Abstract
In the last few years, information outsourcing has been a current activity on large companies. Information as become a regular trading commodity. It is a well known fact that direct mailing companies acquire databases, or other kind of information sources, from other companies with names and addresses of potential clients. Also, enterprise managers are frequently concerned with the current status and welfare of their clients and suppliers. Commonly, they use to appeal to specialized external information providers which may, under certain conditions, provide them specific profiles about such potential commercial partners. On companies with effective means of information processing, it is very probable that such needs of information may be directly satisfied with data stored and managed in the companies' data warehouses. In this paper we propose a protocol based on economic principles that enables the automatic negotiation of information transference between data warehouse systems of different companies. The protocol was designed to be used by a community of intelligent agents responsible to ensure and support all the operational tasks related to information outsourcing among companies.

Abstract
CANopen is a truly open protocol that has not been developed by one company alone. Several working groups, consisting of many different device manufacturers and end-users, have co-operated to produce the CANopen standards, now under the supervision of the CAN in Automation organisation. CANopen has been produced as a result of EU funding. This article gives an overview of some of the fundamental concepts of CANopen communication and of CANopen implementation.

Abstract
The Controller Area Network is a well-established networking system specifically designed with real-time requirements in mind. Developed in the 1980s by Robert Bosch, its ease of use and low cost has led to its wide adoption throughout the automotive and automation industries. However, for the beginner using CAN may seem somewhat bewildering. This article goes some way into explaining how CAN is used both at the hardware and the software levels.

Abstract
CANopen is a truly open protocol that has not been developed by one company alone. Several working groups, consisting of many different device manufacturers and end-users, have co-operated to produce the CANopen standards, now under the supervision of the CAN in Automation organisation. CANopen has been produced as a result of EU funding. This article gives an overview of some of the fundamental concepts of CANopen communication and of CANopen implementation. © IEE: 1999.

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