different reputation attitudes in complex networks

In the collaborative network environment, the ubiquitous cooperation phenomenon among autonomous and selfish individuals has drawn extensive attentions during the last years. The evolution of spatial public goods game has provided an important theoretical framework to understand the emergence of cooperation in this field. Along this line, reputation-based mechanisms have been verified to promote in public goods games by taking into consideration the historical behaviors of players. In most existing studies, individuals are assumed to participate in the favorable games (with good reputation partners) to get more payoffs, and they try to avoid interacting with individuals with bad reputation. However, the effect of individuals’ reputation tolerance on the evolution of cooperation in a complex network is still ambiguous. In this paper, we focus on the evolution of cooperation in public goods games on complex networks where individuals may have various reputation tolerances. Specifically, an individual decides whether or not to participate in a public goods game by considering the reputation of its neighbors. The results show that the reputation tolerance based scheme does help to prevent defectors’ free-riding behavior, and enhances the formation of cooperative clusters. Moreover, Fermi function performs worse than Best Imitation and Roulette in regular networks and random networks, but better in scale-free networks.

Towards Effective Trust-Based Packet Filtering in Collaborative Network Environments

Overhead network packets are a big challenge for intrusion detection systems (IDSs), which may increase system burden, degrade system performance, and even cause the whole system collapse, when the number of incoming packets exceeds the maximum handling capability. To address this issue, packet filtration is considered as a promising solution, and our previous research efforts have proven that designing a trust-based packet filter was able to refine unwanted network packets and reduce the workload of a local IDS. With the development of Internet cooperation, collaborative intrusion detection environments (e.g., CIDNs) have been developed, which allow IDS nodes to collect information and learn experience from others. However, it would not be effective for the previously built trust-based packet filter to work in such a collaborative environment, since the process of trust computation can be easily compromised by insider attacks. In this paper, we adopt the existing CIDN framework and aim to apply a collaborative trust-based approach to reduce unwanted packets. More specifically, we develop a collaborative trust-based packet filter, which can be deployed in collaborative networks and be robust against typical insider attacks (e.g., betrayal attacks). Experimental results in various simulated and practical environments demonstrate that our filter can perform effectively in reducing unwanted traffic and can defend against insider attacks through identifying malicious nodes in a quick manner, as compared to similar approaches.

Reference framework for enhanced interoperable collaborative networks in industrial organisations

Industrial collaborative networks are characterised by heterogeneous business processes and data structures. Enterprises joining these networks face difficulties when they have to manage and orchestrate information within the network, namely due to the lack of interoperability between the systems and software applications operating between them. The furniture industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the world, involving mostly small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The development of collaborative networked environments in this industrial sector has been identified of major importance, looking forward to enabling enterprises to extend the potential of their own business capabilities. Indeed, to keep its competitiveness, industry needs to accomplish rapidly the requirements in the digital global marketplace, and push promptly SME-based enterprises to adopt seamless electronic business services in networked environments, using modern ICT and standards among all agents involved in the furniture product life cycle. The funStep case study presented in this article developed a framework to accelerate the integration of enterprises in collaborative working environments, solving information interoperability problems in the furniture supply chain. The funStep framework enables gradual and sustained system interoperability, allowing incremental implementations using conformance options and classes. The funStep created an ISO standard which defines a formal structure for catalogue and product data under industrial domains of the furniture sector. Then, the ICT combined with the use of open-standards, and enriched by semantics representation, resulted in a suitable tool to improve enterprise competitiveness via a wider adoption of STEP Application Protocols in collaborative environments. Model Driven Architecture technology is used to enable automation of Model Morphisms, and therefore, translation at the information model and data levels. A reference ontology integrated in the standard product data model, permits an intelligent management at semantic level, providing enhanced capabilities for interoperability. The results of the case study presented stimulate enterprises on the adoption of technologies and practices to reach the future vision of furniture manufacturing business based on collaborative networked environments. It prepares industry and researchers to advance on the state of the art, and to establish solid proposals for the industry in general. The funStep case study has been validated by the industry, supported by European/International industrial research projects.

