WEB recommendations for E-commerce websites

In this part of the thesis we have investigated how the navigation utilizing web recommendations can be implemented on the e-commerce websites based on integrated data sources. The integrated e-commerce websites are an interesting use case for web recommendations. One of the reasons for this interest is that many modern, large and economically successful e-commerce websites follow the integrated approach. Another reason is that especially in the integrated environment, due to the lack of the pre-defined semantic connections between the data, the web recommendations step forward as means of enabling user navigation. In this chapter we have presented the architecture for the websites based on integrated data sources named EC-Fuice. We have also presented the prototypical implementation of our architecture which serves as a proof-of-concept and investigated the challenges of creating navigation on an integrated website. The following issues were addressed in this part of the thesis: Combination of several state-of-the-art tools and techniques in the fields of databases, data integration, ontology matching and web engineering into one generic architecture for creating integrated websites. Comparative experiments with several techniques for instance matching (also known as record linkage or duplicate detection). Investigation on using the ontology matching to facilitate the instance matching. Comparative experiments with several techniques for ontology matching. Investigations on the instance-based ontology matching and the possibilities for combining instance-based ontology matching with other techniques for ontology matching. Investigation of the possibilities to improve user navigation in the integrated data environment with different types of web recommendations. Review of the related work in the fields of data integration and ontology matching and discussion of the contact points between the research described here and other related projects. The main contributions of the research described in this part of the thesis are the EC-Fuice architecture, the novel method for matching e-commerce ontologies based on combination of instance information and metadata information, the experimental results of ontology and instance matching performed by different matching algorithms and the classification of the types of recommendations which can be used on an integrated e-commerce website

Gestion des données distribuées avec le langage de règles Webdamlog

Notre but est de permettre à un utilisateur du Web d organiser la gestionde ses données distribuées en place, c est à dire sans l obliger à centraliserses données chez un unique hôte. Par conséquent, notre système diffèrede Facebook et des autres systèmes centralisés, et propose une alternativepermettant aux utilisateurs de lancer leurs propres pairs sur leurs machinesgérant localement leurs données personnelles et collaborant éventuellementavec des services Web externes.Dans ma thèse, je présente Webdamlog, un langage dérivé de datalogpour la gestion de données et de connaissances distribuées. Le langage étenddatalog de plusieurs manières, principalement avec une nouvelle propriété ladélégation, autorisant les pairs à échanger non seulement des faits (les données)mais aussi des règles (la connaissance). J ai ensuite mené une étude utilisateurpour démontrer l utilisation du langage. Enfin je décris le moteur d évaluationde Webdamlog qui étend un moteur d évaluation de datalog distribué nomméBud, en ajoutant le support de la délégation et d autres innovations tellesque la possibilité d avoir des variables pour les noms de pairs et des relations.J aborde de nouvelles techniques d optimisation, notamment basées sur laprovenance des faits et des règles. Je présente des expérimentations quidémontrent que le coût du support des nouvelles propriétés de Webdamlogreste raisonnable même pour de gros volumes de données. Finalement, jeprésente l implémentation d un pair Webdamlog qui fournit l environnementpour le moteur. En particulier, certains adaptateurs permettant aux pairsWebdamlog d échanger des données avec d autres pairs sur Internet. Pourillustrer l utilisation de ces pairs, j ai implémenté une application de partagede photos dans un réseau social en Webdamlog.Our goal is to enable aWeb user to easily specify distributed data managementtasks in place, i.e. without centralizing the data to a single provider. Oursystem is therefore not a replacement for Facebook, or any centralized system,but an alternative that allows users to launch their own peers on their machinesprocessing their own local personal data, and possibly collaborating with Webservices.We introduce Webdamlog, a datalog-style language for managing distributeddata and knowledge. The language extends datalog in a numberof ways, notably with a novel feature, namely delegation, allowing peersto exchange not only facts but also rules. We present a user study thatdemonstrates the usability of the language. We describe a Webdamlog enginethat extends a distributed datalog engine, namely Bud, with the supportof delegation and of a number of other novelties of Webdamlog such as thepossibility to have variables denoting peers or relations. We mention noveloptimization techniques, notably one based on the provenance of facts andrules. We exhibit experiments that demonstrate that the rich features ofWebdamlog can be supported at reasonable cost and that the engine scales tolarge volumes of data. Finally, we discuss the implementation of a Webdamlogpeer system that provides an environment for the engine. In particular, a peersupports wrappers to exchange Webdamlog data with non-Webdamlog peers.We illustrate these peers by presenting a picture management applicationthat we used for demonstration purposes.PARIS11-SCD-Bib. électronique (914719901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Ontology-Driven Semantic Data Integration in Open Environment

