ECOSPACE Newsletter No 7
From AMI@Work Communities Wiki
[edit] Editor’s Corner
After two special issues of the ECOSPACE Newsletter we are now jumping into a more traditional one, which is in fact a double issue n°7 and N°8 dedicated on the one hand to the illustration of the ECOSPACE project progress and on the other hand to the Living Labs events which were held during the Open Days 2008, Brussels, from 6 to 10 October 2008 and ICT 2008 conference, Lyon, France, from 25 to 27 November 2008.
The ECOSPACE project is now taking over the lead of the Open Collaborative Architecture Working Group (OCA WG). See the previous special issue for further OCA activities explanations. An OCA demonstration, based on the ECOSPACE CWE interoperability, took place at the ICT'08 Exhibition in Lyon from 25 to 27 November 2008, hosted in the LABORANOVA stand G4. Several thousands of ICT'08 attendees have been visiting the Exhibition.
The ECOSPACE project is also very proud to announce that its CWE interoperability architecture components, Basic Collaborative Services (BCS), Composite Collaborative Services (CoCoS) and Distributed Document Context (D2C) as well as the Extended SIOC format (See the previous special issue n°6 dedicated to CWE Interopeability for further explanations) were taken as contributions at the standardisation level within the OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) ICOM (Integrated Collaboration Object Model) TC (Technical Committee) proposal. This will be further presented within the next issue as the OASIS ICOM TC proposal is going to submitted for approval by the end of December 2008.
OASIS is a not-for-profit consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society. The consortium produces more Web services standards than any other organisation along with standards for security, e-business, and standardisation efforts in the public sector and for application-specific markets. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 5,000 participants representing over 600 organisations and individual members in 100 countries.
Inside this double issue you will find articles relating the latest news from the ECOSPACE project. A first article is presenting the work done on web_conferencing with MARTE 3.0 from UPM. The following article is introducing the implementation of shared workspace widgets in the context of BSCW. A third article is illustrating research progress on assessment of knowledge worker team productivity.
Last but not least, there are also several articles reporting about various Living Labs related events such as:
- Open Days 2008 Living Labs workshop
- ICT 2008 Exhibition LABORANOVA stand hosting the CWE interoperability demonstration
- ICT 2008 Exhibition Living Lab showcases stand
- 3rd wave of Living Labs award ceremony during the ICT 2008 Gala Event
- Living Labs Networking sessions
As usually, this issue is closing with an announcement of up-coming CWE related events such as ICE'2009. Don't miss this unique opportunity to see the latest developments in the areas of Collaborative Environments and Living Labs!
We also invite you to regularly have a look at the ECOSPACE Web Pages about the "Latest News", "up-coming Events" where ECOSPACE will participate and "Papers" providing access to the ECOSPACE scientific papers as well as "Online Surveys" where you are kindly invited to contribute in responding.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
See you all at the next Living Labs event in Brussels on 14 January 2009!
[edit] Coordinator's Message
This double issue of our ECOSPACE newsletter highlights representative aspects of the project:
- The integration of synchronous media into a CWE as an example for the need of integrated CWE. In this context we are pleased to say that Oracle has adopted some Ecospace concepts and ideas for their ICOM proposal on a CWE object model.
- the deconstruction of monolithic interfaces into user-composable building blocks as an example showing the flexibility of our proposed reference architecture including a visualisation layer through the use of various user-composable widgets and dahsboards (i.e iGoogle, )
- the analysis of team productivity as an example for research on the effects of CWE
During the past two years ECOSPACE has developed an integrated CWE environment which incorporates several innovative collabroation tools. Therfore we are glad that we had the opportunity to demonstrate some of these developments at the ICT 2008 conference in Lyon. The second part of this newletter double issue reports about this important event.
During the recent months, ECOSPACE has been participating to the following events:
- 10.-13. Aug 2008, The 31st Information Systems Research Seminar in Scandinavia, Åre, Sweden
- 07.-10. Sep 2008, Mensch&Computer 2008, Lübeck, Germany
- 25.-27. Nov 2008, ICT 2008 - "I"s TO THE FUTURE, Invention - Innovation - Impact, Lyon, France
ECOSPACE has (co-)organised / supported the following events:
- 24. June 2008, "Living Labs experience feedback from the CWE IP projects" Workshop session, Lisbon, Portugal
- 25. June 2008, ECOSPACE Interoperability Demonstrations Demo Session, Lisbon, Portugal
- 25.-27. Nov 2008, ICT 2008 - Exhibition - ICT Gets Smart - Stand G4 - CWE Interoperability Demonstration, Lyon, France
[edit] Marte 3.0: web conferencing collaboration
[edit] Abstract
Marte has gone web! In its transformation from a traditional desktop application into the new paradigm it has gathered many benefits, including ease of use, lower requirements and integration with other tools, while keeping the existing interfaces to comply with our reference architecture. Read further to see the evolution of the one of the videoconferencing applications from ECOSPACE.
[edit] Origins
MARTE origins date from 2004, when it was developed as an alternative to multimedia collaborative services from that moment. The target was creating a user oriented service, providing an easy interface in a lightweight client, which enabled communications even in low bandwidth situations and taking into account some usual network issues: network address translators (NAT) and firewalls.
