Using social network technology to provide e-administration services as collaborative tasks

Abstract

This paper presents an approach employing social network technology to facilitate e-administration within collaborative communities. E-administration services are provided through task coordination between specific participants. Task activities are performed by gadgets acting on behalf of participants. Task assignment is based on participant roles and relations in the community, explicitly defined within the social network. Interaction between gadgets is governed by rules based on participant roles, dictating the obligations and responsibilities of each party. Whenever the execution of a certain gadget depends on the previous execution of a series of other gadgets, a recommendation mechanism employing AI planning is used to provide a plan according to which gadgets should be combined. The implementation of a social network platform supporting e-administration based on extending the OpenSocial API is also presented. The proposed platform has been utilized to develop a social network for the academic community, featuring pilot implementation of specific e-administration services. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.