Federated Collaborative Networks

FETISH-ETF

Project description

The general goal of FETISH is to integrate the fragmented tourism information systems and their IT-based services into a federation of distributed resources that are presented through a single infrastructure to end users and other service provider enterprises. A ‘federation’ is not a new harmonized system, but a set of:

  • architectural models and solutions;
  • interoperability protocols that supports and encourages the production of reliable distributed services;
  • basic components which implements basic services which allow those information systems and services to be federated;
  • a model of business agreements, which support virtual enterprises and distributed co-operative business models;

The federation will have a major impact whether a numerous separated and distinct “federation citizens” will participate. A “citizen” of the federation could anything or anybody which provides and/or offers information, services or resources to the federation, has its role like:

  • Tourism information systems which contain and offer reliable up-to-date information on the tourism services offered by the supplier (e.g. accommodation, leisure, transport). IT-based value-added Services which require to access, to exploit the information, providing IST-based added-value services. But as well it could be others, some examples are:
  • A subscribed user (e.g. a travel agency which requires to use a services and information, but also could offer information, have a role in complex services).
  • A business process which offers rules for implementing transactions and co-operation among services, but requires information and services to be instantiated.
  • A device (e.g. a GMS which offers to be the rendering component, but communicates the results requested).

The aggregation of all of above constitutes the federation. The outcome will be a network of projects and applications which allowed to reuse and share same components, methodologies, information in a European picture.

Furthermore, the project also aims at supporting the concept of Virtual Enterprises in the tourism sector, based on the VE framework developed in PRODNET II. In FETISH, the VE paradigm is applied in order to promote and reinforce the proper cooperation among service provider enterprises that can work together in order to offer new high-level value-added services, which are in turn defined as a composition of other basic services and / or other existing value-added services.

The main task of the UvA in this project concerns the development of the federated/distributed information management component that can properly support the requirements set by the FETISH VE application domain.

Contact person

Hamideh Afsarmanesh

Project members