A comparison of distributed and centralised agent based bundling systems

摘要

Welcome to 2007 International Conference on Electronic Commerce on behalf of the leadership of the MIS Research Center (MISRC) and the Information and Decision Sciences Department at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota! The MISRC has 30 years of tradition in hosting business and industry leaders for large conferences, more intimate research symposium and industry and interdisciplinary academic exchange related to IS and technology research. >It's a great opportunity for us to host and sponsor ICEC 2007, in collaboration with our colleagues in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota, and to promote interdisciplinary exchange and support interactions between industry and academia on some of the leading issue areas in e-commerce. It's always a cause for celebration when business school and computer science colleagues come together, since there is so much opportunity for innovation and collaboration between the fields. A second cause for celebration occurs when the MISRC is able to bring together leading business practitioners with academic researchers. This encourages joint reflection on the technology and business problems that both are working on, and an assessment of where the next generation solutions will come from. We're fortunate to have you with us. >This year's conference has been two years in the making. During August 2006, we (Donna Sarppo, current MISRC Assistant Director and Rob Kauffman, past MISRC Director) visited Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada to meet with the organizers of ICEC 2006, shortly after Maria Gini of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota joined our leadership team. Bruce Spencer and Scott Buffet of the National Research Council Canada, Mark Fox of the University of Toronto and Novator Systems in Canada, and their conference associates gave us tremendous support for our planning effort. Although we can't claim that we've improved on what they accomplished, the MISRC nevertheless tried very hard to follow in their footsteps and do a great job. >In addition, the ICEC 2007 leadership team was also able to obtain planning support and helpful ideas for success from past organizers and from the senior editors of Electronic Commerce Research and Applications (ECRA). The past organizers include Professors Qi Li of Xi'an Jiaotong University of China, Ting-peng Liang of National Sun Yat-sen University of Taiwan, Norman Sadeh of Carnegie Mellon University in the U.S., and Henk Sol and Rene Wagenaar of Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. We warmly acknowledge their useful, timely and distinguished inpu. >As you may know, Rene passed away earlier this year, and left all of us who know him with many warm memories of his innovations and scientific contributions in the e-commerce research domain, collegiality in service, and warm personal friendships. This truly saddened us. Rene actually had agreed to come over and participate in ICEC 2007. Based on the greatwork that the Program Committee Chairs and Program Committee, the Special Event Coordinators, and the Invited Session Chairs have done to bring innovative interdisciplinary research to ICEC and to set the stage for effective cross-industry and academic discussions, we know that Rene is already with us in spirit. He would have liked what ICEC 2007 has in store for everyone. Also, if everybody who attends has a great time, learns something new or shares fresh knowledge and perspectives at ICEC, we'll feel Rene's presence even more.