A peer-to-peer information system for the semantic web

Data integration, in the context of the web, faces new problems, due in particular to the heterogeneity of sources, to the fragmentation of the information and to the absence of a unique way to structure and view information. In such areas, the traditional paradigms, on which database foundations are based (i.e. client server architecture, few sources containing large information), have to be overcome by new architectures. The peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture seems to be the best way to fulfill these new kinds of data sources, offering an alternative to traditional client/server architecture.In this paper we present the SEWASIE system that aims at providing access to heterogeneous web information sources. An enhancement of the system architecture in the direction of P2P architecture, where connections among SEWASIE peers rely on exchange of XML metadata, is described.