Intelligent Agents(3)

??character such as emotion.

Personality: the capability of manifesting the attributes of a believable ??Adaptivity: being able to learn and improve with experience.

??Mobility: being able to migrate in a self-directed way from one host platform to another.

Four types of agents can be derived from the characteristics of primary attributes [2,22]: collaborative, collaborative learning, interface and smart (see Figure 1). According to Jennigns and Wooldridge, and Nwana [18,22], more common classification of agents entails eight categories: collaborative agents, interface agents, mobile agents, information/Internet agents, reactive agents, hybrid agents, heterogeneous agent systems, and smart agents.

Figure 1. Typology based on Nwana’s primary attribute dimension

In summary, an intelligent agent is a software entity that carries out

some set of operations on behalf of a human user or another program with some degree of independence or autonomy. In doing so, it employs some knowledge or representation of the user’s goals or desires [13,14]. Intelligence represents the agent’s ability to accept the user’s statement of goals and carry out the task delegated to it. Highest level on the intelligence scale include systems that learn

and adopt to their environment, both in terms of the user’s objectives, and in terms of the resources available to the agent [2].

2.2 Agents and agent repositories

Here one can find links, descriptions and additional information on intelligent agents in practice:

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Figure 2. Our intelligent agent repository contains lists and short descriptions of

each link ()

Intelligent agents have been applied to electronic commerce, promising a revolution in the way we conduct business, whether business-to-business, business-to-customer or customer-to-customer. This article gives a brief review of agent technologies involved

3 E-commerce 3.1 Description

Electronic commerce is sharing business information, maintaining business relationships, and conducting business transactions by means of communication networks. E-commerce includes the relationship between companies (business-to-business), between customers (customer-to customer), as well as between companies and customers (business-to customer). Business-to-business segment currently dominates the E-commerce while consumer-oriented segment is significantly lagging behind and current estimates place it at less than 10 percent of the total volume, even tough they are all experiencing an exponential growth.

To be successful in e-commerce, a company must build a site that

holds the following properties. It must be innovative, must add value, and provides information and interaction not otherwise available, it must create forums for opinion-building activities. In short, the site must build community and become the “port of entry” for commerce. A good community involves determination of customer interests, where two choices are available: having the customer fill out an interest profile information or having the system analyse a user's activity trails through a web site (e.g., personalization, collaborative information filtering, analysis of consumer buying behaviour, etc.).

On the other hand, company must understand the structure of the e-commerce industry and the roles of its many and varied players. A useful classification scheme for e-commerce providers of products and services is also required. Although several models of the e-commerce industry have been proposed, no validated classification scheme for the industry has appeared. Storey et al. [26] have introduced the structure, which includes the following e-commerce industry classes (describe roles and players in the industry): Network Access Services Providers, E-Commerce-related Hardware Manufacturers, E-Commerce Management Providers, E-Commerce Payment/Billing Services Providers, E-Commerce Payment/Billing Software Providers, E-Commerce Security Providers, E-Commerce Designers/Installers, Server-Side Software Providers, Client-Side Software Providers, Web Integrating Software Providers. It is useful for technology forecasting, trend analysis, planning, and strategizing [26].

The most highly touted applications of E-commerce are consumer-oriented. They include activities related to buying and selling goods or services,

banking, and stock brokerage, accompanied by on-line advertising. Limiting factor for lagging behind the other segments is the settlement phase of

transacting on the Web. The consumer should be able to pay for a purchase on the Web easily and with a perception of security. Customer can also gain a lot from e-commerce such as investing little effort to find a product or service, the best (lowest) price, the latest updates etc. Another advantage is that the stores on the Internet are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to allow customers to do business whenever they want. Not only customers gain advantages. Merchants are visible to a global market that represents a great potential, but on down side increases the competition that lowers the prices and profit. With automatic negotiation, merchants could use differential pricing, and products that used to be non-profitable could suddenly become profitable to sell [5].

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