Dealing with Device Collaboration Rules for the PCSCW Model

In this paper, we describe the design, the development and the use of devices collaboration rules for the PCSCW (Pervasive Computing Supported Collaborative Work) Model. These rules rely on the precise description of roles, tasks, actions, resources required by these actions and constraints associated to these resources to select the proper way to make devices cooperate with the final objective to facilitate the collaboration of humans. We suggest that by defining constraints on resources as triplets composed of a parameter, a value and an associated criticality it allows us to quantify, estimate, compare and then choose between several candidate rules. The finality given by these rules is a simple but efficient way to make devices choose automatically the most appropriate way to cooperate.