Patent Publication Number: US-2009235167-A1

Title: Method and system for context aware collaborative tagging

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates generally to service oriented architectures, and more particularly to a system, article, and method that provide a situationally aware software information tool that assigns a consistent set of tags to internet resource identifiers (IRs). 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a development of distributed computing and modular programming in which existing or new technologies are grouped into autonomic systems. SOAs employ software services to build applications. Services are relatively large, intrinsically unassociated units of functionality with externalized service descriptions. SOAs typically implement functionalities most humans would recognize as a service, such as filling out an online application for an account, viewing an online bank statement, or placing an online booking or airline ticket order. Thus, SOA serves to align business and information technology (IT). 
     In an SOA environment, instead of services embedding calls to each other in their source code, protocols are defined that describe how one or more services may talk to each other. In an SOA environment, one or more services communicate with one another by passing data from one service to another, or coordinate an activity between one or more services. In addition, independent services may be accessed without the knowledge of the underlying platform implementation. In this manner, autonomic services may be orchestrated into higher-level services. In SOA, the application architecture has all its functions and services defined using a description language having invokable interfaces that are called to perform business processes. In SOA, each interaction is independent of each and every other interaction, and the interconnect protocols of the communicating devices (i.e., the infrastructure components that determine the communication system do not affect the interfaces). Because interfaces are platform-independent, a client from any device using any operating system in any language may use the service. 
     A current challenge in SOA development is to build business driven composite services atop of autonomic informational services. By defining a methodology for the use and re-use of software services and business processes, which typically encompass multiple service invocations, SOA has the potential to provide a great deal of flexibility and cost savings to enterprises that rely on information technology (IT). 
     The SOA concept is based upon an architectural style that defines an interaction model between three primary building blocks: a) a service provider, which publishes a service description and provides the implementation for the service; b) a service requester, which can either use the uniform resource identifier (URI) for the service description directly, or find the service description in a service registry and bind and invoke the service; and c) a service broker, which provides and maintains the service registry using, for example, the Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI) specification, which defines a way to publish and discover information about web services. 
     A web service is a software application designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network, and is frequently simple web application program interfaces (API) that may be accessed over a network, such as the Internet, and executed on a remote system hosting the requested services. Web services may provide an example of an SOA implementation in which the basic unit of communication is a message, rather than an operation, by making functional building blocks accessible over standard Internet protocols that are independent from platforms and programming languages. 
     “Web 2.0” is a term that refers to an increasingly frequented type of web application that is primarily distinguished by the ability of visitors to continually contribute information for collaboration and sharing. Web 2.0 applications use web services, and may include composite user interfaces that provide combinations of various service technologies such as collaborative and social software, web syndication, weblogs, and wikis. While there are no set standards for Web 2.0, Web 2.0 is a user-driven architecture of participation that utilizes the SOA characteristics of building on the existing architecture and using services. The evolving technology infrastructure of Web 2.0 includes various applications that may provide users with information storage, creation, and dissemination capabilities that go beyond what had formerly been expected of web applications. 
     A number of Web 2.0 applications feature the extensive use of folksonomies. A folksonomy involves the practice of collaborative categorization using freely-chosen tags, that is, metadata in the form of descriptive keywords or terms associated with or assigned to a piece of information, and arises in web applications in which special provisions are made at the site level for creating and using tags for web content. Collaborative tagging in this fashion is intended to enable a body of information to be increasingly easy to search, discover, and navigate over time, and folksonomies are commonly used to label, classify, and retrieve web content such as web pages, digital images, Internet bookmarks, and web links. As folksonomies develop in web-mediated social environments, users often discover the tag sets of another user who tends to interpret and tag content in a way that makes sense to them. The use of folksonomies may result in an immediate and rewarding gain in user capacity to find related content. 
     Flickr and del.icio.us are examples of websites that use folksonomic tagging to organize content. Flickr is a digital image storage and management service that is configured with a user interface, to tag images with descriptive nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and systematically perform CRUD (create, read, update, and delete) operations on photography entries. del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that is configured for users to create and store Internet bookmarks, and then tag the bookmarks with many descriptive words, facilitating others to search by those terms to find sites that have been found useful. 
     Within the realm of a business enterprise and its network of partners, there are numerous opportunities for collaboration. The use of Web 2.0 technologies and SOA principles has the potential to increase the reach and improve the richness of this interaction in enterprise informational services, leading to more efficient development of new business models and processes by using readily available, intuitive modular elements. By creating an environment in which employees can collaborate efficiently, by leveraging each other&#39;s intellect and resources, employees can create stronger and more successful products. Nevertheless, most software that is touted as enabling enterprise collaboration is difficult to use, cumbersome, and does not adequately empower employees to share their content. This results in SOA implementations that undesirably add more custom logic and increased complexity to an IT infrastructure. A big hurdle for the typical large enterprise is the ability to standardize knowledge practice across that enterprise, and to implement tools and processes that support that aim. 
     An example of an enterprise or business-driven collaborative enterprise environment is that of a composite service system. A composite service system comprises a collection of collaborative or interactive services, which aggregate domain-specific (or context-aware) content information that may be utilized by employees to maintain consistency across all of the enterprise informational services. Examples of systems that may be implemented in this fashion include project management systems, which are used to schedule, track, and chart the steps in a project as it is being completed, workflow systems, which enable the collaborative management of tasks and documents within a knowledge-based business process, and knowledge management systems, which are used to collect, organize, manage, and share various forms of information. Operations such as record management, content management, collaborative software, workflow or business process management, and other mechanisms designed to capture the efforts of many into a managed content environment are typical of these workplace collaboration technologies. 
