Open Information Service Platform For Information Users

In order to conveniently search, access and use information in the distributed environment, users need effective service integration mechanism to discover, call, and integrate diverse resources and distributed services, so to support interoperability, service syndication, and management integration, including authentication, authorization, rights management, reference, accounting, and payment management, etc.). With the above-mentioned capabilities, users will be able to work on an open information service platform for their scientific research. Open digital information service has already become one of the important underlying functions that must be considered and realized for future information systems. This thesis first analyzes the objectives, principles, functional requirements of an open user information service platform in a distributed environment, probes into technical requirements and functional structure for such a platform with abilities to support open description and open integration, and proposes an implementation framework to realize such a platform. The feasibility of such a platform to integrate third party systems is then tested.This essay includes four parts. Part One introduces the concept, objectives, and basic requirements for the user information service platform within an open digital information service mode. Part Two describes the possible functional structure and modules for such a platform. Part Three examines the framework, relevant technologies, and standards, that will be used in such a framework. Part Four gives implementation details of the platform using free software packages, and furtherexploration is made into the possibility of open integration under this platform structure. At the end, possible improvements for the platform are summarized and future development is explored.