Home > Articles > Web Services

The Web Service Phenomenon

📄 Contents

  1. The Information Age and the Internet
  2. The Web of Services
  3. The Ecosystem
E-services and web services support the concept of making the Web work for you. Explore this phenomenon and see how exposing business assets in such a dynamic way is at the heart of the service economy.
This chapter is from the book

The e-service or web service phenomenon is about dynamic business interactions blurring the boundaries between businesses, partners, and customers. A complex web of services makes the Web work, rather than working for the Web. E-Speak makes this vision tangible by providing a services-development paradigm. In the broader view of the world, e-Speak is all about services and the ecosystems they reside in. These ecosystems themselves reside on the Internet.

1.1 The Information Age and the Internet

In the beginning, there were no computers. People had to do calculations using an abacus or later by hand. Scribes would spend a lifetime creating aesthetically pleasing copies of the Bible. Even news was spread via the town crier. Then one fine day, somebody said, "Let there be computers." And computers were born.1 People looked at computers and said, "This is good." Initially, computers were used for processing heavy scientific calculations. As technology advanced, allowing computers to increase in affordability, they gained in popularity — slowly at first, eventually picking up speed as people discovered more ways that computers could make tasks more efficient.

However, there was still one problem with computers. They could not talk to each other. People had to carry clunky media (disks) to take their stuff from one computer to another until one day when somebody said, "Let there be networking to connect these computers." So computer networks were born. They were rather slow initially, but learned to be quite fast soon. This helped in luring more people into the computer fiefdom — also known as the Digital Age.

Now the problem was that computers spoke some really bizarre languages that only a select few demigods called programmers could understand. That made it hard for normal people to interact with it. There were several attempts (such as COBOL and fourth-generation languages) to make computers human-friendly. All such attempts had only limited success.

Eventually, computers were primary vehicles for not only creating information but also for sharing information. Behind the doors of the physics offices at the Eu-ropean Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), someone said, "Let there be a web of computers, and let it be world wide so that we can share documents easily." This web of computers also had one characteristic not present in earlier computer networks. They used a rather simple protocol to communicate with each other and provided a simple language for human beings to get things done. For a lot of people, this gave birth to a new medium of interaction called the World Wide Web (WWW). The World Wide Web (after going through a period called World Wide Wait) became quite a powerful means of information exchange. The WWW brought digital information exchange to the general public. Email, commonly used in universities and government agencies, became a common means of communicating. People created pleasing Web sites that published information about themselves and the products they wanted to sell. The ease with which different kinds of information could be exchanged using the WWW translated into several new businesses, and dot.com phenomena developed. Suddenly, the consumers and the companies they buy products from found a new way to reach each other. Companies deployed a very low-cost infrastructure based on the Web to communicate with each other and exchange information about parts, orders, and design changes.

The WWW made sharing and information simply a matter of loading the pages with some special tags on a sophisticated computer called a Web server that is attached to a network. However, the simplicity led to another problem — information overload. Tons of Web sites sprang up with varying levels of information quality and freshness. Making the Web work for you was not really very easy.

1.1.1 Trip-Planning Experience

Imagine that you are trying to go to New York from San Francisco via airplane. You will need an airline ticket, a hotel, and maybe some sightseeing information. You can always go to a travel agency and get everything arranged for you (for a small fee, of course). But if you are lawfully employed, taxpaying citizens of the world like the authors of this book, you might want to save some money by doing this all yourself. So you turn to the Web and click, click. Then you click some more. After about half an hour of click-clicking and keying in your personal data some 50 times, you get fed up and finally take the deal that you think is best.

This is very inconvenient but it does work with a little time and patience. However, now suppose that your project slipped schedule and you need to postpone the trip. Now you need to change travel dates and hotel and tour booking, and because of all this, cancel the jazz festival completely. You go to the Web sites to make that change and — lo and behold — the fares are not the same anymore, are they? You are left with repeating the whole process again, as depicted in Figure 1.1.

You are left thinking it would be great if the Web could work for me. You tell the Web what to do and it returns the results with the same confidence as doing it yourself. Not a bad proposition — an age (Service Age) in which the Web takes your instructions and works for you.

1.1.2 I Am Interested, Tell Me More

Before we let out the secret that e-Speak is about, making the interactions with the Web easier, we first look at what was difficult in the above trip-planning experience. Among the firsts are the ease of use. Yes, the Web made information exchange very easy but resulted in information overload. Because it is so easy for everybody to publish content for the Web, almost everybody did, and as a result, Web users found that there was no easy way to wade through all of that and get to the right content. Secondly, there was no central place you could go to get a job done. For hotels you had to go to various hotel sites, for sightseeing to a few more, and the jazz festival was at a site you did not even know existed until now.

Figure 1.1Figure 1.1 Frenzied Web interaction.

Formally, in an ideal Web environment:

There should be some known, trustworthy spots on the Web for you where you can go and ask for whatever you want.

You should be able to express what you want in a meaningful way to the computer (and the Web).

The choices you get back should be based on your expression/whim/mood at that moment, not on some general profile information years ago. Also, the results returned should be relevant for you and what you are looking for. No information that just happens to have the right keywords should make its way to you.

The Web sites you find may never have seen you before but they should be able to serve you in a customized way as much as possible.

Finally, when you change your mind, you should be able to repeat the whole process in a painless manner.

All these features are helpful in making the Web work for you, rather than you working on the Web. Of course, some of these are present in the world today to a varying degree of functionality and success. What would be desirable is to make them available on a consistent basis. Once that happens, an experience such as trip reservation and planning, as described above, would be a more pleasant experience from a user point of view.

How can we make the Web work for you? E-Speak presents one approach. But before we talk about the details of e-Speak, it is first important to understand how e-Speak views the world. Rather than a client-server or a server-centric architecture view, e-Speak views the world as a web of services fulfilling needs of each other and eventually those of the users or clients that use these services.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020