Web Service Modeling Ontology (WSMO)
Tutorial for NetObjectDays 2004
June 15th, 2004
Christoph Bussler et al
Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI)
National University of Ireland, Galway
Galway, Ireland
E-Mail: Chris.Bussler@deri.ie
Phone: +353 87 682 69 40
Goals of the Tutorial “Web Service Modeling Ontology (WSMO)”
“Web Services” are defined as “loosely coupled, reusable components that semantically encapsulate discrete functionality and are distributed and programmatically accessible over standard internet protocols” [Stencil Group, see www.stencilgroup.com/ideas_scope_200106wsdefined.html]. They constitute one of the “hot” areas in web technology supporting the remote invocation of business functionality over the Internet through message exchange. They promise a new level of service on top of the current web due to their possibilities of being assembled to perform functions or execute business processes. Research activities as well as industrial developments focus on implementing the mechanisms required for the remote invocation of (application) logic using standards. Marketers are pushing Web Services as THE future way of providing value-added services over the internet.
Concurrently, the idea and vision of the “Semantic Web” catches on and researchers as well as companies have already realized of the benefits of this great vision. Ontologies are considered as the basic building block of the Semantic Web as they allow machine supported data interpretation reducing the human involvement in data integration.
Basic concepts applied are ontologies that allow machine supported data interpretation While both efforts are very powerful in themselves, their combination, termed “Semantic Web Services (SWS)” opens tremendous possibilities. Web Services will transform the web from a static collection of information into a distributed device of computation. Semantic Web technology makes the World Wide Web machine-interpretable. Semantic Web Services will allow the automatic discovery, composition and execution of inter-organization business logic, making the Internet become a global common platform where organizations and individuals communicate among each other to carry out various commercial activities and to provide value-added services.
The proposed tutorial “Web Service Modeling Ontology (WSMO)”, however, focuses on the Semantic Web Services initiative mainly carried by DERI and several European Union projects (DIP, SEKT, Knowledge Web, SWWS) in order to provide an ontology that allows describing the various aspects of Semantic Web Services, providing a solution for the integration problem (www.wsmo.org). Around WSMO, several tools for handling Semantic Web Services are developed, including a reasoner for discovery of Web Services, an editor for WSMO component descriptions, and repository for WSMO components. WSMO embodies a world-wide standard initiative, developed together with industrial partners and other research groups, and aligned with many different research projects. The pillars of WSMO are supplied by the Web Service Modeling Framework (WSMF), which serves as a conceptual basis. Moreover, WSMO is aligned with several other initiatives that address the problems arising in Semantic Web Services, aiming at integrating emerging technologies and overcoming the drawbacks of existing approaches.
The tutorial will enable the attendees to understand and characterize the WSMO and how to use it to describe the various aspects of Web Services. In particular, attendees will learn about the ideas and concepts underlying Semantic Web Services and gain the skills to successfully and efficiently use WSMO. The tutorial will, as far as possible, subscribe a constructivist model of learning. Therefore we will illustrate WSMO concepts through concrete examples and the tutorial will end with a hands on session where attendees will use a number of tools which support the creation and use of WSMO based Semantic Web Services. The hands on session will use both tools which are being implemented within the WSMO and WSMX working groups and IRS-II a tool which was used by students attending last year’s OntoWeb summer school on Ontological Engineering and the Semantic web to create semantic web service based applications. IRS-II is scheduled to be WSMO compliant by June, 2004.
Thus, after the tutorial attendees will be able to:
· understand WSMO,
· model Semantic Web Services using the WSMO ontology,
· understand the main technologies underlying WSMO, and
· to correctly assess technologies, products, and developments on the market from a Semantic Web Services perspective.
We will present, discuss and teach the current state of WSMO as well as put the current state into perspective by discussing ongoing WSMO related work and possible future directions. A substantial list of references will be provided for subsequent follow-up and literature research, together with an intensive enumeration of use cases and applications.
Activities
The tutorial will include a presentation in style of a lecture and an interactive hands on session – detailed description of contents given below.
Audience
The intended audience is anyone interested in Web Services, the Semantic Web and their application. Specifically, users of Web Services technology who would like to get a broader understanding of the WSMO are invited as well as users who plan to deploy Web Services technology for the Semantic Web in the future. In addition, researchers who want to get a better understanding of Semantic Web Services and WSMO.
The tutorial is mid-level not requiring any Web Services or Semantic Web technology knowledge or experience.