     Domain knowledge is the body of knowledge about a particular activity environment. In an enterprise, domain knowledge has traditionally been organized (formally or informally) in an institutionally supported taxonomy that is domain-specific. Domain knowledge may be kept in data repositories such as Lotus Notes Teamrooms, ad-hoc websites, knowledgebases, social bookmarks, or applications, and so on. A workplace-generated folksonomy would be useful, for example, with business-driven collaborative or interactive management systems of composite services that are designed to help employees working on a common task achieve their goals. 
     Internet resource identifiers such as uniform resource identifiers (URIs), uniform resource locators (URLs), or internationalized resource identifiers (IRIs) are internet addresses that implement a variety of naming schemes and access methods, such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The primary purpose of internet resource identifiers (URIs, URLs, and IRIs) is to identify resources on the web, such as documents, images, files, services media, applications, and other resources. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Embodiments of the present invention include a method, article, and system for tagging an internet resource identifier (IR), such as a uniform resource identifier (URI), uniform resource locators (URL), or internationalized resource identifier (IRI) based on situationally aware software, the method includes: determining a user&#39;s role, context, situation, and which IR is currently being viewed by the user; retrieving one or more of: role and situation tags, and predefined vocabulary from a database in response to the determining; creating a community tag list in the event one or more community tags exist in response to the determined IR; providing the community tag list to the user; receiving a user selected community tag from the community tag list; tagging the IR with the user selected community tag; wherein in the event the community tag list has not been created, the IR is tagged with at least one of the retrieved role and situation tags, and the predefined vocabulary; and wherein the tagging is based on at least one of the user&#39;s context, role, or situation. 
     An article comprising one or more computer-readable storage media containing instructions that when executed by a computer enables a method for tagging an internet resource identifier (IR) based on situationally aware software, wherein the method further includes: determining a user&#39;s role, context, situation, and which IR is currently being viewed by the user; retrieving one or more of: role and situation tags, and predefined vocabulary from a database in response to the determining; creating a community tag list in the event one or more community tags exist in response to the determined IR; providing the community tag list to the user; receiving a user selected community tag from the community tag list; tagging the IR with the user selected community tag; wherein in the event the community tag list has not been created, the IR is tagged with at least one of the retrieved role and situation tags, and the predefined vocabulary; and wherein the tagging is based on at least one of the user&#39;s context, role, or situation. 
     A system for tagging an internet resource identifier (IR) based on situationally aware software, the system includes: one or more server devices in communication with one or more client devices through a network; the server devices and the client devices configured to execute electronic software; wherein the electronic software is resident on storage mediums in signal communication with the client and server devices; wherein the electronic software comprises a series of instructions in the form of a tag assist system (TAS) configured for: determining a user&#39;s role, context, situation, and which IR is currently being viewed by the user; retrieving one or more of: role and situation tags, and predefined vocabulary from a database in response to the determining; creating a community tag list in the event one or more community tags exist in response to the determined IR; providing the community tag list to the user; receiving a user selected community tag from the community tag list; tagging the IR with the user selected community tag; wherein in the event the community tag list has not been created, the IR is tagged with at least one of the retrieved role and situation tags, and the predefined vocabulary; and wherein the tagging is based on at least one of the user&#39;s context, role, or situation. 
     Technical Effects 
     As a result of the summarized invention, a solution is technically achieved for a method, article, and system for providing a situationally aware software information tool that assigns a consistent set of tags to internet resource identifiers (IRs). 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The subject matter that is regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating an operational configuration of an exemplary embodiment of the invention showing the location of system components at run time. 
         FIG. 2  is a flowchart for implementing a method for saving a tag instance according to embodiments of the invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary tag assist system&#39;s entity-relationship (ER) model that may be utilized to implement exemplary embodiments of the invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary computer system that may be utilized to implement exemplary embodiments of the invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram illustrating an operational configuration of an exemplary embodiment of an SOA web service system according to embodiments of the invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment of a tag management system in accordance with embodiments of the invention implemented within an exemplary SOA. 
     
    
    
     The detailed description explains the preferred embodiments of the invention, together with advantages and features, by way of example with reference to the drawings. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The unsystematic methodology of folksonomic tagging may be considered to be unreliable and inconsistent for use in large enterprises. Typically, there is no information about the meaning or semantics of a tag, and because of the lack of a hierarchical or systematic structure for the tagging system, the terms often fail to show their relationship to other objects of the same or similar type, or lead to irrelevant connections between objects. In a situation where a user in a collaborative or social software environment has found a new, important piece of information, or has posted new content relevant to the community on an external collaborative software application, the user may only employ existing folksonomies, or create a tag on-the-fly, which may not be consistent with the domain-specific taxonomy. Thus, while this user will be aware of the new object, other users in the same environment will not encounter this new information when performing tag searches using, for example, a feed reader. 
     When a tagging system is defined informally, continually changing, and lacking governance, it may be burdensome to use theses constructed tags to automate workflow and business processes, and tags associated with resources could grow to unruly proportions. Keeping track of this information is challenging and, as the use of collaborative and social software increases both internally (that is, within a corporate firewall) and externally (or publicly), the issue of synchronizing tagged information between the public and private spaces becomes a greater concern, as the public social software applications are not aware of the private domain specific tags or taxonomies. In addition, folksonomies may be inherently ambiguous or inconsistent in the context of a role or particular domain. Moreover, since folksonomies are generic, a user in a given role or domain has no way of knowing how others in their community have tagged a particular IR. 
