The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes The NExT Process Workbench: Towards the Support of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes Abraham Bernstein, Michael Dänzer December 4, 2006

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 2 Motivation = ? ?

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 3 The process life cycle Creation Phase Process Composition Choreography of atomic services Processes may be complex and long-running Processes move along the Specificity Frontier

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 4 1. The creation phase Processes evolve rapidly Relevant information may be unknown before execution Main Problem: The Specifity Frontier [Bernstein2000]

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 5 The process life cycle II Creation Phase Enactment Phase 1 Process Execution Find the optimal realization for each atomic service (Orchestration) User Integration for semi-automatic executions Record an execution trail Adaptation Phase 2 3 Runtime adaptations Exceptions or events cause execution interruptions Consistency preservation (process and its execution trail) Re-setting correct resumption point Publication Phase 4 Documentation Replication requires formal process descriptions Evidence for correct implementation and execution of process Useful for know-how exchange

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 6 The Problems Boring and time-consuming standard tasks Manual Data Transformation and Copying Manual Execution of fix, non-changeable tasks Too little assistance for creative tasks Increase solution space Guidance for unexperienced user Processes in Life Sciences Complex Long-running Change their specifity (Specificity frontier) Tool landscape is heterogeneous Interfaces are not designed for interoperation Set of available tools is huge Lack of formal models hinder knowledge exchange

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 7 Ergo – The Requirements Ʀ 1 – Support users throughout the process choreography and orchestration Ʀ 2 – Support partial executions Ʀ 3 – Integrate deductive AI planners to provide alternatives Ʀ 4 – Incorporate a Case Base and a Case Based Reasoner Ʀ 5 – Support semi-automated data meditation

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 8 Operationalization

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 9 Knowledge Base Process Library Atomic abstract work tasks  Ʀ 1 Loose coupling to realization  Ʀ 1 Formal descriptions  Ʀ 3 Data Entity Library All data entities used in IOPE  Ʀ 1  Formal descriptions  Ʀ 3  Information about data/object types  Ʀ 5 Case Base  Complete cases including execution trails  Ʀ4

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 10 Execution System Set up a permanent feedback loop between system and user (Mixed-Iniative Planning) Choreography: From suggestions to the generation of full plans  Ʀ 1 Support for data mediation  Ʀ 5 Orchestration: Suggestions for most optimal realization  Ʀ 1 Exception/Event Handling System helps user to adapt processes at runtime  Ʀ2

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 11 NExT – The Implementation

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 12 NExT – The Implementation

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 13 NExT – The Implementation Meta-Model

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 14 NExT – The Implementation II Architecture

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 15 Motivation - Once more ? = ?

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 16 Related Work Name Ʀ1Ʀ1 Ʀ2Ʀ2 Ʀ3Ʀ3 Ʀ4Ʀ4 Ʀ5Ʀ5 Taverna+≈--+ Kepler+≈--- Pegasus+-+-+ Web Service Composer+-+-- WSMX+---+ Ʀ 1 – Support users throughout the process choreography and orchestration Ʀ 2 – Support partial executions Ʀ 3 – Integrate deductive AI planners to provide alternatives Ʀ 4 – Incorporate a Case Base and a Case Based Reasoner Ʀ 5 – Support semi-automated data meditation

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 17 Conclusions User Integration is the key for our approach Focus on creative tasks Control over the whole process life cycle Permanent feedback loop 5 Requirements Ʀ 1 - User assistance whereever possible Ʀ 2 – Support partial execution Ʀ 3 – Integration of AI planners Ʀ 4 – Integration of Case-Based Reasoning Ʀ 5 – (Semi-)automated data mediation NExT – the prototype system

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 18 Future Work Extend planning and reasoning facilities Integration of exception and event mechanisms in OWL-S UI integration of tools used in the realization Intuitive UI facilities to ease use Deploy NExT in a life science environment...

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 19 Questions / Discussion

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 20 References Planner for Web Service Composition Klusch, Gerber, Schmidt: Semantic Web Service Composition Planning with OWLS-XPLAN. 1st International AAAI Fall Symposium on Agents and the Semantic Web McIlraith, Son: Adapting GOLOG for Composition of Semantic Web Services, KR2002 Ponnekanti, Fox: A Developer Toolkit for Web Service Composition, WWW2002 Sheshagiri, desJardins, Finin: A Planner for Composing Service described in DAML-S, ICAPS 2003 Sirin, Parsia, Wu, Hendler, Nau: HTN Planning for Web Service Composition using SHOP2, AAAI Spring Symposium on Semantic Web Services 2004 Web Service Composition Au, Kuter, Nau: Web Service Composition with volatile information, ISWC 2005 Kuter, Sirin, Parsia, Nau, Hendler: Information Gathering During Planning for Web Service Composition, Journal of Web Semantics, 3(2) 2005 Sirin, Parsia, Hendler: Composition-Driven Filtering and Selection of Semantic Web Services

The NExt Process Workbench: Towards the Suupport of Dynamic Semantic Web Processes 21 References General Approach Bernstein: How Can Cooperative Work Tools Support Dynamic Group Processes, CSCW 2000 Veloso, Mulvehill, Cox: Rationale Supported Mixed-Initiative Case-Based Planning, IAAI-97