하이브리드 연구망 기반의 분산 가상형 네트워크 운영 및 리소스 정보 관리 기술 연구

하이브리드 네트워크 인프라는 Internet2, SURFNet 등의 선도 연구망 커뮤니티에게 가장 우선적인 기술로 대두되고 있다. 그러나, 첨단(high-end) 응용의 종단 간 협업 연구를 위하여 필수적인 하이브리드 연구망 간의 인터도메인 협업 인프라는 실질적인 아키텍쳐의 설계와 구현에 있어서 아직도 많은 연구를 필요로 하고 있다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 하이브리드 연구망 기반의 분산 가상형 네트워크 운영과 리소스 정보 관리를 위한 프레임워크를 제안하고, 이를 기반으로 코어 시스템을 구현하였다. 제안된 프레임워크는 멀티도메인 하이브리드 연구망 운영과 관리를 위하여 분산형 아키텍쳐로 설계되었다. 분산 가상형 네트워크 운영 프레임워크는 네트워크 도메인 내에서 자치성과 독립적인 제어를 유지하면서 인터도메인 네트워크 간의 협업을 가능케 함으로써, 연구자 및 실험자가 스스로 생성한 가상 네트워크를 운영 관리 할 수 있는 환경을 제공할 수 있다. 본 논문에서는 제안된 프레임워크를 위한 세부적인 구조와 기술을 다루며, 이러한 환경이 어떻게 고성능 첨단(high-end) 응용을 위하여 활용될 수 있는지에 대하여 고찰한다. Hybrid network infrastructure has been deployed as the most important technology for the advanced research networking community such as Internet2, SURFnet, etc. However, further research needs to be performed in terms of feasible design and implementation of architecture for inter-domain collaborative network infrastructure, which is essential to end-to-end collaborative research based on high-end applications. In this paper, we suggest a framework for distributed and virtual network operations based on hybrid research networks and efficient cooperation between multi-domain hybrid networks, which aims to provide collaborative network environment for high-end applications. Suggested framework is designed to adopt decentralized model of multi-domain hybrid research network management. A collaborative and distributed virtual model that is characterized by cooperation among hybrid research networks that insist on maintaining their autonomy and control, can also contribute for researchers and other end-users to manage and operate their own virtual networks.

Using a Wiki-Based Course Design to Create a Student-Centered Learning Environment: Strategies and Lessons

As public administration programs increase their proportion of online and hybrid course offerings, online course offerings must provide a unique value to maintain a high-quality education instead of simply repackaging content designed for traditional face-to-face environments. Well-designed online courses can provide unique advantages for student-centered learning. Furthermore, the role of technology and information management in government practice will consistently increase. For pedagogical purposes and for better preparing students to work in collaborative networked environments, public administration programs need to train students to be comfortable with emerging technologies and ideally lead innovation in their applications. Emerging technologies have demonstrated great potential for crowdsourcing a wide variety of socially beneficial activities and for empowering and engaging students in collaboration. This study reflects on 4 years of continuous efforts to design, create, teach, and improve a wiki-based online course, called ePublic Affairs, intended for MPA, MPP, and PhD students. This case study of a wiki-based course in fall semester 2010 discusses in depth how a wiki-based course can use a wide range of emerging information technology tools to create engaging online learning modules and to empower students through various innovative class activities. This wiki-based course shows that a welldesigned online course can encourage equitable and quality participation as well as provide flexibility for students’ learning, addressing many concerns with online courses. This paper also highlights the unique challenges that were unanticipated in the earlier iterations of the wiki-based course.

Graphing in Groups: Learning About Lines in a Collaborative Classroom Network Environment

This article presents a design experiment in which we explore new structures for classroom collaboration supported by a classroom network of handheld graphing calculators. We describe a design for small group investigations of linear functions and present findings from its implementation in three high school algebra classrooms. Our coding of the problem-solving efforts of six student focus pairs in this environment over the course of several class sessions indicates that these students tended to move from exploratory and visual to more analytic means of establishing lines of a specified slope. As they adopted these analytic approaches, they were also more likely to enact their strategies jointly. In closer examination of emerging analytic strategies in episodes selected from the work of one of the pairs, we argue that the processes by which these students discovered the need for coordinated action on their respective points, and came to establish mathematical meaning for the relations between their coordinate locations as slope, were overlapping and intertwined.

A Process for Innovation in a Collaborative Network

The convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science is transforming global society. Technological convergence is beginning to define the way societies themselves interact, the way science is done, and the way the global marketplace is organised. In the middle of 2006, Petrobras, a Brazilian oil company, established a pioneering, multi-disciplinary team of senior academics and end-users working in partnership to identify potential opportunities and benefits surrounding this convergence of technology. The goal of this paper is to present the methodology adopted by Petrobras — an e-science collaborative project fostering the generation of ideas for new opportunities identified in areas of converging technology. The Petrobras effort is based on contributions by a group of 50 senior scientists from the top five Brazilian research institutes working iteratively via the Web. This convergence analysis is based on developments in text mining, and involves processing the abstracts of the selected papers to start fruitful discussions and to analyse comments in the knowledge fusion activity. It is completely integrated into a collaborative network environment. Results from one of these convergence cycles are discussed.

A Brief History of Knowledge Building

Knowledge Building as a theoretical, pedagogical, and technological innovation focuses on the 21st century need to work creatively with knowledge. The team now advancing Knowledge Building spans multiple disciplines, sectors, and cultural contexts. Several teacher-researcher-government partnerships have formed to bring about the systemic changes required to accommodate pedagogical innovations that range from elementary to tertiary education and require new forms of teacher education. This paper tracks the evolution of Knowledge Building, starting with research on “knowledge transforming,” “intentional learning,” and other processes leading to the development of expertise. It provides an account of how the first networked collaborative learning environment was developed to support such processes and next-generation research and development to advance education for innovation and knowledge creation.

Reading for idea advancement in a Grade 4 knowledge building community

This study looks into the reading practice in a Grade 4 knowledge building community that involved 22 students and a veteran teacher. The students investigated light over a three-month period supported by Knowledge Forum, a networked collaborative knowledge-building environment. The classroom designs encouraged the students to take on high-level responsibility for advancing the community’s knowledge, as represented in their online discourse in Knowledge Forum. The tracing of student conversations in Knowledge Forum and content analysis of their portfolio notes demonstrate productive advancement of scientific understanding. Qualitative analyses of classroom videos, online discourse, and the teacher’s reflection journal characterize student reading practice along four themes: reading for the purpose of advancing community knowledge; as progressive problem solving; embedded in sustained knowledge-building discourse; and as dialogues between local understanding and knowledge in the larger world. These results contribute to elaborating the possibility and processes of integrating reading with creative knowledge work in content areas. Classroom strategies are identified and discussed in relation to the role of collaborative online technologies.

Collaborative business frameworks comparison, analysis and selection: an analytic perspective

Several e-business frameworks are currently available, which are aimed at modelling e-business. The aim of this article is to analyse and compare relevant industry-neutral and industry-specific e-business frameworks currently in use, emphasising their strengths and weaknesses towards seamless interoperability in a collaborative networked environment. Their main differences and similarities are underlined based on an analytical model for e-business frameworks comparison. The applicability of the Analytic Hierarchy Process multi-criteria method in e-business frameworks selection is discussed. These analytical approaches are then illustrated with two real cases from industry.

Pricing schemes for digital content with DRM mechanisms

In this paper, utilizing game-theoretic model, we examine the impact of collaborative structure, content quality, and network environment on the development of pricing scheme and DRM protection policy of digital content. DRM protection level decreases and pirating activities becomes relatively tolerable as the content provider and platform provider operate collaboratively. Depending on the market structure, higher content quality may strengthen or weaken the adoption of DRM. However, it would seem that, as the network environment becomes more decentralized and uncontrolled, weaker DRM protection should be a better strategy.