The Semantic Grid: A future e-Science infrastructure

e-Science offers a promising vision of how computer and communication technology can support and enhance the scientific process. It does this by enabling scientists to generate, analyse, share and discuss their insights, experiments and results in an effective manner. The underlying computer infrastructure that provides these facilities is commonly referred to as the Grid. At this time, there are a number of grid applications being developed and there is a whole raft of computer technologies that provide fragments of the necessary functionality. However there is currently a major gap between these endeavours and the vision of e-Science in which there is a high degree of easy-to-use and seamless automation and in which there are flexible collaborations and computations on a global scale. To bridge this practice–aspiration divide, this paper presents a research agenda whose aim is to move from the current state of the art in e-Science infrastructure, to the future infrastructure that is needed to support the full richness of the e-Science vision. Here the future e-Science research infrastructure is termed the Semantic Grid (Semantic Grid to Grid is meant to connote a similar relationship to the one that exists between the Semantic Web and the Web). In particular, we present a conceptual architecture for the Semantic Grid. This architecture adopts a service-oriented perspective in which distinct stakeholders in the scientific process, represented as software agents, provide services to one another, under various service level agreements, in various forms of marketplace. We then focus predominantly on the issues concerned with the way that knowledge is acquired and used in such environments since we believe this is the key differentiator between current grid endeavours and those envisioned for the Semantic Grid

Software Agents for Electronic Marketplaces: Current and Future Research Directions

The premise of software agents to define the structural and operational models of the virtual marketplace of the future can account for the increased interest regarding their application in areas where they can add substantial value in terms of automation and functionality. At the heart of such a marketplace rests an ontology modeling the domain upon which a nucleus of agent-based services can be constructed. Negotiation services hold the dominant position in terms of the attention they have received in research. Complementary to them, but no less important, are the advising services representing support functionality that is required throughout the cycle of a deal; from the expressed intention of the two parties to eventual maturity and closure. In this paper we focus on research trends and on their possible future development for ontologies and the above service categories emphasizing on the role of software agents in this context. A review and analysis of past and present works helps to formulate sets of questions that future research will seek to address

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Proceedings of RSEEM 2006 : 13th Research Symposium on Emerging Electronic Markets

Electronic markets have been a prominent topic of research for the past decade. Moreover, we have seen the rise but also the disappearance of many electronic marketplaces in practice. Today, electronic markets are a firm component of inter-organisational exchanges and can be observed in many branches. The Research Symposium on Emerging Electronic Markets is an annual conference bringing together researchers working on various topics concerning electronic markets in research and practice. The focus theme of the13th Research Symposium on Emerging Electronic Markets (RSEEM 2006) was ?Evolution in Electronic Markets?. Looking back at more than 10 years of research activities in electronic markets, the evolution can be well observed. While electronic commerce activities were based largely on catalogue-based shopping, there are now many examples that go beyond pure catalogues. For example, dynamic and flexible electronic transactions such as electronic negotiations and electronic auctions are enabled. Negotiations and auctions are the basis for inter-organisational trade exchanges about services as well as products. Mass customisation opens up new opportunities for electronic markets. Multichannel electronic commerce represents today?s various requirements posed on information and communication technology as well as on organisational structures. In recent years, service-oriented architectures of electronic markets have enabled ICT infrastructures for supporting flexible e-commerce and e-market solutions. RSEEM 2006 was held at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany in September 2006. The proceedings show a variety of approaches and include the selected 8 research papers. The contributions cover the focus theme through conceptual models and systems design, application scenarios as well as evaluation research approaches

Identifying the Quality of E-Commerce Reference Models

The development of information and communication systems, in particular e-commerce systems, is a complex and time intensive task. The development process can be simplified by using reference models. Many reference models for the electronic commerce, such as the model for electronic markets by SCHMID & LINDEMANN (1997) and the OBJECT MANAGEMENT GROUP reference model are known. However, they tend to concentrate on specific aspects of the problem and give insufficient attention to all aspects of good model quality. A number of requirements are important in constructing a reference model as the quality of the construction invariably impacts the quality of the construction invariably impacts the quality of the final model. To determine the quality of a reference model and its construction process an analysis scheme was designed and tested in a case study with a German standardization institution. The practical application of the analysis scheme reveals deficiencies and strengths in some reference modelling processes. Copyright 2004 ACM

Combinatorial Auction-based Mechanisms for Composite Web Service Selection

Composite service selection presents the opportunity for the rapid development of complex applications using existing web services. It refers to the problem of selecting a set of web services from a large pool of available candidates to logically compose them to achieve value-added composite services. The aim of service selection is to choose the best set of services based on the functional and non-functional (quality related) requirements of a composite service requester. The current service selection approaches mostly assume that web services are offered as single independent entities; there is no possibility for bundling. Moreover, the current research has mainly focused on solving the problem for a single composite service. There is a limited research to date on how the presence of multiple requests for composite services affects the performance of service selection approaches. Addressing these two aspects can significantly enhance the application of composite service selection approaches in the real-world. We develop new approaches for the composite web service selection problem by addressing both the bundling and multiple requests issues. In particular, we propose two mechanisms based on combinatorial auction models, where the provisioning of multiple services are auctioned simultaneously and service providers can bid to offer combinations of web services. We mapped these mechanisms to Integer Linear Programing models and conducted extensive simulations to evaluate them. The results of our experimentation show that bundling can lead to cost reductions compared to when services are offered independently. Moreover, the simultaneous consideration of a set of requests enhances the success rate of the mechanism in allocating services to requests. By considering all composite service requests at the same time, the mechanism achieves more homogenous prices which can be a determining factor for the service requester in choosing the best composite service selection mechanism to deploy

