In this book we present a collection of papers around the topic of
Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce. Most of the papers originate from
the third workshop on Agent{Mediated Electronic Commerce held in
conjunction with the Autonomous Agents conference in June 2000. After
two previous workshops, one during the Autonomous Agents conference in
1998 in Minneapolis and the second one in conjunction with the
International Joint Conference On Arti cial Intelligence in 1999, this
workshop continued the tradition of the previous ones by setting the
scene for the assessment of the challenges that Agent-Mediated
Electronic Commerce faces as well as the opportunities it creates. By
focusing on age- mediated interactions, specialists from di erent
disciplines were brought together who contribute theoretical and
application perspectives in the narrowly focused topic that nevertheless
involves wide ranging concerns such as: agent architec- res,
institutionalization, economic theory, modeling, legal frameworks and
policy guidelines. The main topics for the workshop were: { Electronic
negotiation models for agents { Formal issues for agents that operate in
electronic market places { Virtual trading institutions and platforms {
Trading strategies for interrelated transactions (respectively auctions)
The workshop received 12 submissions of which 7 were selected for
publication in this volume. Although the number of submissions was less
then expected for an important area like agent-mediated electronic
commerce there is no reason to worry that this area does not get enough
attention from the agent community.