Manouselis N., Costopoulou C., “Designing an Internet-based Directory Service for e-Markets”, to appear in Information Services & Use, IOS Press, 2005. Designing an Internet-based directory service for e-markets Nikos Manouselis ∗ and Constantina Costopoulou Informatics Laboratory, Division of Informatics, Mathematics & Statistics, Dept. of Science Agricultural University of Athens, 75 Iera Odos str., 118 55 Athens, Greece 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. 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 and B2C e-markets for various business sectors is discussed. Key words: Internet services, e-markets, metadata. ∗ Corresponding author, Tel: +30-210-5294192, Fax : +30-210-5294199, E-mail: nikosm@aua.gr 1