Enhancing E-Commerce with Agent-Based Systems

64 Computer T raditionally, the term community refers to a location where people with common interests gather to share experiences, ask questions, or collaborate. Because they are present in the same locale, members can meet easily to learn from each other by sharing their explicit knowledge and revealing information about their successes and failures. Alternatively, people who share a common interest, such as members of a profession, can join to form a wider community. Such communities have a deeper reservoir of knowledge, but they meet only occasionally at periodic events like conferences, which serve as forums for exchanging knowledge and ideas. Professional communities offer obvious advantages. Members benefit from asking questions and sharing their explicit knowledge with one another. This knowledge sharing provides a more effective way of learning because it avoids duplicating the current or past efforts of other members. Similarly, e-communities provide the advantage of connecting geographically disparate groups. These communities use Web technology as a vehicle for disseminating knowledge and information more quickly and inexpensively as well as for global communication and collaboration. Like traditional communities, e-communities act as repositories of information for their members, but they can store a larger amount of important data. E-COMMUNITY CHALLENGES An e-community must achieve at least two functions: