Internet of Things and Future Internet Enterprise Systems

EI Cluster - Research Roadmap Revision

Revision of the Enterprise Interoperability Research Roadmap for the Version 5.0

Phase 1 - Open Call for Contributions

In the context of the preparations for the next ICT Work Program 2011-13, the Future Internet Enterprise Systems cluster is revising its Research Roadmap. The current version (v.5), is focused on the Enterprise Interoperability and Collaboration domains and needs to be renewed.

Today, with an enlarged cluster of projects, and after one year since v5 was released, it is time to reflect on the research priorities needed to address Future Internet Enterprise Systems requirements. For this purpose a FInES Research Roadmap Task Force lead by Professor Michele Missikoff was created in June during our last FInES cluster meeting (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/enet/fines-meeting-20090616_en.html).

The document that will be produced at the end of this activity will be an input to the next FP7 ICT Work Programme 2011-13. The starting point of the document is the FInES Cluster Position Paper, Final Version (V3.0, available here: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/enet/fines-positionpaper_en.html), published in September 2009, as well as other reference documents listed in the attached outline paper.

Your contributions are key to develop this roadmap and we are now sending you in attachment the outline document prepared by this Task Force for helping you in drafting your contributions. You will find all necessary details to prepare your inputs (1 page could be sufficient). I understand that in this period of Call preparations, our community is probably very busy but I urge you to not overlook this need and invest some time in this exercise in order to be among those who are shaping the next ICT Work Programme.

Any (individual or collective) contribution is welcomed, feel free to pass this information to your constituencies. For FP projects, one contribution per project is sufficient. Please send your contributions by no latter than 30 September 2009 to the Project Officer in charge 'cristina.martinez@ec.europa.eu' , with copy to Pr. Michele Missikof, head of the FInES RR TF 'michele.missikoff@iasi.cnr.it').

The Enterprise Interoperability Research Roadmap was revised in preparation for FP7-WP2 (2009-2010). For further information, please contact Cristina Martinez at the European Commission.

A list of contributions can be found here.

You can download the Future Internet Enterprise Systems Research Roadmap (draft, v0.6) here.

Context

The Enterprise Interoperability Research Roadmap is one of the main documents within the European Commission framework outlining the vision and challenges for research in this domain. As such, it is an important document feeding into the next FP7 work programme (WP2 2009-2010), thereby shaping the direction of European Commission funded research over the next few years.

The current Version 5.0 of the roadmap is from 2008. It is important that the research roadmap will be updated in time, so it can influence the drafting of the next work programme, currently under preparation. To do so, the updated roadmap will need to reflect the progress made to this point regarding the state of the art, and incorporate any changes in research priorities, targets and challenges derived from the recent developments in the field.

Furthermore, for contributors who are or were involved in EC-funded projects, this is an excellent opportunity to give an overview over the progress made in that project and to demonstrate how your research took us beyond what was the state of the art in previous years.

Procedure

At the European Commission the revision process was coordinated by Karl Moritz Hermann. Contributions were also be received by Yannis Charalabidis from the GENESIS project, who offered to help with the editing process. Of course, the Commission remained in charge of the revision and monitoring the editing to ensure maximum transparency throughout the whole process. A first summary of the contributions and more details regarding the revision process, methodology and timetable were presented at the EI cluster meeting on Dec 12, 2007 in Brussels.

Guidance

In order to structure the input of participants a form with a number of key areas was prepared and the contributors were asked to use the outline in building up their answer.

The key areas were:

• General Revision - What are the key results from FP6 that need to be incorporated into the revision, and how do these results and other developments affect the research challenges outlines both generally (Grand Challenges) and more specifically (Annex I - Indicative Research Challenges)?
• State Of The Art - Considering the date of release of version 4.0, this area clearly needs updating. Especially, advances from the former state of the art by FP6 projects should be acknowledged here.
• Vision - Especially considering the release of the second version of the report on Value Proposition for Enterprise Interoperability and the findings therein, does the vision need updating? Particularly consider the research context and research framework sections.
• Research priorities - Are the technologies available today sufficient to build the offerings described in the report or are there areas which we still need to cover to fulfil the ambitious targets of the enterprise interoperability value proposition?
• Grand Challenges - Is the definition of "grand challenge" clear and appropriate, or does this need further specification?
• Grand Challenge: Interoperability Service Utility - The ISU introduces an "infrastructure" perspective of EI offerings, and makes a distinction between utility services and value added services. Can this infrastructure perspective be further defined, given recent on-going discussions on, e.g. infrastructures and services for the Future Internet? What are the key results so far that need to be included. Views on business models of the ISU could be useful?
• Grand Challenge: Web Technologies for EI - Since the release of the Roadmap, there has been considerable development in Web 2.0 and SOA. Among other important developments, the Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Enterprise 2.0, Web 4.0 etc. discussion is something that needs to be addressed in some form. How could we approach the discussion? Do these latest development potentially imply a new approach to Enterprise Interoperability at both intra-enterprise and inter-enterprise levels? What are the impacts of these developments on the requirements of interoperability between value networks and ecosystems?
• Grand Challenge: Knowledge-Oriented Collaboration - Is there a need to further define enterprise knowledge that gives greater emphasis on value innovation? Do developments in Web 2.0 and SOA give further insight into methods and tools for enabling collaboration?
• Grand Challenge: Science Base for EI - This has hardly been addressed by our projects up to this point. Have recent developments in the wider field made updates necessary to this grand challenge? Is the list of indicative research areas relating to several existing and emerging scientific disciplines complete or where does it need revision?