This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed postproceedings of the First International Workshop on Semantic Web Services and Web Process Composition, SWSWPC 2004, held in San Diego, CA, USA in July 2004. The 9 revised full papers presented together with an introduction by the volume editors, a panel summary and the extended abstract of an invited talk were carefully selected during two rounds of reviewing and improvement. Web services and Web processes promise to ease several current Web infrastructure challenges, such as the integration of data, applications and processes. Web services are truly platform independent and allow the development of distributed loosely coupled applications, a key characteristic for the success of dynamic processes.

Thisbookconstitutestherefereedproceedingsofthe1stInternationalWorkshop on Semantic Web Services and Web Process Composition, SWSWPC 2004, held at the Westin Horton Plaza Hotel, San Diego, California, USA, July 6, 2004, in conjunction with the IEEE International Conference on Web Services (ICWS 2004). Theworkshopintendedtobringresearchers,scientistsfrombothindustryand academics,andrepresentativesfromdi?erentcommunitiestogethertostudy,- derstand, and explore the phases that compose the lifecycle of Semantic Web processes. The workshop presented what can be achieved by the symbiotic s- thesis of two of the hottest R&D and technology application areas, Web services and the Semantic Web, as recognized at the 12th International World Wide Web conference (WWW 2003) and in the industry press. The emphasis of the workshop was mainly on Web services, Web processes and semantics which are important movements emerging in the World Wide Web. Web services and Web processes promise to ease several current infr- tructure challenges, such as data, application, and process integration. Web s- vices are truly platform-independent and allow the development of distributed, loosely coupled applications, a key characteristic for the success of dynamic Web processes.

"Detailing the functions, issues and trends of service composition, this book offers the most relevant research and models pertaining to the design and maturity of semantic use"--Provided by publisher.

Semantics, Web services, and Web processes promise better re-use, universal interoperability and integration. Semantics has been recognized as the primary tool to address the challenges of a broad spectrum of heterogeneity and for improving automation through machine understandable descriptions. Semantic Web Services, Processes and Applications brings contributions from researchers who study, explore and understand the semantic enabling of all phases of semantic Web processes. This encompasses design, annotation, discovery, choreography and composition. Also this book presents fundamental capabilities and techniques associated with ontological modeling or services, annotation, matching and mapping, and reasoning. This is complemented by discussion of applications in e-Government and bioinformatics. Special bulk rates are available for course adoption through Publishing Editor.

This book embarks on a mission to dissect, unravel and demystify the concepts of Web services, including their implementation and composition techniques. It provides a comprehensive perspective on the fundamentals of implementation standards and strategies for Web services (in the first half of the book), while also presenting composition techniques for leveraging existing services to create larger ones (in the second half). Pursuing a unique approach, it begins with a sound overview of concepts, followed by a targeted technical discussion that is in turn linked to practical exercises for hands-on learning. For each chapter, practical exercises are available on Github. Mainly intended as a comprehensive textbook on the implementation and composition of Web services, it also offers a useful reference guide for academics and practitioners. Lecturers will find this book useful for a variety of courses, from undergraduate courses on the foundational technology of Web services through graduate courses on complex Web service composition. Students and researchers entering the field will benefit from the combination of a broad technical overview with practical self-guided exercises. Lastly, professionals will gain a well-informed grasp of how to synthesize the concepts of conventional and “newer” breeds of Web services, which they can use to revise foundational concepts or for practical implementation tasks.

After years of mostly theoretical research, Semantic Web Technologies are now reaching out into application areas like bioinformatics, eCommerce, eGovernment, or Social Webs. Applications like genomic ontologies, semantic web services, automated catalogue alignment, ontology matching, or blogs and social networks are constantly increasing, often driven or at least backed up by companies like Google, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and others. The need to leverage the potential of combining information in a meaningful way in order to be able to benefit from the Web will create further demand for and interest in Semantic Web research. This movement, based on the growing maturity of related research results, necessitates a reliable reference source from which beginners to the field can draw a first basic knowledge of the main underlying technologies as well as state-of-the-art application areas. This handbook, put together by three leading authorities in the field, and supported by an advisory board of highly reputed researchers, fulfils exactly this need. It is the first dedicated reference work in this field, collecting contributions about both the technical foundations of the Semantic Web as well as their main usage in other scientific fields like life sciences, engineering, business, or education.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the ACM/IFIP/USENIX International Conference on Distributed Systems Platforms, Middleware 2004, held in Toronto, Canada in October 2004. The 25 revised full papers presented together with an invited paper were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 194 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on peer-to-peer computing; routing protocols and overlay; middleware for replication and overlay; middleware for replication and transactions; publish/subscribe systems; Web services: composition, integration, and interoperatibilty; middleware for mobility; application servers, enterprise computing, and software engineering.

"This book brings together researchers, scientists, and representatives from different communities to study, understand, and explore the theory, tools, and applications of the semantic Web. It joins the semantic Web, ontologies, knowledge management, Web services, and Web processes into one fully comprehensive resource, serving as the platform for exchange of both practical technologies and research"--Provided by publisher.

Semantic agent systems are about the integration of the semantic Web, software agents, and multi-agent systems technologies. Like in the past (e.g. biology and informatics yielding bioinformatics) a whole new perspective is emerging with semantic agent systems. In this context, the semantic Web is a Web of semantically linked data which aims to enable man and machine to execute tasks in tandem. Here, software agents in a multi-agent system as delegates of humans are endowed with power to use semantically linked data. This edited book “Semantic Agent Systems: Foundations and Applications” proposes contributions on a wide range of topics on foundations and applications written by a selection of international experts. It first introduces in an accessible style the nature of semantic agent systems. Then it explores with numerous illustrations new frontiers in software agent technology. “Semantic Agent Systems: Foundations and Applications” is recommended for scientists, experts, researchers, and learners in the field of artificial intelligence, the semantic Web, software agents, and multi-agent systems technologies.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second European Semantic Web Conference, ESWC 2005, heldin Heraklion, Crete, Greece in May/June 2005. The 48 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 148 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on semantic Web services, languages, ontologies, reasoning and querying, search and information retrieval, user and communities, natural language for the semantic Web, annotation tools, and semantic Web applications.