MaaS: Model as a Service in Cloud Computing and Cyber-I Space

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in user modeling, because of its extremely wide usage in real world applications, such as recommendation systems and personalized services. However, a large number of researchers have been devoted to focusing on developing a user model that can only facilitate their own applications, which has limited the rapid advances in user modeling research, so that ubiquitous modeling theory and its applications have become an emerging and open issue to solve. To handle this challenging task, this paper investigates the existing user modeling techniques and potentially applicable areas, including cloud computing and Cyber-Individual (Cyber-I), which are on the way of gradually evolving as important computing paradigms. This paper first proposes a novel user modeling conception and profile from Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) point of view, called Model as a Service (MaaS). Then, based on the widely used three-layer abstraction of cloud computing, a new MaaS-based four-layer new architecture of cloud computing is proposed, allowing users and model developers to participate in cloud activities for the purpose of supporting personalized services. Finally, a novel MaaS-based Cyber-I framework is proposed on the basis of the architecture of Cyber-I oriented platform, where user modeling and MaaS-related operations center on the functionalities, providing the services of creation, evolution and retrieval in Cyber-I space.