Active integration frameworks

The paper applies some recent developments in computing to the problem of building very large software systems. We (1) emphasize the system's infrastructure as a way to keep large numbers of disparate components coordinated, and (2) show that our earlier wrapping research provides an active integration framework for heterogeneous system integration. The basic expressive notion is the "posed problem", and the basic computational component is the "resource". They are connected by the "wrappings", which consist of processes and associated knowledge bases that convert a posed problem into coordinated collections of resources that can address the problem.