Service-Finder

Research-Project
name=Service-Finder
title=Service Finder: Realizing Web Service Discovery at Web Scale
keywords=Web Services, Semantics, Web 2.0, Annotation, Crawler, Indexer, Clustering, Discovery
fundingAgency=European Union
frameworkProgramme=FP7


projectType=Specific Targeted Research Project (STReP)
projectReference=FP7 – 215876
researchObjective=ICT-1-4.2
coordinator=CEFRIEL
participants=seekda, University of Sheffield, Ontoprise
budget=1.69 M Euro
funding=1.26 M Euro
start=1 January 2008
end=31 December 2009
website=http://www.service-finder.eu

Service-Finder is a project funded by the European Seventh Framework Program (FP7) [http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/content-knowledge/projects-service-finder_en.html The Service-Finder Project Synopsis] ] .It aims at developing a platform for service discovery in which Web Services are embedded in a Web 2.0 environment.

Objectives

The objectives of Service-Finder are:
* to create a Search Engine for Web Services, which aggregates information from heterogeneous sources (WSDL, Wikis, Blogs and also users' feedbacks and behaviour)
* to create a Web Service Crawler to identify Web Services and their relevant information
* to generate Semantic Service Descriptions by analyzing heterogeneous sources
* to allow efficient and effective search of collected and generated data
* to provide a Web 2.0 portal, in order to:
** support users in searching and browsing for Web Services
** give recommendations to users
** track user behaviour for improving accuracy of service search and user recommendations

Methodology

The work plan is organized as a double loop. A first requirement analysis and design "in the large" (WP1) is foreseen at the very beginning of the project and a second one will follow at mid term. By design "in the large" we mean the architecture, its components, the interfaces among them and their respective collaboration. This level of the design is necessary in order to enable and coordinate parallel work on all components (WP2, WP3, WP4, WP5, WP6). During the development of the components, integration and testing (WP7) will take place. Exploitation and dissemination (WP8) are necessary, as well as the project management (WP9).

* WP1: Requirements Analysis and Design "in the large"
* WP2: Service Crawling
* WP3: Automatic Service Annotation
* WP4: Conceptual Indexing and Matching
* WP5: User Clustering
* WP6: Service-Finder Interface
* WP7: Integration and Testing
* WP8: Exploitation and Dissemination
* WP9: Project Management

Consortium

CEFRIEL, seekda, Ontoprise and University of Sheffield together constitute a small but excellent consortium capable of achieving the project objectives, because each consortium member is a recognized leader in at least one of the technical competencies required for implementing Service-Finder and, at the same time, they have excellent understanding of all required competencies.

CEFRIEL has developed several commercial Web 2.0 applications (e.g. the Web Electronic Program Guide of SKY TV Italy [http://www.cefriel.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=42&Itemid=58 Press release by CEFRIEL] ] ) and its Semantic Search Engine Squiggle [http://squiggle.cefriel.it/ Squiggle home page] ] was recognized in 2006 as one of the 10 best start up ideas among 167 by Obiettivo ICT [http://www.obiettivoict.it/pagine/pagina.aspx?ID=Risultati001&L=IT Results and winners of Obiettivo ICT] ] . Seekda has got the largest collection of Web Services ever crawled from the Web, it positions itself as the leading search engine for Web Service, and it was founded as a result of the DIP project (one of the most successful projects in Semantic Web Services in FP6). Ontoprise is one of the leading companies, world wide in applied semantics and its search engine (Semantic Miner [http://www.ontoprise.de/content/e1171/e1182/index_eng.html SemanticMiner home page] ] ) is one of the leading products on the market. Finally yet importantly, the university of Sheffield is recognized world wide as a leader in text mining and natural language processing and for having supported and coordinated the development of their GATE [http://gate.ac.uk/ GATE home page] ] open-source text-mining framework. Moreover the university of Sheffield is currently coordinating TAO (an FP6 project aiming at transitioning legacy applications to semantic-based systems and Web Services), from which Service-Finder will exploit results.

References

External links

* [http://www.service-finder.eu/ Service-Finder Website]
* [http://www.cefriel.it/ CEFRIEL Website]
* [http://seekda.com/ seekda Website]
* [http://www.ontoprise.de/ Ontoprise Website]
* [http://www.shef.ac.uk/ The university of Sheffield Website]