Showing papers in "Sigecom Exchanges in 2003"

A model for web services discovery with QoS

Abstract: Web services technology has generated a lot interest, but its adoption rate has been slow. This paper discusses issues related to this slow take up and argues that quality of services is one of the contributing factors. The paper proposes a new Web services discovery model in which the functional and non-functional requirements (i.e. quality of services) are taken into account for the service discovery. The proposed model should give Web services consumers some confidence about the quality of service of the discovered Web services.

Web services discovery based on the trade-off between quality and cost of service: a token-based approach

Abstract: A Web service is an autonomous unit of application logic that provides either some business functionality or information to other applications through an Internet connection. Web services discovery is the process of finding most appropriate Web services providers needed by a Web services requestor. One of the important issues in the discovery process is for Web services providers and Web services requestors to negotiate and find an integrative solution that is optimal to both sides. Web services providers use resources to provide services to requestors in return for benefits. On the other hand, Web services requestors pay for services from providers in return for benefits as well. In this scenario, both parties should have their own cost-benefit models for making such a business decision. In convention, fixed pricing strategies are used for Internet-related business models such as online bookstores. However, these may not be suitable in some business models. For example, data mining services are always one-of-a-kind services, expensive and non-repetitive that usually require a more sophisticated business model. Therefore, sophisticated Web services providers should provide a list of trade-off alternatives between the Quality of Service (QoS) they offer and the Cost of Service (CoS) they use to requestors. In this model, the QoS relates to performance-oriented capabilities and the CoS relates to services' resource requirements. To achieve an integrative solution, both parties have to evaluate the list of QoS and CoS alternatives for obtaining an appropriate combination. One of the negotiation strategies for achieving integrative solutions is called logrolling. Traditionally logrolling in two-issue (i.e., the QoS and CoS) and two-party (i.e., the Web services provider and requestor) negotiation is defined as the exchange of loss in one issue for gain in other issues that result in an increase of the overall values for both parties. It means that each party can increase the overall value by trading the less preferred issue for the more preferred, provided that a trade-off ratio is satisfactory. This paper presents a token-based approach to quantify the QoS and CoS for achieving integrative solutions.

On fuzziness in relationship value segmentation: applications to personalized e-commerce

Abstract: Relationship marketing strategies focus on the construction and maintenance of tailored relationship with customers. Consequently, electronic commerce systems following the relationship approach may benefit from Web personalization techniques in tailoring the interaction with its users according to an evolving customer model. In this context, relationship-value market segmentation becomes a central customer modeling activity. But value segmentation categories are inherently vague due to the use of imprecise linguistic categories, combined with a degree of uncertainty about customer behavior, and the difficulty inherent to estimating intangible variables. In this paper, a fuzzy approach to value segmentation is described, allowing more flexible customer segments. Fuzzy models of value estimations are represented by fuzzy triangular numbers, and two segmentation approaches, directed and discovery-oriented are briefly described. The usefulness of the approach is then illustrated through concrete personalization techniques based on those fuzzy categories.

Context representation of product data

Abstract: This paper investigates the context representation of ad hoc product data that distribute in different semantic communities especially in small and medium sized enterprises through the analysis of the problems in extracting, mediating and comparing product contexts. The problem analysis leads to a proposal for a novel context representation model that separates the representation process into two steps: transform irregular local product definitions into canonical local product representations and map canonical local product representations onto common product representations. This model serves as the foundation to further compare product contexts between different semantic communities.

Using caching for browsing anonymity

Abstract: Privacy-providing tools, including tools that provide anonymity, are gaining popularity in the modern world. Among the goals of their users is avoiding tracking and profiling. While some businesses are unhappy with the growth of privacy-enhancing technologies, others can use lack of information about their users to avoid unnecessary liability and even possible harassment by parties with contrary business interests, and to gain a competitive market edge.Currently, users interested in anonymous browsing have the choice only between single-hop proxies and the few more complex systems that are available. These still leave the user vulnerable to long-term intersection attacks.In this paper, we propose a caching proxy system for allowing users to retrieve data from the World-Wide Web in a way that would provide recipient unobservability by a third party and sender unobservability by the recipient and thus dispose with intersection attacks, and report on the prototype we built using Google.

Exploring the factors affecting internet content filters acceptance

Abstract: Data traveling along the Internet wire is generally unrestricted. The Internet may always bring surfers fun, but sometimes give them unpleasant experiences. Web surfers may be exposed to gory pictures of adult-oriented contents unwittingly. International organizations are working on content rating systems and software filters for the Internet. These tools empower the general public to understand the electronic media by means of the open and objective content labels. Though filters accompany some common browsers out of the box, they are disabled by default. As a result, the efforts spent by these organizations to protect users from Internet harms are wasted. This paper presents an exploratory study on one's acceptance of the Internet content filters in publicly accessed computers. Demographic factors, such as gender, and perception factors, such as severity of the Internet problems, were examined by way of multivariate regression. Results show that the acceptance of blocking filters is significantly related to one's demographics and perception of the Internet. This article discusses implications of the findings, from both an academic and a commercial perceptive, for future research.

Equilibrium analyses of market-driven agents

Abstract: Market-driven agents (MDAs) are negotiation agents that make adjustable amounts of concession by considering factors such as competition, deadlines, and trading options. While previous work demonstrates the properties of MDAs by experiments, this paper provides mathematical analyses to show that (1) for a given market situation, an MDA makes minimally sufficient concession, and (2) the strategies adopted by MDAs are in equilibrium. The results show that MDAs are stable (stability is an essential evaluation criterion for negotiation agents) and they avoid making excessive or inadequate concession in a market situation.

Specifying conflict of interest assertions in WS-policy with Chinese wall security policy

Abstract: A Web service is defined as an autonomous unit of application logic that provides either some business functionality or information to other applications through an Internet connection. Web services are based on a set of XML standards such as Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) and Web Services Description Language (WSDL). The benefits of adopting Web services over traditional business-to-business applications include faster time to production, convergence of disparate business functionalities, a significant reduction in total cost of development, and easy to deploy business applications for trading partners. However, Web services architectures are built on an insecure, unmonitored and shared environment, which is open to events such as security threats. Security concerns are the major barrier that prevents many business organizations from implementing or employing Web services. This article discusses one of the classical security policies that deal with conflict of interest - the Chinese wall security policy. The article then extends this concept into specifying and implementing conflict of interest assertions in the newly developed WS-Policy. WS-Policy is an XML representation that provides a grammar for expressing Web services policies, to allow service locators to have a common interpretation of security requirements in the matchmaking process.