Database research has undeniably made large strides towards sharing data on the Web. E-service support differs from structured data support in at least two ways. In contrast, a database provides an SQL-like language to access and query data. Second, an e-service usually requires a sequence of operations and multiple interactions to fulfill a task. Its open architecture and strong backing from HP provides a strong impetus for it to be tomorrow's standard for e-services deployment over the Web.
Much work needs to be done to mature the e-speak .
This project will build on top of HP's e-speak open systems. The PIs drawing from their respective universities' strong teaching and research experience, will each be developing a graduate level course on web-based middleware. The students will first learn the fundamental features of the e-speak architecture. Semester long students projects will be used to allow students to develop needed expertise with e-speak on the one hand, and complement it with language and composition protocols, on the other hand. A course is concurrently being developed at Virginia Tech that centers around the use of e-speak in the classroom.