Collaborative intelligence in the context of information management can be defined as A shared intelligence that results from the collaboration between various information systems . In open environments, these collaborating information systems can be heterogeneous, dynamic and loosely-coupled. Information systems in open environment can also possess a certain degree of autonomy. The integration of data residing in various heterogeneous information systems is essential in order to drive the intelligence efficiently and accurately. Because of the heterogeneous, loosely-coupled, and dynamic nature of open environment, the integration between these information systems in the data level is not efficient. Several approaches and models have been proposed in order to perform the task of data integration. Many of the existing approaches for data integration are designed for closed environment, tightly-coupled systems and enterprise data integration. They make explicit, or implicit, assumptions about the semantic structure of the data. Because of the heterogeneous and loosely-coupled nature of open environment, such assumptions are deemed unintuitive. Data integration approaches based on model that are extensional in nature are also inadequate for open environment. This is because they do not account for the dynamic nature of open environment. The need for an adequate model for describing data integration systems in open environment is quite evident. Intensional based modeling is found to be an adequate and natural choice for modeling in open environment. This is because it addresses the dynamic and loosely-coupled nature of open environment. In this work, an intensional model for the conceptualization is presented. This model is based on the theory of Properties Relations and Propositions (PRP). The proposed description takes the concepts, relations, and properties as primitive and as such, irreducible entities. The formal intensional account of both Ontology and Ontological Commitment are also proposed in light of the intensional model for conceptualization. An intensional model for ontology-driven mediated data integration in open environment is also proposed. The proposed model accounts for the dynamic nature of open environment and also intensionally describes the information of data sources. The interface between global and local ontologies and the formal intensional semantics of the query answering are then described

Knowledge-base and techniques for effective service-oriented programming & management of hybrid processes

Recent advances in Web 2.0, SOA, crowd-sourcing, social and collaboration technologies, as well as cloud-computing, have truly transformed the Internet into a global development and deployment platform. As a result, developers have been presented with ubiquitous access to countless Web-services, resources and tools. However, while enabling tremendous automation and reuse opportunities, new productivity challenges have also emerged: The exploitation of services and resources nonetheless requires skilled programmers and a development-centric approach; it is thus inevitably susceptible to the same repetitive, error-prone and time consuming integration work each time a developer integrates a new API. Business Process Management on the other hand were proposed to support service-based integration. It provided the benefit of automation and modelling, which appealed to non-technical domain-experts. The problem however: it proves too rigid for unstructured processes. Thus, without this level of support, building new application either requires extensive manual programming or resorting to homebrew solutions. Alternatively, with the proliferation of SaaS, various such tools could be used for independent portions of the overall process - although this either presupposes conforming to the in-built process, or results in "shadow processes" via use of e-mail or the like, in order to exchange information and share decisions. There has therefore been an inevitable gap in technological support between structured and unstructured processes. To address these challenges, this thesis deals with transitioning process-support from structured to unstructured. We have been motivated to harness the foundational capabilities of BPM for its application to unstructured processes. We propose to achieve this by: First, addressing the productivity challenges of Web-services integration - simplifying this process - whilst encouraging an incremental curation and collective reuse approach. We then extend this to propose an innovative Hybrid-Process Management Platform that holistically combines structured, semi-structured and unstructured activities, based on a unified task-model that encapsulates a spectrum of process specificity. We have thus aimed to bridge the current lacking technology gap. The approach presented has been exposed as service-based libraries and tools. Whereby, we have devised several use-case scenarios and conducted user-studies in order to evaluate the overall effectiveness of our proposed work

