A Service-Oriented Group Awareness Model

Group awareness theory has always been an important domain in the research of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). After a thorough study over different kinds of group-awareness theories in recent years, and combined with today´s very popular service oriented architecture (SOA) technology, we propose a new group-awareness model which is based on services. SOA technology has many advantages, such as high efficiency, quick response, low expense, and so on. Hence, it is more convenient to depict the characteristics of the real world´s group activities with SOA technology´s loose coupling structure and dynamic-calculation property. It is believed that the structure of a group is not stable, and it changes along with the time, the completion of goals and other random factors. In the world of SOA, all things are encapsulated in services. Due to the concept of service, the ability to characterize the dynamic structure of a group is strengthened and the group-awareness model of dynamic-structure group becomes more suitable for the practical use. Moreover it is more easily and accurately that we can calculate the awareness intensity of individuals by the use of services composition tree than other related works. At the end of this paper, we discuss implementation and possible application domains of this model, then point out problems that need further study