Open Distributed Cooperative Information Technology

Cooperative Information Systeins(CISs) represent the future trends of the information systems, and they will have wide applications prospect. At the present time, building a CIS is a challenge, because there is no well-established systematic theories and innovative technologies to support it. This dissertation has conducted a thorough research on the CIS for its supporting theories and technologies. The main contributions of this dissertation include:(1)The distributed object technology, distributed artificial intelligence technology and mobile computing technology are seamlessly integrated to offer an innovative solution for CISs. A cooperative-information-system-oriented middleware (CISOM) is designed and realized, which can efficiently support the development and implementation of CISs.(2)The Agent Oriented Software Engineering(AOSE) are fully explored and a paradigm of AOSE is presented, which has been used in the development of two complex CIS applications. it is proved that the paradigm can significantly improve the efficiency of developing CISs and the overall performance.(3)The adequately supporting for Internet-oriented applications is another feature of CISOM. Through developing a CISOM-based distance education information system, a Web-based three-tiered efficient and flexible architecture of CISOM applications is suggested, which provides new power to Browser/Server(B/S) computing.(4)Study of the modes of cooperative information sharing, especially the PUSH mode, shows that CISOM possesses the ability to support wide range of Internet-oriented applications. A business to business intelligent electronic commerce information system model based on CISOM is introduced. This system can successfully overcome the deficiency of existing information sharingmodes of the Internet-oriented applications which lack of the abilities to meet the requirement of accessing and issuing information timely, accurately and comprehensively, while that is the basis for business to business EC activities.The results of our research work show that it is a effictive way to build CISs successfully by adopting CIS-oriented middleware(such as CISOM) which can meet the new challenges faced by CISs?designers and implementors.