E-Commerce Agents : Marketplace Solutions, Security Issues, and Supply and Demand

Among the many changes brought by the Internet is the emergence of electronic commerce over the Web. E-commerce activities, such as the online exchange of information, services, and products, are opening up completely new opportunities for business, at new levels of productivity and profitability. In parallel with the emergence of e-commerce, intelligent software agents as entities capable of independent action in open, unpredictable environments have matured into a promising new technology. Quite naturally, e-commerce agents hold great promise for exploiting the Internet's full potential as an electronic marketplace. The 20 coherently written chapters in this book by leading researchers and professionals present the state of the art in agent-mediated e-commerce. Researchers, professionals, and advanced students interested in e-commerce or agent technology will find this book an indispensable source of information and reference.

Chapter 1 : Introduction to E-Commerce Agents: Marketplace Solutions, Security Issues, and Supply and Demand

Part I : Marketplace Solutions
Chapter 2 : A Generalized Platform for the Specification, Valuation, and Brokering of Heterogeneous Resources in Electronic Markets
Chapter 3 : Economics of Dynamic Pricing in a Reputation Brokered Agent Mediated Marketplace
Chapter 4 : An Electronic Marketplace Architecture Based on Technology of Intelligent Agents and Knowledge
Chapter 5 : Modelling Broker Agents in Electronic Commerce of Multimedia Products and Serviced
Chapter 6 : A Brokering Protocol for Electronic Trading
Chapter 7 : Price Formation in Double Auctions
Chapter 8 : Negotiating Agents in Manufacturing Decision Making Processes
Chapter 9 : Evaluating Resource Bundle Derivatives for Multi-agent Negotiation of Resource Allocation

Part II : Security Issues
Chapter 10 : Conversational Speech Biometrics
Chapter 11 : Secure Communication for Secure Agent-Based Electronic Commerce Applications
Chapter 12 : MA/LMA Architecture for Dealing With Malicious Agents in Agent-Mediated Electronic Markets
Chapter 13 : Secure Mobile Agent Digital Signatures With Proxy Certificates
Chapter 14 : Agent-Mediated Secure Electronic Transaction for Online Interdependent Purchases
Chapter 15 : An Agent-Based Micropayment System for E-Commerce
Chapter 16 : Security Issues in M-Commerce: A Usage-Based Taxonomy

Part III : Supply and Demand
Chapter 17 : Towards Distributed Workflow Enactment With Itineraries and Mobile Agent Management
Chapter 18 : Enterprise Federation and Its Multi-agent Modelization
Chapter 19 : User-Centered Agents for Structured Information Location
Chapter 20 : Using a Speech Technology Agent as an Interface for E-Commerce

Author Index