Answer from Wikipedia:

A two-sided market, also called a two-sided network, is an intermediary economic platform having two distinct user groups that provide each other with network benefits.

In other words it is a marketplace (online or offline) where different kinds of people meet and exchange valuable tangible or intangible goods and services.

Examples of two side marketplaces are literally everywhere and include companies like:

• Facebook
• Uber
• AirBnB
• Amazon
• Booking.com

and many more. These companies provide services that support and mediate the interconnection of groups of people in different manner.

Jeff Bezos gave a talk at MIT the 25th of November 2002 explaining some of the key characteristics of Amazon at that time. At the time, he was looking for new fresh graduates to join his ranks and explained some of features of these marketplaces that are still valid nowadays.

Some key aspects of this talk include:

• you need to help customers to find products and products to find customers. Actually, the second part is more challenging than the first one.
• How logistics is intertwined with computer science in several different ways
• The system needs to works at scale since its inception
• Real time experiments with feedback loop as opposite of batch data mining of the data
• Amazon Web Service was launched in 2001 with the key idea of providing an SDK and a solid API for external users in order to build customizable store fronts
• Amazon Web Services are connected to their affiliate program in order to give a percentage of the sales as commission (or referral fee) to their external developers

The talk also provides a few examples of how developers were coming out with new ways of taking advantage of the internet that they did not expect nor plan. In addition, he explains how extreme customization and recommendation was (and still is) an important feature of the system.

Clearly, there is much more to say about building a two sided marketplace and how various technologies evolved since then. However, this is a good start as an introduction to the API Economy

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National Grid Initiatives or Infrastructures (NGIs) are organisations set up by individual countries to manage the computing resources they provide to the European e-Infrastructure (EGI). NGIs are EGI’s main stakeholders, together with CERN and EMBL, two European Intergovernmental Research Organisations (EIROs).
Each NGIs contributes a number of sites to the grid infrastructure. NGIs are responsible for the maintenance and running of the sites they operate.

European Grid Initiative

In particular SwiNG’s mission is to:

• Ensure competitiveness of Swiss science, education and industry by creating value through resource sharing.
• Establish and coordinate a sustainable Swiss Grid infrastructure as a dynamic network of resources across different locations and administrative domains.
• Provide a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration to leverage the Swiss Grid activities, supporting end-users, researchers, education centers, resource providers and industry.
• Represent the interests of the national Grid community towards other national and international bodies.

It offer the following services to researchers and research groups:

• Scientific applications
• Tools
• Seminars and Training
• Events / seminars
• Engagement with Funding Agencies

As well as connecting research and industry partners with IT providers across Switzerland.

Withing SwiNG developed a couple of use cases. The first was related to the integration of volunteering computing with the “classical” computational infrastructure. The second integrated high level malware (workflow) into the Grid user interface in order to achieve proper optimization of the processes. In particular we created a wrap interface around the NorduGrid UI in order to offer API access to the computational facility.

Links:

• SwiNG in the EGI Wiki
• Official Website of SwiNG

Some relevant publications includes:

• This is work in progress, just look at the full list of publication here

If this is not the research project that you are looking for, at this link you can see the full list of projects

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Web 2.0 communities emerge regularly with the growing need for domain-specific programming over Web APIs. Even though Web mashups provide access to Web APIs, they ignore domain-specific programming needs. On the other hand, developing domain-specific languages (DSLs) is costly and not feasible for such ad hoc communities. We propose User Language Domain (ULD): an intermediate Web based architecture using a domain-specific embedded languages approach that reduces the cost of DSL development to plugging the Web APIs into a host end user programming language. We have implemented the proposed architecture in the context of smart devices, where we plug the functionality of different Lego Mindstorms devices into a Web-based visual programming language. We expect that several domains, such as smart homes or wearable computers can use the ULD architecture to reduce development effort.

Some relevant Key words: domain specific languages, Web 2.0 communities, end user programming, plugin architecture, smart devices, ubiquitous computing.