Table of Contents
I. Introduction to the Semantic Web and Semantic Web Services
II. Introduction to WSMO
III. The Building Blocks of WSMO
IV. Choreography and Orchestration
V. The Execution Environment WSMX
VI. The various Languages: WSML
VII. Hands on session
Detailed Description of Contents
I. Introduction to the Semantic Web and Semantic Web Services
Contents/Scope:
· Semantic Web
· Ideas and vision / potentials and trends
· Concepts for the Semantic Web
· Ontologies
· Semantic Web Languages
· Web Services
· Fundamental idea of Web Services
· Installation-free business logic access
· Installation-free application system access
· Concepts of Web Services
· Remote invocation
· Related technologies: UDDI, SOAP, WSDL
· Semantic Web Services
· Fundamental idea and concepts of Semantic Web Services
· Related technologies
· Service Usage
· Discovery, filtering, composition and execution
Goal: Enable the attendees to:
· introduce the fundamental ideas and concepts behind syntactic the Semantic Web
· present the Semantic Web vision (potentials and trends)
· appreciate the power of SWS compared to Web Services and the Semantic Web
· decide to participate in the rest of the tutorial
II. Introduction to WSMO
Contents/Scope:
· WSMO: The Vision
· WSMF (The Web Service Modeling Framework)
· Introduction to WSMO
· Objectives
· Components
· WSMO Species
· WSMO-Lite
· WSMO-Standard
· WSMO-Full
· WSMO vs related initiatives
· Overview of contents of tutorial
Goal: Enable the attendees to
· introduce the vision behind WSMO
· present WSMO and its specification structure
· realize of the different layers involved in WSMO
· Compare WSMO with related initiatives and appreciate its power and how it overcomes its drawbacks
III. The Building Blocks of WSMO
Contents/Scope:
· Ontologies
· Goals
· Web Services
· Mediators
Goal: Enable the attendees to
· understand the different components involved in WSMO
· learn the role played by each one of them within the specification
· understand the concepts and technologies involved in the creation and use of the Semantic Web Services within WSMO
IV. Choreography and Orchestration
Contents/Scope:
· Choreography
· Ontology
· Usage
· Orchestration ontology
· Ontology
· Usage
Goal: Enable the attendees to
· understand the concepts behind have a clear view about the choreography ontology
· understand the concepts behind have a clear view about the orchestration ontology
· learn how to use it within WSMO
V. The Execution Environment WSMX
Contents/Scope:
· Conceptual model and concepts
· Execution semantics
· Mediation
· Architecture
· Implementation
Goal: Enable the attendees to
· understand the concepts behind WSMX in WSMO
· learn how to describe complex tasks
· understand WSMX execution semantics
· have a clear view about discovery, mediation and invocation
· see a working version of the WSMX software
VI. The Various Languages: WSML
Contents/Scope:
· WSML basic concepts
· WSML model
· WSML structure
· WSML semantics
Goal: Enable the attendees to
· understand WSML and its basic concepts
· learn how to use the language
· have a clear view of the WSML structure
· understand WSML semantics
· realize of the benefits provided by WSML
VII. Hands on Session
Contents/Scope:
· Modeling a WSMO based semantic web service using a WSMO editor
· Grounding/binding descriptions to deployed existing web services
· Executing the web services through goal based queries using a WSMO compliant IRS-II (http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/irs/).
· Executing the web services through WSMX
Goal: Enable the attendees to
· learn how to model Semantic Web Services using WSMO
· learn how to create Semantic Web Service based applications
· gain expertise on WSMO and various tools
Time and Audio/Visual Requirements
The tutorial is targeted as an 8 hours workshop with a focus on WSMO related issues. A beamer is required to connect the laptop for the presentation. Machines will be required for the attendees to create WSMO based Semantic Web Services in groups of 2-4.
CV and Professional Activities of Presenters
Christoph Bussler (http://hometown.aol.com/chbussler) is Executive Director of the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at the National University Ireland, Galway in Ireland. In addition to his role as Executive Director of DERI, Chris leads the Semantic Web Services research cluster at DERI.
Before taking this position he was Member of Oracle’s Integration Platform Architecture Group based in Redwood Shores, CA, USA. He was responsible for the architecture of Oracle’s next generation integration product providing EAI, B2B and ASP integration. Prior to joining Oracle he was at Jamcracker, Cupertino, CA, USA, responsible for defining Jamcracker’s ASP aggregation architecture, Netfish Technologies (acquired by IONA), Santa Clara, CA, USA, responsible for Netfish’s B2B integration server, The Boeing Company, Seattle, WA, USA, leading Boeing’s workflow research and Digital Equipment (acquired by Compaq, acquired by Hewlett-Packard), Mountain View, CA, USA, defining the policy resolution component of Digital’s workflow product.
He has a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Erlangen, Germany and a Master in computer science from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Chris published a new book titled 'B2B Integration', two books in workflow management, over 60 research papers in journals and academic conferences, gave tutorials on several topics including B2B integration and workflow management and was keynote speaker at many conferences and workshops.
His tutorials were accepted for presentation at CAiSE 2003, Net.ObjectDays 2002, at the federated conferences (CoopIS, DOA, ODBASE) 2002, SIGMOD ’02, International Semantic Web Conference 2002, the International Semantic Web Working Symposium 2001, SIGMOD ’01, IFIP Conference on Database Semantics 2001 (DS-9), ECSCW ’99, CAISE ’99, CSCW ’98 and EuroPDS ’98 conferences.
He serves as program committee member as well as reviewer at many international conferences. In addition, he is professionally active as member of many organizations including the Semantic Web Services Initiative and Semantic Web Science Association. He is frequently invited to present keynotes and serves as panel member.
Et al to follow here
Relevant Publications and Teaching
For relevant papers and teaching experience please consult the home pages of the authors.