The result was a centralized client-server architecture, based on SIP and RTP protocols, with several SIP proxies for signaling and NAT bypassing. The server was written in C and run in Linux, but the client side comprised an installer and a .NET executable for Microsoft Windows XP which permitted instant messaging, audio, video, whiteboard and desktop sharing with one or several connected users. As an innovation to competing products, it had a number of interaction modes, which represented different screen configurations, for different scenarios: someone giving a conference (one big video, several small ones), discussion among peers (several equivalent videos), presentation (a shared desktop)…
In subsequent software updates, more functionality was added:
- Different rooms were added for simultaneous conferences. The (proprietary) control protocol was extended to support this
- A tunneling service was established to overcome the difficulties present in some scenarios where the standard SIP solution was not enough
- An more advanced user management solution, based on LDAP was implemented, which gave flexibility in the integration with other tools
However, at this point of history, when ECOSPACE project was already in its first stages, and some preliminary interworking developments were in place, not everything was working quite as we expected…
[edit] Problems
Adding modules to the client (room support, interaction modes, or connectivity solutions) implied an increasing complexity, both in the software side and the user interface; compatibility problems with different OS configurations and drivers, and the client not being as intuitive as it should caused an undesirable reject feeling to Marte.
On the other hand, the constraint of using very low bandwidths was now not as strong as at the beginning, specially taking into account the business scenarios where Marte was going to play a relevant role. Savings in protocol overhead or complex codifications gave way to a more important requirement of having a very light client. Furthermore, the tunneling solution was far from perfect, and many network set-ups ended in not being able to establish a videoconference.
But the most imperative factor was integration, at user interface level, with the rest of tools from the ECOSPACE portfolio: while most of them were web-based, and mash-ups are nearly trivial among applications of this kind, integrating a desktop application, which must be deployed in each machine and executed separately, was a big challenge against our philosophy. The solution came from the current web 2.0 paradigm: Marte was to be reengineered, to cope with all the mentioned problems, while taking advantage of the new possibilities brought by the web, AND maintaining compatibility with all the ECOSPACE middleware developments. Marte 3.0 was born.
[edit] The all new MARTE 3.0: Video_Conferencing 2.0
Marte 3.0 is basically a complete rewriting of the application (both in client and server sides), eliminating the drawbacks from its ancestors, but being faithful to the original philosophy: having an easy to use multiconferencing application. The concept behind it is that of Rich Internet Applications, including:
- providing an execution environment which allows for running the code, content manipulation and communicating the client with external applications;
- integrating these contents and interfaces in a common environment, allowing the user to interact with extensible object models (beyond JavaScript);
- communicating with application servers using web and data services;
- and being easily portable to different platform and devices.
The target is obtaining applications that can be run in a web browser: Marte 3.0 is a RIA, while keeping the same characteristics and functionality as its old desktop counterpart. The advantages are numerous:
- as a web application, it does no longer need installation (only web plug-ins, already present in most systems), and it runs locally inside sandboxes in the browser, for added security;
- it does not depend on operating system, and software updates are now straightforward.
The application has evolved in its GUI, incorporating drag&drop interface, effects… presenting the user with a familiar environment and a comfortable look&feel.
There are also a number of disadvantages inherent to RIAs:
- using a security sandbox restricts the access to local resources;
- downloading of the web application, which is needed before it can be run, presents an additional delay;
- dependency on the Internet;
- and certain immaturity of the web platform.
Nevertheless, all these shortcomings can be disregarded in the case of Marte 3.0: there is a minimal delay loading the application (in most cases, inferior to that of a traditional desktop one), Internet dependency is a must for a conference to be established in any way, the security restrictions are positive in the eyes of most users –and do not limit Marte functionality in any way that cannot be circumvented-, and maturity… well, everything seems to be going in that direction.
[edit] Some Technical Points
In case you are not interested in the technical details of Marte implementation, you can skip this section completely.
Marte 3.0 is developed in Flex with ActionScript code and MXML. ActionScript is an object oriented programming language similar to Java, created to generate compiled Flash code, which can be reproduced in almost any web browser. The language is based on the fourth edition of the specification of ECMAScript, and it adopts MXML to define the advanced user interfaces in XML; in Marte 3.0 the application logic and the logic are separated, which is desirable.
The server side is based on Red5 , an open-source alternative to Adobe Flash Media Server. Red5 uses RTMP (or RTMPT) for multimedia content distribution. The objective of this protocol is to enable Flash clients to send and receive real-time data with minimum guarantees, to and from a Flash Media Server. To achieve this, traffic can be tunneled so that data is transmitted in the body of HTTP packets, ‘hiding’ them to firewalls and traffic shapers usually present in the border of enterprise networks to filter that content. This allows the videoconferencing application to work in a very restricted environment.
The client architecture is divided in four modules: session control, multimedia flow control, and shared desktop control (both for client and server sides).
The main class is the session controller, which sends and received messages to Red5 server keeping session state and data regarding connected users, available rooms and the interaction mode in each room. Multimedia flow control manages flow parameters such as audio volume or image aspect, and handles the RTMP/RTMPT coactions to the server. Shared desktop module is divides in two parts:
- an implementation of a VNC (version 3.3) client, from a free software project called FlashVNC, which receives the full shared desktop screen and sends mouse and keyboard events to the VNC server;
- and a VNC server, which is implemented as a Java applet, and allows for local desktop sharing without installing any added application.
[edit] MARTE in ECOSPACE
The role of Marte in the project is providing the consortium with a tool that supports the Basic Collaborative Service of MultimediaConferencing, offering a standardized interface to the necessary functions to control the application. As such, and following OSA/Parlay X recommendation for Multimedia conferences, a set of 9 primitives was defined to manage the functionalities of the server regarding presence, session conference control, and status of participants.
The list was later expanded with 3 more functions created purposely to help in the integration with other tools from the project, and can be further expanded, at a very low cost, to cover future needs.
Using the interface, any external application can create a conference, invite users, query which users are connected, or end a session, enabling the interaction with BCS of other kind. The interface was first implemented in the original Marte server, using XML-RPC technology, and later on wrapped with Web Services (SOAP) to comply with the reference architecture. The change to Marte 3.0 maintained unaltered the set of primitives at server side, and both interfaces (XML-RPC and WS) are still running, to maintain backwards compatibility with existing integrations.
[edit] Using MARTE 3.0
The best thing about this new version of Marte is that using it only involves entering an URL in a web browser, and the Login window appears.
There are two login options: using the typical user/password combination, or using the newer OpenID. In both cases, the user must be previously registered in the application to access it; this is currently being solved inside ECOSPACE, so chances are that even if you have a valid OpenID address, you will not be “whitelisted”. You can always ask us if you are anxious to try it…
The user needs only have the Flash plug-in installed in his browser (which is an usual thing nowadays), and the Java plug-in is also needed to support the shared desktop feature. There might appear some warning messages when the application starts, to ask for permission to use local desktop capture (VNC server applet) and the webcam, which are some of the already mentioned shortcomings of running inside a security sandbox. And… there you are. You are presented with the Marte “Hall”, and you can start conferencing with anyone who is online at that moment!
A. First hint: look at the user/room lists Well, at this point, you may be confronted with the Marte 3.0 desktop, but do not know who you can videoconference with. In the upper part of the desktop there is a “Users” button which shows who is connected at that moment. And there is a “Rooms” button which shows which conferencing spaces are available. Conferences can only take place inside a room; you can create a new one, and enter it. But before you find yourself alone there, you can invite someone to enter it: just drag&drop a connected user from the user list to the name of the room where you will be having the conference.
B. Second hint: enter rooms and chat The screen which appears when entering a room is similar to the Hall, except that interactions happen here. The “Users” button now shows only the users inside that room, and icons appear next to each user name: use them to activate their video or their shared desktop (VNC). Of course, you can only see others desktop if they have enabled that; to do it for yourself, take a look at the Configuration button.
C. Third hint: use Interaction modes Part of the flexibility of Marte comes from the usage of Interaction modes, which are predefined layouts which are shown in every participant simultaneously. You can access to the in the “Mode” button, enter the names of the participants relevant for the selected mode and choose the desired layout. Just watch what happens then, and experiment with other modes.
[edit] Last thoughts
This article does not intend to be an exhaustive guide to Marte 3.0, just an overview of its new capabilities. Inside ECOSPACE there are plenty of documents that go from the user manual to the server installation guide, and the full Web Services API. This is deeply technical stuff that can turn anyone into an expert. But the greatness of this video_conferencing service is that you need not be such an expert to unleash the potential it offers. You only need to be familiar with the World Wide Web, something which is assumed for everyone.
[edit] Portal Modules for Groupware Systems
[edit] Introduction
In the era of web 2.0 the user role shifts from a consumer perspective to a producer perspective. Therefore monolithic GUIs (Graphic User Interface), that provide no dynamic behavior, seem to be out of time. Every user wants to have the possibility to individualise the system and assign changes.
Personal desktops in offices are already expression of individual preferences. Every single object in the desktop is positioned by the owner, but the object itself is neither produced nor adjustable by the owner. This analogy leads to portal modules and portal systems. The modules can be combined and integrated into a portal system, but the single module cannot be changed by the user. Nevertheless the user is free (in a limited scope) in building an individualised GUI.
[edit] Description of Concept
The concept of portal modules for groupware systems was to breakup single functions of the groupware system (e.g. bscw) to make them accessible by the user. The user should be able to combine these granular functions in an easy and flexible way. This functionality is provided by modules and portal systems like Netvibes and iGoogle. However the modules provided by the mentioned portals only offer simple displays of RSS-Feeds or other information.
Technical Requirements:
- The user should be free in the choice of a portal system.
- Neither username nor password should be given to a third party server, i.e. the portal server.
- Portal, module and groupware should be separated systems, i.e. use of APIs.
Figure 1 shows the Netvibes portal with modules of small, granular functions of BSCW. The integration, combination and layout of these elements in a portal system are made by the user.