Our case study of smart devices helps to show the promise of separating functionality from the end user programming language in end user programming. Currently, web based artifacts are released together with a set of open APIs that can be used by their customers for building extensions. Our solution allows an efficient way of embedding these APIs into a customizable wed based end user programming environment. Based on this case study we note that:

• The idea of adopting a plugin architecture introduces a tradeoff between (i) having a standardized and uniform access to different APIs and (ii) having a completely free set of methods. In the first case the realization of the Application Domains Library is simpler and portable. However, the introduction of domain dedicated features is more complex.
• In the realized prototype we have considered the possibility of separating the functionality from the visualization. However, we could also embed in the APIs a set of metadata for the visualization of the instructions and this will result in a more uniform adoption across possible domain languages.
• The end user programming language developed in this case study runs completely on the client side of the Web browser. By using JavaScript as the assembly language of the Web, the underlying compiler of the programming language compiles the visual language into the complete JavaScript application. Since JavaScript is an event-based programming language, the compiler is forced to map the visual programming language to an event-based language.
• In our case study, the provided visual language consists of methods that can be treated as events and be triggered upon calling them; hence it is straightforward to map this language to an event-based language. However, in case of need for other programming paradigms, such as functional programming or data-flow programming, the mapping to an event-based language is more complex.
• Server-side execution of end user developed applications creates a trade-off between flexibility and interactivity. Although server-side compilation and execution increases the flexibility on possible technologies and methods to be used for compilation and execution, it hampers interactivity during application execution, which is important in domains such as scientific simulations and games. A hybrid solution between client and server-side execution has to be chosen according to the domain.

In this paper we propose ULD, a Web-based architecture to separate the domain functionality from the programming language to support programming in the highly dynamic ecosystem of Web 2.0 communities. We devise a plugin architecture for an end user programming language to be used as a host language into which the functionality of multiple domains can be plugged. We apply our architecture in the context of smart devices. As a result, end users are provided with a visual programming environment to program different Lego Mindstorms devices. The visual programming interface is automatically generated from the device functionality and embedded into the programming environment. The adoption of the Web for end user programming opens new frontiers for collaborative developments. The developed case study will serve as a testbed where we will evaluate different collaborative end user programming tools and methods in order to assess the potential of end user programming in online social environments and understanding their challenges.

Full article available at the following link:

Supporting Domain-Specific Programming in Web 2.0: a Case Study of Smart Devices: https://doi.org/10.1109/ASWEC.2010.36

Read the paper at this link

Your help in sharing the idea is very welcome!

Cite this paper as:

N. Ahmadi, F. Lelli and M. Jazayeri Supporting Domain-Specific Programming in Web 2.0: a Case Study of Smart Devices, In proc of 21st Australian Software Engineering Conference (ASWEC), Auckland, New Zealand, April 2010

Related Article:

• The Many Faces of the Integration of Instruments and the Grid

Supporting #domain Specific #programming in #Web 2.0: a #casestudy of #Smart Devices ( #IoT ).
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Faced with an ever-increasing information flood in a complex and interconnected world, individual knowledge workers are in dire need for support in structuring their personal information space and maintaining fruitful communication and exchange within social networks across organizational boundaries. NEPOMUK develops technical support and stipulates and mobilizes community efforts to realize the Social Semantic Desktop.

This paradigm comprises a set of technical and methodological solutions for:

• supporting the knowledge life cycle via personal knowledge articulation support, embedding in personal work processes, and sharing, exchange and alignment across social networks
• cross-media and cross-application linking and browsing of information items based on standard semantic web data structures, together with un-intrusive metadata support
• knowledge communication within social networks and distributed search and storage to build, maintain, and employ inter-workspace relations in large scale distributed scenarios.

Links:

• Nepomuk in Wikipedia
• EU website of Nepomuk

Some relevant publications includes:

• This is work in progress, just look at the full list of publication here

If this is not what you are looking for, at this link you can see the full list of projects

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Abstract: Current grid technologies offer unlimited computational power and storage capacity for scientific research and business activities in heterogeneous areas all over the world. Thanks to the grid, different virtual organisations can operate together in order to achieve common goals. However, concrete use cases demand a closer interaction between various types of instruments accessible from the grid on the one hand and the classical grid infrastructure, typically composed of Computing and Storage Elements, on the other. We cope with this open problem by proposing and realising the first release of the Instrument Element (IE), a new grid component that provides the computational/data grid with an abstraction of real instruments, and grid users with a more interactive interface to control them. In this paper we discuss in detail the implemented software architecture for this new component and we present concrete use cases where the IE has been successfully integrated.

