Ontology-based Services to help solving the heterogeneity problem in e-commerce negotiations

In a dynamic environment of e-commerce negotiations where transactions involve interaction among different enterprises, using different representations and terminologies, a common understanding is crucial. This paper combines the use of ontologies and agent technologies to help in solving the heterogeneity problem in e-commerce negotiations. The result is an implementation of the Ontology-based Services, which apply a methodology that assesses lexical and semantic similarity among concepts represented in different ontologies. A solution integrating the Jade platform and OWL format is presented as well as an Ontology Interaction Protocol, which is combined with the FIPA Contract Net Protocol.