[edit] Realisation
A collection of 16 ideas of possible module functions was generated in a brainstorming session with developers. Each idea of this collection was validated with a survey among users. The most demanded functions were implemented as modules, such as Search, RSS-Reader, Folder, Event List, Task List and Upload. Figure 2 shows the Search module of BSCW.
These functions were realised with the help of Adobe Flex. Flex is a development framework for Adobe Flash. These Flex applications are compiled in a Shockwave Flash (SWF) format and can be integrated in a HTML page. The Ultra Widget API (UWA) of Netvibes is used to build a container module for this SWF module. The UWA supports several systems like Netvibes itself, iGoogle and Windows Live, where the moduls can be integrated.
[edit] Conclusion
In a test phase with BSCW users, the modules were evaluated. Most of the users liked the flexibility and freedom of combining functions. At the same time some complex functions of the traditional integrated GUI of BSCW were missed by the users. The next step in the development process of portal modules for groupware systems is to provide more and more complex modules. The intercommunication of different modules is a further evolution step.
Links:
[edit] The Assessment of Knowledge Worker Team Productivity
[edit] Introduction
The development of collaborative work environments is driven by the aim to enable to "work smarter not harder". With increasing availability of information systems to support collaboration, the question is: which gain of productivity can be reached for knowledge workers?
Measures and measurement methods for productivity of knowledge work are thus very important to guide the improvement and re-organization of knowledge work as well as to validate the emerging software tools to support knowledge work.
Therefore SPS (Stiftung Produktive Schweiz), one of the ECOSPACE project partners, has developed a first version of a web-based assessment instrument with which productivity of teams can be measured. This instrument is based on the idea of fit between the external requirements and the internal set-up of the team. If this fit is well aligned, the team is more productive than if there is a misfit.
The assessment tool distinguishes five types of teams that reasonably well cover the span of teams from "traditional" to "virtual":
- Conventional project teams: a line manager inside a hierarchical organization builds the team. Team members are not dispersed geographically or across organizational boundaries. Productivity is mainly driven by the effort to produce an outcome valued by the line manager.
- Teams for supply chain projects: coordination is similarly integrated as in hierarchical organizations, but across organizational boundaries and with geographical dispersion.
- Prime contractor led team: (centers on agility). Configuration of partners in the team is unique for the occasion and has to be aligned quickly under hierarchical coordination of the prime contractor.
- Teams in strategic networks: (example airline alliances) teams form, operate and disband with high degrees of autonomy as long as they stay within the boundaries of the strategic scope.
- Peer-to-peer networks: (business partners, teams of scientist). Highly networked project teams of peer partners, where coordination is negotiated per case on the basis of roles.
None of the five types is more preferable or better that any other. Instead, it is the fit between the external requirements and the internal set-up of the team, which is assumed to affect its productivity. The calculation of this fit is based on questions about the respondent´s perception of the external requirements and about the internal capabilities of the project team.
[edit] Requirements
Key requirements for such assessment tools is to provide meaningful results with a minimum set of questions, as well as avoiding any bias in option choices by making one option more positive than another. The assessment is based on four fit dimensions, which were distilled from case studies:
- Team culture covers the dimension studied by organizational psychology on how team members collaborate
- Communication covers the dimension studied by information system research on different communication patterns
- Project management covers the dimension of project coordination studied by project management
- Benefit realization covers the dimension of controlling team output.
Two questions, one about external requirements and one about team practice, cover each of the four dimensions, so that the assessment is based on a total of eight questions only. Answer choices for these questions are formulated in natural language describing positively typical patterns related to the above mentioned team types, avoiding bias e.g. by number choices.
The core set of questions are complemented by context questions, such as industry in which the project team operates, or experience of the team members, from which conclusions on the external requirements can be derived.
Productivity assessment is the calculation whether the respondent chooses all answers from one ideal project type, which means that the project is in fit, or whether there are misfits, what types of misfit there are, and how strong the misfits are.
[edit] Results
A statistical analysis of 157 responding project managers (data collected through www.produktive-schweiz.ch) shows the validity of the assessment approach: productivity of teams is not necessarily higher when they are less virtual, but higher when teams are more consistent to one of the team types.
For future versions dimensions will be refined and extended based on the obtained results. It will also include an immediate intelligent feedback to participants. For practitioners the assessment then identifies concrete issues and suggestions for increasing consistency of the team for higher productivity.
Such a team assessment tool is designed for use in "living labs". It is easy to use, available on the internet and requires less than 5 minutes for the completion of an assessment. It is easily adaptable to other situations and its practical value motivates the engagement of knowledge workers, information system developers and other stakeholders in a joint research process.
An elaborate paper with detailed results is available. This paper can be ordered at info@produktive-schweiz.ch, questionnaire can be found under: [1]
[edit] Past Events
[edit] OPEN DAYS'08, Workshop "Living Labs in regional innovation ecosystem", Brussels, Belgium, October 7th, 2008
Within the Open Days newsletter it is said that the OPEN DAYS - European Week of Regions and Cities 2008 was the biggest European Union event in the Brussels' calendar. This event has gathered 7400 participants in Brussels and another 25000 in local events all over Europe. Participants like politicians, experts, representatives of enterprises and citizens exchanged views on various subjects including cooperating across borders in research and innovation, sustainable development and regional responses to climate change, and cooperation and exchange of best practice between Europe's regions.
More information including the event's proceedings, speeches, presentations, photos and videos at: www.opendays.europa.eu
It is officially mentioned that within the European Union, 86 regions, where some 123 million people are living, have an innovative performance below the EU average, the great majority being located in the new member states, Spain, Greece, Portugal and southern Italy. Regions and cities are more and more becoming the active centres for knowledge transfer, especially because local innovation clusters are residing there while constituting the competitiveness advantages to attract investments.
It is mentioned also that 2007-2013 cohesion policy programmes put a particular emphasis on knowledge and innovation. Compared to the previous programming period, investments in research, technological development and innovation quadrupled and allocations amount to almost EUR 86 billion or 25% of the total budget.
Finally, it is said that during the OPEN DAYS, a total of 53 events were specifically related to "innovating regions". Events were prepared by regions and cities, the European Commission, the Committee of the Regions, the European Investment Bank, the European Patent Office, the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, the European Network of Living Labs and others. Seminars and Workshops covered different aspects of regional innovation programmes including local and interregional partnerships delivering the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs, new facilities for financing innovation, and the role of businesses, universities, clusters as well as "creative industries" in innovation.
This specific Open Days Workshop, referenced as 07A24 and entitled "Living Labs in regional innovation ecosystem: European Network of Living Labs to access the regional innovation capacity in Europe", has been held in the Centre Borschette of the European Commission on Tuesday 7 October 2008 from 16:45 up to 18:30. It was jointly organised by Mr. Angelos Ktenas, Senior Policy Co-ordinator, New Infrastructure Paradigms & Experimental Facilities, Information Society and Media, European Commission and the CO-LLABS project.
This workshop has been oversubscribed in a way that unfortunately, due to the limitation of the size of the meeting room, some community members could not participate to this event. It was intended to demonstrate the promise of the "living lab" concept to bring more dynamic ways to foster innovation and introduce new ways for organisations to work together to research and develop technologies. The CO-LLABS network brings together Europe’s most advanced living labs with regional SME organisations to develop pilots in domains such as e-health, e-business and e-inclusion. In this workshop, participants from the project will present their experiences and how they apply at the regional level.
The workshop was opened by Mr. Antti Peltomäki, Deputy General Director, Information Society and Media, European Commission and then the workshop session was chaired by Mr. Per Blixt, Head of Unit, New Infrastructure Paradigms & Experimental Facilities, Information Society and Media, European Commission
There were 5 speakers to present their views on the current Living Labs activities in the regions and potential to foster innovation through an original approach:
- Roberto Santoro, ESoCE-NET, "The European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL)"
The workshop 100 seats were fully booked weeks before the event and many more people registering could not attend. The regional representatives welcome the Living Lab initiative and several have expressed their intent to organize local workshops to further discuss what policy mechanisms could better support the adoption of Living Labs in the Regional Innovation ecosystem. From the discussion has emerged a need for establishing a set of indicators for assessing the positive impact of Living Labs on the regional development. Roberto Santoro has presented the COLLABS co-ordination project supporting the adoption of Living Labs within the regional innovation ecosystem with a special emphasis on enabling SMEs to become protagonist together with the end users of the innovation process. He has exemplified the Innovation model for the Lazio region and provided examples in the telemedicine and precision agriculture domains. The precision agriculture example shows an SME start-up deploying space base technology into service development for the winery management in the Frascati region (http://www.frascatilivinglab.org). The TELESAL telemedicine living lab (www.telesal.it) is a nation wide user driven development of advanced services for telecare and emergency assistance, where SMEs play a protagonist role in the innovation process.
- Veli-Pekka Niitamo, Nokia, "Living Labs Regional Strategies in Finland"
- Marc Pallot, ESoCE-NET & CCE at Nottingham University, "Competitiveness Clusters and Living Labs in France"
This presentation briefly introduced the French Living Labs operating within the respective Competitiveness clusters as being part of the regional innovation ecosystem. A detailled overview of the "ICT Usage Lab" located in Sophia Antipolis, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur (PACA) was presented. It was one of the first members of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) launched during the Finnish EU presidency. Three project examples, from this Living Lab, were presented. These projects have a special focus on socially based ICT innovations (pool of electrical cars with geolocalisation, democratic debate of shared water management with online participative tools, sensor enabled flats for elderly people). The approach adopted in the examples of experimenting with new ICT based innovations and evaluating the respective impacts was discussed. In conclusion, a brief overview of the integration of the ICT Usage Lab within the on-going development of the STIC campus and the plan for buidling-up a regional Living Lab research infrastructure was introduced.
- Esteve Almirall, UPC, "CatLab: the Catalan Living Labs program"
CatLab the Catalan Network of Living Labs is an initiative of the Catalan Living Labs together with the Secretary for the Information Society of the Catalan government that attempts not only to provide cohesion and readiness to its participants providing a framework where jointly explore methodologies and platforms, but also to project a common and unified image of what Catalonia has to offer in the Living Labs arena. This presentation offers a mosaic of some of some of the most relevant Living Labs projects carried out in Catalonia in the last years.
