CORDIS Archive
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AC206 ABS | |
| Organisations Hosting Experiments Contact Services and Security Domain Service Integration Chains |
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The project will perform local trials in France, Portugal and Germany in Autumn 1997, and international trials in early 1998 in order to evaluate its brokerage service. The two series of trials will use different versions of the system. The purpose of the first trial is to validate basic functionalities like the combination of different sources to generate a complex offer, the user interface, user request processing and resource registration. The second trial will involve functionalities like dynamic search execution, interfaces to supporting services and the federation of brokers. The first trial will focus on selected test user groups, whereas the second trial will address user groups formed from the existing customer base of content providers involved in the project.
The scenario for the German trial is an on-line shopping mall / retailer service. The offered service is built up from several information sources. End users are able both to plan and to book a trip to a place in Europe, and to acquire additional information or products that are related to the chosen location / region.
These additional information items or products will consist of "no touch goods" like: books (culture, history, travel guides, language guides etc.); maps and videos; some public transport system information; and possibly other necessary or useful goods for the chosen area (skiing equipment, summer clothes, suitcases, depending on the location and time of the trip).
German Field Trial
The main purpose of this scenario and trial is to illustrate the basic feasibility of the federation of different information sources into a single more complex offer, which also represents the main added value in this service. The scenario is chosen in a way that could enable broker federation for the 1998 international trial. At present the project is negotiating and identifying further potential sources for this trial. As the first trial is relying on the broker version 1 software, which will not interact with any of the system support services, authentication or payment services are not planned.
| Domain | Actor | Trial 1 |
| Service End-User | End User | Defined User groups (see below) |
| Retailer Service provider | On-line shopping mall | PoP/DeTeBerkom |
| Service provider | Service Support, Payment Service and Security | not applicable for the first trial |
| Contents Provider | On-line contents offering parties | Travel Agency: De La Motte (Kiel, D) Bookstores: Weiland (Kiel, D), K&V (Cologne, D) Publisher: Koch, Neff & Oettinger&Co. (Stuttgart, D) Public Transport: misc. on the Internet Video: t.b.a. Retailer: Otto (Hamburg, D) |
| Network provider | Telecom operator | Deutsche Telekom |
Although access to the service will be given through the public Internet, some more specific user groups will nonetheless have to be identified and addressed. As most of the above mentioned contents are on PoP servers, a set of frequent users will be identified, using the existing Logging files. These users will be invited to participate in the field test.
The scenario which is to be tested in France will enable users to access a flight ticket brokerage service. In the first trial this service will be based on the databases of Degriftour, an electronic travel agency. This scenario will be extended in the second trial to enable direct brokerage via the GDS (General Distribution Services) and the airlines own databases.
French Field Trial
| Domain | Actor | Trial 1 |
| End-User | User | 100 to 250 pilot users Public Internet test users |
| Brokerage Service provider |
Broker | Dégriftour |
| Support Service provider |
Service Support, Payment Service and Security |
not applicable |
| Service provider | Service offering party | Dégriftour |
| Contents Provider | On-line contents offering parties | Dégriftour |
| Network provider | Telecom operator | France Telecom |
Portuguese Field Trial
The scenario for the Portuguese trial is a information search and retrieval service. The trial seeks to apply the ABS concepts to the domain of pure information retrieval, and the usage of the ABS system as an intelligent front-end towards existing search engines is investigated. The service offered is that of assisting the user in searching and retrieving information concerning ACTS projects or related technologies. It relies on the INFOWIN WWW server, on particular WWW servers for the ACTS projects, and the various WWW search engines available world-wide (eg. Yahoo, Altavista, Infoseek, Lycos, etc). End users will be able to search for information by issuing a single query to the broker, who in turn will search its available sources for the requested information and analyse and relate the results, doing its best to give the end user the most complete and significant answers found.
| Domain | Actor | Trial 1 |
| End-User | User | Public Internet test users |
| Brokerage Service provider | Broker |
|
| Support Service provider | Information Service Provider | Public search engines on the Internet, Yahoo, Altavista, Lycos, Infoseek |
| Service provider | Service offering party | CET |
| Contents Provider | On-line contents offering parties | The INFOWIN web server; ACTS projects web servers; |
| Network provider | Telecom operator | Portugal Telecom Internet Provider |
Details of the international trial are not yet finalised. However, one possibility is an extension of the French trial indicated above, to allow travellers to book flights.
The trial will use the ABS Information Brokerage System for the first (local) trials, and the second version for the 1998 (international) trial.
Retailers interested in electronic shopping, travel agents, airlines etc, and any organisation requiring intelligent information retrieval using brokerage services.
Trial 1 and related experiments are planned to run from November to December 1997;
Trial 2 is planned to start in March 1998.
Access to the service will be provided by the public Internet and (for the French trials) through the high speed ATM-based infrastructure in Lannion France under the responsibility of France Telecom.
None specified
E. Athanassiou
Deutsche Telekom Berkom GmbH
Goslarer Ufer 35
10589 Berlin
Germany
Tel: +49 30 3497 3518
Fax: +49 30 3497 3519
Email:E.Athanassiou@berkom.de
France Telecom CNET, Lannion (F)
Dégrifftours (F)
TELIS Sema Group (F)
Deutsche Telekom Berkom (D)
Point of Presence GmbH (D)
Portugal Telecom / CET (P)