Semantics for Anything-as-a-Service [Guest Editorial]

A system is an assembly of interacting components where a component may itself be seen as a system. To interact, the components of a system must have a communication channel, a common protocol, some common semantics, and a shared representation of those semantics expressed at their respective ports. To achieve a shared representation requires some form of agreement and implementable standardization. To promote advancement, the standardization must embrace innovation as well as propagate domain insight via enabling constraints (like the shoulders of a road). Today there are many disconnected standardization and implementation activities. However, for successful broad advancement and improvement of solutions, it is vital that standardization is converged and the represented enabling constraints are applied to implementations.