Web Applications and Services

8/7/2019 Web Applications and Services

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EBAPPLICATION AND SERVICESII

CONTENTS:

Web Based Software,

Semantic Web,

Agent - Oriented Computing.

E- Business,

E-Commerce,

E- Government,

Ontology engineering,

PortalTechnologies.


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EB-BASED SOFTWARE

Web-Based Software is software you use

over the internetwith a web browser.

You donthave toinstall any CDs,download any software, or worry about

upgrades.

Ifyou use an online bank or web-based

emailprogram like Gmail, Hotmail, orYahoo Mailthen youve already used web-

based software before.


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DVANTAGE OF WEB BASED SOFTWARE

Theres nothing to install, ever.

Withweb based software theres nothing todownload or install

Your data is automatically backed up dailyOur backups are stored in multiple locations

for additional redundancy. You could say ourbackups have backups.

Youre always using the latest and greatestWhenever you use our products youre always

using the latest and greatestversion


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CONTD... You can work from home, work, or on the road: When

you use web-based software your office is everywhere. Atwork, athome, a hotel, at a clients office, even on yourmobile phone. You data is accessible anywhere withinternet access.

Saves money :Web based software can also save theupfrontcosts ofpurchasing a server based software alongwiththe required licensing, support, and updates.

Youll never have to ask Is it compatible?

Software used toonly be available for certain platforms.

There was Windows software, Mac software, etc. Oursoftware works on any platform with a web browser andinternetconnection. Mac, Windows, Linux are allsupported.


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W HAT IS THE SEMANTIC WEB?

The Semantic Web is a web thatis able to describe things in away thatcomputers can understand.y The Beatles was a popular band from Liverpool.

y John Lennon was a member ofthe Beatles.

y

"Hey Jude" was recorded by the Beatles. Sentences like the ones above can be understood by people. But

howcan they be understood by computers?

Statements are builtwith syntax rules. The syntax ofa languagedefines the rules for building the language statements. Buthowcan syntax become semantic?

This is whatthe Semantic Web is all about. Describing things in a

way thatcomputers applications can understand it. The Semantic Web is not about links between web pages.

The Semantic Web describes the relationships between things(like Ais a partofB and Yis a member of Z) and the propertiesof things (like size, weight, age, and price)


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SEMANTICWEB

The Semantic Web is an evolving

developmentofthe World Wide Web in

whichthe meaning (semantics)of

information and services on the web isdefined, making it possible for the web to

understand and satisfy the requests of

people and machines to use the web

content.

It derives from World Wide Web

Consortium director Sir Tim Berners-

Lee's vision ofthe Web as a universal

medium for data, information, and


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PURPOSE

Humans are capable ofusing the Web tocarryouttasks such as finding the Finnishword for"monkey", reserving a library book, andsearching for a low price for a DVD. However, acomputer cannot accomplishthe same taskswithouthuman direction because web pages aredesigned to be read by people, not machines. Thesemanticweb is a vision ofinformation thatisunderstandable by computers, sothatthey canperform more ofthe tedious work involved in

finding, sharing, and combining information onthe web.

In particular, the semanticweb is expected torevolutionize scientific publishing, such as real-time publishing and sharing ofexperimental dataon the Internet.


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THERESOURCEDESCRIPTION

FRAMEWORK

The RDF (Resource DescriptionFramework)is a language for describing

information and resources on the web.Putting information into RDF files, makes

it possible for computer programs ("webspiders")to search, discover, pick up,

collect, analyze and process informationfrom the web.

The Semantic Web uses RDF to describeweb resources.


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HOW CAN IT BE USED?

Ifinformation about music, cars, tickets, etc.were stored in RDF files, intelligentwebapplications could collectinformation from manydifferent sources, combine information, and

presentitto users in a meaningfulway. Information like this:

y Car prices from different resellers

y Information about medicines

y Plane schedules

y Spare parts for the industry

y Information about books (price, pages, editor, year)

y Dates ofevents

y Computer updates


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C AN IT BE UNDERSTOOD?

The Semantic Web is not a very fastgrowing technology.

One ofthe reasons for thatis the learningcurve. RDF was developed by people withacademic background in logic andartificialintelligence. For traditional

developers itis notvery easy tounderstand.

One fast growing language for buildingsemanticweb applications is RSS.


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APPLICATION.

Buying and sellingused cars

Suppose a semanticweb system was builtto administer the selling and buying of

used cars over the Internet.The system would contain two main

applications:y One for people whowanted to buy a car

y One for people whowanted to put up a car forsale

Let's callthe Internet applications for IBA(I Buy Application), and ISA(I Sell

Application).


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IBA - THEIBUYAPPLICATION

People whowantto buy a car could use an IBAapplication muchlike this:

In a "reallive" application you would be asked toidentify yourselfthe firsttime you used it. YourIDwould be stored in an RDF file. Your IDwouldidentify you as a person with name, address,email, and ID number.

When you submitted the query, the applicationwould return a listofcars for sale, and the listcould be drilled down and sorted by year, price,location and availability. This information wouldbe returned from a web spider continuouslysearching the web for RDF files.


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ISA - THEI SELL APPLICATION

People whowantto sell a car could use anISA application muchlike this:

When you submitted the form, theapplication would ask you for moreinformation and store your ID and theinformation in an RDF file made availabletothe web.

The RDF file would contain informationlike:

Your ID:Name, address, email, IDnumber.

Your selling item:type, model, picture,


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BEHIND THE SCENES

Behind the scenes, the "ISA" application createsan RDF file with a lotofRDF pointers.

Itcreates an RDF pointer to a file withinformation about you, an RDF pointer toinformation aboutVolvo and Volvo models, anRDF pointer toVolvo dealers and resellers, aboutparts, about prices, and much more.

An RDF pointer is a pointer (actually an URL)toinformation aboutthings (like a knowledgedatabase).

The beauty aboutthis is that you don'thave todescribe yourself, or the car model. The RDF

application will sortitoutfor you.


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CHALLENGES Vastness:The World Wide Web contains atleast 48 billion pages as of

this writing (August 2, 2009). Any automated reasoning system willhaveto dealwithtruly huge inputs.

Vagueness:These are imprecise concepts like "young" or "tall". Thisarises from the vagueness ofuser queries, ofconcepts represented bycontent providers, ofmatching query terms to provider terms and oftrying tocombine different knowledge bases withoverlapping but subtlydifferentconcepts. Fuzzy logicis the mostcommon technique for dealing

withvagueness. Uncertainty:These are precise concepts with uncertain values. For

example, a patient might present a setofsymptoms whichcorrespond toa number ofdifferent distinct diagnoses eachwith a different probability.Probabilistic reasoning techniques are generally employed to addressuncertainty.

Inconsistency:These are logicalcontradictions whichwillinevitably

arise during the developmentoflarge ontologies, and when ontologiesfrom separate sources are combined. Deductive reasoning failscatastrophically when faced withinconsistency, because "anythingfollows from a contradiction". Defeasible reasoning and paraconsistentreasoning are twotechniques whichcan be employed to dealwithinconsistency.

Deceit:This is when the producer ofthe information is intentionallymisleading the consumer ofthe information. Cryptography techniquesare currently utilized to ameliorate this threat.


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PROJECTS

SIOC - The Semantically-Interlinked Online Communitiesprovides a vocabulary ofterms and relationships that modelwebdata spaces. Examples ofsuch data spaces include, among others:discussion forums, weblogs, blogrolls / feed subscriptions, mailinglists, shared bookmarks, image galleries.

Open GUID -Aimed at providing contextfor the Semantic Web,

Open GUID maintains a global Identifier repository for use in thelinked web. Domain-specificOntologies and content publishersestablishidentity relationships withOpen GUIDs.

SIMILE - SemanticInteroperability ofMetadata andInformation in unLike Environments. SIMILEis a joint project,conducted by the MIT Libraries and MITCSAIL, which seeks toenhance interoperability among digital assets,

schemata/vocabularies/ontologies, meta data, and services. NextBio -A database consolidating high-throughputlife sciences

experimental data tagged and connected via biomedicalontologies. Nextbiois accessible via a search engine interface.Researchers can contribute their findings for incorporation tothedatabase. The database currently supports gene or proteinexpression data and is steadily expanding to supportotherbiological data types.


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SEMANTIC WEB AGENTS

The semanticweb will not be searchable in freetext. To search(or access)the semanticweb, wewill need some software tohelp us.

To use the semanticweb, we will need "Semantic

Web Agents" or "Semantic Web Services". These"Agents" or "Services" willhelp us tofind whatwe are looking for on the semanticweb.y On the semanticweb, we mightwanttolook for

information about:

y The cheapest airline tickets

y Styling thatwould fit my cary Books, DVDs, and CDs

y Weather forecasts

y Time schedules and calendar events

y Stock prices and exchange rates


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ONTOLOGY ENGINEERING

Ontology engineering in computer science and

information science is a newfield, which studies

the methods and methodologies for building

ontologies:formal representations ofa setof

concepts within a domain and the relationships

between those concepts.


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ONTOLOGY

An ontology is a taxonomy ofconcepts and their definitionssupported by a logicaltheory, such as first-order predicatecalculus.

Ontologies have been defined as an explicit specification ofaconceptualization.

An ontology expresses, for a particular domain, the setofterms,entities, objects, classes and the relationships between them, andprovides formal definitions and axioms thatconstrain theinterpretation ofthese terms.

An ontology permits a richvariety ofstructural and nonstructuralrelationships, such as generalization, inheritance, aggregation,and instantiation and can supply a precise domain modelforsoftware applications.

For instance, an ontology can provide the object schema ofobject-oriented systems and class definitions for conventional software.

Ontologies provide a common vocabulary ofan area and define,with differentlevels offormality, the meaning ofthe terms andthe relationships between them.


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USES

Ontologies are nowwidely used iny knowledge engineering,

y artificialintelligence and

y

computer science;y in applications related to areas such as knowledge

management,

y naturallanguage processing,

y e-commerce,

y intelligentinformation integration,

y bio-informatics, education; andy in new emerging fields like the semanticweb.


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ENTERPRISE ONTOLOGY

The main purpose ofan enterprise ontology according toLeppnen (2007)is to "promote the common understandingbetween people across enterprises as well as to serve as acommunication medium between people and application

and between different applications". Enterprise-modeling ontologies according to Fox and

Gruninger (1998) arey Distinguished by their scope and the central role of

integrating multiple ontologies.

y The ontologies must be able to representconcepts in thedomains ofactivity, time, resource, product, service,

organization, goal, and policy.y Further, these ontologies must be integrated to support

reasoning that requires the use ofmultiple ontologies andsupportinteroperability among tools using differentontologies.

y For example, the notion ofmanufacturability requiresreasoning aboutthe product properties, preconditions, and

effects ofactivities and the capabilities ofresources.


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SEMANTIC PLURALITY

Throughoutthe manufacturing life cycle, software applications, such asprocess planning, process modeling, scheduling, workflow and simulation,use process information to describe the activities involved in production,resource requirements, ordering relations and temporalconstraints. Theseapplications do not usually inter-operate, althoughthe output data andprocesses ofone application may constitute the inputofanother. For eachsoftware application and vendor, a translator musttherefore be written to

allowfor data and process sharing. Because the process definitions are not explicit, one encounters

incompatibilities due to problems ofsynonymy and inconsistencies due tosemantic plurality. Synonymy occurs when twoobjects or classesrepresenting the same function are called with a different name or string.Itis notobvious in machine communication that automobile (application

A) = vehicle (application B).

Semantic plurality occurs when the same names cover two different

meanings in two applications. For instance, resource (application A) =consumable-resource, whereas resource (application B) = machine-tool.

Point-to-pointtranslators have traditionally been designed for problems ofthis kind. Butwhen many applications need tointer-operate, the numberoftranslators to be written increases exponentially, and so does the costofimplementing interoperability.


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AGENT ORIENTED COMPUTING

Agent-orientation has been regarded as a

promising approachto meetchallenges for

developing more and more complicated

software tooperate in open and dynamicenvironments.

The recent years have seen a rapid growth

ofresearchin agentoriented

methodologies. A number ofdifferentapproaches have been proposed and

advanced in the literature.


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WHAT IS ANAGENT?

An agentis any entity whose state is viewed asconsisting ofmentalcomponents (e.g., beliefs,capabilities, choices, and commitments).

So agenthood is in the mind ofthe programmer.

While anything can be viewed as having mentalstates, its not always advantageous to do so.


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AOPVERSUS OOP

Use mentalconstructs to design thecomputational system. Mentalcategoriesappear in the programming language.Programming language semantics relatestothe semantics ofmentalconstructs. Theagent-oriented programming (AOP)framework specializes the object-oriented

programming (OOP) paradigm in the senseofHewitts Actors:view a computationalsystem as composed ofcommunicatingmodules, eachwithits own way ofhandlingmessages. AOP fixes the (mental) state ofthe modules (agents)toconsistofcomponents such as beliefs, capabilities,and decisions.

Acomputation consists ofthese agents

informing, requesting, offering,accepting,rejecting, competing, and assisting oneanother. According to speech acttheory,eachtype ofcommunication actinvolvesdifferent presuppositions and has differenteffects.

Basic Unit Object Agent

Parametersdefining

state of basicunit

unconstrained beliefs,commitments,choices

Process of

computation

messagepassing and

responsemethods

messagepassing and

responsemethods

Types ofmessages

unconstrained inform, request,offer,

promise, decline

Constraints on

methods

none honesty,consistency


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TWO SCENARIOS

The first scenariois complex -- the type ofapplication envisioned.

The second is a toy example serving threepurposes: Itcrisply illustrates several AOP ideas. Its implementable in the simpleAGENT-0 language defined later. Itillustrates the factthat agents

neednt be robotic agents.


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MANUFACTURINGAUTOMATION Agents:

Alfred handles regular-order cars.

Brenda handles special-order cars.

Calvin is a welding robot.

Dashielis a coordinating program controlling the plant.

8:00: Alfred requests thatCalvin promise toweld ten bodies for him that day. Calvinagrees to do so.

8:30: Alfred requests thatCalvin acceptthe first body, Calvin agrees, and the first bodyarrives. Calvin starts welding it and promises Alfred to notify him when itis ready

for the next body. 8:45: Brenda requests thatCalvin work on a special-order car whichis needed

urgently. Calvin responds thatitcannot rightthen. butthatitwillwhen itfinishes thecurrent job, at approximately 9:00.

9:05:Calvin completes welding Alfred's firstcar, ships itout, and offers toweldBrenda's car. Brenda ships itthe car, and Calvin starts welding.

9:15: Alfred enquires why Calvin is not yet ready for his (Alfred's) nextcar. Calvinexplains why, and alsothatit(Calvin) expects to be ready by about10:00.

9:55:Calvin completes welding Brenda's car, and ships ifout. Brenda requests thatitreacceptit and do some painting, butCalvin refuses, explaining thatit does not-knowhowto paint. Calvin then offers toweld another car for Alfred, and proceeds toweldAlfred's cars for a while.

12:15: Brenda requests thatCalvin committowelding four more special-order cars thatday. Calvin replies thatitcannot, since thatconflicts withits commitmentto Alfred,who stillhas six unwelded cars. Brenda requests Alfred to release Calvin from itscommitmentto Alfred. Alfred refuses.Brenda requests thatDashiel(remember

Dashiel?)order Calvin.to accepther important request and revoke its commitmenttoAlfred. Dashielorders Calvin toweld twoofBrenda's cars, and then as many ofAlfred's


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OVERVIEW OF THEAOP

FRAMEWORK

Acomplete AOP system includes three primarycomponents:y a restricted formallanguage (including several

modalities such as beliefand commitment)withclearsyntax and semantics for describing mental states;

y an interpreted programming language in whichtodefine and program agents, with primitive commands(e.g., REQUEST, INFORM);

y an agentifier, converting neutral devices intoprogrammable agents.

Component 2 relies on component1.

Component3 remains rather mysterious.


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ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

Electronic Commerce, commonly known as (electronic

marketing)e-commerce or eCommerce, consists ofthe

buying and selling ofproducts or services over electronic

systems such as the Internet and other computer networks.

The amountoftrade conducted electronically has grownextraordinarily withwidespread Internet usage.

Electroniccommerce is generally considered to be the

sales aspectofe-business. It alsoconsists ofthe

exchange ofdata tofacilitate the financing andpayment aspects ofthe business transactions.


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HAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES

OF E-COMMERCE?

The major different types of e-commerce are:

business-to-business (B2B)

business-to-consumer (B2C)

business-to-government (B2G)

consumer-to-consumer (C2C)

mobile commerce (m-commerce).


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WHAT ISB2B E-COMMERCE?

B2B e-commerce is simply defined as e-commercebetween companies.

