Some Reflections about Service Oriented Architectures, Cloud Computing Applications, Services and Interoperability

Web information systems are at a point where certain technologies and practices have reached a mature level of development and adoption by the industry. These information systems are widespread in institutions with different contexts and scopes, but in a global world, these systems have interoperation needs through standards that define ways to distribute high quality contents or services. On the other hand, there is an increasing number of new web technologies, tools and kinds of contents, devices and services that thrive outside the world of institutions. These have to be combined with new models of distributing, delivering and accessing services: Open Resources, Open Source Software and Creative Commons Licenses, and even the “freemium” business models, which companies like Google, Layers, Prezzi or Twitter have adopted, presenting a deep impact on the panorama of Internet services. This special issue is devoted to the problem of how to integrate service based tools and contents, mobile applications and cloud computing services into the legacy systems. Systems that institutions have been implementing and putting to use with loss of effort and internal transformations; now realizing that their systems are limited, closed and far away from the crest of the wave of systems innovation. This is a problem whose solution seems to lie in the domain of Service Sciences, both from a technical point of view of SOA and interoperability standards, and from a point of view of business models, ways of collaboration inside software development teams and fair licensing strategies. This special issue includes experiences and perspectives organized in 9 papers.