A semantically enhanced service repository for user-centric service discovery and management

User centricity represents a new trend in the currently flourishing service oriented computing era. By upgrading end-users to prosumers (producer + consumer) and involving them in the process of service creation, both service consumers and service providers can benefit from a cheaper, faster, and better service provisioning. The EU-IST research project OPUCE (Open Platform for User-Centric Service Creation and Execution) aims at building a unique service environment by integrating recent advances in networking, communication and information technology where personalized services can be dynamically created and managed by prosumers. This paper particularly discusses the design and development of a service repository, which is at the very core of the OPUCE platform. The repository consists of two main components: a fully functioned XML registry supporting facet-based access to service descriptions, and a novel semantic service browser that supports prosumers who are not technically experienced to explore and discover services in an intuitive and visualized manner. We demonstrate the benefits of our design by conducting usability and performance studies. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.