- Klaus-Dieter Thoben, BIBA, "Regional Innovation and Living Labs in Bremen"
Being a traditional place for trade, shipbuilding, ports, automotive and food industry - Bremen (Germany) is developing into a high-tech center. In 2001 the government of the federal State of Bremen has initiated a study to develop a new innovation strategy. The results of this study were published in 2002: "Innovision 2010" The Vision defined was: In 2010 Bremen will be among the TOP 10 of the leading Technology Regions in Germany. Fields of actions identified in the report were: "Strengthening of existing and supporting new competence clusters in innovation areas" and "Creation of appropriate conditions for the support of innovations" Among other activities the concept of the so called "Mobile City Bremen" has been developed in order to strengthen the position of Bremen in the domain of mobile technologies. The "Living Lab" Mobile City Bremen consists of the following element: Mobile Test Market; Mobile Solution Platform; Mobile Solution Center; Mobile Research Center; Mobile Solution Group. The various elements are closely connected via a social network comprising all kind of stakeholders within the domain. Similar approaches in the domain of logistics - "LogDynamics Lab" as well as in the domain of "demographic change" with a focus on production and services "WILL – Workability Innovation Living Lab" are actually under development.
The conclusion of the workshop was addressed by Mr. Mario Campolargo, Director, Directorate F: Emerging Technologies and Infrastructures, Information Society and Media, European Commission
Presentations are available here: Presentations Sources and downloads
[edit] ICT'08 Conference & Exhibition "Living Labs Corner at the ICT 2008 Exhibition", Lyon, France, 25-27 November 2008
The ICT conference & exhibition is the largest ICT research event within the EU
It is a biennial Event which was formerly called the "IST Event". ICT08 is a forum for discussing research and public policy in information and communication technologies at European level. This year, the event gathered together various participants such as researchers, innov-actors, policy and business makers coming from various EU countries and abroad.
This kind of ICT event allows to widely introduce Europe's future priorities for research funding in the this sector while enabling participants to discuss about hot topics within numbers of networking sessions in order to spur innovative ideas, concepts and ICT artefacts that will be at the core of new project developments.
Beside the technical sessions, ICT08 provided to attendees numbers of opportunities to network with colleagues and people one may discover incidentally. Even more important was the opportunity to see and touch brand new ICT developments in visiting the various exhibition villages and to learn about the outcomes of exhibiting research projects.
As mentioned on the ICT08 website, the ICT Event is organised by the European Commission's Directorate General for the Information Society and Media and is usually hosted by the current Presidency of the European Union.
About 4500 participants attended this event in Lyon, which is officially said to be one of the best-attended ICT Events ever (source: ICT2008 website). The event presented Europe's priorities for ICT research, development and funding. A host of leading personalities from the world of ICT looked at how Europe can lead the ICT agenda for the next decade.
The Living Labs Corner at ICT 2008 Exhibition was composed of the Laboranova project stand (G4), ECOSPACE CWE Interoperability (OCA: Open Collaborative Architecture) Demonstration and Living Labs Showcases Stand (G5) within the zone G: ICT gets smart.
[edit] Laboranova Stand - Exploring a collaboration environment for strategic innovation
Addressing the 21st century economic challenge of innovation in the field of ICT
Laboranova has produced several innovative ICT prototypes ready for testing by users. The exhibit has allowed participants to try out the different tools, which include:
- Rich profiling system,
- user-generated information enriched automatically;
- Expertum tools for mapping competencies;
- Melodie, an ideation and social networking tool;
- IDEM, a stock market for evaluating ideas;
- Innotube, an idea exchange facilitator and visualisation tool;
- Agilience Web search, a knowledge exchange tool;
- RefQuest, a game for idea generation and connection with other users.
FP6-funded Laboranova brings together 20 partners, including SMEs, big business and European research centres.
Laboranova was hosting the OCA demonstration for CWE interoperability operated by the ECOSPACE project (see below the specific article).
One of the Laboranova tool, IDEM, was also presented on the Living Lab Showcases stand within the Innovation City demonstration from the LEVIER Living Lab located in french Brittany and Pays-de-Loire as being part of the Networks and Media Competitiveness Cluster.
Stand Coordinator: Pierre LANIRAY, Université Paris Dauphine, Centre de recherche en management des organisations (CREPA), France
[edit] ECOSPACE CWE Interoperability (OCA) Demonstration
This Open Collaborative Architecture (OCA) Interoperability demo was kindly hosted on the Laboranova Stand, operated by the ECOSPACE project, and illustrating the 3 layers interoperability architecture designed by the ECOSPACE project. This interoperability architecture is based on the Basic Collaborative Service (BCS) layer, Composite Collaborative Service (CoCoS) layer and Semantic meta-data interchange (extended SIOC) layer.
Many cooperation processes such as inter-organisational projects can be supported by the provision of a SW platform that enables involved participants to create a single project space for sharing project documents, blogs, calendars or todo lists. Interoperability between SW platforms is addressed by the ECOSPACE CWE reference architecture.
