Facilitating e-Negotiation Processes with Semantic Web Technologies Patrick C. K. HUNG Faculty of Business and Information Technology, University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ho-fung LEUNG Senior Member, IEEE Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering Chinese University of Hong Kong Dickson K. W. CHIU Senior Member, IEEE Dickson Computer Systems Hong Kong Shing-Chi CHEUNG Senior Member, IEEE Dept. of Computer Science Hong Kong University of Science & Technology

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Introduction Negotiation a decision process in which two or more parties make individual decisions and interact with each other for mutual gain negozio = shop in Italian … e-Negotiation perform negotiation activities over the Internet

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Background of Research D.K.W. Chiu, S.C. Cheung, P.C.K. Hung, S.Y.Y. Chiu* and K.K. Chung*. Developing e-Negotiation Process Support with a Meta- modeling Approach in a Web Services Environment, Decision Support Systems, accepted. (*FYP students) Peliminary Version at ICWS'03, June th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, Sept 2002 D.K.W. Chiu, S.C. Cheung, P.C.K. Hung, and H.F. Leung. Constraint-based Negotiation in a Multi-Agent Information System with Multiple Platform Support, HICSS37, Jan S.C. Cheung, P.C.K. Hung and D.K.W. Chiu. On e-Negotiation of Unmatched Logrolling Views, HICSS36, Jan S.C. Cheung, P.C.K. Hung and D.K.W. Chiu. A Meta-model for e- Contract Template Variable Dependencies Facilitating e- Negotiation, ER2002, Oct 2002

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Motivation Are there currently significant practical use of the Semantic Web? Match-making and beyond Software requirement engineering / negotiation Model and solve practical problems with CS and technologies Cross-over multi-disciplinary research

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Objectives How to elicit negotiation requirements? Semantic Web => Ontologies => help negotiators’ mutual understanding of issues, alternatives, and tradeoffs Address semantic requirements of negotiation Reduce cost and improve effectiveness of negotiation (avoid combinatorial explosion of issues) Development of an effective and efficient negotiation plan Applications: e-Marketplace, Web-service negotiation, agent negotiation, requirement negotiation…

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS e-Negotiation Portal at e-Marketplaces Buyers Suppliers e-Marketplace Aggregate requests from Buyers, contact potential Suppliers, match Suppliers and Buyers, exchange bids and offers, generate e-Contract Repository Ontologies and Concepts e-Negotiation data Agreements-… bids offers

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS An Example Ontology for Sale Negotiation of Rubber Gloves in UML Class Diagram Shipping Cost Sale Order Order Line Premium Insurance SizeColor Unit Cost Delivery Delivery Date Quantity Payment Terms Payee Total Amount Insured Amount Discount RedPurple Appearance Refunding Policy {unordered} attributes: deposit, installment, pay- upon-delivery, … {ordered} attributes: small, medium, large, extra-large {unordered} attributes: brick red, crimson, … {unordered} attributes: light purple, magenta, … * Insurer

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Semantic based e-Negotiation Conceptual Model Base Concept Party Negotiation Accepted Alternative Value Alternative Value makes 1 1..* has 1..* * indivisibly relates to 1..* 2..* involves Issue 1 1 * * Ontology Auxiliary Concept precedes Concept Accepted Offer maps to Plan Offer drives formulates * 1 1..* 1* * * * resolves 1..* Task 1

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Overall e-Negotiation Process Design Methodology select agreed relevant ontologies identify issues evaluate tradeoffs &make offers [need to revise tradeoff model] creation of agreement [all issues are resolved] [quit] map issues into ontology concepts check consistency of issues &concepts * [consistent] [not consistent] synchronization bar activity process termination process start condition Pre-negotiation phase Negotiation phase formulate plan for each collection of co-related issue derive concept relations [need to identify new issues] identify alternatives

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS How are Ontologies Useful? Understanding Negotiation Issues from Ontologies Understanding Dependencies of Issues from Ontologies Indivisible Components of Issues for Tradeoff Evaluation and Negotiation Plan Understanding Possible Alternatives for Issues from Ontologies

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Understanding Negotiation Issues from Ontologies Perform graph search algorithm on the semantic map Issues are preliminary identified in the first round. For each identified issue, check if an issue can be mapped directly to a concept. If not, see if an issue can be refined into a set of more specific concepts a cost is refined into constituent costs that sum up to it. Incomplete Ontologies Introduce new concepts into the ontology map Relate it with to existing ones

