WEB MAPPING OF REAL-WORLD THINGS AND ITS

APPLICATIONS

Product WebID as a driving force for new supply chains

Dmitry Ponomarev, Vladimir Krylov

Mera Networks Company, Rodionova Str., Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Federation

Keywords: E-commerce, B2B, supply chains, logistics, trade, lifecycle, RFID, EPC

Abstract: This paper discusses the use of web sites as individual IDs for things and processes of the real world. We

regard a web site as an information entity that perfectly fits the purpose of identifying a real-life object or

process. We examine a scenario of tagging manufactured products with information tags called WebIDs and

describe their possible information makeup. Individual WebIDs that are automatically created for each item

during production and accompany the item throughout its entire lifecycle, have far-reaching implications for

many areas of human activity. The availability of pertinent information contained in the product ID

promotes awareness of the product origin, quality, location and history. Access to information about the

product protects consumer rights and contributes to the efficiency of commerce. Elimination of

manufacturer and owner anonymity helps to combat produce counterfeits, smuggling, and illegal movement

of commodities.

1 INTRODUCTION

None of the technological breakthroughs of the

mankind has been developing as quickly as the

Internet. The sweeping growth rate of net hosts and

bandwidth capacity has long surpassed the pace

inferred for microelectronics in the well-known

Moore’s law. The speed at which new web sites

proliferate can only be compared to that of nuclear

fission. By the end of the year 2003 the amount of

web sites reached several hundred millions and may

well exceed the global population in a half decade.

Each site on the Internet is some sort of an

information entity, and the multitude of individual

sites, taken as one aggregate, constitutes a huge

distributed data base. The content of the database is

extremely variegated, nevertheless the

overwhelming majority of web visits are made with

the sole end of finding information about the objects

and processes of the material world. It follows

herefrom that most of the information entities in the

worldwide web are reflections of the real world in

this way or another. Yet, at present such reflection of

things and phenomena in the Internet is not

adequate, as information about one and the same real

object can be scattered among numerous entities and

often is controversial. Some information entities

reflect already non-existent objects and processes,

while many other objects have no corresponding

reflection in the web at all.

In this paper we suggest that all things

manufactured by the man globally and all objects of

the real world be provided with an individual web

site and a designated URL. We call these

information entities WebIDs. The WebID of an

inanimate object is a counterpart of the ID used for

identification of humans. The EPC, Electronic

Product Code suggested by the researchers of

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, can be used

as its serial number. Deployment of a network of

WebIDs will lead to emergence of an entirely new

global structure of trade allowing full control

263

Krylov V. and Ponomarev D. (2004).

WEB MAPPING OF REAL-WORLD THINGS AND ITS APPLICATIONS - Product WebID as a driving force for new supply chains.

In Proceedings of the First International Conference on E-Business and Telecommunication Networks, pages 263-267

DOI: 10.5220/0001385502630267

 SciTePress

Product manufacture

123.456/7890

Getting a unique identifier &

embedding it into the

product

Identifier assignment server

Obtaining site blanks for the

given category of produce

Final site assembly, filling the

blanks with information,

placement in the Web,

registration with the Site

Management authority

Site Management

authority server

Registration of the manufacturer

as the primary item owner on the

site and at the Site Management authority

Selling the product item

Change of owner registration,

issuance of an electronic

ownership certificate (if required)

Reflecting changes

on the item site

Owner browser

Managing the

product by means of

the associated site

Item resale

Site generation wizard

Disposal of the site on

the product item

disposal

Object+site

lifecycle

Site components base

Product information

database

Figure 1: Lifecycle of a Product and its Information Self – WebID

over the lawfulness of goods turnover, permitting a

multistage product life cycle and giving the ability

and means of remote object management.

2 LIFECYCLE OF A PRODUCT

AND ITS INFORMATION SELF –

WEBID

The following essential lifecycle stages of an object

and its site become apparent (see Fig. 1):

1. Creation of an Object and its Site.

2. Changes happening to the Object. The

changes are reflected either by manual site

editing done by the owner, or by automatic

site updating.

3. Change of the Object owner accompanied

by corresponding site changes and vesting

the new owner with the site editing rights.

4. Disposal (elimination) of the Object.

As indicated above, the object site goes along

with an object from the moment of the object

creation, which means that site generation and

product creation must coincide in time, and ideally

both events must occur within the same production

process.

