The zen of the web
Jeff Heflin, Michael N. Huhns · IEEE Internet Computing · 2003
content is for computer use andunderstanding. To date, however, mostsuch efforts have focused on the under-standing rather than use. This specialissue of IC focuses on the use of the Webby computer systems and agents. By sup-porting the notion of “getting workdone,” the Semantic Web will becomemore useful, valuable, and pragmatic.Many organizations are attempting tomake the Web computer-friendly viaWeb services, but current incarnationsof these technologies are subject to sev-eral limitations:•A Web service knows only aboutitself — not about its users, clients, orcustomers.•Web services are not designed to useand reconcile ontologies among eachother or with their clients.•Web services are passive untilinvoked; they can’t provide alerts orupdates when new informationbecomes available.•Web services do not cooperate witheach other or self-organize, althoughthey can be composed by externalsystems. We invited researchers and developers tosubmit articles that address some of theseissues and describe future aspects of Webtechnologies. Collectively, the articlesshow how to harmonize Web services’behaviors and reconcile and exploit Websources’ semantics.