Shaman : software and human agents in multiattribute auctions and negotiations

Three distinct and interacting types of entities: people, software agents and e-markets are considered in this paper. These entities operate within Shaman, a proposed framework for the construction and operation of heterogeneous systems enabling business interactions such as auctions and negotiations between software and human agents across those systems. Shaman is a DSS-centric software environment which cooperates with and serves the users of distributed auction and negotiation systems. The DSS are used to provide integration and coordination between the participating systems. Four such systems are discussed: Invite e-negotiation platform, eNAS negotiation agent suite, meet2trade auction platform and GoGo group buying software platform. The Shaman architecture based on these systems and the examples of their interaction enabled by Shaman are discussed.