Rule based integration of Web Services into semantic data bases - Gruber, Jochen

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Résumé :
Master's Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Computer Science - Internet, New Technologies, grade: 1,1, University of Hagen (Institut f?r Informatik), language: English, abstract: Details of a semantic annotation are outlined, both for the semantic model consisting of concepts to model the area of discourse as well as the individual model for a single service. The annotation is used to build a concrete implementation of a generic processing framework translating the annotation of a service into rules to be integrated into an OWL knowledge base rule engine. The realization is done for the Jena Semantic Web Framework, an open source library for Semantic Web application for the Java language. The realization is designed as an add-on to Jena which integrates service calls in such a way that service invocation is transparent to applications building on Jena. A discussion on optimizations, both implemented ones and realizable but not implemented ones is included. They can serve as starting points for moving the implementation from a proof of concept status to real world usability. The section finishes with some considerations on general run-time behavior. Finally the presented framework is evaluated in more detail: Firstly, a sophisticated scenario for the running example is described and shown, how automated service selection, composition and invocation is actually realized during run-time. Then the approach is evaluated with regard to services with more complex parameterizations with particular focus on the data supplied to the services and the rules generated from such complex parameterized services and whether such rules are still usable. The prime design rationale of the presented framework implementation is as a proof of concept for the approach of generically integrating Web Services as rules with Semantic knowledge bases. Therefore there is still a long way to go for a real world application to be build on the framework. At several points notes are added hinting on potential challenges, particularly with regard to specific techniques for optimizing reasoning on knowledge bases. Neither are these remarks to be seen as exhaustive nor are they to be understood as short treatments. Rather they are intended as selected starting points for further research.