International Journal of Web Services Research (JWSR), Vol. 2, Issue 1, 2005.
This issue of the International Journal of Web Services research (JWSR) collects a couple of enhanced high quality papers which were reviewed for the 2004 IEEE International Conference on Web Services (ICWS 2004) held in San Diego. ICWS is a forum for researchers and industry practitioners to exchange information regarding advancements in the state-ofthe-art and practice of Web services, as well as to identify the emerging research topics and define the future of Web services computing. ICWS 2004 was sponsored by IEEE Computer Society’s Technical Steering Committee for Services Computing (TSC-SC).
As one of the most prestigious academic conferences in the field of Services Computing, ICWS 2004 was held at Westin Horton Plaza in San Diego, California, July 6-9, 2004. ICWS 2004 was an extremely successful conference that brought industry experts and academia researchers together to exchange the latest information and future directions of Web services and its applications. ICWS 2004 attracted about 250 registered participants from 22 countries and regions (U.S., U.K., France, China, Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy, Japan, Canada, Singapore, Australia, India, Korea, Israel, Turkey, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Brazil, Belgium, Hong Kong, and Taiwan). As the world heads toward pervasive and Web service enabled computing, there is an increasing need for computer science, information technology, and business management communities to work together to address issues related to the design, usage, and business of Web services. A key aspect of ICWS is to bring the worlds of researchers from both computer science and business management together in a single, high-quality forum. Of the accepted papers, there were computer science papers, management information system and business papers, and what we call “bridge” papers, as they bridge the gap between the two fields. In addition, ICWS 2004 offered a strong industry track with 19 papers from researchers and practitioners working in the frontier of Web services in industry. Furthermore, this year’s technical program also contained 16 short papers in which authors gave brief descriptions of their research. Finally, the ICWS 2004 technical program also included five tutorials, reviewing the state-of-the-art in five different areas related to advances in Web services, and three poster paper sessions. Five distinguished experts and executives were invited to deliver keynote speeches at IEEE ICWS 2004. Dr. Donald F. Ferguson, IBM Fellow and Chief Architect of IBM Software Group delivered the opening keynote speech on Convergence of Web Services, Grid Services and Business Processes. Sharon Nunes, Vice President of IBM Research delivered a keynote speech on Extending the Innovation Ecosystem. Dr. Ephraim Feig, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at Kintera, Inc., delivered a keynote on Going Public with Software-as-a-Service. Jay M. Tenenbaum, Chairman of CommerceNet & Director of Webify Solutions and Medstory Inc., presented a vision on Business Services Networks. Dr. Umeshwar Dayal, HP Fellow and Director of Intelligent Enterprise Technologies Laboratory at Hewlett-Packard Labs, presented Managing the Intelligent Enterprise.
This issue of JWSR contains three enhanced papers accepted for presentation at ICWS 2004 and two papers from other related conferences.
Prashant Doshi et al. introduce a Dynamic Workflow Composition Using Markov Decision Processes to model workflow composition. To account for the uncertainty over the true environmental model, and for dynamic environments, they interleave MDP-based workflow generation and Bayesian model learning.
Christian Werner et al. present a WSDLDriven SOAP Compression that explores compression strategies and gives a detailed survey and evaluation of state of the art binary encoding techniques for SOAP. They also introduce a new experimental concept for SOAP compression based on differential encoding, which makes use of the commonly available WSDL description of a SOAP Web service.
Javier Parra-Fuente et al. propose a RAWS Architecture: Reflective and Adaptable Web Service Model, which is a multilevel Web service design model based on a reflective architecture. RAWS allows both the dynamic modification of the definition and implementation structure of the Web service, and the dynamic modification of the Web service behavior in order to change the existing code or to add new functionalities.
Jia Zhang et al. introduce A Service-Oriented Multimedia Componentization Model to support Quality of Service (QoS)-centered, device-independent multimedia Web services, which seamlessly incorporates cutting-edge technologies relating to Web services. A multimedia Web service is divided into control flow and data flow, and each can be delivered via different infrastructures and channels. Enhancements are proposed to facilitate SOAP and Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP) protocols to improve their flexibility to serve multimedia Web services.
Thomas Schmidt et al. present a Security System for Distributed Business Applications to address the security conventions, which is a major drawback of existing Web service approaches. They have developed a holistic extended enterprise authentication and authorization system to facilitate agile and secure enterprise-spanning business processes with Web service enabled application components.
Preface: Services Computing a New Discipline
Liang-Jie Zhang, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA
Dynamic Workflow Composition: Using Markov Decision Processes
Pages: 1 - 17
Authors: Doshi, P., Goodwin, R., Akkiraju, R. & Verma, K.
Affiliations: University of Illinois at Chicago, USA; IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA; University of Georgia, USA
WSDL-Driven SOAP Compression
Pages: 18 - 35
Authors: Werner, C., Buschmann, C. & Fischer, S.
Affiliations: University of Lubeck, Germany
RAW Architecture: Reflective and Adaptable Web Service Model
Pages: 36 - 53
Authors: Parra-Fuente, J.; Sanchez-Alonzo, S.; Sanjuan-Martinez, O.; & Joyanes-Agular, L.
Affiliations: Pontifical University of Salamanca, Spain
A Service-Oriented Multimedia Componentization Model
Pages: 54 - 76
Authors: Zhang, J.; Zhang, L.J.; Quek, F.; & Chung, J. Y.
Affiliations: Northern Illinois University, USA; IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA
Security System for Distributed Business Applications
Pages: 77 - 88
Authors: Schmidt, T.; Wippel, K.G.; & Furst, K.
Affiliations: Vienna University of Technology, Austria