Upon output the manufactured product is

assigned a digital identifier. Then, the identifier is

passed on to the so-called site generation wizard.

The wizard is designed for automatic site generation

based on templates and components (stored in the

templates-and-components data base) and

application of object-specific or object-class specific

information. Information specific to a certain class

of objects comes from the corporate product

database, which is prepared before the manufacture

process begins. Information specific to a particular

object is generated during production process. The

digital identifier is the minimum of object-specific

information.

Having received a unique digital identifier for an

object the site generation wizard analyzes it and

determines the object class (by belonging to a set of

objects with similar attributes). The sites of objects

belonging to one class have an identical structure

and differ in the information content only. After that

the site wizard selects the templates and components

necessary for making the site for an object of the

given class, fills the templates with the class-specific

information obtained from the corporate database

ICETE 2004 - GLOBAL COMMUNICATION INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND SERVICES

264

and adds the data specific to this particular object.

Adding object-specific information is the final stage

in site generation.

Placement of the site on the Internet is the next

step. Internet siting is accomplished by a siting

wizard. The siting wizard places the site on the

server whose owner has a siting agreement with the

object manufacturer. In some cases the site can be

placed inside the object itself.

As a rule, objects of the material world belong to

owners who possess an exclusive right to change the

state of the object, that is to perform operations that

cause the object to change. As discussed before, the

object’s site must reflect such changes. In addition to

automatic means of site updating (that is reflecting

changes occurring in the object) the owner must

have tools for manual site editing. For the sake of

editing convenience the site information content

must be segregated from the methods of its

visualization. This separation will allow storage of

the site information in a readily editable form (this,

for example, may help avoid information

redundance manifested as identical information

stored in different locations, a situation that may

lead to problems in editing) and subsequent use of

unified representation means. This demand can be

met by using XML for description of the site

information content and the XSLT technology for its

visualization

An important event in the life cycle of an object

and the related site is change of the owner. Change

of the owner can result from a certain legal act –

sale, grant and so on. Change of owner registration

at the site is initiated by an authority registering the

conveyance of property. In fact, change of owner

registration is the responsibility of a special

automated service – Site Access Control. On receipt

of a change-of-owner request from the registering

authority this service alters the site status so that the

old owner loses exclusive access rights while the

new possessor is registered as the site new owner

lodged with privileged access to the site.

Disposal (elimination) is the final stage in the

lifecycle of an object. To preserve topicality (as the

material object does not exist any longer) the site is

withdrawn at this stage from the Internet and is

archived. Archiving is preferable to annihilation, as

the site of a non-existent object may be of interest

afterwards, for instance, to investigators or

historians.

3 WEBID: INFORMATION

STRUCTURE AND ESSENTIAL

WAYS OF IMPLEMENTATION

The information essence of each object, viewed as a

merchandisable product, comprises the following

constituents:

Product description. It includes information

about the product appearance and characteristics

(verbal description, product photos, a video clip,

etc.). This allows a user employing search engines to

explore the Internet in search of specific product

items that best meet user’s demands.

Current location of the product. This

information enables the customer to find products

located conveniently. It can materially increase

search efficiency due to reduction of search time

(through automation of search by geographic

location), as well as due to reduction of shipment

expenses (as the buyer will be able to find the

product in closest vicinity to his place).

Manufacture and expiration dates. This

information prevents the consumer from buying

substandard products; it can also serve as a search

criterion in finding the freshest products.

Information about product manufacturer.

Being well protected from unauthorized access and

tampering this piece of information prevents the

consumer from buying counterfeit produce. It can

also be instrumental in search of products from

specific vendors.

Information about sale terms is posted on the

website by the current owner and permits the

customer to buy products on most favorable terms.

Additional information from the current

owner. It may consist of the owner’s contact

information, information on availability of any after-

sale services and other pertinent data of interest to

the customer.

Product history contains information from all

previous owners. The current owner can open access

to this section for prospective customers who wish

to know what has happened to the product since the

date of manufacture.

This convenient information structure of product

websites enables customers to easily and quickly

find the exact item they need. The only thing

customers must know is what they want. All the rest

will be done for them by a search engine that will

find the goods which meet the criteria specified by

the customer.

