LinkedWS: A novel Web services discovery model based on the Metaphor of “social networks”

Web services are increasingly becoming the de facto implementation for the service-oriented architecture paradigm for enterprises due to their ease of use. Nevertheless, discovering these Web services is still hindered by many challenges that are partially attributed to shortcomings found in the discovery registry models (e.g., UDDI) used nowadays. These registries do not, for example, capture the rich information resulting from the various types of interactions between Web services. To address these shortcomings, and inspired by the conventional human social networks on the net, like Facebook and Twitter, we develop LinkedWS, a social networks discovery model to capture the different interactions that occur between Web services. Based on these interactions, specialized relationships are spawned and discerned. Examples of these relationships are collaboration and substitution. This paper describes LinkedWS and its potential, and reports on its implementation status.