Towards a RESTful infrastructure for digital ecosystems

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we describe key design aspects of digital ecosystems and how these can be realised in a web-like environment. In previous work we have discussed digital ecosystems in terms of digital infrastructures and the socio-economic context in which these are called to operate. We have framed the concept of a digital ecosystem around complex interactions between interdependent agents and have focused the discussion on important properties such as loose-coupling, no central point of control or failure, sustainability, resilience, and history. In this paper we describe an integrated set of design solutions for operationalising the key principles of digital ecosystems into a software infrastructure. The proposed reference architecture drives the construction of RESTful ecosystems that can support future internet applications, and do this in a way that is backwards compatible with the current web.

REFERENCES

• 1: Fielding, R. T. 2000. Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures, UC - Irvine
• 2: Richardson L., Ruby, S. 2007. RESTful Web Services, O'Reilly Media, Inc.
• 3: Google, Protocol Reference - Google Data APIs http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/docs/2.0/reference.html
• 4: Sun Microsystems. The APIs for the Sun Cloud --- Project Kenai. http://kenai.com/projects/suncloudapis
• 5: Dini, P. 2007. A Scientific Foundation for Digital Ecosystems. In Nachira, F., Nicloai, A., et al (eds), Digital Business Ecosystems, Information Society and Media, European Commission, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 24--47.
• 6: Chang, E. Quaddus, M. Ramaseshan, R. 2006. The Vision of DEBI Institute, DEBII
• 7: Krause, P. Razavi, R., Moschoyiannis, S. Marinos, A. 2009. Stability and Complexity in Digital Ecosystems. In Proc. of IEEE Int'l Conf. on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies (IEEE-DEST'09).
• 8: P. Dini, G. Lombardo, R. Mansell, et al. 2008. Beyond interoperability to digital ecosystems: regional innovation and socio-economic development led by SMEs. J. Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, 1(3):410--426.
• 9: OPAALS Network of Excellence. EU-FP6 NoE Contract No. 034824. http://www.opaals.org
• 10: Holling, C. S. 2001. Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems. Ecosystems (2001) 4:390--405. DOI http://10.1007/s10021-001-0101-5
• 11: Boons, F. 2008. Emergence of a Regional Industrial Ecology. Self-Organization and Sustainability 10, 2, 40--47.
• 12: Moschoyiannis, S., Darking, M., Stanley, J. et al. 2008. Consensus Detailed Architecture for OPAALS DE. Deliverable D3.6 of OPAALS project, available at: http://files.opaals.org/OPAALS/Year_2_Deliverables/WP03/
• 13: Drakopoulou-Dodd, S., Jack, S., Anderson, A. R. 2002. Scottish Entrepreneurial Networks in the International Context. International Small Business Journal, 20(2): 213--19.
• 14: Storey, D. J. 1994. Understanding the Small Business Sector. London: Thomson Learning.
• 15: Goodin, D. DNS patch averts doomsday scenario. The Register. Tech. Rep., 2008. http://theregister.co.uk/2008/08/06/kaminsky_black_hat/
• 16: The Economist. 2006. Chinese walls. http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=558225
• 17: Object Management Group. 2006. Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules Interim Specification. http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?dtc/06-03-02
• 18: Hendryx, S. 2005. Model-Driven Architecture and the Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules. Hendryx & Associates.
• 19: Marinos, A. Krause, P. 2009. What, not How: A Generative Approach to Service Composition. In Proc. of IEEE Int'l Conf. on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies (IEEE-DEST'09).
• 20: Gray, J., Reuter, A. 1993. Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc.
• 21: Razavi, A., Moschoyiannis, S., and Krause, P.,. A Coordination Model for Distributed Transactions in Digital Business Ecosystems. In Proc. of IEEE Int'l Conf. on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies (IEEE-DEST'07).
• 22: Moschoyiannis, S., Razavi, R., Zheng, Y. and Krause, P. 2008. Long-running transactions: semantics, schemas, implementation. In Proc. of IEEE Int'l Conf. on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies (IEEE-DEST'08).
• 23: Razavi, A., Marinos, A., Moschoyiannis, S., Krasue, P. 2009. RETRO: A (hopefully) RESTful Transaction Model University of Surrey Technical Report. http://bit.ly/resttrans
• 24: Butler, M., Hoare, A. C. R., Ferreira, C. 2005. Trace Semantics for Long-Running Transactions. In Proc. of 25 Years of CSP, LNCS 3525, Springer, 133--150.
• 25: Shields, M. W. 1985. Concurrent machines. Computer Journal, BCS, 28:449--465.
• 26: Moschoyiannis, S., Razavi, R., Krause, P. 2009. Transaction Scripts: Making Implicit Scenarios Explicit. In Proc. ETAPS 2008 -- FESCA'08, ENTCS, Elsevier, in press.
• 27: Razavi, R., Moschoyiannis, S., Krause, P. 2008. A Self-Organising Environment for Evolving Business Activities. In Proc. ComP2P 2008 -- Int'l Conf on Computing in the Global Information Technology ICCGI'08, 277--283.
• 28: Razavi, R., Moschoyiannis, S., Krause, P. 2009. An Open Digital Environment to Support Business Ecosystems. Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications, Springer, in press. DOI = http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12083-009-0039-5
• 29: Microsoft. 2008. ADO.NET Data Services. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/bb931106.aspx
• 30: Briscoe, G., Marinos, A. 2009. Digital Ecosystems in the Clouds: Towards Community Cloud Computing. In Proc. of IEEE Int'l Conf. on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies (IEEE-DEST'09).

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.4 Hypertext/Hypermedia

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.1 PROCESSOR ARCHITECTURES
      C.1.4 Parallel Architectures

  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
      H.2.3 Languages

Keywords:
REST, architecture, complex systems, digital ecosystems