794
Applying Information Gathering Techniques in Business-to-Consumer and Web Scenarios
tion Discovery and Integration Protocol
8'', VSHFL¿HV D SURWRFRO IRU TXHU\LQJ
and updating a common directory of Web
service information. The directory includes
information about service providers, the
services they host, and the protocols those
services implement. The directory also
provides mechanisms to add meta-data to
any registered information. Therefore, this
protocol can be used by information agents
(or Web agents) to automatically discover
new Web sources.
• The problem of Web knowledge representa
-
tion can be reduced using the XML stan-
dard representation provided by the Web
service.
• The extraction of the information could be
automatically learned using the provided
Web service representation. If this repre-
VHQWDWLRQLVPRGL¿HGLWLVSRVVLEOHWRXVH
the new data and meta-data information to
build a new wrapper that is able to extract
information.
Using these new set of technologies, our
previous B2C Web system can be designed to
adapt its functionalities to new Web services
technologies.
MAPWeSC Architecture

From our initial MAPWeb architecture, the skills
RIVHYHUDODJHQWVQHHGWREHPRGL¿HGWRDGDSW
them to the new Web services characteristics.
Agents will be considered as Web services inside
the system. Therefore some architectural charac-
WHULVWLFVZLOOEHPRGL¿HG
• Control Agents: The ManagerAgent and
& R D F K $ J H Q WED VLF V N L O O V Z L O O Q RWEHP R G L ¿HG 
because they are responsible for the manage-
ment of the different agents in the system.
The communication processes is adapted to
allow a request to the different Web service
agent for a particular service (i.e., suspend
a particular agent, insert or delete an agent
from a particular team) to be managed as a
Web service.
• Execution Agents: 7KHPDLQPRGL¿FDWLRQV
are achieved in the information agents (or
Web agents) that are adapted to the Web ser-
YLFH7KHVHPRGL¿FDWLRQVZLOOEHGHVFULEHG
in detail in the next section.
The new architecture of MAPWeSC is shown
i n Fig u r e 4. T h is ne w a rch it ect u r e h as b een mo di-
¿HGWRDOORZWKHVKDULQJRILQIRUPDWLRQEHWZHHQ
agents using the protocols provided by Web
services such as SOAP.
An infrastructure agent that registers a Web
service agent’s service as a Web service in the
UDDI registry would be useful. The necessary
UDDI advertisement information should be acces-

sible in the FIPA Service Description and contain
a tag to indicate the Web service agent’s intent
to offer its service as a Web service. A UDDI
registering agent could harvest the information
on such services from the Directory Facilitator
and dynamically register them in the appropriate
UDDI registry. The UDDI registry could be used
by different agents (such as WebService agents
LQ)LJXUHWR³GLVFRYHU´QHZSRWHQWLDO:HE
services. The suggested infrastructure elements
are shown in Table 3.
Agent’s Characteristics in
MAPWeSC
To have a software agent access an external Web
service for its own use or to offer its service
to other agents is relatively straightforward. A
mapping between the Web service descriptions
and the basic agent skills must be done. Table 4
presents agent roles and skills necessary to proxy
an external (non-agent system) Web service.
Agents within the MAS that offer services to
o t h e r a g e n t s s h o u l d h a v e t h e o p t i o n o f h a v i n g t h e s e
services offered as Web services for the potential
795
Applying Information Gathering Techniques in Business-to-Consumer and Web Scenarios
Figure 4. MAPWeSC Web service-oriented architecture
Manager
Agent
Coach
Agent

User
Agent
PlannerAgent
PlannerAgent
WServiceAgent
WServiceAgent
WServiceAgent
Internet
Web Service
Web Service
Web Service
Web Service
Web Service
Web Service
Web Service
Web Service
Web Service
Web Service
SOAP/ACLSOAP/ACL
SOAP/ACL
SOAP/ACL
SOAP/ACL
Discovery (UDDI)
Manager
Agent
Manager
Agent
Coach
Agent
Coach

