Semantic interoperability in electronic auctions

• Published in: International journal of Web information systems Vol. 4; no. 3; pp. 372 - 385
• Main Author: Puustjarvi, Juha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bingley Emerald Group Publishing Limited 29.08.2008
• Subjects: Auctions; Bids; Extensible markup language; Internet service providers; Online operations; Software; Work flow
• ISSN: 1744-0084; 1744-0092
• DOI: 10.1108/17440080810901124

Purpose This paper aims to report work on achieving semantic interoperability in electronic auctions. In particular, it considers the advantages and drawbacks of using hardcoding and using semantic messages in the communication between the auction system and the participants of the auction. Designmethodologyapproach It is demonstrated that although XMLdocuments are commonly used for information exchange they do not provide any means of talking about the semantics i.e. meaning data. It is also shown that by expressing exchanged documents by resource description framework RDF the semantics of the messages can be captured in the message. Findings It is recognized that hardcoding is proven to be a valuable and powerful way for an exchange of structured and persistent business documents messages. However, if we use hardcoding in the case of nonpersistent documents and nonstatic markets we will encounter problems in deploying new auction policies and extending the system by new participants. Practical implications The introduction of the RDFtechnology in message exchange is challenging as it incorporates Semantic web technologies into many parts of the auction system, e.g. on data stores and query languages. The introduction of this technology is also an investment. The investment on new Semantic web technology includes a variety of costs including software, hardware and training costs. Originalityvalue By automating electronic auctions both buyers and sellers can benefit as they can achieve cost reductions and shorten the duration of the auction processes. Also new auction formats can be easily deployed.