EXPLOITING SEMANTIC WEB TECHNOLOGIES FOR HARMONIZING E-MARKETS

Abstract

A main obstacle to e-commerce is the well-known "interoperability problem." Different players have different views of the world, even in the same application field. This is particularly true in the travel and tourism e-market where IT has been applied for a long time, leading to a plethora of different information systems, each with its own data model and structure. In this article we describe the approach followed in "HARMO-TEN," a European project aimed at solve the data heterogeneity problem by setting up a "virtual interoperable network" and providing the participants with a technological infrastructure based on a shared ontology. This will allow exchanging information in a seamless way while keeping existing data models unchanged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]