Pricing Web Services

This paper focuses on the challenges associated with composing and pricing web services. We present the results of an online experiment, where subjects were confronted with a variety of choices and decisions relating to web service markets and service composition. Our analysis shows that people expect the price of a composite web service to be lower than the sum of the prices of the elementary services, that is, users are not willing to pay for aggregation by a third party. To obtain a viable business model for composite web services, non-standard pricing mechanisms, such as auctions and negotiations, possibly supported by electronic agents, have to be taken into consideration. Usage-based pricing schemes, combined with an option to switch to a flat subscription, seem most appropriate to penetrate the developing market for web services.Peer Reviewe

Study on the performance of palm methyl ester in a combustion system

Nowadays, the world is adversely affected by the rapid growth of various industries which use fossil diesel fuel as a main source to power their respective industries. As such, this phenomenon has contributed to environmental pollution apart from these natural resources are increasingly reduced thus resulting in price increments. However, biodiesel fuel has recognized by many researcher as a potential replacement of fossil fuel. A study was conducted to investigate the performance of alternative energy sources that are environmentally friendly and renewable such as palm biodiesel. Therefore, this project presents an investigation on the combustion performance of Palm Methyl Ester (PME) which also known as Palm Biodiesel in an oil burner system. Several Carotino’s palm biodiesel blends (B10, B20, and B40) also have been made by blended with Conventional Diesel Fuel (CDF). Examination of the fuel properties for each blends including CDF and PME have been carried out. The performance of the fuels have been studied based on its wall temperature profile and gas emissions generated such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO). The test fuels have been burned in the oil burner combustion chamber at different equivalent ratios and using three different oil burner nozzles (1.25, 1.50 and 1.75 USgal/h). From the test, PME is the lowest emission production compared to CDF but generate a low temperature. For example, at stoichiometric mixture with nozzle 1.25 USgal/h, NOx and CO generated by PME decreased of 27% and 30% respectively compared to CDF. PME has recorded about 12% drop in an average temperature compared to the CDF at the same condition. The higher fuel flow rate used, results more heat and emission generated. The results indicated may be benefits to using biodiesel in industrial processes due to less pollution production

Software dynamic pricing by an optimization deterministic model with presence of piracy

This project presents an optimization model for pricing a monopolistic software application with presence of piracy. The purpose is raising revenue produced by product’s sale with adjusting prices in a price skimming strategy and minimizing amount of piracy. The model is a multifunctional price skimming optimization with simplex method which accompanied by deterministic and stochastic methods for calculating time intervals of each segment. Linear functions are used to describing demand of each segment. In addition a linear piracy function is proposed to making piracy a dynamic parameter. The model has the ability to apply penetration pricing and controlling market share. Windows 7 is chosen for case study. Optimizing case of Windows 7 is resulted in 8.2 percentage increase in revenue, while value of net market share is virtually constant. Therefore the developed model demonstrates its competence in optimizing revenue by modifying prices with presence of piracy. Results show that to face with piracy, range of price skimming must decreased in a way that highest price need to be intensely decreased and also lowest one must be slightly decreased. By using this strategy lowest loss in revenue due to piracy can be recurred. Effects of an escalation in piracy on proposed optimization model are: increase in number of sale, demand, selling portion, market share but decrease in price, price difference between segments, and revenue. Time intervals between successive prices, which are obtained for Windows 7, is obtained by deterministic and stochastic technics which are shown to be nearly equal due to large number of customers

06291 Abstracts Collection -- The Role of Business Processes in Service-Oriented Architectures

The Dagstuhl seminar on emph{The Role of Business Processes in Service Oriented Architectures} (Seminar 06291) took place in July 2006 (16.07.2006-21.07.2006 to be precise). The seminar was attended by more than 40 experts from both academia and industry. Unlike most Dagstuhl seminars there was a high participation from industry (in particular from organizations developing software, e.g., IBM, SAP, Microsoft, Google, etc.). The focal point of the seminar was the marriage of business processes and service oriented architectures. This was reflected by the topics selected by the participants and their background

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

Adopting emerging integration technologies in organisations

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.A review of the innovation and diffusion literature indicates a considerable amount of research, where attention is given to a range of features which may support integration technologies adoption. However, some literature suggests that the findings derived from the study of large enterprises cannot be generalised and applied in SMEs due to the distinct characteristics of SMEs. Although the adoption of integration technologies is recognised as being different between large and small companies, the literature on its adoption by SMEs remains limited. Nevertheless, in existing work, there is a lack of studies emphasising the reasons why SMEs and large companies take the decision to adopt integration technologies, focusing specifically on the different factors. This thesis therefore identifies the significant differences in the way that SMEs and large companies approach integration technologies, based on the existing literature, theoretical diffusion theories, and resource-based theory. In doing so, the parameters that can be used to explain the adoption of integration technologies in SMEs and large firms are identified, as nature of organisations, company size, integration needs, adoption factors for SMEs and large organisations, and time. Additionally, adoption factors are found and classified into three categories: adoption factors explicit to SMEs, adoption factors explicit to large organisations, and common factors. Based on this, a conceptual model is introduced to explain the different factors that influence adoption between SMEs and large organisations. The empirical contexts of the research are one project on integration technologies adoption, and four case studies on a large firm and three SMEs, which are analysed using an interpretive and qualitative research approach. The evidence suggests that the empirical data complement the identified dimensions nature of organisations, integration needs, company size and time. The empirical data also confirm that the current integration technologies adoption factors reported in the literature can be classified into common factors, factors explicit to SMEs, and factors explicit to large firms, to support a more comprehensive view of this area. An additional factor perceived future prospect has been considered as an influence on adoption in large organisations. The findings of this research can be useful to guide analysts and researchers in determining critical aspects of the complex issues involved for integration technologies adoption, and lead to suggestions for further valid research