Certifying Software Component Performance Specifications

In component-based software engineering, performance prediction approaches support the design of business information systems on the architectural level. They are based on behavior specifications of components. This work presents a round-trip approach for using, assessing, and certifying the accuracy of parameterized, probabilistic, deterministic, and concurrent performance specifications. Its applicability and effectiveness are demonstrated using the CoCoME benchmark

Markkinapaikan transaktioprosessien muokkaukseen sopivan skaalautuvan työkalun suunnittelu

The marketplace transaction process defines in which ways the users can create value at the marketplace. Being able to customize the process efficiently is essential for the success of the marketplace business. To be useful, the tool for customizing the transaction processes must correspond to the needs of the marketplace operators and developers. These needs were researched and categorized by using job stories. Additionally, users’ instinctive ways of visualizing their own processes was studied. Deriving from the user research an incremental design for customizing the transaction processes was created. A listing of marketplace transaction processes and their details, and a graphical presentation of a selected process and its details was created to inform the users of their processes, supported by documentation. A command line tool was designed to enable users to observe and customize their transaction processes. A visual tool was designed to enable the users to choose their first transaction process and its functionalities. Analytical evaluation of the designs revealed that informing the users about their process details decreased the number of support tickets requesting information about transaction processes by two thirds. Offering the users a way to choose their initial transaction process was able to meet 66% of users’ initial requirements from the process. Together with the command line tool, these two tools offer users the possibility to get all their transaction process-related needs met.Markkinapaikan transaktioprosessi määrittelee ne tavat, jolla asiakkaat voivat luoda keskenään arvoa markkinapaikalla. Tämän prosessin sujuva muokkaaminen on markkinapaikan valvojalle tämän liiketoiminnan onnistumisen kannalta oleellista. Jotta transaktioprosessin muokkaukseen sopiva työkalu olisi käyttäjilleen hyödyllinen, tulee sen vastata markkinapaikan valvojien ja ohjelmistokehittäjien tarpeita. Näitä tarpeita tutkittiin ja luokiteltiin käyttötarinoiden avulla. Tämän lisäksi tutkittiin, kuinka käyttäjät itse visualisoivat prosessinsa. Tutkimustuloksia hyväksikäyttäen luotiin inkrementaalinen suunnitelma transaktioprosessien muokkaamiseen. Käyttäjien tiedottamiseen suunniteltiin dokumentaatio, listaus markkinapaikan prosesseista ja niiden tiedoista, sekä kuvaaja ja mahdollisuus saada yksitoiskohtasta tietoa valituista prosesseista. Muokkaukseen suunniteltiin komentorivityökalu, jonka avulla transaktioprosesseja pystyy tarkastelemaan, muokkamaan ja niiden kelvollisuutta arvioimaan. Ensimmäisen transkatioprosessin valitsemiseen suunniteltiin visuaalinen työkalu, jolla käyttäjä voi valita ensimmäisen prosessinsa ja sen ominaisuuksia. Suunnitelmien analyyttisen arvioinnin mukaan asiakkaiden tiedottaminen heidän prosesseistaan ja niiden yksityiskohdista vähensi transaktiprosesseihin liittyviä kyselyjä kolmannekseen. Tarjoamalla asiakkaille mahdollisuus valita heille sopiva ensimmäinen transaktioprosessi tyydytti 66% tutkitun joukon lähtökohtaisista vaatimuksista. Komentorivityökalu on työkaluna vaativampi mutta tarjoaa laajat mahdollisuude

An efficient and versatile approach to trust and reputation using hierarchical Bayesian modelling

In many dynamic open systems, autonomous agents must interact with one another to achieve their goals. Such agents may be self-interested and, when trusted to perform an action, may betray that trust by not performing the action as required. Due to the scale and dynamism of these systems, agents will often need to interact with other agents with which they have little or no past experience. Each agent must therefore be capable of assessing and identifying reliable interaction partners, even if it has no personal experience with them. To this end, we present HABIT, a Hierarchical And Bayesian Inferred Trust model for assessing how much an agent should trust its peers based on direct and third party information. This model is robust in environments in which third party information is malicious, noisy, or otherwise inaccurate. Although existing approaches claim to achieve this, most rely on heuristics with little theoretical foundation. In contrast, HABIT is based exclusively on principled statistical techniques: it can cope with multiple discrete or continuous aspects of trustee behaviour; it does not restrict agents to using a single shared representation of behaviour; it can improve assessment by using any observed correlation between the behaviour of similar trustees or information sources; and it provides a pragmatic solution to the whitewasher problem (in which unreliable agents assume a new identity to avoid bad reputation). In this paper, we describe the theoretical aspects of HABIT, and present experimental results that demonstrate its ability to predict agent behaviour in both a simulated environment, and one based on data from a real-world webserver domain. In particular, these experiments show that HABIT can predict trustee performance based on multiple representations of behaviour, and is up to twice as accurate as BLADE, an existing state-of-the-art trust model that is both statistically principled and has been previously shown to outperform a number of other probabilistic trust models