P2P service provisioning in the AXML framework

Μια από τις σημαντικότερες πτυχές στην πληροφορική είναι η διαχείριση των δεδομένων. Οι υπηρεσίες Ιστού (web services) παρέχουν την υποδομή για κατανεμημένη διαχείριση, ανεξάρτητα από οποιαδήποτε πλατφόρμα, σύστημα ή γλώσσα προγραμματισμού. Οι αρχιτεκτονικές ομότιμων συστημάτων, στις οποίες οι πόροι διαμοιράζονται από την άμεση ανταλλαγή μεταξύ των συστημάτων, προσφέρουν ένα σημαντικό πλεονέκτημα και μπορούν να είναι η βάση της ολοκλήρωσης των δεδομένων. Τα δεδομένα και οι ενέργειες που αντιπροσωπεύονται μέσω των υπηρεσιών Ιστού πρέπει να περιγραφούν με τέτοιο τρόπο ώστε να παρέχουν τρόπους αυτοματοποίησης των διαδικασιών που εκτελούν. Η ανεύρεση των αρμόδιων υπηρεσιών πρέπει να εξαρτάται από λογικούς φορμαλισμούς προκειμένου να ενισχυθεί η λειτουργία τους και να βελτιωθεί το κατάλληλο ταίριασμά τους. Επιπλέον, το ζήτημα της σύνθεσης των υπηρεσιών Ιστού είναι μεγάλης σημασίας καθώς στηρίζεται στη σύνθεση των υφιστάμενων υπηρεσιών σε νέες και πιο σύνθετες υπηρεσίες. Ένας σημαντικός περιορισμός της τεχνολογίας υπηρεσιών Ιστού είναι ότι η εύρεση και η σύνθεση των υπηρεσιών απαιτούν ακόμα την εμπλοκή του χρήστη. Ο αυξανόμενος αριθμός υπηρεσιών Ιστού επιβαρύνει τον προηγούμενο περιορισμό. Η εξέλιξη των σημασιολογικών υπηρεσιών Ιστού (semantic web services) σε συνάρτηση με την ανάπτυξη νέων τεχνολογικών πλαισίων παρέχει ισχυρά μέσα για την αντιμετώπιση των προηγούμενων προκλήσεων. Η ActiveXML θα παρουσιαστεί, μια νέα ιδέα που έχοντας ως βάση του tο συνδυασμός υπηρεσιών XML και Ιστού παρέχει μια απλή και ενοποιημένη πλατφόρμα για τη διαχείριση τέτοιων ενεργών δεδομένων. Ο συνδυασμός τους ορίζει το κατάλληλο πλαίσιο για τη κατανεμημένη διαχείριση των πληροφοριών. Η AXML είναι μια γλώσσα που καθιστά ικανές τις υπηρεσίες Ιστού να πραγματοποιήσουν την ολοκλήρωση των στοιχείων με την ενσωμάτωση κλήσεων σε άλλες υπηρεσίες Ιστού όντας δομημένο σε μία ομότιμη αρχιτεκτονική. Κατά συνέπεια, γίνεται σαφές ότι η χρησιμοποίηση αυτών των μέσων έχουν ως προτεραιότητα την επίτευξη της τυποποίησης των προαναφερθέντων προκλήσεων με έναν πιο αυτόματο τρόπο. Αυτή η διατριβή προτείνει ένα πλαίσιο όπου η επικοινωνία των κόμβων (peers), μέσω της χρήσης των κλήσεων υπηρεσιών, βασίζεται σε συγκεκριμένους τρόπους αλληλεπίδρασης. Τα κύρια πλεονεκτήματά του είναι η ύπαρξη των διαφορετικών ρόλων για κάθε peer και ο δυναμικός τρόπος που επιβάλλουν στη διαδικασία σύνθεσης. Η παρουσία της AXML, εξυπηρετώντας την έννοια των ενεργών δεδομένων ως μέσο επικοινωνίας μεταξύ των peers, προσθέτει αποτελεσματικά την περιοδική ενεργοποίηση και την υλοποίηση των κλήσεων υπηρεσιών. Συγκεκριμένα, εισάγεται η έννοια της έμμεσης κλήσης στα AXML έγγραφα και περιγράφεται μια τεχνική για την ανεύρεση και σύνθεση υπηρεσιών Ιστού σε ένα ομότιμο δίκτυο όπου ο κάθε εμπλεκόμενος peer φέρει ένα συγκεκριμένο ρόλο. Παρουσιάζονται τα στοιχεία που είναι απαραίτητα για τα AXML έγγραφα προκειμένου να ενισχυθεί η περιγραφή των ενσωματωμένων υπηρεσιών, υποστηρίζοντας τη χρήση OWL-S περιγραφικών χαρακτηριστικών. Επιπλέον, αναλύεται η δομή ενός τέτοιου δικτύου και ο τρόπος ανάπτυξής του, περιγράφοντας όλα τα χαρακτηριστικά και τον τρόπο της συμμετοχής των peers. Ολόκληρη η μεθοδολογία, που προσαυξάνει την υπάρχουσα λειτουργικότητα της AXML, θέτει ένα σαφές σχεδιάγραμμα για την ολοκλήρωση των δεδομένων.One of the most important aspects in computer science is the management of data. Web services provide an infrastructure for distributed computing at large, independently of any platform, system or programming language. Peer-based architectures, in which resources are shared by direct exchange between systems, offer a significant advantage and can be the base of the scalable data integration. Data and actions that are represented through web services should be described, offering ways for automating the processes. The discovery of the appropriate services should be depended on logic-based formalizations in order to enhance their functionality and improve their proper matching. Moreover, the issue of the composition of web services is of major significance as it relies on the composition of existing business services into new and more complex services. A major limitation of the web services technology is that finding and composing services still requires manual effort. The increasing number of web services surcharges the previous limitation. The evolution of semantic web services in addition with the development of newly frameworks has given powerful means for dealing with the previous challenges. Active XML will be presented, a new idea which having as its base the combination of XML and web services provides a simple and unified platform for the management of such active data. The combination of them appoints the suitable framework for distributed management of information. AXML is a language that empowers web services to achieve data integration by embedding calls to other web services and is structured over a peer-to-peer architecture. Thus, it is obvious to use these means having as priority to succeed in formalizing the mentioned challenges in a more automatic way. This thesis proposes a framework that sets an interaction-based approach at the communication of peers, through the use of service calls. Its main advantages are the existence of different roles for every peer and the dynamic way that impose in the composition process. The presence of AXML serves the notion of active data as a means of communication between peers, adding efficiently the periodical activation and materialization of service calls. Specifically, the concept of the implicit call in AXML documents is introduced and a technique for discovering and composing web services in a role-based p2p network is described. The elements that are necessary for AXML documents in order to enhance the description of the embedded services are presented, supporting the use of OWL-S descriptive characteristics. Moreover, the structure of such a network and the way of its development is presented, outlining all the characteristics and the way of involvement of its peers. The whole methodology, advancing the functionality that AXML provides, set a clear layout for data integration