Open E-Commerce Frameworks

Applications of electronic commerce can be seen in two broad areas, namely free form and structured. Open EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) has been an early example case of a transaction framework that aims at using structured data formats and is delivered over open networks to effect commercial transactions without necessarily having to rely on a prearranged transaction framework. Open EDI is significant as it addresses several priorities for a business transaction, such as support for multiple data formats, usage of open networks, etc., that can support diverse application areas, such as invoicing, healthcare, transportation, etc. The open EDI working group of the International Standards Organization defines open EDI (ISO, 1994):

"Open EDI is called EDI among autonomous, multiple participants using public standards and aiming towards interoperability over time, business sectors, information technology systems and data types, capable of multiple, simultaneous transaction, to accomplish an explicit shared business goal."

The main goal of open EDI is to enable short-term or ad hoc commercial transactions among organizations (Kalakota & Whinson, 1996). Open EDI also aims at lowering the entry barriers of establishing structured data links between trading partners by minimizing the need for bilateral framework agreements among trade partners, known as interchange agreements.

The emergence of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) has resulted in new developments in the field of open EDI. XML is a simplified subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML, ISO 8879) that provides a file format for data representation, a schema to describe data structures, and a mechanism to extend and annotate HTML with semantic information. With the advent of XML, the notion of open EDI has evolved into XML/EDI that provides a standard framework to exchange transaction data in diverse application areas. Such data can be exchanged by means of, e.g., an Application Program Interface (API), web automation, database portal, catalog, a workflow document, message, etc. Data can subsequently be searched, decoded, and displayed by implementing EDI dictionaries and extending the reference vocabulary via online repositories to include the author's own business language, rules, and objects.

Industry-wide, cross-sector, public, open transaction standards are essential to parties involved in commercial transactions. These standards can also include formal models of business procedures to specify a class of business transactions serving the same goal. Scenarios can be designed to represent certain business situations, while they remain generic and customizable by the trading parties. A trade procedure is the mutually agreed-upon set of rules that governs the activities of all parties involved in a set of related business transactions. A trade procedure stipulates the actions, the parties, the order, and the timing constraints on performing actions (Lee, 1996).

In complex business situations, transaction scenarios typically belong to different business actors that each own a piece of that scenario. A part of the scenario with a transaction actor relates with the scope of an electronic signature. When a signatory attaches its electronic signature, it might as well validate the performance of the individual procedural components that perform the transaction. The end user who actually signs an electronic document or procedure relies in many ways upon the performance of complex and often opaque systems. Trust in the procedure and the associated service provider is an essential element to ensure that the signatory is able to eventually sign a transaction.

In a sale of goods example, buyer "A" buys goods from seller "B" and pays by using a payment mechanism, e.g., credit card provided by payment service provider "C." An electronic procedure is likely to involve an interface between A and B. A, however, is likely to also be asked to indicate its consent to pay for the goods by being transferred to a transaction platform provided by C. The end-to-end service to buy the goods is a transaction scenario that belongs to multiple actors. In terms of a trade procedure, the basic actions involved include:

• A sends a purchase order to B.

• A is transferred to C to indicate payment mechanism, e.g., credit card.

• B acknowledges receipt of Purchase order to A.

• B sends an invoice to A.

Since multiple actors are involved in this transaction paradigm, it is necessary to ensure that A indeed trusts the framework that B makes available in order to carry out the various transaction processes. This transaction also makes use of a third-party procedure made available by C of which A has to be ensured with regard to its trustworthiness. It is necessary to note here that since C has a relationship with B to service B's clients such as A, A on its own turn will have to assess the trustworthiness of the procedure to be introduced therein and relied upon.