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Understanding Negotiation Issues from Ontologies (Cont) Perform graph search algorithm on the semantic map For each identified concept c, Examine every un-visited node n adjacent to c in the ontology map. For each such node n, see if the new concept is relevant to the negotiation problem. Repeat until no more related new concepts can be identified. Only after successful negotiation do we need to consider combining newly identified concepts back to specify a more concise agreement

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Understanding Dependencies of Issues from Ontologies Functional dependency borrowed from fundamental relational database concepts motivate this research The alternative for an issue is determined by the alternatives(s) of other issue(s). cost of production depends on delivery date and quantity. Computational dependency – more obvious type of functional dependency hardwired computational formula E.g. insurance amount = percentage * cost of goods.

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Understanding Dependencies of Issues from Ontologies Requirement dependency (constraint satisfaction) Only after the determinant value is known can viable alternatives be determined. E.g., whether a customer may pay by credit card, bank draft, or remittance is evaluated according to the total amount. Classification dependency A special type of requirement dependency in which the classification of another issue is dependent on the outcome of an agreed issue.

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Indivisible Components of Issues for Tradeoff Evaluation and Negotiation Plan Indivisible Components of Issues Cyclic dependencies among the concepts Tradeoff Evaluation Negotiate Size Negotiate Color Negotiate Refund Policy Negotiate Unit Cost, Quantity & Delivery Date Negotiate Payment Terms Negotiate Shipping Cost & Payee Negotiate Insurance Premium, Insured Amount & Payee Negotiate Discount Compute Total Amount

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Un-Matching Tradeoff Views

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Matching Tradeoff Views

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Understanding Possible Alternatives for Issues from Ontologies Alternative for issues are often in discrete values cannot be expressed in numerical values not quantized in normal practices because of difficulties in recognizing them, e.g., color for simplicity and convenience (size => S, M, L, XL) The elicitation of options is streamlined when a complicated issue is decomposed into concepts (appearance => size + color + shapes) Ontologies provide explicit ordering of them (size => S < M < L < XL) implicit ordering inheritance (“is-a”) hierarchies composition hierarchies

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS System Implementation Architecture Criteria & Issues Editor Search Engine Ontology Editor criteria, issues ontology e-Negotiation Data & Repository existing ontology Ontology Maintenance Subsystem Issue Dependency Editor Tasks Organizer e-Negotiation Process Generator ontology, issue issue dependency task dependency e-Negotiation Matching Subsystem Ontology Generator e-Negotiation Session Manager e-Negotiation Executing Subsystem e-Negotiation process ontology revised ontology, issues Internet Messenger SMS Gateway WAP Gateway Web Server bids & offers Multiplatform Support Subsystem e-Negotiation process Multi-platform Devices

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Making Offers and Counter-offers in a Negotiation Session Identify the issue(s) to be next negotiated in the plan Prepare reservation prices Make offer / counter-offer Evaluate offer / counter-offer [offer received] [counter-offer received] Notify counterparty of failure Quit? Revise reservation prices [false] [true] [unacceptable offer] Have all issues been negotiated? [false] Successful negotiation [true] [acceptable offer] Notify counterparty of acceptance [acceptance received] [failure received] start a new negotiation cycle [ready to make an offer]

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Conclusions  Formulation of negotiation plan with maturing of Semantic Web technologies  Elicitation of negotiation issues, issue dependencies, tradeoff, and alternatives  Control the openness of issues  Our algorithm verifies the completeness of elicited negotiation requirements  Negotiation processes are properly guided, recorded, and managed  For e-commerce activities are usually more structural and repeatable (as opposed to political negotiations)  Ontologies and plans are therefore reusable  Negotiation automation with agents / integration with EIS

Semantic e- NegotiationHICSS Future Work  Formal models  Elicitation of semantic distances  Users having different tradeoff views (i.e., different negotiation plan in mind)  Multi-lateral negotiation  Ranking of different types of issues and criteria for tradeoff issues (Hung, HICSS 2003)  Decision making to reach an optimal and stable state for negotiators (Nash equilibrium)  Study of e-Contract enforcement (Chiu et al., HICSS 2003)  Real-life negotiation practices  General requirement elicitation (e.g. software)