Agent
User
Agent
User
Agent
PlannerAgentPlannerAgent
PlannerAgentPlannerAgent
WServiceAgentWServiceAgent
WServiceAgentWServiceAgent
WServiceAgentWServiceAgent
Internet
Web ServiceWeb Service
Web ServiceWeb Service
Web ServiceWeb Service
Web ServiceWeb Service
Web ServiceWeb Service
Web ServiceWeb Service
Web ServiceWeb Service
Web ServiceWeb Service
Web ServiceWeb Service
Web ServiceWeb Service
SOAP/ACLSOAP/ACL
SOAP/ACL
SOAP/ACL
SOAP/ACL
Discovery (UDDI)
Table 3. Necessary elements to support agent-based Web services
Element Functionality
Web Service Agent
Agent offers a Web service to other clients. The Web service

is an exposed service of the MAS at useful level of
granularity
UDDI Registering capability
Dynamically harvest descriptions of agent-based Web
services and register them in the UDDI registry
Service description and
translation services
Provide support for describing agent-based Web services
according to FIPA, or KQML, standards and translating,
where possible, to alternative descriptions of Web Services
(e.g., DAML-S and WSDL, UDDI entries)
796
Applying Information Gathering Techniques in Business-to-Consumer and Web Scenarios
use of non-agent clients. Our approach requires
a new layer of software agents that have the task
of offering these services. They have been modi-
¿HGIURPRXUROG:HEDJHQWVFDOOHG:HEVHUYLFH
agents (Figure 4). Other agent clients can continue
to interact with the original service-offering
agents in the same ACL (Agent Communication
Language) Interaction protocol-based manner
(i.e., FIPA, KQML). As an example, consider an
agent in the MAS that has as part of its knowl-
HGJHEDVHWKHPRVWUHFHQWÀLJKWWLFNHWSULFH7KH
Web service report contains information such as
GHSDUWXUHDQGDUULYDOGDWHDQGWLPHSULFHÀLJKW
duration, number of transfers, etc. Other agents
within the MAS will interact with this Search-
Flights agent in pursuit of their individual goals
as part of an overall agent-based application. Part

RIWKLVÀLJKWLQIRUPDWLRQFDQEHRIIHUHGWRQRQ
agent clients through a Web Services framework.
The exposure of the MAS services can be done
at various levels of granularity by adjusting the
information that the Web service agents offer.
Although communication between agents in
any MAS is intrinsically asynchronous, a Web
browser (and any Web service) typically expects
a synchronous response. We have implemented
in MAPWeSC asynchronous communications
embedded in a synchronous communication
module.
Finally, The Web service software agent must
advertise its service. It must have its service
advertised in the UDDI registry (for non-agent
clients) and with the Directory Facilitator (for agent
clients, in our approach this service needs to be
advertised to the CoachAgent). The Web service
software agent must describe its service on the
agent platform. Since this is the same service that
is being offered to non-agent clients, the service
information content would also be useful for its
entries in the UDDI registry and in its WSDL
¿OH$ PDSSLQJ LVQHHGHG7KH8'',UHJLVWU\
entry for a Web service must contain at least one
SRLQWHUWRD:6'/DFFHVV¿OHLQDGGLWLRQWRDQ\
descriptive information. Information on where
WKH:6'/DFFHVV¿OHLVKRVWHGPXVWEHSURYLGHG
to the agent platform.
CONCLUSION

This chapter has analyzed how a Multi-Agent
System can be redesigned using a Web services
oriented architecture. This new design perspec-
tive allows any MAS to utilize Web services
technologies, and provides a natural way to share
their information product with other business-to-
consumer (B2C) applications.
7DEOH$JHQWIHDWXUHVPRGL¿FDWLRQWRIDFLOLWDWHXVHRIH[WHUQDO:HEVHUYLFHVLQ0$3:H6&
Roles Skills
Communication
Module
WebServiceAgent
- Automatic access to external
Web services
- Proxy external Web service
agent
- SOAP-Binding
- Transport HTTP
- Binding exemplar
- Interface of Web service,
endpoints (WSDL file), UDDI
descriptive info
- Knowledge of SOAP binding to
HTTP or other transport
- Caching technique
SOAP/ACL
PlannerAgent
- Web services composition
- Data integration
- CBP

- Planning
- WS querying, discovering (WS
agents)
SOAP/ACL
UserAgent
- User/system interaction - WS querying, discovering
(planners)
SOAP/ACL
797
Applying Information Gathering Techniques in Business-to-Consumer and Web Scenarios
Two alternatives can be considered for empow-
ering Web services with agents’ properties. One
is to implement a wrapper that turns a current
Web service into an agent-like entity. The other
alternative is to capture all the functionalities of
a Web Service and embed them into an existing
software agent in a MultiAgent System. While the
¿UVWDSSURDFKLVTXLWHVWUDLJKWIRUZDUGLWGRHVQ¶W
guarantee a large-scale usage. The second ap-
SURDFKUHTXLUHVFRQVLGHULQJDUHFRQ¿JXUDWLRQRI
the new agent as a Web Service. To do so, we have
described and redesigned a new kind of informa-
tion agent, called a Web service agent, to make it
advertisable in a UDDI registry, and accessible
through the SOAP communication protocol.
Using our previous multi-agent approach, we
have obtained several advantages. On one hand,
we allow the building of active, autonomous, co-
operative and context-aware Web service agents.
On the other hand, these agents can coordinate

