Regarding the use of the term "agent":
Given that this term is very frequently used in the semantic
technologics realm (inference agent, intelligent agent, etc.) I wonder
if we should use a different term in our work. Or does it not matter?
Joe
Joseph Chiusano
Booz Allen Hamilton
Visit us online@ http://www.boozallen.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christopher Bashioum [mailto:]
> Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2005 12:43 PM
> To:
> Subject: RE: [soa-rm] Definition of "Service Consumer"
>
> Frank,
>
> I agree with the proposed definition of service requester - I
> also wanted to "amen" the distinction between a service agent
> and the "owner" or "person"
> for whom the interection is taking place. One additional
> thought concerning this distinction, however. Although I do
> believe every service has an "owner", a service requester is
> not necessarily a fixed entity, vs. a role that an entity can
> play. In other words, a given service may be providing a
> service on one hand, and yet be a service requester on the
> other hand. In this case, the "person" that ultimately
> initiated the interaction may have done so a few services back
>
> I guess there is one other possibility. Perhaps what you
> mean is that a service that acts as an agent on behalf of a
> person (i.e., a browser
> service) is a service requester, and any other service is
> just a service.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Frank McCabe [mailto:]
> Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2005 12:00 PM
> To:
> Subject: Re: [soa-rm] Definition of "Service Consumer"
>
> There is a distinction between the software *entity*
> (agent/component/J2EE bean/.../) that interacts with a
> service in order to achieve some goal, and the person or
> persons for whom that interaction is taking place.
>
> The reason that this distinction is important is similar to
> the distinction between a service interface and the service itself:
> accessing your bank account from an ATM or on-line will use
> different interfaces but ultimately all use the same service.
>
> Here is an example of why its important: the appropriate
> business logic to apply to a service request will depend on
> many factors: the means by which the request was delivered,
> the request itself and the person (or
> persons) for whom the request was made. This last aspect is
> completely independent of mode of requesting and is purely
> business/application specific.
>
> Incidentally, the above definition: "an agent that interacts
> with a service in order to achieve a goal" seems to be a
> reasonable definition of a service requester.
>
>
> On Apr 7, 2005, at 7:23 AM, Gregory A. Kohring wrote:
>
> > Matthew,
> >
> > OK, here a fewer other choices which might be deemed more
> > "respectful"...
> >
> > Service Consumer:
> >
> > 1) End-user of a service.
> >
> > 2) An agent which, acting on behalf of its owner, uses a service.
> >
> > 3) An entity which utilizes a service
> >
> > 4) An entity which consumes the product or information produced by a
> > service.
> >
> >
> > Note all of these definitions depend upon the definition of
> the term
> > "service". Have we agreed on this already? Perhaps we should start
> > there first...
> >
> >
> > -- Greg
> >
> >
> >
> > Matthew MacKenzie wrote:
> >> I think services deserve respect, lets try not to exploit them :-)
> >> Gregory A. Kohring wrote:
> >>> Thomas,
> >>>
> >>> Perhaps one should use a somewhat broader definition
> which captures
> >>> the human user as well:
> >>>
> >>> Service Consumer: An entity which exploits a service.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> -- Greg
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Thomas Erl wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Now that we've decided on the term "service consumer" it may be
> >>>> useful to formally define it. The term "consumer" is used by the
> >>>> WS-I Basic Profile wherein it is simply defined as
> "Software that
> >>>> invokes an instance."
> >>>>
> >>>> Thomas
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> ======================================================================
> > G.A. Kohring
> > C&C Research Laboratories, NEC Europe Ltd.
> >
> ======================================================================
> >
>
>
>
>
>
