We are extending this work by creating a collection of smart catalogs for several manufacturers, a virtual catalog for a retailer, and a domain ontology for a trade association. We have described an architecture for electronic catalogs for multiple companies that interoperate. Companies create smart catalogs of searchable, machine-sensible product information. Retailers and distributors create virtual catalogs that provide customers with product information dynamically requested from manufacturers' smart catalogs. Virtual catalogs provide a new degree of interaction between manufacturers and retailers or distributors.
Virtual catalogs enable new business relations and new business models.
This paper has benefited from feedback of numerous people who have heard presentations of this paper, read earlier drafts, or participated in discussions. In particular, Michael Genesereth designed the overall agent communication architecture used by smart catalogs and virtual catalogs, Narinder Singh designed the facilitator used here, and Mustafa Syed programmed some of the other components in our initial prototypes. Note an earlier version of this paper, co-authored by them, appeared at the Workshop on Electronic Commerce following CIKM, December 1994. Several other people have worked on the development of smart catalogs. These include Felix Chow, Bob Engelmore, Wanda Pratt, and Rupert Murdock.