Establishing the foundation of Collaborative Networks The need for computer-assisted collaboration, which originally manifested decades ago in manufacturing to establish small business-oriented networks of organizations in forms of supply chains or extended enterprises, is by now extended into a large number of other areas. While today production and service provision constitute the main areas of application for Collaborative Networks (CNs) worldwide, during the last decade virtual scientific laboratories, inter-enterprise collaborative engineering, crisis management, virtual institutes and virtual learning communities among others, are also rising within the wide spectnlm of application areas in need of CNs. These developments emphasize the urgency for establishing a sounder foundation for collaborative networks, namely in terms o/, theoretical principles and formal models, capturing the concepts, entities, behaviors, and operations of the CNs, and developing technology-independent infrastructure architecture, tools and methodologies. Further to the shorter-term, goal-oriented. and opportunity-based virtual organi­ zations, nowadays a variety of long term "strategic" association…

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