     Embodiments of the invention are configured with a tag assist system (TAS) that provides for consistency of tags in the context of role, community, or domain at tag time. Tag time refers to when a user saves a tagged IR within a Web 2.0-based application. In embodiments of the invention, tag consistency for a community or role is facilitated by presenting a user with useful information on IRs that have been previously tagged by other users of the system, such as the most relevant or popular tags for the IR based on their role or situation. Therefore, embodiments of the invention enable users to apply the appropriate tags for a IR based on their context, instead of relying on generic folksonomies, which are composed of uncontrolled or inconsistent vocabularies. Therefore, embodiments of the invention provide users with domain specific tag information, which are also the most popular or well known for a particular IR (or tagged item) based on user role, context, or situation. Embodiments of the invention provide a means for users to switch between roles or situations to view how tags are applied in different contexts or situations. Embodiments of the invention provide experts, power users, administrators, or leaders with a means to build predefined “controlled” vocabularies from folksonomies of trusted resources or entire communities. With embodiments of the invention, users are permitted to see how experts, power users, administrators, or leaders in their role have tagged IRs as a way to reference trusted resources (particular members) for vocabulary guidance. 
     For example, with embodiments of the invention, when a user saves and tags a IR on a social bookmarking site using the TAS, the user will see how others in their community tagged that item, view community-specific tags and determine the appropriate tags to apply for the IR. If other users have not tagged the IR in the users community, the user is able to view a pre-defined vocabulary for their community and apply the appropriate tags. 
     In embodiments of the invention, as the TAS collects additional information about how a IR is being tagged, the information the TAS provides to the user will be even more reliable and consistent. The TAS increases tag consistency, the usefulness, and discoverability of tagged IRs. In addition, as the TAS continues to collect additional information about IRs tags in different contexts, the increased usefulness and discoverability of this information may be leveraged to make inferences about a user&#39;s role or situation. For example, embodiments may provide suggested IRs to users based on their particular situation or provide other related information. 
     Embodiments of the invention improve tag consistency across communities of practice (CoP), with tag filtering based on user context changes. Moreover, with embodiments of the invention, power users or administrators of the system are able to perform queries to analyze metrics about tags, IRs, roles, and community-generated folksonomies. In addition, embodiments of the invention achieve tag uniformity by employing an administrative approach that publishes and distributes controlled (predefined) vocabularies, while trusting users to apply the controlled vocabularies appropriately when saving and tagging IRs. Embodiments of the invention may also apply a top-down method to achieve tag uniformity by using a knowledge management system to force hierarchal taxonomies. 
     In addition to allowing users to view and apply tags to IRs based on their role or situation, an administrator or power user of the TAS may perform Create, Read, Update and Delete (CRUD) procedures on tags and IRs on a specific Web 2.0 application or many in bulk operations. For example, an administrator may want to rename or a add community specific tag to tagged IRs on several Web 2.0 websites. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating an operational configuration of an exemplary embodiment of the invention showing the location of system components at run time. The tag assist system  100  includes a tag assist agent  112  that works in the background while a user is browsing IRs on a Web browser  110  on their client device  102 . While the user is viewing an IR, the tag assist agent  112  asynchronously fetches a list of community tags from an application server  104  based on their role or situation. Resident on the application server  104  is a tag management system  116  that carries out the administration of the list of the community of tags through messaging middleware  114 . In the event a list of community tags exists, these tags will be displayed to the user, with a graphical user interface, when they are saving and tagging a IR. After the user has saved the tag, a set of details (meta-data) about the saved IR, including the IR&#39;s tags and the tag&#39;s role, are saved in a database  106  via asynchronous messaging through the message middleware  114 . The meta-data about the saved IR is referred to as a tag instance. 
       FIG. 2  is a flowchart that illustrates the steps in saving a Tag Instance according to embodiments of the invention. The process starts (block  200 ) with a determination of the user&#39;s role and situation (block  202 ), and which IR is being viewed (block  204 ). Based on the determined user&#39;s role, situation, and viewed IR, a tag assist agent asynchronously fetches or retrieves role and situation tags (block  206 ) and predefined vocabulary (block  208 ) from a database. If community tags exist (decision block  210  is Yes), the tag management system creates a community tag list (block  212 ) and the IR is saved (block  214 ) in a database. In the event the community tags exist (decision block  216  is Yes), a list of available community tags (block  218 ) is displayed to the user. Subsequently, the user selects a tag (block  220 ), the IR is tagged (block  222 ), and the process ends. If no community tag exists (decision block  216  is No), the IR is tagged (block  222 ) with a default role and situation tag based on the users context. 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary tag assist system&#39;s entity-relationship (ER) model that may be utilized to implement exemplary embodiments of the invention. A tag instance table  300  contains the meta-data about the saved tagged IR. In embodiments of the invention, tagging instances are saved in a database via asynchronous messaging. Once the tag instances are stored in a database, queries may be performed to examine the relationships between the roles, tags, and communities. In addition to allowing users to view and apply tags to IRs based on their role or situation, an administrator or power user of the TAS may perform Create, Read, Update and Delete (CRUD) procedures on tags and IRs on a specific Web 2.0 application, and other metadata supported applications, or many Web 2.0 applications, and many metadata supported applications in bulk operations. Metadata supported applications include, but are not limited to, tags, keywords, and categories. For example, an administrator may want to rename or a add community specific tag to tagged IRs on several Web 2.0 websites. 
       FIG. 4  and the following discussion are intended to provide a general description of an exemplary data processing system that may be adapted to implement exemplary embodiments of the invention. While exemplary embodiments of the invention will be described in the general context of an application program that runs on an operating system in conjunction with a personal computer, those skilled in the art will recognize that exemplary embodiments may also be implemented in combination with other program modules such as, for example, platform software modules, user-written software modules (such as spreadsheet templates, word processor macros, graphics scripts, etc.), routines, programs, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that exemplary embodiments of the invention may be practiced with other computer system configurations, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like, as well as in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 4 , there is depicted an exemplary data processing system  400  that may be utilized to implement exemplary embodiments of the present invention. For discussion purposes, the data processing system is described as having features common to a personal computer, such as a desktop or portable computer. As used herein, however, the terms “data processing system,” “computer,” and the like are intended to mean essentially any type of computing device or machine that is capable of receiving, storing, and running a software product, including such devices as communication devices (for example, pagers, telephones, electronic books, electronic magazines and newspapers, etc.) and personal and home consumer devices (for example, handheld computers, web-enabled televisions, home automation systems, multimedia viewing systems, gaming consoles, etc.). 
     Data processing system  400 , as provided in  FIG. 4 , is configured as a personal computer that generally includes a processing unit  460 , a system memory  402 , and a system bus  480  that couples system memory  402  to processing unit  460 . The system memory  402  includes flash memory  406  and random access memory (RAM)  408 . Flash memory  406  is an electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) module that includes a basic input/output system (BIOS)  412 . BIOS  412  contains the basic routines that facilitate transfer of information between elements within personal computer  400 , such as during start-up. 
     Data processing system  400  further includes a hard disk drive  490 , a magnetic disk drive  444  (which can be used to read from or write to a removable disk  431 ), and an optical disk drive  446  (which can be used to read a CD-ROM disk  433  or read or write to other optical media). Hard disk drive  490 , magnetic disk drive  444 , and optical disk drive  436  are electrically communicatively coupled to system bus  480  by a hard disk drive interface  470 , a magnetic disk drive interface  432 , and an optical drive interface  434 , respectively. The drives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage for data processing system  400 . Although the description of computer-readable media above refers to a hard disk, a removable magnetic disk and a CD-ROM disk, it should be appreciated that other types of media that are readable by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks, Bernoulli cartridges, and the like, may also be used in exemplary computer operating environments. 
     A number of program modules may be stored in the drives and RAM  408 , including an operating system  414 , application program modules  416  (such as, for example, word processors, design applications, and IBM&#39;s Workplace Forms suite of program modules), and program data  418 . A user may enter commands and information into data processing system  400  through a keyboard  450  and a mouse  448 . Other input devices (not shown) may include, for example, a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to processing unit  460  through a serial port interface  439  that is coupled to system bus  480 , but may be connected by other interfaces, such as a game port or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor  424  or other type of display device is also connected to system bus  480  via an interface, such as a video adapter  436 . In addition to the monitor, the exemplary computer operating environment may also include other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers or printers. 
     Data processing system  400  may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer  449 . Remote computer  449  may be, for example, a server, a router, a peer device, or another common network node, and may include many or all of the elements described in relation to data processing system  400 . The logical connections depicted in  FIG. 4  include a local area network (LAN)  451  and a wide area network (WAN)  453 . 
     When used in a LAN networking environment, data processing system  400  is connected to LAN  451  through a network interface  442 . When used in a WAN networking environment, data processing system  400  includes a modem  454  or other means for establishing communications over WAN  453 , such as the Internet. Modem  454 , which may be internal or external to data processing system  400 , is connected to system bus  480  via serial port interface  439 . In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to data processing system  400 , or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used. 
     Exemplary embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in conjunction with an SOA environment such as, for example, an integrated web services implementation, in which the SOA supports integration and consolidation of any number of services and processes. Web services are self-contained, self-describing, modular applications that may be described, located, and invoked over a computer network such as the World Wide Web. Web services utilize standardized interfaces and protocols (for example, a web Application Programming Interface (API)) to implement consolidation and integration methods that allow different entities or web-based applications to communicate data, logic, and processes with one another over a network. These standardized methods permit different applications to exchange resources with other entities or applications that are running on different operating systems. In an SOA environment, the SOA may define a interface through which a service-requesting or client-side party may access web services or enterprise-based services provided within an enterprise domain, specify or consolidate a set of web services or web service providers that may be invoked through the interface, and define protocols for communicating with the set of web services through the SOA interface. 
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment of an SOA web service system  500  within which exemplary embodiments of the invention may be implemented and operated in a collaborative environment such as that of a business enterprise. Web service system  500  allows for the exchange or transport of web service data or web service messages between multiple client applications ( 512   a ,  512   b - 512   n ) within an enterprise domain  514  to any of multiple web services ( 536   a ,  536   b - 536   n ) hosted by a web service application server or provider  520  using an enterprise service bus (ESB)  516 . In exemplary embodiments, web service system  500  may allow for the exchange or transport of web service data or web service messages between client applications  512  and a number of web service application providers that each host one or more web services over a communications network  518 . 
     Client applications  512  are software applications that include one or more sequences of instructions that are executable by one or more processors. For example, applications  512  may be programs that are executable on a computer system such as the data processing system illustrated in  FIG. 4 , described above. Web services  536  may include some combination of programming and data that are made available through application server  520  for end users and other network-connected application programs. In exemplary embodiments, web services  536  may comprise one or more web applications that are implemented to allow users of client applications  512  to communicate therewith to create and store folksonomic tags for describing web content such as, for example, digital images or internet bookmarks. 
     When a client application needs to invoke a remote web service at application server  520 , the invoking client application generates a request message describing arguments to be given to the web services, and requests processing by the web services. Upon receiving the request message, application server  520  performs the processing for the requested web services, and returns a response message describing any return values of the processing to the client application. 
     ESB  516 , which is a component of enterprise domain  514  in the present exemplary embodiment, serves to provide an enhanced messaging middleware infrastructure for the enterprise domain and provides the set of capabilities through which the SOA may be implemented. The capabilities provided by ESB  516  may include, for example, invocation, routing, mediation, messaging, mediation, messaging, process choreography, service orchestration, complex event processing, and management functions. In general, ESB  516  serves as a centralized broker that handles issues relating to security, access, and communication in the SOA environment. In exemplary embodiments, ESB  516  may be configured to perform data integration to ensure that information is kept consistent within the SOA environment, provide a common user interface through which client applications  512  may access the web services that are specified by the SOA, and to extract policies or rules from the specified web services so that if one service is replaced with a different vendor&#39;s services in the SOA specification, the business rules do not have to be re-implemented. In alternative exemplary embodiments, ESB  516  may be a vendor-provided service bus that is external to enterprise domain  514 . 
     In one particular exemplary capability, ESB  516  serves as a message mediator by receiving, processing, and passing request messages from client applications  512  and response messages from web services  536  such that the services can be called to perform their tasks in a standard way, without the services having foreknowledge of the calling client applications, and without the client applications having or needing knowledge of how the services actually perform their tasks. In exemplary embodiments, the message processing performed by ESB  516  may be built upon generally accepted web services standards and protocols such as, for example, XML (a markup language for describing data in message payloads in a document format), HTTP (or HTTPS, a request/response protocol between clients and servers used to transfer or convey information), SOAP (a protocol for exchanging XML-based messages over a computer network, normally using HTTP), and XACML (a markup language for expressing access control rules and policies). 
     ESB  516  and web services  536  communicate with each other, as well as with other applications and web service systems, through network  518 . Network  518  is configured to receive and pass on request and response messages accordingly, and to use the transportation protocol or protocols used by messages. Network  518  includes intranets, extranets, and the Internet, and may contain any number of network infrastructure elements including routers, switches, gateways, etc. For example, network  518  may be the public Internet or a private LAN. In exemplary embodiments, ESB  516  may also communicate with other web service providers to provide other web services and applications through network  518  to client applications  512 , as well as with enterprise service providers through an intranet within enterprise domain  514  that provide other services and processes such as enterprise legacy services to the client application. 
     Application server  520  provides web services  536  to client applications  512  through network  518 . A web server application processing unit  532  (such as WebSphere®, a product of International Business Machines Corporation) oversees the execution of multiple web services  536   a ,  536   b - 536   n  that reside on application server  520 . Network  518  passes each request message to and receives each response message from application processing unit  532  through a message gateway  526  such as, for example, a proxy, firewall, or other message intermediary. Message gateway  526  receives request messages from network  518  and passes response messages to the network. Message gateway  526  performs lexical analysis of request messages to create input objects including parameters for invocation of one or more of web services  536 . Message gateway  526  sends input objects to web service application processing unit  532 , which calls the appropriate web services that correspond to the method invocation of the input objects, executes the appropriate logic, and returns the result as output objects that include the return values of the invoked web service(s), to the message gateway. Message gateway  526  converts output objects into response messages, and transmits the response messages through network  518  to the invoking client applications. 
     Application processing unit  532  may also be supported by a database management system  534 , which may be any conventional data repository for storing, managing, and retrieving data. In exemplary embodiments, database  534  may be a relational or object-relational database management system, such as DB2, a product of International Business Machines Corporation. In exemplary embodiments, database  534  may be internal to application server  520  (as shown in  FIG. 5 ) or, alternatively, reside externally on a separate machine. In exemplary embodiments, application server  520  may use a single database  534  to serve multiple web services  536  (as shown in  FIG. 5 ) or, alternatively, use a separate database for each separate web service. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 6 , a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a tag set manager system  600  in accordance with embodiments of invention is illustrated. Tag set manager  600  may be implemented, for instance, within enterprise domain  514  of the SOA system of  FIG. 5 , to provide a mechanism for managing and maintaining separate, distinct sets of domain-specific tags for a client-side user  622  in an SOA environment that implements a methodology for providing client applications with access to a specified set of integrated tag-based services and processes that include features for collaborative tagging of web content. In the present exemplary embodiment, the user is operating a local computer running a portal client application  610  that provides a user interface implemented in accordance with the SOA, and through which the user may access the applications that are specified by the SOA. In exemplary embodiments, the SOA specification may include Web 2.0 and other collaborative or social software applications such as, for example, del.icio.us, Flickr, Technorati, Last.fm, and Wrike. In the exemplary SOA of  FIG. 6 , the specification is shown as including Web 2.0 applications, collaborative software applications, and social software applications as provided by a number of web service providers  680  through a communications network  670 , as well as including applications provided by a local Intranet service provider  690 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 6 , managing system  600  includes a user or client-side agent or proxy  620  (for example, Firefox or Internet Explorer), a personal database management system  630 , a group domain data management system  640 , and a messaging intermediary  650 . Databases  630 ,  640  may be any suitable type of data repository for storing, managing, and retrieving data that comprises sets of personal and domain-specific tags and other metadata associated with tag-based applications. 
