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Cerri. Chem Synth 2023;3:18 https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/cs.2022.37 Page 5 of 9

encouraged to investigate more deeply the tools, methods, and initiatives dedicated to human learning and
dissemination of scientific knowledge, particularly in chemistry, while the informaticians started another
[2-6]
project (ViewpointS) which continues (see, e.g., Refs. ). This latter project is the best testimony of the
influence of the experience we gathered previously working with Prof. Krief in EnCOrE.

A synthesis view (2) of the interactive process is presented in Figure 1, in which the agents reach a
consensus even in the presence of different points of view about the world.

HUMAN LEARNING AS A SIDE EFFECT OF INTERACTIONS
The E-LeGI project in which Prof. Krief participated with EnCOrE was meant to build a European
infrastructure - based on GRID services - that would support human learning. The technical progress of
[7]
the infrastructure was based on two primary aspects:

1. GRID infrastructures, i.e., network-based predecessors of the cloud, distributed/centralized repositories of
information accessible via middleware/web; and

2. GRID services (unlike web services) are “stateful” ones, i.e., they retain a memory of the history of
interactions, an essential element for the personalization of teaching-learning processes as well as any other
significant interaction. Thanks to these stateful services, one may realize the goal of Prof. Krief when he
wanted to store and retrieve the history of conversations that justify any decision about the Encyclopedia.

Both these critical technical aspects were discussed with Prof. Krief, whose enthusiasm and engagement
were unlimited. He adopted and reinforced the author’s own vision of the requirements for successful
learning and for successful progress in science - in fact, we agreed that learning, discovering, and inventing
are human activities strongly related to each other (see, for instance, the subsequent work in Refs. ).
[4-6]
Below are a few snapshots of the work undertaken with Prof. Krief, fully described in the papers and
deliverables for the EU.

The Grid Shared Desktop was the interface of a system called AGORA, which enabled the definition and
exploitation of Agents (human and eventually software agents), Groups (sets of Agents), Organizations (the
structure of rights and duties of groups), Resources (computational and communication resources), and
activities (the processes activated within the system). AGORA interactions run on Grid middleware (i.e.,
worldwide on the web) services (processes activated by software) were stateful, i.e., with memory, enabling
the storage and retrieval of histories of the interactions.

In Figure 2, from a 2012 presentation in Brazil by the author, we see six persons connected to the system. In
addition to Prof. Krief, who was in Namur, Belgium, participants included a junior chemist (Catherine
Colaux-Castillo: at the time, a student of Prof. Krief) from Paris, a senior chemist (Claude Laurenco, Ecole
de Chimie, Montpellier) from Montpellier, and two senior informaticians (Philippe Lemoisson and Pascal
Dugénie) from different labs in Montpellier. The “conductor” of the interaction was Monica Crubezy, the
author of the interface of Protégé from Stanford University, who actively supported the project. Protégé is
[8]
(even now) one of the most successful editors for ontologies worldwide. The session aimed to define the
concepts and relations (ontology) concerning the synthesis of the natural product carpanone. The session
involved the use of different shared applications such as Flashmeeting (http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk/) for
communication (courtesy of the Open University, Knowledge Media Institute, UK: Prof. Marc Eisenstadt,
one of our partners), ChemDraw (a standard software for drawing chemical elements), Resyn Assistant (a