Abstract
Numerous projects are considered complex because of the number of stakeholders, the diversity of skills, and the uncertainty involved, requiring accurate information retrieval and management of the social interactions between different participants leading to efficient knowledge sharing. This paper reports the findings of an empirical study on knowledge sharing barriers and research and development (R&D) activities that occur in the context of complex project management. The study presents issues, difficulties, and practices acknowledged by project managers related to knowledge sharing and R&D (focused on activities that involve cooperation and collaboration). Particularly, we point out the following major knowledge sharing barriers: codification process, inadequate information technology, lack of initiative and strategy by the workers, and lack of time and resources. We also explained the following practices and issues regarding the collaborative R&D activities: information exchange and retrieval, communication barriers, interdependence of knowledge and skills, and different technical terminologies. We intend to contribute to the understanding of the work carried out in the context of complex projects to improve the management practices and the information technology platforms to support them. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd..

Abstract
In this paper we present a method to support the process of multilin-gual ontology specification developed during the conceptualization phase in the context of multilingual collaborative networks. This method was developed to answer the requirements of a collaborative network where the need for localized content appears at an earlier stage, due to the short life-cycle that characterizes both this type of network. We present the main results obtained during the method's implementation in the context of an European project - H-Know: Advanced Infrastructure for Knowledge Based Services for Restoring Buildings, analyse its problems and limitations and discuss the difficulties that arise in a shared conceptualization of an ontology represented in more than one natural language from the point of view of the language influence, taking into account aspects such as the process of interpretation and representation of knowledge of a specific subject field, the needs and difficulties when accessing and processing multilingual information or reusing previously structured semantic re-sources. Finally, we consider and analyse the role and challenges of both termi-nologist and expert when working closely together in the context of collaborative networks.

Abstract
Collaborative conceptualisation processes are pervasive to most technical and professional activities, but are seldom addressed explicitly due to the lack of theoretical and practical methods and tools to support it. However, it seems not to be a popular research topic in knowledge representation or its sub-areas such as ontology engineering. Our view is that collaboration between stakeholders for specifying an ontology should be addressed at the conceptual, semi-formal level, in order to foster a collective learning of the domain and reaching agreements about its representation. We developed a method to support conceptual integration based in the conceptual blending theory - ColBlend - and implemented it in a collaborative modelling environment. This "conceptual modelling environment - conceptME" supports teams of specialist and facilitators in eliciting conceptual structures with the help of collaborative model editing and terminology services. Conceptual integration and agreements are achieved through the ColBlend method. This paper overviews ColBlend and ConceptME and describes in detail a test case.

Abstract
The problem of selecting suppliers/partners is a crucial and important part in the process of decision making for companies that intend to perform competitively in their area of activity. The selection of supplier/partner is a time and resource-consuming task that involves data collection and a careful analysis of the factors that can positively or negatively influence the choice. Nevertheless it is a critical process that affects significantly the operational performance of each company. In this work, there were identified five broad selection criteria: Quality, Financial, Synergies, Cost, and Production System. Within these criteria, it was also included five sub-criteria. After the identification criteria, a survey was elaborated and companies were contacted in order to understand which factors have more weight in their decisions to choose the partners. Interpreted the results and processed the data, it was adopted a model of linear weighting to reflect the importance of each factor. The model has a hierarchical structure and can be applied with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method or Value Analysis. The goal of the paper it's to supply a selection reference model that can represent an orientation/pattern for a decision making on the suppliers/partners selection process (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of CENTERIS/SCIKA - Association for Promotion and Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge

Abstract
Design and production of small series for specific customer target groups in collaborative networks can help companies to increase their competitiveness. This paper aims to describe a new framework of services for collaborative networking for on-demand productions. After describing the business processes that need to be supported by innovative tools for partner search and collaborative production planning, we describe the developed services and how they are integrated to ease the communication between different activities. © 2012 International Federation for Information Processing.

Abstract
In order to address the market trends especially footwear companies are now forced to address the market and especially the individual customer with increased attention concerning the fulfillment of specific requirements. In that context, consumer needs and expectations of specific target groups such as diabetic persons are posing challenging opportunities. Reality has shown that the production of shoes for patients with diabetic foot is quite different from traditional footwear production. This occurs because each shoe has to be fully adapted for each patient and in accordance with a set of requirements prescribed by the podiatrist. This reality raises several procedural and information related constraints in the way the orthopedic manufacturer has to deal with the customer demand. Framed in this goal, the present work specifically addresses the information infrastructure support required for the diabetic foot patient's prescription process by proposing an overall approach based on web-based tools and innovative integration of technological solutions. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of CENTERIS/SCIKA - Association for Promotion and Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge