RATING AGENTS PARTICIPATING IN ELECTRONIC TRANSACTIONS

• US 20110082723A1
• Filed: 10/02/2009
• Published: 04/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: National ICT Australia Limited
• Original Assignee: National ICT Australia Limited
• Inventors: Thakur, Subhasis, Pham, Duy Hoang, Governatori, Guido
• Application Number:
  US12/572,997
• Publication Number:
  US 20110082723A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.42
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

This invention concerns computer system and method for rating agents participating in electronic transactions. In particular, the invention provides a computer system for rating agents participating in electronic transactions, the system comprising a data store to store a set of rules to describe expected behaviours of a first agent for interactions that take place during an electronic transaction with a second agent, wherein at least one rule describes the expected behaviours in terms of a primary expected behaviour and at least one alternative expected behaviour. The system also comprises a monitoring engine operable to monitor actual behaviours of the first agent for interactions that place during the electronic transaction; and a compliance engine operable to calculate a degree of compliance between the monitored actual behaviours and the expected behaviours.

Claims

1. A computer system for rating agents participating in electronic transactions, the system comprising:

a data store to store a set of rules to describe expected behaviours of a first agent for interactions that take place during an electronic transaction with a second agent, wherein at least one rule describes the expected behaviours in terms of a primary expected behaviour;

a monitoring engine operable to monitor actual behaviours of the first agent for interactions that take place during the electronic transaction; and

a compliance engine operable to calculate a degree of compliance between the monitored actual behaviours and the expected behaviours.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein there is at least one rule describes the expected behaviours in terms of a primary expected behaviour and at least one alternative expected behaviour.

3. The computer system of claim 2 wherein there are two rules each with at least one expected behaviour that are merged to the corresponding normal form.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the compliance engine is further operable to match a monitored actual behaviour with a primary or alternative expected behaviour described by one of the rules.

5. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the compliance engine is further operable to calculate the degree of compliance based on the distance of the matched expected behaviour from the primary expected behaviour.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the expected behaviours are described using defeasible logic and deontic operators.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the expected behaviours are described as either obligatory, permissible or forbidden using deontic operators.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one rule in the set is associated with a weighting factor, and the degree of compliance is calculated based on the weighting factor of the at least one rule.

9. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the set of rules are divided into a plurality of subsets, each subset representing a metric that contributes to the calculation of the degree of compliance.

10. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the expected behaviours described in the rule are associated with a weighting factor, and the degree of compliance is calculated based on the weighting factor of the expected behaviours.

11. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the degree of compliance between the monitored actual behaviours and the expected behaviours is also based on historical performance of the agent.

12. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring engine is operable to monitor actual behaviours of the first agent based on log files recorded during the electronic transaction.

13. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring engine is operable to monitor actual behaviours of the first agent based on input from the second agent.

14. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the electronic transaction is an electronic commerce transaction between the agents.

15. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the electronic transaction is a web service interaction between the agents.

16. The computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second agents is computer-operated.

17. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising a rules creation engine to provide an interface for agents to define the set of rules prior to an electronic transaction.

18. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the set of rules are created by domain experts prior to the electronic transaction.

19. A computer-implemented method for rating agents participating in electronic transactions, the method comprising:

monitoring actual behaviours of the first agent for interactions that place during the electronic transaction; and

calculating a degree of compliance between the monitored actual behaviours and expected behaviours of a first agent for interactions that take place during an electronic transaction with a second agent,

wherein the expected behaviours are described using a set of rules, and wherein at least one rule describes the expected behaviours in terms of a primary expected behaviour.