Combinaorial Multi-attribute Auction (CMOA) Framework for e-auction

Abstract

The traditional auction protocols (aka Dutch, English auctions) that Ebay, Amazon and Yahoo use; although considered success stories [9], have limited negotiation space: The combinatorial auction (CA) and multi-attribute auction (MAA) [10], [17] have been developed to address these shortages but even these do not allow users to negotiate more than one attribute at a time. As an answer to these limitations a new e-auction protocol has been created to enable agents negotiate on many attributes and combinations of goods simultaneously. This paper therefore shows how the automated hybrid auction was created to reduce computational and bid evaluation complexity based on CMOA bidding language and Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) principles. SCOT states that (i) the ’relevant social group’; (ii) their ’interpretative flexibility; and workability / functionality of the technology must be considered for the development of system such as e-auction as an alternative to E-Bay. SCOT is of the view that technologies emerge out of the process of choice and negotiations between ’relevant social groups’ [15], [8], in this case the bidders, auctioneers, sellers and auction house. This paper represents a collaboration of studies in progress - The Combinatorial Multi-attribute Auction as an online auction as compared to existing e-auction protocols such as Amazon, eBay, and applicaiton of intelligent software and Agent UML in e-auction.