19th IFIP Working Conference on VIRTUAL ENTERPRISES Cardiff, UK, 17-19 September 2018

Collaborative Networks of Cognitive Systems.  

Recent advances in artificial intelligence, specifically in the areas of machine learning, sensorial perception, reasoning, communication capabilities, and human-machine interaction, lead to a new generation of cognitive systems that fundamentally challenge the foundations of past information systems. Cognition becomes distributed across networks of smart things, smart systems, organizations, and people. Simultaneously, users are increasingly becoming connected and pro-active participants in cyber-physical ecosystems as opposed to being passive recipients of various top-down optimization regimes. This, in turn, paves the way to a new generation of “user-in-the-loop” cognitive systems and leveraging on domain semantics and higher order intelligence. With the explosion of available data, cognitive systems can learn, reason, and more effectively interact with each other, the users, and their surrounding environments, hence enabling higher levels of collaboration in networks of humans and systems.

Furthermore, the growing levels of hyper-connectivity among people, organizations, smart things, systems and machines point to new perspectives on user experience, collective awareness, collective intelligence, and even collective emotions. This emerging reality challenges the way collaborative networks and systems are designed and operate with an increasing need to factor in the user-driven perspective. New forms of collaborative cognitive problem-solving can be devised, while the network’s evolutionary nature and its resilience and sustainability perspectives also become key issues. It is therefore needed to better understand the potential for value creation through collaborative approaches in this context.

Furthermore, the growing levels of hyper-connectivity among people, organizations, smart things, systems, and machines point to new perspectives on user experience, collective awareness, collective intelligence, and even collective emotions. This emerging reality challenges the way collaborative networks and systems are designed and operate with an increasing need to factor in the user-driven perspective. New forms of collaborative cognitive problem-solving can be devised, while the network’s evolutionary nature and its resilience and sustainability perspectives also become key issues. It is therefore needed to better understand the potential for value creation through collaborative approaches in this context.