In a world of unlimited resources, users could avail themselves of all potentially beneficial services at their maximal levels of quality. Indeed, in even a moderately scoped digital library, there is potentially unbounded demand for computational resources. Given only finite resources, however, we cannot take advantage of all such opportunities. We also cannot generally try every method for accomplishing a given task, but rather must choose among those available based on resource requirements and prospects for success. In approaching this resource allocation problem, we treat the alternative information services as competing economic activities.
Agents dynamically connect with each other as opportunities arise for mutually beneficial exchanges.
A negotiation and exchange facility for information goods and services must potentially support a wide variety of market types. The magazine might also be bundled with related services such as searching or notification of new articles. Each of the different good descriptions, negotiation and payment procedures may have advantages and disadvantages for the various types of information goods and services. Therefore, we provide generic facilities for defining these goods and procedures. Our general method for determining which agents provide services to which others, and under what terms, is negotiation through an auction protocol.