     In exemplary embodiments, databases  630 ,  640  may be a relational or object-relational database management systems, such as DB2. In exemplary embodiments, the databases may be internal to local computer running a client application  610  or, alternatively, reside externally on a separate machine within the enterprise domain. In exemplary embodiments, client application  610  may employ a single personal database  630  to store tag sets for one or more roles and a jointly usable, domain-specific group database  640  to store tag sets for each group domain of which the user is a member (as shown in  FIG. 6 ) or, alternatively, employ separate databases to store tag sets for each separate role and/or a separate user-specific group database to store tag sets for each group domain of which the user is a member. 
     In exemplary embodiments, each database may be configured to store a distinct tag set for one of a number of separate identities or roles that the user may desire to take on in the SOA environment. In this manner, the sets of tags could be maintained independently of any of the tag-based application provided for in the SOA. For example, the user may wish to have a tag set for a personal role that is maintained separately from a tag set for a separate role as a member of a group domain such as Community of Practice (CoP), which refers to a group that is composed of members who share a meaningful relationship and work together to expound their collective knowledge on a topic through collaboration to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations. In this example, the CoP, to focus knowledge management in community, may wish to provide a pre-defined set of domain-specific tags for its members to employ when using tag-based collaborative or social software. The user, in a role as a member of a CoP, may thus desire to synchronize some of their tag sets with a specified set of domain-specific tags for the CoP for each of the tag-based application with which they are involved, while the user may wish to personally manage a separate set of tags for each or all of the tag-based services with which the user interacts in a personal role outside of the CoP. In exemplary embodiments, agent  620 , which may access the tag set databases over message intermediary  650 , may provide this functionality. 
     In exemplary embodiments, the user&#39;s tag sets may be stored as directory entries according to the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), and the databases could be implemented as an LDAP directory. LDAP is an application protocol for querying and modifying directory services running over TCP/IP. LDAP directories comprise a set of objects with similar attributes organized in a logical and hierarchical manner as a tree of directory entries. Each directory entry has a unique identifier (identifying, for example, for one of the user&#39;s roles) and consists of a set of attributes (for example, the tag-based applications in the SOA and the tag sets for each of applications, along with additional metadata). The attributes each have a name and one or more values, and are defined in a schema. 
     In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  may be configured to, in response to commands from the user, initiate an LDAP session by connecting to one of the databases, send operation requests to the database, and receive responses sent from the database in return. Agent  620  may be configured to search for and retrieve tag entries associated with specific user roles and tag-based applications, compare tag terms and other attribute values, add, delete, modify the user&#39;s roles, tag sets, and tag and tag-based application attributes, import tags and tag sets from existing databases and directories, etc. By binding tag set attributes for each particular user role with a particular entry in an LDAP directory (or within an alternative data model or directory type), agent  620  may associate each particular role with content submitted or posted in that specific role so that it may be used consistently whenever tags are posted by the user or whenever tags that have already been posted by the user are detected. 
     In the present exemplary embodiment, agent  620  is a self-contained, interactive object configured to execute concurrently with client application  610  to act on behalf of the user running client application  620 . In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  can be configured to provide a user interface through which the user can interact with the agent to instruct it to perform desired functionality. For example, agent  620  may be implemented as a web browser that enables the user to display and interact with text, images, and other information at each of the tag-based applications provided for in the SOA. In another example, client application  610  may comprise a web browser, and agent  620  may be implemented as a browser applet such as an Adobe Flash or Java application to provide part of or the entire user interface. In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  may be implemented according to the WS-CAF web service standard to provide composite functionality of each of the tag-based applications specified in the SOA through the user interface. 
     In the present exemplary embodiment, when client application  610  or agent  620  needs to invoke a remote application server, the invoking application generates a request message describing arguments to be given to an application specified in the SOA, and requests processing by the application. Messaging intermediary  650 , which comprises a communications middleware component supporting a variety of communications paradigms, APIs, platforms, and standard protocols, receives the request message from the invoking application, processes the message in accordance with specified business rules and provisions, determines the location of the requested service provider (for example, by accessing service registry  660 ), and sends the message to the appropriate service provider. In exemplary embodiments, messaging intermediary  650  may be configured based upon standards such as XML, SOAP, UDDI, and WSDL. Upon receiving the request message, application server  620  performs the processing for the requested web services, and returns a response message describing any return values of the processing to message intermediary  650 , which in turn returns the response message to the invoking application. 
     Messaging intermediary  650 , which may be a component of an enterprise service bus such as ESB  516  of  FIG. 5 , is configured to transform message formats between clients and service providers, route requests to the correct service providers, and convert transport protocols between clients and providers. For example, if a service provider expects encrypted messages, message intermediary  650  may include such a capability in request messages sent to that provider. Messaging intermediary  650  may be configured to provide virtualization of the applications according to rule and specifications of the SOA to client application  610  and agent  620 , allowing the logic of those applications to be developed and managed independently of the infrastructure, network, and other provisions of the services specified in the SOA. In this manner, messaging intermediary  650  may help promote loose coupling between client application  610  and the service providers. 
     In the present exemplary embodiment, message intermediary  650  and service providers  680  communicate with each other through network  670 . Network  670  is configured to receive and pass on request and response messages accordingly, and to use the transportation protocol or protocols used by messages. Network  670  includes intranets, extranets, and the Internet, and may contain any number of network infrastructure elements including routers, switches, gateways, etc. For example, network  670  may be the public Internet or a private LAN. In the present exemplary embodiment, message intermediary also communicates with Intranet service provider  690  according to transportation protocols specified for the local domain. In exemplary embodiments, as specified by the SOA, message intermediary  650  may also communicate with other web service providers to provide other web services and applications through network  680  to client application  610 , as well as with other local domain service providers that provide other services and processes such as enterprise legacy services to the client application. 
