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INTELLIGENTINFORMATIONINTEGRATIONINB2BELECTRONICCOMMERCETHEKLUWERINTERNATIONALSERIESINENGINEERINGANDCOMPUTERSCIENCEINTELLIGENTINFORMATIONINTEGRATIONINB2BELECTRONICCOMMERCEbyDieterFensel,BorysOmelayenko,YingDing,MichelKlein,andAlanFlettVrijeUniversiteitAmsterdam,TheNetherlandsEllenSchultenHeloiseOntologyAssociates,London,UKGuyBotquinAlexsys,Lasne,BelgiumMikeBrownGlobalTransactions,Ltd.
,Berlin,GermanyGloriaDabiriFreieUniversitiitBerlin,Berlin,GermanySPRINGERSCIENCE+BUSINESSMEDIA,LLCLibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationDataUncertaintyingeometriccomputationsIeditedbyJoabWinkler,MahesanNiranjan.
p.
cm.
-(TheKluwerinternationalseriesinengineeringandcomputerscience;SECS704)Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-4419-5305-6ISBN978-1-4757-5538-1(eBook)DOI10.
1007/978-1-4757-5538-1I.
Geometry-Dataprocessing---Congresses.
I.
Winkler,Joab.
II.
Niranjan,Mahesan.
III.
Series.
QA448.
D38U532002516'.
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PREFACEInformationliesattheheartofour21stcenturysociety.
Itisthefabricofmanymodemsocialandeconomicactivities,andincreasinglyso.
TheworldwidemassiveadoptionofInternetandWebistestimonytothis.
IthasbecomecommonplacetospeakoftheInformationSocietyanditsknowledgeeconomy.
Thisreflectsageneralawarenessthatrecentinnovationsininformationstorage,processingandexchangehaverevolutionizedourwaysofcommunicatingandtherebyoureconomy,culture,andsociety.
Informationhasthusbecomeliketheairwebreath:ubiquitous,pervasive,anecessityoflife,butseeminglyinvisibleandthereforeoftengoneunnoticed.
Itmakesitselfonlyfeltwhenithasbecomepolluted.
Business-to-businesselectroniccommercemakesthisnatureofinformationparticularlyclear.
TheWorldWideWebhasmadeitpossiblethatdisparateenterprisescollaborateinordertocreatevaluejointlyasanetwork.
Suchvaluewebs,aswemaycalltheseconstellationsforB2Be-commercecollaboration,inherentlyproduce,store,process,exchangeandsharevastamountsofinformation.
Valuewebshoweverhavetwodefmingcharacteristicsthatcomplicatematters.
First,theirconstituentbusinessactorsareautonomous,andsotheycomewiththeirowngoals,strategies,processesand,consequently,information.
Second,theygenerallyareveryheterogeneous,andsoistheirinformation.
Network-basedvaluecreationrequiresinteroperabilityoftheneededcommonpartsofprocesses,systems,andthecorrespondinginformation.
Butpreciselythisautonomyandheterogeneityincollaborativebusinessmakesthisafarfromtrivialtask.
Attemptstosolvetheinformationinteroperabilitytaskatthelowestlevelofindividualbusinessactorsaredoomedtofail,asonerunsintothecombinatorialexplosionproblemthatunavoidablygetsworsewiththenumberofconnectionsbetweenbusinessactors.
Anditisinherenttoe-commercethatthisnumberisquicklyincreasing.
AhigherlevelofsolutioniscalledforthatexploitsthecommonalitiesintheinformationPREFACE-VI-withinthevaluewebasawhole.
Apromisingwaytomakeprogressatthenetworklevelistofocusonsharedmeaningofinformation,throughsemanticreferencemodelsknownasontologies.
Afterall,wecanallreasonablyagreeonwhatatable,computer,orbillis.
Thisbookgivesatimely,accessible,andin-depthsurveyofalltheissuesinvolved.
Itdiscussesthechallengesandtasksthatmustbetackledincollaborativeinformationprocessingin828e-comrnerce.
Lastbutnotleastitsketchessomecutting-edgesolutiondirectionsthatwillenhancetheinteroperabilityofinformationwithinvaluewebsinawaythatrespectstheautonomyandheterogeneityoftheindividualbusinessactors.
