SEMANTIC COMMERCE

Presented by: Kate Bronstad

For: INF 385t Semantic Web Technologies

Date: April 26th, 2006

OVERVIEW

• Definition and Possibilities: the semantic commerce vision

• Web Services: step towards semantic commerce

• Methods: Steps toward semantic commerce as applied to web services

• Reality: Current state of semantic commerce

WHAT IS SEMANTIC COMMERCE?

• Not yet a buzz phrase

• Included: semantic e-commerce, semantic e-business, semantic enabled web services, semantic web enabled web services, semantic web services, semantic e-services(?)

WHAT IS SEMANTIC COMMERCE?

• One definition,

“An approach to managing knowledge for the coordination of e-business processes through the systematic application of semantic web technologies”

- Singh, R., Iyer, L.S. and Salam, A.F. “Semantic e-business Vision”

W3C’s SEMANTIC COMMERCE VISION

How do you buy a book over the Semantic Web? 1. You browse/query until you find a suitable offer to sell

the book you want. 2. You add information to the Semantic Web saying that

you accept the offer and giving details (your name, shipping address, credit card information, etc). Of course you add it (1) with access control so only you and seller can see it, and (2) you store it in a place where the seller can easily get it, perhaps the seller's own server, (3) you notify the seller about it.

3. You wait or query for confirmation that the seller has received your acceptance, and perhaps (later) for shipping information, etc.

4. This approach allows automation of the process, detailed record-keeping, and excellent process abstraction.

CLAY SHIRKEY’S RESPONSE

“One doubts Jeff Bezos is losing sleep”

A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

• By imparting machine-understandable meaning on data:

- Revolutionizes how businesses communicate with each other, their

customers and within their own organizations - Enhance knowledge discovery,

automate many of the business processes

ALIGNED WITH THE SEMANTIC WEB VISION AND STRUCTURE

• Ontologies provide standard vocabulary to represent meaning

• Knowledge representation provides structure and rules for automated reasoning

• Intelligent agents, using above frameworks, decipher and exchange information for users

FRAMEWORK OF AN E-COMMERCE TRANSACTION

• Matchmaking - Appropriate provider located• Negotiation - Are terms agreeable between traders?• Contract Formation - Agreement becomes legally binding• Contract Fulfillment - Transaction carried out according to agreement

WITH SEMANTIC COMMERCE,

• These steps could be automatic, seamless

• Business partnerships could be discovered dynamically

• Interactions could occur on-demand• Interactions can occur even when

there isn’t a long-standing relationship between businesses

• Automate administrative tasks

HOW DO PROGRAMS COMMUNICATE AT ALL THE

DIFFERENT LEVELS?

• Large degree of heterogeneity between businesses

• Create ontologies and frameworks that enable interoperability in spite of inevitable differences

WEB SERVICES

• Built on an SOA where services are available to different users and reusable for different needs

• Services can be discovered, described and accessed using:

- XML, an open standard, as syntax - SOAP (or REST) for service-specific grammar - HTTP to send messages (or FTP, SMTP or XMPP)

WEB SERVICE DETAILS

• Requestor discovers appropriate service in UDDI or ebXML registry (like phone book)

• Requestor gets the WSDL about the service

• Using WSDL information, SOAP message dynamically constructed

• Provider uses SOAP to respond back to requestor

WEB SERVICE DETAILS

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_service

CURRENTLY, WEB SERVICES NOT SEMANTIC ENABLED

• Web service descriptions in WSDL are syntactic - can describe to programs how it works, but not what it works for. Must have human language description

• If different interaction styles, programmer must select web services manually, then create software to interact with specific web service

NEXT STEP: Semantic-enriched web service descriptions

• Businesses could dynamically locate needed services

• Cooperation between businesses could be semi-automated

Source:http://webservices.sys-con.com

FOR SEMANTIC WEB SERVICES, PROGRAM AGENTS NEED TO:

• DISCOVER – automated matchmaking; meaning of purpose understandable to program/agent

• INVOCATE – instructions to agent regarding service execution

• COMPOSE/ORCHESTRATE – new services created by combining existing ones

• MONITOR – agent verifies and monitors service execution, progress and completion

WSMF

• Web Service Modeling Framework for semantic web service discovery, execution and composition

• Based on decoupling of components that make up a B2B application, and mediation that allows for differences between businesses

WSMF: Framework for Semantic web services

• Ontologies: define terminology• Goal repositories: describe client

objectives• Web Service Descriptions: what is

being offered and how to work with the service

• Mediators: translate between incompatibilites – works with Web Service Modeling Ontology

MEDIATORS IN WSMO• ooMediators: ontological

differences/resolve vocabulary discrepancies

• wwMediators: link services in spite of protocol or process differences

• wgMediators: matchmaking – link goals with services

• ggMediators: connect goals/allow refinement of goals

Source: Bruijn, et al “Using the web service modeling ontology to enable semantic e-business”

OTHER WEB SERVICE ONTOLOGIES AND

FRAMEWORKS• OWL-S – allows for semantic

description of services. No mediators but work on B2BOOM framework which would translate

• METEOR-S – working to integrate current web services with semantic web technologies, but doesn’t help with heteregeneous integration

OTHER BEGINNINGS OF SEMANTICALLY-INCLINED

COMMERCE

• IBM internet technology grouphttp://www-03.ibm.com/industries/education/doc/content/news/pressrelease/1217461110.html

• Adobe’s XMPhttp://www.adobe.com/products/xmp/

• NOKIA’s and MIT’s “SwapMe” http://dig.csail.mit.edu/SwapMe/

SwapMe

• Semantic Web Application Platform for Mobile Environments

• Context aware: able to give information based on user context

• Policy aware: able to interact with other services, agents, users

HURDLES TO SEMANTIC COMMERCE IN GENERAL

• Technical requirements• Privacy and security issues - XMLDSig, XMLEnc, XKMS, WS-Trust,

XACM, WS-Policy, SAML• Business.semanticweb.org turned

into rss-extensions.org

The little “s” semantic commerce

• RSS - advertisements - subscriptions• The new boom: Web 2.0• Reputation/reviews/ratings

CONCLUSIONS AND QUESTIONS

• Semantic commerce more of a concept than a reality

• But working toward it in both big S and little s arenas.

• Which area seems more promising?• Will the issues of privacy and trust

discourage further growth?

REFERENCES• Cowles, Paul “Web service API and the Semantic Web”http://webservices.sys-con.com/read/39631.htm?CFID=174535&CFTOKEN=10E0D38F-1220-ED2B-F5B2EBC723FA845A• Daconta, Michael C., et al.(2003).

The Semantic Web : A Guide to the Future of XML, Web Services, and Knowledge Management. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

• De Bruijin, J. , Fensel, D., Keller, U., Lara, R. Using the Web Service Modeling Ontology to Enable Semantic E-Business. Communications of the ACM. 48, 12 (December 2005) 43-47.

• Festa, Paul “Do we need the Semantic Web?” CNET News.com

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/insight/internet/webservices/0,39020460,39191131,00.htm

REFERENCES• “How the Semantic Web Works”http://www.w3.org/2002/03/semweb/• Shirkey, Clay. The Semantic Web, Syllogism, and Worldviewhttp://www.shirky.com/writings/semantic_syllogism.html• Singh, R., Iyer, L.S., Salam, A.F. The Semantic E-Business

Vision Communications of the ACM. 48, 12 (December 2005), 38-41

• Trastour, D., Bartolini, C., Preist, C. Semantic Web Support for the Business-to-Business E-commerce Pre-contractual Lifecycle. Computer Networks. 42, 5. (2003), 661-73.

• WSMF: www.swsi.org/resources/wsmf-paper.pdf • WSMO: www.wsmo.org