Start date: 1 October 2006
End date: 30 April 2008
Funding programme: Grid OGC Collision programme
Project website:
http://edina.ac.uk/projects/seesaw/index.html
JISC theme(s): e-Research, Information environment
Committees: JISC Support of Research committee
One of the most challenging aspects of web service orchestration is the matching of the ultimate product of the composite web service to the task the user needs the product for. Grid web services adopt a workflow-based model for matching web services to users’ tasks.
The SAW-GEO project has been developed and funded to address the potential of workflow engines in the orchestration of OGC services and to demonstrate the capability of such developed systems in real-world applications.
It builds upon the expertise available at NewcastleUniversity in areas of geospatial data handling.
Aims and Objectives
This research project proposal aims to develop semantically-aware workflow engines for supporting the orchestration of geographic web services. By incorporating a semantic component into the web service infrastructure, it is envisaged that the conceptualisations of the different user groups served by JISC will be represented.
The specific objectives are to:
- examining the range of available technologies in geographic and grid web services, with the intention of creating an effective architecture for geographic web services chaining;
- creating a working prototype of the workflow management system suggested and assessing its performance;
- rolling out the developed system with appropriate training and documentation for the user communities.
Project Methodology
The project will be undertaken as a series of work packages, addressed in a progressive manner, with deliverables and targets at regular points through the life of the project.
The major issues to be addressed by one research assistant, along with a management team of experienced researchers, all with significant technical background, will be:
- compatibility with and development of existing standards and approaches
- technical execution of the intended architecture
- understanding of user issues and possible applications areas
- appreciation of and liaison with parallel initiatives in similar projects
The success factors will primarily revolve around the deliverables which are reported for each work package. Critically, each deliverable is dependent on a preceding one.
Implications / Deliverables / Stakeholders
Tangible deliverables of SAW-GEO will be a working system, along with user documentation, and a software development report that includes the design, source code on CD-ROM, summary of implementation issues and the results from the evaluation phase. The implication include the accumulation of knowledge and experience related to OGC’s developing standards, to grid web services initiatives (including national projects directly supported by JISC and/or of significant benefit to the UK scientific community), and a deeper understanding of user needs and experiences in web-based geospatial data handling.
Stakeholders include the Open Geospatial Consortium for whom the development of semantic and grid capabilities is important. This project also builds on the work of ad hoc Grid GIS groups (e.g. the NERC Grid GIS group) for whom convergence between Grid and OGC web-based technologies is important. The JISC user community, notably, geospatial data users, will have demonstration systems made available to demonstrate the incorporation of workflow engines into GI data handling procedures. Other specialist grid communities will be shown how data can be handled, and how workflow issues can be addressed, from a geospatial perspective.