Contact: Frank Dignum

Electronic Commerce (EC) is the ability to perform business transactions involving the exchange of goods and services between two or more parties using electronic tools and techniques. It differs from traditional commerce primarily in the way that information is exchanged and processed. Traditionally, information has been exchanged through direct personal contact or through the use of phone or postal systems. In EC, information is conveyed primarily via digital communications networks and computer systems. Often these networks are accessible to everybody and have an open nature.

The overall goal is to integrate EC into existing business processes in such a way that a processing order moves seamlessly through existing accounting, order processing, and inventory systems no matter what a transaction originates from, e.g., a sales call, online order, or a retail outlet. This integration of online sales with back-end business processes and information systems introduces a variety of challenges and opportunities that span the business, technical, and legal domains.

PUBLICATIONS Publications on electronic commerce

In our group we will by necessity limit ourselves to the technical domain, although we have links with research in the other domains as well (e.g. through the SOBU program Enabling Electronic Commerce). However, even in the technical domain there are many topics, ranging from interorganizational workflow to cryptographic protocols and from auction theory to formal business communication.

In accordance with the signature of the IS group are the following research topics that we are actively pursuing:

• Virtual markets
• Agent mediated electronic commerce
• Formal description of (agent) communication
• Cooperative (information) agents
• The ANITA project.
• Deontic logic

How can agents help to execute transactions? How can agents be used to create new products on the fly? E.g. composing a travel package from flights and accommodations from different suppliers. Another interesting topic is negotiations between agents, which might be done by using game theory, but can also be done through the use of argumentation. (see also Agent communication).