# Collaborative Networks: A Pillar of Digital Transformation
## 7 Discussion of New Research Challenges
#### 3.3.1.1 Smartness and data-richness
_(f)  Collaboration support platforms_  
**New generation of collaboration platforms**  
_Context:_ Several core technologies for the digital transformation such as cloud computing, IoT, CPS, big data, sensing, AI/machine learning, mobile computing, etc., have reached a good level of maturity and are quickly being adopted in industrial contexts. This creates the opportunity to design and develop new integration and collaboration methods leveraging the synergies brought in by these technologies. In addition to new support to data collecting, analysis and visualization, knowledge extraction, and real-time context awareness, the inclusion of cognitive engineering components, intelligent assistants, data service agents, crowd-based collaboration support, and decision support and problem-solving mechanisms, exploring massively connected/linked data, opens up new avenues for collaborative environments supporting collaboration of entities located around the world. _Further research:_ Exploiting opportunities opened by the new technologies to support **new collaboration environments** coping with higher levels of connectivity, distributed intelligence/smartness of sub-systems, new actors of very diverse nature, highly dynamic contexts, and overlapping networks. **Enhanced human-system interaction support**  
_Context:_ Increasing usage of simulation, virtual reality/immersive technologies, and augmented reality in practical industrial applications. Furthermore, there is an increasing demand to improve user experience/customer intimacy. _Further research:_ Exploiting the functionalities of new technologies to create **more \"natural\" forms of interaction** between humans and systems/machines, allowing higher levels of hybrid collaboration. Related topics include:  
* Use of virtual reality, augmented reality, and natural user interfaces to enhance human-machine/system collaboration. * Human digital twins to reduce the costs of collaboration (a kind of collaboration-oriented avatars). * Use of virtual reality, augmented reality, and natural user interfaces to enhance customer experience with products and services. * New levels of tele-presence/remote interaction, adopting technologies from gaming and tele-robotics to distributed manufacturing systems. * **Improved service specification mechanisms**  
_Context:_ Strong trend towards servitization. _Further research:_ Enhancing mechanisms for **service discovery, service selection, service composition, and service evolution** within collaborative network contexts. This also involves issues such as:  
* Coping with evolution of equipment and sub-systems. * Coping with mobility (nomadic collaboration). * \"De-construction\" of traditional software systems and moving to shared libraries of algorithms/services. * On-the-fly orchestration of services. * Collaborative service design. * **Improved cyber-security**  
_Context:_ Cyber-security has always been a key topic in CNs research, namely in terms of safe communications, access rights and protection of shared repositories, digital certificates, user authentication, non-repudiation, and some forms of digital institutions (e.g., e-notary). With the increasing hyper-connectivity, \"hybridization\" of networks, evolution and co-existence of multiple networks with shared members, both complexity and cyber-risks greatly increase. _Further research:_ Finding **new ways of managing cyber-risks** in hyper-connected collaborative environments. Examples of relevant sub-topics include:  
* Application and evaluation of distributed ledger-type of technologies. * Novel electronic institutions. * Risk propagation and counter-attack strategies. * _Collaboration culture and awareness_
* **Strengthen interdisciplinary work**  
_Context:_ The inclusion of new players, namely those coming from the exponential technologies [126], combined with the high integration levels promoted by Industry 4.0, clearly rely on synergies resulting from the combination of contributions from a variety of knowledge areas.