Alessio Gugliotta gugliott@dimi.uniud.it ISWC2005 - Doctoral Symposium Monday, 7 November 2005 Knowledge Modeling for Integrating Semantic Web Services and E-Government Applications Alessio Gugliotta gugliott@dimi.uniud.it Department of Computer Science, University of Udine http://www.dimi.uniud.it

Overview E-Government and Knowledge Mangement (KM) Public Administration (PA) Makes use of KM - Representing Information and Service - Increasing the productivity of its activities Highly distributed and hetereogeneous enviroment. Scalable and flexible KM Systems Trend calls for joined-up services: Simple to use Shaped aroud and respondind user needs PA as unique entity Interoperability Integration Call for solutions Matching User Needs

Overview Semantic Web and Semantic Web Services (SWS) Agent to Agent communication Interoperability SWS Enviroment Describes Services by means of ontologies Integration New services can be added, discovered, composed, and mediated continually Scalability, Flexibility Call for Application Fields

Overview Using SWS in E-Gov application SWS and E-Gov.. Why Not? … but the integration is not an easy task: PA uses specific infrastructure to represent knowledge Interaction with non-software agents: multiple viewpoints (citizen, politician, manager, etc.) Services are not atomic, No single-response step, Negotiation with the user PA does not “talk” in terms of SWS

Description of Purpouse KM and E-Gov: Existing Approaches Solution for supporting service-based systems No ontologies for representing E-Government knowledge Description of concepts and processes: Metada, XML schemas Ontologies describing specific E-Gov areas Demostrating the feasibility of semantic in E-Gov application No general purpouse: Legislation, Documents, Processes No SWS SWS approach Ontogov Configuration and Re-Configuration of E-Gov services Focus on description of service life cycle No standard approach for semantic web service description TerreGov Addresing Interoperability Issues (Cross-Bordering services) Early Stage of development OWL-S approach for service description All approaches are Service Oriented!

Description of Purpouse Problems to address Re-Usable Semantic-Based Framework Keeping PA autonomy in the description of the domain Introduce existence of mismatch problems Co-operative description of the scenario Clear Distinction E-Gov Service-Supply Scenario Description Context where the services are provided Multi-viewpoints description Service Description Describing an important but limitated aspect of e-Government domain Automatic discovery, composition, mediation, and execution of services Using existing (proposed) standard for SWS Representing Business Model -> planning tasks Interaction Model -> describing negotiations / interaction protocols

Goal Statement Complex Semantic-Based Layer integrating SWS Public Administration Web Services Back-Office Vocabulary Description E-Government Application Context Description Services Descriptions Public Administration Web Services Back-Office Application Interface SWS Framework (IRS-III) Two main issues Conceptual Modeling Creation of the infrastructure for the semantic interopearbility

Goal Statement Main results Core Life Event Ontology (CLEO) Describing E-Gov service-supply knowledge structure Mappig to SWS descriptions Introducing a Knowledge Elicitation methodology Helping Domain experts to describe the context Driving Developer to implement SWS Sound Conceptual Model (Meta-Ontologies) Service Ontology Containing the SWS descriptions (WSMO) Extending / completing CLEO with the web service descriptions Domain Ontology Encoding concepts of the PA domain / building blocks Modeling approach Descriptive entities (indipendent views on the scenario by involved actors) Terms – Vocabulary of involved actors (the actual objects descriptive entities act upon)

Goal Statement The Conceptual Model (5) Distinguishing between Description and Vocabulary (3) Multi-Viewpoint (2) Co-operation (6b) Extendibility (1) Life Event Approach (6a) PA Autonomy (7) Distinguish two conceptual levels: Context SWS (4) Descriptive Modules

Methodology (4) CLEO Axiom and Rule for Integration with WSMO

Methodology Reference Models Representing the base / foundation of our work Life Event approach Considers government operation from the perspective of everyday life No simple way to arrange provided services Point of contact among all involved actor viewpoints Promting the supply of services by PA Service levels of interaction 4 levels: information, one-way, two-way, and full-transaction

Methodology Reference Models The government service supply reference model The e-government system reference model

Methodology Meta-Modeling Mapping Reference Models into Meta-Ontologies Models expressing modeling process Re-Usability, Extensibility, Cooperative development

Methodology Ontologies for conceptual modeling: DOLCE We considered its module Description&Situation Starting Point for building ontologies requiring contextualization Situation and Description concepts Situation described by means of descriptive entities: Parameters, Functional Roles and Courses of Events.

Methodology Ontologies for conceptual modeling: WSMO Objectives that a client wants to achieve by using Web Services Provide the formally specified terminology of the information used by all other components Semantic description of Web Services: Capability (functional) Interfaces (usage) Connectors between components with mediation facilities for handling heterogeneities

Methodology Integrating CLEO and WSMO WSMO goal -> Goal Description WSMO non functional properties -> Quality Description WSMO WS -> Service Description WSMO Choreography -> Interaction Description WSMO Orchestration -> Plan Description Domain Ontology -> WSMO Ontology WSMO Medietors elements (source, target) obtained by means of reasoning

Evaluation One Stop Government Portal Portal for the Essex County Council (UK) Case Study: Change of Circumstance Community Care Department (Essex) Housing Department End User: caseworkers of community care Changes influence: legacy system information list of benefits

Evaluation Change of Circumstance case study CLEO Ontology Domain Ontology Service Ontology

Evaluation / Future Work More Case Studies Testing the methodology of CLEO Creating the Infrastructure for the Semantic Interoperability Tools for creating/managing the conceptual model

Questions Thank You!

Overview Semantic Web Services (SWS) Promising Technology Multi-agent enviromeny automatic discovery, composition, mediation, invocation addressing Interoperability and Integration issues WSMO and OWL-S Call for application

Description of Purpouse Service-Supply Scenario: Integration and Interoperability Government Organization Government Organization … Agency Agency Agency Agency Agency Agency Services Automatic Discovery, Composition, Mediation, Execution of Services Citizen Businesses

Description of Purpouse Service-Supply Scenario: Matching the user needs Government Organization Government Organization … Agency Agency Agency Agency Agency Agency About a task: - Most Suitable Service - Different Citizen – Different Services Citizen Citizen

Description of Perpouse (3) Limitation of existing approaches Service-Oriented, No Multi-viepoints approach Focus on specific aspects of e-Government, No General Purpouse Business Model oriented, No Transaction

Description of Purpouse (2) Matching User Needs A user task may be consumed by different services Different aspect should be taken in consideration (citizenship, family situation, etc.) Which is the most suitable service? Different Citizen – Different Services

Description of Purpouse (3) WSMO – Top Level Notions Objectives that a client wants to achieve by using Web Services Provide the formally specified terminology of the information used by all other components Semantic description of Web Services: Capability (functional) Interfaces (usage) Connectors between components with mediation facilities for handling heterogeneities

Goal Statement (3) Life Event Oriented Multi Viewpoints description Common Point among all involved actors Prompt the development of services Multi Viewpoints description Distributed Approach Each actor responsible for its domain Cooperative development Interaction and Business Model description Integration of SWS for automatic discovery, composition, mediation and execution of services

Description of Purpouse SWS : Brief Introduction Describing Web Services by means of ontologies Two main approaches WSMO (Web Service Modeling Ontology) OWL-S Allowing automatic discovery, composition, mediation, and invocation of Web Services Addressing Interoperability and Integration issues WSMO distinguishes between User TASKS and Provided SERVICES BUT Describing an important but limitated aspect of e-Government domain No description of complex situations with negotiation between Non Software User and Service Provider