The contribution of professional service firms (PSFs) has always been phenomenal in the knowledge economies. Given the ever-increasing focus on achieving knowledge-based trans-formations, the effectiveness of these firms is highly attributed to the knowledge capabilities embedded in their staff and how efficiently they are utilized in firm's optimal benefit. In view of growing services sector, it is vital for these firms to implement high performance work practices (HPWPs) so as to maintain high-quality services and meet competing client needs. However, the systematic implementation of these practices in the intellectual capital (IC) context is not fully developed. Hence, this research suggests a linkage mechanism on how HPWPs support IC development in the professional service firms. By operationalizing these practices as ability-, motivation-, and opportunity-enhancing bundles, the results indicate a positive effect on intellectual capital and the findings offer practical insights to the managers in service firms on building their knowledge capital and deriving competitive advantage.

Collaboration is now becoming more common in business processes. Thus, ways are needed to integrate collaborative processes into such business processes. The implication for design methodologies is the need for synergies that integrate collaborative semantics with process metamodels in order to create software applications to assist people to collaborate. This paper describes a semantic model of collaboration, known as the LiveNet metamodel, and two standard process metamodels, SPEM (OMG) and the process part of the methodology metamodel ISO/IEC 24744. The paper suggests synergies between the collaborative and process metamodels and their potential convergence. The analysis carried out in the paper has revealed a number of metaclasses that could be valuably shared between metamodels to integrate process and collaborative semantics. The LiveNet collaborative metamodel has been incorporated into running software so that the theory built up here is substantiated and shown to be useful.

The paper describes a strategy for introducing collaborative technologies in a gradual and systematic way. It defines a framework to measure collaboration capabilities and then identifies technical strategic framework for systematically adding services to raise collaboration capabilities. The technical strategy adds services in a systematic manner to gradually raise collaboration levels. A way to implement the strategy is then outlined.

One problem for hypertext-based learning application is to control learning paths for different learning activities. This paper first introduced related concepts of hypertext learning state space and Petri net, then proposed a high level timed Petri Net based approach to provide some kinds of adaptation for learning activities. Examples were given while explaining ways to realizing adaptive instructions. Possible future directions were also discussed at the end of this paper.

This work introduces an information visualization component that appears as an additional window in an online collaborative e-learning environment, and can be used for viewing, browsing, editing and manipulating knowledge-based learning information through the LiveNet (http://138.25.13.210:8000/ln4-1) -a knowledge management and enterprise collaboration tool. This visual component employs a new visualization technique, called ENCCON (Nguyen and Huang, 2004), which uses a connection + enclosure layout method and a semi-transparency navigation mechanism to handle large scale of hierarchical learning information and it aims to provide a better assistance to the users of LiveNet for visual manipulation and navigation of knowledge-based data objects. The use of visualization techniques in LiveNet provides users with not only a 2D graphical visual interface for direct data manipulation, but also a set of clear views, the focus+context views, of the interrelations among the data objects which enhances the understanding of relational information that the users want to see. Although the proposed visualization technique ENCCON can be applied in many domains, we only concern its application in the domain of collaborative e-learning through the LiveNet.

The trend to personalized life-long learning requires support services that will enable learners to easily set up their own learning environments. We propose that this can be achieved by combining the ideas of learning objects and software agents. Software agents assist learners to create a learning environment for a specified need using reusable learning objects to synthesize that environment.

We propose a framework for the integration of personalisation and collaboration in virtual learning environments (VLEs). We describe two models of personalisation, i.e. assessment-based personalised learning via suggestions and personalised space. Collaboration is achieved via learning service, which provide specific collaboration services for learners. Although the proposed system integrates personalisation and collaboration in the learning environment, users have the option of switching off the personalisation so the learning space can act as a collaborative environment.

This paper proposes an approach to developing agents that can be reused in a number of collaborative applications. It particularly concerns those applications that evolve rapidly over time and need continual reconfiguration. This particularly applies to knowledge intensive processes in virtual environments, which requires quick reconfiguration to make then sustainable. It bases the agents architecture on a collaborative metamodel, which provides the ontology for building reusable software agents within collaborative environments. The paper describes the collaborative metamodel, an example and a prototype implementation and ways to integrate the model with agent systems.

Assisted by the client-server architectures, power of contemporary workstations, and new multimedia, database and communication techniques, the workgroup computing (perhaps better known as CSCW — Computer-Supported Cooperative Work) is bound to change the way people in organizations collaborate to achieve common goals. New computer technologies change the way the cooperative work is conducted and they frequently lead to new practices that increase inter-personal productivity and business efficiency. This article defines a conceptual and technological framework for a class of workgroup computing applications characterized by an asynchronous distributed interaction (different-time/different-place) during the development of shared artifacts. The proposed object model is called RESPONSE (REquirements SPecific Object Network System Environment). The model is "requirements specific" as it aims specifically at one, albeit dominant, class of workgroup applications. A particular workgroup application, chosen as representative of our model and used in examples, is the co-authoring of documents. The proposed model determines functions and support required from hardware/ software platforms for workgroup computing. The object database component of such a platform is emphasized. A distributed management of versioned objects using four levels of workspaces is proposed. The model supports long transactions with persistent locks, checkout/checkin of versioned and unversioned objects, social and technical protocols to enhance the cooperation between users, etc. The workgroup interface for the RESPONSE model is also addressed.

A method for defining coordination in computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) systems is presented. General coordination semantics defined in terms of speech acts and general modules that can implement such semantics are described. The general objects achieve flexibility by separating coordination knowledge into its local and global components and distributing this knowledge among system objects. Objects are classified as ports, links, and conversation objects. Ports are embedded in problem objects and define the interface of these objects to the coordination process. Coordination between ports is defined by link objects, which correspond to speech acts. The link objects in turn are combined into coordination objects to form complex coordination processes. The structure of these objects is defined together with examples of how they are used to form CSCW systems.>

A system design method where the computer system is adapted to user semantics is described. In the method, user semantics are defined as abstract objects using special languages. Both user data semantics and user operations are defined. A translator converts the abstract definitions into internal machine storage representation and machine instructions. Users can then include the defined operations in user programs. Execution of the user operations transforms the internal state consistently with the definition of the operations.

The application of microprogramming to problem-oriented languages is described in terms of a simulated analog system on a digital computer. Microprogramming facilitates the development of a problem-oriented machine code, which can be simply generated from the problem-oriented source language by simple translation. In the system described a problem defined by differential equations is drawn up in the form of an analog diagram. The diagram is coded into an analog-oriented source language which is converted by translation into the analog machine code. The system also allows the machine assembly code to be freely used with the analog input in coding the supervisory and interrupt facilities that are incorporated in the overall system design.