OSM is a European initiative to create a standard for electronic commerce. OSM is Open Service Model for Global Information Brokerage and Distribution. The Reference Architecture constitutes a formal response of the OSM Consortium to the OMG's Electronic Commerce Domain Task Force RF1-2 96-11-03 entitled "Enabling Technologies and Services for Electronic Commerce".
Comprehensive studies have been carried out in various sectors and consolidated in the form of report D6. It was found that trading on the web is very basic and confined to a shop's window look. Negotiation and payment need to be supported. Therefore for providers and consumers to be able to trade, they have to be able to communicate via a common framework. An electronic commerce infrastructure must provide the following requirements for the successful adoption of the standard:
Security - identification, authentication, certification, privacy, auditing support.
On-line negotiation between participants.
Secure Payment mechanisms.
Human Resources Integration.
Brokers for added-value services.
Electronic catalogues for up-to-date information, greater choices, wider user access.
Interoperability so that the framework is not platform specific.
User Friendliness.
The OSM project aims to create an effective marketplace for electronic products and services delivered on-line. An open architecture has been specified supporting the above requirements. The OSM will be based on CORBA 2.0 distributed computing infrastructure and will adopt the BOF interoperability specification as framework. The architecture is in the process of being implemented as well as supporting tools. Finally the framework will be validated through public trials. The following diagram shows the facilities supporting the proposed standard.
To find more information about the OSM project, the OSM consortium page is at http://www.OSM.net
OSM Documents to which Imperial College contributed include:
WP1 Task 1.1, Deliverable 3, Broad Spectrum Study.
WP1 Task 1.1, Deliverable 6, Consolidated Analysis.
Satisfying Requirements for Electronic Commerce.
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