NEW BOOK RELEASE (May 2009)

Release details and information about pre-publication prices are available from here

Grid Technology for Maximizing Collaborative Decision Management and Support: Advancing Effective Virtual Organizations

Editor: Dr Nik BESSIS, University of Bedfordshire, UK

Foreword by:
Prof. Mark BAKER, Reading University, UK

Editorial Advisory Board:
Prof. Tatiana BOUZDINE-CHAMEEVA, Bordeaux Business School, France
Dr Maozhen LI, Brunel University, UK
Prof. Wen-Yang LIN, National University of Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Dr Iain PHILLIPS, Loughborough University, UK
Prof. Antonio PULIAFITO, University of Messina, Italy
Dr Alain ROY, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US
Prof. Richard O. SINNOTT, University of Glasgow, UK
Dr Yong YUE, University of Bedfordshire, UK

Introduction

Managers in commercial and other organizational environments often find the effective and efficient utilization of ICT resources a challenging decision-making process, yet frequently a very supportive mechanism for sustaining and creating a competitive advantage. Computer-based developments over the last four decades have facilitated managers with numerous collaborative tools to support various levels of enquiries within the environment of an organization. Recently, technological advances have resulted in the concept of Grid technology, a term originally coined by Foster in 1995. With regard to decision-making, Grid technology aims to facilitate managers with the ability to analyze and utilize data and instrumentation drawn from multiple pools encompassing registered distributed and heterogeneous (re)sources in a far more collaborative manner.

The Overall Objective of the Book

The primary goal of the book is to demonstrate how Grid technology has and could be applied to serve as the vehicle to empower intelligence in decision-making within one or many interconnected, separable or inseparable businesses or other type of organizations in a far more effective and efficient collaborative setting. The book prompts further development for best practices in identifying opportunities and provides future direction for innovative and applicable decision making strategies by using Grid technology. It aims to provide a practical guidance to IT and senior managers of relevant organizations in developing effective and efficient approaches, mechanisms, and systems with using Grid technology to support their effective operation and competitive advantage. In particular, the book aims to build a network of excellence in effectively and efficiently managing ICT related resource using Grid technology for senior management to identify applicable opportunities within their organizations and ultimately lead them to sustain or even create a competitive advantage. The overall mission of the book is to introduce both technical and non-technical details of Grid technology demonstrating its feasible and applicable arrangement within business and other organizational IT infrastructures.

The Target Audience

The projected audience is broad, ranging from those currently working in to those interested in joining interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborative decision-making. Specifically, audiences who are: researchers in the areas of Grid technology and collaborative ICT; managers and practitioners in the industry; academics, instructors and students in colleges and universities.

Table of Contents

Section I
Grid Technology for Collaborative Decision Management and Support

Chapter I
Building Service-Oriented Grid Applications /
Enjie Liu, Xia Zhao, and Gordon Clapworthy
University of Bedfordshire, UK

Chapter II
Sustainable and Interoperable e-Infrastructures for Research and Business /
Giuseppe Andronico (1), Roberto Barbera (2,1), Marco Fargetta (1), Emidio Giorgio (3), Salvatore Marco Pappalardo (1), and Diego Scardaci (3)
1 Consorzio COMETA, Italy
2 University of Catania, Italy
3 Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy

Chapter III
Scenarios of Next Generation Grid Applications in Collaborative Environments:
A Business-Technical Analysis / Vassiliki Andronikou, Dimosthenis Kyriazis, Magdalini Kardara, Dimitrios Halkos, and Theodora Varvarigou
National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Chapter IV
Semantics-Based Process Support for Grid Applications /
Gayathri Nadarajan, Areti Manataki, and Yun-Heh Chen-Burger
University of Edinburgh, UK

Chapter V
Placement and Scheduling over Grid Warehouses /
Rogério Luís de Carvalho Costa and Pedro Furtado
University of Coimbra, Portugal

Chapter VI
Leveraging Simulation Practice in Industry through use of Desktop Grid Middleware /
Navonil Mustafee (1) and Simon J. E. Taylor (2)
1 University of Warwick, UK
2 Brunel University, UK


Section II
Social Aspects in Grid Environments

Chapter VII
Trust, Virtual Teams and Grid Technology /
Genoveffa Giambona (1), Nicholas L. J. Silburn (2), and David W. Birchall (2)
1 University of Reading, UK
2 Henley Business School, UK

Chapter VIII
The Socio-Technical Virtual Organisation /
Rob Smith and Rob Wilson
Newcastle University, UK

Chapter IX
Modelling Trust–Control Dynamics for Grid-based Communities: A Shared Psychological Ownership Perspective / Marina Burakova-Lorgnier
Université de Montesquieu Bordeaux 4, France


Section III
Grid Services for Advancing Virtual Organizations

Chapter X
Small World Architecture for Building Effective Virtual Organisations /
Lu Liu (1) and Nick Antonopoulos (2)
1 University of Leeds, UK
2 University of Surrey, UK

Chapter XI
Runtime Service Discovery for Grid Applications /
James Dooley, Andrea Zisman, and George Spanoudakis
City University, UK

Chapter XII
Model Architecture for a User Tailored Data Push Service in Data Grids /
Nik Bessis
University of Bedfordshire, UK

Chapter XIII
Using Grid Technology for Maximizing Collaborative Emergency Response Decision Making / Eleana Asimakopoulou (1), Chimay J. Anumba (2), and Dino Bouchlaghem (1)
1 Loughborough University, UK
2 Pennsylvania State University, USA

Chapter XIV
Unified Data Access/Query over Integrated Data-views for Decision Making in Geographic Information Systems / Ahmet Sayar (1, 2), Geoffrey C. Fox (1, 2, 3), and Marlon E. Pierce (1)
1 Community Grids Laboratory, Indiana University, USA
2 Computer Science Department, School of Informatics, Indiana University, USA
3 Physics Department, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University, USA

Contact Details

Dr Nik Bessis
Department of Computing and Information Systems
University of Bedfordshire
Park Square, Luton, LU1 3JU, United Kingdom
Tel.: +44 (0) 1582 743476

Fax: +44 (0) 1582 489212
E-Mail: nik.bessis@beds.ac.uk