Abstract
The application of Internet technologies to online transactions has lead to the amazing growth of Internet-based electronic markets (e-markets). This paper describes an Internet-based directory service for e-markets that aims to facilitate online buyers by making the process of finding an e-market easier and less time-consuming. This service, termed e-Market Metadata (eMaM) directory service, is based on a metadata repository of e-markets' descriptions. These descriptions store a number of e-market characteristics according to the ‘Dublin Core for E-Markets’ (DC-EM) metadata model which has been developed for this purpose. In particular, this paper introduces metadata models and describes the DC-EM metadata model. Then, it presents the specification and implementation of the eMaM service using the Unified Modelling Language (UML). Finally, a pilot usage of the implemented eMaM service that examines 120 B2B, B2C, and C2C e-markets for various business sectors is discussed.