An Agent based Internet Infrastructure for Learning Commerce

Among the incredible amount of applications brought on the wave by the diffusion of the Internet, the possibility of an Electronic Commercialization of Learning assumes a relevant role. Thousands of people potentially acting as Learning Material Sellers, Buyers and Brokers are present on the Net asking for and efficient and effective infrastructure allowing them to play their role in this new market. Motivations are present and mature to investigate how to build such an infrastructure. In this paper we exploit agents and their mobility feature to develop a system for the electronic commerce of learning materials available on the Web. We tackle the aspects related to the negotiation, sometimes needed, to conclude a transaction and the aspects related to the best ways to save and classify the materials, through the learning object metadata approach and the related standardization efforts. A prototype architecture and its implementation is presented and discussed and directions for future studies are set.