their work with other agents (i.e., planner agents) to
allow an automatic service composition, through
the utilization of other CI techniques such as
planning (Camacho & Aler, in press; Camacho
et al., 2005).
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pp. 91-112, copyright 2006 by IGI Publishing (an imprint of IGI Global).
800
Copyright © 2009, IGI Global, distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Chapter 3.9
From Operational Dashboards

to E-Business:
Multiagent Formulation of Electronic
Contracts
Tagelsir Mohamed Gasmelseid
King Faisal University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT
The unprecedented advancements witnessed in the
¿HOGRILQIRUPDWLRQDQGFRPPXQLFDWLRQWHFKQRO-
RJ\RYHUWKHODVWFRXSOHRI\HDUVDUHVLJQL¿FDQWO\
affecting the nature and magnitude of B2B interac-
tions as well as their operational effectiveness and
HI¿FLHQF\+RZHYHULQWHUDFWLRQDQGFRQWUDFWLQJ
among global enterprises continued to be chal-
lenged by the difference of laws, authentication
requirements, and endorsement constrains. With
the rapidly increasing proliferation of mobile
devices, wireless communication systems, and
advanced computer networking protocols, the
deployment of electronic contracting platforms
and applications has provided many opportuni-
ties to enterprises, dictated new axioms for doing
business, and gave rise to new paradigms. Together
with the increasing institutional transformations,
technological advancements motivated businesses
to engage in an interactive process of contract
formulation and negotiation.
INTRODUCTION
The use of Internet technologies is enhancing
distributed business processes through improved
information generation, retrieval, and storage,

cost reduction, disintermediation, and the trans-
formation of organizational boundaries. The
resulting global repositories of generic, volatile,
and heterogeneous data originating from dif-
IHUHQWV\VWHPVDUHVLJQL¿FDQWO\DIIHFWLQJ%%
interaction (Chrysovalantou & Petrakis, 2004;
Daniel, 2003; Klusch, 2001) and are resulting
in alternative e-business models, strategies, and
enabling frameworks.
The use of such technologies in e-business
DOORZV¿UPVWRLQWHJUDWHFRUHDQGVXSSRUWEXVL-
ness processes and enhance information sharing
801
From Operational Dashboards to E-Business
HI¿FLHQF\ ,WDGGUHVVHV FRQQHFWLRQVDPRQJHQ-
terprises (B2B) as well as between enterprises
and customers (B2C) by speeding information
processing and responsiveness and shifting the
HPSKDVLVIURPRSWLPL]LQJWKHHI¿FLHQF\RILQGL-
YLGXDOHQWHU SULVHVWRRSWLPL]LQJWKHHI¿FLHQF\RI
a network of enterprises in pursuit of improving
competitive advantage (Xirogiannis & Glykas,
2007).
According to Lumpkin and Gregory (2004),
there are seven e-business models that account for
the vast majority of business conducted online.
Commission-based models are used by busi-
nesses (third-party intermediaries) to provide
services for a fee such as brokerage services.
Advertising-based models are used by companies

that provide content and/or services to visitors
and sell advertising to businesses that want to
reach those visitors. Markup-based (merchant)
models are used by businesses that add value in
marketing and sales (rather than production) by
acquiring products, marking up the price, and
UHVHOOLQJ WKHP DW D SUR¿W IRU ERWK ZKROHVDOHUV
and retailers. Production-based (manufacturing)
models are used by companies that add value in
the production process by converting raw mate-
rials into value-added products. In this respect,
the Internet adds value to this model by lower-
ing marketing costs and enabling direct contact
with end users to facilitate customization and
problem-solving. Referral-based models are used
E\¿ U PVW KDWVWHHUFX VWRPHUVW RDQRWKHUFRPSDQ\
for a fee. Subscription-based models are used by
EXVLQHVVHVWKDWFKDUJHDÀDWIHHIRUSURYLGLQJ
either a service or proprietary content such as
Internet service providers. Fee-for-service based
models are used by companies that provide ongo-
ing services similar to a utility company. Unlike
the commission-based model, the fee-for-service
model involves a pay-as-you-go system because
activities are metered, with payment being made
only for the amount of service used such as the
application service providers.
However, the capacity of these e-business
models to facilitate an organizational migration
towards dynamic e-business and ERP applica-

