Delivering services by building and running virtual organisations

Customers in the future are likely to obtain their services from coalitions of service providers. These coalitions can be described as virtual organisations (VOs); they are groups of service providers that form relationships to service customers' demands on an ad-hoc basis. For a VO to be effective, it must be reliable and scalable, and, realistically, it must be created and maintained in a dynamic, open and competitive environment. The CONOISE-G project has focused on resolving the technology challenges that emerged from these requirements. Specifically, CONOISE-G provides mechanisms to assure effective operation of VOs in the face of failure, unexpected events and changing requirements in a dynamic, open and competitive environment. In this paper, we describe the CONOISE-G system, motivated by a scenario based on mobile service provision, outline its use in the context of VO formation and perturbation, and review current efforts to progress the work to deal with unreliable information sources.