The Emergence of Knowledge e-marketplaces

On line Knowledge e-marketplaces (Ke-markets) posses some special challenges for buyers and sellers. Unlike most markets, the product of exchange has some unique characteristics. It is mostly intangible, making it difficult for the buyer to assess and value beforehand. Its value is contextdependent, making it difficult for the supplier to price it in a transparent marketplace of multiple buyers with varied applications. Apart from buyers and sellers, Ke-markets need a market-making mechanism to work: the net market maker. This paper aims to show investigations made in Ke-markets, comparing some selected knowledge sharing and trading systems running on the Web. A specific methodology has been used. In this way it has been possible to compare different knowledge e-trading systems and their business models. Moreover, this paper presents first results of the conduct investigation, showing the further highlight research topic for ke-markets, distinguishing in Technical and Business issues.