tions will be improved with the existence of
enabling platforms mainly electronic payment
and contracting systems. Because dynamic e-
business allows organizations to integrate systems
across intranets, extranets, and the Internet in
a dynamic fashion and permit them to modify
existing systems quickly and easily when the
business process requires (Andrew, Sagnika &
Shao, 2006) enabling systems align e-business
technologies with organizational processes and
competitiveness.
Within the context of globalization and or-
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to use information technology as instruments
to support their trading relations, manage their
contractual matrix of rights-and-obligations and
reduce risk. Electronic contracting that provides
the means for a high level of automation of the
contract establishment, contract management, and
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opportunities to the trading parties (Angelov &
Grefen, 2004; Sallé, 2002). However, the growing
multiplicity of data modeling and organization
tools, content representation algorithms, ontolo-
gies, vocabularies, and query languages that ac-
count for heterogeneity and global information
RYHUORDGLVSURPLVLQJ¿UPVWRJDLQPXFKIDVWHUDQG
cheaper processing than traditional contracts.
While different approaches are being used to
conceptualize the context of electronic contracts,

the basic aim of this article is to address the con-
text of electronic contracting by using multiagent
concepts to develop a framework that describes
the process of formulation of these contracts using
Sudatel as a case study.
ELECTRONIC CONTRACTING
Electronic contracting involves the exchange
of messages between (the concerned parties),
structured according to a prearranged format so
802
From Operational Dashboards to E-Business
that the contents are machine-processible and
automatically gives rise to contractual obliga-
tions necessary for achieving a legally supported
business relationship (Baum & Perrit, 1991;
Milosevic, 1995).
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FDSDFLW\WRSHUIRUPQHHGLGHQWL¿FDWLRQPDQDJH
production and merchant brokering, and negotiate
in the space of time as explained by the consumer
buying behavior model, others are aiming for the
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XFWSULFHSURPRWLRQDQGSODFHPHQWDQG³RQH
C” (customer relationship) and the deployment
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electronic contracting infrastructures (Dutta &
Segev, 1999; Guttman, Moukas, Alexandros &
Maes, 1998; Runge, 1998).
I n a d d i t i o n t o t e c h n o l og i c a l d eve lo p m e n t s a n d
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electronic contracting is enhanced by the willing-
ness of governments to develop legislation that
removes barriers to electronic commerce. The
Electronic Signatures in Global and National
Commerce Act in the U.S. and the European
Electronic Signature Directive, among others,
include provisions relating to the liability of
network service providers, digital signatures as
well as the duties of digital signature subscribers
DQGFHUWL¿FDWLRQDXWKRULWLHVZLWKUHJDUGVWRWKH
creation or execution of, among others, a will,
negotiable instruments, and indentures. The
Model Law of Electronic Commerce (UNCIT-
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HTXLYDOHQFH´DQG³WHFKQRORJ\QHXWUDOLW\´DVQHZ
axioms for contract formation, authentication,
and implementation.
In dynamic e-business settings, electronic
contracts help enterprises to (a) identify business
partners, (b) match their individual offer speci-
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partners, (c) negotiate conditions and contractual
terms, (d) collectively sign contracts, and (e)
H[HFXWHREOLJDWLRQVDQGDFWLRQVWKDWDUHGH¿QHG
in the contract (Lai, Manfred, Jeusfeld & Paul,
2005; Merz, Frank, Tuan, Stefan, Harald, Marko
& Winfried, 1998).
However, irrespective of the widespread use
of electronic contracting, business enterprises
have some worries. Electronic contracts are not

