Identity-based tracking of products and product data in changing networks

The paper addresses a subject of high relevance for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) participating in today's changing supply chains. Product-centric application development and using design patterns to link related web-services directly to the electronic identity of products are proposed. To identify and track products the ID@URI identification scheme is advocated. The scheme combines serial numbers and URLs to produce globally unique product identifiers. The TraSer-project aiming at implementing an open-source solution platform for product centric web-services has been started this year. Based on the first phase of the project the paper also outlines differences and advantages of the TraSer-approach compared to other existing approaches