Scientific Workflows: Catalyzing the Grid ⇌ Semantic Web Reaction

Abstract

Scientific workflows allow scientists to automate repetitive data management, analysis, and visualization tasks, and to document the provenance of analysis results. Scientific workflows are composed of interlinked computational components (sometimes called actors), and the datasets that are consumed and produced by those components. Scientific workflow systems are problem-solving environments to design, reuse, share, execute, monitor, and archive scientific workflows. As such, they are the primary tool that end user scientists use when interacting with the emerging e-Science cyberinfrastucture. Scientific workflow systems can often benefit from both, Grid and Semantic Web capabilities. Thus, scientific
workflows can bring together these otherwise loosely connected technologies and "catalyze the reaction" between them.