***Apologies for multiple postings*** Call for Submissions -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Non Functional Properties and Service Level Agreements in Service Oriented Computing Workshop (NFPSLA-SOC'07) http://events.deri.at/nfpsla-soc07/ at The 5th International Conference on Service Oriented Computing (ICSOC 2007) http://www.icsoc.org/ September 17, 2007, Vienna, Austria -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THEME: Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is becoming a key aspect for system agility and quickly developing new businesses. As core concepts of any SOA-based system, services have recently received significant interest. They can be used to support Business-to-Business (B2B), Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), and collaborations within or between Virtual Organizations. Like other software components services expose both functional properties (i.e. what they do) and non-functional properties (i.e. the way they are supplied). Non-functional properties (NFPs) of a system are many and varied, including all properties which are not directly related to the functionality provided. NFPs include quality of service (QoS) as well as other properties such as cost, adherence to standards and obligations on the consumer/provider. QoS is one of the most important subsets of non-functional properties. Although the term QoS is traditionally used to refer specifically to network performance and reliability characteristics (and methods of guaranteeing these properties) in the context of SOA the term must refer to a wider variety of service properties. This is because there are numerous properties which can be used as indicators of quality (including, e.g. performance, dependability, security, accuracy, customer service, etc.). The term, as applied in SOA, must also refer to properties of system components at different levels of granularity (e.g. network, server, service, operation). Non-functional properties play an important role in all service related tasks, especially in discovery, selection and substitution of services. It is simple to imagine a scenario in which multiple services which provide the same functionality can fulfill a user request. In this case the ability of the user to differentiate between the services depends upon their non-functional properties. Modeling, managing and performing service related tasks such as discovery, composition, negotiation and agreement based on NFPs become fundamental challenges in Service-Oriented Architectures especially in real business settings. Directly connected to the tasks mentioned above are the specification, enforcement and management of Service Level Agreements (SLAs). SLAs give the service consumer some level of guarantee that the provider and the service/s that they provide will operate within acceptable bounds - particularly with regards to non-functional properties and QoS values. At the same time SLAs serve a role for the provider in planning resource allocation and avoiding unexpected legal wrangles. With the ever-growing demand for eBusiness, service providers are increasingly interested in enforcing contracts electronically allowing autonomous supervision of service status and management. Machine-understandable NFPs and QoS models are therefore key to the widespread uptake of SLAs as well as all of the service related tasks mentioned above. This workshop aims to tackle the research problems around methods, concepts, models, languages and technology that enable management of non-functional properties and Service Level Agreements in the context of Service Oriented Computing. This proposed workshop aims to bring together researchers and industry attendees addressing these issues, to promote and foster a greater understanding of how the management of NFP, QoS and SLAs can assist business to business and enterprise application integration. TOPICS: The following indicates the general focus of the workshop. However, related contributions are welcome as well. - Languages for describing NFP requests, NFP offers - NFP description and annotation - NFP-based discovery of Web Services - Web Service substitution - NFP-based selection of services - NFP-based ranking of services - Management of NFP - Quality of Services - Quality metrics - NFP-based negotiation and agreement of service contracts - NFP-based mediation - NFP and SLA driven services composition - NFP-based monitoring, accounting and recovery - Defining and enforcing SLA violations - Business requirements for electronic contracts - SLA lifecycle - Legal status and requirements on SLAs - Cost and Quality models and measurements for SLAs - Security and trust aspects in SLAs - SLA experience reports WORKSHOP FORMAT AND ATTENDANCE: The goal of the workshop is to bring approaches from academia and the needs of industry together. The program will occupy a full day, and will include presentations of papers describing different points of view and perspectives on NFPs, QoS and SLAs from two domains: academic and industrial. The workshop will start with a more general introduction on NFPs and will try to make it more concrete with presentations on QoS and SLAs as examples of NFPs. A plenary discussion will follow the presentations, with an attempt to draw out commonalities and key areas for future research. Please note that at least one author of each accepted submission must attend the workshop. The ICSOC 2007 conference formalities are applied for fees and respective organizational aspects. Submission of a paper is not required for attendance at the workshop. However, in the event that the workshop cannot accommodate all who would like to participate, those who have submitted a paper (in any category) will be given priority for registration. SUBMISSIONS: Papers should not exceed 12 pages. They will receive a peer-review. Accepted papers will be included in the workshop proceedings. All submissions should be formatted according to the Springer LNCS layout. All the papers should be submitted in electronic format (pdf version) using the following link: http://www.easychair.org/NFPSLASOC2007/. IMPORTANT DATES: * Paper Submission: July 16, 2007 * Notification of Acceptance: August 5, 2007 * Camera Ready Copy: August 31, 2007 * Workshops day: September 17, 2007 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Flavio de Paoli (Universita degli studi di Milano - Bicocca, Italy) Andrea Maurino (Universita degli studi di Milano - Bicocca, Italy) Ioan Toma (DERI Innsbruck, Austria) Justin O'Sullivan (Queensland University of Technology, Australia) Marcel Tilly (European Microsoft Innovation, Germany) Glen Dobson (Lancaster University, UK) PROGRAM COMMITTEE (not final): * Ziv Baida, Free University Amsterdam, Netherlands * Kamal Bhattacharya, IBM Watson Research * Luciano Bresi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy * Marco Comerio, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy * Schahram Dustdar, TU Wien, Austria * David Edmond, Queensland University of Technology, Australia * Juan Miguel Gomez, Carlos III University, Madrid, Spain * Michael C. Jaeger, TU Berlin, Germany * Bastian Koller, HLRS - University of Stuttgart, Germany * Mick Kerrigan, DERI Innsbruck, Austria * Kyriakos Kritikos, FORTH, Greece * Ioan Alfred Letia, UTCN, Romania * Russell Lock, St. Andrews University, UK * Oliver Nano, Microsoft, Germany * Mike Papazoglou, Tilburg Univiversity, Netherlands * Massimiliano Di Penta, University of Sannio, Italy * Dumitru Roman, DERI Innsbruck, Austria * Antonio Ruiz, University of Sevilla, Spain * Alfonso Sanchez-Macian, University of Southampton IT Innovation Center, UK * Peter Sawyer, Lancaster University, UK * Michael Weiss, Carleton University, Canada For any further questions or inquiries please contact: Flavio de Paoli Dipartimento di Informatica Sistemistica e Comunicazione Universita degli studi di Milano - Bicocca Milano, Italy 20126 Phone: +39 02 6448 7836 Fax: +39 02 6448 78 7839 E-Mail: depaoli@disco.unimib.it and Ioan Toma Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) University of Innsbruck, Institute of Computer Science Technikerstrasse 21A, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria Phone: +43 512 507 6476 Fax: +43 512 507 9872 E-Mail: ioan.toma@deri.at