The most important components in this CWE reference architecture are the identification of basic services for each collaboration service and the definition of an exchange/communication protocol enabling the representation and interpretation of the workspace object meta-data from different SW platforms. Based on these developments, an interoperability framework for SW platform has been developed that applies the below described approach.
Each SW application implements standardised basic services enabling:
- Access (read/write) to workspace objects,
- Retrieval of the workspace organisation (i.e. the folder structure) and user information;
- Exchange of objects' meta-data through the use of the SIOC format (see the following article for a detailled explanation about SIOC).
According to this interoperability approach, each SW service is now offering the same web services to access and modify objects' meta-data. Access to this information is provided by new interface components in each shared workspace user interface. These components provide access to the workspaces of remote systems in a transparent way and in the same look and feel as if they were local workspaces while they are external.
Demo Stand Coordinator: Marc Pallot, ESoCE-NET, France
[edit] Living Labs Showcases Stand - Showcasing innovative applications and technologies, the Living Labs way
This stand presented a selection of Living Lab (LL) environments and innovations related to various (fixe & mobile) technologies. Live, interactive, hands-on demos on various technology and applications developed within different Living Labs operating in domains such as e-inclusion, e-health, rural development, urban/city environment, agriculture, virtual reality, and Web 2.0 for mobile devices. Applications and technologies on display were at the testing, prototyping or partially operational stages. The CO-LLABS project dedicated to community based Living Labs that enhance SME innovation in Europe, as well as the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) were also presented.
All presented applications were demonstrating the value of engaging communities of users and other stakeholders, at the earlier stage of the R&D process. The Living Lab approach allows to explore, experiment and evaluate new ideas that are transformed into innovative concepts and ICT artefacts leading to innovative ICT products and services.
The Living Lab Showcases Corner stand was organised with 3 regional or national networks of Living Labs:
- French Living Labs: LEVIER, MEDIALAND, QUARTIER-NUMERIQUE
- Catalan Living Labs: I2CAT, CitiLab, Neapolis, Guifi.net
- Nordic & Hungarian Living Labs: BOTNIA (SW), Turku (FI), Helsinki (FI), Homokhati (HU)
To be noticed that we have got the great privilege to give a short demonstration to Mr. André Santini, State Secretary for Public Administration, France and Mr. Fabio Colasanti, Director General, DG INFSO, European Commission on our stand.
Stand Coordinators:
- Olivier REROLLE, CeTIM
- Marc Pallot, ESoCE-NET, France
More information on ENoLL and Open Living Labs community:
[edit] Living Labs award ceremony at the ICT 2008 Gala Event
Huge success for the creative and artistic show combining together Music, Video and Lights during the ICT 2008 Gala Event, organised by the French EU Presidency, at the Hall Tony Garnier (architecte of the opera Palais Garnier in Paris) in Lyon where all 4500 participants of the ICT2008 were invited.
One of the two evening highlights was the living labs award ceremony introduced by Patrick Schouller, Ministry of Economy, Finance and Employment, General Directorate for Enterprises, National Representative in the European Community Programs, France. After this short introduction, Mr. Antti Peltomäki, Deputy Director General, Information Society and Media, European Commission, has officially announced the results of the 3rd wave of Living Labs call constituted of 78 winning Living Labs from more than 100 applications .
A Living Lab is an open research and innovation environment in real-life settings in which multidisciplinary as well as user-community driven research and innovation are the essential ingredients constituting the co-creation process leading to new innovative services or/and products as well as social, organisational and societal innovations. Living Labs encompass social, societal and technological dimensions simultaneously in a business-citizens-government-academia partnership.
A "First Wave" of nineteen Living Labs across Europe joined forces, on 20 November 2006, as a network in the goal to develop and offer a gradually growing set of networked Living Lab services. A "Second Wave" of thirty-two additional Living Labs joined the network, on 17 October 2007, enriching ENoLL to a network of fifty-one Living Labs. At this event, the "Third Wave" of seventy-eight additional Living Labs, announced on 25 November 2008, have joined the network. ENoLL is now constituted of one hundred twenty nine Living Labs, including ten affiliated Living Labs from non European Countries.
