Dear GRAAP Working Group, my name is Sebastian Hudert and I am affiliated with the Department of Information Systems Management at the University of Bayreuth. I have been working on a negotiation framework for WS-Agreement together with Dr. Heiko Ludwig (IBM Research) and Prof. Guido Wirtz (University of Bamberg). After meeting Wolfgang Ziegler at the CoreGRID Integration Workshop he suggested to introduce our ideas to the GRAAP WG in order to contribute to the WSAgreementNegotiation standard. Our main idea was to create a framework with which not only one particular negotiation protocol (e. g. an English Auction) can be executed, but one that allows for a variety of different negotiation protocols to be used according to the particular situation the system is in. We proposed an XML-based language that can be used to define a negotiation protocol in a machine-processable manner. A protocol description, coded as an XML document, therefore represents all the input needed by a service requestor or provider in order to take part in the particular negotiation process. Using the derived data structure we propose a two-staged negotiation process: 1. Exchange process: During this phase a negotiation protocol description document is created (possibly based on pre-defined protocol types and referring to a given WS-Agreement Template) and distributed to the future negotiators within the system. This process is implemented as a set of simple interfaces and valid method invocation sequences in analogy to the WS-Agreement standard itself. 2. Negotiation process: After supplying all negotiators with the protocol description these nodes engage in the actual negotiation process. We propose a set of generic interfaces able to cope with all negotiation protocols that can be described with the description language we defined. This way the logical steps from an initial need for a resource or the will to sell one to reaching a valid WS-Agreement are: Protocol Definition (XML-based Documents) à Exchange of protocol description to future negotiators (Exchange process) à Negotiation (Negotiation process) à Agreement formation I included a Paper presented at KIVS 07 on this topic. We hope that you find our ideas an interesting input for the ongoing standardization effort. I will attend the OGF 23 in Barcelona which would also be a possibility for me to present our work in the working group session, if there is interest among the WG. Best Regards, Sebastian Hudert --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sebastian Hudert Dipl. Wirtsch.Inf. Department of Information Systems Management University of Bayreuth Universitaetsstr. 30 95447 Bayreuth Building Applied Informatics Tel: +49 921 557665 Fax: +49 921 557662