# SCoPE: Service Composition and Personalization Environment
## 3 Background and Literature Review
Figure 1: Care and Assistance Service in the Elderly Care Domain. Most collaborative networks manifestations are usually business-oriented and present clear organizational structures--Collaborative Networked Organizations. Other more spontaneous collaborative networks can emerge, as a result of people \"spontaneously\" grouping together to enhance an overall goal by contributing individually and voluntarily. These CNs are known as Ad-hoc Collaboration forms. For instance, searching for a missing group in a mountain or rescue missions after a hurricane that passed through a city, or mass collaboration initiatives, are typical examples of this sort of CNs. These two main kinds of CNs represent the first level of a collaborative networks' taxonomy (Figure 2). Advances in Internet and pervasive computing have boosted collaboration possibilities and enabled or induced the emergence of new collaboration forms. However, the rapid formation of a CN to respond to a business opportunity also faces a number of challenges, whereas the two most relevant are: (i) dealing with the large heterogeneity (technological infrastructures, business practices, culture, etc.) of the autonomous participants involved in the process and (ii) the time needed to build trust relationships [32]. One approach to overcome these challenges is to establish \"long-term strategic\" alliances. In this direction the concept of Virtual Organizations Breeding Environment (VBE) has been introduced as an \"association of organizations and the related supporting institutions, adhering to a base long-term cooperation agreement, and adopting common operating principles and infrastructures. The main objective of this association is to increase the preparedness of its members towards rapid configuration of temporary alliances for collaboration\" [46]. Several aspects must be considered by an organization when deciding to join a strategic network like a VBE. As an illustration, a sample of the aspects that positively impact the adoption of business models based on VBEs is shown in Table 3[31; 47]. The involvement of an organization into a VBE might have two main purposes: improving the member's management capabilities or improving the strategic-level of the business operation [31]. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline \hline
**Name** & **Website** \\ \hline Too Young to Retire & www.2 young2 retire.com \\ American Association of Retired Persons & www.aarp.org \\ Silver Surfers & www.silversurfers.com \\
60 Plus Association & www.60 plus.org \\
50 Connect & www.50 connect.co.uk \\ Senior Net & www.seniornet.com \\ Senior & www.wiredseniors.com \\ Senior.com & www.senior.com \\ Grow NUPS & www.grownups.co.nz \\ Senior Friend Finder & www.seniorfriendfinder.com \\ Senior Match & www.seniormatch.com \\
50 Years Plus & www.50 yearsplus.com \\ Dating for Seniors & www.datingforseniors.com \\ Senior Passions & www.seniorpassions.com \\ Senior Communication & www.seniorcom.jp \\ Verdurez & www.verdurez.com \\ Family Ties & www.cloud10.co.jp \\ Patient Powered & www.patientpowered.us \\ Buzz 50 & www.buzz50.com \\ eHarmony & www.eharmony.com \\ Vital Senior & www.vitalsenior.com.br \\ Portugal Senior & www.portglassenior.org \\ Sitth Connection & www.stitch.net/ \\ EAC—Empower Assistance Care & eac-network.org/seniornet/ \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Some Social Networks for Seniors. While participation in a VBE has advantages, as illustrated in Table 3, there are also some challenges. For instance, we can point out the fact that VBE partners may have to share activities and internal company information. This information can be used by organizations that do not follow proper ethical principles which may cause losses to the company [13]. Among the VBEs, we highlight the Business Ecosystem sub-class which is inspired on biological ecosystems, and is a relevant category of long-term strategic networks. This concept suggests \"an economic community supported by a foundation of interacting organizations and individuals--the organisms of the business world.