Interoperability: Concepts, Types, and Importance in IT and Non-IT Systems, Slides of Information Security and Markup Languages

Download Interoperability: Concepts, Types, and Importance in IT and Non-IT Systems and more Slides Information Security and Markup Languages in PDF only on Docsity!

Definitions and Concepts

Non-IT Examples

• Why do the staples always fit in the stapler? Do they always fit?
• Why does your TV always work with your VCR? Does it always work?
• Have you ever bought shoes? Does the size always work? Why or why not?
• How come a paper punch always makes holes at the same distance apart? Does it always?

Types of Interoperability

• Software System Interoperability
• Business Process Interoperability
• Manufacturing
• Networking (Hardware) Interoperability

Interoperability

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interoperability

Why Interoperate?

• Connect services together
  • e.g., Transfer money from one bank to another electronically
• Build meta-archives
  • e.g., Google Scholar
• Save money on development
  • e.g., Well-known DOM APIs and tools
• Preserve information and increase accessibility
  • e.g., PDF(/A) as a standard data format
• Promote openness/choice
  • e.g., Microsoft’s support for Open Document Format!

Syntactic vs. Semantic Interoperability

• Syntactic means the syntax is standardised.
  • e.g., XML
• Semantic means the meaning is standardised.
  • e.g., Dublin Core metadata
• Many popular standards define abstract semantics and one or more concrete syntaxes. - e.g., Dublin Core

Standards vs. Specifications

• A Specification can be any formal description.
  • Any non-trivial software tool usually has specifications.
• A Standard is a formal description that is endorsed, validated and maintained by a standards body. - e.g., HTTP, endorsed by the IETF/W3C
• You can rely on standards, but not on specifications!

source: ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2616.txt

Degrees of Interoperability

• How much interoperability do you need?
  • Syntactic?
    • e.g., Remote access to data.
  • Semantic?
    • e.g., Standard metadata formats.
  • Batch or Real-Time?
  • How much semantics to encode in data?
  • How many services/interfaces?
  • What transports?
    • HTTP/SOAP/OAI-PMH/…?

Cathedral vs. Bazaar

• Cathedral: One person sets out a specification and everyone must use it. - e.g., Google API
• Bazaar: Everyone agrees to a common standard, then everyone implements it. - e.g., HTTP

Trust and Security

• Interoperability is only possible among trusted parties.
• Issues:
  • Authentication
  • Authorisation
  • Encryption
  • Privacy
  • Trust

Open *

• Open Source,
• Open Standards
• Open Content
• Open Archives
• Open Access

what is common?

source: http://www.soros.org/openaccess/pdf/OSI_Guide_to_IR_Software_v3.pdf Docsity.com