Customisable i-commerce sales and purchase
To state that information abounds on the Internet would be no exaggeration. Information literally swamps the Internet and its users. A common oversight however, is the lack of a platform through which information providers can trade, buy or sell tailored information. Partly, the difficulties involved with developing i-commerce platforms are associated with identifying the issues involved, the architectural requirements and the nature of i-commerce support services for such architectures. The European OPELIX consortium has engineered a series of tools to address these shortcomings called the CIP module. This module presents means with which to identify and address the difficulties mentioned above. It has a number of features, two of which are the domain model and the OPELIX toolset. Both features are designed to afford an ease of use and customisable functionality. The domain module presents a virtual information marketplace or environment, through which information and information products can be purchased, sold or traded. It can also be used to identify existing and future functional developments of web-based services. The OPELIX tool set is used for multiple purposes including flexible and secure payment requirements, authentication of copyright issues and information deliveries of individualised information packages. The CIP module appeals to professional information users by providing added-value services that offer customisation, evaluation and combination of multimedia information. As such, the overall goal of the OPELIX development was to provide a means to increase information vendor sales, increase client subscriptions as well as increasing user satisfaction.
