Internet of Things and Future Internet Enterprise Systems

Revision of the Enterprise Interoperability Research Roadmap



The Enterprise Interoperability Research Roadmap is currently undergoing revision in preparation for FP7-WP2 (2009-2010). The first draft of the Research Roadmap Update has been released, it can be downloaded here. Comments on the draft are welcomed, and should be sent to Cristina Martinez at the European Commission.

Earlier contributions to the roadmap revision can be found 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 will be 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 of the roadmap is from July 31, 2006, and since then significant development has been made in a number of fields in the EI domain, both by FP6 projects and by external research. Therefore it is important that the research roadmap will be updated in time, so it can influence the drafting of the next work programme (2009-2010), 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 2006.


Procedure

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


Guidance

In order to help you structuring your input we prepared a form (below), which we would kindly ask you to use to give us your feedback on the current research roadmap. If you could fill in the fields at the beginning of the form as far as possible, this would tremendously help us to proceed with the revision process in the most transparent manner possible. Of course, please do not feel restricted by the form and attach annexes where you might consider this useful.


Key Areas

A number of key areas were identified to be addressed by the roadmap revision:

  • 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?

Files

The current version of the research roadmap can be found here, all contributions received so far can be found here.

This page is maintained by: Alexandra De Neuville and Emmanuelle Porta