A Configurable Matchmaking Framework for Electronic Marketplaces

E-marketplaces constitute a major enabler of B2B and B2C e-commerce activities. This paper proposes a framework for one of the central activities of e-marketplaces: matchmaking of trading intentions lodged by market participants. The framework identifies a core set of concepts and functions that are common to all types of marketplaces and can serve as the basis for describing the distinct styles of matchmaking employed within various market mechanisms. A prototype implementation of the framework based on Web services technology is presented, illustrating its ability to be dynamically configured to meet specific market needs and its potential to serve as a foundation for more fully fledged e-marketplace frameworks

Deliberate Evolution in Multi-Agent Systems

This paper presents an architecture for an agent capable of deliberation about the creation of new agents, and of actually creating a new agent in the multi-agent system, on the basis of this deliberation. The agent architecture is based on an existin

Toward a Virtual Marketplace: Architectures and Strategies

In recent years, many researchers as well as commercial companies have attempted to create intelligent agent-based markets or retail outlets. So far, these systems have fallen short of changing the way commerce is done over the Internet. An incomplete implementation of the market metaphor, lack of automated purchasing, and lack of agent cooperation algorithms are, in our opinion, the major reasons of this shortfall. In this research, we attempt to address these problems by designing an open marketplace architecture that includes all elements required for simulating a real market (i.e., communications, goods storage and transfer, banking, administration and policing, etc.). We also address the issues of automated purchasing and agent cooperation by devising strategies and algorithms for them. This paper also reports findings that resulted from implementing and conducting experiments with a free-market agent architecture (MAGMA). MAGMA is an extensible architecture that provides all serv..

MAGMA: An Agent-Based Virtual Market for Electronic Commerce

In this paper, we propose an architecture for an agent-based virtual market that includes all elements required for simulating a real market. These elements include a communication infrastructure, mechanisms for storage and transfer of goods, banking and monetary transactions, and economic mechanisms for direct or brokered producerconsumer transactions. We report findings that resulted from implementing and conducting experiments with a free-market agent architecture (MAGMA). MAGMA is an extensible architecture that provides all services essential to agent-based commercial activities. These services are available through an open-standard messaging API, which allows using a heterogeneous set of agents, independently of the platform and language. 1 Introduction Development of the Internet has spurred a number of attempts to create a virtual marketplace, where agents, both human-controlled and equipped with intelligent algorithms, can participate in trading of physical and electronic goo..