Federated Information Systems for Communities
David J. Abel · 2002
One of the more exciting opportunities enabled by the Internet is sharing of data and software within communities of interest. The early waves of exploitation have provided faster and easier communication, through email and through Web publishing of research results, research materials (including data and software), news and general information. For individual researchers, this has enabled access to a richer set of resources and fostered cooperation within specialist groups. A strengthening trend is for individuals or institutions to share resources (both data and software) through Web services. To search for available information on a gene, for example, a biotechnology researcher can now access a remote genomic database, rather than incur the costs of maintaining her own local database. This paper envisages the establishment of collections of Web services, by a community of interest and for the community of interest. Technically, this form of Federated Information System poses the usual problems of size (the number of services present) and heterogeneity in the services. Although recent advances in the area give some confidence that large-scale, highly-heterogeneous networks of Web services are within reach, the social aspects of establishing shared resources require reconsideration of some fundamental elements of architectural design. This paper examines some informations systems research issues in design of federated information systems for large communities of interest.