Witnessed ad-hoc uservices

Abstract

A service may be any device hardware and/or software, or portion thereof, that can be identified by a provider for sharing with or selling to a consumer device in accord with a negotiation for its sharing or selling. The consumer may be any machine capable of consuming or providing a service; artificial intelligence may facilitate the sharing/selling. A witness may: track negotiations for sharing/selling, authenticate consumers/providers, and facilitate financial payments between consumers/providers. Financial charges may be micro-charges, e.g., very low cost. A consumer/provider may have an associated reputation that may affect the negotiation, and a party may be transitory and/or in an environment risking interruption of the sharing or selling, and these characteristics may affect the negotiation. The witness may electively cover losses to the consumer/provider, particularly when the cost of the transaction is a micro-charge.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for a uConsumer to ad-hoc discover and consume a uService, of a uService Provider, comprising:
 discovering uServices offered by the uService Provider;   selecting a uService of the uService Provider;   negotiating requirements for a consuming of the uService;   authenticating with a Witness configured to authorize the consuming;   provisioning the uService;   determining a result of success or failure for the consuming; and   notifying selected ones of the uService Provider and Witness of the result.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , the selecting the uService comprising automatically matching discovered uServices to characteristics of pre-determined desired services. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein selecting the service includes presenting discovered available services in a user interface (UI). 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein at least one party to the transaction is configurable to provide a pService based at least in part on combining uServices of the party and uServices available to the party. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising:
 determining a pService based at least in part on an unconsumed portion of the uService;   determining a pro-rata value for the pService; and   negotiating a price for consuming the pService that exceeds the pro-rata value.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selecting the uService is based at least in part on values associated with the uService, the values including: a price, a Quality of Service, a reliability of uService Provider, a type associated with the uService, a preference for a uService Provider, a promotion, or a uService Provider characteristic. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising automatically selecting the uService based on a selected one or more of: a predetermined negotiation associated with the uConsumer, a policy associated with the uConsumer, or the preference. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 charging the uConsumer a first fee for a consumption of the uService;   crediting the uService Provider a second fee for providing the uService;   determining a failure of the consumption; and   responsive to determining the failure:
 electing to refund the first fee based at least in part on a first reputation associated with the uConsumer, and 
 electing to reverse the second fee based at least in part on a second reputation associated with the uService Provider. 
   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein electing to refund or reverse fees is determined based at least in part on a selected one of: a history of failures associated with a device to receive the refund or reverse fee, and a reliability of an environment in which the consuming occurs. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the uService is a selected one or more of hardware, software, or data accessible to the uService Provider, and wherein the provisioning includes establishing a data path between the uConsumer and the uService Provider for a data transfer in accord with the consuming. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the uService comprises providing the uConsumer with a selected one or more of resources of the uService Provider. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the resources of the uService Provider comprise: a display, a printer, access to a network, access to data, access to software, access to hardware, or engaging in a transaction on behalf of the uConsumer. 
     
     
         13 . A method for a uService Provider to ad-hoc provide a uService to a uConsumer, comprising:
 receiving a discovery request for uServices from the uConsumer;   determining a reputation for the uConsumer;   negotiating requirements for a consuming of the uService, the requirements based at least in part on the reputation of the uConsumer; and   authorizing the consuming based at least in part on providing the requirements to a Witness.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 receiving a report of a failure of the consuming; and   associating the failure with the uConsumer.   
     
     
         15 . A system including a uConsumer, a uService Provider and a Witness, the system comprising:
 the uConsumer configured to perform at least: discovering uServices offered by the uService Provider, negotiating first requirements for a consuming of the uService, and authenticating the consuming with the Witness;   the uService Provider configured to perform at least: a request to publish its uServices, negotiating second requirements for a providing of a uService, and authenticating the providing with the Witness; and   the Witness configured to perform at least: determining the first and the second requirements are in accord with each other, authenticating the uConsumer and the uService Provider, and authorizing the consuming.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 the uConsumer further configured to perform determining a first encoding of the first requirements based at least in part on applying a public key cryptosystem (PKC);   the uService Provider further configured to perform determining a second encryption of the second requirements based at least in part on applying the PKC;   the Witness further configured to receive a third encryption based at least in part on a combination of the first and second encoding, perform extracting the first and second encoding from the third encoding, and decoding the first and second encodings;   wherein the authorizing the consuming is based at least in part on a comparison of a result of the decoding.   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the uConsumer is configured to receive the second encoding from the uService Provider, determine the third encoding based at least in part on the first and second encoding, and provide the third encoding to the Witness. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the uService Provider is configured to receive the first encoding from the uConsumer, determine the third encoding based at least in part on the first and second encoding, and provide the third encoding to the Witness. 
     
     
         19 . A machine accessible medium having instructions stored thereon for ad-hoc discovery and consumption of a uService of a uService Provider, the instructions, when accessed by a machine, results in the machine performing:
 discovering uServices offered by the uService Provider;   selecting a uService of the uService Provider;   negotiating requirements for a consuming of the uService;   authenticating with a Witness configured to authorize the consuming;   determining a result of success or failure for the consuming; and   notifying selected ones of the uService Provider and Witness of the result.   
     
     
         20 . The machine accessible medium of  claim 19 , the medium further including instructions which when accessed, results in the machine performing:
 determining a pService based at least in part on an unconsumed portion of the uService;   determining a pro-rata value for pService based at least in part on the unconsumed portion; and   negotiating a price with a device for consuming the pService.