The web service protocol stack provides capabilities for loosely integrating software services but does not provide the higher level support needed for rapid evolution. An experimental system is described for integrating the data from autonomous organizations within the UK health service domain. The results of this experiment have confirmed the need for an integration layer on top of the web service stack to provide the required higher level functionality. In this paper, we summarise our progress to date, and highlight several key research issues of general concern to the web services field, which have emerged from our prototype system. These are set in a general context of providing better ways to provide a service-based model to IT users.
Ordinary web users can now create and publish online content. They even venture into “mashups,” integrating information from different sources into a composite information-providing web service. This is a non-trivial design task, which falls into the area of end-user development when the ordinary users who perform it do not have programming education. In this article, we investigate the service design strategies of 12 such ordinary users and compare them against the baseline of 12 programmers. In our think-aloud study, users completed two contrasting types of tasks involved in developing service-based applications: (a) manual service composition and (b) parametric design using templates with a high degree of software support (or assisted composition). These service composition tasks were chosen to differ in respect to the level of user support provided by the tool. Our findings show that non-programmers liked, more than programmers, the template-based parametric design and did not find the tool assistance as constraining as the programmers did. The difficulty of design involved in manual service composition and the absence of user guidance hindered non-programmers in expressing and implementing accurate design solutions. The differences in the mental models and needs of non-programmers are established to be in stark contrast to those of programmers. We used the details of our findings to propose specialized design recommendations for service composition tools aligned with the profiles of their target users.
Abstract-Cloud computing represents a connection of internet technologies and personal or business computing that is changing the way computing solutions are designed, delivered and managed. This model of computing where all data, application, are hosted over a network is a significant shift from the traditional model of computing where data, software's resources are hosted on a local computer or the client server model of business computing where resources are hosted on the firms servers and requires specialist staff for implementing and maintaining IT services. For several organizations especially in the case of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME's), the cloud is an attractive technology solution as it enables them to reduce the total cost of ownership of their IT by passing the demands of maintaining hardware and software to a third party i.e. a cloud service provider thus enabling them to focus their spend on growing the business while developing innovative services. This paper draws on the concept of cloud computing to illustrate the significance of cloud technology to small medium businesses in the UK tourism industry-an industry heavily dependent on the internet for its survival. The study was conducted through an extensive review of academic journals, publications, articles as well as industry white papers and reports. This paper reveals that cloud computing drives small tourism firms to become more customer focused while enabling them quickly respond to tourist needs.
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