Barry Norton Research Fellow, KMi, Open University Current Research Research Interests Groups and Events Publications Previous Research & Teaching Research Training Industrial Experience Contact Details

Projects

Since July 2006 I have employed as Research Fellow on Semantic Web Services, first within DIP then within SUPER, under Dr. John Domingue at the Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) of the Open University. I also continue collaboration with the University of Sheffield via the Cashew project.

I am currently writing up corrections to my PhD thesis, successfully examined by Dr. Terry Payne and Prof. Graham Birtwistle in September 2008, under the supervision of Dr. Mike Stannett. This concerns the application of established computational theory - in particular Process Algebra - to flow-oriented software compositions. In particular, I have developed a new process calculus, with the traditional theoretical results, that models synchronous systems with encapsulation - i.e. hierarchical design with abstraction. The initial motivations and developments were from the RealType project, but my personal development of this work is towards service composition within the realm of the Semantic Web.

• Semantic description of service-oriented software, i.e. Semantic Web Services (SWS) and Semantics-enabled SOA, and semantic reasoning about service composition.
• Service-oriented and/or component-based software development:
  • Composition of software in workflow, signal-flow and other dataflow-derived styles;
  • Self-describing components and domains of compositional behavioural models.
• Specification and design notations, and their semantics:
  • Hierarchical design styles - statecharts, hierarchical signal flow, synchronous programming languages etc.;
  • Visualisations for software composition and encapsulation.

Groups and Events

I am an active member of the OASIS Technical Committee on Semantic Execution Environment and an editor of the Semantics-enabled SOA Reference Ontology, and an active member of the Conceptual Models for Services Working Group of the Semantics Technology Institute, and formerly the Web Service Modelling Ontology (WSMO) Working Group.

I have presented Semantic Web Services and Semantic Business Process Management tutorials at several major events, including:

• The 4th, 5th and 6th Summer School on Ontological Engineering and the Semantic Web, where I am also project coordinator;
• The 4th European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2007);
• The 5th and 6th International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM), being at the former a panelist on the future of BPM and at the latter chairing the Semantic Business Process Management (SBPM) Workshop.
• The 39th Hawaiian Conference on Systems Science HICSS-2006.
• The International Conference on Internet and Web Applications and Services ICIW-2006, where I was also a session chair.

A partial list of publications is available at DBLP's page for Barry Norton.

A full list is available here.

Details of my previous research and teaching are available on my University of Sheffield site, where I was (chronologically), an undergraduate, a research assistant, a PhD student, a teaching assistant, a teaching fellow and a research associate.

Of note are my work on TestFlow with DaimlerChrysler, the EPSRC-funded RealType and AKT, and the European projects Dot.Kom and LIRICS. The Cashew project was also begun at Sheffield, during my supervision of a group Masters project.

For five years I was employed by Propath Solutions. Initially, as a Programmer/Analyst, I was involved with teams undertaking bespoke work for clients such as the Halifax bank, Provident finance and Scottish Hydroelectricity. In this capacity I carried out development in C, C++, Java and Visual Basic on the Windows, SCO System V Unix and VMS platforms. I also did extensive development against the Oracle, SQL Server and Progress DBMSs.

The main focus of my later time with Propath, as an Application Developer, was product development in Visual C++/MFC for Microsoft Windows, putting much of the fundamental work into the core product suite, now called Cascade, leading a team through design, develop and test of the Training Administration application.

My decision to study Software Engineering for my undergraduate degree followed on from initial steps into commercial software development. Among my favourite projects, was a period of employment programming for Peaceville Records, since this combined computing with my interest in music.

I can be found in Room 7 of the North Wing at KMi, which is the fourth floor of Berill Building.

By phone, I can be reached on: +44 (0) 1908 659399.

By fax: +44 (0) 1908 653169.

By e-mail, I can be reached as: b.j.norton@open.ac.uk

And, by post:

Knowledge Media Institute Open University Walton Hall Milton Keynes MK7 6AA United Kingdom