Methodik und Referenzarchitektur zur inkrementellen Verbesserung der Metaqualität einer vertragsgebundenen, heterogenen und verteilten Dienstausführung

Eine umfängliche Berücksichtigung der qualitativen Zusammensetzung von beschreibenden Artefakten im Internet der Dienste über dafür ausgelegte Dienstplattformen steigert die Erlebnisqualität für die Benutzer der angebotenen Dienstleistungen. In dieser Dissertation sind die existierenden Verfahren zur Erkennung, Propagierung und Verbesserung von Qualitatsmetriken in dienstorientierten Architekturen in Hinblick auf diese gesteigerten Anforderungen systematisch in Verfahren eingebunden. Die Arbeit liefert zwei wissenschaftliche Beiträge. Der erste ist beinhaltet ein Konzept für inkrementelle Qualiẗatsverbesserungen von Diensten durch Nutzung von Laufzeitmechanismen zur dynamischen Beschreibung und Bewertung nichtfunktionaler Eigenschaften. Der zweite liefert eine Definition eines abstrakten Zusammenspiels von Architekturmustern und Prozessen zur vertraglich abgesicherten Gewahrleistung von Dienstgüteeigenschaften in Dienstlandschaften in Form einer Referenzarchitektur.:1 Einleitung 1.1 Problemdefinition 1.2 Wissenschaftliche Beiträge der Dissertation 1.3 Aufbau der Arbeit 2 Grundlagen und Verwandte Arbeiten 2.1 Dienstbeschreibungen und Dienstnutzungsverträge 2.2 Qualitätsbezogene Prozesse in Dienstumgebungen 2.3 Klassifikation und Struktur von NFE 2.4 Dienst-, Datenqualität und Metaqualität 2.5 Dienstumgebungen 3 Methodik zur Qualitätsverbesserung 3.1 Inkrementelle Qualitätsverbesserung durch Abgleichverfahren 3.2 CPEM - Ein Modell für die Ausdrucksstärke von NFE 3.3 Metaqualität von Diensten 3.4 Verfahren zur inkrementellen Qualitätsverbesserung 3.5 Einbindung der Verfahren in IoS-Plattformen 4 Plattform für das Internet der Dienste 4.1 Konzeption der Architektur 4.2 Umsetzung der Plattformdienste und Komponenten 4.3 Integrierte Architektur und Derivate 4.4 Umsetzung und Integration der SMQ-Erweiterungen 5 Validierung von Methodik und Plattform 5.1 Anforderungen an die Validierung 5.2 Experimentierumfeld für die Validierung 5.3 Experimentelle Abläufe und Ergebnisse 5.4 Auswertung des Experiments 6 Zusammenfassung A Ausgewählte Publikationen B ExperimentierumgebungA holistic consideration of the qualitative composition of descriptive artefacts in the Internet of Services through specifically designed service platforms increases the quality of experience for the users of the offered services. In this dissertation, the existing methods for the recognition, propagation and improvement of quality metrics in service-oriented architectures are systematically included in methods related to these increased requirements. The work delivers two scientific contributions. The first one encompasses a concept for the incremental improvement of quality of services via the use of runtime mechanisms for the dynamic description and rating of non-functional properties. The second one carries a definition of an abstract interplay of architecture patterns and processes for the contractually safeguarded guarantee of quality of service properties in service ecosystems in the form of a reference architecture.:1 Einleitung 1.1 Problemdefinition 1.2 Wissenschaftliche Beiträge der Dissertation 1.3 Aufbau der Arbeit 2 Grundlagen und Verwandte Arbeiten 2.1 Dienstbeschreibungen und Dienstnutzungsverträge 2.2 Qualitätsbezogene Prozesse in Dienstumgebungen 2.3 Klassifikation und Struktur von NFE 2.4 Dienst-, Datenqualität und Metaqualität 2.5 Dienstumgebungen 3 Methodik zur Qualitätsverbesserung 3.1 Inkrementelle Qualitätsverbesserung durch Abgleichverfahren 3.2 CPEM - Ein Modell für die Ausdrucksstärke von NFE 3.3 Metaqualität von Diensten 3.4 Verfahren zur inkrementellen Qualitätsverbesserung 3.5 Einbindung der Verfahren in IoS-Plattformen 4 Plattform für das Internet der Dienste 4.1 Konzeption der Architektur 4.2 Umsetzung der Plattformdienste und Komponenten 4.3 Integrierte Architektur und Derivate 4.4 Umsetzung und Integration der SMQ-Erweiterungen 5 Validierung von Methodik und Plattform 5.1 Anforderungen an die Validierung 5.2 Experimentierumfeld für die Validierung 5.3 Experimentelle Abläufe und Ergebnisse 5.4 Auswertung des Experiments 6 Zusammenfassung A Ausgewählte Publikationen B Experimentierumgebun