The processing of single components within the ODP-framework is realised on a semantic level that abstracts from technical details of the underlying contents and services. Only direct access to these contents and services is dependent on its definite realisation. This enables the sensible combination of technically heterogeneous services and contents that resemble each other with regard to their concept or are even identical. This makes it possible to treat music – whether as an MP3 in the local database or as stream from the internet – in a uniform way. Technical differences thereby become irrelevant for the user. The aggregation of several services (“semantic mash-up”) offers the user a high functional added value. It therefore becomes for example possible to link editorial movie recommendations of an online TV guide with the contents of video-on-demand offers. For the user, this offers a higher degree of comfort and service. For service providers, this becomes an efficient way of providing their content.

Ontologies form the basis for the semantic modeling of the individual processing components. Thus, ontologies are used to represent data and processing logic in the knowledge-based ODP-components. This makes it possible to specify concepts and relations of the application domain. In this regard, the semantic processing builds the framework for realizing situation-based user interfaces that can be adapted to individual needs. The ODP-framework then forms the technical basis for the efficient processing of semantic information and large amounts of data.

ODP connects services and content that is provided by a third party via so-called “adaptors”. Those enable a flexible extension of the system with regard to new functionalities or the adaptation of the system to modified service interfaces or data models. “Adaptors” are especially relevant with regard to mapping data formats and data models of external service providers and vice versa. The ODP-technology comprises methods for a robust transformation of semi-structured content into a semantic representation. Those methods allow ODP the integration of key technologies and applications like the following: