The conceptual basis for mediation services

As information systems grow, they depend increasingly on diverse, heterogeneous resources, such as databases, knowledge bases, bibliographic files, Web-based information, computational facilities, digital libraries, geographic information systems, and simulations. Users typically develop and maintain these resources autonomously. Mediator modules comprise a layer of intelligent middleware services in information systems that link data resources and application programs. Currently, system developers must build intelligent mediators by carefully acquiring domain knowledge and handcrafting the required code. This article presents the conceptual underpinning for automating mediation.