Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
Learning Resources Brokerage
Systems: an Agent-based Virtual
Market Model
Nikos Manouselis, Demetrios G. Sampson
e-mail:{nikosm,sampson}@iti.gr
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
1
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
short overview
 Rationale: learning resources brokerage systems
 open issues: pricing and trading aspects
 Market modeling of learning resources brokerage
systems
 actors involved
 Agent architecture of market-based brokerage system
 agent types
 Prototype implementation: auction-based market
 scenario of use
 interactions protocol
 Conclusions
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
2
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
general framework
Education and learning sector
 major producer and consumer of digital
learning resources with intellectual properties
A number of initiatives around the world
launched
 to facilitate learning resources publication,
search, identification, delivery
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
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IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
different technological aspects
 Technologically advanced architectures and systems for
learning resources indexing, storing, search, retrieval
and delivery
 Interoperability frameworks between heterogeneous
learning resources
 Development of intelligent mechanisms for automation of
activities
 i.e. related with learning resources management
 Development of mechanisms for addressing the
commercial aspect of learning resources publication,
sharing, trading and reuse
 i.e. digital rights management and variable pricing policies
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
4
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
approaches
 Learning resources managements systems
 EM2 (Sampson & Karampiperis, 2003)
 Brokerage systems for sharing learning
resources
 LOMster (Ternier, Duval & Vandepitte, 2002)
 Brokerage systems for exchange and trading
learning resources
 UNIVERSAL (Brantner, Enzi, Guth, Neumann &
Simon, 2001)
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
5
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
exchange and trading: open issues
 In typical learning resources brokerage systems
human effort is required to perform several tasks
 Comparing provision and delivery costs
 Negotiate upon specific provision terms
 Although users are profiled
 Consumer-related preferences are not modeled and
exploited
 Mechanisms for management of property rights
 Study effects on the pricing of learning resources
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
6
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
approach under study…
 Market-based modeling of learning resources
brokerage system
 Actors are players with personal strategies and goals
 Market design defines how actors interact
 Agent-based analysis, design and development
of the brokerage system
 Allows for complex software systems implemented as
a collection of interactive, autonomous agents
 Facilitates the development of automated negotiation,
brokering, trading tasks that can save human labor
time
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IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
market
model
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
8
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
participating actors
 Producers: learning resources providers who
publish learning object advertisements to the
mediator role
 Consumers: learning resources users (learners,
tutors, content providers) who are searching for
learning objects
 Mediators: representing producers and
consumers behaviors and requests in the
brokerage system, can play different roles
 Simple facilitators of interactions
 Proactive brokers of content, such as auctioneers
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
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IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
participating agent types
 Assistant Agents: responsible for user requests
elicitation, formulation of offers and requests into
messages understandable by brokers
 Consumer Assistant Agents / Producer Assistant Agents
 Broker Agents: represent users in the virtual market,
facilitate collection and evaluation of requests and offers,
interact with other brokers, responsible for negotiation
among parties
 Consumer Broker Agents / Producer Broker Agents
 Matchmaker: provides mediating services, informing
agents about other participants, roles and availability;
can also interfere with inter-agents relations, balance
workload, coordinate digital rights management, etc.
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
10
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
agent
analysis
and
design
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
11
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
case of study: auction market
 Auctions provide a popular, easily analysable
market mechanism design
 Mechanism for selling goods to members of a pool of
bidders
 Outcome determines who gets the goods and how
much they pay
 Simplest form of auction: sealed bid auction
 Each bidder makes a single bid and communicates it
to the auctioneer
 The ‘best’ bid wins (e.g. lower price)
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
12
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
example scenario
 One consumer is communicating a request for a
learning object to several producers:
1. User expresses initial request to Consumer Assistant
2. Consumer Assistant communicates request to
Consumer Broker
3. Consumer Broker requests from Matchmaker
Producer Brokers that can serve request
4. Consumer Broker initiates auction requesting offers
from all Producer Brokers
5. Each Producer Broker replies with a sealed bid offer
6. Consumer Broker selects the best offer and informs
the Consumer Assistant on the proposed offer
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
13
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
user
interfaces
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
14
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
interactions
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
15
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
University of Piraeus
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
6
Auction Stages
5
4
protocol
steps
3
2
1
0
0
10
20
30
40
Auction Communication Protocol Steps
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
16
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
conclusions
 Introduced market modeling for learning resources
brokerage systems
 Introduced agent-based analysis and design
 Prototype implementation
 Auction-based mechanism
 Agents trading learning objects
 Promising approach for brokerage systems
 Can provide intelligent tools for pricing and digital rights
management
 Can provide autonomous system components acting on
behalf of the user
 Prototype should be tested in the context of a real
brokerage environment for learning resources
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
17
IEEE ICALT 2003
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.)
University of Piraeus
Informatics and Telematics Institute (I.T.I.)
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems
Contact Details
Nikos Manouselis and Prof. Demetrios Sampson
[email protected], [email protected]
Informatics and Telematics Institute,
Centre for Research and Technology Hellas,
42, Arkadias Street,Athens,GR-15234,Greece
and
Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems,
University of Piraeus
150, Androutsou Street, Piraeus, GR-18534 Greece
N. Manouselis & D.G. Sampson
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IEEE ICALT 2003