Semantic Grid: The Convergence of Technologies

Summary

The scientific paradigms of the Semantic Web, Web Services, Agents, Peer-to-Peer Networks and Grid Computing are currently receiving a lot of attention in the research community, and are producing solutions to important problems ranging from e-science to e-business. The United States DAML program, the European Commission and other organisations have also been investing heavily in these technologies. This Dagstuhl Seminar brought together world-leading experts from the diverse organizations and research areas. It strengthened the international collaboration with the aim to realize the vision of the Semantic Grid.

The main achievements of the Seminar include:

• creation of a strong and vivid Semantic Grid community, which shares understanding of principle ideas
• foundations for a WSRF-resource ontology
• foundations for a Virtual Organisation (VO) ontology, based on the EarthSciences Grid ontology
• an shared understanding of what a Semantic Grid is, and a need to encapsulate this in a bumper sticker
• an understanding of what a VO is, and using Dagstuhl as an example,
• the role of agents and Grids,
• a coordinated exchange of staff between Inteligrid, K-WfGrid and OntoGrid, which has already begun
• a book (working on it ...), and
• a number of visits stemming from the spin of the seminar (Frank Sieberlist visited Hannover and Manchester from Globus, for example)

The results of the seminar also contributed to presentations at the KnowledgeWeb Summer School on the Semantic Web 2005 on 22nd July, and the OECD Grid Global Science Forum in Sydney, Australia 25th September, both given by Carole Goble. Material developed in the VO discussions have contributed to a case study in the OntoGrid EU STREP and the WSRF/VO ontology has contributed to OntoGrid’s Reference Architecture for Semantic Grids. Two EU IP proposals (BIG and BREIN) on the Semantic Grid have also be submitted in Sept 2005 by partners attending the seminar, based in part on discussions therein.