Title: A real-time XML protocol for bridging virtual communities

Authors: James King; Jalal Kawash

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr. NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada. ' Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr. NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada

Abstract: Virtual communities play an increasingly important and prevalent role in our daily lives. However, these communities are often closed relative to each other, forming independent islands of communities. Yet, this independence is artificially imposed on such communities by closed support software or policies since the purposes or member-bases of these communities often overlap. Our objective is to bridge these virtual communities, allowing them to seamlessly and securely mesh in spite of their differing implementations and autonomous policies. Our Object-Subscription Protocol is an attempt in this bridging direction.

Keywords: virtual communities; island bridging; aggregation; syndication; security; standardisation; XML protocols; online communities; web based communities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNVO.2011.042482

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, 2011 Vol.9 No.3, pp.248 - 264

Published online: 21 Feb 2015 *

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