     In the present exemplary embodiments, agent  620  is configured to act on instructions provided by the user to access a database through message intermediary  650  to load a set of tags that corresponds to a tag-based application specified by the user and a role specified by the user, display the first set of tags to the user, and to communicate with the service specified by the user to post tags selected by the user from the displayed set of tags to content at the service. In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  may provide a seamless user experience by not requiring multiple logins. At the time the user logs in to agent  620 , the user can specify a role (for example, the user can connect to the agent in a personal role, or as a member of a group domain such as a CoP). Agent  620  is configured to be aware of each of the tag-based applications that client application  610  may access through the SOA, as well as each specified role that the user may desire to use when logging in to the agent. In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  may be configured to supply any necessary login information to connect to each of the tag-based applications specified by the SOA on behalf of the user, in each of the specified roles for the user. In exemplary embodiments, when the user logs into the agent, the agent can then either automatically log the user into all of the tag-based applications specified by the SOA or automatically log the user into and out of each of the tag-based applications at separate times as desired by the user. 
     In the present exemplary embodiment, because agent  620  has access to each set of tags maintained for the user in databases  630 ,  640  over message intermediary  650 , the agent can be configured to allow for dynamic management of the tag sets, such as by adding, deleting, or renaming tags. In exemplary embodiments, the user, or, for a group domain, the domain administrators or knowledge engineers, could be responsible for creating the initial taxonomy or folksonomy for a tag set, as well as any further management of the tag set after it has been created. In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  may be implemented to provide authorization procedures for controlling who may create and manipulate tag sets for various roles. The master tag set for the user&#39;s personal (non-group) roles would be maintained in database  630 , and the master tag set for each group domain of which the user is a member can be maintained in a single, separate database such as database  640 . 
     In exemplary embodiments, to ensure consistency of the sets of tags maintained for the user across each tag-based application provided for in the SOA, agent  620  may be configured to synchronize the current taxonomy of each separate tag set that is maintained for the user with any prior tags the user had created to describe web content at the tag-based application corresponding to that tag set. That is, once the user is satisfied with the consistency of the set of tags that the user has created or modified for a specific role, the tags could then be updated in a one-way synchronization in all of the tag-based applications provided for in the SOA with which the user was involved or as otherwise desired by the user. This would provide the user with a consistent set of tags for web content across all tag-based applications of the SOA in that role and allow the use or other members of a group domain to, for example, make meaningful web feed queries to aggregate content across these applications. 
     In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  may perform synchronization operations by mining the tag sets of each of the tag-based applications of which the agent  620  is aware, and then accessing each tag-based application to update each prior tag created by the user in the specified role for objects or web content within that tag-based application with the new tag set now maintained in one of the databases. In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  may perform this by first loading the new tag sets for each of the tag-based applications for the user in the specified role, then comparing the new tag set for each tag-based application with each prior tag created by the user in the specified role at that tag-based application, and finally performing a one-way synchronization of the tags from the tag sets maintained at the client-side to each of the registered applications. 
     In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  can be also configured to configured to perform other synchronization operations on the user&#39;s tag set such as synchronizing separate tag sets maintained for separate user roles but corresponding to the same tag-based application, synchronizing a domain-specific tag set with other tag sets for the user, or with the tag sets of a group domain or CoP. In various exemplary embodiments, agent  620  may be configured to perform the synchronization periodically at regular intervals, when initiated by the user or a domain expert, or whenever the user logs in as a specific role or to one of the tag-based services provided for in the SOA. 
     In exemplary embodiments, the user may login to agent  620  as and assume more than one specified role during a session. To enable a user to posts tags to tag-based applications using multiple roles concurrently in a single session, agent  620  may perform role-based session management on the client-side by placing additional identifier metadata that specifies the actively-tagging role for the user on the tags as they are published to tag-based applications. The identifier metadata must be unique for each role to prevent occurrences of incidental collision with tags in other roles. Agent  620  may do this, for example, by utilizing role-identifying suffixes or prefixes in a manner similar to that of an XML Namespace. In this way, two identically named tags from different tag sets may be made to be semantically different by specifying metadata that would differentiate the two tags according to role. In situations in which the identical tag term has been posted from the tag sets of distinct roles for the user for the same tag-based application and would otherwise appear ambiguous to agent  620  as to the user role under which it was posted, by adding this specifying metadata to the tags as they are posted, the agent will be able to correctly identify the role under which the user posted a tag by accessing this metadata. 
     As an example, in a situation where the user logs in as the domain administrator for a CoP, the user has access to domain-specific tags that are particular to that CoP. To ensure that the available tags in this role do not conflict with any other tags in the user&#39;s other roles without requiring separate login sessions for the different roles in each tag-based application, agent  620  could add metadata to the tags posted by the user so the tags are suffixed or prefixed with an identifier that is unique to a specific role. 
     Moreover, in exemplary embodiments, agent  620  may place other metadata that specifies additional information on the tags as they are published to tag-based applications. For example, metadata specifying which tag-based application a particular tag pertains, the type of content that is tagged, the owner of the content that is tagged, tagging categories, etc. may be encoded for each tag. In exemplary embodiments, this could involve appending metadata to a tag (or to a composite tag having role-identifier metadata already appended) with an identifier that is uniquely-specified for the tag-based application to which the tag is posted. In this way, two identically named tags in different tag sets for the user can be made to be semantically different by specifying metadata that would differentiate them according to application. 
     In exemplary embodiments, the additional metadata encoding or identifiers placed by agent  620  on tags may be presented transparently to the user operating the agent so that the user will be able to identify and manage their tags according to role or other information specified by the metadata. In alternative exemplary embodiments, agent  620  may be configured such that any additional metadata encoding or identifiers are nontransparent when tags are presented to the user. In such embodiments, the tag terminology will appear to the user without the additional information as it did when created, but when agent  620  posts or synchronizes these tags to the tag-based applications specified in the SOA, the agent may prefix or suffix these tags with metadata that specifies additional information. 
     In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  could also be configured to provide a user interface window or menu such as, for example, a dashboard, to a user or CoP administrator to allow for monitoring and mining of data regarding the use of the tag sets across the various tag-based applications to enable identification of trends and patterns. The user interface could be capable of, for example, performing various queries on tagging operations that have been performed (for example, data on the number of tags left by users, how users use tags, regularities in user activity, tag frequencies, kinds of tags used, etc.). In exemplary embodiments, this information could be used to dynamically create and modify aspects of the dashboard and/or tag sets. For example, the collected information could be used to refine tag set taxonomy, to determine connections between related content, or to “rank” content based upon its perceived utility based upon usage patterns. 
     In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  could also be configured to provide an applet or a user interface window to a user or group domain administrator that allows for clean-up of any tag set inconsistencies, or other aspects that may lead to unreliable tagging. Such inconsistencies may arise, for example from polysemy (the use of words that have multiple related meanings), synonyms (multiple words with the same or similar meanings), and word inflections (such as with plural forms). In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  may be configured to with a lemmatization engine or to perform word stemming. 
     In other exemplary embodiments, agent  620  could be configured to maintain a table of synonym tags for a particular tag and to provide the table to the user to allow the user to select a desired tag term to always use for the same or similar meanings. The synonym table could be useful, for instance, the aid in finding appropriate tags for updating, finding particular content in one of the tag-based applications, or creating a new tag in a meaningful manner. The synonym table could be constructed and modified, for example, by the user or domain administrators in a CoP. In exemplary embodiments, the synonym table could be constructed from scratch or, alternatively, agent  620  could be implemented with an initial version that could be updated by the user, domain administrators, or automatically within the agent using a tool that would dynamically construct the synonym table. In exemplary embodiments, the synonym table could be populated at runtime by inspection of tag relationships using predefined rules specified by, for example, an enterprise. In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  could be configured to be aware of the role of the user and to permit access to the synonym table based upon the role of the user, such as whether the user is logged-in in a domain administrator role for a CoP synonym table. In exemplary embodiments, the synonym table could be configured to employ a counter to indicate or rank, for a given set of synonyms, which synonym is the best match based upon previous heuristics. 
     In exemplary embodiments, agent  620  may be utilized by a domain administrator, based upon information collected in data queries, to implement a collabulary for a CoP&#39;s tag sets. A collabulary may be defined as a common vocabulary used to categorize content, and in particular, one created in collaboration with classification experts to ensure relevance and consistency. A collabulary may be conceptualized as a compromise between a taxonomy and a folksonomy in which domain administrators collaborate with group members to create rich, but more systematic content tagging systems. The compromise may result is a system that combines the benefits of folksonomies—low entry costs, a rich vocabulary that is broadly shared and comprehensible by the user base, and the capacity to respond quickly to language change—without the errors that inevitably arise in naive, unsupervised folksonomies. 
     Exemplary embodiments may therefore be implemented as described above to enable a body of information to be increasingly easy to search, discover, and navigate over time using role-based tag sets to label, classify, and retrieve content. Collaborative tagging in this manner may, for example, provide a simple way for users to group bookmarks together and then share these grouped links with colleagues. One employee may retrieve the groups of links saved by another employee through many different routes. A related group may also be delivered to another user at the point of need, that is, when they are looking for related information. Because the tag sets are user-generated and therefore inexpensive to implement, they may provide a low-cost alternative to corporate taxonomies or controlled, hierarchical vocabularies and exemplary embodiments may be used to extend tagging and social bookmarking into the business arena, with the addition of project groups to allow users to collaborate across boundaries. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention may be implemented to provide functionality for tagging of both structured and unstructured content and thereby provide for easier managing of the capture, storage, security, revision control, retrieval, distribution, preservation, and destruction of documents and content. Exemplary embodiments may therefore be implemented to enable an organization, such as a business or governmental agency, to more effectively meet business goals. 
     The capabilities of the present invention can be implemented in software, firmware, hardware or some combination thereof. 
     As one example, one or more aspects of the present invention can be included in an article of manufacture (e.g., one or more computer program products) having, for instance, computer usable media. The media has embodied therein, for instance, computer readable program code means for providing and facilitating the capabilities of the present invention. The article of manufacture can be included as a part of a computer system or sold separately. 
     Additionally, at least one program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machine to perform the capabilities of the present invention can be provided. 
     The flow diagrams depicted herein are just examples. There may be many variations to these diagrams or the steps (or operations) described therein without departing from the spirit of the invention. For instance, the steps may be performed in a differing order, or steps may be added, deleted or modified. All of these variations are considered a part of the claimed invention. 
     While the preferred embodiments to the invention has been described, it will be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in the future, may make various improvements and enhancements which fall within the scope of the claims which follow. These claims should be construed to maintain the proper protection for the invention first described.