Collaboration 3C = C 3 = Communication + Coordination + Coordination The Kiel Approach to Collaborative Systems Collection of Recent Papers

Specification of distribution has neglected over a long period. Instead of explicit specification of distribution, multi-database systems and federated database systems have been extensively discussed in the literature. From the other side, database research has succeeded in developing approaches that incorporate conceptual specification and allow to reason on systems at a far higher abstraction level. With the advent of web information systems systems became naturally distributed. Therefore, we need a techniques for conceptual description of distribution. Distribution does not stand alone but follows computations and business needs. Thus, we need to consider structuring, functionality and distribution at the same time. Since these aspects are intertwined with each other and systems cooperate, communicate and coordinate their action we base our consideration on collaboration. It integrates communication, coordination and cooperation. In this paper we develop a specification framework for collaborating systems.