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PDNLQJDQ³RIIHU´RU³DQLQYLWDWLRQWRWUHDW´7KH
information provided lacks the sense of absolute
intent necessary to have a binding agreement and
a conclusive intent of a binding offer in the sense
WKDWWKHRIIHURULVZLOOLQJDQGDEOHWR³GHDO´ZLWK
all without any reservation. Such confusion affects
the decision of the concerned parties as whether
WRFRPPXQLFDWHDQ³DFFHSWDQFHRIDQRIIHU´RUWR
discuss further. Jurisdictional concerns also aris-
ing from the disputes regarding the place where
the contract is formed and the laws to be applied.
Such concerns are directly related to contract
validity and communication of acceptance in a
legally binding form. In addition, some authen-
tication and attribution concerns create some
worries regarding the process of matching the
parties contracting electronically by attributing
electronic messages to the person who purports
to send it. The contracting partners want to know
that they can rely on the messages to be exchanged
and avoid liability in case of messages being sent
by an interloper or hacker.
To minimize these uncertainties, different
solutions are being proposed. The use of brows-
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³FKHFNER[HV´ ³GLVFODLPHUV´ DQG ³WHFKQRORJ\
¿OWHUV´LVUHOD[LQJVRPHRIWKHMXULVGLFWLRQDOFRQ-
cerns by shaping out the inclusion or exclusion of
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use of metrics to account for the time in which the
information is sent, received, and accessed using
servers, routers, TCP/IP, packet switching, client
and server technologies is another development
t h a t c l e a r s o u t s o m e d o u b t s a b o u t c o n t r a c t v a l i d i t y.
The use of a wide range of Internet technologies
such as EDI, EFT, and VAN has also enhanced
universal availability of global repositories of
generic, reusable transaction models.
803
From Operational Dashboards to E-Business
RELATED WORK
Within the context of international trade the basic
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³ZKDWWREHQHJRWLDWHG´*URVRI/DEURX&KDQ
1999; Reeves, Benjamin, Grosof, Wellman &
Chan, 1999). In any contracting context, some
IHDWXUHVRIWKHSRWHQWLDOFRQWUDFWDUH¿[HGZKLOH
others are variable and are expected to be deter-
mined through the contracting process.
7KH ³SKDVH PRGHO IRU FRPPHUFLDO WUDQVDF-
tions” has been widely used to guide the pro-
cess of decomposing architectural elements
of electronic contracting services (Schmid &
Lindemann, 1998). The model consists of three
phases: information, negotiation, and execution.
Such phases are supported by different computer-
based services including online catalogues, search
engines, or banner advertising (information
phase), telecollaboration, negotiation protocols

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management, business process integration among
market participants, electronic payment systems,
and EDI-based message exchange functions (ex-
ecution phase). Support functions like brokerage
(i.e., to select and match respective offers and
inquiries, to form a (service providing) consortium
or to set-up the negotiation session for all parties
of the commercial transaction) and signing (i.e.,
to enter the execution phase by establishing a
contract and encouraging all parties to sign it)
are being widely used also. This process has also
been supported by trusted third parties such as
FHUWL¿FDWLRQDXWKRULWLHVRUHOHFWURQLFQRWDULHV
Runge (1998) claimed that electronic con-
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QHJRWLDWLRQ´DQG³DJUHHPHQWVLJQLQJ´WKURXJK
which the exchange of electronic messages among
the contracting parties is supposed to lead to
contract formulation and signing. The terms of
WKHDJUHHPHQWERWK¿[HGDQGWKRVHWRHPHUJH
through negotiation) as well as the actions to be
WDNHQRFFXUWKURXJK³HOHFWURQLFUHFRUGV´RU³GDWD
messages” that are generated, communicated,
received, or stored by electronic, magnetic, or
optical means in an information system or for
transmission from one information system to
another (Reeves et al., 1999).
According to Milosevic and Bond (1995), the
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IRUPDQFH´DQG³SRVWFRQWUDFW´SKDVHVZLWKWKH
rules and policies being stored in a Legal Rules
Repository. The contracting process involves a
contract validator (to perform contract validity
checking), Contract Negotiator (to support con-
tract negotiation), Contract Enforcer, and Contract
Arbitrator. It also includes Contract Legality
and Monitoring objects. Electronic contracting
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roles of the contracting parties, the period of the
contract, the nature of consideration, associa-
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semantics to be used for the representation of
alternative contracting scenarios. Using these
templates, contract validity can be established
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elements (agreement, considerations and compe-
tence). Contract monitoring, on the other hand,
can be performed by the parties or by a third party
acting on behalf of one or all the parties.
Similarly, Goodchild, Charles, and Zoran
(2000) considered a valid business contract as
being containing four elements: agreement, con-
sideration, capacity, and legal purpose. Instead
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use of a standard contract as a base for the con-
tracting process. Such a standard contract can be
provided by one of the parties, a third party or a
commercial organization specialized in providing
general–purpose contracts.

The Reference Model for Electronic Markets
proposed by Lindemann and Schmid (1998),
views electronic contracting within the context
of an electronic market by using two dimensions
(horizontal and vertical) and four views (business,
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both organizational and technological aspects.
Lindemann and Runge (1997) proposed the use of