Stasis (EU project)

Research-Project
name=STASIS
title=Software for Ambient Semantic Interoperable Services
keywords=semantics, interoperability, B2B, e-Business, information exchange, mapping, electronic trading


fundingAgency=European Union
frameworkProgramme=FP6
projectType=STReP
projectReference=FP6-2005-IST-034980
researchObjective=FP6-IST IST-2005-2.5.5 Software and Services
coordinator= [http://www.aidima.es/ AIDIMA] (Spain)
participants= [http://www.tie.nl/ TIE] (The Netherlands)
[http://www.foton.com.cn/ Beiqi Foton Motor Co., Ltd.] (China)
[http://www.cit.sunderland.ac.uk/ Centre for Internet Technologies] (UK)
[http://www.isoft-technology.com/ iSoft] (Bulgaria)
[http://www.mariner.es/ MARINER S.A.] (Spain)
Shanghai Sunline Co. Ltd. (China)
[http://www.tanet.org.uk/ TANet] (UK)
[http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/eng/ Tsinghua University] (China)
[http://www.dbgroup.unimo.it/ University of Modena] (Italy)
[http://www.wi-ol.de/ University of Oldenburg] (Germany)
[http://www.zf.com/ ZF Friedrichshafen A.G.] (Germany)
budget=3,800,000 Euro
funding=2,660,000 Euro
start=September 2006
end=August 2009
website=http://www.stasis-project.net

STASIS (Software for Ambient Semantic Interoperable Services) is a research and development project funded under the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme.

The Story...

A company wishes to trade electronically with other companies or a public administration. They would like to exchange different types of information ranging from orders to company returns.

Nowadays the greatest barrier to this wish is not the cost of hardware, software or communications. Rather, it is the difficulty in providing the information to potential trading partners in a format their systems can understand.

Companies don’t have time to learn the technical specifications of XML, EDI or IDoc messages, etc. However, they do know the user concepts (the semantics) of their information. They want something that allows information transformation, but based on their knowledge only, and for it to be easy and cheap to do.

This is where STASIS comes in! The project is best summarised by the following statement:

“"If I have information in my format, and it is integrated into my systems, I want to put minimal effort into mapping this into any format (standardised or not) to do electronic business with another party."”

Before STASIS

Today, information is typically mapped using syntax. Whilst this approach has been very successful – especially when the information to be mapped is not too complex – there are several clear disadvantages:

* an in-depth knowledge of both the source and destination schemas is required
* new schemas need to be studied in detail before creating mappings – this is a very expensive step that cannot be avoided
* mappings are often tricky to understand and error-prone as humans normally think in terms of the actual semantics instead of the syntax
* mappings typically cannot be reused
* the mappings must be performed by a technician with schema knowledge whereas what is wanted is the mapping of information by business people.

With STASIS

STASIS aims to address many of the aforementioned problems by allowing anyone to create mappings based upon semantics – without realising they are using semantics!

Instead of focussing on syntax, STASIS concentrates identifying semantic assets and mapping those instead. For example, two elements [ELT1] and [ELT2] may be grouped into one logical entity called “Address” which is mapped to a well defined concept of an address.

This process is based on ontologies used to define and link semantic assets. The link to the original syntax is still made, but this is completely transparent to the user!

The software allows anyone to easily identify their semantic assets, and then semi-automatically map them to those of business partners. This approach allows people to create mappings in a more natural way by considering the meaning of elements, rather than their syntactical structure.

All semantic assets and mappings created in STASIS are managed in a distributed peer-to-peer repository. This gives STASIS another advantage over traditional mapping creation tools – i.e. mappings can be reused. In fact, the software is intelligent enough to make mapping suggestions by analysing and reusing existing mappings.

For example, imagine that "Company A" and "Company B" would like to map their business schemas in order to exchange information. Let's assume that both have previously traded with "Company C". In this situation, STASIS can map the semantic entities of "Company A" to "Company B" automatically, as it already knows about their mapping to a common schema from "Company C". This will become increasingly beneficial as more companies begin to use STASIS.

Overall Benefits for Business and Society

STASIS will have the greatest impact on sectors where development is most needed – e.g. the automotive sector where an exchange of information is crucial for further development. These include business groups isolated for reasons of geography and those affected by social isolation such as linguistic barriers and time differences between the supplier and the markets.

It is widely reported that only 5% of companies are trading electronically in a classical sense and it is also known that 99% of all European companies are SMEs. Thus it is not hard to see that there is an extremely large market place which could benefit from STASIS.

Project Pilots

STASIS will be trialled in Europe and China in the furniture and automotive sectors. These sectors represent ideal testbeds for STASIS as they are both characterised by a wide range of incompatible infrastructures and data formats which inhibit the development of trading partnerships and products.

Target Users and Sectors

STASIS is aimed at non-technical business users, from SMEs in particular, but also larger enterprises. STASIS is not sector-specific and has been designed to be applicable in a wide range of business contexts.

tandardisation

Several of the outputs from STASIS will form the basis of submissions to standardisation bodies. Data formats and methodologies for handling e-Business information and using semantic ontologies to develop mappings between similar structures will be formalised and presented as draft discussion documents for consideration by CEN and other standards groups.

Technical Summary

The STASIS Desktop Workbench is built upon the Eclipse Rich Client Platform.

A definition of what a semantic asset is and how a schema is represented in STASIS is expressed in the STASIS Common Data Model (CDM), which itself is expressed in OWL. The CDM, which is defined using the Eclipse Modelling Framework, provides the base for the graphical editor of STASIS. This editor is represented using the Eclipse Graphical Modelling Framework.

Mappings are stored in the SEEM Registry and Repository Network (SRRN). This peer-to-peer repository has been adapted from the Seamless IST FP6 project. SparQL is used to search for mappings stored in the SRRN.

Achievements So Far

The main achievement to date is the development of the STASIS Desktop Workbenchprototype. Based on the emerging Eclipse platform, it comprises five key components:

*"Analyzer" – allows users to import schemas into STASIS, parse them, and manage semantic concepts – i.e. global concepts which can be adopted and used by all STASIS users
*"Viewer" – allows users to easily search for elements in the STASIS network
*"Comparator" – allows users to create mappings between schemas from different business partners
*"Purifier" – a background process that allows users to “clean” STASIS and remove invalid, inaccurate or infrequently used elements
*"Storage" – P2P-based storage facility where semantic concepts can be found

The STASIS software is underpinned by several key interrelated research deliverables, including:

* [http://www.stasis-project.net/downloads/downloads.cfm?id=9&showdl=62#62 Architectural Framework Specification] – describes the five key components of the framework
* [http://www.stasis-project.net/downloads/downloads.cfm?id=9&showdl=59#59 Semantic and Ontology Language Specification] – reports the findings of research aimed at identifying a semantic language suitable for representing ontologies in STASIS
* [http://www.stasis-project.net/downloads/downloads.cfm?id=9&showdl=61#61 Techniques for Semantic Extraction and Integration] – explores semi-automatic techniques for extracting metadata, which is used to describe information (in whatever format) being imported into STASIS

The other significant achievement to date is the STASIS workshop, which was co-hosted with the [http://www.eu-brein.com BREIN project] at the I-ESA '08 interoperability conference in Berlin, in March 2008. The workshop – “Semantic Interoperability: A Practical Approach” – included a mix of industry-focussed and technical presentations from respected industry professionals including OASIS UBL Technical Committee Vice-Chair Tim McGrath. During the workshop, the concept of STASIS was presented and valuable feedback gained from the delegates. STASIS also took advantage of the assembled expertise by forming an Experts Group to help guide and advise the project.

How to Get Involved

Following on from the highly acclaimed workshop at [http://www.aidima.es/iesa2008/ I-ESA '08] in Berlin, March 2008, STASIS will be hosting a further international workshop in mid-2009 to showcase the STASIS Desktop Workbench software.

The workshop is aimed at both technical and business people. If you are interested – either as a delegate or perhaps as a sponsor or exhibitor – please get in touch via [mailto:[e-mail] [e-mail]]

Further information on the workshop will be posted on the STASIS web site in due course.

External Links

* [http://www.stasis-project.net/ www.stasis-project.net] - STASIS web site
* [http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm] - European Commission
* [http://cordis.europa.eu/ist/ cordis.europa.eu/ist/] - Information Society Technologies
* [http://cordis.europa.eu/fp6/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.FP6HomePage cordis.europa.eu/fp6/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.FP6HomePage] - Sixth Framework Programme
* [http://www.eu-brein.com www.eu-brein.com] - BREIN project web site