3d electronic institutions Social interfaces for e-commerce.pdf

3D Electronic Institutions: Social Interfaces for E-Commerce Anton Bogdanovych1 Helmut Berger1 Simeon Simoff1 Carles Sierra2 1Faculty of Information Technology, University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, Australia {anton,hberger,simeon}@.au 2Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain sierra@iiia.csic.es Abstract In this paper we propose the use of Virtual Worlds as a 3D social interface for Electronic Institutions. It is shown how the two metaphors, Virtual Worlds and Electronic Institutions are combined into a single metaphor, 3D Electronic Institutions, while retaining the features and advantages of both. Its essence is to open Electronic Institutions to human users. The strong methodology and powerful tools provided with Electronic Institutions create the possibility of semi- automatic generation of 3D social interfaces. Using E-Commerce as the application domain for the new metaphor, important cues such as social interactions, establishment of long term contacts, enhanced prod- uct observation and other real world attributes that are missing from current on-line Web-based business environments can be introduced. Keywords: Virtual Worlds, Electronic Institutions, social user interfaces, multi-agent systems, E- Commerce. 1 Introduction Individuals today are the product of a particularly mobile and entrepreneurial society. As a result, in ev- eryday business activities, including e-commerce, the individual is socially constituted and socially situated (Solomon 2004). However, researchers point out that social needs of customers play a crucial role and are of great importance in E-Commerce applications Preece Maloney-Krichmar (2003), this needs are mostly neglected in nowadays systems. At present, most e- commerce environments and their interfaces are de- signed with the assumption that customers buying style (or behaviour) is rational, without much con- sideration of the needs of customers showing an emo- tional style of buying. Som