Semantic web service

Semantic Web Services are self-contained, self-describing, semantically marked-up software resources that can be published, discovered, composed and executed across the Web in a task driven semi-automatic way. Semantic Web Services can be defined as the dynamic part of the semantic web.

The Problem Addressed by Semantic Web Services

The mainstream XML standards for interoperation of web services specify only syntactic interoperability, not the semantic meaning of messages. For example, WSDL can specify the operations available through a web service and the structure of data sent and received but cannot specify semantic meaning of the data or semantic constraints on the data. This requires programmers to reach specific agreements on the interaction of web services and makes automatic web service composition difficult. Semantic web services solve these problems by providing another layer on top of the web service infrastructure to supply semantic meaning for web services.

Potential Benefits of Semantic Web Services

Semantic Web Services can enable the dynamic discovery, composition and execution of functionality with the aim of providing a higher order level of value-added services.

Choreography vs. Orchestration

Choreography is concerned with describing the external visible behavior of services, as a set of message exchanges optionally following a Message Exchange Pattern (MEP), from the functionality consumer point of view.

Orchestration deals with describing how a number of services, 2 or more, cooperate and communicate with the aim of achieving a common goal.

Related Technologies

Semantic Web Languages

• OIL
• DAML
• DAML+OIL
• OWL
• RDF
• WSML
• SAWSDL

Semantic Web Service frameworks

• WSMF
• OWL-S
• WSMO
• IRS-III
• METEOR-S

Related Projects

European projects

• Ongoing projects funded in the Sixth Framework Program
  • DIP
  • Knowledge Web
  • LUISA
  • Transitioning Applications to Ontologies
  • INFRAWEBS
  • SemanticGov
  • SUPER
• Previous projects funded in the Fifth Framework Program
  • Esperonto (IST-2001-34373) has developed ODE SWS, a toolset for design and composition of Semantic Web Services
  • SWWS

Other projects

• SWSI. The Semantic Web Services Initiative is an ad hoc initiative of academic and industrial researchers, many of which are involved in DARPA and research projects funded by the European Community.
• METEOR-S. A project of the LSDIS Lab, University of Georgia and Kno.e.sis Center, Wright State University.
• 3S@kno.e.sis. Semantics(Services, Science) : The 3S project at the kno.e.sis center, Wright State University, Dayton, OH.
• Web 2.0 Metasearch and News Filter

References

• Sinuhe Arroyo; et al. (2004). Semantic Aspects of Web Services in Practical Handbook of Internet Computing. Chapman Hall and CRC Press. ISBN 1-58488-381-2. {{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)

• Cardoso, J., Sheth, Amit (Eds.), (2006). Semantic Web Services, Processes and Applications. Springer. ISBN 0-387-30239-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Zeng, Honglei (March 2001). "Semantic Web Services" (PDF). Intelligent Systems. 16. IEEE: 46–53. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)