Trusted Third-party Services in COSM

In the near future we can expect to use global communication networks at negligible communication costs therefore, it is becoming increasingly profitable for commercial network service providers to achieve online availability. The services provided may be implemented as software application modules with operational interfaces that require calling clients to follow a service-specific protocol. Some of these network services may adhere to common access standards (as already well-known from the ISO/RDA-standardisation effort for remote database access), others are too individualistic or volatile for a reasonable standardisation. If application level standards are too specific or restrictive, service providers lack significant features which distinguishes them from competitors. Moreover, the process of standardisation itself often hinders a profitable service offer as an 'early mover' on an electronic market (EM).