INTERPROCS: a Java-based prototyping environment for distributed electronic trade procedures

This paper introduces the concept of an electronic trade procedure as a potential solution to “open” electronic commerce-trade among parties that have no prior trading relationship. The basic idea is that these trade procedures would be stored in a publicly accessible electronic library (perhaps maintained by an independent international organization), and downloaded loaded by trading parties as needed for a particular trade. A representation, called documentary Petri nets (DPN) is presented as a possible representation for such trade procedures. The InterProcs system is described as a prototyping environment to support the design and execution of such trading systems using this DPN representation. Given our assumption that the parties are trading at “arm´s length” a key concern will be the development of “trustworthy” trade procedures that have sufficient controls and evidentiary documentation. Various directions of further work are described to improve the quality and flexibility of trade procedure designs