Objective
COBRA has three objectives:-
- Creation of an open architecture for distributed on-line brokerage.
- Development of consensus and contribution to a draft European standard for information brokerage architectures.
- Demonstration and validation of the architecture using four pilot applications.
The project is developing its architecture in relation to a series of existing real-life business activities in order to show convincing proof of the market opportunities for which distributed brokerage is an essential requirement.
Expected Achievements
- An agreed architecture for on-line brokerage with high consensus.
- Influence of the standardisation activities in the area.
- Demonstration of online brokerage in four distinct business cases.
- Development of tools to empower information providers, brokers and consumers to benefit from e-commerce brokerage services.
- Demonstration of generic consumer and provider access interfaces to specific brokerage services.
- Creation of four convincing case studies documenting the role of brokerage in creating new business opportunities in on-line service creation and exploitation.
Expected Impacts
The main impact of the project will be to raise the profile of brokerage architectures by providing convincing proof of the need and approach for appropriate standardisation.
The project expects to show how the economic and business prospects for on-line services will be enhanced brokerage of the information and transaction services. We expect to stimulate the market for the services specific to each pilot. Through the demonstrations and dissemination actions, we also expect to create a much wider awareness and to stimulate the wider on-line service market.
The project expects to foster a new breed of on-line broker enterprises which grasp the opportunities resulting from the need to provide more focused access to world-wide information sources. These may arise as part of the provider business process, or as independent enterprises; the project contains examples of both.
Main contributions to the programme objectives:
Main deliverables
Creation of an open architecture for distributed on-line brokerage; development of consensus and contribution to a draft European standard for information brokerage architectures and demonstration and validation of the architecture using four pilot applications.
Contribution to the programme
Raises the profile of brokerage architectures by providing convincing proof of the need and approach for appropriate standardisation; shows how the economic and business prospects for on-line services will be enhanced by the brokerage of the information and transaction services.
Technical Approach
COBRA adopts a three-stage approach to its work. The project started in July 1996, and will complete its first stage in May 1997. The first stage has established the pilot application requirements based on the four pilot sites, and has developed enterprise and information projections for open brokerage markets (collectively a brokerage reference model).
The project is now mapping the pilot requirements on to the brokerage models and integrating technical components and services from the participants which will create a flexible prototype brokerage service applicable to all pilots.
The second stage, due to start in June 1997, will implement a series of "pioneer" service trials involving all the actors in the enterprise model - information providers, value added providers, brokers, consumers, infrastructure providers - building on the existing services offered by each pilot group. The objective of this stage is to refine the reference models and architecture in the light of real experience and to demonstrate brokerage services in each pilot.
The third stage extends the pilots to a wider audience and provides the means to validate the COBRA architecture.
Evaluation of the pilots will concentrate on two main areas:
- Benefits to each group of actors -economic and business evolution (e.g. organisational change that needs to be reflected by the architecture).
- Technical performance of the systems and services involved in brokering.
Throughout the project, the architecture work will be monitored by an expert panel and disseminated by the architecture core team and experts. This will be done through:-
- Co-operation with other architecture projects .
- Liaison with representatives to specific relevant standards fora.
- Joint workshops with the other ACTS brokerage-related projects and inputs to the relevant domain and chain activities.
Summary of Trial
The project will develop its results in the context of four independent pilot applications:-
- Broadband multimedia services over a national ATM network (Finland).
- Business services within the association of chambers of commerce (Italy).
- Use of multimedia assets within the advertising agency and media studio sector with complex classification issues (Spain).
- An e-commerce pilot project for SMEs involving business advice services to the desktop (UK).
The pilots allow examination of a series of complementary issues surrounding brokerage in a range of operational and technical environments:
Key Issues
The primary concern of COBRA is the development of consensus on open brokerage architectures. A particular issue for the project therefore is the adoption of appropriate methodologies to ensure a wide and deep analysis of requirements and careful enquiry into the opinions and actions of others - principally other service architecture actions in ETSI/EPIC and EURESCOM.
Market configurations:
- Many service providers, heterogeneous offers, aggregating brokers
- Factoring by brokers
- Multiple brokers with non-exclusive provider-broker relationships
- Multiple broking levels within value-adding chains
- Complex offers requiring high levels of consumer support
Technical issues:
- Feasibility and problems of universal classification and navigation
- Integration of legacy information
- Maintenance and management of information in brokered environments.
- Encapsulation of service offers - "one-stop" provision.
- The roles of agent technology and service/user interfaces in brokerage services.
- Aggregation of catalogues over wide area networks.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
You need to log in or register to use this function
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Data not available
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
TS1 1DE Middlesbrough
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.