Keywords: grid; instrument; Instrument Element; IE.

Authors: F. Lelli*, E. Frizziero, M. Gulmini, G. Maron, S. Orlando, A. Petrucci and S. Squizzato

We cope with this open problem by proposing and realizing the first release of the IE, a new grid component that provides the computational/data grid with an abstraction of real instruments, and grid users with a more interactive interface to control them. The main benefits of the proposed solution are: A highly modular and flexible solution: (a) The middleware deployment is organised into pluggable independent components. (b) The IE architecture is not tied to specific technologies or third-party software. (c) Multiple and independent I/O interfaces: Commands and Controls directed at Instruments, Fast Data Publishing, Data Movement to/from the grid.

• A highly modular and flexible solution: (a) The middleware deployment is organised into pluggable independent components. (b) The IE architecture is not tied to specific technologies or third-party software. (c) Multiple and independent I/O interfaces: Commands and Controls directed at Instruments, Fast Data Publishing, Data Movement to/from the grid.
• High scalability: (a) IE is portable to different platforms. (b) The target environment ranges from large farms to embedded devices.
• IE middleware aims to be used in production environments: Mature middleware has been used, whenever possible, to assure robustness and stability.
• Fine customisation of the IE: The IE is easily adaptable to diverse scenarios and needs.
• High level of abstraction in the IE interfaces: (a) Service Oriented Architecture (b) Adherence to standards: WS-I-compliant web services.
• EGEE (gLite) compatibility: Many grid facilities and tools can be reused, for instance GridFTP or SRM interface for data movement.

Get the Article at this link

A #SOA ( #service Oriented Architecture) approach for #integrate #InternetOfThings devices into a #CloudComputing infrastructure. #servicedesign
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Cite this paper as:
Lelli, F., Frizziero, E., Gulmini, M., Maron, G., Orlando, S., Petrucci, A., & Squizzato, S. (2007). The many faces of the integration of instruments and the grid. International Journal of Web and Grid Services, 3(3), 239. 

https://doi.org/10.1504/IJWGS.2007.014953

• Full list of Articles
• Full list of Journal Publications

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The project aims to extend the state of the art of computing grid technologies, by introducing the handling of real-time constraints and interactive response into the existing Grid middleware. Our goal is to build a widely distributed system that is able to remotely control and monitor complex instrumentation that ranges from a set of sensors used by geophysical stations monitoring the state of the earth to a network of small power generators to supply a national power grid. These new applications introduce, to the GRID, requirements that are strongly related to the availability of networks where network classes specifically tuned to address such real-time and highly interactive requests are implemented. One of the main objectives of the project is to verify, with real applications running on existing Grid testbeds over both national and international network infrastructures (e.g. GEANT) the feasibility of a Grid-based remote control of systems requiring real-time response. Data acquired from such instruments typically needs to be stored, analysed on-line to compare the data with a given model or to perform some predictions (e.g. meteorological applications). GRIDCC will integrate the proposed “grid of instruments”, or suitable emulators, into existing Grid infrastructures that will provide the computational and storage power needed for the applications. The reference architecture that is proposed here, along with the related software framework, introduces a new concept, that of a “Virtual Instrument Grid Service” (VlGS), which is a service enabling access, through the Grid, to any instrument by providing an appropriate interface on the instrument side. The architecture combines special-purpose services like virtual control rooms, diagnostic and problem-solving services, data-mining services and tele-presence, which are used to support various instruments with existing grid resources like computational farms and databases.

Links:

• EU website of GridCC

If this is not what you are looking for, at this link you can see the full list of projects

The post Grid Enabled Remote Instrumentation with Distributed Control and Computation (GridCC) appeared first on Francesco Lelli.