HansAkkermansProfessorofBusinessInformaticsFreeUniversityAmsterdamVUACONTENTSLISTOFFIGURESixABSTRACTxiACKNOWLEDGEMENTxii1.
INTRODUCTION12.
THEINFORMATIONINTEGRATIONSUB-TASKS53.
INFORMATIONSTRUCTURING174.
INFORMATIONCLASSIFICATION335.
INFORMATIONRECLASSIFICATION436.
INFORMATIONPERSONALIZATION577.
INFORMATIONMAPPING658.
INFORMATIONSTANDARDIZATION819.
ONTOLOGIESINB2BINFORMATIONINTEGRATION107CONTENTS-Vlll-10.
CONCLUSIONS127REFERENCES129INDEX141LISTOFFIGURESFigure1.
Preventingexponentialgrowthinthenumberofmappings3Figure2.
Themainsub-tasksincontentmanagementforB2BEC11Figure3.
DifferenttypesofB2Binformation14Figure4.
InformationExtraction21Figure5.
Asketchoftheinformationextractionengine.
28Figure6.
Classificationofproducts33Figure7.
AscreenshotofGoldenBullet41Figure8.
Therelationbetweenthehorizontalandverticalstandards43Figure9.
Thetwosub-tasksofinformationre-classification46Figure10.
Theexampleofmappingtwohorizontalstandards48Figure11.
AligningeCl@ssandUN/SPSC49Figure12.
Anexampleforaligningconceptsofasourceandatargetcatalog54Figure13.
Anexampleforaligningattributesofasourceandatargetcatalog54Figure14.
Twofragmentsofproductcatalogs68Figure15.
Afragmentofadirecttransformationrule69Figure16.
ThefragmentofaschemaforxCBLandcXMLproductcatalogdatamodels72Figure17.
Afragmentoftheunifiedproductcatalogontology73LISTOFFIGURES-x-Figure18.
Layereddocumentintegrationscheme74Figure19.
Thelayeredlanguagemodel88Figure20.
TheonionmodelofOIL91Figure21.
ThewebarchitecturedefmedbyW3C93Figure22.
SectionofaproductdescriptionincXMLformat.
114Figure23.
ThenormalizedproductdescriptionasRDFtriads115Figure24.
AsmallpartofthehierachyofanontologydescribingconceptsinaB2Bdocumentsandtheslot-constraintsfortheconcept"product".
117ABSTRACTInternetandWebtechnologyisstartingtopenetratemanyaspectsofourdailylife.
Itsimportanceasamediumforbusinesstransactionswillgrowexponentiallyduringthenextfewyears.
IntermsofmarketvolumeB2Bwillbethemostinterestingareaalso.
Itwillbetheareawherethenewtechnologywillleadtodrasticchangesinestablishedcustomerrelationshipsandbusinessmodels.
B2Bmarketplacesprovidenewkindsofservicesfortheirclients.
Simple1-1connectionswillbereplacedbyn-mrelationshipsbetweencustomersandvendors.
However,thisnewflexibilityinelectronictradingalsogeneratesseriouschallengesforthepartieswhowanttorealizeit.
Themainproblemhereistheheterogeneityofinformationdescriptionsusedbyvendorsandcustomers.
Thishasalreadycausedsomeproblemsinmanualtradingorindirect1-1electronictrading.
InthecaseofB2Bmarketplacesithasbecometooserioustobeneglectedanyfurther.
Productdescriptions,catalogformats,andbusinessdocumentsareoftenunstructuredandnon-standardized.
Intelligentsolutionsthathelptomechanizetheprocessofstructuring,standardizing,aligningandpersonalizingareakeyrequisitetosuccessfullyovercomethecurrentbottlenecksofB2Belectroniccommerceandenableitsfurthergrowth.
Inthisbook,wediscussthemainproblemsininformationintegrationinthisareaandsketchseveralpathsfortechnologicalsolutions.
ACKNOWLEOOEMENT-Xll-ACKNOWLEDGEMENTWethankHansAkkermansforhelpfuldiscussionsonearlydraftsandMaksymKorotkiy,VeraKartsevaandVladimirZykovfortheirworkonGoldenBullet.
VeraKartsevaalsodevotesmanythanksforhereditorialsupport.