This comprehensive text explains the principles and practice of Web services and relates all concepts to practical examples and emerging standards. Its discussions include: Ontologies Semantic web technologies Peer-to-peer service discovery Service selection Web structure and link analysis Distributed transactions Process modelling Consistency management. The application of these technologies is clearly explained within the context of planning, negotiation, contracts, compliance, privacy, and network policies. The presentation of the intellectual underpinnings of Web services draws from several key disciplines such as databases, distributed computing, artificial intelligence, and multi-agent systems for techniques and formalisms. Ideas from these disciplines are united in the context of Web services and service-based applications. Featuring an accompanying website and teacher's manual that includes a complete set of transparencies for lectures, copies of open-source software for exercises and working implementations, and resources to conduct course projects, this book makes an excellent graduate textbook. It will also prove an invaluable reference and training tool for practitioners.