In this paper we present a Description Logic approach to extended matchmaking between Demands and Supplies in an Electronic Marketplace, which allows the semantic-based treatment of negotiable and strict requirements in the description. To this aim we exploit two novel non-standard Description Logic inference services, Concept Contraction -which extends satisfiabilityand Concept Abduction -which extends subsumption. Based on these services we devise algorithms to find negotiation spaces and to determine the quality of a possible match, also in the presence of a distinction between strictly required and optional elements.
A DL-based system, which allows the treatment of negotiable and strict constraints has been proposed in REF .
Concept abduction and contraction for semantic-based discovery of matches and negotiation spaces in an e-marketplace
ICEC '04
Computer Science