About 80% ofe-commerce is ofthis type, and mostexperts predictthat B2B e-commerce willcontinue to

growfaster than the B2C segment. The B2B markethas two primary components:

e-frastructure and e-markets.

Efrastructure is the architecture ofB2B, primarilyconsisting ofthe following:

logistics - transportation, warehousing anddistribution (e.g., Procter and Gamble);

application service providers - deployment, hosting andmanagementofpackaged software from a centralfacility (e.g., Oracle and Linkshare);


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WHAT ISB2CE-COMMERCE?

Business-to-consumer e-commerce, or commerce betweencompanies and consumers, involves customers gatheringinformation; purchasing physical goods (i.e., tangibles such asbooks or consumer products)or information goods (or goods ofelectronic materialor digitized content, such as software, or e-books); and, for information goods, receiving products over anelectronic network.

Itis the second largest and the earliestform ofe-commerce. Its origins can be traced toonline retailing (or e-tailing).

Thus, the more common B2C business models are the onlineretailing companies such as Amazon.com, Drugstore.com, OtherB2C examples involving information goods are E-Trade andTravelocity.

The more common applications ofthis type ofe-commerce are inthe areas ofpurchasing products and information, and personalfinance management, which pertains tothe managementofpersonalinvestments and finances withthe use ofonline bankingtools


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WHAT ISB2G E-COMMERCE?

Business-to-government e-commerce or B2G is generally definedas commerce between companies and the public sector. It refers tothe use ofthe Internetfor public procurement, licensingprocedures, and other government-related operations. This kindofe-commerce has twofeatures:first, the public sector assumes a

pilot/leading role in establishing e-commerce; and second, itisassumed thatthe public sector has the greatest need for makingits procurement system more effective.15

Web-based purchasing policies increase the transparency oftheprocurement process (and reduces the risk ofirregularities). Todate, however, the size ofthe B2G e-commerce market as a

componentoftotal e-commerce is insignificant, as government e-procurement systems remain undeveloped


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WHAT ISC2CE-COMMERCE?

Consumer-to-consumer e-commerce or C2Cis simply commercebetween private individuals or consumers.

This type ofe-commerce is characterized by the growthofelectronic marketplaces and online auctions, particularly inverticalindustries where firms/businesses can bid for whattheywantfrom among multiple suppliers. It perhaps has the greatest

potentialfor developing new markets. This type ofe-commerce comes in atleastthree forms:

auctions facilitated at a portal, such as eBay, which allows onlinereal-time bidding on items being sold in the Web;

peer-to-peer systems, such as the Napster model(a protocolforsharing files between users used by chatforums similar to IRC)

and other file exchange and later money exchange models; and classified ads at portal sites such as Excite Classifieds and

eWanted (an interactive, online marketplace where buyers andsellers can negotiate and whichfeatures Buyer Leads & Want

Ads).


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CONTD...

Consumer-to-business (C2B)transactionsinvolve reverse auctions, which empower theconsumer to drive transactions. Aconcrete

example ofthis when competing airlines givesa traveler besttravel and ticketoffers inresponse tothe travelers postthat she wantstofly from New York toSan Francisco.

There is little information on the relative sizeofglobalC2C e-commerce. However, C2Cfigures ofpopular C2C sites such as eBay andNapster indicate thatthis marketis quitelarge. These sites produce millions ofdollars in

sales every day.


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E-COMMERCE ADVANTAGES Being able toconduct business 24 x 7 x 365 .

Access the global marketplace

Speed

Marketspace

Opportunity to reduce costs

Allowing customer selfservice and 'customer outsourcing'


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E-COMMERCE DISADVANTAGES

Time for delivery ofphysical products

Physical product, supplier & delivery uncertainty

Perishable goods

Limited and selected sensory information.

Returning goods.

Privacy, security, payment, identity, contract

Personal service


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WHAT ISA PORTAL?

A portalis a gate, a door, or entrance. In the

contextofthe World Wide Web, itis the next

logical step in the evolution toward a digital

culture.Portals have become one ofthe mostvisible

information technology (IT)issues in higher

education, as well as the commercial sector.

IBM defined Portal as a single integrated,ubiquitous,and useful [pointof] access to

information (data), applications and people (IBM,

2000)

A portal may look like a Web site, but it is much more

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