The synergy of electronic commerce, agents, and semantic Web services

Advancements in software agents and Semantic Web service technologies are generally enhancing the landscape of electronic commerce. Semantic Web service technologies promise the standardisation and discoverability of software capabilities for network-enabled organisations. Moreover, with the addition of the intelligence and autonomy of software agents, transactions may be equally automated for consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer, and business-to-business collaborations. The 2003 Workshop on Electronic Commerce, Agents, and Semantic Web Services was held in conjunction with the International Conference on Electronic Commerce (ICEC2003). The purpose of this workshop was to bring together researchers and practitioners in the areas of electronic commerce, agents, and Semantic Web services to discuss the state-of-art in each individual area in addition to the synergies among the areas. This paper contains a summary of the workshop presentations and a discussion of next steps for Semantic Web services created in the working sessions concluding the workshop.