SweetDeal: representing agent contracts with exceptions using XML rules, ontologies, and process descriptions

SweetDeal is a rule-based approach to representation of business contracts that enables software agents to create, evaluate, negotiate, and execute contracts with substantial automation and modularity. It builds upon the situated courteous logic programs knowledge representation in RuleML, the emerging standard for Semantic Web XML rules. Here, we newly extend the SweetDeal approach by also incorporating process knowledge descriptions whose ontologies are represented in DAML+OIL (emerging standard for Semantic Web ontologies) thereby enabling more complex contracts with behavioral provisions, especially for handling exception conditions (e.g., late delivery or non-payment) that might arise during the execution of the contract. This provides a foundation for representing and automating deals about services ? in particular, about Web Services, so as to help search, select, and compose them. Our system is also the first to combine emerging Semantic Web standards for knowledge representat...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: WWW
• Authors: Benjamin N. Grosof, Terrence C. Poon
• Keywords: Internet Technology, Knowledge Representation, Semantic Web Ontologies, Semantic Web Services, WWW 2003