ENoLL Third Wave Living Labs:
Austria evolaris Mobile Living Lab, Bulgaria Digital Spaces Living Lab, Bulgaria Virtual Services and Open Innovation, Finland Digital Living Lab Espoo, Finland Owela Open Web Lab, Finland HumanTech LivingLab, Finland Living Lab for Design and Services, Finland Nokiareena Living Lab - NALLI, Finland Suupohja Living Lab, Finland Tampere Central Region Living Lab TCR-LL, France Integrative Usage Lab (IUL), France 3D Living Innovation, France TPMed Lab, France Issy-les-Moulineaux Medialand, France Autonom'IS Limousin (Innovative Solutions for Autonomy), France Gargas INITIA - TIC, France GREATER PARIS REGION LIVING LAB, Germany Ambient Assisted Living Environment, Germany WILL - Workability and Innovation LivingLab, Germany EXPERIMENTAL FACTORY MAGDEBURG, Germany iRegion Karlsruhe - creating the net economy, Germany Nuremberg Mobile Application Centre for Elderly and Disabled, Greece Thessaly Living Lab, Greece LIFENET, Ireland Centre for Sustainable Technologies (CST), Italy C.LAB - Piedmont Community Labs, Italy FILAS - SPACE2LAND, Italy Lunigiana Amica, Italy Leaning Lab, Italy Telemedicine Living Lab, Italy Living Piemonte, Malta Euro-Mediterranean Initiative for Technology and Innovation, Malta Living Lab Malta, Netherlands Amsterdam Living Lab, Norway The RECORD online Living Lab, Norway Wireless Trondheim Living Lab, Portugal Lighting Living Lab, Portugal FIAPAL Living Lab, Spain LIVING LAB SALUD ANDALUCÍA, Spain Río Nacimiento Living Lab (RioNLL), Spain InnovaLab, Spain SMART-HOUSES LIVING LAB MADRID, Spain Madrid4Inclusion, Spain SENIORLAB - Living Lab for Robotics in an Ageing Society, Spain Segovia Tech Living Lab, Spain Citilab Cornellà, Spain VILANOLAB, Spain 22@LIVING LAB, Spain Barcelona Digital Cluster TIC, Spain guifi.net, Spain TCM Lab, Spain Experimental Centre of Ambient Intelligence Services and Applications, Sweden Airport Living Lab, Sweden Innovation Cultures, Sweden Malmö New Media Living Lab, Sweden The Swedish Living Lab on Vehicle and Transport ICT, Sweden Halmstad Living Lab, Sweden Living Labs Øresund, Switzerland Swiss Open Laboratory for E-Tourism (SOLET), Switzerland Ecologies for learning in distributed project teams, UK Cybermoor, UK Birmingham Communities Building Capacity (CBC), UK Sunderland Living Lab, UK ConnectMK - Living Lab for Milton Keynes, UK Hull Service Transformation Laboratory, UK KWest Research, UK Social Informatics Lab (SILab), UK Connected Nottingham.
Ten non-European Associated Living Labs have been also selected within the scope of the Third Wave:
Amazon Living Lab (Brazil), INdT- Well Being and Health Care LL + Mobile Work Spaces LL (Brazil), Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency (Brazil), Espírito Santo Cidadania Digital Living Lab (Brazil), TianJin-China Living Lab (China), Living Lab Maputo (Mozambique), Siyakhula Living Lab (South Africa), Sekhukhune Rural Living Lab (South Africa), Center for Technologies Of Ubiquitous Computing and Humanity, Taiwan (Taiwan), Living Lab Taiwan (Taiwan).
[edit] ICT'08 Networking sessions dedicated to Living Labs, Lyon, France, 26 November 2008
[edit] European large scale Living Labs Pilots and Best Practices
Helping Living Labs collaborate in eHealth, energy, and intelligent traffic sectors
The CO-LLABS project presented opportunities for Living Labs (LL) to collaborate in developing eHealth, sustainable energy and intelligent traffic technologies. An overview on Living Labs (LLs) and the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) as well as CO-LLABS project were also presented to Participants, including how to access LLs, create pilot projects, and make the most of business opportunities and commercial development.
The importance of best practices were particularly highlighted, including criteria to assess and evaluate them, an overview of the impact of business/governance models in adapting best practices to different LLs, and a discussion on specific issues (sustainability and mainstreaming) in implementing best practices for LLs. In addition, presentations were focusing on the experience of the 51 LLs that are active in ENoLL.
[edit] Living Labs Policies and Future Infrastructures
Developing policy and infrastructure priorities for Living Labs
This session planned to result in a shared statement on the global policy and infrastructure priorities to be implemented for strengthening and better integrating the activities of Living Labs (LL) in Europe. The Living Lab Roadmap 2007-2010, complemented by results of the current portfolio of LL-related ICT research and technological development projects, served as input material.
Infrastructure and research priorities will focus on key LL methodologies and technical infrastructures, as well as user-centric innovation methodologies and tools that will be necessary to create and operate Living Labs. The session aimed at provoking reflection on how to establish policy conditions for European LL innovation and on triggering the next initiatives to strengthen LL infrastructures and sustainability.
[edit] Up-coming Events
[edit] Open Design Spaces supporting User Innovation (ODS '09), Germany, March 2 2009
[edit] Laval Virtual'09, Laval, France, April 22-26 2009
[edit] CSCWD'09, Santiago, Chile, April 22-24 2009
[edit] CHI 2009, Boston, USA, April 4-9 2009
[edit] Group 2009, Sanibel Island, Florida, USA, 10-13 May 2009
[edit] ICE 2009, Leiden, The Netherlands, June 22-24 June 2009
[edit] ECSCW'09, Vienna, Austria, September 7-11 2009
[edit] CSCW 2010, Savannah, Georgia, USA, February 6-10 2010
Published by:
ECOSPACE Newsletter is published by: ECOSPACE Consortium
Editorial Coordinator: Marc Pallot, ESoCE-NET
Editorial Board: Wolfgang Prinz, Antonio Marquès, Marc Pallot
ECOSPACE Newsletter is supported by: European Commission FP6-IST-5 35208, ECOSPACE Integrated Project