Furthermore, the WebID of a produce item

increases the consumer’s effect of the goods due to

enhanced functionality. For instance, if the item is

an electronic device, it can be continuously or

periodically online interacting with its website. This

WEB MAPPING OF REAL-WORLD THINGS AND ITS APPLICATIONS - Product WebID as a driving force for new

supply chains

265

enables users to remotely control the device and

monitor its operating state. The consumer receives a

full set of tools for would-be resale of the item,

which also contributes to the product’s added

consumer value.

There can be different approaches to site editing.

Editing can be arranged:

• On the side of the server hosting the

website

• On the side of the client

• With the help of specialized Web-

services

In the first case the customer sends modification

requests in response to which the host server

modifies the information. In the second case the

client modifies the modules him/herself. In the third

case the site is maintained by specialized Web

services on behalf of and for the client, and the host

server’s role is limited to storing the information.

Each of the above arrangements has its strengths

and limitations.

The advantages of accomplishing the site

maintenance tasks directly on the host server include

low dependence on the qualities and capabilities of

the web client (user’s browser) and moderate load

on data links (the sever only receives requests to

modify the information, whereas modification

proper is performed on the server). However, this

approach presupposes availability of a high capacity

server with necessary software components (at least,

an XML parser, an XSLT processor and

environment for program execution). These

requirements can make the hosting services

prohibitively costly.

The strengths of managing the site on the client

side include much lower demand for the server

capacity and, hence, a lower cost of site hosting. But

this places stringent requirements upon the client

(the same as the server requirements in the fist

instance). Furthermore, in this case the network load

is much higher due to exchange of complete

information modules between the client and the host

server (though this demerit can be minimized by

optimized distribution of information between

modules).

The third approach involves transfer of all site

editing functions to an independent set of Web

services. This will reduce requirements to both the

server and client, though the cost of developing

specialized Web services may pose a great hindrance

to introduction of the entire system.

4 WEBID: MOTIVE FORCE FOR

GLOBAL TRADE

Support of globalization processes is another

challenge coming into being with adoption of the

system . The buyer and the needed product can be

located in different countries, with dissimilar trade

and export/import regulations. Moreover, a

transaction perfectly lawful in one country can turn

out illegal in another. In such cases transfer of the

website ownership rights should be prevented. We

wish to propose a mechanism that will effectively

address this issue.

If the product is sold locally and does not cross

national borders, transfer of the privileged access

right to the new owner is performed by a local

access control server. In case of an international

transaction (when the commodities cross state

borders), transfer of the privileged access implies

involvement of both local and national access

control servers of the buyer’s and seller’s countries.

National servers check if the product may cross the

border and control the appropriate change of local

access servers associated with the product website.

Let us consider a case illustrating conveyance of

the privileged access right associated with an

international sale.

A company, registering a sale, sends a

transaction confirmation to the appropriate local

access control server, situated in the seller’s country

and currently involved with the product website. The

local server checks whether the transaction is

international. If the check is positive the server

reports the transaction to the national control server

of the seller’s country. The national server examines

the legitimacy of the product export. If it is legal the

national server of the seller’s country informs the

national access control server of the buyer’s country

about the transaction. The latter examines the

legitimacy of the product import. Thus, if the

product transfer is legal in both countries, a change

of the local access control server takes place. As a

result, the product becomes associated with the local

access control server in the buyer’s country. Finally,

the new local access control server grants the new

owner the right of privileged access to the website.

If the product import is illegal, conveyance of

rights will not take place and the illegitimate

transaction will be reported to the relevant

authorities.

We witness an onset of a new world of goods

turnover, of truly free global trade. Supply links turn

into supply nets. Reuse of products will open the

world of technology-intensive goods to those who

cannot afford buying high tech products at the

manufacturer’s price, it will alleviate the stress load

ICETE 2004 - GLOBAL COMMUNICATION INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND SERVICES

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on the environment, broaden the geography of

product distribution. All these processes will compel

resellers to contribute considerable intellectual value

to the existing supply chains by creating helpful user

manuals, through carrying out comparative analyses

for favorable positioning of the product among other

products and so on.

The Internet, the Net of nets, has already made

the world transparent and boundless for all the

information needs of the man. And the laws of its

progress allow us to foresee how this world may

become equally penetrable for much needed goods

as well.

REFERENCES

Global Commerce Initiative. EPC Roadmap. @Copiright

November2003, Global Commerce Iniative/IBM.

Krylov V. Ponomarev D. 2004, Real World to Internet

Mapping and Its Applications, In IT&SE’2004

Proceedings of Conference. Yalta-Gurzuf, Ukraina,.

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