Meta-Services as Third Dimension of Service-Oriented Enterprise Architecture

Service as part of an enterprise architecture are more and more seen as a paradigm supporting the co-creation of value between a service provider and an actively involved prosumer. Following this view, service consists both of a primary interaction providing the core service and secondary interactions supporting the co-creation of value. Meta-services conceptualize such secondary interactions between service providers and service consumers in service-oriented enterprise architectures. Meta-services influence the lifecycle status of services by designing, deploying or retiring services. Furthermore they capture functionality to modify or evaluate services. Finally, meta-services are used to flag inadequate service quality to the service provider.