Abstract--A simple method is proposed for peer-to-peer description and discovery of resource-sharing communities as well as the resources themselves. An XML Schema document describes a shared resource. By applying transformations, specified in XSL, the schema is used to generate an application with the ability to publish and search for the defined object. Meta-data is indexed and searchable allowing complex objects to be discovered. We propose to solve the problem of discovery for resource-sharing communities by treating a community as a shared resource. An XML Schema description of resourcesharing communities is used to generate a P2P system for community discovery.

This paper proposes an approach to collaborative and distributed data integration that relies on peer-to-peer data sharing and the creation of "bridges" between data sources. The bridges are themselves created and shared in a peerto-peer manner, making this approach scalable and accessible to 3rd party applications. A case study of a distributed digital library is used to illustrate and validate the approach.

This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer.The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality o f the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction.In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps.