Reference Model Special Interest Group

1
Reference ModelSpecial Interest Group
IFITT RMSIG

• Wolfram Höpken

2
Content

• Motivation
• Objective
• Architecture of the reference model
• Building concrete models
• Interoperability
• Advantages
• Process of the IFITT RMSIG

3
Motivation

• drawbacks of past standardization initiatives
• lack of flexibility and extendibility
• fix standards are hard to maintain
• no possibility for suppliers to differentiate
  their offer
• drawbacks of XML-based standardization
• XML-based specifications stick to a physical
  level
• different XML-based standards will evolve
• standardization on an abstract, conceptual level
• focusing on semantic aspects independent of the
  physical representation
• enabling interoperability between different
  physical representations

4
Objective

• harmonizing electronic tourism markets
• flexibility and extendibility
• interoperability independent of the physical
  representation
• framework for modeling electronic tourism markets
• uniform language with standardized building
  blocks as vocabulary for describing electronic
  tourism markets
• conceptual, abstract modeling of tourism markets,
  independent of their physical representation
• semantic aspects instead of physical details
• derivation of different physical models (e.g. XML
  models)

5
Modeling levels
Conceptual level
Physical level
6
Modeling language

• tourism specific modeling language based on the
  UML
• extends the UML by domain specific concepts and
  mechanisms
• composition mechanism
• market interface descriptions
• provides building blocks as specific modeling
  elements
• enables the flexible description of specific
  models

7
Building blocks

• building blocks as common modeling components for
  reuse
• building blocks are provided on different levels
  of granularity
• elementary building blocks (date, location,...)
• tourism services (flight, hotel,...)
• process building blocks (searching, booking,...)

8
Building blocks (2)
9
Architecture of the reference model
10
Building concrete models

• first step
• constructing a specific model on a conceptual
  level, containing all specific concepts and
  semantic aspects
• second step
• deriving one or several specific physical models
  from the conceptual model (e.g. XML
  representations)

11
Building concrete models (2)
Reference model
compose
compose
Specific conceptual model
XYFlight
Time
MoonFlight
Category
Route
Room
Class
Time
MealPlan
12
Building concrete models (3)
Specific conceptual model
CureHotel
XYFlight
Name
Time
MoonFlight
Category
Category
Route
Room
Room
Class
Time
CureServices
MealPlan
13
Interoperability
14
Advantages

• flexibility and adaptability for suppliers
• flexibility for change
• low entrance barriers to electronic markets for
  suppliers (SMEs)
• separation of semantic aspects and technical
  aspects
• interoperability on and between all possible
  communication levels

15
Process of the IFITT RMSIG

• activities executed within the IFITT RMSIG
• commitment of methodology
• specification of electronic tourism markets
• domain analysis
• general survey for electronic tourism markets
• specific surveys for tourism services
• Tourtags.org
• results (available under www.rmsig.de)
• white paper
• reference model version 0.9
• data dictionary

16
Process of the IFITT RMSIG (2)

• next activities
• reference model version 1.0
• review activities
• outlook
• tourism repository
• providing common building blocks
• enabling interactive maintenance and enlargement
• prototypical applications of the reference model