1. SICS MarketSpace An agent-based market infrastructure Sverker Janson, Joakim Eriksson, Niclas Finne Intelligent Systems Laboratory Swedish Institute of Computer Science sverker, joakime, nfi@sics.se

2. Agent-based markets

3. Agents for Internet commerce Users, buyers and sellers, describe deals that would interest them Agents help find matching interests, negotiate, and close deals

4. Agents for workflow automation Users, individuals and business units, advertise interests in tasks Agents help plan, negotiate, and supervise the execution of workflows

5. Agent-based markets desiderata Decentralization –my interests –my software –my computer Openness –new participants –new rôles –new concepts –new mechanisms Integration –the web

6. The Electronic Commerce melting pot marketing computational economics information economics metadata web standards security payment negotiation support evolutionary game theory matchmaking auction theory software agents distributed object platforms

7. Scope in terms of commerce model… Sell something Identify potential customers Identify customers’ needs Inform potential customers Obtain order Deliver the thing Receive payment Provide customer service Buy something Identify potential sellers Identify own needs Evaluate alternatives Place order Receive the thing Make payment Use the thing

8. THE SICS MARKETSPACE FRAMEWORK - Information - Interaction

9. Information - contracts & interests The goal of participants in a market is to close deals. Basic information unit is the contract, a structured document. Interests are sets of possibly interesting contracts. Encoded in RDF/XML, KIF, FIPA SL, MIF, … Contract-3 Seller Joakim Eriksson Buyer Niclas Finne GoodsRefrigerator Make Electrolux Price 300 USD Date Dec 10 1997 White Color ER3117B Model signatures

10. Interests constrain contracts Sell something - seller Cheaper than 1$ - price range for goods Red things - properties of goods Pizza within an hour - time range for signing These books for sale - alternatives CS books for sale - generalization

11. Interests are symmetrical John’s interests Mary’s interests common interests “what” brokering seller/buyer “with whom” brokering seller/buyer goods/services buyers/sellers buyer/seller broker

12. Dynamic (indirect) interests Trustworthy- ask a BBB Environmentally friendly- ask Greenpeace What Joe (Jill) likes- ask Joe/Jill cars Green- peace clean cars

13. Contract-3 Seller Joakim Eriksson Buyer Niclas Finne GoodsRefrigerator Make Electrolux Price 200-300 USD Date Aug 10 1998 White Color ER3117B Mod el Expressiveness of interest language Contract-3 Seller Joakim Eriksson Buyer Niclas Finne Goods Price 300 USD Date Aug 10 1998 Refrigerator Make Electrolux White Color ER3117B Mod el Refrigerator Make AEG White Color Santo 1702 Mod el Contract-3 Seller Joakim Eriksson Buyer Niclas Finne GoodsKitchenware Price 300 USD Date Aug 10 1998 White Color Trade object Kitchenware RefrigeratorDish washer RangesAlternativesGeneralization

14. Market Interest Format (MIF)  def  ::= (def  name   ref  (  name   type  )*)  type  ::= integer | float | atom | string | date | (instance  ref  ) | (interval  val   val  ) | (set  type  ) | (list  type  ) | (oneof  val  *)  expr  ::=  integer  |  float  | |  atom  |  string  |  date  | (set  expr  *) | (list  expr  *) | (instance  ref  (  name   expr  )*) | (or  expr  *) | (interval  val   val  ) | (subset  expr  *)

15. MIF example (def car ”trade-object” (color (ref ”pantone-color”))...) (instance ”contract-3” (date (interval 11/12/97 23/12/97)) (buyer (instance ”person” (name ”Sverker Janson”) (agent-address...))) (goods (instance ”car” (color (instance ”red”)))))

16. Operations on interests intersection(x, y)  z empty(x) subsumes(x, y) types(x)  [t 1,..., t n ] attributes(x)  [a 1,..., a n ] attribute(a, x)  y

17. Build Your Own Car The Concept Catalog candle candy cane canoe canopy Services generate interests Find a New Home my job wife’s job

18. Global concepts http://contracts.com/basic.ont#contract-3 contract-3 : seller: http://…#person buyer: http://…#person price: http://…#amount goods: http://…#trade-object date: date Associated information

19. Concept brokering Car1 Buyer Concept broker Car1 or Car2 Car1 and Car2 are independently introduced

20. How make agents communicate? Popular approach High level speech act based protocols Expressive logic based content formats Cf. KQML/KIF, FIPA ACL/FIPA SL TELL p(a)

21. Market Interaction Language (MIL) Search & advertise ask(A, B, eoi) tell(A, B, eoi) negotiate(A, B, eoi) Negotiate & close offer(A, B, eoi) accept(A, B) decline(A, B) (offer :from A :to B :in-reply-to i :reply-with j :language ”MIF 1.0” :content ”…” )

22. Example interaction ask(A, D, ”sell me a refrigerator”) tell(D, A, ”B and C”) negotiate(A, B, ”sell me a refrigerator”) negotiate(A, C, ”sell me a refrigerator”) offer(B, A, ”Electrolux 3117B for $350”) offer(C, A, ”Electrolux 3117B for $300”) offer(A, B, ”C sells for $300”) offer(B, A, ”Electrolux 3117B for $300”) accept(A, B) decline(A, C)

23. The MarketSpace prototype Demo: agent-assisted Internet commerce SICS JavaBase toolkit : misc formats and protocols (MIL, MIF, KQML, KIF), agent facilities Other examples: directories, brokers, auctioneers, interfaces to other services

24. Integration with the web service agent user agent web browser (2 windows) http map

25. Summary and future work Information –Interests = goals of market participants –Structured documents & simple description logic –MIF Interaction –Exchange information –Make commitments –MIL Integration –Complements & augments Internet commerce Future work –Generalize goals from deals to deals + protocols –Plugin protocols