Eksarva: a framework for enabling agent-based collaboration

This paper describes a generic collaboration framework capable of embedding process intelligence into collaborative sessions leading to increased opportunities for process automation. We claim that currently available collaboration tools lack the flexibility to accommodate a variety of collaborative behaviors. This, we believe is due to the tight coupling that exists between the tool features and the group functionalities. We describe a generic framework that facilitates the modeling of the operations of a collaborative session as a set of workflow rules. These workflow rules are embedded into collaborative sessions and drive the enactment of the collaboration. Agents with the combination of this work flow rules and domain-specific ontology can automate processes relieving humans of mundane tasks and increasing their productivity.