A System for Principled Matchmaking in an Electronic Marketplace

More and more resources are becoming available on the Web, and there is a growing need for infrastructures that, based on advertised descriptions, can match demands with supplies in an electronic marketplace. Several matchmakers rely on simple keyword matching, but significant matching results can only be obtained by exploiting the semantics inherent in structured descriptions. To this end, a novel knowledge representation approach is proposed, based on description logics, that is superior to both keyword- and basic subsumption-based matchmaking. The properties a matchmaker should have are formalized, and a matchmaking facilitator, compliant with the desired properties, is presented. The system embeds a NeoClassic reasoner whose structural subsumption algorithm has been modified to allow match categorization into potential and partial, and ranking of matches within categories. Experiments show good correspondence between users and system rankings.

[1]  Jon R. Wright,et al.  A Knowledge-Based Configurator that Supports Sales, Engineering, and Manufacturing at AT&T Network Systems , 1993, AI Mag..

[2]  Francesco M. Donini,et al.  Concept Abduction and Contraction in Description Logics , 2003, Description Logics.

[3]  Premkumar T. Devanbu,et al.  LaSSIE—a knowledge-based software information system , 1991, ICSE '90.

[4]  Timothy W. Finin,et al.  Enhanced Service Discovery in Bluetooth , 2002, Computer.

[5]  Werner Nutt,et al.  The Complexity of Concept Languages , 1997, KR.

[6]  Beat F. Schmid,et al.  Elements of a reference model for electronic markets , 1998, Proceedings of the Thirty-First Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[7]  Francesco M. Donini,et al.  A knowledge-based system for person-to-person e-commerce , 2001 .

[8]  J. Gonzalez-Castillo,et al.  Description logics for matchmaking of services , 2001 .

[9]  Craig A. Knoblock,et al.  Query reformulation for dynamic information integration , 1996, Journal of Intelligent Information Systems.

[10]  Deborah L. McGuinness,et al.  Matching in Description Logics , 1999, J. Log. Comput..

[11]  Bernhard Nebel,et al.  Terminological Reasoning is Inherently Intractable , 1990, Artif. Intell..

[12]  Ian Horrocks,et al.  Ontology Reasoning in the SHOQ(D) Description Logic , 2001, IJCAI.

[13]  Peter F. Patel-Schneider,et al.  A Semantics and Complete Algorithm for Subsumption in the CLASSIC Description Logic , 1993, J. Artif. Intell. Res..

[14]  Alexander Borgida,et al.  Description Logics in Data Management , 1995, IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng..

[15]  Nikos I. Karacapilidis,et al.  Building an agent-mediated electronic commerce system with decision analysis features , 2001, Decis. Support Syst..

[16]  Jörg P. Müller,et al.  Matchmaking for autonomous agents in electronic marketplaces , 2001, AGENTS '01.

[17]  Amihai Motro,et al.  VAGUE: a user interface to relational databases that permits vague queries , 1988, TOIS.

[18]  Francesco M. Donini,et al.  Abductive Matchmaking using Description Logics , 2003, IJCAI.

[19]  Huaiqing Wang,et al.  Modeling constraint-based negotiating agents , 2002, Decis. Support Syst..

[20]  Daniel Kuokka,et al.  Integrating information via matchmaking , 1996, Journal of Intelligent Information Systems.

[21]  Yigal Hoffner,et al.  Distribution issues in the design and implementation of a virtual market place , 1999, Comput. Networks.

[22]  Nancy J. Cooke,et al.  Varieties of knowledge elicitation techniques , 1994, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[23]  Claudio Bartolini,et al.  Semantic web support for the business-to-business e-commerce lifecycle , 2002, WWW '02.

[24]  Fabio Casati,et al.  Dynamic and adaptive composition of e-services , 2001, Inf. Syst..

[25]  Oren Etzioni,et al.  A scalable comparison-shopping agent for the World-Wide Web , 1997, AGENTS '97.

[26]  Yolanda Gil,et al.  PHOSPHORUS: a task-based agent matchmaker , 2001, AGENTS '01.

[27]  William Bohrer,et al.  Carnot and InfoSleuth: database technology and the World Wide Web , 1995, SIGMOD '95.

[28]  Michael R. Genesereth,et al.  Knowledge Interchange Format , 1991, KR.

[29]  Takahiro Kawamura,et al.  Semantic Matching of Web Services Capabilities , 2002, SEMWEB.

[30]  Francesco M. Donini,et al.  Reasoning in description logics , 1997 .

[31]  Ian Horrocks,et al.  A software framework for matchmaking based on semantic web technology , 2003, WWW '03.

[32]  Diego Calvanese,et al.  Dwq : Esprit Long Term Research Project, No 22469 on the Decidability of Query Containment under Constraints on the Decidability of Query Containment under Constraints , 2022 .

[33]  Matthias Klusch,et al.  Larks: Dynamic Matchmaking Among Heterogeneous Software Agents in Cyberspace , 2002, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

[34]  Boi Faltings,et al.  Enriching buyers' experiences: the SmartClient approach , 2000, CHI.

[35]  Pattie Maes,et al.  Agents that buy and sell , 1999, CACM.

[36]  J. Euzenat,et al.  Research challenges and perspectives of the Semantic Web , 2002 .

[37]  Markus Stolze,et al.  A Matchmaking Component for the Discovery of Agreement and Negotiation Spaces in Electronic Markets , 2002 .

[38]  Ian Horrocks,et al.  OIL: An Ontology Infrastructure for the Semantic Web , 2001, IEEE Intell. Syst..

[39]  Deborah L. McGuinness,et al.  CLASSIC: a structural data model for objects , 1989, SIGMOD '89.

[40]  Friedbert Jochum,et al.  The LIVE-project: retrieval experiments based on evaluation viewpoints , 1985, SIGIR '85.

[41]  Timothy W. Finin,et al.  KQML as an agent communication language , 1994, CIKM '94.